Movie Review - Muppets Haunted Mansion

Director: Kirk R. Thatcher
Genre: Family/ Comedy/ Musical/ Adventure
Runtime: 52 minutes
Year: 2021
Starring: Will Arnett, Taraji P. Henson, Darren Criss, Yvette Nicole Brown, Dave Goelz, Bill Barretta, Eric Jacobsen, Matt Vogel, Alfonso Ribeiro, Ed Assner

Description: On Halloween night, Gonzo is challenged to spend one night in The Haunted Mansion.

Review: It’s Halloween and the Muppets celebrate. Except for Gonzo and Pepé. Gonzo receives an invitation to the spooky manor in which magician MacGuffin disappeared exactly a hundred years ago.
The Haunted Mansion is one of Disney most popular attractions, a kid-friendly haunted house. There is already a live-action movie based on this ride, starring Eddie Murphy. But let’s be honest, it’s more fun with the Muppets in it.
Several famous Halloween movies are spoofed here as well, most obvious one is “The Shining”. That’s where again this Muppet movie is for the entire family, because this is a joke that kids won’t understand, but the adults do.
“Muppets Haunted Mansion” stars the side characters of the popular puppets. Not Kermit or Miss Piggy are the stars, it’s Gonzo and his King Prawn friend Pepé.
It’s a fun Halloween film, for the whole family and for every Muppets fan.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

10s Movie Review - The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Director: Isao Takahata

Genre: Animation/ Drama/ Fantasy/ Adventure

Runtime: 137 minutes

Year: 2013

Starring: Chlöe Grace Moretz, James Caan, Mary Steenburgen, James Marsden, John Cho, Beau Bridges, Dean Cain, Darren Criss, Lucy Liu, Oliver Platt

Description: Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter (James Caan) and his wife (Mary Steenburgen), a tiny girl (Chlöe Grace Moretz) grows rapid fast into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthralls all who encounter her, but ultimately must confront her fate, the punishment for her crime.  

 Review: A farmer finds a tiny princess in a bamboo plant, takes her home and soon she’s turned into a human baby. It all happened without any commotion in the first few minutes. Where Disney would accompany it with sparkling star rains and magical music, in “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” is brought as something familiar and logical. It’s a true fairytale from Studio Ghibli.

The young Kaguya grows up as a normal child on the farmland, but her adoptive parents understand that they are dealing with royalty and only want the very best for her. Father and mother address their child with greatness and take her to the big city to make her a full-fledged princess. In the meantime, the child herself has nothing to contribute. She does not want to get married at all, but in order not to disappoint her proud father, she agrees to choose from a number of selected noblemen.

That this search for love is actually a little too long and predictable can be taken for granted, because the rest of this fairy tale is beautiful. When more is known about Kaguya’s background, the film gains strength to end in a deeply movie scene.

Director Isao Takahata, best known for “Grave of the Fireflies”, gives the message to be merciful and supportive towards each other in the last act, but puts a lot more in his film through symbolism. References to the story of Jesus Christ and other religions for example.

Apart from symbolism and fantasy elements, “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” is above all a drama in which human emotions such as mercy and melancholy are central. This is recognizable for everyone. in addition, the animations department provides a number of beautiful scenes. Not everyone might like the style, since it’s more outlined art or sketch-like, with a more limited color palette. But I think it looks beautiful.

If you’re a fan of Studio Ghibli movies, you should not miss this one.

Rating: 4/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 82: Girl Most Likely

Director: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 103 minutes

Year: 2012

Starring: Kristen Wiig, Annette Bening, Matt Dillon, Darren Criss, Christopher Fitzgerald

Description: Imogene (Kristen Wiig) is a failed New York playwright awkwardly navigating the transition from Next Big Thing to Last Year's News. After both her career and relationship hit the skids, she's forced to make the humiliating move back home to New Jersey with her eccentric mother and younger brother (Annette Bening, Christopher Fitzgerald). Adding further insult to injury, there's a strange man sleeping in her old bedroom (Darren Criss) and an even stranger man sleeping in her mother's bed (Matt Dillon).

Review: Poor Imogene. The heroine of the American comedy “Girl Most Likely” has a lot to deal with. after being dumped by her boyfriend and getting fired from her job, Imogene doesn’t see a silver lining anymore. At least not the way things are going now. So she decides to pretend committing suicide, so her ex-boyfriend comes crawling back. The plan doesn’t work and she is forced to move in with her eccentric mother. Poor Imogene.

The comedy is likeable because the characters aren’t taken too seriously. Imogene is a bit of a loser, brother Ralph is still a little kid inside, their mother wants to gamble away everything she has and mom’s boyfriend George works for the CIA, although Imogene doubts that. Does this bring us anything good? Some jokes are lame, but most of them succeed pretty well. And they are all so quirky. The story isn’t topnotch, but the acting is on a very high level. Especially Kristen Wiig excels.

“Girl Most Likely” is a film which is balanced by the positives and negatives. What keeps it on the good side is the fact it doesn’t give in to sentimentality and clichés. A light comedy, with a quirky side.

Rating: 3/ 5