Manhattan Digest

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Manhattan Digest’s The Lego Movie Review – Rectangular!

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So I’m writing about a kids’s film…how fucking weird is that?! Those that know me realize that unless it’s Pixar or Hayao Miyazaki, I don’t tend to get excited about new releases from the “PG” catalog, and I regularly flee from the likes of Disney and Nickelodeon (I.E. I have no interest in watching Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I actively call Spongebob Squarepants an overrated piece of garbage). You can call me shallow, but I honestly think that most other people that read novels by William S. Burroughs tend to have similar feelings. That said, my editor insisted that I write a review for this season’s first big animated film/toy-advertisement, The Lego Movie, and after a few seconds of hesitation I finally gave in…and it was worth it! This is a kids movie that actually gets it right!

The plot…I won’t get into. Come on, it’s not like you’re expecting this to be Charlie Kaufman!

But yes, on a technical level the film is all aces! The animation style in The LEGO Movie really does earn the mark of the age-old adage of “looking like nothing else out there”, and it holds some of the most consistently impressive CGI work to date. It’s a film that simply will not, and cannot stop with animation that’s constantly on the go, and comprised of just about every action-set-piece that a movie about talking toys should have. Chase sequences, gun fights, martial-arts battles and the obligatory stakes-raising-epic-final-battle climax are all present and accounted for, certain to delight the bejeezus out of kids, but also remind their parents about what fun really means toward being a child too. The film really does look like it was built by hand and animated through stop-motion tactics, rather than being computer generated, and yes the movie does actually look like the most expensive, elaborate and official brickfilm (term used for film made with Lego bricks) ever made!

It could of all easily amounted to just being one big, noisy, feature length toy commercial (which is still kind of is), but it’s just the pedigree assembled to mount this movie was way better than anyone could of expected. The writing/directing duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller has demonstrated in the past that they can do wonders with licensed material (who would of thought 21 Jump Street would be a best-ever film update of an 80s television series?), and here they show once again that they have a genuine knack for a unique blend of controlled lunacy, and also know exactly who to cast. Parks and Recreation’s Chris Pratt really is the perfect choice for the film’s main character of Emmett, as face it, nobody else in Hollywood plays lovable dorks like this guy does, and Elizabeth Banks also does an admiral job as playing his love interest Lucy. Really clever casting for the villains too, as it’s great to see Will Ferrell voicing the film’s antagonist, who’s both a stereotypical super-villain yet so much more, and dare I say that all those bad action films Liam Neeson starred in may have done him some good? The veteran actor really does prove to be a sublime vocal fit for the movie’s literal Bad Cop, and really makes one wish the actor would do more comedies.  Also enlisting the talents of several other great comic actors and actresses (Nick Offerman, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, etc.) only adds to the film’s merits, and will obviously appeal to people that watch good prime-time sit-coms. We should also all be grateful for the vast amount of copyright deals Lego has made over the years, as it allows such a wide host of characters from licensed titles (I.E. Star Wars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, DC Comics, and even The Simpsons) the film just leads it’s predominantly fanboy audience from one great nerd-gasm to the next!
Still, even with the outstanding production values, the witty script, and the highly appealing voice over work, it’s hard to see this film have working if not for the heart. The LEGO Movie has a bit of a surprise twist to it in it’s later third, that addresses the film’s theme of the power of imagination, that would of come off as sappy and heavy-handed in a lesser movie. Fortunately though, Lord and Miller work it in a way that feels intrinsic to the film’s unique sense of humor, yet also comes off as touching. I’m sure many viewers will be divisive about what this “twist” adds-or-subtracts from the The Lego Movie’s storyline or established universe, but it’s equally difficult to envision a path the film could of taking for it to really express it’s love and admiration for this long running, and venerable toy line.
So yes, it actually was nice for me to review a film that didn’t contain f-bombs or cunninglingus for a change. The LEGO Movie is a breezy romp through the colorful mind of the young (or young at heart), that is simply described as being pure, unadulterated fun! I feel it’s the first great American film of the year, and also probably the best animated film to come out since Toy Story 3.

Movies to Look Forward to in 2014- Manhattan Digest

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Credit to: HD Wallpapers

 

Here are some of the great movies you should be seeing in the 2014 Calendar year.  From hot guys like Zac Efron to a little movie about one of our favorite childhood toys, Legos, there is something for everyone in the upcoming months.  Take a look!

That Awkward Moment with Zac Efron will be…how do I phrase this politely…appropriately awkward. The writers showed solid sentiment in deciding to portray the “girly” side of men dealing with relationships, and that jibe at Bridget Jones in the trailer forced me to crack a smile. The movie seems to even narrowly miss making everyone in a heterosexual relationship look like a bumbling idiot. To be honest, though, I have never been able to get past the Zac Efron we all know and hate from High School Musical. In theaters January 31st and co-starring Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan of (fill in the blank if you can) fame, That Awkward Moment may actually provide a novel take on the bromance by making the characters a little less bro-y.

At Middleton with Andy Garcia and Vera Farmiga follows two parents who bring their respective children to tour the fictive Middleton College to find themselves ditching their kids’ tour and falling in love. Not only do Garcia and Farmiga appear to have excellent on-screen chemistry, the pair might even make college look more fun than John Belushi and Tim Matheson do in Animal House. With plenty of airy screen shots that evoke the movie’s message of youth’s ephemeral possibilities (or so I assume), At Middleton should strike a chord with anyone who’s been touched by college or the reality of growing up afterward. Also coming to theaters on January 31st.

The LEGO Movie, boasting an insanely star-studded cast, comes out February 7th. With Chris Pratt voicing “the ordinary man who’s been improbably chosen to save the world,” Morgan Freeman as “the wise oracle,” and Will Arnett as, you didn’t guess it, Batman, the casting director knew how to turn children’s toys into a seemingly hilarious rag-tag crew of misfit super heroes without making us feel condescended to. Liam Neeson, Elizabeth Banks, Channing Tatum, and Will Ferrell also lend their voices. There’s no need to be ashamed attending this one without children under ten.

The Grand Budapest Hotel marks another potential gem by director Wes Andersen. With Ralph Fiennes as Gustave H., a concierge who “sleeps with all of his [eighty year-old plus] friends” at the Grand Budapest Hotel, the lively patterns, ingenious schemes, and fantastical villains will be almost certain to one-up Anderson’s most recent oeuvre, Moonrise Kingdom. The director’s usual suspects (think Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and Willem Dafoe) will amicably haunt a plot revolving around family fortune squabbles, fine art theft, and an unusual mentorship between Fiennes and his “Lobby Boy.” The madcap trailer should be enough to draw you to theaters for The Grand Budapest Hotel’s premier on March 7th.

Only Lovers Left Alive directed by Jim Jarmusch just has to be the peak of the several-year silver screen vampire trend. The traditional portrait of vampires who have meshed in with human society à la True Blood prevails in the form of couture blood, high sex drives, and eternal lives of blending into too many centuries. Luckily, Jarmusch manages this in a way that was not amped up for similarly eternal seasons of television. Starring Tilda Swinson and Tom Hiddleston as two, passionate vampires who watch the modern world deteriorate around them after rekindling an old love affair (while navigating Swinson’s vampire sister’s sensual duplicity), Only Lovers Left Alive might comment on modern society without making our toes curl in a bad way. The least cheesy vampire flick you will spot on the big screen arrives there April 11th and will probably leave with you more than the desire to masturbate to some vampire porn.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes features Andy Cerkis again as Caesar, the intelligent lord of the apes, and takes place fifteen years after the prequel’s events. Matt Reeves, also the director of Cloverfield, leads actors through a new battle between a group of human survivors and Caesar’s serious ape army. This should be worth watching since Matt Reeves was allegedly asked back to direct Apes number three. Fans will flock to theaters July 11th.

What movies are YOU looking forward to?