catholiclefty

Ice Age : Dawn Of The Dinosaurs - or Ice Age 3 - has to have been the most-trailed movie I've encountered in a long time. There were teaser trailers for this around as long ago as March 2008, ie. 15 months worth of hype, which is frankly a ludicrous amount of time to trail a movie. Especially one as mediocre as this turns out to be - I was annoyed by the semi-infinite number of trailers before I saw the film, and as it wasn't anything special anyway... There isn't a great deal wrong with this movie but, other than a few visual jokes and a couple of decent one-liners, there's not a great deal to remain interested in either. By far the best parts of the film are the occasional interludes with Scrat and his new rival/girlfriend Scratte, which show a visual inventiveness and wit that brings to mind much older cartoons. A film with just these two may well have been too much of a good thing, rather like the penguins in Madagascar 2 (my review), but it would certainly have been better than the pedestrian main plot of the film (indeed, rather like Madagascar 2).

As it is though, we're lumbered with a clunking main plot that tries to explore family and how it impacts on friendships and similar tedious matters - not really the stuff of a children's film and not an enticing one to approach in a cartoon anyway. I'm not sure what audience the target really is here - just when you're sure it's unoriginal and uninspired enough to be a run-of-the-mill kids film, some adult concept comes along for a few seconds. Usually rather awkwardly.

Admittedly I haven't seen the two previous films, but I really didn't care less about the trials and tribulations of these stock characters at pretty much any point - and I can't imagine I would even if I had seen the predecessors, given the characterisation on show here. From an opening that heavily borrows from Bambi (hence evoking rather fonder memories of that film), this becomes a 'journey' film with a rather uninspiring journey. Not to mention it significantly outstays its welcome - after about an hour it begins to drag badly, and then when we get a resolution and an obvious end point (soaring, climactic music and all) it inexplicably struggles on for a further 15 or 20 dull minutes.

Still, it does look decent - not Pixar decent, but good enough - and the voicework is mostly good, though there are a couple of occasions where there are awkward pauses that just don't work. There's a few bits to make you giggle and the Scrat/Scratte stuff is inspired, but its not enough to save an uneven and rather dull main plot. Even setting aside the irritation caused by the excessive amount of trailing, this falls rather flat. 5 out of 10.

35 Shots Of Rum is a rather odd film to try to review, because of all the films I've reviewed over the past couple of years, this is probably the one I have the least idea what on earth it was about or what it was trying to say or even what was going on in the film itself. That's not necessarily a bad thing - I'm a big fan of David Lynch, for example - but this seems to present itself as a reasonable straightforward story about a family doing regular things and having some events happen to them. There's nothing outlandish in sight, but there's little explicable to the actions of these characters and few if any motivations are offered. There's lots of train-driving scenes, which is nice, and some good character moments, but my general bewilderment at the purpose of the film just leaves me incapable of judging much else.

I can't shake the feeling that there's something here that I've completely missed, and perhaps I ought to have watched it a second time to try to get some clarity. But on one viewing, this appears almost entirely incoherent, and just leaves me confused in a way no film has for a very long while. As such, I've no idea if this was a good film or not, and so I suppose I have to give it a very middling 5 out of 10, with the provisio that if I ever do see it again that could wildly change either upwards or downwards.

A mostly silent comedy, Rumba is full of bright gaudy colours and surprisingly edgey humour, and while some bits of the comedy fall rather flat and the final third is a bit lacking in a number of ways, this is unusual and innovative and not really the kind of film you'd expect to see.

Two teachers, who have rather unusual teaching styles, like nothing more than dancing, and then enter competitions and so forth. After an unfortunate accident involving a guy failing to commit suicide, one ends up with memory loss and the other loses a leg. Cue many scenes which flirt with being offensive but are instead just ridiculous - notably, a scene with literally minutes of throwing around crutches and paperwork in an attempt to balance with just one leg. Still, even while flirting with convention, this is a gentle, slow humour that nevertheless can be appreciated and enjoyed, though this does make the bits that don't work too well drag on a little too long. I suppose the closest thing in recent times would be Mr Bean, though Mr Bean tends to edge over the crass line rather more regularly (not to its benefit, in my book).

Both Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon are excellent at utilising this rather old and out-of-fashion style of physical comedy. Philippe Martz is excellent support too, as the continually unsuccessful suicidal guy.

There's quite a lot of fun to be had here, and it is pleasant to see a different style of film that points back to much earlier times, but retains a decent amount of contemporary edge nevertheless. The visual gags are very strong. A shame, given the short running time, that it starts to drag towards the end, because for the first 50 minutes or so this is quite a novel delight. 6.5 out of 10.