Secret World of Arrietty and Pirates! Band of Misfits

The Secret World of Arrietty is a Studio Ghibli production penned by the great Hayao Miyazaki and based on the novel, The Borrowers, by Mary Norton. Visually beautiful like everything Studio Ghibli creates, The Secret World of Arrietty is a wonderful film for both children and adults. The artistry and attention to detail is amazing, and it's very easy for the viewer to be transported into this beautiful but dangerous (and secret) world of Arrietty.

Much like Studio Ghibli, Aardman has a strong reputation for excellence when it comes to crafting animated films that appeal to adults and children alike. Although The Pirates! Band of Misfits isn't Aardman's strongest effort, it is a solid film with Monty Python-esque humor, quirky characters, great voice acting and impressive-as-always stop motion animation. 




The Secret World of Arrietty
Score: 80%

The Pirate! Band of Misfits
Score: 69%

The Raid: Redemption

The Raid: Redemption is visceral action at its violent best. There's not much by way of story or characterization, but if you're hungry for some ass-kickery, this film will more than sate your appetite. The movie is well-paced with impressive choreography, and boasts some of the most frenetic and accomplished martial arts fight scenes I've seen in a while.

With that being said, there's little else here to appeal to anyone who doesn't enjoy pure, mindless action; if not all the time, at least once in a while. Sometimes it's just nice to turn your brain off, sink back into a comfy chair, and watch bloody mayhem unfold in an unrelenting swirl of fists, knives and guns. A few good beers wouldn't hurt, either.

The Raid: Redemption
Score: 70%

Juan of the Dead

For starters, this is a zombie movie, so my priority is to be entertained, and my inclination to analyze is somewhat lessened by the minimal expectations I've developed over the years for a genre that tends to produce wretched crap by the truckload. Which is not to say there haven't been some very good zombie movies (and a few great ones) but for every Night of the Living Dead there are 500 mind-numbingly bad Gangs of the Dead. With that being said, Juan of the Dead falls somewhere between the two. I've read reviews suggesting that one needs to be Cuban to understand the sociopolitical satire, which is not the case. Sure, being Cuban will allow one to pick out the more subtle expressions, but most people will get the bigger messages here, which hit you on the head with as much blunt force as Juan's oar.

Story and plotting are not the movie's strengths, and at times the film shuffles along as painfully as the zombies; but it still manages to work, thanks in part to its satirical bent, as well as the newness of the setting. There's just something about the combination of urban decay, a constant stream of jokes about how nothing works, and the mostly immoral cast of characters, that not only complements the movie, but really helps deliver the sociopolitical icepick to the forehead.

And it's those things, as well as some new and interesting kills (e.g. Havana's Revolutionary Square) that separates Juan of the Dead from the average zombie movie. Some critics and reviewers complained about the immoral actions of some of the characters, but I don't share their viewpoint because those moments were played for laughs. It's called dark humor, people! However, I did take issue with the homophobia in the movie, which was too obvious and too vicious to be considered dark humor.     

Like Shaun of the Dead, for which this movie borrows heavily, this is a comedic zombie movie. So for fans of comedy movies that can't handle a lot of horror and gore, this one should fit the bill. Which is not to say it doesn't splatter some blood...it is a zombie movie, after all.




Juan of the Dead
Score: 61%