Change Your Image
Peter Morris
Reviews
Are We There Yet? (2005)
I'd rather have gone to the dentist.
Oh dear. The kind of film that I would hate my children to watch, lest they assume this is the kind of quality to which we aspire. Predictable, irritating, shallow, unfunny. I can't believe that producers would put serious money into this kind of film. Where are the thought provoking, funny films that we want to be solid family entertainment?
I also have to say that I found the film racist in a desperately stereotypical way. If Steve Martin had been playing the lead, it would never have got off the drawing board. However, Hollywood feels it can turn out this drivel on the grounds that Afro-Americans automatically add class to the subject, instead of demeaning them for supposedly shallow lifestyles.
Avoid it. The only reason I watched it to the end is that I lecture on film music and it's my job to watch these things. Give me an anaesthetic, someone, please...
The Cat Concerto (1947)
Every one of the 10,000 cells is a gem
* Spoiler warning - you may do yourself harm watching this cartoon *
I have been doing a complete analysis of The Cat Concerto as part of my PhD work and I have spent 100 hours on it. You may think me mad but I still burst out laughing when I see one of the single frames as I step through them.
Scott Bradley's arrangement of Liszt's 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody (piano duet, played by Bradley and John Crown, head of Piano at University of Southern California) makes an excellent canvas for Muse, Barge & Spence to animate. There are more comic gems in this 7 minute cartoon than all the latter-day comedy features put together.
Truly wonderful. If you get the chance to watch the cartoon frame by frame on a computer, do so, but I disclaim any responsibility for asphyxia or self-harm from rolling on the floor.
Top marks.