The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists Review

There are a few things in cinema that can be described as a safe bet. One is a Chris Nolan film is probably going to be pretty good. Another is Jeff Bridges being extremely watchable in anything he’s in. You can also add an Aardman production almost always being a good thing to that list.

The folks who brought you Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run have opened their plasticine kit once more to bring us a nautical but nice pirate adventure, with added scientists. Hugh Grant voices the logically named Pirate Captain, whose sole ambition is to at last win the coveted Pirate of the Year Award. After a chance encounter with Charles Darwin, he realises his best chance of plundering enough booty to impress the judges is to use his trusty pet dodo Polly to win the Royal Society’s similar Scientist of the Year prize money, whilst avoiding the infamously pirate-averse Queen Victoria.

Like Arthur Christmas before it, Aardman have assembled an excellent cast to voice their clay models. The on-form Grant heads up the talent, flanked by David Tennant, Imelda Staunton and Ashley Jensen, to name but four. There’s also Salma Hayek, Jeremy Piven, Martin Freeman, Lenny Henry, Brendan Gleeson and Brian Blessed to name six more.

Similarly to the recent Muppets reboot (we’re being rather spoilt for decent family-fare at the moment it seems), the strengths of The Pirates! are in its audience-spanning appeal and its frighteningly consistent laugh rate. Gideon Defoe’s script, an adaptation of his own tongue-in-cheek novel, is responsible for a great deal of humour, but as we’ve come to expect from Aardman, there are also hundreds of sight gags littered throughout the film, meaning you’re never waiting more than several seconds between giggles. The humour is pitched perfectly to please both sprogs and grown-ups. Defoe’s series of Pirates!books are primarily aimed at adults in the first place and their deep sense of irony and wry humour has not been lost in transition to the screen. Thankfully though, kids are highly unlikely to be alienated or left out by the jokes and the film is without the air of smugness that pervades such ‘a bit of blue for the dads’ films like the Shrek franchise.

Credit has to be given to Aardman for how visually stunning the film is. The level detail in the models is astounding and watching the whole thing in motion is a feast for the eyes. I’m not normally one for re-watching films, but I’d make an exception for Pirates! firstly to try and catch the jokes I missed the first time around and secondly simply to marvel at the incredible attention to detail the film boasts.

This is the part of the review where I’d normally mention a few detracting aspects of the film, but for the first time in ages, I don’t think I can name a single thing I didn’t like about the film. Given the choice, I’d see it in 2D, but that’s just a personal preference. The Pirates! is a wonderful achievement that deserves every success. You timbers will be well and truly shivered.

Fright Night Review

It’s probably getting as tiresome reading it as it is writing it but VAMPIRES ARE FRICKINGEVERYWHERE (though fortunately not literally). Perhaps if I were a true journalist, rather than an unbelievably fortunate chancer who gets to go see films then write about them, perhaps I would offer a well-researched and thoughtful treatise on the socio-cultural reasons for this resurgence of interest in the undead over the last few years.

Perhaps I would lamely suggest that in these dark times of recession and corruption, we see our own society reflected in the vampires – a corruption of the human being, without soul or humanity, the strong few forming a parasitical relationship with the weak majority. Or perhaps I’d venture that we are currently enamoured with vampires because we seek escapism – because we wish to be strong, fast and near immortal. Or perhaps I’d conclude we seek the vampire because as more and more frequently our relationships with those around us are conducted via digital means and we envy the visceral intimacy of the vampire and its victim. Or maybe I’d just decide that Stephanie Meyer got lucky and ever since the success of Twilight, we’ve all just been following the money. Whatever. I’m not going to do that.

Fright Night is a remake of a 1985 cult favourite. Charley (Anton Yelchin)’s dreary suburban existence is thrown into disarray when his geeky ex-friend Ed (established Hollywood face of nerdiness, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) theorises that a recent spate of disappearances is due to the fact that Yelchin’s new neighbour Jerry (Colin Farrell) is a vampire. Charley, who would rather be spending time with his hot new girlfriend Amy (Imogen Poots) than with his embarrassing former ally, is at first dismissive, but soon finds himself having to protect his loved ones from Farrell’s threat. His only hope is the advice of David Tennant (who introduced the film at the Big Screen event)’s high-camp illusionist, Peter Vincent.

Director of indie favourite Lars and the Real Girl, Craig Gillespie helms the film and there’s a strong sense of fun about proceedings. Comedy is just as important as scares are in the feature andFright Night offers a decent laugh quota. David Tennant is the chief provider of giggles as the hammed-up performer, a sort of Derren Brown-Russell Brand mash up. In fact, I’d be surprised if Brand hadn’t been the first choice for the role as Tennant seems to be channelling everyone’s favourite Katy Perry-marrying former lothario to a rather large extent. Still, he mugs gamely and the charisma that won him legions of fans in Doctor Who, does him a lot of favours here. It’s also amusing to see him effing and jeffing and necking booze like it’s going out of fashion; he never got to do that in the Tardis.

The rest of the cast acquit themselves nicely. Mintz-Plasse is typically strong, as are Yelchin and Poots. Farrell clearly relished his role as the vampire and is seductively brilliant. And it’s always nice to see Toni Collette, in this film as Charley’s mother.

Fright Night is a little shallow – there’s not much going on beneath the jumps and japes – and I’d recommend seeing it in 2D if you can because the 3D version is incredibly dark, but beyond that, it’s a very hard film to dislike. One gets the feeling that on the strength of this, the vampire trend won’t be ending anytime soon.