DVD Review: Birds of Paradise (2010)

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AKA: Free Birds 

While there’s not a whole lot about this English language dub of the Argentinean original animated 3D endeavor that’s worth recommending, the work (which was co-produced by the Oscar winning Best Foreign Filmmaker Juan Jose Campanella of The Secret in Their Eyes) does have one great twist that sets its premise apart.

A gender-flipped version of the ugly duckling storyline that typically follows a plain female who longs to be more beautiful in order to get attention from the opposite sex, this anthropomorphic reimagining of the idea centers around an average male sparrow named Jack (voiced by Drake Bell).

Tired of being snubbed by the lady-birds he covets, Jack wishes he had the type of exotic, aesthetically pleasing feathered appearance that the more superficial of his female acquaintances flock after on a regular basis.

After he flies down a chimney and lands smack dab into a pile of paint cans that shower the bird in vibrant topical hues, Jack emerges looking like he’s set to star in a Rainforest feathered production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Thrilled by his colorful looks, Jack eagerly takes advantage of his second opportunity to make a new and improved romantic first impression on the fairer sexed flockers.Willing to risk the damage that paint inhalation could have on his lung power and ability to sustain flight, Jack takes part in a great race in an effort to not only impress but get a taste of what life is like from the faux point-of-view of the beautiful, privileged and exotic fliers he envies.

Yet while he would give anything to be exotic, one of the world’s most authentically exotic and expensive birds would give anything to live the normal, free-flying life he’s been taking for granted as one of the flock.

A seven hundred thousand dollar beautiful canary that’s been sold to a selfish and cruel owner, Aurora (Ashley Tisdale) has been trapped in a cage for most of her life.

While inevitably the two opposite birds that both have a yearning for a new type of life eventually cross paths and learn some hard character lessons along the way (from themselves, each other as well as their colorful collection of sidekicks), it’s a flimsy story all around.

And despite some terrific comic relief by Ken Jeong, Jane Lynch and Jon Lovitz, Bell’s shallow, social-climbing character isn’t nearly as sympathetically likable enough as the traditional ugly duckling formulaic archetypes from which the screenplay was derived.

When you add this with a surprising abundance of gloomy overtones that add a grim timbre to the film’s second half (which unravels the tapestry they’d been attempting to weave together with the two contrasting plotlines in the beginning), it’s a safe bet that your children are going to grow restless pretty fast with this tonally uneven picture.

Bolstered by an energetic opening and vibrant animated visual style that can sadly only take it so far, this lackluster production that was timed to coincide with the theatrical release of Rio 2 as well as the home entertainment premiere of Free Birds is weaker than some of Lionsgate’s recent English language translations overseen by Mychal Simka.

While the voice work is at least much more consistent than what's on display in Simka’s latest offering Snowflake, the White Gorilla, all in all Birds of Paradise fails to live up to his surprisingly effective and vastly superior Planes tie-in Wings.

Nonetheless, you have to give Birds credit for its impressively modern revisionist take on ugly duckling tales where only female characters worry about their looks since questions and concerns about fitting in are universal in every culture, language and gender, whether human or feathered.

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

DVD Review: Snowflake, the White Gorilla (2011)

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Original Foreign Title: Floquet de Neu

A well-intentioned mess of a movie despite its pro-diversity message, Snowflake the White Gorilla is a mismatched mishmash of too many awkward ideas and filmmaking techniques fused together into one bizarre presentation.

Half live action, half animated and fully dubbed into English from its original Catalan-language* cut, Snowflake also suffers from a grab-bag of vocal talents that never get a chance to play off one another well enough to find a comedic rhythm.

The film is similarly bogged down by too much tween-bait stunt casting where veteran actors Christopher Lloyd, David Spade and Keith David find themselves having to volley off the uninspired serves of Dallas Lovato (among others). Needless to say, Snowflake is all over the place right from the start.

While Mychal Simka was able to work wonders with another recent foreign work by elevating Lionsgate’s Wings with a superb rewrite for its English language voice-over translation, he wasn’t able to find the same magic this time around in a film that’s more forced than funny.

Thankfully, the littlest ones in your household probably will give it a passing grade, thanks to an average storyline about a friendship between a live action girl and animated gorilla, which despite a cute start, never finds its cinematic footing.

What at its best could’ve reminded us of classic live action Disney animal slapstick fare of the Dean Jones variety (think Monkeys Go Home etc.) instead drives us to distraction with too many mediums mixed together. Irritating from the get-go, the unsuccessful blend of the two techniques comes off less polished than ‘70s era Pete’s Dragon admittedly B-level fodder to remind us of something altogether cheesier indeed.

Done an even greater disservice by the casting of too many lifeless vocals in lead roles, leaving veteran funnyman David Spade to pick up as much of the slack as humanly possible – while his brisk humor helps keep up the pace, we’re never able to suspend our belief or buy into the odd endeavor.

And regardless of how much we support the film’s positive statement that being different is good, in the end, this picture is just too different and certainly not good enough to drive the point home, let alone recommend to others looking for quality family fare.

* Correction Note as of 4/13/14: The original language of the foreign feature was Catalan and not Spanish as previously indicated. While we regret the error, we thank a savvy reader for calling it to our attention.

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

DVD Review: The Butcher (2007)

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(Two New Titles Starring Eric Roberts)

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Two brand new titles featuring Runaway Train's Oscar nominated actor Eric Roberts made their DVD premiere last week from Vivendi Entertainment. Since The Butcher's companion screener that shipped alongside it-- One Way which stars Til Schweiger (one of the main ensemble performers of Quentin Tarantino's upcoming World War II epic Inglorious Basterds)-- has been given more coverage already including a larger theatrical release and boasts a bigger level of production polish, I opted to begin July's impromptu Eric Roberts' film festival with the lesser known Butcher.

Having been chosen as the Official Selection at both Cinema City International Film Festival and Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival following its 2007 shoot-- this flawed yet impressively made low-budget work captured on celluloid in under a month benefits immeasurably from the diverse talents of its writer/director Jesse V. Johnson.

Simply put, he boasts an incredible resume of connect-the-dots to some of the industry's top filmmakers. Whether it was in his work as a stuntman, stunt coordinator or stunt technical adviser on pictures like Total Recall, War of the Worlds, Charlie's Angels, Mission: Impossible III and Beowulf or as a second unit director or assistant director on The Shawshank Redemption or various spinoffs in the The Young Indiana Jones series-- while Johnson still struggles as a writer of dialogue in finding a balance between his characters, he disguises all of the flaws of budget and limited time and resources with awesome stunts and crisp cinematographic precision.

Essentially it's a B movie that is striving for the same vintage Warner Brothers noir feel from the '40s about a bad man who wants to do good. And in doing so, The Butcher resides squarely in the familiar terrain of gangsters, guns and gambling as Eric Roberts is cast as the top-notch but past-his-prime hitman Merle Hench whose horrific body count he's left over the decades working for organized crime boss Murdoch (Robert Davi) is nothing compared to the debts he's accumulated as a man who never knows how to turn down a tip on a horse, fold a hand, or walk away from what someone swears is a sure thing.

Nicknamed "The Butcher" for reasons that aren't entirely clear until the conclusion of the film since the man's weapon of choice is the gun and Roberts and company fire and fetish about firepower so much throughout The Butcher at times the movie could double for an NRA ad-- when Davi's Murdoch urges Merle to begin considering retirement, he realizes he'd have absolutely no way to support himself, not to mention the beautiful waitress Jackie (Irina Björklund) he's always flirtatiously inviting to run away with him.

However, when he realizes that he's been set up by those closest to him to be left for dead as a fall guy in a strip club robbery, Merle finally hits the jackpot... at least temporarily when he leaves the club alive with millions and invites Jackie (this time without a trace of irony or humor) to give up the apron and get the hell out of Dodge. To his shock and our amazement, she agrees-- rationalizing the move by saying that if she'd turned Merle down, it's a decision she would've regretted the rest of her life but they're not even a few feet outside before Jackie realizes that he's "The Butcher" for a reason as he must return to go remove a witness who's seen them together.

And for her turn in the male dominated work, special acknowledgment should be given to Irina Björklund for her quiet bravery and believability throughout, even when the end threatens to be a bit cliched. However, for the interim of the adventure-- Jackie makes a good partner to Merle even though nothing in Merle's plan is well-thought out. In fact, there's some pretty annoying gaps in logic as well in his actions as we question just how dense he'd have to be to keep driving around in an instantly recognizable, identifiable, originally restored, mint condition classic American automobile (probably the most expensive item in the film's budget) when they take to the lam and as Roberts decides to get his revenge.

While once again, the great Robert Davi is wasted by another tough-guy-for-hire stereotypical role-- Johnson at least tries to give him some long monologues. To this end, there are a few standouts including one that's used in a final showdown involving playing cards no less for metaphorical importance between him and Roberts near the end that would've worked better on stage. Yet as beautiful as they are, they don't match the rest of the script's tone in the least and drive the narrative to a screeching halt as the film itself takes a good long hour to get itself into gear in a way that gets the viewer in the car along with Roberts' Merle.

However, to hide the flaws, Johnson's mastery is commendable from the start as The Butcher's self-important philosophizing is drowned out by Marcello De Francisci's stunning score the alternates between cool jazz to soulful melancholy strings to a pulsating force that moves us along with our hero (or more appropriately antihero). Likewise, I can't say enough about what I'm only assuming was his vast preparation and most likely storyboarded difficult action sequences including stunts that involve so much gunfire and extras, it could've not only been dangerous but also showed its budget right there with lackluster effects.

Moreover, in a few key action moments, I was so impressed by what the filmmaker did with the fast-paced shoot that I knew right then and there that he had to have had the background he did. And this is also on display in some beautiful cinematography and intriguing camera choices like using what appears to be a sepia tone for a flashback sequence along with employing either a different lens or camera to play with the distortion and separate two different time periods or adjust the number of frames per second. Using little tricks this along with cinematographer Robert Hayes and editor Ken Blackwell helped ensure that the film doesn't fall easily into the look of the direct-to-disc trap.

Still, this being said-- from a narrative standpoint-- it's definitely not in the same league of most modern crime chamber pieces such as Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight or John Dahl's You Kill Me.

And again, with the main focus being on the guns as well as Roberts' dialogue consisting too much on cliches and cheesy endearments like "dollface" when speaking to Jackie, I predict that Johnson will only improve as he continues working on his writing skills. Still, technically speaking from a production standpoint, The Butcher looks impressive enough to appear to be an A movie complete with convincing portrayals by those trying to do more with their roles than what's written on the page, although you realize that when it takes a good hour for you to become invested in the plot and the philosophizing and dialogue grows wearisome, unfortunately it's still a B that like Merle is gambling on the chance that viewers will feel it's worth the risk.

Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited.