Posts Tagged ‘Nick Frost’

How to Train Your Dragon

Director: Dean DeBlois

Cast: Gerard Butler, Mason Thames, Nico Parker, Nick Frost, Gabriel Howell, Peter Serafinowicz, Bronwyn James, Julian Dennison

Running Time: 2 hours and 5 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10 

Canadian director Dean DeBlois directed the animated film How to Train Your Dragon in 2010 and it was nominated for two Oscars – best achievement in Musical score by John Powell and Best Animated Feature Film.

DeBlois makes the bold and impressive leap to remaking the film as a live action version retaining the excellent services of John Powell for musical score in the visually appealing new film How to Train Your Dragon starring Scottish action hunk Gerard Butler as a menacing Viking Stoick whose wayward son Hiccup played by Mason Thames does not believe all the Viking hype about how evil the dastardly dragons are that keep attacking their remote village on the stark isle of Berk.

The reluctant hero, Hiccup who at the start of this film does not impress his strong and overbearing father is told to join the dragon fighting academy along with a rag tag group of teenagers including Snotlout played by Gabriel Howell who is having the same trouble trying to impress his father Spitelout played by Peter Serafinowicz.

Joining the gang of misfits is the determined and fiercely beautiful Astrid played by Nico Parker (Dumbo) who immediately becomes a source of attraction for the mysteriously naïve Hiccup.

Obviously any narrative containing dragons and Vikings is pure fantasy and in this genre, director Dean DeBlois excels expanding on the success of the original animated version.

How To Train Your Dragon is an action packed fantasy made more interesting by Hiccup’s unlikely friendship with a baby Nightfury dragon forcing him to challenge the long standing village attitude that all dragons are evil. In Stoic’s quest to find the Dragon’s Nest, Hiccup with the help of Toothless, the Nightfury dragon discovers the real source of these mythical creature’s true discontentment.

The visual effects are brilliant and John Powell’s musical score is superb along with the supporting cast including Nick Frost as Gobbler who offers sage parenting advice to Stoick. It’s refreshing to see Gerard Butler take a break from his action roles and star in a fantasy film.

The storyline is essentially how sons can find innovative ways to impress their fathers as Hiccup decides to challenge prejudices against dragons and his father’s stubbornness, changing the village completely.

How to Train Your Dragon is a fun filled fantasy adventure film with fantastic performances by Mason Thames, Nico Parker and Gerard Butler and is definitely worth seeing.

While some of the fight scenes could have been edited, How to Train Your Dragon gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is a suitable film for the whole family. Recommended viewing.

Huntsman: The Winters War

Director: Cedric Nicolas-Troyan

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt, Charlize Theron, Nick Frost, Alexandra Roach, Sam Claflin, Rob Brydon, Sheridan Smith, Sophie Cookson

The evil queen stakes just got higher in the prequel to Snow White and the Huntsman, Huntsman: Winter War which is directed by French visual effects supervisor turned director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan. His previous visual effects credits include Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Snow White and the Huntsman and Solstice.

Australian actor Chris Hemsworth returns as Erik the Huntsman along with South African Oscar winner Charlize Theron (Monster, Mad Max: Fury Road) as the vicious queen Ravenna.

New to the cast are Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, Interstellar) as Erik’s estranged wife Sara and an equally evil queen, Ravenna’s sister the Ice Queen Freya wonderfully played by Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, Into the Woods).

Interestingly this is a female action film and that’s why Huntsman: Winters War works so well although it’s not as good as the original 2012 Rupert Sanders film Snow White and the Huntsman.

Visually, Huntsman is quite dazzling especially in the second half of the film, and director Cedric Nicholas-Troyan makes full use of all the latest CGI available especially when the gorgeous Ravenna emerges out of the illustrious gold mirror looking fabulous.

In actual fact Ravenna’s outfit, which Charlize Theron naturally uses to its full potential is sure to inspire many a drag queen in the future, wonderfully emboldened with beautiful eye make-up and a fabulous gold head dress to match, a rival to Angelina Jolie’s outfits in Maleficent. Simply gorgeous. Who cares if she is an evil queen, when she looks so stunning!

Jessica Chastain is suitably bold and kickass as Erik’s opinionated wife who manages to save his life from a collection of hideous goblins which looked as if they escaped from the set of Pan’s Labyrinth.

Emily Blunt is wonderful as Ravenna’s younger sister Queen Freya whose heart has been turned to ice by the sudden and inexplicable death of her baby daughter who she naturally blames her husband for.

Audiences should watch out for British comedian Nick Frost as a smart-mouthed dwarf Nion and Alexandra Roach as Doreena last seen in Cuban Fury and The Iron Lady as well as Sam Claflin as William, Freya’s doomed husband.

Whilst Huntsman: Winters War is wonderful to watch, the dialogue could have been better written, yet the story is pure escapism, fantasy with a large dose of femme fatale and a couple Erik and Sara who eventually put aside their differences to defeat the evil sisters who are entirely without mercy and vicious to the core.

Huntsman: Winters War is recommended viewing for those that enjoyed Snow White and the Huntsman and should look forward to the third instalment in a film series which was clearly designed to be part of a fantasy trilogy.

Snow White and the Huntsman

Vicious Vanity takes no prisoners

Director Rupert Sanders visually stunning Gothic Snow White and the Huntsman channels Gullermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth and the hit HBO Feudal Fantasy series Game of Thrones and ain’t no fairytale although all the elements of fantasy are evident from Trolls to Dwarves, to Knights and Fairies. The real winner of Snow White and the Huntsman is the Evil Queen Ravena played beautifully with a seriously unhinged quality by Oscar winner Benoni superstar Charlize Theron, referencing her earlier role in Monster. In Snow White and the Huntsman, Charlize steals the show and is the backbone to this dark fantasy epic featuring Kirsten Stewart as the meek and anaemic Snow White and Thor’s hairy and gruff Chris Hemsworth as the sword wielding Huntsman sent to rescue the damsel trapped in the dark forest…

Mirror Mirror

This Queen ain’t no Bad Apple

Where the frivolous and occasionally funny Mirror Mirror spectacularly fails is the casting of goodie-two-shoes actress Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen in director of The Immortals Tarsem Singh’s frothy and glossy retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in Mirror Mirror, which as a comedy is fun in parts namely due to the casting of genuine dwarves, along with Nathan Lane and Lily Collins, daughter of singer Phil Collins as the sweet and innocent Snow White, but the casting of Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen?Really?

Joan Rivers, Rupaul  or Kim Catrall could do a better job especially in this semi-Bollywood fantasy featuring  the buff Armie Hammer as the hapless but entirely vacant Prince. Wait for the end of Mirror Mirror to see the Dance number and the redeeming aspect is the fabulous costumes at the Queens Ball with Snow White as a Swan…

Unlike Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman is pure feudal old world action with a dash of macabre incest, vanity and vicious magic realism. Charlize Theron steals the show as the completely off kilter pyschopathic Evil Queen who bathes in milk and whose gold mirror comes to life. Twilight star Kirsten Stewart only really comes into her role as the grubby Snow White in the second part of the film, but alas there is no chemistry between her and the Huntsman, played with less enthusiasm by Chris Hemsworth who really made an impact with Kenneth Branagh’s Thor.

Mirror Mirror is suitable for pretty little girls and Snow White and the Huntsman is more closer to malignant  witchcraft appealing to a more jaded generation complete with a sinister Evil Queen hell bent in her quest for the heart of a virgin at the expense of the seven dwarfs, the occasional fairy and a hapless Troll. Charlize Theron is just that much more menacing in the evil Queen stakes and film’s final show down is visually stimulating.