There’s a lot to praise about the Muppets adaptation of Dicken’s yuletide tale of humbugs, ghosts and redemption. This includes one of Michael Caine’s finest performances and great tunes filled with plenty of lyrical ingenuity (‘Cheeses for us meezes’? Fewer nonsensical rhymes have made such comedic impact). The filmmakers do a great job of employing light-hearted storytelling which incorporates much of the author’s original text. They’re also particularly astute in the quieter moments, particularly during the scenes where Scrooge meets the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Continue reading “Minimalist Moments: The Muppet Christmas Carol”Animal Crossing Autumn Roasts: Jingle as Leonard Shelby (Memento)
He’s making a list, checking it twice, he’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice. Except he isn’t, because Animal Crossing’s titular reindeer Jingle doesn’t remember so good (we’re talking City Folk here, not any of the later versions, where he just becomes lazy and makes you do his present giving for him in exchange for rewards). Upon your first meeting, he’ll happily regale you with festive cheer, give you a present, then carry on walking on his merry way around your town. And if you walk up to him again as you are, he’ll admonish you for being greedy. Who would be greedy enough to ask for another gift, after all?
Continue reading “Animal Crossing Autumn Roasts: Jingle as Leonard Shelby (Memento)”Review: Afternoon Tea at the Randolph
It’s that posh place I frequently passed as I gadded about on my undergraduate adventures. There’s usually that guy outside wearing a fancy suit and top hat. It looks fancy, and, as I found out during my recent luncheon with my pals, it’s pretty darn fancy. Here’s a summary of the grub, décor and general ambience.
Continue reading “Review: Afternoon Tea at the Randolph”Minimalist Moments: Edward Scissorhands
There’s a lot to love about Tim Burton’s gothic masterpiece, from those weirdly identical, colour coordinated houses to the light comedy and those fine-looking dogens after Edward has given those good boys a decent grooming. And a bit of German Expressionist imagery with Edward’s strange house. Who doesn’t love a bit of German Expressionist imagery? …I do, anyway.
Continue reading “Minimalist Moments: Edward Scissorhands”The English, The Nightingale and the Revenge Western
A man utters four words to an undertaker (‘Get three coffins ready’). He continues walking, gives a short lecture to four men before dispatching them, and indulges the audience with another four words as he tells the funeral director that he’ll require an extra coffin, before walking off into the distance. In one short scene from Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars, a microcosm of a Hollywood silent hero is illustrated. Laconic, slow-moving and boundlessly confident in his gestures, Clint Eastwood’s nameless figure epitomises cool as he welds his Toscano cigar like a sword.
Continue reading “The English, The Nightingale and the Revenge Western”