beautiful

Stardust – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2007 film Stardust.

Story

This is a wonderful mish-mash of fairytale stories. I like the concept and the idea. The plot and adventure are great. The romance, however, is bland and uninteresting.

Score: 0.5

Characters

The supporting cast are facinating and all the actors are great. I find the character of Tristan goes from annoying to mildly likeable. Yvaine is basically the same, except that she doesn’t get much development. Again, the romance is the least interesting part.

Captain Shakespeare makes the movie though.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

The dialogue is quick and quippy, but not particularly iconic.

Score: 0.5

Visuals and Music

The sets, fight scenes, special effects, and scenery are amazing. Combined with some clever cinematography, it makes the movie worth a watch.

The music is epic and genius. Each character got a theme that is both recognizable without pulling you out of the film.

Score: 1

Fun

This movie is fun. It has adventure, comedy, and action.

The kids were glued to it and the adults loved it.

Score: 1

Overall

A bland romance and mediocre main characters make what should be an epic fairytale adventure mostly forgetful. Thankfully, the cinematography, music, and secondary characters make the movie more memorable.

Final Score: 3.5 Stars out of 5

The Three Musketeers (1948) – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 1948 film The Three Musketeers.

Story

There is a fine line between doing the story justice and changing the tone and feel. The changes they made to the story didn’t help anything but get the movie past the censors. Instead of coming off as an innocent boy who falls in love at the drop of a hat, d’Artagnan comes off as an airhead.

There’s also a reason that most movies only do the first half of the book. The rest of it is a little bit of a drag.

Score: 0

Characters

D’Artagnan was terrible and flaky when dealing with women, but when he was sword fighting, he was awesome. All the other musketeers were great and I wish they’d gotten more screen time.

The treatment of the women was possibly less progressive then the novel and extremely predictable.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

The dialogue is mostly quippy and fun, except when it comes to the romance where it’s stilted, awkward, and cringe-worthy.

Score: 0.5

Visuals and Music

The filming angles, colours, shots, lighting, and framing are absolutely gorgeous. The fight choreography wonderful and the location shoots splendid.

The music is great and epic.

Score: 1

Fun

An amazing cast which all did a great job. The fighting was fun and the little bits of humour were refreshing, but mostly it was dour. Both kids got bored and so did I.

Score: 0

Overall

A semi-faithful adaptation of the book with not enough humour or sword fighting. Although visually stunning, the changes to d’Artagnan made him unlikeable and the movie didn’t age well.

Final Score: 2 Stars out of 5

Luca – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2021 film Luca

Story

An interesting mix of coming of age and fish out of water (pun intended) stories. It had me wondering how they were going to resolve the plot with a happy ending. They managed a satisfying ending and I’m impressed with how heart warming it is.

Score: 1

Characters

The characters acted and reacted like they were in a stereotypical kids story. The parents didn’t listen, the kids didn’t know what they were doing, the stakes felt high, but in a well obviously nothing’s going to happen, kinda way.

There wasn’t one character I didn’t get annoyed with at some point for doing the most dramatic thing possible.

Although I felt for the trio, I didn’t really like them or feel they were in any kind of trouble.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

Although played out both in fiction and in reality, the boisterous exaggerator who is covering for trauma, is still relevant and we all knew a kid like that when we were young. It’s done in such a believable way with the dialogue that it shows the writers have dealt with kids.

The rest of the dialogue ranges from silly to hilarious and I was quite impressed.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

This movie was typical Pixar beauty. The backgrounds, textures, and world were absolutely gorgeous.

The music was good accentuating and enhancing the story and made the kids want to dance.

I was also ridiculously impressed with the voices underwater being a little muffled. That was a nice touch.

Score: 1

Fun

The movie had some awkward angst that I found forced and made me lose interest, the relationship with the parents was uncomfortable to watch, and the entire thing with the uncle felt like a gross out joke gone to far.

That being said the kids were riveted, as were the other adults. It was exciting, cute, funny, and satisfying.

Score: 0.5

Overall

Pixar creates another wonderful story filled with beautiful animation. Despite a few forced moments and some awkward jokes it’s a fun movie with something for everyone. Warning, you might want a Vespa afterwards.

Final Score: 4 stars out of 5

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey – JenEric Movie Review

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Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2020 film Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey.

Story

It was a cute Christmas story but was derivative and predictable. Each beat (no pun intended) was expected and the middle bits dragged a little.

The emphasis on the necklace felt like an unused thread, and the “magic” inventor granddaughter proved she was smart and then the plot didn’t let her fix or make anything. It also contained one of my most hated tropes, where the adults don’t listen to the kids.

I’m trying really hard to ignore the moral, ethical, and humane questions of creating sentient toys and being able to mass produce a slave toy race that you can “reprogram” when they don’t behave.

Score: 0

Characters

The acting in the movie is superb. The characters are mostly pretty awesome. I didn’t really like the mail woman / love interest. Her constant mis-naming rubbed me the wrong way. Overall she came off as a male Christmas love interest, which I’m not a fan of.

The Jeronicus and his apprentice storyline is sad but extremely well acted. Journey was a joy and should have had a larger part in the plot.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

The dialogue was appropriately steampunk meets modern day in a way that only a holiday fable could do. Some overly sappy and some kinda deep.

Score: 0.5

Visuals and Music

The sets, clothing, lighting, character design, and worldbuilding are fantastic. The cinematography was amazing and background information on posters, etc is meticulously done.

The music is fantastic, although I would have liked one last big number at the end.

I found the choreography a little repetitive, but not enough to dampen my awe at the music and visuals.

Score: 1

Fun

I was awed by the first few frames and hooked by the first song. It wasn’t until the midway point that I fell a little out of love but it passed fast enough. My family and children were riveted. The 17 month old would stop and watch, or dance, at every song and cooed at the adorable robot.

Score: 1

Overall

One of the most beautiful movies I’ve seen with some amazing songs and more than a little magic. It falls flat if you think about it too long, and all the beauty and wonderful acting doesn’t cover up the lack of original story.

Final Score: 3 stars out of 5

Top 5 things Dragon says adorably wrong

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

Most of the time when my daughter says things wrong, I correct her. That doesn’t stop me from appreciating how freaking adorable they are.

5. Dandad

Her Grandad is both awesome and one of her favourite people. He was the first person she called by name after Mum. She still had trouble with G’s and R’s.

It’s also one of the only names that haven’t changed.

4. Lepts Hand

She can tell her left from her right, most of the time. Honestly that’s better than me. But for some reason the FT sound escapes her.

3. Bool / Bootiful

She can say beautiful. She just doesn’t. It’s too cute to keep correcting. She also has trouble with blue, but that’s consistent. Oddly, she’s fine with bleu…

2. Boblaws

She already has a level of brand awareness that is impressive. She can tell by logo if we’re going to Walmart, Independent, or Loblaws.

She still says boblaws though…. And it makes me giggle and smile every time.

1. Vegetable Park

This one is really cute but completely random. The park near our house is called Alphabet Park, but she refuses to call it that. It’s always Vegetable Park.

Hope that made you smile,

Éric

Recommendation Wednesday: 25 Beautiful Places to Visit

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My brain is fried from Avengers Endgame last night. Here is a great CNN article about twenty five of the most beautiful places around the world.

The Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda. Image from cnn.com. Picture taken by Roger de la Harpe

Enjoy the beauty! If anywhere sparks your interest, you know who to call.

You can contact Jennifer Desmarais through Orleans Travel. jennifer.desmarais@orleanstravel.ca

Recommendation Thursday – Nothing Special

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

This webcomic is absolutely gorgeous. One of the prettiest I’ve seen. The story is a nice fantasy with teen protagonists and really interesting.

It has a new chapter (Yeah a full chapter!) every Tuesday.

Seriously go check it out. 

Later Days,

Éric