DailyView: Day 215, Movie 302

I enjoyed the animated Disney film, Atlantis: The Lost Empire very much. It was an underappreciate Disney classic featuring the voice work of Michael J. Fox. So when I came across a sequel of the movie while scanning through Disney +, I was excited to watch it. Sadly, this does not come anywhere near as much fun as the original film.

In fact, this is one of those Disney straight-to-DVD films like The Return of Jafar and Simba’s Pride, and, sadly, the quality is at about that level.

You can tell that some of this was meant to come from an animated series that had been scrapped when the original Atlantis movie was less than successful. This feels like something that should appear on one of the Disney networks instead of the movie theater.

There are three basic segments in this movie that are weaved together with some transitional animation. The segments were “Kraken”, “Spirit of the West” and “Spear of Destiny”. One a battle with a sea monster, one in an old west confrontation and then an appearance of Odin, of a sort.

Quite the disappointment with this film. I was hoping for so much more with these characters.

DailyView: Day 214, Movie 301

This is flippin’ insane.

And I loved every second of it.

Yes, we have seen the crazy killer toy that comes to life and kills everyone, but we have never seen one as insanely funny as Benny Loves You.

Benny Loves You played the hilarity over the horror and what we get is an hour and a half of pure ridiculousness that is a joy to watch.

Jack (Karl Holt) was a loser, who worked as a failed toy designer. When his parents died accidentally on Jack’s 35th birthday, his life took a turn. He attempted to reorganize and renew his life path, which begun by throwing out all of his things from his childhood… including his favorite stuffed bear, Benny.

Mistake.

Benny immediately came to life and begun killing people in Jack’s life who was giving him trouble or that he could care about, all because, as the bear would say, “Benny loves you.” It became a slaughterhouse, leading Jack to try and manage the people Benny killed.

To complicate matters more, Jack began to fall for a co-worker, Dawn (Claire Cartwright), which gave Benny a new target and a new motivation: jealousy.

This was one of the goriest films I have seen in a long time, and every moment filled me with laughter and happiness. It’s not often that you see a stuffed toy present the heart of someone he just murdered to his friend as a present, but that happened here. There were more intestines in this movie than I have ever seen before.

Whereas Chuckie or Annabelle are played for fright and scares, Benny Loves You is a straight up British comedy and works so well as one. The story is simple. We do not spend time trying to discover a deeper meaning behind how this happened (although we do visit another instance where a toy that has been discarded returned to kill this bratty little girl).

The way Benny moves is just hilarious. He sort of bounds back and forth, as you might expect a stuffed bear might do. The character design is fantastic. There is nothing sinister about benny, until there is.

I enjoyed this movie a ton. It made me laugh and grossed me out at the same time, a true feat.

DailyView: Day 213, Movie 300

On the 213th day of the DailyView, we have hit movie number 300. When I started back in April of this year, I did not expect to have watched this all the way till now and I did not expect to come anywhere near 300 movies. This DailyView has been something that I have been quite proud of and it has been challenging.

Thank goodness for HBO Max, which has been one of the best of the streaming services for available movies that I have not seen. Number 300 is on that site as well. It was a film dealing with a topic that I loved growing up, the Loch Ness Monster. I was always one of those kids who believed in and read about Nessie, Bigfoot, yetis, UFOs and other strange phenomenon. So this film appealed to me when I found it on HBO Max. It had been on my queue for a few weeks, but this fit into the schedule today.

Young Angus (Alex Etel), whose father was killed fighting in World War II on a boat that was sunk, lived with his family on the shores of Loch Ness. One day, he discovered an egg around the loch and he took it with him home. The egg hatched and there was a strange creature inside, a creature that Angus had never seen before.

Handyman Lewis Mowbray (Ben Chaplin) just started working for Angus’s mother Anne (Emily Watson) when he came across Angus trying to hide the creature. Lewis told Angus that he believed the beast was a water horse, a mythical Scottish creature and there is only one that can exist at a time.

Soldiers from the British army, led by Captain Hamilton (David Morrissey), take up residence in the castle where Anne and her family maintain, and begin to cause trouble. The dog of one of the soldiers started chasing the water horse, named Crusoe by Angus, which led Angus and Lewis to release the creature into the loch.

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep is an enjoyable family film that takes your typical boy and his pet story and infuses it with humor, some drama, and a lot of heartfelt moments. Alex Etel does a good job leading the film and carrying on the relationship with the giant CGI creature. Never easy for an actor, Etel is very believable and covers the emotional beats well.

The rest of the cast is fine. I’m not sure why Captain Hamilton made such a swap midway through the film. He started off as a horrible character, but changed as the story progressed.

The CGI was decent. It may not match up with today’s level of quality, but for 2007, there was nothing that really stood out as terrible. Again, it is important for the character of Crusoe to be believable or else no one would buy into the story.

The story of Angus is told to a young couple by Brian Cox and this way of setting up a story works very well, and this time the trope benefits from the skill of Cox as an actor.

While it may be predictable at times, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep is a fun family film that is full of adventure and heart.

DailyView: Day 212, Movie 299

Earlier today I was watching the live version of the Top 10 Show with Matt Knost and John Rocha. I rarely get a chance to see them live since I am normally in class, but since this was Black Friday, I was at home and I took advantage of the opportunity. The topic this week was Top 10 Songs from Movies, which is a ginormous topic. However, one song that they had in common near the top of their lists, was the song Lose Yourself, by Eminem. This made me remember that 8 Mile was on my list for the DailyView.

I am not a fan of rap music, but I do like Lose Yourself, so I found 8 Mile on HBO Max and watched it. I must say that Eminem was impressive in his big screen debut, even if he was basically playing himself. There was plenty of speculation that the film was heavily biographic with Eminem’s youth growing up on the streets of Detroit, but that does not take away from a powerful performance in his first major role.

Jimmy Smith (Eminem), nicknamed B-Rabbit, is trying to get through life and hoping to get a break as a rapper. He had to move back in with his alcoholic mother (Kim Basinger) and his sister Lily (Chloe Greenfield) when he was struggling to keep a job.

Things got worse when he froze during a battle rap competition creating all sorts of conflict for the young white rapper.

The film continued to toss these conflicts at B-Rabbit as it builds toward him returning to the battle rap stage to show what he was capable of doing.

The story was stitched together with several scenes that felt connected slightly. Still, each moment showed something of the character of B-Rabbit and the friends that he hung around with.

The film included performances from Anthony Mackie, Michael Shannon, Brittany Murphy, Omar Benson Miller, Proof, Mekhi Phifer, Taryn Manning and De’Angelo Wilson.

The battle rap at the end of the film was excellent and highlighted their skills at the rap.

8 Mile was an enjoyable film and I liked it even despite not being a fan of rap.