Movie Review Madness - Beauty and the Beast

A tale as old as time….Beauty and the Beast gets a live action Disney remake that is absolutely gorgeous and worthy. Go see it on a monster big screen. Spring for the good theater with XD fancy screen and sound. Get the big tub of popcorn and bask in an old fashioned musical.  Not much new to the story. Belle (Emma Watson) is the odd girl in an old French town. She reads books, for goodness sake, and dreams of more to life. No, she does not want to marry Gaston (Luke Evans) – the hot male in town who’s an egomaniac.  Her father (the always good to see Kevin Kline) is eccentric and when he goes off to market loses his way and ends up a prisoner in an odd creepy castle. His faithful horse shows up and takes Belle to find him. There she says, “Step into the light” and meets the Beast.

This formerly vain prince had a curse placed upon him and his castle.  Now, until a final rose petal falls, he must remain a hideous creature and his servants are stuck as candelabras (Ewan McGregor), clocks (Ian McKellan), teapots (Emma Thompson), and the fancy wardrobe (Audra MacDonald- fabulous voice),  etc.   Belle swaps places with her father and shows her strong will. She’s not going to put up with crap from the Beast. But slowly she realizes he is her match – he’s well read, has a fabulous library, and she slowly makes him less selfish. Meanwhile, she charms the characters and they love her.

Emma Watson is perfect in this role. She projects intelligence. Her interplay with the Beast (a charming and worthy Dan Stevens) works. And he slowly wins her favor and ours. Deep down he is human, he does care, and does need and seek love. Can she fall for him in time to save them all?  Oh, you must enjoy the film to the end – bask in the lavish numbers (Be Our Guest). Love is unpredictable, and sometimes you do have to look into the soul, into the core of a creature to find what’s worthy.  So, yes, a bit of a lesson in this day and age. But the supreme goal of Beauty and the Beast is to entertain, to tell a tale as old as time…and golly gee, it will win your heart. 

Movie Review Madness: X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: Days of Future Past is an excellent summer blockbuster movie. As bad as Godzilla was, this X-Men is that good and more. It has a smart story and ties in time travel with thought process. The world is bleak for mutants and humans and something has to be done. It’s determined that Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) needs to go back to the 1970s to bring Patrick Stewart’s Xavier (young James McAvoy) and Ian McKellen’s Magneto (young Michael Fassbender) together to stop Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from killing a professor. It sounds convoluted but it works.  

Very humorous when Logan wakes up on a waterbed and realizes the time travel worked. It’s smart and funny and it’s all in sync. The biggest kick to the movie is using Quicksilver (Evan Peters) to help stop time. There is an awesome kitchen scene where he rearranges some people and when the scene turns to action, the final shots and escape are brilliant.  

As per EW’s review, “just because a movie is huge doesn’t mean  you have to ham it up – that it’s possible to make a superhero flick feel as intimate as a piece of theater.” Thanks to superb acting, clever filmmaking, and a real story, X-Men: Days of Future Past is satisfying and entertaining. It’s fresh and resonates in our own world where folks are different and yet seeking the same truths in life.  We are all mutants in our own way. We are all human. Can’t we just get along?