GavWaskett
Joined Aug 2020
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Cruella (2021) - Action, Comedy, Crime - Disney +
I went into this with exceedingly low expectations, I mean how can you make a film about Cruella de Vil and get the audience to actually invest in the character. We're talking about one of the, if no the most dislikeable characters ever to hit film. As a child, she gave me nightmares - then again, as a child King Rollo gave me nightmares! This is a woman whose main role in film is to hunt down Dalmatians and puppy Dalmatians at that and kidnap them so that she can kill and skin them, maybe in that order! Who treats the human heroes with distaste and scorn and bullies her employees into committing these dastardly deeds.
Fair play to Disney, they did it. They turned Cruella into a multidimensional character, a woman with a history that helps you understand, if not how she became a puppy murderer but how this persona develops. A woman wronged from birth. A woman who slowly turns from the heroine to the villain back to a character you are rooting for. I hated myself at this moment!
You can see how her relationship with Jasper and Horace turns from friendship to fear to something else. And how and why they all care for each other.
Emma Stone is perfect casting as the young Cruella, she is a likeable actress but can also give you the edge you need and by edge, I mean psychopathic tendencies creeping through! Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser bring Jasper and Horace into the hero category, I want to see how them and their relationship deteriorate so much, but you are rooting for these lads during this film. Joel Fry is especially good. Mark Strong remains a stalwart, an actor you can always rely on and Emma Thompson channels her inner Meryl Streep to full effect.
This is a back story with huge character development but in the opposite way, normally you get a story of someone doing the right thing and redeeming themselves, this flips it up and turns it backwards but also twists it both ways. Well worth a watch.
Fair play to Disney, they did it. They turned Cruella into a multidimensional character, a woman with a history that helps you understand, if not how she became a puppy murderer but how this persona develops. A woman wronged from birth. A woman who slowly turns from the heroine to the villain back to a character you are rooting for. I hated myself at this moment!
You can see how her relationship with Jasper and Horace turns from friendship to fear to something else. And how and why they all care for each other.
Emma Stone is perfect casting as the young Cruella, she is a likeable actress but can also give you the edge you need and by edge, I mean psychopathic tendencies creeping through! Joel Fry and Paul Walter Hauser bring Jasper and Horace into the hero category, I want to see how them and their relationship deteriorate so much, but you are rooting for these lads during this film. Joel Fry is especially good. Mark Strong remains a stalwart, an actor you can always rely on and Emma Thompson channels her inner Meryl Streep to full effect.
This is a back story with huge character development but in the opposite way, normally you get a story of someone doing the right thing and redeeming themselves, this flips it up and turns it backwards but also twists it both ways. Well worth a watch.
How 'How it Ends' ends is absolutely shocking!
Okay, back to the beginning, Will (Divergent's Theo James) is on the phone to his girlfriend in Seattle when something off screen and off phone happens and the phone goes dead. The next day all flights are cancelled from Chicago. So, Will teams up with Sam's Dad - Forest Whitaker to go on a trek across country to save his girl friends from the unknown.
There's jet planes criss crossing across the sky, the roads are closed by army roadblock and Forest Whitaker doesn't particularly like his daughter's future fiancée, to the point of being an absolute idiot to him at the previous night's dinner when Will was aiming to ask for his permission to marry Sam, generally pointing out that this lawyer is inadequate in an emergency situation involving the unknown and guns - well so would the majority of us be to be honest, but Forest is ex-military so he has the right to be a muppet in this unknown, dangerous situation!
Cue everybody they meet pretty much being fuel stealing, gun wielding plot devices, I mean we all know that America has a gun problem but seriously everyone on the road has at least one. Cue the rare good people they find, panicking and not being very much help at all. Cue future father-in-law and son in law finding common ground and the lawyer turning into an action hero. Cue finding Sam but her having an obsessive neighbour who thought in this time of the unknown that now he appears to be the last man on earth, he might actually have a shot with Sam.
Cue, me using the word unknown constantly as you never, ever find out what the flip has happened and the ending is a lame leave them on the edge of their seat attempt at a cliff hanger, whereas it just leaves you going - have a I wasted the last 113 minutes just for this complete lack of information and payoff.
Special Bonus Round
Things you can do in 113 minutes that isn't watch this film.
1. Sleep 2. Read 3. Clean 4. Play Xbox 5. Organize your fridge 6. Give yourself a mani-pedi 7. Watch two episode's of your favorite show 8. Bake something 9. Take a bath 10. Scrapbook 11. Do a craft 12. Take a walk 13. Go shopping 14. Practice your instrument 15. Write 16. Catch up on your emails 17. Volunteer 18. Go for a drive 19. Read a magazine cover to cover 20. Clean out your inbox 21. Balance your balance account 22. Go to church 23. Look through old photo albums 24. Try a new recipe 25. Take family pictures 26. Go for a run 27. Play a board game 28. Rearrange the furniture in a room 29. Take pictures of the beauty around you 30. Teach your dog a new trick 31. Call a friend you haven't talked to in a while 32. Write a letter to someone you care about 33. Take a hike 34. Go for a bike ride 35. Learn a magic trick 36. Perfect your elevator pitch 37. DO some mindfulness colouring 38. Play in the leaves 39. Listen to a whole album 40. Try a new hair style 41. Give yourself a facial 42. Check something off your to-do list 43. Make something from scratch 44. Hang pictures 45. Go out to eat 46. Visit a friend 47. Work out 48. Gather items to donate to charity 49. Read a magazine 50. Write this script and still have change from an hour!
Okay, back to the beginning, Will (Divergent's Theo James) is on the phone to his girlfriend in Seattle when something off screen and off phone happens and the phone goes dead. The next day all flights are cancelled from Chicago. So, Will teams up with Sam's Dad - Forest Whitaker to go on a trek across country to save his girl friends from the unknown.
There's jet planes criss crossing across the sky, the roads are closed by army roadblock and Forest Whitaker doesn't particularly like his daughter's future fiancée, to the point of being an absolute idiot to him at the previous night's dinner when Will was aiming to ask for his permission to marry Sam, generally pointing out that this lawyer is inadequate in an emergency situation involving the unknown and guns - well so would the majority of us be to be honest, but Forest is ex-military so he has the right to be a muppet in this unknown, dangerous situation!
Cue everybody they meet pretty much being fuel stealing, gun wielding plot devices, I mean we all know that America has a gun problem but seriously everyone on the road has at least one. Cue the rare good people they find, panicking and not being very much help at all. Cue future father-in-law and son in law finding common ground and the lawyer turning into an action hero. Cue finding Sam but her having an obsessive neighbour who thought in this time of the unknown that now he appears to be the last man on earth, he might actually have a shot with Sam.
Cue, me using the word unknown constantly as you never, ever find out what the flip has happened and the ending is a lame leave them on the edge of their seat attempt at a cliff hanger, whereas it just leaves you going - have a I wasted the last 113 minutes just for this complete lack of information and payoff.
Special Bonus Round
Things you can do in 113 minutes that isn't watch this film.
1. Sleep 2. Read 3. Clean 4. Play Xbox 5. Organize your fridge 6. Give yourself a mani-pedi 7. Watch two episode's of your favorite show 8. Bake something 9. Take a bath 10. Scrapbook 11. Do a craft 12. Take a walk 13. Go shopping 14. Practice your instrument 15. Write 16. Catch up on your emails 17. Volunteer 18. Go for a drive 19. Read a magazine cover to cover 20. Clean out your inbox 21. Balance your balance account 22. Go to church 23. Look through old photo albums 24. Try a new recipe 25. Take family pictures 26. Go for a run 27. Play a board game 28. Rearrange the furniture in a room 29. Take pictures of the beauty around you 30. Teach your dog a new trick 31. Call a friend you haven't talked to in a while 32. Write a letter to someone you care about 33. Take a hike 34. Go for a bike ride 35. Learn a magic trick 36. Perfect your elevator pitch 37. DO some mindfulness colouring 38. Play in the leaves 39. Listen to a whole album 40. Try a new hair style 41. Give yourself a facial 42. Check something off your to-do list 43. Make something from scratch 44. Hang pictures 45. Go out to eat 46. Visit a friend 47. Work out 48. Gather items to donate to charity 49. Read a magazine 50. Write this script and still have change from an hour!
Jennifer Garner is a very underused actress, Jennifer Garner is an incredibly underused family comedy actress! She is perfect for this role as a Mum who is no longer considered cool by her elder children and has turned from a daredevil twentysomething into an overprotective parent and I suddenly realising this. Edgar Ramirez is her husband who gets to be the good cop and fun Dad, which understandably is pissing Garner's Allison off.
After an incident at school, a plot device, sorry guidance counsellor, mentions the idea of a Yes Day - a day when the parents have to say yes to the children, within a legal and non-life-threatening reason. Allison wants to be the fun Mum, so is talked into and carnage ensues.
Actually, this is a good fun family films, Garner is immensely likeable and engaging lead. The kids aren't too annoying. Jenna Ortega, who voices one of the characters in Netflix's Jurassic Park - Camp Cretaceous, is maybe a bit old for the 14-year-old role but is showing signs of being a future lead.
Expect lots of parents being children and children trying to get one over on parents, there's also plenty of silliness for the kids (and big kids) and laughs as well as a good moral compass and code.
After an incident at school, a plot device, sorry guidance counsellor, mentions the idea of a Yes Day - a day when the parents have to say yes to the children, within a legal and non-life-threatening reason. Allison wants to be the fun Mum, so is talked into and carnage ensues.
Actually, this is a good fun family films, Garner is immensely likeable and engaging lead. The kids aren't too annoying. Jenna Ortega, who voices one of the characters in Netflix's Jurassic Park - Camp Cretaceous, is maybe a bit old for the 14-year-old role but is showing signs of being a future lead.
Expect lots of parents being children and children trying to get one over on parents, there's also plenty of silliness for the kids (and big kids) and laughs as well as a good moral compass and code.