Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) - Burton and a fine cast bond with auspicious material

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Eva Green clad in leather fronts this fantastical poster for Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

 

The adolescent Jack has an unexciting daily life in Florida. But when his beloved grandfather dies mysteriously, he is driven to visit a strange orphanage in Wales, where he claimed to have previously lived.

 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is written by Jane Goldman (The Limehouse Golem (2016)), based on the same-titled 2011 novel by Random Riggs (Hollow City (2014)), and directed by Californian master filmmaker Tim Burton (Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)), whose 18th feature it is.

Asa Butterfield (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)) is well cast as the kind and a bit haunted protagonist; Eva Green (Euphoria (2017)) is charismatic as the orphanage leader Peregrine; and Samuel L. Jackson (Resurrecting the Champ (2007)) enjoys himself as the villain. The unusually beautiful blond that Jack falls for, played well by Ella Purnell (Wildlike (2014)), and others of the peculiar children are also sweet, especially Finlay MacMillan's (Waterloo Road (2014-15)) Enoch.

Burton fans will enjoy recurring imagery from earlier works by the master such as Beetlejuice (1988). The film has fantastical effects, fascinating characters and a strange story. It is spun about 15 minutes too long, but Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is still an imaginative and fun journey to be on.

 

Related posts:

Tim Burton: Dark Shadows (2012) - Fun, flamboyant vampire romp is a celebration of culture
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Wasikowska is the perfect lead for Burton's visual wonderland 
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) or, Tim Burton's Bloody Theatrics 
Corpse Bride (2005) - Impressive, loud, hollow, dark doll fairytale 
Ed Wood (1994) - Burton's sticky biopic with strenuous Depp
Batman Returns (1992) - Burton gives us the ultimate, Gothic spin on Gotham City and its sinister characters
Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Batman (1989) - A huge, glitzy, empty joker
Beetle Juice (1988) - Burton and team serve one of the best horror comedies ever     

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 110 mil. $

Box office: 296.4 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.69 times its cost)

[Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children premiered 25 September (Fantastic Fest, Austin, Texas) and runs 127 minutes. Fox bought the film rights in 2011. Shooting took place in Belgium, England, Florida and California from February 2015 - ?. The film opened #1 to a 28.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it remained in the top 5 for another 3 weekends (#2-#2-#4) and grossed 87.2 mil. $ (29.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 20.1 mil. $ (6.8 %) and South Korea with 18.6 mil. $ (6.3 %). Burton returned with Dumbo (2019). Butterfield returned in The Space Between Us (2017); Green in D'Après une Histoire Vraie (2017); Jackson in xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017). Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is fresh at 64 % with a 5.95/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children?

300: Rise of an Empire (2014) - Murro's off-putting 3D bore sequel

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A bloody wave and the potent image of a sword-carrying warrior adorn this poster for Noam Murro's 300: Rise of an Empire

Greece is threatened by the evil Persians led by their God-like king Xerxes, partnered with a Greek-born Fury, so that Spartan leader Themistocles will have to venture out and strike them back.

The sequel to Zack Snyder's (Watchmen (2009)) great, visionary 300 (2006) is a colossal step down. It is written by Snyder and Kurt Johnstad (Atomic Blonde (2017)), based on Frank Miller's (What If? (1982)) unpublished graphic novel Xerxes, and directed by Noam Murro (Smart People (2008)).
The propulsive style of the original here degenerates into a bastardization of video games and porn, exceptionally vulgar and detached from reality, with a dedication to blood splatter that just exhausts the senses. 300: Rise of an Empire looks like a sequence in an action computer game, which just keeps going, and it results in a tremendously boring experience. - I, for one, would much rather play that game than watch this 3D turkey.
Hero Themistocles is played with a permanent look of constipation by Sullivan Stapleton (Kill Me Three Times (2014)), while Eva Green (The Salvation (2014)) brings passion to the role of the female empress, the Fury, who is the single bright spot in this mess. 300: Rise of an Empire is a strange creation, technically speaking, which has very little to do with film.

Related posts:

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
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Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 110 mil. $
Box office: 337.5 mil. $
= Box office success
[300: Rise of an Empire premiered 4 March (Hollywood) and runs 102 minutes. Filming took place in Los Angeles and in Sofia, Bulgaria from July - October 2012. The film was converted to 3D in post production. It opened #1 to a 45 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another two weeks (#2-#5) and grossed 106.5 mil. $ (31.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 17.4 mil. $ (5.2 %) and Brazil with 17.3 mil. $ (5.1 %). Though successful commercially, the success was much smaller than that of the first film, which was a huge hit. Snyder has indicated that more sequels may be made. 300: Rise of an Empire is rotten at 43 % with a 5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 300: Rise of an Empire?

The Salvation (2014) - Classic western yarn meets Danish dynamite

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'Bad Men Will Bleed' is the tagline of the poster for Kristian Levring's The Salvation

Besides some rather ridiculous earlier attempts, the so-called 'potato westerns', Denmark has never made a real western. - Until now.

Danish post-1864 Denmark/Germany war US settler Jon and his brother Peter are finally met by Jon's beautiful, Danish wife and son after 7 years on different continents. But tragedy immediately strikes in the new, dangerous world, and Jon's revenge is swift. But there follows a bloodshed, which forces him to get more entangled in the small town, ripe with cowardice and bubbling oil ...

The solid script and direction is by Kristian Levring (The King Is Alive (2000)) and co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen (The Green Butchers (2003)). The America that is presented here is a uniformly tough place, where greed, cruelty and self-regard reigns, in-line with Danish master filmmaker Lars Von Trier's notoriously America-critical Dogville (2003), (not to speak of follow-up Manderlay (2005) and his musical Dancer in the Dark (2000)), and in this strict focus The Salvation loses a central color of the western, that of the good American. But this is truly an outsider western, more accurately a Euro-western shot in South Africa! It is like a spaghetti western-inspired horse opera, shot digitally and stylistically infused with Sin City (2005) affinity.
Salvation is visually impressive, with cool cinematography by Jens Schlosser (The One and Only/Den Eneste Ene (1999)). From the dusty railroad beginning and the following, exciting stage coach scenes, we see classic, well-made western settings. And later the cindered town of the film's gang leader tyrant Delarue is brought to good use as an atmospheric setting more than once. The style is that of a digitally heightened reality, fresh, sharp, simple and handsomely achieved.
Complicating the story, - and making for a richer experience, - are some rich secondary characters; Delarue's mute woman played intensely by Eva Green (White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)); Jon's sympathetic, helpful brother Peter played by Mikael Persbrandt (In a Better World (2010)), who seems to be a bit preoccupied with getting his Swedish tongue to sound alternately Danish and Danish-American; and the town's 'yellow' mayor/undertaker, played beautifully by Jonathan Pryce (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)). The Salvation's exciting cast also includes former Manchester United soccer star Eric Cantona as our heavy's right hand man, and Danish popstar Nanna Øland Fabricius, - better known as Oh Land, - who plays Jon's ill-fated wife. Lastly, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Possession (2012)) is good as the self-righteous Delarue. - He liked the movie so much, he's had a tattoo made on his arm of his character's favorite weapon in it!
I sort-of understand, because Salvation is a solid good western. The tale is arch-typical and has been done before, yet it still it seems fresh; the Danish settler angle and music (by Kasper Winding (Me and Charly/Mig og Charly (1978)) is different, as is some of the visuals. Though it's shot in South Africa, it looks like the American West. The production is good, and the pacing modern yet graceful.
If you are a western-lover, this may very well be your favorite movie this year, however unlikely, it is a Danish western. Rough, violent, with some dark humor and a strong hero in Mads Mikkelsen's (The Hunt (2012)) Jon, who tries to avoid conflict for as long as he can, and is different than any American western hero I can recall, if only because of his look and heritage.
SPOILER The title seems to refer to Mikkelsen and Green's outsider renegade characters finding each other and forging a new alliance in their young adopted country (America), which the ending implies will strengthen its people's moral hollowness in extreme wealth (arriving in the form of oil.) - Go see this one!

Mads Mikkelsen as Jon in Kristian Levring's The Salvation

Mads Mikkelsen, co-writer/director Kristian Levring and Eva Green on the set of The Salvation

Budget: 10.5 mil. euros
Box office: Not known yet
= Still unknown

What do you think of The Salvation?
Any recent western/s that you want to recommend?

Dark Shadows (2012) - Fun, flamboyant vampire romp is a celebration of culture

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Johnny Depp in theatrics for Tim Burton's Dark Shadows

QUICK REVIEW:

The coffin of Barnabus Collins is found in the 1970's after he has rested in it for almost 200 years. And the culture shock during his re-assimilation with his current family members do not end with the fact that Collins is a vampire...!
This very cheerful horror comedy is based on a beloved Gothic soap opera of the same name that ran from 1966-71. 
Shadows by the great Tim Burton (Batman Returns (1992)) has lots of tongue-in-cheek gags, good effects, tomfoolery, and an enthusiastic, excellent Johnny Depp (Edward Scissorhands (1990)); Michelle Pfeiffer (What Lies Beneath (2000)) appears in a dashing 70's wig, and the film has cameos by Christopher Lee (The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)) and heavy-rocker Alice Cooper (Monster Dog (1984)). - And really groovy music, both contemporary (that is, 70's) and from composer Danny Elfman (Mars Attacks! (1996)). Dark Shadows is very Burtonesque and hard not to enjoy. Not his most original film, but a good, fun, entertaining time.
One reservation: The overly busy digital stylization of the movie threatens to impose on it a more anonymous, disgusting look. Burton, beware -- remember that texture and mistakes are natural and inherent in cinema!
Burton's next film, the interestingly sounding artist biopic Big Eyes, is coming out later this year and is being revealed in glimpses to eager reporters in Cannes at the moment.

Related reviews:

Tim Burton: Batman Returns (1992) - Burton gives us the ultimate, Gothic spin on Gotham City and its sinister characters
Batman (1989) - A huge, glitzy, empty joker
Beetle Juice (1988) - Burton and team serve one of the best horror comedies ever

A delicious character header for Tim Burton's Dark Shadows

Watch the very amusing trailer here

Budget: 150 mil. $
Box office: 245.5 mil. $
= Minor flop

What do you think of Dark Shadows?
Rate Johnny Depp's performances in Tim Burton's films, (if you are familiar with them)