Despicable me, Movie review

It was one of those movies I had not counted on actually go in seeing. not at all!
Before I went into see "Despicable me." with my little niece for her mother so her mother could have an evening off, my clear impression of the movie was that it had to be one of those cheap knock off's who things they are oh so smart, and can quickly make some bucks on a selling concept.
It's the first movie out of an entirely knew animations company "Illumination entertainment", and that is not enough for me to be excited at all, countless of companies have tried their luck with animation movies as it's a cheap way to make some movie money and so many have failed, I can count around five independent animation movie companies who have been forced to turn the key after two or three movies, and their movies have often seemed rather soulless, so that was exactly what I was expecting from this. all in all, I was expecting another "Planet 51" which again have a cool concept but is so filled with pretentious humour and stupid cliches's that that movie makes me cringe! that movie is like that annoying guy in the room who thinks he is funny as he keeps spitting out dump jokes without owning the thing called. "Comedic timing"

Well, after this big rant it should be obvious where I am going.. despicable me.. is not bad. It's actually very enjoyable. true, it's kind of predictable and we have seen this plot before, but it have a charm and passion to it that is undeniable, and it is genuinely funny. it's visual humour works and is not over selling itself.
Like dream works it's kind of like being Pixars naughty little brother, only if judging with this movie and the lates three or four Dream works movies.. I prefer this one, because even though it's filled with funny cliches'. my mind was very much brought to the spy 007 genre lots of times, it does not linger in it's own jokes and move on with the movie, the slapstic here also works, and believe me, I've seen so much animation slapstic that fails that it hurts me, so that made me very happy to see a studio that is not pixar actually mastering the small visual gags.

The movie is about the super villain Gru (which is kind of funny for me as "Gru" is the danish word for "Horror"... no seriously it is)
He is in a state of failish as he have been out contested by another villain who stole the pyramids, determinant to out villain this new comer Gru decides to steal the moon. only trouble is he needs a shrinking ray, he almost succeeded stealing it (in a well handed funny hyped scene) but finds himself once again beaten by the same guy who stole the pyramids, "Vektor"
Gru tries to steal the shrinking ray back but must realize that Vektor's super mega awesome oo7 agent style explosive lazer rocket filled intruder system is to much for him.

Which again leaves Gru even more annoyed as three orphant cookie sellers can walk into the property with no trouble as Vektor have a weakness for cookies.
This however give Gru an idea, adopt the girls and make them sell Vektor some cookies where he have infiltrated the cookie packages with cookie robots!

This is where the movie kind of jumps the track for me, because as the movie after 25 minutes of great hilarity and throw backs to the good old action movies does not have time for so much more of that as it's now about Gru learning to accept and eventually love these three girls.
Hi's scenes with them do swing from being genuinely funny to a bit to sugar sweet, thankfully we have the high points as he do steal the shrinking ray and by mistake gets trapped inside of Vektors high tech home so he have to escape using a great deal of physical gags, but the loving montage with the kids afterwards sort of spoils it, it's first from that point the movie gets to predictable. Though not heart less, I genuinly liked these girl, especially the oldest one which seemed like a little adult to me, who had taken on the cruel world in a bit to young an age to be able to shield the two younger once, that was kind of heart breaking to watch.
However, it's a genuine good movie, it's funny and nice, and it never lingers to much in anything, if you happen to get a chance to watch it, there is no shame in that. it's kind of worth it.

I got an idea! give me your thoughts please.

I have been thinking, and the more I think about it the more I want to do it.

Well, as some might know.. yeas. I write fanfic once in a while, what the hell about it?
I posted my "Poor boy and the princess." here at the blog which is basically a doctor who fanfiction. But I sort of like it, and hey.. I don't write romance and especially not sex!
okay, some times romance, that is sort of difficult not to do when you write about characters who motivations are each other in the real thing.

Well, story short a while ago I started a bigger project. a Snape centret fic out of Harry Potter called. "Second chance a new choice."
To my utter amazement the fic have no gained a somewhat following.
No, I am serious, over a thousand people is following...
And yeah, that is pure "wtf" for sure. especially considering my first 14 chapters which have been without beta readers is a total fail in spelling and grammar. (On a side note, I search yet another Beta reader who can concentrate on that!)

Anyhow, yeah why wouldn't Harry Potter fans grave more stories? it's really really hard being fan of something and you see the end in the horizon, most literately.
I mean, this February we are done. finito, no more. auch... and I have been on this freaking boat since I was 9! that's 11 years ago, I am not about to give it up without a fight!

The only thing left to keep this franchise alive is the fans, the only people who are going to bring something new to it is as well, is the fans!

And that, is you and me buddy. you and me.

So, I was thinking.

I would like to start a website celebrating the fandomn around Harry Potter.

I know there's lots of great Harry Potter sites out there, the movies of cause have their official site. "Mugglenet" is a pretty darn cool site which looks upon the books as serious literature and treat them as well with awesome and clever in depth analyses of different aspects, discussion boards and so ford.
The "Potter Encyclopaedia" is there as well where you can look up every single fact you want.
But I don't think there is a fun growing site celebrating the fandomn, I mean collect things as "Potter Puppet pals." and "A very Potter musicals." plus especially picked fanfictions (And I mean very special, I would want to quality to be abnormally high on those.)

Plus giving the people the opportunity to write articles and so ford, hosting comics like "Dark tower" and "Snapes Worst Memory" encourage people to make fan videos. Why not? when both Star Trek, Star Wars and doctor who can do it, why can't Harry potter fans make fan videos? there's plenty of characters to pick from. and plenty of scenes from the books not depicted in a movie, one of the most graved actually is Snapes worst memory which no one was satisfied with in the fifth movie, so, lets encourage some fans to do it!

And it should be a place welcoming enthusiasts in the franchise.

I have one single problem however... I have no idea how to build a site.. so.. help? pleas...

Oh, and thoughts please.

And oh, I guess I might as well post a link to me apparently awesome fanfic oO;

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6343505/1/Second_Chance_a_new_choice

Death of the doctor... yeah sure it is -_-;

Yeah I have a question.

We all know that television studios only have the lowest regards for children's intelligent but come on.

Merlin is a show suffering a lot from this as the writers and producers seemingly think that they can make suspension by making the same bloody episode over and over again with slight alterations which basically means changing the outside characters names but otherwise use the exact same story as last week without moving the plot.

I am a continuity freak, I like expanding universes and therefore I do sort of like Sarah Jane adventures. Honestly I haven’t seen all of it, just some few episodes I found interesting. But I like it for what it is, a children’s show using the universe of doctor who and occasionally spread out treats for hardcore fans. Like when Nicholas Courtney made a re-appearance as the brigadier or when Tennant choose to pop up for a finale performance as the doctor. I mean stuff like that is enough to send me down fan girl madness lane.

And so one episode in the next season have caught a lot of peoples interest including me, not only does it have Katy Manning reprising her roles as Jo Grant, a third doctor companion, but freaking Matt Smith will be there to!

Fans needs stuff like this to keep us over to next season, especially now when the last season is the best overall doctor who season that have ever been. (In my humble opinion)

But seriously. ”Death of the doctor” ?

That’s the episode title?

I mean it’s a cool sounding title and a doctor who fan only have to shortly glance at it before the TV-producer have ensured that person will be glued to the screen along the five year old kids Saturday morning.. I suppose that was the intent.

But.. come one!? How stupid are you to not figure that he isn’t going to die!? It’s not even the real doctor who series!

What!? Did Russel T Davies write the title, I mean this have ”The next doctor” spelled all over it in the title.. that Christmas special was just cruelly titled! Of cause we didn’t see the next doctor already then when Tennant had a whole other year to go… stupid.

”The wedding of Sarah Jane’s” was a better title, I could imagine her getting married, that would have been cute if it had actually happened. I mean you can both be an independent woman and married, it happens.

Anyhow… yeah. Of cause it’s not as good as a new Doctor who episode, but sometimes a fan need to take what a fan can get. So I am bloody hyped.

Come on! It got Matt Smith action where he get to crawl around the ventilating system real doctor style… why haven’t the doctor done that yet in the new series? I mean he did it all the time back in the old days.. every time he was on a hostile space ship, he at some point crawled through the ventilation shafts.. and I don’t care, that kind of action rocks.

(Edit)

Sorry, I am stupid and to think it first occurred to me now so I had to check it.

Russel T Davies did write the title, because he wrote the entire episode.... yeah I'm hyped.

... the man is never going to leave doctor who alone is he?

Bob Fosse. Musical legend and geniouse.

The cult following of the genre musicals is actually starting to become quite the persistent following again. Especially teen girls seems to have taken quite the liking to resent musical films, which is a delight to me as the genre have pretty much been dead for the last decade. It simple fell from grass and all through the 90’s. Musical was a shush word in Hollywood, and those few things that came out sucked rats ass.

The only good musical to come out of the 90’s was grease, and that thing is not particularly good either when you compare it to real musicals.

However, movies like ”Moulin Rouge.” ”Chicago” ”RENT” and the Tv-show ”Glee” have done a decent job of breathing new life into the genre.

However, I must be amused as so many young girls walk around and think they now everything about musicals now because they know and love these descent musicals.

You don’t know a god damn thing about Musicals before you know who Bob Fosse is and have seen his work. Which is quickly covered as he only made three movies. Though what damn fine movies those are!

Bob Fosse made his movies back in the late 60’s and 70’s as musicals started to become a more dead genre. In the 30’s and 40’s you can pretty much consider musical things to be the same as action films is today in the collected peoples concious, it was what every one went to cinema to watch. And they were all just fell good musicals, really sugary and fell good, but society grew away from that kinds of movies and started producing more dark realistic stuff, especially in the 70’s with the hippies taking over society should movies and art portray a more realistic dark world, the sugary glamour was no longer accepted.

And Bob Fosse’s movies is very much a product of that, they are gritty, sarcastic and incredible sexy. These are probably some of the most sexy movies you ever saw.

It’s probably also worth while noticing that “Chicago” is a Bob Fosse stage show, so if you go and think of that movie you will start to get an idea what he is all about, even though that movie is not nearly as sexy or provocative as the real Bob Fosse stuff.

So lets have a look on his three movies.

Sweet Charity from 1969

About the Taxi Dancer (prostitute) Charity Hope Valentine and her search for love.

Though as this is a Bob Fosse Musical, which he wrote and directed, that means its not a sweet sugar pie story that ends up with her somehow getting redempted or salvaged or something like that. Nope, the ending is bitter sweet.

It actually ends on the quote;

“The optimistic Charity faces her future, alone for the time being, living hopefully ever after.”

However, the story is not the most interesting about this movie. And I do believe it’s the least good of the three he made, however they are all very good so that is not saying much.

What is most amazing about this is ofcause the musical numbers. Not only is the dancing and music amazing, but the cinematographi and how the camera moves becomes a dance and a artfrom inwards itself, check this scene off and tell me if you have ever seen anything like it.

That ladies and Gentlemen, is what Bob Fosse is all about. this scene here, provocative, sarcastic, dirty, sexy and utterly amazing.

The whole movie is like that, which of cause means everyone should just go watch it.

Cabaret from 1972.

Yeah, people must have heard about this one. it is hailed by a great many deal of movie critics to be one of the best musical movies ever made, it won eight oscars. one for best main actress and one for best movie, which it won against "Godfather".

This movie really also showcases a point I do have with comedies and musicals that seems to go over the head of most people, especially the creators. Comedy, action and Musical does not mean you can't deal with serious issues, it's the other way around. it's a god damn free pass to deal with issues that is to touchy to talk about in ordinary movies.

Cabaret is about the beginning of Second World war, and more preciesly the rise of the Nazis from the perspective of the normal everyday people. it's an underlying theme that happens in the movie as a running theme beside the main plot, at it is utterly fascinating. The movie take a new interesting turn in how to show the musical numbers. instead of having the characters start and sing them out of no where, the musical numbers all happens in "The kit kat club" where our main Character Sally Boles work. So it more becomes sort of a narrating thing cross cutting with the plot. and as the kit kat club is so dirty, it becomes really fascinating.

That is the "MC" the presenter and the narrator. he is like a freaking devil D:

So scary... awesome! He have the most of the songs and the narrating that is often a sarcastic mocking comment upon what is happening for our main characters.

This movie is amazing, I remember it well what happening. my singing teacher brought me the song. "Cabaret" intending that I should add it to me repatour, I loved the song instantly and then went to watch the movie. I saw it three times because the first time just left me stunned and needed to watch again.

Differently worth your time, and remember. eight oscars, that must make it worth something.

All That Jazz from 1979

This is both the least known of the three films, and my personal favorite.

I mean wauw.. I can understand why it's overlooked.. because what do you do with a movie like this? a Bob fosse movie was never ever a "Fell good movie" both Cabaret and Sweet Charity had a sarcastic dark ring to them all the way through and ended on a moody comment about a unsure bleak future. But this? what do you do with this? it doesn't end on a unsure future.. it ends on the end of a future.. on death.

The movie is just about death and nothing else.

But not that essential talk we normally deal with. there's no. "Where do we come from, what are we meant to do, and where do we go." talk.

It's a man who life a live that is about to bring him to an early grave, and we see it happening. that's kind of it.

It's a very special movie, it's almost like an autobiography as Bob Fosse clearly depicts himself in the movie, it is about him and his life. about him as a work aholic in the buisness of theater and his provocative ways and how self destructive they are. he have no shame in showing how much he idealises the sexuality of humen, women in particular of cause. though those it in a way I can approve of, and it also ultimate lead to self destructive living.

That is possible both the most sexy and provocativ thing I have ever seen. I mean, we are talking it's up and ringing with Tim Curry singing "Sweet Transvestite" in the rocky horror picture show.

Also notice how the number took place in a gritty reheasing hall. It really brings my mind to how theater really works. it is very realistic and he obviously draw on his own real life exsperiences. all the way down to the two producers who is sitting and is absolutely flabbergasted. the director is supposed to be himself.

It is just so damn obviouse why producers in show buisness want to over look this thing.. it is provocation on bottle, a very sexy well formed body I could stare at forever...

And ofcause it's very ironic as it ends up in his own god damn death, I bet no one of you have ever seen a death scene quite like it.

Just look at that! look at it! have you ever seen a more self ironic death scene?

Keep in mind that the director, Bob Fosse. is interpretating himself, that man who dies is an interpretation of himself and what he knows his life is leading to.

Bob Fosse did true enough die in a relatively early age. He died September 1987 aged 60 on a park bench. Died of a heart attack brought upon him due to drug missus, stress and alcoholism. just as in this movie, where the main character did die of heart attack. It was said he died while the sun was rising in the park.

I may be cynical, but I find his real death to be sort of beautiful while the one in the movie is sadistic. so for once, reality is more beautifull than what is in the mind. it is up to the individual opinion of cause.

In any case, I hope I made one or two people interested in checking it out. it is differently worth it.

And any of his three movies is way better than porn any day oO;