Watch this blog site for film reviews, whether blockbusters, box office bombs or highly obscure. Our genres will include science fiction, animation, musical, action, fantasy, drama, documentary, thriller, horror, romance, western and comedy.
Oh, hello. You haven't noticed the new improvements on my blog profile. It's because I switched blog accounts. I've changed my blog identity from FilmGuruLad to RadDingo, the name of a production company I'll be forming after I finish my 5-year animated project, Not the Sal & Mason Show. It took me a long, exciting and challenging process of trying to animate the extensive movements of the characters to learn and strengthen my animation skills.
You can now send me an email to my address as raddingoproductions@gmail.com. Feel free to email me if you have suggestions for improvements to my site or ideas on delivering movie information.
I'll be back tomorrow to post another news update, and Tuesday, I plan to publish the film review of WarGames and re-publish the newly updated Blended.
Greetings, I'm Film Guru Lad. I'm sorry for the delay in not giving the official announcement of the winners of the 87th Oscars. I ransome errands in my blog by fixing my six Star Wars movie reviews and adding more names to the crew description.
I've deleted the gadget from my blog, where you can translate it into any foreign language. I think it's linked to some of the feedback that is spam.
Best Visual Effects Interstellar - Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter
and Scott Fisher Best Film Editing Whiplash - Tom Cross Best Costume Design The Grand Budapest Hotel - Milena Canonero
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
The Grand Budapest Hotel - Frances Hannon and Mark Coulier
Best Cinematography
Birdman - Emmanuel Lubezki
Best Production Design
The Grand Budapest Hotel - Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration)
Best Sound Mixing
Whiplash - Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley
Best Sound Editing
American Sniper - Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Best Original Song
"Glory" from Selma - John Legend and Common
Best Original Score
The Grand Budapest Hotel - Alexandre Desplat
Best Animated Short Film
Feast - Patrick Osborne and Kristina Reed
Best Live Action Short Film
The Phone Call - Mat Kirkby and James Lucas
Best Documentary - Short Subject
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 - Ellen Goosenberg Kent and Dana Perry
Best Documentary - Feature
Citizenfour - Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefey and Dirk Wilutsky
Best Foreign Language Film
Ida (Poland) in Polish - Pawel Pawlikowski
Best Animated Feature Film
Big Hero 6 - Don Hall, Chris Williams and Roy Conli
Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay
The Imitation Game - Graham Moore from Alan Turing: The Enigma - Andrew Hodges
Best Writing - Original Screenplay
Birdman - Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárittu, Nicólas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. and
Armando Bo
Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette - Boyhood as Olivia Evans
Best Supporting Actor
J.K. Simmons - Whiplash as Terence Fletcher
Best Actress
Julianne Moore - Still Alice as Dr. Alice Howland
Best Actor
Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything as Stephen Hawking
Best Director
Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárittu - Birdman
Best Picture Birdman - Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárittu, John Lesherand James W. Skotchdopole Academy Honorary Awards Jean-Claude Carriere Hayao Miyazaki Maureen O'Hara Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award Harry Belafonte
It's not much I expected from the winners of this big annual presentation. I'm stunned that Big Hero 6finally got an award for Best Animated Feature, which marks the second time for Walt Disney Animated Studios after last year's Frozen. I was disappointed that Hans Zimmer ended up empty-handed with only a nomination for Interstellar and snubbed in favour of Alexandre Desplat's score of The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Lionel Jeffries - Grandpa Potts James Robertson Justice - Lord Scrumptious
Robert Helpmann - The Child Catcher
Crew
Screenplay/Director - Ken Russell
Based on Book "Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang" - Ian Fleming
Screenplay - Roald Dahl
Additional Dialogue -
Richard Maibaum
Producer - Albert R. Broccoli
Production Designer - Ken Adam Creator: Potts Inventions - Rowland Emett
Colour Costume Designers -
Joan Bridge and Elizabeth
Haffenden
Director of Photography -
Christopher Challis
Special Effects - John Stears
Stagers: Musical Numbers -
Marc Breaux and Dee Dee
Wood
Songs/Lyrics - Richard M. &
Robert B. Sherman
Conductor/Music Supervisor -
Irwin Kostal Awards 1969 Academy Awards
Best Music, Original Song "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" -
Richard M. & Robert B. Sherman (Nominated)
Review
As most of you viewers are probably too young to recognise or have heard the name "CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG" when the feature was already well-known to movie buffs since 1968. Through all my years, I have grown from this family-musical and I wasn't keen to review this ever since family films from nowadays like recent ones have lost the adult appeal for example, the abysmal trilogies of 'The Smurfs' and 'Alvin and the Chipmunks'. Behind the wheels on this jovial musical, there lies the comic brilliance from screenwriter Roald Dahl as he adapts the book from James Bond creator, the late Ian Fleming and added a few signature styles to make the movie very childish. Of course having the heroes as slightly comical and the antagonists as laughably immature fits his capable ground of foretelling a story or character.
I don't mind Dick Van Dyke as well as the songs from The Sherman Brothers, I'm not exactly above enjoying their work in 'CHITTY CHITTY' since they all previously worked with Dick before in 'Mary Poppins'. Though few of their tunes have some catchiness in between them. My main favourite part that I definitely find interesting is the Child Catcher character, looking back now, he was really creepy for his appearance and enjoys kidnapping young kids. Australian actor Robert Helpmann did an incredible job in mastering the villainous character to feel as sinister although the character does come out as seemingly in a over-the-top villainy when in front of children.
It's a price to pay that there aren't any more non-Bond films made from the makers that did the series. It's a good way to give the people for extra credit when they're not doing more films of the spy-saga in favour of this cheerful tone of the musical. Likewise for myself, I find 'CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG' as one of the two singing films to be very uptight respectable to revisit. So remember to skip the film's intermission when some of the kiddies are bored!
Hello again. You may or may not notice that in most of my reviews, I split its paragraphs, have made minor changes and probably unlisted some of my posts that were not supposed to be updated. All because my writing skills are improving again, instead of one paragraph together in all sentences. I break them all into two or three. So it'll make my blog a much more readable site for everyone who is a film enthusiast or went to film school for the result.
Another important announcement is I re-wrote the critique of the crime-caper filmNow You See Me and reverted to its star rating of 4 out of 5. It depends on if you like or don't like my old downgrades. You can comment on the tab below if you're done reading this news update.
I've taken off the critique of last year's Blended for renovations which I will hopefully publish sometime. I then updated four of my reviews at the end of this message.
friends invent a time machine so that future generations of students won't have to endure some of the more preventable
adolescent pains, only to find that they have inadvertently opened a black hole in the process. Virgil and his pals are
determined to make life a little easier for the less popular students in their high school, and in order to make that happen they create a time machine. But strange things can happen when you go messing with the laws ofphysics, and when Virgil and friends open a black hole they find that turning back the clock
Jason Dolley - Virgil Fox
Luke Benward - Charlie
Tuttle
Nicholas Braun - Zeke
Thompson Chelsea Kane - Stephanie
Jameson
Kara Crane - Jeanette
J. P. Manoux - Vice Principal
Stewart Tolkan
Steven R. McQueen - Derek
Beaugard
Dexter Darden - Chester
Kellie Cockrell - Jocelyn Lee
Molly Jepson - Amy Fox
Crew
Director - Lev L. Spiro
Story/Co-Executive
Producers - David Diamond
and David Weissman
Teleplay - John Killoran
Producer - Don Schain
Broadcast Producer - Barbara Biddle
Production Designer - Mark Hofeling
Director of Photography - Bruce Douglas Johnson
Visual Effects Supervisor - Dan Schmit
Film Editor - Mark Conte
Music - Nathan Wang
Review
I haven't had the pleasure of seeing the teen movies from the family-oriented Disney Channel including the abominations of the movie series 'High School Musical' and 'Camp Rock'. I won't bother reviewing these cringe-worthy flick trilogies, I have however watched a few of its original shows, but let's get down to one of its better TV flicks. For those who have already experienced the hilarious results of time travel in films such as 'Back to the Future' and 'Bill & Ted', it is with regret that the film I am about to review does not even come close to the classic time travel hits. 'MINUTEMEN' develops a concept of going through a portal device of time so that the character can become heroes in their high school. The film felt good but not great and certainly didn't offer any outstanding qualities to justify watching this rare film a second time.
I don't recognise many of the actors who were in their parts of the made-for-TV picture excluding Disney Channel's bad boy Jason Dolley. I felt he almost managed to live up to the standards of Michael J. Fox and Keanu Reeves when they were in their teens and I feel that Jason deserves a second-try for this one.
In summary, I think this flick is worth a one time watch, but if you are looking for something with long-lasting appeal; I suggest you try a big-budget time-travel hit.
Megamind
is a supervillain known to be the most brilliant and the least
successful. He has an ongoing rivalry with a caped superhero known as
"Metro Man", as they have long been arch-foes since infancy.
Megamind has tried to
conquer Metro City for years
in every imaginable way
possible. But whenever
Metro Man shows up,
he always
thwarts his
diabolical efforts. Until now,
Megamind finally defeats
him in one of his botched
evil schemes.
With
his superhero nemesis out of the way, Megamind gets bored when his
victory is meaningless and soon realises that there's no hero left to
fight. He decides to make a new foe, Tighten, who, rather than using his
powers for good, becomes evil, forcing Megamind into a position where he
must save the day for the first time.
Voice Cast
Will Ferrell - Megamind
David Cross - Minion
Tina Fey - Roxanne Ritchie
Jonah Hill - Hal Stewart/Tighten
Brad Pitt - Metroman
J.K. Simmons - Warden
Ben Stiller - Bernard
Justin Theroux - Megamind's Father
(Cameo)
Jessica Schulte - Megamind's Mother
Christopher Knights - Prison Guard
Tom McGrath - Lord Scott/Prison Guard
Jack Blessing - Newscaster
Emily Nordwind - Lady Scott
Rod Corddry - Random Citizen
Crew
Director - Tom McGrath
Writers - Alan J. Schoolcraft
and Brent Simons
Associate Producer - Holly Edwards
Executive Producers - Stuart Cornfeld
and Ben Stiller
Producers - Lara Breay and
Denise Nolan Cascino
Creative Consultants - Justin Theroux and
Guillermo del Toro
Production Designer - David James
Art Director/Character Designer - Timothy Lamb
Character Designer - Devin Crane
Pre-Production Development: Character
Design - Andy Bialk, Shane Prigmore,
Sylvain Deboissy, Tony Siruno,
Dermot Power and Shannon Tindle
Head of Story - Catherine Yuh Rader
Additional Head of Story - Robert Koo
Pre-Production Development: Story -
Sean Bishop, Li Hong, Elaine Bogan,
Jeffrey A. Lynch, Thom Enriquez,
Jordan Reicheck, Kathleen Thomson Good,
John Sanford, Kevin L. Harkey and
Ryan Savas
Production Managers - Andre de Oliviera Araujo
and Maude Lewis
Pre-Production Manager - Kate Spencer
Head of Character Animation - Jason Schleifer
Animation Supervisors - Jason Ryan, Mark Donald, Dave Burgess,
Anthony Hodgson, Sean Mahoney,
Jason Spencer Galsworthy, David Torres
and and Maren Kochout (Uncredited)
Supervising Character Technical Directors -
Lawrence D. Cutler and Lucia Modesto
Head of Lighting - Laura Grieve
Head of Character Effects - Damon Riesberg
Head of Layout - Nol Le Meyer
Head of Effects - David Lipton
Visual Effects Supervisor - Philippe Denis
City Development Supervisor - Jonathan Gibbs
Director of Previsualization - Kent Seki
Stereoscopic Supervisor - Phil 'Captain 3D' McNally
Editor - Michael Andrews
Associate Editors - Christopher Knights,
Michelle Mendenhall and Lynn Hobson
Supervising Sound Editors - Ethan Van der Ryan
and Erik Aadahl
Sound Mixers - Andy Nelson and
Andy Behlmer
Music - Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe
Additional Music Arrangers - Stephen Hilton
and Junkie XL
Music Consultants - Bob Badami and
Chris Douridas
Additional Mixing - Alan Meyerson
Review
Some of you may not have seen MEGAMIND when it came out. It feels overshadowed by The Incredibles. Disney/Pixar was the first to break the transitional barriers of experiencing superheroes in film animation. There are reasons why, in comparison, MEGAMIND is not as good as this other movie we've all seen on the big screen. The most noticeable deficit is unbalanced attention to comedy and story. MEGAMIND turned out to be an animated parody/comedy that features Will Ferrell's hilarious portrayal of a character, a self-indulged gentleman who claims to be a self-proclaimed master of evil. I suspect Ferrell gets to play a villainous hero, as he did play an antagonist once in Zoolander before moving on years later to play a non-heroic villain, recently in The LEGO Movie. I was satisfied with actors like Tina Fey, Jonah Hill and David Cross, who joined forces with Ferrell to make the voices dominant as their characters.
It's not on par with Pixar's golden trophy, nor surprisingly does it help DreamWorks after the same year the studio had carved its triumph on How to Train Your Dragon. Something is appealing in MEGAMIND that makes it feel joyful and rewarding to watch, especially if you love seeing the Superman references while watching the film.
Production Companies
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Animation Studios
Distribution
Walt Disney Studios Motion
Pictures Australia
Genre: Animation/Family/
Sci-Fi/Action
Rating: PG
Runtime: 102 minutes
Budget: $165,000,000
Box Office Gross: $657,870,525 (Worldwide)
Plot Summary Young robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada and inflatable robot Baymax form a special bond. Both are catapulted into an evil plot with their close friends and form a band of high-tech heroes.
Voice Cast
Ryan Cooper - Hiro Hamada
Scott Adsit - Baymax
T. J. Miller - Fred
Jamie Chung - GoGo Tamago Damon Wayans, Jr - Wasabi
Genesis Rodriguez - Honey Lemon
Daniel Henney - Tadashi Hamada
James Cromwell - Professor
Robert Callaghan
Maya Rudolph - Aunt Cass
Alan Tudyk - Alistair Krei
Abraham Benrubi - General
Katie Lowes - Abigail
Billy Bush - Newscaster
Daniel Gerson - Desk Sergeant
Paul Briggs - Yama
Charlotte Gulezian - Ringleader
David Shaughnessy - Heathcliff
Stan Lee - Fred's Dad (Cameo)
Crew Directors - Don Hall and Chris Williams Big Hero 6 Team and Characters Creators - Man of Action
Screenplay - Jordan Roberts, Daniel Gerson and Robert
L. Baird
Additional Story Material - Bert V. Royal
Executive Producer - John Lasseter
Producer - Roy Conli
Co-Producer - Kristina Reed
Creative Advisors - Nathan
Greno and Mark Kennedy
Lead Production Supervisor: Animation - Karen Ann Ryan
Production Designer - Paul
A. Felix
Art Director - Scott Watanabe
Character Design
Supervisor - Jin Kim
Lead Character Designer -
Shiyoon Kim
Heads of Story - Paul Briggs and Joseph Mateo
Lead Story Artists - John Ripa
and Marc E. Price
Modelling Supervisor - Zack Petroc
Head of Animation - Zach A. Parrish
Animation Supervisors - Nathan Engelhardt,
Jason Figliozzi, Michael Franceschi,
Brent Homman and Doug Bennett
Lead 2D Animator - Mark Henn
Environment CG Supervisor - Larry Wu
Character CG Supervisor - Carlos Cabral
Background Designer - Barry Atkinson
Director of Cinematography: Lighting -
Adolph Lusinsky
Director of Cinematography: Layout -
Rob Dressel
Cinematographic Consultant - Robert Richardson
Production Manager - Yvett Merino Flores
Head of Effects - Michael Kaschalk
Visual Effects Supervisor - Kyle Odermatt
Editor - Tim Mertens
Additional Editors - Lisa Lassek
and Julie Rodgers
Associate Editors - Shannon Stein
and Karen A. White
Supervising Sound Editor & Designer -
Shannon Mills
Sound Effects Editors - Addison Teague,
David C. Hughes, Nia Hansen and
Jeremy Bowker
Supervising ADR Editor - Daniel Laurie
Re-Recording Mixers - David E. Fluhr
and Gabriel Guy
Foley Artists - John Roesch and
Alyson Dee Moore
Music - Henry Jackman
Composers: Additional Music - Dominic Lewis
and Paul Mounsey
Executive Music Producer - Chris Montan
Music Supervisor - Tom MacDougall
Score Recordist and Mixer - Alan Meyerson
Awards 2015 Academy Awards
Best Animated Feature - Chris Williams, Don Hall
and Roy Conli (Won)
Review
Marvel is still a Disney property and has always been a close competitor to Warner Brothers' DC. Since Disney's purchase, they continued to bring the life of the treasured comic book heroes on the big screen. The two corporate giants had never done an animated feature together. Finally, the Disney animation studio people decided upon BIG HERO 6. It's one of Marvel's lesser-known properties and is from the group that created Ben 10. There isn't a movie with so many scenes containing mind-boggling animation and fast-paced action since Disney put away the toys on their two earlier attempts, Atlantis: The Lost Empireand Treasure Planet.
This movie contains a story and a blend of humour and action and delivers perfectly crafted animation rivalled by a few others. The film also includes scenes that show a lot of sadness. I was captivated by experiencing this incredible film that no studio has ever done since Pixar pushed the envelope in their mega-hit production The Incrediblesto blow away the superhero comic fan base in childlike wonder.
There are many good factors to choose from in BIG HERO 6 besides its 3D animation pixels and some weight of human emotion. The film carries the background setting in the city, which is supposed to be an amalgam of Tokyo and San Francisco and is supposed to be an architectural blend. I was amazed at the film, which reminded me of another animated feature I reviewed of The Iron Giant, particularly the friendship between a boy and a machine and the end where one of those main characters makes a heroic sacrifice.
It's one step ahead of Frozen and probably a better film. Nothing gets crazy with BIG HERO 6. It will continue to be its new greatest triumph in the animation field.
