Idris Elba

This Jungle Book lacks the Bare Necessities

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Jungle Book
  • IMDb: link

The Jungle BookAs with Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and 101 Dalmatians, Disney’s latest attempt to offer a live-action version of one of their classic animated movies offers mixed results. Originally based on the stories of Rudyard Kipling, 1967’s The Jungle Book took us into the jungle to follow the adventures of Mowgli the Man Cub (Neel Sethi), a young orphan raised by wolves. Rather than offer a straight reinterpretation of Kipling’s work or a direct live-action version of Disney’s animated feature, the new movie attempts to do both leading to an uneven story that is too dark for its lighter moments and simple bizarre when it tries to recreate animated sequences (such as Mowgli and Baloo singing “Bare Necessities” down the river) in realistic CGI.

The choice to cast well-known actors in the main CGI roles also turns out to be a questionable decision. While Ben Kingsley and Idris Elba are used well, and the plodding plot certainly picks up with the introduction of Baloo (Bill Murray), Murray isn’t so much acting here as doing his own shtick which, while entertaining, works against creating the seamless reality needed to sell the story.

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Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
  • IMDB: link

Mandela: Long Walk to FreedomAdapted by sreeenwriter William Nicholson, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is a solid biopic based on the autobiography of Nelson Mandela (Idris Elba). After a brief montage of his life as a child and a glimpse at his role as an attorney in Johannesburg, the film focuses primarily on the events that led to his involvement with the ANC as a leading voice in the fight against apartheid (without getting too specific about his exact role when the organization moved away from nonviolent resistance) and his eventual imprisonment of 27 years for his crimes.

The highlight of the film is the performances, particularly Elba taking on such a daunting role and Naomie Harris as Mandela’s wife Winnie who we see faced several of her own hardships. During the early part of Mandela’s imprisonment the film’s focus momentarily shifts to Winnie’s various battles against the government including her own incarceration. The film introduces the idea of how Nelson and Winnie both react differently to their situations but, as with other aspects of the story, the theme is presented but never fully developed.

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Thor: The Dark World

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Thor: The Dark World
  • IMDb: link

Thor: The Dark World

Trading in directors and screenwriters (only one of the six credited here for story and screenplay were involved in the first film), Thor: The Dark World proves to be a solid follow-up to director Kenneth Branagh‘s 2001 origin story for Marvel Studios’ version of Thor. With nearly the entire cast of characters already introduced in the first film director Alan Taylor and his half-dozen writers can take the time to delve a little deeper in the supporting cast and give several characters from the previous film stand-out moments in the sequel.

I keep mention the number of writers on Thor: The Dark World because the script itself does feel like an odd mix of concepts and mashed-up designs that don’t always quite work. There is plenty to question in both film’s villain (Christopher Eccleston), an odd amalgam of Star Trek and Lord of the Rings, which to be fair so is much of Thor’s lore which jumbles sci-fi and fantasy with relish, and His quest to destroy all of creation with magic floaty water (that is shown mostly as smoke because apparently the CGI folks couldn’t decides what the “Aether” should actually be).

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Luther – Series Three, Episode Four

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Luther – Series Three, Episode Four
  • wiki: link

Luther - Series Three, Episode Four

The final episode of Series Three begins with Luther (Idris Elba) arrested by Gray (Nikki Amuka-Bird) and Stark (David O’Hara) and charged as an accomplice in vigilante Tom Marwood’s (Elliot Cowan) murder of Ripley (Warren Brown) and attempted murder of Mary Day (Sienna Guillory). Despite not being complicit at all in either attack, Stark and Gray bend the facts in a way to make them prove the version of Luther they believe is true. However, the pair quickly loose their prisoner in transport when Luther is abducted by a masked figure who turns out to be Luther’s old friend Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson).

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Luther – Series Three, Episode Three

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Luther – Series Three, Episode Three
  • wiki: link

Luther - Series Three, Episode Three

Luther (Idris Elba) and  Ripley (Warren Brown) search for a vigilante (Elliot Cowan) still mourning his dead wife and using social media to get the public on his side as he hunts down and murders recently released convicts (rapists, gangbangers, and pedophiles) in the name of justice. Meanwhile, Gray (Nikki Amuka-Bird) and Stark (David O’Hara) try a different tack to get under Luther’s skin by scaring Mary (Sienna Guillory) and convincing Luther’s new girlfriend that the man she’s been seeing is responsible for his ex-wife‘s (Indira Varma) death. Before the end of the episode both storylines will converge in tragedy as Gray and Stark will be given all the ammunition they need to properly charge Luther and the detective will loose yet another person close to him to violence.

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