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btsmall74
Reviews
Victor Frankenstein (2015)
You know this story
I believe the low critic ratings for this film are unjustified. Certainly the complaints that it deviates too much from or warps Mary Shelley's novel are unwarranted. It obviously draws more from monster features of the 1950s than it does from the novel (the character of Igor was, I believe created for film and was not one of Shelley's characters anyway). It is difficult to come up with something passing for original from a story that has been rehashed endlessly for decades, but this, at least, comes quite close.
McAvoy and Radcliffe have great chemistry and are obviously having a lot of fun. Daniel Radcliffe is no Laurence Olivier, let's face it, but I will say, with brotherly fondness, that his skill as an actor is improving. At least he can bring on much more convincing teary-eyed emotion now than he did back in The Order of the Phoenix (cringe). He is also developing a knack for comic timing. McAvoy manages to portray Frankenstein with an excellent balance of intellectual arrogance and manic obsessiveness, yet still makes him oddly charming and likable.
I'm pleased to see a Gothic-style film that I don't have to squint at in order to watch - it is shot with plenty of light while still conveying the grittiness and dirt of that dark Victorian-era London film-goers are used to. The colour palette is muted but appropriate in sepia tones, and again conveys Gothic style nicely without being drab in its bleakness.
Overall - highly recommended. Not challenging and, as is stated twice in the film itself, "you know this story". But certainly entertaining.
Walt Before Mickey (2015)
Appalling
This is my very first IMDb review. I was compelled to write, as this film is simply THAT bad.
This is a cheesy, cheap, made-for-TV style travesty with all the depth of a teaspoon. The script is weak, the dialogue stilted and cringe-worthy, and the acting is quite simply pitiful. But the worst thing about this film is the pathetically awful directing. A glance at Khoa Le's bio tells you everything you need to know. A director with absolutely no skill or experience who's greatest talent seems to be talking himself up.
Walt Disney, the man himself, is a subject that is ripe for the picking - compelling, universally appealing, easily marketable. No one but the most dyed-in-the-wool deluded Disney fanatic could believe this version of his story is all there is to tell. This paltry product barely even begins to pick off the obvious scabs of the man's early life. Any other half-witted music video producer masquerading as a feature film director could have done so much more with this material and cast.
The most intriguing and surprising thing about this, is that it got past the Disney legal team.