First Impressions Quick-Fire Vol. 5

   Again, I wasn't too busy this week: just a trio of rentals from Xtra-vision and one film in the cinema to close out the week. There should be a lot of stuff coming next week, though. :)

Planes (2013)

When I first heard about Planes, I lost all hope in humanity! Why did this Cars spin-off even need to exist? The film itself is about as predictable as it gets. The characters range from boring to irritating, the villain is utterly stock, and they even pull the "liar revealed" cliché! There's only one thing that baffles me: there's a scene where Dusty collides with a train, and it's never explained how he survived; it just seems like a cheat on the part of the filmmakers. But overall, for such an overwhelmingly stupid concept, it's a harmless enough kids' movie as it is. So, while it is bad, I can't get too mad at it. My rating: 35%.

Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

This sequel turned out to be exactly what I thought it would: a pale imitation of the first one that tries and fails to recapture the original's brilliant sardonic wit. The overall direction has much less personality, so instead of sly, this one just seems straight-up sadistic – misogynistic especially. The villains range from whiny little bitches to one-dimensional bullies who don't deserve to be on screen. I did like parts of it, like the police taking action against all masked vigilantes, and of course Hit-Girl is as brilliant as ever. :) But despite the Kick-Ass DNA underneath, overall it's not a worthy follow-up. My rating: 50%.

The Croods (2013)

This one was pretty damn good. I was surprised. It's not a stunningly rich, thought-provoking family film, but its heart is in the right place, and it never for a moment stops being entertaining. The comedy based on these cavemen discovering new things is genuinely funny, and the characters are so likable that the sentimental turn at the end works effectively too. Though am I the only one who was a little disturbed by all the up-skirt shots on Eep? On the whole, this is another triumph for DreamWorks, and a welcome distraction from a market flooded with kids' movies like Planes and Free Birds. My rating: 80%.

Saving Mr Banks (2013)

Mary Poppins is one of my favourite movies of all time, so I was curious to see the behind-the-scenes drama brought to the screen. The whole movie plays out sort of like a psychological study of PL Travers. The flashbacks kept me interested in seeing where they were going: how could this woman who seemed to have a perfectly happy childhood turn into such a (for lack of a better word) stick-in-the-mud? And of course, the scenes with the Sherman Brothers working on the songs are simply irresistible. :) It's an imperfect but poignant film about how one of the definitions of childhood came to be. My rating: 75%.