The Amazing Maurice

Mummies was rather so-so, but The Amazing Maurice lives up to his title. This animated adaptation of Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, an installment of his Discworld novels, also premiered in the States earlier this year to scarce distribution. It's available on Hulu and other streamers in case you're interested.

The Amazing Maurice (Hugh Laurie) is a talking cat who runs a Pied Piper scam with his human Keith (Himesh Patel) and a colony of talking rats. The rats invade towns, Maurice sells Keith’s services and Keith leads them away. It’s a simple scam until they target Bad Blintz. There’s no food or rats in town, which genuinely perplexes our heroes. They come across Malicia (Emilia Clarke), the mayor's genre savvy daughter and this film's narrator. They decide to investigate the mystery. Their investigation sees them cross paths with the town ratcatchers and their eerie Boss Man (David Thewlis). Meanwhile, Maurice, much to his horror, becomes a nicer cat in the process. That's basically the gist.

The film was written by Terry Rossio, an appropriate choice considering he co-wrote Shrek. It wastes little time setting up its irreverent tone. There's a framing device, the book Mr. Bunnsy has an Adventure, which Malicia frequently reads from to juxtapose with the plot. The Rats, who come with names like Dangerous Beans (David Tennant), Peaches (Gemma Arterton), Nourishing (Julie Atherton) and Darktan (Ariyon Bakare), learned morality from this book. There's even a living windup mouse, Mr. Clicky, who is more than a joke. How they and Maurice gained sentience involves Discworld mainstays Unseen University and Rincewind the Wizard. You needn't know who they are to understand that story.

Now for the cast. Maurice is a delightfully smug kitty who considers himself the smartest thing in the room. He's still compelling when his self-assuredness starts to crack, and he gradually grows selfless. You'll definitely feel it when he meets "The Grim Squeaker." The Boss Man is easily one of the most unnerving animated villains in years. You can clearly tell that this trenchcoated man is inhuman long before the reveal. Thewlis's vocal performance is wonderfully sinister. The Rats are a likable and sympathetic assortment of rodents. Keith and Malicia are likable human protagonists; her meta commentary has a few zingers. The real Pied Piper (Rob Brydon) shows up as a memorable side antagonist.

There's some great animation and character designs by Studio Rakete and Real Star 3D. Pretty much everyone except the Boss Man (obviously) are all appealing, and that includes the Ratcatchers. Its most appealing visuals come from the 2D animation in the Mr. Bunnsy scenes. It really sells us on the Peter Rabbit parody that the book is. The final battle with the Boss Man is a spectacular climax in every way. Tom Howe's score is quite splendid to listen to with and without the film. Maurice's musical number wherein he sells a town of suckers the scam is quite catchy. 

The Amazing Maurice is a wonderfully fractured fairy tale. Its voice cast is clearly having a ball with their roles, while Laurie, as Maurice himself, has the biggest one of all. I think it proudly represents its author's creativity. It's sure to entertain everyone for a nice and quick 93 minutes. It's surly worth whatever price you find it for on streaming. So, hurry up and press play.

Mummies

I command thee, oh Mummies, to rise from thy cinematic tomb. Thy North American box-office run ranneth dry, but now, oh Mummies, thy have a chance to regain thy glory with Hulu streaming. Rise! And conquer...

(It hurts my throat to type this...)

In simpler English, Mummies is a Spanish animated film that debuted earlier this year. It was so scarcely distributed in the States that you'll probably first hear about it when you see it on streaming. I, on the other hand, heard about it when it debuted. You'll hear what I thought of it after I saw it on Hulu.

Underneath modern Egypt is the World of the Mummies. There, living mummies live and party like it's no later than 1999 BC. One mummy, Thut (Joe Thomas) is an ex-charioteer living on his past glory. He's accidentally betrothed to no less than Princess Nefer (Eleanor Tomlinson). Both are mutually disinterested in each other, but it's too late, and Thut has to guard a MacGuffin wedding ring with his un-life. But when the living archaeologist Lord Sylvester Carnaby (Hugh Bonneville) steals the ring, Thut, his younger brother Sekhem (Santiago Winder), and Nefer, rush to get it back.

They end up in modern London. They may look normal, but if you shine a spotlight on them, you'll see their true skeletal forms. But that's not much of a problem for them. Did I mention Nefer's an aspiring singer? She is, and she's soon discovered by a music producer, Ed (Shakka), who makes her a super star. Lord Carnaby decides to make the mummies the living stars of his next exhibit. They'll have to walk like an Egyptian real fast back to their world. Hey, the soundtrack includes the song, so it's not a shoehorn.

I can't tell whether this was produced in English or Spanish. The dubbing either way is pretty good for an average kid's film. This was clearly made for young kids with its simplistic story and ample slapstick. Its oldest viewers will greet it with groans at worst or neutrality at best. The groans get louder, for example, when the mummies keep splatting like Ancient Egyptian paintings. Its story is so simplistic it doesn't even dwell on death. It opens on Thut's last race, and we're led to believe he was killed there, but no, what actually happened is anticlimactic. Watch closely and you will know they were in Mummy World the whole time. The climax even gives us a fakeout death cycle in less than a minute.

There are occasional bright spots. Nefer has an "I Want" song that gets interrupted pretty early. She later derails a performance for Aida and her musical duel with the leads is amusing. This is where Ed discovers her, by the way. The film's most appealing character is the sidekick Croc, who's practically a puppy, and is "voiced" like a squeaky-toy. Lord Carnaby is a sinister mommy's boy (Celia Irmie is Mommy Carnaby) and a pretty decent villain, overall. Its animation is decent, and Fernando Velázquez's score gives it a nice sense of grandeur. 

Don't expect to unearth any real surprises with Mummies. Its plot is rather average, but a few characters and moments spark some life into the proceedings. Its 88-minute runtime is a welcome rarity these days. It's a harmless film, so you can see it if you want to. But I've got a better film to tell you about that's on Hulu. That review is coming very soon. 

Flamin' Hot

 It's quite a conundrum to praise a biopic with questionable veracity. On one hand, Flamin' Hot is a funny and compelling rags-to-riches story; on the other hand, its subject's biggest claim to fame has been widely disputed. What do I do? Praise the movie, nevertheless?

I'll do that.

Linda Yvette Chávez and Lewis Colick adapted Richard Montañez's autobiography A Boy, A Burrito and a Cookie: From Janitor to Executive for Eva Longoria's directorial debut. Montañez's disputed claim to fame was inventing the Flamin' Hot Cheetos while he worked as a janitor for Frito-Lay. Montañez, as played by Jesse Garcia, narrates his life story throughout its 99 minutes. It's quite a story.

As a poor boy, Richard sold burritos to his classmates. As an adult, he and his wife Judy (Annie Gonzalez) were part of a street gang. His friend, Tony (Bobby Soto), helps him get a job at a Frito-Lay plant. Richard, an aspiring machinist, learns quite a lot from engineer Clarence Baker (Dennis Haysbert). He decides to a pitch a new flavor to CEO Roger Enrico (Tony Shaloub) when Frito-Lay starts mulling layoffs. He just needs the right spicy recipe.

Garcia is quite charismatic as Richard. We're on his side whether he's an aspiring businessman or struggling family man. We feel tense for him when he argues with his abusive father, Vacho (Emilio Rivera). He and his family's flamin' hot experiments yields some hilariously tough results. He and his friends getting the product to sell by word-of-mouth alone is beyond impressive. It's still a decently compelling story whether or not it's true, and Richard is the biggest reason why. His persistent narration is as charming and funny as he is. It all pays off when he's promoted at the end.

There's a good supporting cast here. Gonzalez as Judy has great chemistry with Richard, while her proactive personality is praiseworthy. Haybert as Baker initially doesn't know what to make of Richard's boundless enthusiasm. But we see how warm a mentor he is once he comes around. I didn't recognize Shaloub until I saw his name in the credits. But his performance as Enrico is quite likable. Rivera as Vacho tries to atone - not perfectly - for his past behavior. His and Richard's still-strained relationship is perfectly tense. Matt Walsh is fine as Richard's floor-manager Lonny Mason. He seems like a reasonable authority figure, letting Richard work despite him pulling the thread on his resume, but he reveals himself as a condescending fool down the line.

Editors Liza D. Espinas and Kayla Emter let us into Richard's imagination. He beats up a racist co-worker and gag dubs a stuffy board meeting in some weirdly amusing bits. His conversing with Enrico by VHS is a good reflection of his charismatic optimism. Back in reality, his Flamin' Hot experiments are wonderfully fast paced. All in all, it’s great work. Marcelo Zarvos’s good score is kicked off by a vibrant rendition of the Searchlight Pictures theme. The soundtrack features a good selection of songs. 

A few questions and answers:

Should I see Flamin' Hot despite its inaccuracies? Yeah, it's a good crowd-pleaser with a great lead character. It moves along quite smoothly, so prepare for a good home matinee.

Any Negatives? It's a cliche plot, and it takes an hour in before the Flamin' Hotness enters the scene. But those gripes are irrelevant because the film's that likable. And again, the central story is compelling.

Where Can I see It? Disney Plus and Hulu. I saw it on the former myself. And I'm already in the mood for the titular snack. You might agree if you see it soon on either service. That's it for now.

Tetris

Who ever thought that the last big battle of the Cold War was over a video game? It's true, more or less, according to Tetris, which revolves around the legal and political war over the video game. It debuted on Apple TV Plus in March, but I didn't get to it until now. It's time to press start and see how it is.

It quickly sums up how Soviet programmer Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Yefremov) developed Tetris, which soon became the hottest video game behind the Iron Curtain, and how game designer Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) came across it at the Consumer Electronics Show. He decides to invest in the relatively simple game. It's clear sailing from here, right?

No. It seems that one Robert Stein (Toby Jones) snatched up the rights already, sublicensing them to Mirrorsoft's Robert Maxwell (Roger Allam) and son Kevin (Anthony Boyle). Rogers only has the rights in Japan. It's still enough to get Nintendo onboard, especially to get it published for their forthcoming Gameboy. But when the Maxwells encroach on Rogers's territory, he decides to appeal to the Soviets directly. The Soviets aren't happy that an American wants to profit from "their" property. Rogers, meanwhile, befriends Pajitnov and decides to give him his financial due. The Maxwells won't give up without a fight. 

That's basically the gist of Noah Pink's screenplay. Its 118 minutes are full of corporate and political backstabbing, reversals, counter-reversals and more. The overall story is compelling even if it's somewhat hard to keep up with all the names. Still, it's pretty satisfying when the villains are out-gambitted. It all leads up to a fictionalized car chase as Rogers and his Nintendo partners, Howard Lincoln (Ben Miles) and Minoru Arakawa (Ken Yamamura), race to the Airport before the also-fictional Central Committee goon Valentin Trifonov (Igor Grabuzov) gets them. I'll elaborate more on the plot when I get to the characters.

Egerton plays Rogers as an affably optimistic businessman. The opening has him re-iterate what I said in the second paragraph to a bank manager (Rick Yune), and how he rejected a good deal with Nintendo for a better one. We see him as a good family man for his wife, Akemi (Ayane Nagabuchi), and his kids, though the Tetris War strains his relationships. Yefremov is quite compelling as Pajitnov, a man trying his best to live under the Iron Curtain. Their real-life friendship is a compelling plot thread. Wait till you see how Rogers gives Pajitnov some ideas to improve Tetris.

The Maxwells make for sufficient villains. They're both sneering baddies, but Kevin's sense-of-entitlement will make you detest him more. But you'll sympathize with Kevin when he realizes how financially and morally bankrupt his father is at the end. It's quite a stunning reversal. Trifonov is even more loathsome than the Maxwells, particularly when he all but threatens to toss Pajitnov's sons out a window. His being out-gambitted is the most satisfying part of the film. Stein is just fine as an antagonist, but he's outshone by the Maxwells and Trifonov.

Director Jon S. Baird's technical style is impressive. The editing is fast paced, especially during the final car chase, which even turns into a video game at times. The pixel art title cards are a fun flourish. Production Designer Daniel Taylor and the visual effects department get points for flawlessly recreating the Soviet Union in Scotland. Lorne Balfe's techno score incorporates the game's signature Korobeiniki tune. That soundtrack is easily the most memorable part of a memorable film.

If there's any flaw, it's that the video game footage is sometimes mismatched. A Zelda game featured is obviously not from the 80s. Nevertheless, Tetris is still an outstanding historical thriller. It may also get you in the mood for a round of the game. I did just that before working on this review. It's ready to stream when you are. On to the next review.

The Monkey King

I told you I saw a better film today. And here it is...

That would be The Monkey King, a Netflix release based on the Chinese literary staple, Journey to the West. The 16th-century novel has been adapted into everything several times over. That's not getting into Dragon Ball and its spin-offs. So how does it compare to the other films? Read on.

Monkey King (Jimmy O. Yang) was born from a stone on a mountaintop. The other monkeys shun him until Monkey gets himself a magic stick (Nan Li) and defeats an evil demon. Monkey sets off to defeat 100 more demons so that Buddha (BD Wong) and the Jade Emperor (Hoon Lee) will make him a God. During his 100th battle, he meets a village girl named Lin (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) who becomes his assistant. Whether he likes it or not.

Lin is actually an agent of the Dragon King (Bowen Yang), the deity from whom Monkey pilfered the stick. Lin just has to steal the stick back to get the Dragon King to save her village from a drought. But the Dragon King actually needs the stick to start his torrential conquest of Earth. Her task is complicated when she and Monkey become friends. That's basically it.

The film is a decent compression of the novel's first seven chapters (out of 100). There's some tweaking here and there, such as introducing Lin, but there's plenty of recognizable plot points. Monkey's demon fighting montage even includes more of the novel's demonic rogues gallery. Its sense of humor is relatively modern, but it's got some good gags. The only downside is that Monkey's personality constantly fluctuates between arrogant all-powerful monkey to selfless hero. It gets worse at the end when it has to bring in Buddha. Still, Monkey's trickster persona is delightful when he fights his first demon. 

Monkey, despite his inconsistencies, is an entertaining and even sympathetic character. His arrogant attitude is tragically understandable with his outcast upbringing. Lin makes for a good deuteragonist and foil for Monkey. One can easily sympathize with her as Monkey disregards her help. Them becoming actual friends is decently compelling, but their final scene together is moving. The Dragon King is an entertaining bad guy all the way through, complete with his own villain song. His sidekicks, Babbo and Benbo (Ron Yuan and Joy Koy), are surprisingly amusing. The Red Girl (Sophie Jean Wu), Monkey's 100th demon, and King Yama (Andrew Kishino), the ruler of Hell itself, are fiery scene-stealers.

This is a film where monkeys, demons, gods and more fight all across existence. Naturally, its production and character designs are all appealing. Everyone from Monkey to King Yama looks great, while Buddha is just stunning. Sure, their hair isn't as animated as them, but the characters are still impressive. Stick's glowing is cool, but the most impressive thing about him is his digeridoo-style voice. How did Nan Li do it? We also get a grand score and some catchy songs from Toby Chu. I already mentioned the villain song, but the montage song surprisingly fits.

The Monkey King should make for an easy home matinee. It's only 96 minutes long and they're sure to fly fast. It's a bit inconsistent, but it's still a good introduction to the classic novel. To answer the question at the beginning, I don't know which film is the definitive telling, but I think they're all worth comparing to each other. See it soon and you might see what I mean.

Wonderwell

 Wonderwell is a forgettable family fantasy film, but it had a few things that drew my attention. First, its trailer showcased an eerie floating head conversing with its young protagonist, Violet (Kiera Milward). Second, this wrapped filming shortly before star Carrie Fisher's death in 2016. Seven years later, here we are, wondering what went wrong with this well.

Anyway, William Brookfield adapted his short story, Drainhole Dreaming, for Vlad Marsavin to direct. The aforementioned Violet accompanies her family to Italy as her older sister, Savannah (Nell Tiger Free), auditions as a model for fashion star Yana (Rita Ora). She's always feeling left out, so she takes a hike into the woods. That's where she meets the witch Hazel (Fisher), who recognizes Violet as a fellow witch. Did I mention Violet has a magical bond with plants? She does.

Violet finds a giant plug in the middle of the woods. She sees another her down there, and they switch places. Beyond the Wonderwell is the Inferno, a dimension that looks like hers. Sure, there are giant monsters (including the floating head), but everyone else is exactly the same. But Violet is privy to how miserable everyone else is. Meanwhile, Yana happens to be an evil witch who wants Violet's McGuffin bracelet to take over Violet's home dimension, Paradiso. Or something.

The story crumbles once Violet enters the Inferno. Paradiso doesn't even figure at all once she makes the switch. The Inferno is so similar to Paradiso - other than a lot of red weeds, which had me thinking the apocalypse happened - that it's like the switch never happened. There's something about Violet becoming aware of how the world is, just as her parents (Lloyd Owen, Megan Dodd) realize how exploitive the modeling world is. But couldn't another McGuffin reveal the truths? Yana's evil plans for Savannah are somewhat unclear; she's not even siphoning beauty from her models. The ending is simply the most confounding anticlimax in years.

Fisher gives the film some much needed levity as Hazel. Milward is fine enough as Violet, Owen and Dodd are basic on Paradiso and unpleasant in Inferno, and everyone else is just OK. On the technical side, we get an impressive CGI creature with the floating head. Still, what it's supposed to be is as baffling as the plot. The other monster, a giant flytrap, is a good mix of CGI and real puppetry. Cinematographer Kenji Katori gives us some nice views of Italy, while William Ross & Angelo Badalamenti collaborate on a decent score.

Wonderwell is a mess from its story to its tone. Its long-deceased star livens the film with her warm presence. But it's not worth much beyond a rental, which I did. There are plenty of better family films around for streaming. In fact, I saw a better one today, too. You're going to hear about it next.

A Haunting in Venice

Hercule Poirot took quite a layover from the Murder on the Orient Express to the Death on the Nile. But he's already back to solve A Haunting in Venice, which sees Kenneth Branagh, once again as director and M. Poirot, and writer Michael Green, visualize one of Dame Agatha's last and least-adapted stories, Hallowe'en Party. Let's see how it is.

This time, Poirot has retired to Venice, a few years after World War II, after losing his faith in humanity. But humanity intrudes on Halloween in the form of Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), the crime novelist who credits herself with making Poirot famous. She invites him to a party and seance at the palazzo of the similarly reclusive soprano Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly). Oliver suspects that Drake's medium, Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh), is a fraud, and wants Poirot to expose her. Reynolds does give a convincing show as she communes with Drake's deceased daughter Alicia (Rowan Robinson), but Poirot reveals her in no time.

The fake medium then becomes actually dead. M. Poirot's little grey cells go to work as he interrogates the suspects. His investigation is hampered by ghostly hallucinations, supposedly related to the palazzo's gruesome history. As usual, the killer isn't afraid to add to the body count. So, M. Poirot has his work cut out for him.

The film pretty much discards the novel's plot for its own. A few character names are retained, but they're entirely different people in both mediums (Reynolds especially). The new plot runs at a very quick 103 minutes. It's quite creepy, though the seance scene is a bit over the top. The ghastly affair is generally and sometimes exhaustingly deadly serious. How serious? M. Poirot rarely shows off his delightful smugness here. It's quite relieving when he does, especially when he plays off the similarly smug Ariadne.

It's livened up further as Poirot interrogates the suspects, particularly Alicia's ex-fiancée Maxime (Kyle Allen), housekeeper Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin), and Dr. Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan) & his precocious son Leopold (Jude Hill). It's quite profound as we learn their hidden motives and secrets. The actual killer, twisted as they are, is quite pitiful in their last moments. The most memorable character outside of the suspects is Alessandro Longo (Amir El-Masry), a guy who desperately tries to hire Poirot for a case. It's quite nice when Poirot takes up that case.

It's time I rounded up the usual technical suspects. The palazzo makes for a great haunted house. It's so undeniably gothic you'd be creeped out long before you hear of its gruesome history. John Paul Kelly's production design is complemented by the creepy Halloween costumes by Sammy Sheldon (Reynolds' mask and cloak are particularly striking) and Haris Zambarloukos's claustrophobic cinematography. They're aided aurally by an unnerving sound design and Hildur Guðnadóttir's foreboding score. Lucy Donaldson's best bit of editing is Poirot's dual interrogation of Reynolds' sibling assistants, Desdemona and Nicholas Holland (Emma Laird and Ali Kahn). Let's not forget the ghostly visual effects, especially during the culprit's demise.

All in all, should you partake in Poirot's seance? Yes. A Haunting in Venice's new plot is just as twisted as Christie's finest works. It thankfully doesn't fall victim to a bungled sequel hook, though its overbearing seriousness nearly does it in instead. I'm still ready and able to partake in another Poirot tale should they make one. I'd even go for Christie's Poirot-less The Last Seance. See it on the biggest and loudest screen as soon as possible, even if you have to wait for ... gasp ... home media!

The Equalizer 3

I reviewed The Equalizer long ago, but I skipped the 2018 sequel for some reason. Well, I'm back, and so are director Antoine Fuqua and star Denzel Washington, for The Equalizer 3. Let's see what main character Robert McCall's been up to.

McCall (Washington, naturally) starts the film being held at gunpoint in a mafia wine cellar. McCall killed all the other henchmen at the winery, and now, head honcho Vitale (Bruno Bilotta), and his surviving henchmen, will end him. He ends them instead and takes off with some money. But Vitale's young son shoots him on his way out. McCall passes out in the town of Altamote, where good doctor Enzo (Remo Girone) and officer Gio (Eugenio Mastrandrea) fix him up. He soon settles down nicely in Altamote.

Meanwhile, the Camorra (the Campanian mafia) plot to run everyone out of Altamote for their real estate. The Quaranta brothers - Don Vincent (Andrea Scarduzio) and brutish enforcer Marco (Andrea Dodero) - are the film's specific big bads. They brutally extort, terrorize and murder anyone in their way until McCall finally steps in. That's basically the gist of the movie.

It takes what seems to be an hour before McCall finally takes on the Camorra. All the while, we get a few sequences of drawn-out brutality that will have you wishing McCall would step in immediately. They're quite detestable from their first scene onwards. Dodero perfectly sells Marco as a downright thug, while Scarduzio's Vincent is generally subtle in his villainy. On the plus side, it makes it cathartic to see McCall take them on. It's only 109 minutes long, so it's not dragging things out too much.

The side plot follows CIA Agent Emma Collins (Dakota Fanning) as she investigates the mafia's ties to drugs and terrorism. I worried for a bit that it would end up a disconnected tangent (like in Day of the Soldado). But it makes sense once we learn Vincent's involved. Collins is a fine character, though the various supporting characters in Altamote were generally more memorable. A few highlights include Enzo, Gio, Gio's daughter Gabby (Dea Lanzaro) and Angelo the fishmonger (Daniele Perone). At the end, we learn that McCall went off to Italy on behalf of a couple (Marco Giulliani and Simona Distefano) swindled by the mafia. We barely know them, but we're still pleased when they're saved from bankruptcy.

Now for the star. Washington's easy-going nature is still present and accounted for. McCall is still charismatic whether he's an ordinary man or an Equalizer. In the latter phase, he's truly a nightmare to evil, which is accentuated by Robert Richardson's cinematography. McCall's first scene in the wine cellar is wonderfully foreboding. McCall's good nature and his interactions with Altamote's residents makes the slowest parts compelling. 

The Equalizer 3 promises to be the last of the film series. If it is, it's a decent way to end a trilogy. Its plot maybe slow, but it's not too long and its star is still as compelling as ever. See it whichever way suits your time. It's still a good time at the movies. That's it for now.