Coraline review

 Number 610 on the top 1000 films of all time is Henry Selik's stop-motion animated horror-comedy Coraline.

Coraline (Dakota Fanning) has just moved into a new neighbourhood with her parents. Bored and neglected by her workaholic parents, she stumbles upon a whole new 'other-world,' where her parents have been replaced by loving, button-eyed dopplegangers. But is everything too good to be true?Teri Hatcher, French and Saunders and Ian Mcshane co-star.

Coraline surprised me. I wasn't much of a fan of Selik's feature-length directorial debut The Nightmare Before Christmas generally finding it too weird and zany. Don't get me wrong. Coraline was weird too, but it was also grounded in all too familiar themes of connection and family.

Like teenagers everywhere, Coraline just wants to feel like she belongs somewhere. Her parents are too busy to have time for her, she is in a new town without any friends and so she finds this new other world where all her prayers have been answered. But, of course, there's a more sinister side.

It helped you had fifteen-year-old Dakota Fanning in the lead who helped to bring this lonely character to life. The casting was good all round with comedy legends French and Saunders helping to inject some much needed light-relief in what was a deceptively dark film. Hatcher and Mcshane were also good in supporting roles.

And obviously the visuals were strong as well with the stop-motion being simultaneously ominous, creepy, other-worldly, psychedelic and eye-popping. What else would you expect from a Henry Selik stop-motion film?

Man on Fire review

 Number 546 on the top 1000 films of all time is Tony Scott's action thriller Man on Fire.

John Creasy (Denzel Washington) is an alcoholic former CIA officer with PTSD. When his friend Paul Rayburn (Christopher Walken) convinces him to become a bodyguard for the Ramos family in Mexico, he is initially reluctant. However, he soon forms a close relationship with Lupita 'Pita' Ramos, (Dakoto Fanning) daughter of the Ramos.' When she is abducted by a kidnapping gang, Creasy promises to rain down hell on her kidnappers.

By their very nature, action films tend to be cliched and formulaic. You get the handsome, physically fit hero with a troubled past and plot armour, lots of explosions and guns, gratuitous violence and a simplistic plotline. Man on Fire had all of this in spades. The only thing was missing was an attractive female lead whose only function would be as a sex object for our rugged protagonist. Man on Fire was pretty cliched as far as action films go. Creasy is haunted by an unexplained past which is never really fleshed out. And that certainly didn't make him anymore three dimensional. 

Upon finding out information about Pita's kidnappers, he resorts to violently torturing members of the gang. And some of his methods were so violent that they bordered on silly. He sticks an explosive up a corrupt policeman's rear and detonates it when he has the information he needs. His plot armour was ridiculously thick. How many gunshot wounds does he survive? 

I also think the villain of the film was cliched. Roberto Sosa plays Daniel Sanchez who is otherwise regarded as 'the Voice.' But we don't see enough of 'the Voice' or his motivations to really make him a threatening enough villain. He's the one giving the orders but he doesn't have enough screen time to make him particularly scary. And there was also too much slow-motion and in really strange places too. Why did we need to see Creasy help Pita out of the pool in slow-motion? 

Lastly, Radha Mitchell plays Pita's mother and while she was good enough her accent was not. Radha is Australian and her character was supposed to be Texan. However, Radha's accent was very inconsistent. At time it sounded Texan and at others it just sounded generic American.

Despite all that, it was still an entertaining and, most importantly, a thrilling film. Washington and Fanning had a great chemistry and it was lovely seeing their relationship develop. Creasy starts off as morose and grumpy, but Pita helps to bring him out of his shell. They were very cute together. And I also enjoyed the gritty, visual style. Apparently it was a homage to the brilliant film City of God. The two films also shared a similar cast. 

I'm not sure whether I would count this as one of the top 1000 films of all time. But as an action-thriller film, I think it was very good.