doll « Ambival.net

Posts Tagged ‘doll’

Alice aka Neco z Alenky

Monday, May 5th, 2008

Last Alice movie for now, lol, I promise – normal service will resume soon. Oh and I did watch this yesterday – well, early this morning – I just, y’know, had to sleep eventually Most of this was written while watching anyway.

I was worried at first here because I have an horrendously dubbed version of this perhaps the creepiest of all Alice adaptations. Luckily, it’s really more about the images and sound effects than anything, the dialogue being mostly either sparse or redundant (I’d say at least 50% of it consists of “said the rabbit” lol which in the end becomes very annoying) – which makes the very first line, “this is a film for children. But remember to shut your eyes, or else you won’t see anything!” deliciously ironic in addition to being a fine warning for those of a sensitive disposition (I’ll just say it was probably unwise of me to add this to the schedule at the last minute as the last thing I watch before bedtime at 4 in the morning, lol – I’m writing this while watching because I’m sure in the morning I’ll either plainly think I dreamt it or will have merged it inseparably with whatever nightmares I might have after a full afternoon and evening of Alice …)

In short, it’s “Alice: The WTF Edition” – the images are so arresting and nightmarish that you genuinely can’t take your eyes off them; the sound and pace so visceral that you genuinely fear for the actress in the lead, for example when the mouse (actually it’s more like a rat here) in the pool of tears sets up camp on her head thinking it’s an island, hammering sticks into her scalp, her only protest “That’s too far!” coming as he tries to set fire to her hair. Perhaps surprisingly given the wacky means by which it’s done, the movie actually stays pretty close to the story – which makes it even more amazing that it feels so unpredictable compared to other adaptations. Each time, for example, that Alice breaks into one of the tiny desks that litter her journey, I found myself seriously not knowing what might come out of it or where she might be taken next or what might happen to her. It somehow lulls you into a state of anxiety, something that’s perfectly understandable when it comes to Alice but that none of the other adaptations really do so well as this one.

At 90 minutes the jerky motion and incessant sound effects certainly start to grate towards the end – I’ve a feeling this might be something that’s not so bad in the original Czech language version with the truly horrible dubbing girl’s voice taken away … in any case, it’s still another great interpretation of the story that’s worth watching if you like seeing things you’ve never seen before.

Tags: Alice, animation, cuties, Czech, doll, fantasy, horror, transformation
Posted in 3 hearts, Movie Reviews | No Comments »

Dolls [1987]

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

“Ohhhhhhhhh … Teddy!”

I’d originally intended to watch the three Stuart Gordon movies I have on Halloween in the order in which they were made. Instead, impatient I started with this one tonight, mistakenly thinking it was the first of the bunch. I was going to pretend I hadn’t made that error initially and post the reviews in the “right” order … but now I’ve watched all three, I think maybe it’s a good place to start afterall. I really liked this movie, but was ready to freely admit that it’s got its issues. Now that I’ve seen Re-Animator and From Beyond though? Don’t get me wrong, both of those have their moments too, particularly past their half-way marks. But this almost seems like a masterpiece by comparison now considering it came from the same film makers.

“They’re trying to figure out if you’re really an adult … or just a kid in disguise.”
“I’ve been trying to figure that out for years!”

This is such a different take on the horror genre, and I loved it every turn it took. It’s more in the vein of The Company of Wolves, Paperhouse and (I think?) Dreamchild (lol I really must watch it again soon, I keep making comparisons to it which could be totally off) than the Dolly Dearest or Child’s Play type thing I half-expected. Looking at those first three titles I realise, they all had that same low budget British visual sensibility to them; despite the number of British accents in this movie, it’s not British, not of the same school at all, but it does have the same feel that those movies had, in addition to the same tone (there’s a “wicked stepmother” character in it who very much put me in mind of Hellraiser, too).

The message – a really quite stunningly scathing version of Toy Story 2‘s lessons, and in my opinion the reason why a lot of “grown-ups” won’t give this movie the time of day – really took me by surprise. I mean I guess I have to say, my response to this movie ultimately was a pretty personal thing – recently I’ve found myself more and more condensing my every disappointment in the world to one line, “I hate grown-ups,” and this movie couldn’t have put that sentiment better. There, I’ve said it. Seriously, I’m confident these dolls wouldn’t touch me, lol.

It also has a lot more humour in it than expected (“Yeh, but, are they anticues?” lol) Carrie Lorraine isn’t the greatest of actresses but she is adorably cute and delivers Eloise-like lines like, “What do you want from me? I’m 7 years old!” hilariously. She looks like Elijah Wood in a night dress and reminds me of the girl who played the younger Phoebe Cates in Drop Dead Fred.

Though, like the other two Gordon films, it never really gets that scary, there is something a little Birds-ish in the way it develops from this really kooky humour at the start, at which I was laughing right till the end, even as Judy’s father is turned into a replacement for the Punch doll he destroys. But it was somewhere during that scene in particular where I really started to think, wow, this is really wrong. Same thing with the toy soldiers which, out of all the toys, freaked me out the most, looking as they did like Camberwick Green type characters or something.

At barely 75 minutes it runs very much like the vignette-y short stories you’ll find on a lot of transformation-related websites – the mysterious old couple taking the lost family in on a stormy night, messing with their minds and bodies, and sending those who remain off just as the next batch arrive. It’s very cool to find a movie so like those stories, and I for one think there’s definitely room for more. I really can’t wait to watch it again, and at that length, one really needs no excuses.

Tags: cuties, doll, Eighties, horror, surreal, transformation
Posted in 4 hearts, Movie Reviews | No Comments »

Bratz

Thursday, October 18th, 2007

“These are the jokes, people!”

Oh the warning bells. 2.35:1? Comic sans opening credits? Yes – Comic sans opening credits ROFL! No wait. I’m gonna say it again. Comic Sans opening credits. LOL!

I wanted this to be, like, the new Josie and the Pussycats or something. I’ve said it before, that I have no problem whatsoever with the Bratz brand – I love all those products and if I had the money I’d probably have a room full of them. There are far worse things going on in children’s lives and it angers me when people waste time whining about a toy as though each doll not only contains a mine of crack in its big bubble head but also somehow doubles as some kind of infant dildo. For the first time in this review: they’re not that bad.

At the same time, however, I also think it could’ve been incredible for them to use this movie to make a really scathing statement about the materialism, the beauty worship, y’know, stuff like that. That combined with Paula Abdul doing all the stuff she was originally meant to be doing on the movie could’ve resulted in a new masterpiece of bubblegum.

All that said, I also kind of dreaded it being such a wonderful thing – I love being honest, but I really didn’t want to be the person who followed a one-star review of one of the biggest, most popular movies of the year with a five star review of, erm, *Bratz*, lol. So I guess this movie made me happy by being … not quite that good? But, erm … I have to be honest, and it reached a point where I just started laughing and smiling and couldn’t stop … and I actually quite liked it. In fact the only part I’d agree is close to worthy of the IMDb bottom 100 is the point when they realise, “ooh, Bratz! good name” lol. But by then I was pretty much ready to forgive anything (even, incidentally, that the end credits are also in Comic Sans lol, and actually contain the words “Apple Computers” in that font ).

Ultimately, it is basically the High School Musical movies (particularly number 2) without the diagetic songs (till the end, I guess, but even then they’re just concert numbers and music videos). As such, I really don’t think it’s deserving of the hate that’s been levelled at it, in same way I think the hate for the dolls is a little overcooked. There’s nary a nod to the existence of sex (though there’s one line that really jars when a jock suggests “We could do a lab experiment – without the bunsen burner, y’know what I’m saying?”) and the meanest putdown is “Delete my number from your cellphone!” (that’s the moment you can actually pinpoint where the movie becomes so bad it’s good, lol – my face creased up so bad I worried it might stay that way, lol).

It doesn’t surprise me that very young kids love it. The tiny sister of the “mean” girl is like their representative in this world and she comes out of the movie looking like she controls everything. In particular for non-American kids, I think it has that “ohmygosh, American highschool is so cool” thing about it that I remember being so taken with by shows like “Saved by the Bell” back in the yonder. It’s also very colourful – blindingly so, with barely a second passing without a cut or something new and shiny entering the frame. There’s even a food fight. It really does check all the boxes, I think. It’s certainly hard to get bored here, though you might get slightly annoyed.

For the second time … it’s really not so bad – I found it far less offensive than certain other recent movies and there’s definitely a tweenage girl in me somewhere that was really fooled by the colour and the pretty people etc – and I didn’t spend the whole movie thinking, “umm – these aren’t Bratz,” like I thought I would, lol. In actual fact, I’m kind of surprised it isn’t already a cult movie to some degree. I don’t know, maybe it is.

I say, definitely double bill with Josie and the Pussycats. Add Sleepover for good measure. As a teen movie it doesn’t touch Heathers and Mean Girls and the John Hughes classics – but I’ve gotta say, this is one of those cases where I just feel I have to say, for the third time: it’s not that bad. There’s none of the scathing satire that could’ve been – but there is some semblance of a message that will be good for kids and even teens to hear. I have to say, though, 2.35:1 was kinda asking for dissent in the viewership, lol.

Hey, nominate it for Razzies at my pleasure – it certainly deserves to win something lol. I’d personally put it up for costume and Jon Voight (who is as surprising as I found Michael Ironside last night in Guncrazy) in the real awards, though.

Altogether … B.F.F!

(btw, yes, I’ve still rated it higher than that other movie … I promise, it’s a low 3 …)

Tags: cheese, cuties, doll, high school, teen
Posted in 3 hearts, Movie Reviews | 1 Comment »

Toy Story 2

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007

I’d totally forgotten how fantastic this movie was – I thought it was all about Jessie and the “When She Loved Me” sequence for me, but everything that surrounds those (I have to say) highlights is more frenetic, hysterical (“It’s the chicken man!” “Look, Barbie – a big ugly man doll!” lol), and, even on an umpteenth viewing, still shockingly more poignant than I ever expect.

But like I said, this movie kind of needs go no further for me than the character of Jessie – there are little quirks here like the kinda-half-dance she does on the turntable after she gets the hang of the motion, the pulling-her-hat-down-over-her head thing, that just touch me somewhere that an animated doll in all reason shouldn’t be able to touch, lol – and the whole “When She Loved Me” sequence, Emily growing, the horses turning to nail polish, that is one of the most beautiful, crushing, painfully truthful 3 minutes Pixar have ever produced … I think maybe it got me even more today because it’s been a long time not only since I watched the movie but even longer since I watched it alone, and it’s one of those sequences, you just wanna be alone, curled up in the dark, crying to that song. I do, anyway. But there’s always the thrilling climax and all the other wonderful stuff I’m too lazy to mention if that isn’t your thing This is just a beautiful movie that takes my breath away every time.

Tags: animation, cuties, Disney, doll, Pixar, sequel
Posted in 5 hearts, Movie Reviews | No Comments »

Dolly Dearest

Monday, June 18th, 2007

“Listen! I am not losing my daughter to a 900 year old goat head!”

Agh! Too weird, lol. It was about 30 minutes into this when I realised I recognised the dad from somewhere – I’d just watched him, that is, Sam Bottoms, in The Witching of Ben Wagner of course! lol. I also noticed he was the father in SherryBaby. Umm, he was good in that one … but here, as in The Witching, and like Denise Crosby playing mom, they’re really just filling the character space as necessary.

As for the rest of the movie … it’s slow-starting, too slow-starting really – basically all you need to know is that it’s Child’s Play with girls … or, Child’s Play meets The Exorcist, even … there’s one piece of hilariously obvious, but it has to be said, pretty well done, homage towards the end – but once it gets going, it’s as much fun as you’d expect. The first real set-piece death is surprisingly nasty and there’s some really great pure horror stuff with the little girl, Candy Hutson, just walking around the dark house alone calling, “Dolly?” repeatedly, crossing the garden to her creepy looking Wendy house in her nightgown, etc.

It’s schlock and nonsense, but I’d have to say, it beats the first three Chucky movies, if not the last two. It’s really just worth it for the hilariousness of the doll and the creepiness of the girl.

Tags: cuties, doll, horror
Posted in 3 hearts, Movie Reviews | No Comments »

Seed of Chucky

Thursday, June 29th, 2006

Part of me didn’t want to write a second review of this movie – I mean, it’s Chucky, for god’s sake – but I can’t stop myself. I know why the people who think this movie sucks think this movie sucks but personally, honestly, I’m almost overwhelmed by it. Though it remains a pretty perfect b-movie horror, chock-full of homage, it’s still entirely its own organism, and Glen/Glenda is a character who will stay with me till the day I die. It’s beauty and the beast, there’s some killer gore, excellent shocks, beautiful girls in Hannah Spearritt and Jennifer Tilly, delectable one-liners, John Waters’ face melting! You’ve gotta love how much Don Mancini fits into 80 minutes. I sincerely hope this movie made enough money in the end to finance another installment. Honest to God, this baby is beautiful.

9th December 2004:

I still haven’t seen Bride of Chucky, but I have vague memories of the original three Chucky movies, not that it really matters here, since most of the backstory is either fully recapped or hinted at enough for a stranger to get by.

This is a hell of a great horror movie. From a manic assault of Hitchcock homages at the beginning (from the obvious shower stabbing to a beautifully mimicked shot from the same movie that actually made me jump out of my seat more than I have in a looong time, something that happened quite a few times in this movie), through to the unveiling of a movie world within the movie (Jennifer Tilly plays an exaggerated – at least, I hope exaggerated – version of herself; they’re making a movie about the two dolls, which were found at the scene of “unsolved murders”), through to the “Seed” of the title, a new doll, Glen, or Glenda (paying homage to Ed Wood), in an at times genuinely moving subplot of confused identity. This movie truly has it all; jumps, laughs, severely grotesque deaths, John Waters, and, finally, tears.

It also features Hannah Spearitt, from S Club 7, as Jennifer Tilly’s ill-fated assistant. She’s the main reason I watched the movie in the first place, since I loved her so much in Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, and I loved her as much here, though her demise kind of upset me, lol. I hope she keeps making movies.

Tags: comedy, cuties, doll, gender, horror
Posted in 4 hearts, Movie Reviews | 1 Comment »