Snoopy, Come Home! – REVIEW

November 2015 is shaping up to be a big month for the Peanuts comic franchise. It marks the 65th anniversary of the debut of the Peanuts comic strips, it marks the 50th anniversary of the classic Charlie Brown Christmas special, it marks the release of the Peanuts Movie, and there are so many occasions coming up that make me want to view Peanuts cartoon. So this month, I’m reviewing a Peanuts movie and TV special every day in November.

Today’s review coincides with Snoopy receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, so I took a look at Snoopy’s biggest role in the 1972 animated movie, Snoopy, Come Home! The highly-popular beagle has a knack for fitting in with the gang. He’s a dog that likes to live like humans do. However, he’s having a little trouble going to public places that don’t allow dogs. On top of that situation, as well as the poor mistreatment from the others, he ditches town to visit his hospitalized pen pal, Lila. It is revealed that Lila is not only his pen pal, but she was also his previous owner before Charlie Brown came along. This movie not only provides a little of the iconic beagle’s background, but it also teaches a lesson that dogs are a lot like humans and they need the same amount of love and attention from their owners.

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby – Movie Review

Yesterday, I went to see The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby for a pre-release screening by Louisiana International Film Festival. As the directorial debut for Ned Benson, this movie stars James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain as a young married couple that eventually crumbles. It is a combination of three short films: Him, told from the perspective of James McAvoy’s character, Connor, Her, told from the perspective of Jessica Chastain’s character, Eleanor, and Them, which features their relationship.

Truth be told, I wanted to like this movie a lot more. Some of the parts were very intriguing, and then some other parts were like watching paint dry. The romantic scenes with both of them together were the most interesting and fascinating. Their chemistry together was great, and their connection was felt and natural. With the two separate perspectives, however, I was drifting in and out. At one point, I even dozed off. Both perspectives were unbalanced, as I felt like there were more parts with Eleanor than there were with Connor. Or at least, I got more out of Eleanor than Connor. From Connor’s side, it was a decent tale, but there wasn’t a lot of his story coming out, and it wasn’t very exciting or interesting, even with the addition of Stuart (Bill Hader). Eleanor’s side was a lot more dominant, and it was a mixed bag. It provided more interest, thanks to the subplot with Eleanor and her sister Katy (Jess Weixler). At the same time, some of that was repelling. The actions and behaviors that I got came across as redundant, childish and stand-offish. In other words, the subplot has a yin and a yang.

The approach that Ned Benson took was very original and rare. He built a full-length story out of three short films that all tie in together. It’s a very inventive approach, and someday, there’s going to be a filmmaker out there that gets it 100% right. Sadly, for The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, the narrative structure felt disoriented. As a whole, the movie was lost in translation. The objective was understandable, which was to showcase how they fell in love and where the marriage fell apart, but it was tough to interpret that from beginning to end. Pulp Fiction is one of many examples that pull off a great movie with a non-linear narrative. This movie was nowhere near that level, but it did a good job in its efforts. Also, there were more things that I felt needed to be elaborated on. The story was lacking a lot of things that would’ve carried out the premise successfully. Instead, it only felt somewhat unfulfilled.

If I can separate those short films and judge them by themselves, they would’ve been very successful. They are very genuine stories, they had some almost superb acting performances, and their intentions were very smart. In my personal opinion, taking these three short films and merging them to create a 2-hour movie resulted in a jumbled narrative. The objective of the story got lost in the shuffle, the plan went halfway, or maybe too many ways, and in the end, there was some emptiness left inside. Not just for our two lead characters, but also for the viewer that went in with high expectations. Perhaps, they needed to be combined in order to tell the same story, but it would’ve been better off as a side-by-side collection of short films, or at least it should’ve been given a better structure. Yet, this was the movie that I ended up getting, which was OK overall, but I expected more. Eh, it happens.

Score: 50/100

Harry Potter vs. Twilight

Now that Harry Potter has wrapped up, we compare this franchise with the Twilight saga, and it wasn’t even close.

 

Harry Potter vs. Twilight

 

Round 1: Hero Worship

 

Harry Potter’s franchise title says it all. The boy who lived has sparked a phenomenon of fanatics that people can look up to in their nerdish ways. But even in his weakest moments, the story ropes in his most trusted allies for the job. In Twilight, the real heroes are the vampires, but with Bella as the main character, the least she can do is make a decision or be put in a stressful situation where lives are at stake.

 

Winner: Harry Potter. We also like to give honorable mention to the supporting characters as well.

 

Round 2: Critic Reception

 

Harry Potter’s film adaptations began in 2001. Since then, it has always been a critic-approved franchise. On Rotten Tomatoes, each movie has been certified Fresh, with the two lowest near the upper 70s. The Twilight Saga is the exact opposite, with New Moon taking a beating from critics that usually hate films that only please mainstream culture. However, Eclipse did make improvement, becoming the series’ highest mark at 50%. This information ought to inspire screenwriters for the last two films.

 

Winner: Harry Potter, with an average rating of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes.

 

Round 3: Supporting Cast

 

Like we said back in round 1, even our heroes need a cushion to fall on. The Twilight Saga has a backup plan for vampires with werewolves, who came to Bella’s safety against Victoria. But outside that battle, the producers have confused us on whether they truly have this war between them or not. Not even Bella’s human friends can help, let alone get more airtime on the regular basis. In Harry Potter, he has a whole school behind him, even Severus Snape. He even formed an army and named it “Dumbledore’s Army”. Moreso, they came through when he couldn’t. Like in Deathly Hallows Part II, where Neville slayed the snake.

 

Winner: Harry Potter’s allies win, while Twilight should be thankful that Anna Kendrick got nominated for an Oscar outside the franchise.

 

Round 4: Romance

 

Harry Potter established a number of relationships over time with Ron and Hermoine, Harry and his best friend’s sister Ginny, and whatever masculine guy wizard Dumbledore fell in love with off-script. The problem with Potter in here is that it wasn’t too serious on love and kept everyone wondering. Twilight was a full-fledged romance novel, making fans prior to the films. The reason why Twilight works here is that it was something for hopeless romantics.

 

Winner: Say what you will, but Twilight does make their marketing strategy pay off.

 

Round 5: Novels

 

Both Harry Potter and Twilight came from successful book series, so we observed what each timeline was and was it followed right. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling made controversy with keeping readers on edge with how she will end everything, but she managed to not rub anyone off and the films stayed true to the timeline. Referring back to round 2, Twilight films weren’t loved by critics. The main problems, other than its cheesy appeal is that they rarely follow the timeline of each book, leaving parts of the book out that might have been better than what made the final cut.

 

Winner: Harry Potter. Stephenie Meyer has one person to thank for this defeat: the person who leaked what would have been the final book.

 

Round 6: Usage of Robert Pattinson

 

While the books have a lot in common with each other, the films have one true link between one another: Robert Pattinson. Harry Potter first had him first as Cedric Diggory long before there was a Twilight film franchise and around the same time that its book franchise had begun. Three years later, Twilight roped him in and became teenage girls’ dream husband everywhere, glitter and all. Part of it is all J.K. Rowling’s fault. If she didn’t make the producers kill Cedric off, we wouldn’t be comparing these two franchises today.

 

Winner: Twilight for making his character dead and undead at the same time for the whole time, while in Potter, he was one and done.

 

Round 7: Directorial Guidance

 

Harry Potter had a number of directors during the eight-film timeline. The first two were directed by Home Alone director Chris Columbus, then handed it off to Alfonso Cuaron for what could be the best Potter film: The Prisoner of Azkaban. For #4, the director was Mike Newell, but for the second half of the franchise, David Yates took the reigns and stayed on board for the rest of the time, making the series even better. With Twilight, they had different directors for every book. They didn’t even have a static producer like Potter’s David Heyman.

 

Winner: Harry Potter, thanks to finding a director that works late in the game.

 

Round 8: Box Office

 

Harry Potter doesn’t even make a contest. The first one grossed over $310 million in America and was until now the best grossing here. Potter’s only low grosser was #3, despite a great man directing it. But once they found what they were looking for, each film topped itself. While no movie grossed more than $400 million in America, several of its films grossed over a billion worldwide. Currently, Deathly Hallows Part 2 became the best weekend opening ever with its early availability. While it suffered afterwards, with competition every week like Captain America, Rise of the Apes, and some movie with Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, it kept a good pace. It outgrossed the first movie and could outgross Transformers 3 by the time you read this.

 

Winner: Harry Potter wins so majorly that Breaking Dawn’s two-part finale has lots of ground to make up.

 

Final Round: Impact

 

After reviewing each round up to now, we examine overall performance. This Twilight vs. Harry Potter matchup can be similar to a boy band rivalry, with Harry is to Twilight as Backstreet Boys are to NSYNC. In other words, Twilight creates a much publicized frenzy, but Harry’s legacy will last longer afterwards.

 

Winner: Harry Potter. But all bets are off once The Hobbit is released.