Ed's Review Dot Com

Aardman Animations, Sony Pictures Animation,

Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Russell Tovey, Ashley Jensen, Brendan Gleeson, Imelda Staunton, Jeremy Piven, Brian Blessed, Lenny Henry, Salma Hayek

The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant), yes that’s his name, has had a long history of failed attempts to capture the greatest prize of all piracy…the “Pirate of the Year Award”. This year he wants to do it bad. But there is a lot of competition out there, and to win, you have to collect the most booty possible, but it seems all that The Pirate Captains bloodthirsty pirates can rustle up are plague boats and ghost ships. When they finally raze the ship of Charles Darwin, the famous scientist, things look pretty bleak. But then they think up a foolhardy plan that might win them the prize, but also might put all their heads in a noose. This animated film provides some fresh new voices and an interesting look at the trials of piracy!

These guys are terrible pirates. But they want to be recognized for the pirates they wish they were. This slightly adult cartoon is really pretty fresh. I guess I should also mention that this is stop motion animation. The kids can enjoy it because there isn’t anything really awful in it, but the jokes will end up going way over their heads. This is one of those rare films where the humor is adult enough and mildly risque enough to be enjoyable for the adults in the audience who will make the kids wonder what you’re laughing at. It’s a good film to share with the kids, as it’s not simply boring for adults like some other cartoon films are. This one kept my interest and I enjoyed the sophisticated humor embedded in the simple pirate story. The is a parrot who’s not a parrot, and a monkey who can’t talk, of course, so he holds up little flash cards to say what he wants to say. It’s pretty funny. I have to say, I found it very fresh, and a story that some might find vaguely familiar (this type of story must have been done before) but I found it new and interesting, and pretty funny. I’ve always been a fan of pirate movies to begin with, since I was a little kid, and I went back to childhood-land while watching this, and I think that’s why I enjoyed it so much. I recommend this one for a family film night, now that it’s out on DVD.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday October 2, 2012

• Dark Shadows
• People Like Us
• Peace Love & Misunderstanding
• Sound of My Voice
• Munger Road
• Cowgirls n’ Angels
• Flying Swords of Dragon Gate

DMG Entertainment, Endgame Entertainment, FilmDistrict,

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Piper Perabo, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Jeff Daniels, Tracie Thoms, Pierce Gagnon

Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a Looper. In the future, time travel was invented, but it was highly illegal. It was taken over by the mob, and when they needed to get rid of a body, there was no practical way, so they would send the prisoner back in time to a set time and place where the Looper would instantly kill him and dispose of the body. It seems someone VERY evil has taken over the mob and is getting rid of all the loopers, by sending the looper himself back from the future to be killed by his younger self. When Joe meets himself from the future (Bruce Willis) he manages to outsmart himself and escape. Now present Joe must find future Joe before future Joe finds the one who is responsible for all the problems in the first place. This is a sci-fi drama that will really make you think.

I was very impressed with this story. It is not a fast paced action thriller as you might expect (although there is a lot of run and chase in it) but it’s much more cerebral than that. There is a lot of levels of this story, and it could get confusing if you’re not paying attention, so it does take some concentration to keep it straight. But it was really well acted, and has a lot of character development which makes it very enjoyable to watch. Emily Blunt plays a young mother (and a very complex character as well) which is very well done. Bruce Willis doesn’t get as much screen time as he could have. I would like to have seen more develop between Young Joe and Old Joe, but we didn’t get a lot of that. But Bruce makes the very best of the screen time he does get, and he’s an interesting character as well. He is somewhere between ruthless and crass and a tender and loving old coot, and he’s actually both most of the time.

All in all, this was a very good film. I enjoyed the setting very much. It’s set in about 2024 or something like that, but it could really be any time. It’s kind of interesting to see a movie set in a future date with a further future date down the road. We get to learn a little about both times. It’s also interesting with the characters of young Joe and old Joe. You can see the difference between youth and character, and age and wisdom, but see the similarities in the two versions of the same character. I will be thinking about this film for quite a while, and I predict it will do pretty decently in the box office as it was a very good adventure.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog