James' World 2

Another Round (Danish: Druk, “binge drinking”) is a comedy-drama directed by Thomas Vinterberg, from a screenplay by Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm. Another Round is an international co-production between Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden. After the film finally became available, I watched and decided Another Round was definitely not my cup of tea.  It bears too much resemblance to grown men playing the part of teenagers doing extremely stupid and dangerous teenage things.

Teachers Martin (Mads Mikkelsen), Tommy(Thomas Bo Larsen), Peter (Lars Ranthe), and Nikolaj (Magnus Millang) are colleagues as well as friends at a gymnasium in Copenhagen. All four struggle with unmotivated students and felt that their lives had become boring and stale. At a dinner celebrating Nikolaj’s 40th birthday, the group begins to discuss psychiatrist Finn Skårderud, who has theorized that having a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05 makes you more creative and relaxed…

Pinocchio is an Italian fantasy film, co-written, directed, and co-produced by Matteo Garrone. The film is also based on the 1883 book, The Adventures of Pinocchio, by Italian author Carlo Collodi. Pinocchio was a passion project for Garrone, who drew his first storyboard of the story at the age of six. Unlike previous Garrone films, which were directed towards adults, Pinocchio is aimed at both adults and children and was worth every effort to see this classic movie.

After seeing a puppet theater run by Mangiafuoco (Gigi Proietti), Geppetto (Roberto Benigni), a poor Italian carpenter decides to build a wooden puppet to tour the country, which would earn him a proper living.   He visits his friend and colleague Mastro Ciliegia (Paolo Graziosi) to ask him for a piece of wood he can use to make his dream come true. Earlier that day, Ciliegia became frightened when he discovered…

A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon is a British stop motion animated science-fiction comedy produced by Aardman Animations. The film is directed by Richard Phelan and Will Becher (in their feature directorial debuts) and written by Mark Burton and Jon Brown, based on an idea by Richard Starzak. It is a stand-alone sequel and the second installment to Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015) and is based on the claymation television series Shaun the Sheep, a spinoff from the Wallace and Gromit short film A Close Shave. In the film, Shaun and the flock encounter a cute alien with extraordinary powers, who crash lands near Mossy Bottom Farm. They have to find a way to return her home in order to prevent her from falling into the hands of the Ministry for Alien Detection. Farmageddon is quite busy but cute.

In the town of Mossingham, Farmer John (voice: John Sparkes) and…

Onward is a computer-animated urban fantasy adventure produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film is directed by Dan Scanlon, produced by Kori Rae, and written by Scanlon, Jason Headley, and Keith Bunin. Set in a suburban fantasy world, the film follows two elf brothers who set out on a quest to find an artifact that will temporarily bring their dead father back alive for 24 hours. Onward is an exciting children’s flick that offers a pretty solid message.

In a world inhabited by mythic creatures, magic was commonplace several millennia ago, though difficult to master. Because of technological advances over the centuries, magic became obsolete and was largely discarded. In the modern-day, two elf brothers, Ian (Tom Highland) and Barley Lightfoot (Chris Pratt) live in New Mushroomton. The younger brother, Ian, is a high-school student struggling with self-confidence, and the older brother, Barley, is…

The One and Only Ivan is a fantasy drama directed by Thea Sharrock from a screenplay written by Mike White based on the children’s novel of the same name by K. A. Applegate. The One and Only Ivan is inspired by the true story of Ivan the gorilla. Because this film was nominated for an Academy Award, I wanted to find out why — I think the movie was well done with a profound message about wildlife and animals.

In 1973, Ivan (voice: Sam Rockwell), a silverback western lowland gorilla, is living in an enclosure at the Big Top Mall. He performs for Mack (Bryan Cranston), the owner, alongside other performing animals; a wise and nurturing African elephant named Stella (voice:Angelina Jolie), her spoiled poodle co-performer named Snickers (voice: Helen Mirren), a spunky baseball-playing chicken named Henrietta (voice: Chaka Khan), a toy fire truck-riding…

Love and Monsters is a monster adventure directed by Michael Matthews, with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen serving as producers. “‘Love and Monsters” is about a teenage boy who falls in love with his schoolmate when an invasion of monsters destroys most of humanity, causing them to take refuge miles apart from each other.  This movie takes you on a young adult journey that is a little childish at times but full of action, danger, and is very exciting with a few valuable messages for all.

After the destruction of an asteroid headed for Earth, the chemical fallout resulted in all cold-blooded animals mutating into large monsters, causing an apocalypse that killed off most of humanity.  Cold Blooded Animals: all reptiles, including snakes, lizards, turtles, tortoises, alligators, and crocodiles, some insects such as the busy dragonflies and bees, amphibians such as frogs, toads, and salamanders, as…

Greyhound is a war film directed by Aaron Schneider. The screenplay is written by Tom Hanks, and the film is based on the 1955 novel The Good Shepherd by C. S. Forester. The story follows a commander in the US Navy on his first wartime assignment. Greyhound is a worthwhile film that will heat your blood to the boiling point as the commander makes life or death decisions at a minute’s notice. Greyhound is a worthy movie and I’m glad I got to see it.

Commander Ernest Krause (Tom Hanks) is the commanding officer of the Fletcher-class destroyer USS Keeling, codenamed “Greyhound”.  Krause is now in command of a multi-national escort group defending a merchant ship convoy that is under attack by submarines in early-1942.  This event takes place during the Battle of the Atlantic, only months after the U.S. officially enters World War II. During the Battle…

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is a musical comedy directed by David Dobkin and written by Will Ferrell and Andrew Steele.  Since I’m not a fan of Will Ferrell’s brand of slapstick comedy, I thought Eurovision Song Contest was going to be one of those movies.  Eurovision follows Fire Saga who is given the chance to represent their country (Iceland) at the Eurovision Song Contest. I enjoyed the film, which has great music and is quite entertaining.

In the small town of Húsavík, Iceland, Lars Erickssong (Will Ferrell) a  middle-aged man with aspirations of winning the Eurovision Song Contest and Sigrit Ericksdóttir (Rachel McAdams) are best friends since childhood. Together the two make their own music under the name Fire Saga. Lars’ widowed father Erick (Pierce Brosnan) wanted his son to be a fisherman or anything except a singer that he doesn’t believe in. Lars…