Film Review: PUSS IN BOOTS (2011)

Director: Chris Miller
Writers: Charles Perrault (Character), Tom Wheeler (screenplay/story), Brian Lynch (story), William Davies (Story)
Running Time: 90 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): U

Genre: Animation/Comedy/Adventure
UK Release Date: 9^th December 2011

Watched on Sky+ Friday 17^th August 2012.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

As a cat lover I felt I couldn’t pass on a chance to see this one. For me, Puss in Boots was always one of my favourite characters in the Shrek movies and so a spin-off was inevitable. Did it live up to expectations?... Well, I’ll tell you after this very brief summary.

In this film we hear about the early years of Puss; how he was brought up in an orphanage and about his childhood best friend Humpty Dumpty. It all went sour when Humpty duped Puss into helping him on a bank job that theft him in jail and Puss on the run. They had not spoken for many years when they are brought together by one Kitty Softpaws; a feline femme fatal if ever I saw one! Humpty wants Puss to help him pull the ultimate heist, he wants to steal the magic beans, grow the beanstalk and lift the golden goose. The trouble is the beans are in the possession of the notorious Jack and Jill! Can they get the beans, grow the stalk, steal the goose and restore Puss’s reputation? Well, I think you probably guessed it; I’m not going to tell you here. The Spoiler Police (Storybook Division) are getting tougher since they had training from the Grimms.

Well animated with a nice musical score by Henry Jackman; the quality of the picture is great as well (no 3D here). Performance wise; well it wouldn’t be Puss in Boots without the voice of Antonio Banderas in the starring role, and he really nailed it again here! Salma Hayek did a very decent job as Kitty Softpaws and Zach Galifianakis was adequate as Humpty Dumpty (more on him later). Honourable mentions go to; Billy Bob Thornton as Jack, Amy Sedaris as Jill, Constance Marie as Imelda and Guillermo del Toro as Moustache Man/Comandate.

Although, in parts it was pretty funny and there were some nice one-liners and the usual subtle references to other movies; I felt there was something missing (apart from Shrek… and Donkey…etc). At the end of the day I put it down to the fact that I didn’t find the character of Humpty Dumpty very convincing. His motivations seemed very vague for the amount of effort he put in. This aside, it’s well made, pretty enjoyable and it’s got Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots! Could have been better though.

SteelMonster’s verdict: RECOMMENDED (just).

My Score 6.4/10

IMDb Score: 6.7/10 (based on 49,821 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0448694/

MetaScore: 65/100: (Based on 24 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 83/100 (based on 136 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 70/100 ‘Liked It’ (based on 66,712 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1209933-puss_in_boots/

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FAVOURITE QUOTES:
Puss in Boots: You have made the cat angry. You do not want to make the cat angry!

Kitty Softpaws: That's a lot of heel for a guy, don't you think?

Humpty Dumpty: First rule of Bean Club, don't talk about Bean Club. The second rule of Bean Club... don't talk about Bean Club.

Jill: [dangles Puss over a canyon] Is it true a cat always lands on its feet?
Puss in Boots: No! That is just a rumour, spread by dogs!

Kitty Softpaws: [In a calm voice] You owe me.
Puss in Boots: I owe you?
Kitty Softpaws: [starts to flirt with Puss] Uh-huh. You hit me in the head with a guitar.
Puss in Boots: I, uh, regret the guitar.
Kitty Softpaws: Okay, I forgive you.

LINKS:
(Note: All were working at the time of going to press)
Official Site: http://www.pussinbootsthemovie.com/
Trailer:

Film Review: THE HANGOVER (2009)

Director: Todd Phillips
Running time: 96 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

UK release date: 12th June 2009

Watched on Sky+ Sunday 26th September 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I can’t exactly remember who recommended this on to me, maybe I was drugged, but I can’t say I was overly impressed. I’m not a huge fan of American comedies anyway (sorry guys, I just don’t get your sense of humour) so I guess that wasn’t the best start. I found many things I didn’t like about ‘The Hangover’, but it’s not all bad, there were one or two good things. But more of that later, here’s a short synopsis first.

Doug is getting married and, as is the tradition, he and his friends, Phil, Stu and the bride’s brother, Alan are off on a bachelor party in Las Vegas. The evening starts off well with impromptu drinks on the roof of Caesar’s Palace, but from then on it gets kind of messed up. Phil, Stu and Alan wake up the following morning in their hotel room. There is no sign of Doug and there’s a tiger in the bathroom. They also find a baby in a closet. It’s now a race against time to piece together the events of the previous evening so they can find Doug and get him to the wedding. On the way we discover, amongst other things, that they stole a police car, Stu got married to a ‘dancer’ called Jade and a Chinese man called Mr Chow is after them for some reason. Throw in an appearance from Mike Tyson and that’s your movie folks! Do they ever find Doug?... What do you think?... I guess it’s not too hard to figure out.

Unfortunately a lot of comedy filmmakers decide to make the characters so much larger than life that they just become gross parodies of themselves. For example, the character Phil is a teacher who is married with a son. He steals money from the kids in his class to finance his trip to Vegas. To me that’s reprehensible behaviour, but to some people that’s just funny. So, I found the humour in this film was pretty well wide of the mark to put it mildly.

OK, so what was good about it? I thought the cameo by Heather Graham as Jade was good and I found Ken Jeong as Mr. Chow very funny. Other than that there’s not much to recommend, the performances of the main cast were ok but the loathsome characters and the mindless plot just left me cold. I know there are a lot of people out there that may disagree with me on this one, but not recommended IMO.

My score: 5.3/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1119646/
Official Site: http://hangovermovie.warnerbros.com/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi2105934361/