The Grinch (2018) - Cinema Review

Review:

*Originally written November 14th, 2018*

I feel a bit harsh going in to trash a kids film. I know I'm not the target audience for this sort of thing, but still, I expected something a bit more ambitious than this completely safe and mostly bland retelling of The Grinch story. In all honesty, I've never actually seen another telling of this story, but even so, I'd felt like I'd seen it all before. 

Illumination as a company have produced some of most annoying animated films of recent years. I think I hate them. I like the first 2 Despicable Me films to an extent, but that was mostly due to everything with Gru and the kids, everything Minions related can fuck right off (I was horrified to discover The Grinch had a Minions short film attached to it). I don't think I've seen one of their films I've liked since the second Despicable Me. Secret Life of Pets was abysmal, Boss Baby was weird and Despicable Me 3 was just too much for me. I'm so scared at how they're going to handle the Shrek franchise now. 

For The Grinch itself, like I said, it's completely safe. Benedict Cumberbatch (Who?!) does a great job in the titular role, I barely recognised his voice at times, but he bought a lot of character to the role. The film really shined early on when the Grinch is just a complete bastard, before inevitably learning to find joy again and enjoy Christmas.

There's attempts at humour and heart here that fall completely flat. A whole chunk of The Grinch is dedicated to a little girl trying to give Santa a letter about what she wants for Christmas (Which does eventually pay off), but every moment with her and her family is a drag and made me wish we were back with The Grinch and his dog. 

I suppose that's because there is very little story to be told here. It's a simple arc that feels like it had maybe 20 minutes of material stretched out to an 80 minute run-time. I was actually hopeful going in knowing this short run-time, but instead found myself bored very early on and wanting it to end. It all just goes exactly where you'd expect and I'm really disappointed they did nothing to subvert expectations. Illumination are far from Pixar.

At the very least, The Grinch boasts gorgeous and creative animation that involve some decent enough set-pieces. I loved the design of the town and the rich colour pallet that really sparked, creating a lovely, candy coloured adventure. I just wish the story had as much weight as its visuals. Can't wait to see this again at some point with HDR.


The Grinch is what it is. A stretched out retelling of Dr Seuss's story with top quality animation that will definitely entertain children, but do very little for adults. Another meh release from Illumination.

5/10 Dans

The Grinch is out now in cinemas in the UK
Watch the trailer below:

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Doctor Strange (2016) - Film Review

Review:

*Originally written October 27th, 2016*

"Life is Strange"

While it suffers from the usual strains of a superhero origin story, Doctor Strange somehow manages to be unique, original and the weirdest thing to come from the MCU yet. 

While the story was fairly formulaic for the first act, I was sort of lost for most of the film. A lot of dialogue is characters spouting exposition that meant nothing to me. They talk about magic, spells, evil spirits and lots of mentions of mirror dimensions or something. It also lacks the weight of Civil War, which isn't Strange's fault, seeing as that was the build up of 8 years worth of films before it, but it just made Civil War have more of an impact.

While this lack of knowing what was happening should have diminished my entertainment, I was blown away by the visuals happening on screen. I never in a million years would have expected this to be as visually stunning as it was. It has some the weirdest and most unique visual style of any comic-book I've ever seen. While Guardians of the Galaxy was a zany risk for Marvel, Doctor Strange blows it out of the water.

While Benedict Cumberbatch was great in the lead (Once I put his American accent aside), his character is fairly similar to a lot of things we've seen before it. An arrogant, smug and somewhat obnoxious doctor who is brilliant at his job. He's sort of a mix of Tony Stark and Doctor House. He was great, and I look forward to seeing more of him in the MCU.

Where Marvel failed once again was in its villain. This is the biggest insult to me from Doctor Strange. Wasting Mads Mikkelsen. I have just finished watching all 3 seasons of Hannibal, and the man is a god. He's sadly wasted here in another throwaway and forgettable villain. Mads does the best he can with the little material he's given, but he deserves so much more than this.


So yeah, Doctor Strange is a lot better than I expected. I never really had any expectations for this, and while it fails on the villain front and its muddled storytelling, I was captivated by its creative, psychedelic and downright beautiful visuals.

7/10 Dans

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

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