It’s the kid’s film release week here in
Australia in the lead up to the school holidays in two weeks, when my life gets
a whole lot louder for two and a half weeks. There are two kids films and a YA
(young adult) book adaptation.
(My movie Pick of the week)
The Giver ✪✪✪½
Opens in Australia: 11th September 2014
USA: 15th August UK: 19th September 2014
Other Countries: Release Information
OUR THOUGHTS
It’s adapted from a 1993 book and you might think its similar to Divergent and Hunger
I liked this film a whole lot better than Divergent. It may not pack the surprises that the book does, but having read the book myself, it’s a pretty reasonable adaptation. I loved the book, too. So I suggest you grab that if you don’t fancy the movie. It’s really very thought provoking. The film is a good watch, too.
STUDIO BLURB
The haunting story of THE GIVER centers on Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Yet as he begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), who is the sole keeper of all the community's memories, Jonas quickly begins to discover the dark and deadly truths of his community's secret past. With this newfound power of knowledge, he realizes that the stakes are higher than imagined - a matter of life and death for himself and those he loves most. At extreme odds, Jonas knows that he must escape their world to protect them all - a challenge that no one has ever succeeded at before. THE GIVER is based on Lois Lowry's beloved young adult novel of the same name, which was the winner the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. (C) Weinstein
TARZAN ✪½
Opens in Australia: 11th
September 2014
USA:
9th May 2014 UK: 2nd May 2014
Other Countries: Release Information
OUR THOUGHTS
If you desperately love Tarzan then
go see it. It’s a very strange version. It’s filmed using motion capture, which
is where the actor looks like some alien from the future with dots all over
them while filming, and then they digitize them, so they look like very real cartoons.
In the case of this film,
something’s gone very wrong with the process. They just look like really weird
people with no expressions on their faces and bad hair. You can get an idea by the poster. The story is okay, but
I judge these kid’s films on the basis that you are coughing up a fair whack of
money to take your family, so you are entitled to see something better than
what you can see on free-to-air. So I wouldn’t spend your hard earned money. Go
buy the Disney DVD of Tarzan. Much better.
On another note, I see there is a
Tarzan movie coming in 2016 that looks very cool starring Christopher Waltz,
Samuel L. Jackson, Alexander Skarsgård, and Margot Robbie.
STUDIO
BLURB
A teenage boy
raised by gorillas in Africa falls for a pretty conservationist following a
chance meeting in the jungle, but finds their romance threatened by a menacing
Silverback, and a scheming capitalist in search of a new energy source in this
animated adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic tale. Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles ✪✪½
Opens in Australia: 11th
September 2014
USA:
8th August UK: 17th
October 2014
Other Countries: Release Information
OUR THOUGHTS
I should have hated this film.
However, I actually found it better than expected. Mind you, that is not saying
a lot. It's aimed squarely at the younger fans. Megan Fox is so good in her
role (I realise that could be a shock for you). She plays a dumb reporter who discovers the turtles and tries to convince
everyone else they exist. Everyone she works with thinks she’s pretty stupid.
See why it works with her?
A couple of kids I saw after the preview told me that they loved
it. There’s a lot of action. Some of it not bad, if not clichéd. I don’t know
if it was our screening, but the 3D was not good at all. It was blurry in parts
and quite annoying. Maybe its better to see it in 2D. Cheaper at any rate.
STUDIO BLURB
The city needs heroes. Darkness has
settled over New York City as Shredder and his evil Foot Clan have an iron grip
on everything from the police to the politicians. The future is grim until four
unlikely outcast brothers rise from the sewers and discover their destiny as
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles must work with fearless reporter
April O'Neil (Megan Fox) and her wise-cracking cameraman Vern Fenwick (Will
Arnett) to save the city and unravel Shredder's diabolical plan. Based on the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Characters Created by PETER LAIRD and KEVIN
EASTMAN with a Screenplay by JOSH APPELBAUM & ANDRÉ NEMEC and EVAN
DAUGHERTY, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is produced by MICHAEL BAY (director
and executive producer of the blockbuster Transformers franchise), Andrew Form,
Brad Fuller, Galen Walker, Scott Mednick and Ian Bryce, and directed by
JONATHAN LIEBESMAN (Wrath of the Titans).(c) Paramount
If you’ve enjoyed these reviews, please
share with your friends and followers on social media and I will be very
grateful. I love new readers who love film.
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