Mini Film Reviews Volume 21

The Dig

In the late 1930s, wealthy landowner Edith Pretty hires amateur archaeologist Basil Brown to investigate the mounds on her property in England. He and his team discover a ship from the Dark Ages while digging up a burial ground. On paper this would have been amazing but once you watch it, you will be left disappointed and for me personally I find the story thinly plotted and the casting is rather bland and you don’t feel anything for them, it is too predictable as well.

The Ivory Game

Filmmakers went under cover for 16 months, infiltrating and documenting the deep – rooted corruption at the heart of the global ivory trafficking crisis. This has got potential and it could been really powerful and moving, it’s not and it is one of those documentaries that doesn’t deliver and it becoming unfocused and the subject matter is alright. The pacing is all wrong and it is too overlong, if you really into the wildlife element you probably enjoy, for me personally it such a massive let down.

Mission Blue

Legendary oceanographer and TED prize winner Dr Sylvia Earle is on a mission to save our oceans. Normally I really into documentaries that is undersea but this one is up and down and too inconsistent like it can be moving but afterward it becoming too unfocused, this one is not life affirming and it doesn’t have that impact on you as it is not memorable whatsoever, it doesn’t made you think as it trying to be just safe.

Stardust

In a countryside town bordering on a magical land, a young man makes a promise to his beloved that he’ll retrieve a fallen star by venturing into the magical realm. In a good-looking gorgeous film that has beautiful cinematography and with fantastic story. The two lead have great chemistry and the thing is, the violence can be tad excessive and becoming really daft and really silly.

Arrietty

The Clock family are four-inch-tall people who live anonymously in another family’s residence, borrowing simple items to make their home. Well it is definitely light-hearted and well intentioned with an old-fashioned type of story that is so likeable, it is worthwhile a look at this film and it not quite inspiring or with a heartfelt message and it can be too over serious but I can’t fault the ambitious and the imagination of the filmmaker.

Arrival

A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeforms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world. Arrival offer you something new and fresh and with a real emotional core to this film with superb casting, the visual is certainly out of this world with a thought-provoking film that will made you think. I love the concept as it is very clever and the whole film in whole is superbly made, my mini flaw is actually the twist as I thought it will let you on an anticlimactic then it ending but it wasn’t, despite that it still an intelligent and smart film.

The Hundred – Foot Journey

The Kadam family leaves India for France where they open a restaurant directly across the road from Madame Mallory’s Michelin – starred eatery. It is one those film that gets better throughout the whole film as it sort of struggling and become slightly uneven from the start, it will drawn you in almost halfway during this film. The beautiful cinematography, the acting, the story and the soundtrack are spot on and that what made this film so good and in some ways it is feel good and if you love your food, this film is ideal for you.