When the Cheshire emerges...

As if Australia got this two weeks before the US. Random. Your bonus classic review this week is 1955's The Ladykillers. Enjoy!

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift (PG)

IT’S been 10 years since we were first exposed to the lives of the oddball Paeolithic crew making their way through the Ice Age. Manny, Sid and Diego are all back in their fourth adventure, facing more grown-up problems than ever before – namely the continental drift of the title that will change their world forever.

The creation of Australia and the African and North American continents has been credited to Scrat in a revelation no-one saw coming. Yes, he’s back too, causing more trouble as he still searches for the perfect acorn. His turn of events lead to the gang being separated from the mainland as the Earth’s surface shifts, notably separating Manny (Ray Romano) from Ellie (Queen Latifah) and teenage daughter Peaches (Keke Palmer).

It’s up to Manny, Sid (John Leguizamo) and Diego (Denis Leary) to get back to shore as they’re washed away on a sheet of ice. With Granny (Wanda Sykes) in tow, Sid’s crazy grandmother in search of her invisible pet, they get on the wrong side of some mean pirates. Captain Gutt (Peter Dinklage) and Shira (Jennifer Lopez) lead the baddies, the latter a saber that gets under Diego’s skin.

This is the biggest storyline change yet in the franchise; while following on from Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the notion of the shift in their existence into a world shaped something roughly like Earth is now is kinda heavy for a kids’ tale. But it’s dealt with using the same fight-back spirit of Manny and co. from their previous tales.

Heavier issues including the eventual extinction of smilodons and mammoths are ignored to focus on many of the same themes and issues already covered. Importance of family is largely utilised as a driving point for Manny to return home, while the brief appearance of Sid’s family even lets the gang themselves in on why he acts like he does. Things may have changed, but here family is forever.

 

Using a very simple, non-deviating plot, the story is most engaging when they go into action to defeat the bad guys and get themselves back home. The banter is still there although very kid-friendly, which at times is tedious for the adults, but there are still genuine laughs for everyone. Scrat’s desires come to fruition in one of the film’s funnier scenes. He’s one annoying rodent, but Blue Sky Studios knows as much as the audience does that they’ve still got a winner.

Romano, Leary and Leguizamo are comfortable as ever in their roles, Romano now reminiscent of his Everybody Loves Raymond days. Dinklage makes for an ugly baddie, while his Death at a Funeral co-star Alan Tudyk is again involved, the regular contributor this time two of the sloths. Aussie Rebel Wilson makes the cut too with an accent that can’t be missed.

There’s also a significant RnB influence this time around, with Jennifer Lopez, Drake, Nicki Minaj, and even Glee’s Heather Morris lending their voices to the cause. With the addition of Queen Latifah, it’s a nice group of A-list singers that just happen to sing a song together at the end. As if that was the primary purpose of casting... The official theme song, The Wanted’s Chasing The Sun, then happens to be a nice surprise.

This film will please most children because it’s playful and keeps potentially sad themes light. Steve Martino and Mike Thurmeier have done well to keep it as such, in defying the animation trend of making adult innuendo a bigger focus. In saying that, parents and other adults will still find appreciation for it.

Rating: 3/5

*Published in the Daily Liberal (Dubbo), Western Advocate (Bathurst), Parkes Champion Post and Midstate Observer (Orange) from Saturday 30/6/2012

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The Ladykillers (1955)

IN another Ealing Studios comedy to rise throughout the 1950s, Sir Alec Guinness returned to staging a bank robbery four years after The Lavender Hill Mob for this affair. It would also be his second feature with Alexander Mackendrick, a regular Ealing director.

If the name sounds familiar, that’s because the Coen brothers remade it in 2004 with Tom Hanks replacing Guinness as Professor Marcus, who moves into the house of Mrs Wilberforce. He then uses his new premises as a place to meet with four fellow bandits to plan the heist, posing as a musical quintet to avoid suspicion.

One of the studio’s darker comedies, there were claims from screenwriter William Rose that he initially dreamed the story from start to finish. It is definitely a clever script, with plot turns unlike many in the era to create a black comedy that still retains interest for those seeing the film for the first time.

Guinness is devilish as the ringleader in the seemingly simple robbery. Teamed with bandits including Herbert Lom and Peter Sellers (who would later work together in the Pink Panther films), it’s great casting and with entertaining direction from Mackendrick stamps itself as one of the smartest heist stories of British cinema, if not Hollywood in general.


*Published in the Mailbox Shopper (Dubbo) from Wednesday 27/6/2012



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