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halon8
Reviews
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
Simple and enjoyable
This film is fun and enjoyable. Perfect for a little mindless escapism.
Lots of action, a little magic and some ostrichs. What more could you want? In some ways, this film reminds me of the early Indiana Jones films.
Jake Gyllenhaal is beautiful to watch, and has the right mixture of comedy, action and emotions.
Gemma Arterton is also stunning and brilliantly cast as a smart and brave, but slightly-spoilt princess. It's always great to see a heroine who's proactive. The chemistry between the two leads is excellent and the banter is pretty funny.
Michael Sheen is also fantastic as Gyllenhaal's brother who doesn't always make the best decisions. The bond between family is a key theme to this film.
The plot is easy to follow, but there are enough twists to keep it interesting. Sure, some of it's predictable (e.g. who the bad guy really is), but the quality of the execution pulls it through.
It was good to see the realistic response (uncertainty) from Arterton's character at the end (even if this was done to allow a sequel).
In My Father's Den (2004)
Long but worth it.
This is a long film, but it uses the time well. It's a film about complex emotions and it does well to avoid clichés or oversimplify.
Paul is a war journalist returning to his home after his father's death. The home he fled as a teenager. He forms a relationship with Celine, the daughter of his ex-girlfriend. When she disappears, he becomes a suspect.
The reasons for his flight, his relationship with Celine and hidden family secrets are revealed slowly, with the timeline jumping around. But it's not difficult to follow if you give this film the attention it deserves.
The acting is excellent and it was well cast. It's refreshing to see a film in which the female lead was a normal teenager not a supermodel.
Unfortunately there were some scenes cut in the version I saw, which left me a little confused.
It's difficult to understand why Paul doesn't tell the police the truth about his 'relationship' with Celine.
101 Dalmatians (1996)
Awful, waste of a good cast. Stick to the cartoon.
So I settled down on a Sunday evening to what should have been a pleasant Disney film. Boy, was I disappointed.
This live action version takes the basic elements of the original, but strips out all the charm. There's no cat. There's no scene where the puppies disguise themselves as labradors.
Cruella is a mean business woman, who's annoyed that one of her employees (Anita Dearly) wants to get married and have children. Because obviously, you can't mix a career and having a family. The undertones of 'career bad, motherhood good' are just unnecessary in a modern children's film. Cruella is more pantomime than actually scary.
The lack of original charm isn't replaced with anything else. It's just boring and predictable.
This film has an amazingly talented cast, which is completely wasted here. The jokes are just not funny. Most of the film is taken up with lame, unoriginal slapstick. Part of the first sequence has Roger Dearly accidentally trying to steal Perdy because he has mistaken her for Pongo. That's right. He loves his dog so much, he can't even recognise him. The screenwriter obviously has either never had pets or just assumes children are stupid.
The dogs are cute, but have no personality. The puppies have very little screen time at all.
If you liked the sequels to Home Alone, you might like this movie. If you liked the original cartoon or any recent children's films that actually have a good storyline, you'll be disappointed. I'm afraid most of the reviewers here are giving this movie a pass because 'it's a child's film and you can't expect that much'. Well I do expect better from Disney and I wouldn't subject my children to this film. Try the book instead.