Review #1,263: 'Pete's Dragon' (2016)

As Disney wade through their back catalogue of animated classics to introduce to modern audiences, the wealth of pure quality at their disposal borders on the embarrassing. By the end of 2016, favourites such as Maleficent (a spin on Sleeping Beauty), Cinderella and The Jungle Book had already been and gone, to varying degrees of success. Next on the agenda, much to many people's surprise, was Pete's Dragon, a live-action remake of a pretty crappy mixture of animation and live-action from 1977, a film many won't have even heard of, and the few who have actually seen it will have long forgotten. The choice for the director's chair was also curious: The job fell to indie director David Lowery, who up to this point was known only for his little-seen outlaw movie Ain't Them Bodies Saints. It seemed as though Disney were taking a "may as well get it over with" attitude towards re-imagining one of their more obscure works, but 2016's Pete's Dragon is actually the best and loveliest of their recent crop.

It's the 70's, a five year-old Pete is heading on a road trip with his parents in search of adventure. The plan is turned on its head (much like their vehicle) when a deer runs out into the road, causing them to crash and killing Pete's parents in the process. Within moments of fleeing the wreckage and making it in the woods, Pete finds himself confronted by a giant dragon. Five years later, and Pete (now played by Oakes Fegley) has forged a bond with the dragon, who he names Elliot, and has turned feral in the forest. Their home is shrinking every day, thanks to a lumberjack crew ran by Jack (Wes Bentley) and his brother Gavin (Karl Urban), so it isn't long until their discovered. Luckily for them, Pete is seen by good-hearted park ranger Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), whose father (played by Robert Redford), tells stories of the day he encountered a huge green dragon in his youth. As Pete longs to go home while also warming to his new surrogate family, Elliot misses his friend, and finds himself hunted by prize-seeker Gavin. 

This is a tried-and-tested Disney formula, so expect few surprises here. What is most surprising, and utterly charming, is the way Lowery goes about his business. There is plenty of genuine heart and care taken with developing its characters. Even the 'villain' of the piece shows genuine concern for Pete's well-being when he is discovered ragged and howling, and Jack isn't the cold habitat-slayer you would expect. Although there is an impressive CGI dragon complete with tail-chasing and a cute wet nose, the story stays remarkably low-key, comparable in many ways to Steven Spielberg's E.T. before the government goons enter the story. If there's a major criticism to be, it is that Gavin's sudden ambition to slay the dragon comes out of nowhere, and seems included simply to create a foe for Elliot while Pete is off in society. For a film that handles the human drama so well, it simply isn't needed, although it sets up a climax exciting enough to slightly make up for it. If you haven't seen the original, then save yourself the trouble, as 2016's Pete's Dragon is a rare example of a remake that leaves the original well in its wake. 

Directed by: David Lowery

Starring: Oakes Fegley, Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, Oona Laurence, Wes Bentley, Karl Urban

Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #851: 'Interstellar' (2014)

Christopher Nolan and his writing partner/brother Jonathan have made a career out of delivering cold, intelligent blockbusters that often work like a puzzle-box slowly unravelling in front of your face. For their next trick, the duo have tackled the great beyond, gazing in awe at the skies while ensuring the heavy layer of science makes sense. You may need a degree or a PhD to fully understand what is going on here, but the Nolan's respect their audience enough to allow their exposition-heavy story to unfold without spoon-feeding. Interstellar is their most ambitious, while not their best, project yet.

In the near-future, Earth is slowly succumbing to famine due to crop blight. History is being re-written in schools to drive home the importance of saving the planet, and ex-NASA pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is one of many given the responsibility of growing a successful crop. When a mysterious force sends binary messages to him through a bookcase in the bedroom of his daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy), Cooper arrives at a secret NASA base, where Professor John Brand (Michael Caine) is planning to send a willing crew of astronauts through a wormhole in space to search for a new home for humanity. Their previous mission has uncovered three potential planets, but the astronauts have not been heard from since.

Cooper, leaving his devastated young daughter behind, and a small crew (consisting of Anne Hathaway, Wes Bentley, David Gyasi and a humorous robot) set off on the mission, while Brand stays on Earth to work out the formula that will solve the problem of transporting every man, woman and child on Earth millions of light years through space. One of the planets is so close to a black hole that it causes gravitational time dilation, meaning that every hour spent on its surface is seven years of time back home. After a disastrous mission, Coop finds that his children have aged 23 years (and becoming Jessica Chastain and Casey Affleck in the process), and Murph is now working for Professor Brand.

While this is a lot of plot to take in, and it really isn't the half of it, the Nolans' skill at storytelling and narrative mean that you feel that, no matter how insane the proceedings get, things are going to add up in the end. When the film often threatens to get muddled with heavy explanatory dialogue that doesn't really help and trying to help us understand the workings of black holes, gravity and space travel, Nolan ensures that he doesn't lose his focus. The big idea is that we are not meant to stay here. We are destined to leave, explore and discover. Nolan's passion for the subject is clear as day, and his sense of wonder is brought to life by cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, who paints space as something wonderful, strange, and fucking terrifying.

Despite the film's often crazy ideas, it feels authentic. Nolan worked closely with theoretical physicist Kip Thorne on developing the film, so Interstellar is (ironically) grounded, and Nolan wisely doesn't try to replicate the philosophical approach of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). It's far from perfect - you could easily pick at plot-(black)holes, some explanatory scenes are heavy-handed and ridiculous, and the warm-up is far too long - but you have to admire the ambition, and be grateful that there's a film-maker out there who can repeatedly prove that the casual movie-goer isn't stupid. 2001's crown is comfortably safe, but Interstellar is a fascinating, engaging and one-of-a-kind experience. Even if you don't like it, I bet you'll be talking about it for days afterwards. Plus it has the most loveable astronaut's-best-friend robots since Silent Running (1972).


Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, David Gyasi, Michael Caine, Casey Affleck, Wes Bentley, John Lithgow, Topher Grace
Country: USA/UK/Canada

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #670: 'Jonah Hex' (2010)

Jonah Hex is a project that seemed doomed from the start. It has all the ingredients for a great movie - a too-cool-to-be-true premise, an extraordinary cast, a rarely seen (in the comic book universe) Wild West setting, and a cult following thanks to DC Comics' graphic novels. But if you look at other movies of its kind - Constantine (2005), Ghost Rider (2007) etc. - it was never going to work. The studio system or just plain bad writing always seems to get in the way. And Jonah Hex is quite possibly the most terrible of them all. Josh Brolin snarls and grunts his way through a solid performance, but he does not manage to save this absolute mess of a movie.

Jonah Hex served as a Confederate solider during the American Civil War. We learn through a fast-tracking prologue that shortly after the war, the evil Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich) murdered Jonah's entire family, and branded his face with a terrible wound that leaves him disfigured. He is left for dead but nursed back to health by some native Americans, that somehow leave him with the ability to talk to the dead. Believing Turnbull burned to a crisp in a hotel fire, Jonah turns to bounty hunting to earn his living, proving highly efficient at the job. But when Turnbull re-emerges with his mad Irish cronie Burke (Michael Fassbender) and the threat of a terrorist attack, President Grant (Aidan Quinn) hires Jonah to take him out and save the day.

After the quick-fire introduction that zips through Jonah Hex's backstory so fast that you simply cannot care about him, we are introduced to the familiar hooker-with-a-heart Lilah (Megan Fox), who is inexplicably in love with Jonah. They share one scene together with no hint as to why these two characters even like each other (although I'm sure I know why Jonah enjoys visiting Lilah), and are not reunited until the climax when we are expected to give a damn about these two making it through the explosions and gunfire. Writers Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine (who like to refer to themselves as simply Taylor/Neveldine - oh, please) don't seem to have heard of character-building or pacing, but when you look at their back catalogue then this can hardly be a surprise.

The most depressing thing is that the actors do their best and are largely successful with their cardboard characters, which makes it even more confusing as to how this was screwed up so badly. Nothing is explained properly - how did Turnbull escape the fire that apparently killed him/why do we only see Jonah revive the dead twice/why is Turnbull so pissed at the government? - and the fact that we are simply expected to accept this is offensive. I know, I know, this is a comic-book movie, but the action is so dull and ridiculous (dynamite guns!) that the aspect that we expect to be at least not bad is not there in order for us to forgive its many flaws. If there's one good thing to say about the film, it's that Jonah Hex's prosthetics are good, but the fact that I'm praising the make-up department shows how badly I'm clutching at straws.


Directed by: Jimmy Hayward
Starring: Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, Michael Shannon, Wes Bentley, Aidan Quinn
Country: USA

Rating: *

Tom Gillespie