The Nightmare Before Christmas review

 Number 292 on the top 1000 films of all time is Henry Selik's stop-motion animated musical-fantasy the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Produced by Tim Burton - often being more associated with him than Selik, the Nightmare before Christmas focusses on Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon) the king of Halloween Town. Becoming sick of the annual Halloween celebration, he is looking for a change. That change comes when he discovers Christmas and he aims to hijack the holiday for his own goals with disastrous consequences.

I was really looking forward to this film. Being well-versed with Burton's other work like Corpse Bride, with its trippy visuals, memorable songs and creative storyline, I had high hopes for a Nightmare Before Christmas, but the end result left me feeling more dead than alive.

While the actual labour that goes into stop-motion animation will always be impressive with the assorted animated characters being spooky and creative, it wasn't at the eye-popping level I was expecting. Instead of vivid colours, we were treated to a bland and lifeless colour palette. Rather the visuals were dull, even in Halloweenland. It made the trademark surrealism that we have come to expect from Burton fall flat. The visuals didn't contribute anything to the film from either a story or a visual perspective.

The musical numbers were lacking and uninspired. None of them were memorable. I watched this film only two nights ago and if I really scratch my head, I think I can remember the "this is Halloween" song and that's it. The songs were composed by frequent Burton collaborate Danny Elfman, but like the surreal animation, I'm not convinced the songs added much to the film. In some cases, it seemed to stray into song-musical territory like Sweeney Todd. The songs in that film were painfully mundane. The same can be said for the Nightmare Before Christmas.

Any storyline was buried underneath the lifeless visuals and banal songs. I'm not sure how well I can explain the narrative. This un-dead king is going through a mid-death crisis and falls through this trap door into some Christmas land where he decides to bring Christmas to his home, but, for some reason, also kidnaps Father Christmas and goes onto impersonate him. For some reason, there's a weird gambling monster made out of bugs and a  Dr Frankenstein-esque character who has created some Bride of Frankenstein who becomes Jack's love-interest.

I didn't care for this film too. I had high-hopes, but I was left disappointed.

The Proposition review

 Number 824 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2005 Australian Western 'The Proposition.'

Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) is the leader of a group of outlaws in 1880's Australia. After a gunfight with the police leaves all but he and his younger brother Mike (Richard Wilson) dead, Captain Stanley (Ray Winston) makes Charlie a proposition. Bring his older brother Arthur (Danny Huston) to justice or watch his younger brother Mike be executed.

This is an Australian film, filmed in Queensland, directed by Brisbanian John Hillcoat, written by singer and fellow Aussie Nick Cave and starring Geelong actor Guy Pearce. Just so we're clear, this film was set in Australia, directed by an Australian, written by an Australian and starring an Australian, so why did none of the principle cast have Australian accents? Guy Pearce and Danny Huston are Irish, for some reason. Meanwhile, Ray Winston, Emily Watson and John Hurt all use their native English accents.

The Western is such an Australian genre that it was a brave stylistic choice to relocate it to Australia even though there is no reason why it shouldn't work. However, this was a countermanded by the lack of Australian accents. It was a weird choice that didn't make sense.

However, the film's true weakness was its pacing. Some scenes dragged while others were rushed. The Proposition had some serious sagging middle-part syndrome. Charlie agrees to Captain Stanley's proposition and he goes to search for Arthur. Arthur finds him first and any narrative momentum just stops. Instead, the two exchange barbs, as we are introduced to the interchangeable members of Arthur's gang. 

The two then break Mike out of prison which is where Hillcoat started overcompensating for the sluggish middle with a rushed prison-break. The slow parts were too slow and the fast parts were too fast.

It didn't help that the actors lacked chemistry with one another. I had a hard time believing that Ray Winston and Emily Watson were husband and wife. Richard Wilson isn't afforded a single scene with Danny Huston. Plus, in his scenes, with Guy Pearce, he did little else but cry and whimper. That was it. We didn't get to see the two act like brothers.

Granted the Proposition had some gorgeous cinematography - it failed as a subversion of the Western genre with its cowboys and Indians being transplanted to Australia. It was mired by weird accents and poor pacing. 

Sunshine review

 Number 997 on the top 1000 films of all time is Danny Boyle's 2007 science-fiction film 'Sunshine.'

The year is 2057. With the sun dying, the only hope for mankind is to send a team of astronauts and scientists to detonate a bomb in the core of the sun. The team consists of physicist Capa (Cillian Murphy,) Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) engineer Mace (Chris Evans) navigator Trey (Benedict Wong) biologist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh,) pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne,) Doctor Searle (Cliff Curtis) and comms/first officer Harvey (Troy Garrity.) Chipo Chung and Mark Strong also star.

There is a lot of good about this film, so let's get the bad stuff out the way first. Notably the accents. To reflect the international nature of space missions, Danny Boyle chose a deliberately international cast. Cillian Murphy is Irish, Hiroyuki Sanada is Japanese, Michelle Yeoh is Malayasian, Benedict Wong is Chinese, Cliff Curtis is Maori, Chipo Chung is Zimbabwean, Mark Strong is English, and Australia is also represented with Rose Byrne.

You have this internationally diverse cast, so why were Murphy, Byrne, Curtis and Chung all doing American accents. And why was Mark Strong doing a South African accent? One of the producers said it was to appeal more to an American audience, so why were Yeoh and Wong not included in this? Either have all the characters do American accents or none of them. It was a strange choice.

Pinbacker definitely could have used some more fleshing out as a villain. We quickly understand that he has lost his sanity, but little else beyond that. Sunrise was written by Alex Garland who had originally included strong themes of religion which were edited out. Elements of this remained in Pinbacker's character, but he remained largely undeveloped and two-dimensional.

Harvey's character was also the least developed among the crew. It wasn't really until the halfway point where Garland realised he had a scene with no conflict, and so he had Harvey commit a random villainous act that completely came out of nowhere.

But these criticisms aside, I thoroughly enjoyed Sunrise. Unlike sci-fi *cough cough* Space odyssey, it doesn't prioritise its big themes over its characters. The aforementioned characters aside, the remaining cast was well-characterised. These were complimented by some good performances. I thought Benedict Wong gave a standout performance. But this isn't to discredit the rest of the cast either.

For a big ensemble cast, I was surprised to find myself caring about most of the characters even if Garland didn't really know what to do with Cassie.

Visually, the film looked stunning. There were so many lens flares I thought I was watching a J.J Abrams film, but otherwise the CGI was gorgeous. I am, of course, excluding the final section, which looked like it had been shot and edited by a group of teenagers. Way too much shaky-cam and distortion. Also how did Cassie and Pinback end up on the same part of the ship that Capa needed to get to?

Yes, Sunshine is pure hokum, scientifically speaking, but the film's technical advisor Dr Brian Cox said that some inconsistencies are to be expected. This is a film and not a documentary after all.

Overall, I really enjoyed Sunshine. It's a great example of sci-fi done right.

Big Fish review

 Number 296 on the top 1000 films of all the time is Tim Burton's fantasy-drama 'Big Fish.'

Edward Bloom (Albert Finney) is a man who has always had a story to tell. Sometimes these stories border on the surreal. And sometimes they're difficult to take seriously. As Edward nears the end of his life, his estranged son Will decides to start sitting the fact from the fiction. This is where we see a younger Edward Bloom (Ewan Macgregor) live out these stories.

This is possibly one of the most Burtonesque films I've ever seen. It was pure absurdism, surrealism and just plain weird. However, it wasn't just weirdness for the sake of weirdness. Everything was underpinned by two intertwining themes: relationship between father and son, and the art of storytelling.

As Will delves deeper into his father's life, he discovers weird and wonderful stories. These range from meeting a one-eyed witch who can tell you how you're going to die to befriending a giant who is rampaging around the local community. It doesn't matter whether these stories happened exactly the way they were told, as long as they are still told.

Stories have a wonderful way of uniting people. Nowhere is this more apparent than father and son. Sick of his father's ridiculous stories, son breaks off contact for three years. It's only his father's ailing health that reunites them. But it is Edward Bloom's love of story-telling that helps them to make amends. Bloom helps his son realises the joy which storytelling can bring everybody.

Did Edward Bloom really befriend a giant? Did he run away and join a circus ran by Danny Devito? Probably not. But it doesn't matter as long as we enjoyed the journey. And this was a weird and surreal journey that I certainly enjoyed.