Brad Bird. Just the name should send feelings of childlike wonder through the body of any film fan. From The Iron Giant, to The Incredibles, even to Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Brad Bird has proved he is one of the most talented directors working in Hollywood today. He has the uncanny ability to make any sequence instantly awe-inspiring, whether it's the final scene of … [Read more...]
Review: The Iron Giant (1999)
The Iron Giant is an animated film directed by Brad Bird and based on the Ted Hughes book The Iron Man. Loosely stylistically based on Hayao Miyazaki's ˜Clear Line Technique' it avoids the similarities of a Disney film by being a proper, realistically drawn film. In total it cost $70m to make and only took $23m at the box office, making it a clear commercial flop. However, a … [Read more...]
Review: Ratatouille (2007)
As part of Pixar's move away from the early childish topics for their films, their 8th feature, Ratatouille, focused on the broad topics of ˜family vs. career' and the need to improve, move forward and change. The budget for the film was $150m, which showed an increase in production costs necessary to improve the computer animation and it took over $620m at the box office. … [Read more...]
Review: The Incredibles (2004)
Pixar's sixth feature film release, The Incredibles, looked to repackage the super-hero and crime-thriller genres into a family friendly offering. Riding high on the exceptional success, commercially and critically, of Finding Nemo, Pixar were obviously hoping that along with their own family fan base, they could engage the superhero demographic and have another monster hit on … [Read more...]
Review: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
The Mission: Impossible movie franchise has never been widely regarded as good. I have a particular soft spot for Mission: Impossible 3, but I am the first to admit that it's mindless fluff. Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol (if most of the time a colon means a bad movie, this one has two) is the first M:I film to receive generally positive reviews. Is this a turn around for … [Read more...]