The Friday Feeling

It’s Friday again, and if the fact that it’s the end of the week wasn’t reason enough to celebrate it’s also new movie day! This week sees the release of a stop motion animated film based on a Roald Dahl book, the first in a possible series of movies based on The Saga of Darren Shan, the sixth installment of a horror franchise, the latest big-screen outing of Jeremy Piven, and a documentary about the Japanese hunting of dolphins.

First out of the traps is Fantastic Mr. Fox, a stop motion animated film based on Roald Dahl’s book of the same name. The movie is the first animated film by director Wes Anderson and is the first stop-motion animated film produced by 20th Century Fox. The movie follows the basic narrative of Roald Dahl’s novel but Anderson has added new scenes at the film’s beginning and end in order to flesh out the story. The plot centres on Mr. Fox who lives in idyllic surroundings with his wife, son and nephew. Mr. Fox has retired for his nefarious days as a chicken stealing villain but cannot help but be tempted back into his old way of life. This misstep angers the local farmers who vow to destroy Mr. Fox’s home by digging it up and when this fails, by starving the animals out. All this hullabaloo doesn’t enamour Mr. Fox to his neighbouring animals but he wins them back when he hatches a daring plan for vengeance against the farmers. Wes Anderson has previously worked with stop-motion legend (and The Nightmare Before Christmas director) Henry Selick on his previous film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. In fact Selick was attached to this project before leaving to direct the adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, which came out earlier this year. Anderson was inspired by Czech stop-motion animation of the 1960s and homages it here, giving the film a very distinctive look and feel. The voice cast is superb, featuring the likes of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe and English crooner Jarvis Cocker. I generally like Wes Anderson movies, plus I’m a Dahl fan from way back, so I’m intrigued by this movie. It certainly looks like it’ll be good.

Second out this week is Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, an adaptation of the first three books of the book series The Saga of Darren Shan by author Darren Shan. The movie is a fantasy-adventure about a teenager who unknowingly breaks a 200-year-old truce between two warring factions of vampires. When Darren and his friend happen upon a travelling freak show, things begin to change inside Darren. It is in that instance when a vampire named Larten Crepsley pounces and Darren must become a Vampire to save his friends life. Newly undead, he joins the Cirque Du Freak, a touring sideshow filled with monstrous creatures. Director Paul Weitz is co-responsible for American Pie and About and Boy and has recruited a solid cast for this production. Chris Massoglia plays Darren, while John C. Reilly, Ken Watanabe, Willem Dafoe and Salma Hayek all feature. With 12 books in the series ripe of exploitation, Universal has high-hopes for the franchise. The production values look good and there is certainly enough talent in-front of and behind the camera. I like the Darren Shan books, even though they were aimed at a younger audience than me, so I’ll definitely be catching this in the cinema.

The third movie of the week is the sixth installment in the Saw film series. The movie follows on from the events of the previous incarnations and sees Detective Hoffman emerge as the unchallenged successor to Jigsaw’s legacy. However, when the FBI draws closer to Hoffman, he is forced to set a game into motion, and Jigsaw’s grand scheme is finally understood. Saw VI is directed by Kevin Greutert, who has been the editor on all the past Saw films to date while Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the writers for both Saw IV and Saw V, have returned also. If you’re a fan of gore-nography or have liked Hostel or the previous Saw movies then I’m sure that you’ll enjoy this one too. Me, I’m not a fan, so I’ll be avoiding this like the plague.

Also out this week:
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, a comedy directed by Neal Brennan and starring Jeremy Piven and Ed Helms. Piven plays used-car liquidator Don Ready who is hired by a failing auto dealership to turn their Fourth of July sale into a majorly profitable event. I like Jeremy Piven as Ari Gold in Entourage but this movie look like utter rubbish, so no thanks.
The Cove, a documentary focusing on the annual killing of about 2,300 dolphins in a National Park at Taiji, Wakayama in Japan. The documentary won the U.S. Audience Award at the 25th annual Sundance Film Festival in January and celebrated critic Roger Ebert called the film “a certain Oscar nominee”.

This week is an odd one with 2 movies turning up mid-week on Wednesday 28th. The first is the animated movie 9 which I have reviewed for culch.ie, while the second, This is It, is a behind-the-scenes documentary focusing on the ill-fated comeback tour of Michael Jackson, which I will attending on Wednesday evening. Look out for more info next week.