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Reviews
Luca (2021)
Adorable child and adult friendly film
Just got out of a showing at the first day of screening of this film at a cinema in Israel with my family. Firstly, this film is perfectly made on the technical side. Everything looks beautiful and fully immerses you into the world created as if it were real. Underwater shots as well as shots of the city. The story is not completely unique, a "fish out of water", a story of a character learning and developing -- overcoming adversity as well as self doubt. A classic worth telling and it is a good feel good story with well defined characters, each helping the story move along. I think emotionally, this story gives a lot of things to think about and the communication between characters, Luca and his friends, are very well written and very believable even though we're dealing where the fantasy part (becoming a "sea monster") is an occurrence. If I have to nit-pick, I would say that the film on one hand shows that dangerous things could be dangers but also that it is important to confront your fears -- perhaps in an instance or two it might have been good to add a band-aid or something to make it slightly clearer that a character went a little too far. Overall, though, this is not an issue to worry about. I don't think any kid is going to jump off a cliff because of this movie and I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for good character building with an arc. It is not Shawshank, or Empire of the Sun, but it is a lovely movie. Very happy this was my first film-house visit after the pandemic.
The Running Man (1987)
It's 2017, but oddly enough, everyone still wears shoulder pads.
80s action-comedy at its best Some movies deserve a high grade despite some drawbacks due to their storytelling and entertainment factors and this is one of those movies. It has an intellectual backdrop and sometimes even surprises you with some subtle commentary, but should mostly be watched to enjoy a really great action-comedy with a bit of a campy twist.
The Running Man takes a hard, yet highly entertaining look at what TV could become in a dystopian future. Released in 1987, the "future" is set in 2017. Reality shows have gone rampant with the number one show being "The Running Man" where convicted felons sign a contract in order to be chased and killed by "Stalkers".
Considering, there were no reality shows what-so-ever in the 80s, it is pretty amazing how writer Stephen King predicted one of today's most common TV modals. This movie, however, does not go down the action-drama path and maintains a high level of humor at every stage.
This spectacular 80s movie has some really great and memorable delivery of lines with only a few rare misses. It intertwines charm and jokes into the events in a way that makes the action and violence (a bit graphical, not for the squeamish PG13) stay loose and entertaining at a high degree.
Ice Age: Collision Course (2016)
On the subject of aggression
"Dealing with aggression is enormously difficult, not just for parents, but for us in the mental health field," - Henri Parens, M.D
Some people like Ice Age Movies. Personally, I watch these movies with a cringe. Only thing worthy are the creative segments with Scrat (the hyperactive squirrel) that interlude between segments of the movie.
Scrat segments are fantastic word-less slapstick full of emotions with interesting stories and wonderful twists... scrat cries and whimpers in a multitude of ways striving to get a hazelnut and ends up creating world changing events.
The rest of this movie, however, is a sad combination of banal and disturbing. Some completely unconnected and sometimes completely child inappropriate "humor". E.g. jokes about someone old that it is sad they are not dead, someone being ugly enough so they shouldn't have any friends, someone being headstrong so it means that you should condescend them when explaining things.... so much of the interactions between the characters are full of anger and passive aggressive intonation and phrasing. Instead of a lovely children's movie, you get something that teaches kids the worst possible ways to interact with each other. These are both in the normal dialogue as well as in the jokes.
There's some basic story about a father not accepting his son in law and the experience they share together trying to get somewhere and save the earth... but honestly, you wouldn't want either character in your children's life. Even worse are the other side-kick characters. In fact, everyone were so one-dimensional, one could argue all the characters in this movie were side-kicks.
I give this film 2/10 since the reasonably executed animation is mottled by disturbing acting and jokes that you can only watch with a cringe while knowing your kids learn bad behaviour. I add another 2 for the scrat segments.