Reviews

This episode belongs, as the title suggests, to Finn and Kurt. The plot is basically that Finn's mom and Kurt's dad are getting married, and that Kurt gets ecstatic while Finn is a little more cool about the subject. The episode continues with the girls in Glee conspiring to stop Karofsky from bullying Kurt, and have their boyfriends beating up Karofsky. All of them takes the assignment very seriously, except from Finn, who backs out to everyone's disappointment. The rest of the episode revolves around Finn dealing with the fact that the wedding is happening and trying to step up for the occasion and Kurt's struggle to plan the wedding all by himself. Meanwhile, Sue Sylvester is devastated that everyone else is happy and decides to marry herself to ease her pain.

Glee until now has been mostly a comedy/music show, with many hilarious moments and fresh discussions between characters, with a little dash of drama on the side (some episodes more than others). But the dramatic aspect is taken to a whole new level in this episode, where Kurt's character gets darker by the minute because of the bullying and Finn's depression due to that he don't feel like he is living up to expectations.

We get very little sympathy with Finn in the start of the episode, where his first reaction to the wedding announcement were pretty lame. But he finally stepped up to the man we all knew he could be, and his speech at the end of the episode were very touching and powerful. I think Cory Monteith had his strongest dramatic moment yet in that scene, and for once he showed that he can do more than just being a half dumb comedian with a decent singing voice. The Sue Sylvester side of the story were in the background this time, in my opinion, even though it was kind of funny that she decides to actually marry herself. That's pretty original.

All in all, this was a new side of Glee, and I'm glad the songs were kept to a minimum for once. I usually like the songs, but sometimes it gets a little too much, so it's nice with a little break once in a while. I'm looking forward to see more!

Richard Dunn (Jeff Daniels) is an abortive writer in his 40's. He is unhappily married to Claire (Lisa Kudrow), who spends most of the time away from their home because of work, causing Richard to be left alone, feeling lost and lonely and that he has no purpose in life. He has a really annoying fictional friend in superhero Captain Excellent (Ryan Reynolds), who dictates his life and who always tells him what to do, and has done so since Richard was a teenager.

When Richard impulsively decides to hire a babysitter (even though he and Claire doesn't have any kids), he meets teenager Abby (Emma Stone), who it turns out is struggling with many of the same problems as himself, as she is friendless and an only child, and also have this imaginary friend (Kieran Culkin) who tries to control her. But as they grow an unlikely and close friendship, they also find hope to get their lives on track. Through laughter, deep conversations, and exchanging of fantasies, they change their lives for both good and bad.

I hesitated when I saw this movie in the local store while I looked on its cover. It said "Paper Man" with a huge picture of Ryan Reynolds in stupid tights and small pictures of Lisa Kudrow, Emma Stone and Jeff Daniels surrounding it. It took a lot of strength for me to pick up the cover at all...

And while they are on with that stupid cover - on the back it said "Jeff Bridges" instead of "Jeff Daniels". I thought: Not very professionally made. And by the way - the first picture on the back shows Daniels riding a grandma's bike. But then again, I am a sucker for friendship stories (which I could barely learn it was from the small synopsis on the back), and I also like Jeff Daniels and Ryan Reynolds - and also Emma Stone - a lot from earlier work. So if these actors agreed to involve, it could not be THAT bad. Ergo, I gave it a chance.

And what a surprise this movie turned out to be! In fact, I was blown away. I got to see a heart warming, intellectual story with great dialog and (for once) REAL emotions flashing out of the screen. The manuscript is the best I've seen in a very long time, and I hope it's not long until these Mulroney's does something new. And the thing about Daniels riding a grandma's bike - that turned out to be one of the film's main trademarks, in a good way.

Jeff Daniels is fantastic as the depressed and lonely, unhappy married man chasing inspiration and answers, whether it is regarding his new book (which he struggles to write, to use an understatement) and his life in general, but who finds hope when he meets Stones character. This is something I, to be honest, can (partly) relate to from my own life experiences, which probably is part of why I liked this as much as I did. Regardless, Daniels was at his very best in this movie.

So, he needs a little push in the right direction. Enter Emma Stone, who plays his female contrast. She is very vulnerable, has no real friends, but a very unsympathetic boyfriend. She is also charming and splendid, and Stone played her role tendering and with such great intensity. Her chemistry with Daniels was surprisingly good, despite the age difference between the two. Stone without doubt did her best performance this far - including the highly overrated "Easy A".

Ryan Reynolds... Well, he is Ryan Reynolds. With his superb comedic presence and, I have to say, boyish charm, he delivers line after line with such timing that you just have to laugh, no matter how stupid some of the jokes are in reality. In other words - he is fantastic and amazingly funny as Daniels' imaginary friend. And the former child star Kieran Culkin as Stones imaginary ditto is about to become an actor of his own, and was a breath of fresh air. The only complain I have is Lisa Kudrow's character, who was dramaturgically necessary, but poorly written. I never quite felt the frustration she must have had with Richard.

I could really not see this coming, but there is nothing like pleasant surprises. And this was definitely one of them. This is the best "dramedy" I've seen since Garden State, and illustrates the importance of having friends you can trust in tough times, and to have a soulmate in your life who just understands you no matter what. I give it a solid 8/10, and it definitely deserves more acknowledgment in my opinion.

(And I also found out: Never judge a movie by its cover...)

Animation movies have easy, but yet so hard premises to follow - it's got to be an easy story which children are supposed to manage to follow without problems, and it's got to be a positive message from it, too. Most animated movies have problems to follow those codes and at the same time recreate that guidelines into an interesting product. But "The Lion King" isn't one of those - it is an interesting story which will engage the whole family.

The young lion cub Simba (voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas) is prince of the kingdom of Pride Rock, but is naturally a little too naive and curious for his own good. The clever, power sick and evil Scar (voiced by Jeremy Irons), who naturally wants the throne, is of course fast to recognize that. He works out a plan which succeeds - a plan which leads to king Mufasa's (voiced by James Earl Jones) death, and forces the scared Simba to flee the kingdom into exile, leaving his destiny as the king in the great Circle of Life. Scar becomes king and destroys Pride Rock by letting the lions and hyenas live together in so called "harmony". Simba is found by two highly eccentric creatures - minx Timon (voiced by Nathan Lane) and boar Pumbaa (voiced by Ernie Sabella).

Several years later, the older Simba (voiced by Matthew Broderick) is still located in the jungle with his two friends, and is now a wild lion who lives of eating creeps living underneath rocks and has completely dislodged his past. But one day, Simba's best friend from Pride Rock, Nala (voiced by Moira Kelly), accidentally finds the three of them in her chase for hope. After reuniting with Nala, Simba realizes that it was a mistake to flee from his kingdom, and decides to return and thereby face his past. But it is too late to rebuild the destroyed Pride Rock to the idyllic kingdom it once was?

Yes, the plot is simple (and somehow borrowed from the classic Hamlet story) - a prince who is dethroned, flees, and thereafter returns to take it back and thereby save the kingdom. Yes, it is a cliché inspired message - to run from the past doesn't change anything and all that stuff. But then there's the most important thing - to create a main character which we as an attendance care for, and there's where The Lion King scores the most. Because, who doesn't care for Simba, a naive prince who was forced to flee from his own land, tried to forget his past, but still has the scars from it, never managing to entirely forget? You just HAVE to care for such a character, whether you want to or not, because most of us can somehow relate to his feelings.

You know how the story is going to end already before you even watch it. But still, we catch ourselves to get engaged in Simba's battle against time to find courage to once and for all meet his past. We get touched by the traditional love story between two childhood friends who casually meet again several years later. We cheer for the hero in his obligatory battle against his arch enemy. The story is really simple, but yet so genius.

I also have to praise the technical achievements in the movie. The animation is excellent (ah, the times where they actually DREW the animation pictures!), and I felt like I was in the story through the whole movie. The music is perfect for the story, it really gets us in the right mood.

The voice acting are also outstanding - especially the sophisticated bad guy (Irons), the indoctrinating father (Jones), the loyal, old school servant (Atkinson) and the funny annoying hyenas (Goldberg, Marin, and Cummings) are perfectly cast. But also the optimistic Sabella, the charming presumptuous Lane, and the believably depressed Broderick gives delightful impressions, even though the acting performances of course is second in line in such a movie. But point is, with so many enjoyable characters, a movie has to succeed. The key lies in story and characters, the rest of it comes almost automatically.

All in all, The Lion King isn't just among the best animated stories of all time, in my opinion. It's also among the best movies overall. Two thumbs up, and a well deserved 9/10 for this classic. The movie lives up to its name - it really IS majestic!