Rise of the Guardians: Movie Review

Who's in it?

Hugh Jackman, Alec Baldwin, Isla Fisher, Chris Pine & Jude Law

What's it About? 

When Pitch Black (Law) threatens the hopes, dreams and beliefs of the children of the world, it's up to the Guardians to stand together and defeat him. An animated Avengers, if you will. A reluctant Jack Frost (Pine) has been enlisted to help but can he defeat his own demons in time to save the day? 

Any Good? 

Based on the William Joyce books that explored the root of our make believe heroes, Rise of the Guardians is set 200 years later in modern day and these heroes are nothing like you've seen before.  Santa is a sword wielding, tatted up, no nonsense mountain of a man. Sandy (who'll you'll probably want to put in your pocket) weaves his thoughts and dreams in stunning golden glittering sand. The Easter Bunny is a rough and tumble flaming galah with a bad taste in his mouth when it comes to Jack and the Tooth Fairy is a stunning soft spoken, iridescent feathered fairy with hundreds of even cuter flying helpers, the Baby Teeth. 

The tale opens with Frost being a Jack the Lad bringing joy to children with snow days, ice slides and merriment but he yearns for recognition. When he's summoned to the North Pole by the other Guardians it takes more than a little convincing to get him on board in the battle against Pitch. The 3D here is bright and beautiful, scenes are crisp and clear and only serve to draw you further into the tale as there is never a lull in pace as the story is woven together. 

Comic relief comes in no small part from the non speaking support cast, the elves and the yetis. They steal every scene they're a part of and keep the humour light hearted enough for little ones even though there's a consistent sense of menace from the deliciously dark Pitch Black. (Guillermo del Toro's doing, no doubt). There are pretty in your face parallels between Pitch and Frost but when it comes down to it, Rise of the Guardians is a tale of companionship and the importance of belief, it's peppered with laughter, some truly touching scenes and festive spirit that makes it an easy watch.

When the opening credits for Rise of the Guardians rolled at Movie Fest this year, the predominantly mid thirty and male audience groaned, when our 30 minutes of footage suddenly ended they groaned even louder, having been drawn in to the animated family adventure despite themselves. 

Even though the story isn't too challenging (read thrilling) for older audience members, the slick animation, likeable characters and feel good factor are enough to enthral entire cinemas at a time. Because of the cross holiday feel it could be enjoyed at any time of the year, which is pretty clever on the part of Dreamworks, you can expect to see it played again and again once it hits DVD but, for now, Rise of the Guardians is an ideal festive treat for movie goers of all ages. 

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Sneak Movie Peek - Flight

This afternoon, for Flicks on Friday, I've a little looksee from Paramount at Flight, the movie that'll make knees weak and nervous passengers cower behind the popcorn this November.

The story revolves around Pilot Denzel saving countless lives from being lost in a horrific plane crash but, instead of being allowed to bask in the heroic glory, the investigations that follow cause serious concern.

Word of advice? Do NOT watch this clip if you're heading off on hols in the coming weeks!

Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol - Review

Cruise, the best thing to happen to a hood since Ezio. 

Whos in it? 

Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton


What's it about? 

All bets are off when the Kremlin is bombed and the IMF are implicated (Never liked those Guys). To avert nuclear war, Cruise and his newly assembled team have little choice but to accept the rogue mission in an attempt to clear their names and save the world. No biggie. 

Any Good? 

MI Ghost Protocol opens with Agent Ethan Hunt in a Russian prison, we have no notion how or why he's there but there isn't time to explain. Cue Benji (Pegg) and a slick, at times comic, prison break. By the by if Russian prison gives you the phenomenal grúaig that Tom is sporting I want in. 

The movie picks up pace quickly as the mission is explained. Action sequences are almost dream like and some utterly breathtaking. Once more Cruise has performed all of his own stunts and like him or no caps must be doffed. 

While the script is not razor sharp it is very funny, well as funny as foiling a super villain intent on worlds end can be. There are some real gems from Pegg and surprisingly from eye candy extraordinaire and Agent with a secret, Renner. The chemistry from the entire cast only helps to bolster this explosive action thriller. 


There are high tech- gadgets aplenty as we've come to love with Mission Impossibe, some that had my Road Safety hat twitching on my head, has to be said, GPS on your windscreen in a high speed pursuit = bad idea, buckling up before an intentional 100ft drop into concrete = good. 

Hanging out on set 

Brad Bird as the director here and Abrahms as producer have created a rip roaring action thriller that still flows beautifully. Cruise is back to his best, of not better and you'd be hard pressed to catch a better explosive spy thriller this year. (Tinker Tailor? Yawnsies)

Having shot over 25 minutes of the sequences in IMAX, MI Ghost Protocol could teach the 3D crowd a thing or two. Scenes are epic, bright and at times nerve shredding. 

Get yourselves to see this one. It's one of my top five of the year. 

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