Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (2018) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written July 24th, 2018*

Call me miserable, call me dead inside, I won't argue, but these Mamma Mia films clearly aren't made for me, a person who is adverse to most musicals and that sense of "Let's just have some clean fun". I don't know why I went to see this. I despised the first, a dire mess of screechy old banshees poorly singing along to Abba. It had a certain novelty of how stupid and tacky it was (Pierce Brosnan's singing voice has to be heard to be believed).

10 years later, the sequel "Here We Go Again", is pretty much exactly what people loved about the first one, it's loud, cringe-worthy and if you have any taste in cinema, it will make you throw up in your mouth. Despite this, I hated this one less than the first. There's a definite improvement in quality overall. Lily James is impossible to hate and has a far better singing voice than the older cast.

There was an interesting idea by going "The Godfather: Part 2" route with this and splitting the film in flashbacks and present day story. The flashbacks with Young Donna (Lily James/Meryl Streep) are far more watchable than the present day sequences, but are still filled with eye-rolling cringe and just awful characters. These characters say and do things that make me want to want to slam my head into a wall. It's painful to watch.

I was actually impressed by some of the casting of the younger characters. They did a great job finding people that emulated a younger Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard and Meryl Streep. It was weird just how little some of the original cast are in it. There's such a strange choice made with Streep's character that is hinted at in the trailers, which may lead to a genuinely emotional scenes if you're into this absolute farce of a musical. 

Despite her prominent role in the trailer, Cher shows up for a generous 5 minutes and manages to ham things up even more, by playing Donna's estranged mother and proceeding to sing Fernando. I have very little memory of the first film, but I felt this was just rehashing a lot of the first films song, which is understandable, as the first more or used all of Abba's most famous songs. Some new stuff here and there might have gone a long way.


Yeah, I hated this, which is no surprise, but I'm far from the target audience from this. I'll also add this was barbarically overlong at nearly 2 hours, there is no reason this had to be over 90 minutes long. If you enjoy this, I get it. I suppose this is a middle aged woman's version of The Expendables, I guess. Whatever, each to their own. I'll still watch a third.

2/10 Dans

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again is out now in cinemas in the UK. With a 4K UHD steelbook available to pre-order in the UK from HMV

Watch the trailer below:

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Moana (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written December 2nd, 2016*

Despite having a fairly by the numbers story. You know, it's the usual, chosen one is needed to save her village and bring peace and order back. It pretty typical stuff, but some decent songs, great characters and beautiful animation go a long way to help overcome Moana's by the numbers plot.

What keeps this at least a little different from the other Disney films is the different culture and ethnicities. I'm having a hard time recalling other films that have covered Polynesia, but hey, Disney did here and it made for a great change of scenery.

Where Moana excels is in its characters. Moana is another great and strong female lead from Disney. While The Rock provides great comic-relief as the less than heroic demi-god who has moving tattoos on his body. There's also some decent, if not entirely memorable songs that keep things going. I wasn't expecting this to be a musical, so that threw me a little bit.

It also covers Disney's recurring theme this year of mentally challenged animals. The chicken in this reminded me a lot of the bird from Finding Dory, which was also fully mentally challenged. Like full-on. I'm not sure what Disney are going for with these characters. It at least provided a few laughs.

I seem to say this with every released Disney film, but they once again prove themselves to be the kings of animation. This truly was a visually beautiful and inventive film. The character designs are awesome, the locations look incredible and my god, the photo-realistic water blew me away again. I'll once again mention the moving tattoos on The Rock's character, as they really did steal the show.


Moana might not be the most groundbreaking Disney effort, but it's another solid entry with great characters, a simple story and some truly incredible animation.

7/10 Dans

Moana is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:

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La La Land (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written January 12th, 2017*

I'll put it out there, I'm not a fan of musicals or even jazz music, but I did love Damien Chazelle's previous film 'Whiplash'. I also love Ryan Golsing and Emma Stone, so I was looking forward to this, and it exceeded those expectations by an insane amount. La La Land is one of the most beautiful, electric and emotional experiences I've ever had from a film. I don't want to hyperbole, but this might be one of the greatest films I've ever seen. I know it's only January 12th, but I really can't see much else topping this as my film of the year of 2017.

This was clearly made by someone who loves his craft, Chazelle really has a love for jazz and all things nostalgic, which shows. The music is great, the set design is wonderful. It creates this feeling of a classic film set in the '50s, despite being set in the modern day. It's a strange combo that works. Remove smartphones and the internet from La La Land, apply a black and white filter and this could easily be made in the '50s. That's not a knock.

A Lovely Night

Everything in this film is so beautiful. The direction is pure precision. Chazelle creates an electric film packed full of emotion and heart. It's a film aimed at people to follow their dreams and it was perfect. It made me want to pursue and be passionate about what I love and never give up. This is the sort of film that makes me want to be a filmmaker, if I wasn't so damn lazy.

At the centre this is a love story between a jazz pianist and an actress trying to achieve their dreams in LA. Both Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are seriously amazing, my favourite film of all-time is Drive, but I think Gosling gives the best performance of his career. Much to my surprise though, despite both being amazing, I found Stone to outmatch Gosling most of the time, especially in the musical numbers. Stone has a much better singing voice than Gosling, which isn't a problem considering most of his stuff is based on his amazing piano skills.

Despite looking like a bright and colourful film, the film does take some really emotional turns that lead to a heartbreaking and bittersweet ending that hit all the right notes. We see Gosling and Stone's relationship start to fracture as they realize the compromises they have have to make in order to achieve their dreams or whether or not you should even follow your dream.

City of Stars

As a musical, aside from the opening scene which had me a little worried, everything after that was memorable and made me want to listen to it all day long. There was an insane amount of talent that came to making some of the music here, especially 'City of Stars' and 'The Fools Who Dream' which were easily my highlights. There's also a great scene of some '80s music that I didn't expect, but I loved it.

La La Land was pure magic, a sense of wonder and passion that I've not seen from a film in a long time. Beautifully directed, powerful and endlessy memorable. One of the greatest films of all-time.

10/10 Dans

La La Land is out May 15th on 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD now in the UK
Watch the trailer below:

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