Reviews

Fun film! I was greatly impressed with Hugh Grant's performance. Had to do a double take when he first appeared on the screen. Colin Farrell was a scene stealer and Michelle Dockery makes a great mob wife.

I'm a theatre and dance fan, and have seen the live stage musical. Cats has always been a big show and dance about different kind of cats with a hint of a storyline about getting to the Heavyside Layer. So yeah, not really much plot so wasn't expecting that but the movie actually created a plot or two. The stage musical is not the best ever, but it's fun with great "cat" dance choreography and some truly great songs. Lots of comments have been made about the whole cat CGI thing, but really - it's HUMANs playing CATs! They could have probably made a whole bunch of cat CGIs dancing with just the actors voicing them if they wanted to. Have you even seen the Cats costumes on the stage musical? The movie "costume" is an upgraded version! I enjoyed the big song and dance numbers in the movie. You can tell that most of the cast are professional dancers and I thought all the "lesser" names (probably big ones on stage) did a really good job and were the highlights. I probably enjoyed them the most. Don't really like Taylor Swift's interpretation of Macavity - which annoyed me, as it's one of my favourite song in the stage musical, but it's alright. Probably better with an earthier jazzy singer. The new song is okay, nothing special like Memory. I truly hate any scenes with Rebel Wilson or James Corden. The added "bits" to make them "funny" just made me cringe. So if you delete their scenes, it's an okay movie. Probably give the stage musical a 6, and the movie a 3.5. Kudos to the dancers though.

I love movies. I love books. I love Disney. So I had high hopes when Disney made a movie from a book series I liked. What could go wrong? A lot, apparently. I don't need the movie to be a carbon copy of the book to like it. Some stuff that works in books does not work on screen and movies can create the visual spectacular and action sequence that books can't do as well. Problem is when they choose to make a movie based on a book, take the heart of the story and then completely mangle it. Disney could have taken a perfectly good recipe and turn it into gold, even create their own storyline for Artemis's next adventure, but they choose to remove what makes the books a classic which are the characters and how they develop. I quickly realised in the first 10 minutes that it's not going to be at all like the book. Visually, it's great. Ireland is beautiful. Haven is suitably high-tech. The action sequence is fun. They changed the characters and some of it works. Foaly is now a snappy dresser. Root is Judi Dench, but hey, why not? Mulch is funny and now a giant dwarf (guess they really really want Josh Gad to play it and then ran out of money to make him small). They made Butler and Artemis Sr more people-friendly and family-oriented, which I guess I can let go. Holly Short now has a backstory. Koboi is apparently Darth Vader now (so not a surprise if she is going to be Artemis' mother or closely related to it) because you know, let's make it really obvious she's a villain... a cute girly pixie apparently just doesn't cut it. Main problem is Artemis is just not Artemis in this Disney version, and it's very difficult to move away from that if you've read and loved the books. In the books, Artemis was a gazillionaire genius kid, super-formal and exacting but socially awkward and clumsy, who is also a loyal brilliant strategist and mastermind trying to save his father, then mother, then the fairy world. Disney mixed a bit of Alex Rider in and deleted quite a bit of Artemis Fowl and made him a gazillionaire supersmart rude teen, who can now fight and shoot, trying to save his father. So like any other teen action movie, with leprechauns, fairies, dwarfs and trolls thrown in. It's probably a good movie for young kids, who don't care for dialogue or character development, and like pretty pictures on screen. Probably not if the kid is a fan of the book and the characters. Maybe I need to watch the movie again and pretend I've never read the book. Right now, it kinda still pisses me off they made Artemis wear a T-shirt and sneakers!

I have to admit that the only reason I even saw this movie was because of the stellar cast. Was a bit apprehensive with the whole fantasy genre and 'tweenie' vibe. People keep comparing it to the Twilight franchise, which were just simply awful with the wooden acting and flat delivery. The books that it was based on were actually good.

This movie was refreshingly good: charming with humour. I haven't read the books at all, but everybody seems to "fit". They chose young actors who can actually act (what a great relief) and who you want to root for. The whole cast was excellent (I really can't call Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons, Eileen Atkins and Viola Davis - 'supporting') and Emmy Rossum was surprisingly good as a vixen. Always thought of her the innocent, wholesome type.

One movie that makes me want to read the books - actually, just downloaded it!!

I loved, loved, loved Gilmore Girls, so thought I'd give this show a whirl. On episode 3 and so far, like it! Thank you Ethan for taping it and letting me watch. Very similar vibe to Gilmore - with great writing, repartee and lovable, kooky characters. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Sherman-Palladino's script is as witty as ever and love the fact that they brought in a great Broadway actress/dancer. Sutton Foster is likable and funny. Similar, yet different to Lauren Graham. Good to see Kelly Bishop back. Difficult not to compare to Gilmore Girls really, but as I love that show and they've stopped making it - I have to fill the void with something. I love ballet too, so like that addition to the story. So great that there ARE ballerinas and dancers that could also act. All those dance movies with the plastic 'acting' were depressing me. A great pick-me-up show. So you can add this to The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family as my favourite comedies!

I found one of the main character just so annoying. Interesting concept, some good characters. Like the partner, love the surrogate and her daughter. The mother is a bit over the top but she's meant to be. Just can't stand the main guy - so fake and rubs me the wrong way. It's like the annoying guy in the bar who talks really loudly about his so-not-interesting life that you just want to smack so he can stop. Everything is soooo... larger than life and dramatic! Karen and Jack from WIll and Grace rolled into one, but without any of the lovable character traits. Plots are also boring. For dysfunctional families and the new normals, go to the much more sensational Modern Family.