Paddington

The first kiddie movie of 2015 is here and it draws itself from a 1997 series of children’s books called “The Adventures of Paddington Bear”.  It was probably only a matter of time before the little bear from Darkest Peru found its way to the silver screen.

Maleficent

It is the age of Dark Fantasy and the age of setting the record straight in the world of fairy tales.  Or at least that’s what Robert Stromberg begins by saying in his attempt to direct a contemporary version of a classic fairy tale.  This time it is the turn of Princess Aurora or what most of you would better know as – Sleeping Beauty.

Edge of Tomorrow

Let me start by saying that I am not the biggest of Tom Cruise fans.  I have always believed that any of his movies would be far better if someone – anyone – else replaced him in the lead.  There may be a few exceptions to the rule though.  And Edge of Tomorrow (Surprise! Surprise!!) will feature in my list of Tom Cruise movies wherein he actually does well and I was really glad.

Arthur Christmas

A few more pointers to those who take decisions on movies to be released in India. Christmas movies should be released on the weekend preceding Christmas. To my knowledge, Christmas is celebrated on the 25th December every year all across the world. So why would a movie that is so clearly about Christmas that it has “Christmas” staring at your face be released 4 weeks after is clearly beyond my limited intelligence.


Secondly, a good movie is a good movie is a good movie. So why delay the release. I am quite certain that we have enough of an English speaking population and a critical audience that looks forward to Holloywood movies more than Europe. So why this differentiation of product? Most consumer product companies have learnt this the hard way. So why should entertainment not learn from them and launch simultaneously across the world – for crying out loud, Tintin released in India before it did in the rest of the world didn’t it????

So why would I take up this rant continuously? Because Arthur Christmas is a wonderful animation movie – a genre of movies that hasn’t seen any major delays to date. Arthur Christmas has just displaced Puss in Boots in my list of Academy award nominations from FY 2012. The list now has – Kung Fu Panda 2, Cars 2, Rango, The Adventures of Tintin – Secret of the Unicorn & Arthur Christmas. The Academy, however begs to differ and has ignored Cars 2 & Tintin. It has included Puss in Boots and a couple of other movies that I haven’t heard of yet.

Arthur (James McAvoy) doesn’t take offence to being ignored anyways because he is used to it. Most of the people in the North Pole do. The million elves that help Santa Claus (Jim Broadbent) deliver Christmas presents through his new & improved S1 suprasonic amphibian craft which is undetectable by radar controlled by his first born – Steve (Hugh Lauri) included – ignore Arthur coz he is more cause for trouble than help. But when the mission misses one girl, Arthur, accompanied with Grand Santa (Bill Nighy) and Brunly (Ashley Jensen) decide that she needs to get her gift wrapped cycle – with 3 tapes only – no later than sunrise on Christmas Day.

Let the adventure begin I say. And be prepared for some moist eyes in this directorial debut for the duo Sarah Smith and Barry Cook. Kids will love it. Adults will equally. Considering that there were 2 adults who completely enjoyed every minute of this novel concept for a Christmas movie and the attention to detail it had. Wait till the end credits which is great as well. 7 on 10 for certain. Watch it!!!

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2677710361/