2014 07 25

[sylviane]

Films seen today, so far:

Death at a funeral.

Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen) just wants to give his father a decent funeral. He hasn't counted on the wrong body being delivered or the arrival of his accomplished, but selfish brother. Add to that his cousin's fiancé who has accidentally ingested drugs and the presence a moron who takes advantage of the sad event to win back the heart (or rather the body) of the before-mentioned niece and it's getting weirder, Having a handicapped old uncle who is also the most unbearable pain in the neck and a friend who's obsessing over a stain on his hand (cancer? allergy?) doesn't help either. To make it all even worse, Daniel notices the presence among the mourners of a mysterious dwarf nobody else seems to know, but who has a secret (with the matching photos) that could ruin his father's reputation and then ... all hell breaks lose.

Alright, you have to like British humour I suppose. For me the biggest draw was Kris Marshall. Not only because he played together with Matthew in "Metropolis" and "Deathwatch", but because I like him as an actor. It's the usual avalanche of petty things, misunderstandings, age-old grudges and spur-of-the-moment stupidities that lead to a disaster in movies like this and this is one was no exception. It never made me laugh outloud, but it certainly made me smile a few times.

HAPPY FEET

Mumble is a penguin who can't sing but he's good at dancing/tapping his feet. When he gets blamed for the shortage of fish, he goes out to prove that the 'aliens' (humans) are the ones who are responsible.

Voices: Elijah Wood, the late Brittany Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weaving and Robin Williams
I'm usually not one for animation. I usually quickly get bored, but this was somewhat of an exception to the rule and it had me 'taken in' until nearly the end when things suddenly make an impossible silly turn, which was too bad. Don't want to give away spoilers,  but something happens and it had me going 'yeah, right' and then roll my eyes and it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but in general I loved the movie.

STANDING UP

2 kids, a boy and a girl, who are on summercamp, get 'pranked' and a left behind naked on a small island in a lake. But rather than have to return to camp and face the humiliation, they decide to take off, on the run together. And they learn to become tough.

Heart-warming story. Well acted. The only actors I recognized were Val Kilmer and Radha Mitchell. I didn't know the actor/actress who played the leads, but they were very convincing. It is a sweet movie.