Movie Review: Frozen

 

Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my Movie Review in Christmas Edition.

Yes, my friends, its Christmas season as usual in December. But you know what we like to be in December, which is the beginning of winter? Snowing. Yes, snow is always the freezing droppings from the sky to building a snowman, playing snowballs, doing a work of art and forcing ourselves to shoveling when we gotta dealing with heavy snows and snow bank that you’d rather melting them down with fire…!! But im getting ahead of myself. So with all the snowing, but what if I told you that we have a queen with ice powers in animated feature? Well, Disney is certainly giving us our answers more than 10 years ago.

“Frozen” is a 2013 animated fantasy musical film that was written/directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, produced by Peter Del Vecho and co-written by Shane Morris.

Long before we have Frozen, that was a couple of attempt to making a package film based on Hans Christian Andersen, some includes The Little Mermaid (which we all know how it turned out before it came out in 1989) and The Snow Queen. This supposed project is going to be a hybrid film between animation segments into live action to explaining about the success of Hans Christian Andersen. However, the package film plan didn’t make on development due to back in the late 30s to early 40s, Walt Disney was in struggle due the flops that he won’t be able to push the productions, leaving a package film based on Anderson was thrown out.

But Disney’s adaptation of The Snow Queen wouldn’t be until in the 90s (which was Disney’s Renaissance), they were planned to make their own adaptation with Glen Keane, but once again, canned due to Keane called it quit, that is until he worked on Tangled. However, it turns out many attempts that they really want to make an adaptation of The Snow Queen was a complete Fuster Cluck with all the step up and step downs, along negotiation gone wrong between then Disney CEO Michael Eisner and then Pixar’s boss (and pre-self-destruction man) John Lasseter, until Eisner was eventually resigned and Bob Iger took the role.

Anyway, the development wouldn’t be until Chris Buck stepped in (after leaving Sony) after John Lasseter came to a suggestion to make a movie based on The Snow Queen, which Buck agreed to be not only the director, but also as a story writer, and at the same time, Peter Del Vecho threw is hat in the ring as a producer. While they’re writing for the story, its gonna be a loose inspired story based on Anderson’s version to be a typical fairy tale story about princess meets the prince unlikely, but with Snow Queen. But the biggest drawback for Buck and Del Vecho is the depiction of Snow Queen, she was originally going to be the main villain like in the original tale, but in their original plan Snow Queen (who’ll later named Elsa) comes out to ruining the marriage by kidnapping Anna and using ice powers to freezing the entire kingdom with Prince Hans coming to save Anne against Elsa. But alas, it will be too complicated for their draft, it wouldn’t be until Jennifer Lee stepped in for helping them to change the story, making it going soft to be a musical and comedy than an action adventure film, along with changing Elsa’s role from evil Snow Queen to Anna’s sister with ice power. Plus, the movie was originally going to be done in hand-drawn animation much like The Princess and The Frog and 2011 Winnie The Pooh, but decided to ditched the 2D film into a CG animated film to featuring stereoscopic 3D.

When Frozen welcoming us to Arendelle on November 27^th 2013, it was one of the BIGGEST Disney’s animated film ever, critics and audience love this so much from the writing, the animation, fun voice acting and the songs, which they considered it once of the best film ever made since Disney’s Renaissance. The box-office was a Bit Hit to earning $1.280B, making Frozen currently stand in 5^th place of the highest-grossing animated films, even though the sequel, Frozen 2 is currently in 3^rd place, leaving Super Mario Bros movie got sandwiched by Anna and Elsa.

As for my experience, I’ve heard about this movie that I was curiously interested, but didn’t have a chance to see it, until eventually bought a DVD of it. I watched it and I enjoyed watching this movie. Even when I rewatched it on Disney+, it still a great movie.

So it makes you asked, does this movie is worth of bring out to Arendelle, or is this film that some controversially called it “Overrated” (if “Let it go” is in our ear worm)?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

While its no stranger its meant to be based on The Snow Queen, but more of an inspiration for their creative liberty. But as for the story and the writing, its actually pretty good.

Taking place in Norway fantasy themed land called “Arendelle”, where we introduce the twin sisters, Anna and Elsa. At first when they’re in home, they love to playing together with snow, thanks to Elsa’s ice power, especially creating their imaginary friend Olaf the snowman (though not yet to be alive). But then, an unfortunate accident struck in when Elsa accidentally hits her sister with her ice power, injuring her in cold, along with Elsa’s high risk of her power from her fear, resulting her parents bring them to the colony of trolls with Grand Pabbie accepts to healing Anna (which thankfully its on her head, not on heart), but had no choice to clearing her memory from Elsa’s power. And at the same time, they’re also forced to separate in two rooms to leaving Elsa isolated in her own room without Anna, and wearing her gloves to prevent her power getting out of hand (no pun attended), her anxiety is nearly reaching high. But to add another smack in the face in tragedy, upon grown to adulthood, their parents are leaving for two weeks, but alas, they were caught by a storm with waves, killing them in the sea, leaving Anna and Elsa on their own in their castle. Fast forward to three years later, its coronation day that Elsa is declared as the Queen of Arendelle, ready to open the gate giving public a second chance to see them again, much of concerning dismay to Elsa herself, since she’s not ready due to her struggling to control her power, while Anna is hyping up to see people “For the first time in forever” (literally for the song, more on that later). After the coronation, Anna is appreciated to see Elsa out of isolation for more chance to shine together, that is until Anna meets Prince Hans for their falling door opening of love, much of dismay to Elsa. Which when Anna tries to explain this, but Elsa’s fear has reached the boiling point that after accidentally got her glove snatches, her power snaps and ran away. Its up to Anna, along with meeting an iceman name Kristoff with reindeer Sven to going there to finding Elsa to clearing the point.

I gotta say, while its no stranger to be nothing to do with Snow Queen, but its actually a pretty good, original and fun story, its more about a sibling struggle based on one of them is struggling to use powers and fearing prediction what she’ll become in the future, while the other one is trying to help her to think positive, even if trying to clearing the point will be difficult due memory from what happened was wiped out, which sounds, on paper at least, but that’s just me. The first act is nice and probably emotional start how we thought it will be fun to see Elsa using her power, but when accident happens, it’ll unfortunately becoming a downfall, because without a help to Elsa, it will becoming disaster, and now Anna is gotta find Elsa her to clearing this out, without going much worse. It may have some flaw, but its a pretty good writing. There’s also a plot element to finding out the “True Love” part, which I find it to be rather odd, in many fairy tale stories (if you’ve watching Disney films), finding a true love is no stranger when our main heroes are dreaming to see who likes to get along, especially for winning the battle with “The Power of Love”, I know its pretty cliché, but again, true love in fairy tales are predictable at best. But in this movie they kept in secret to know who’s the true love for Anna, at first, I was like “Yeah, this whole true love thing is just worthless”, until I was eventually realizing it’s a secret plot convenient which wouldn’t be until we find out in the third act, along with a backstabbing plot twist, but il save that later. But of course, while the movie has a drama about a struggling sister relationship that left into separation, but it also has humors, and find the humors are actually fun to listen and its almost like a self-aware, not full on, but still, whether good timing or even a fun delivery. One of my favorite is when Anna first meet from she asking for winter clothes at Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna or even when they’re in chariot, especially the latter that I like their build up chemistry from explaining about her situation to not all men are good and cleaned (including nose picking and eat a chunks… Yeah, been there back in my childhood and I regret it), its actually both fun and somewhat related. Though sometimes, not all humors are perfect, there are some that unfortunately being forced or even wasting time, one of which is when Anna and Kristoff go to the tribe of trolls with wasting our times with their song. That’s just one downside for the humor, while the rest are enjoy, fun and again, relatable.

The story of this movie is very good for all that we can relate a serious issues from sibling problems to teasing us about the “true love”, while the humors are good, but its not 100% perfect, but still enjoyable.

The Animation

The movie’s budget is surprisingly low (not as lower) that it costed $150M, and on its presentation of its animation and the songs, they look beautiful and memorable.

For starter, remember when I said on Arendelle being fantasy themed Norway? Well, its exactly their purpose. According to art director named Michael Giaimo, during the pre-production, he had to do a research about the presentation of the land of Scandinavia how land looks like, along with, in order to make village looks right, he visited a Danish-themed town called Solvang, California, which is located near from Los Angeles. I gotta say, the village in Solvang (which translates to “Sunny Field” from Danish language) looks surprisingly beautiful and peaceful, almost like we wanna take a trip to Denmark, which I guess it explained why they took inspiration setting to make the village in Arendelle. But it wasn’t JUST Solvang, California for their research and inspiration, the team flew to Norway to studying and sketching the landscape from mountains, fjords, architecture and even the culture. The producer, Peter Del Vecho, said that they had to take a short schedule trip for not just learning and drawing on Norway, but also fitting for the story to impressing Lasseter. Another challenging for the background is winter theme, they went into Jackson Hole, Wyoming during winter season, in order to learning how they move from deep snowing with various outfits, and of course, if you’re familiar about Elsa’s creation of ice palace and even the challenging of the lighting and reflect, its mainly due to the team visiting at Ice Hotel, which is surprisingly located on Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier, Quebec, Canada and to this day, its one of the oldest ice themed hotel since 2001. I never been there (despite im currently and also in Province Quebec in Canada) but I will say, this ice hotel in Quebec is surprisingly beautiful, creative and most impressive, I guess its not hard to see why they went there for studying the lighting and the realism of the ice and snow effect.

So what they did for the land of Arendelle is surprisingly well done and beautiful with mix of green, blue and gray for its village and even in the landscape. And when its eternal winter, boy they’re taking it a challenging level from the nature with snow, the snow and ice sculpture and even the aforementioned ice palace.

For the effects and the design, they’re always did an impressive work, not just how people wearing clothing in Norway fashion, but also the magic in winter themed, its mainly they wanna blending a unique style on both CGI and traditional hand-drawn (well almost for the latter), which they pulled the similar technique from Tangled. The character design is, once again, no stranger they had to pulled a similar design from Glenn Keane, based on blending classic design into 3D today, but still, they look pretty fascinating and inspirational for the fans of the design, especially their clothing they’re pretty nice, decorative and somewhat colorful, this is mainly due to studying for the Norway’s folk costume in circa 19^th century, which is at least what the character designer Jean Gillmore came for the challenging design, not just the characters, but the clothing as well. As for the effects, the snow and ice are outstanding for the way its smooth, stick to clothing and the magical when Elsa pulls, like I said the magical snow/ice effect is somewhat close to be in 2D animation, but again, its for the effects, while the ice and snow in natural were done in 3D, but still they did an impressive work.

As for the animation, once again the movements, the effects and such are pretty damn good for its smooth, realism and well-craft, ranging from human movements that are well done and again, realistic, to even some are fictional like a creature animation from trolls (in their rock form, nice touch there), Olaf the snowman and even the snow monster, they’re ranging from standard to slightly cartoony animation, but still they’re pretty good and creative.

But of course, since this is Disney movie, the last part to be mentioned are the songs, they’re actually memorable, along with some that are my favorite.

The first from the opening is called “Frozen Heart”, which is basically working as icemen in winter season, its the equivalent of “Off to a good start”, almost like my underrated. Imagine “Mine mine mine” from Pocahontas, but less greedy.

The second the first memorable one “Do you want a build a snowman?”, which is after the accident that became the major problem from changing, Anna wants to see her sister Elsa again, but alas, it became clear that, due to Elsa’s forced isolation from the build up fear from her ice power, it was a start of partial split. It starts out pretty cute that Anna wants a second chance, but again, everything went down from overwhelmed by fear for Elsa to tragic loss of their parents, Anna really wants to rebuild a sibling connection like building a snowman, but again, it was doomed from the start from a freak accident, pretty good, cute and uneasy how we feel.

After that, its “For the first time in forever”, which is basically Anna’s own song in her excitement of reopening the gate to everyone can come in for Elsa’s coronation, but much in dismay for Elsa. I find it pretty good to listen, building up to bringing back the glory when the gate is reopened after been shut down for several years, along with nearly sharing us the world building of Arendelle. I may like it this one, but not my favorite.

Then there’s “Love is an open door”, where its simply a love song for both Anna and Prince Hans, since when she saw him, as the name implies, opens her door for their relation. Its more like a mix of romantic and comedic in this song, its nice and catchy one, but again, I may like this one, but give it a pass, which maybe im not a fan of the lyric, but again, its not the worst song ever, its just a give it a pass.

Of course, how could we ever forget one of the most iconic song “Let it go”, this is the equivalent of the main event song, where Elsa is now freeing herself with ice powers and of course, building her ice palace, which it looks so damn beautiful and creative. If you ask me, im not liking this song, I love this song with beautiful animation sequence of this song, a perfect fitting for Elsa after been causing trouble, a beautiful composed song and Idina Menzel did a great job of her singing performance. I guess its not hard to hear why there’s a cover version from Demi Moore. But sure, while I love this song, but I can understand some calling this one “overrated” for being an ear worm, but what are you gonna do about it when this song received an Oscar for “Best Original Song”.

Next, there’s “In Summer” which is pretty much after introducing Olaf while helping Elsa to preventing winter in eternity, Olaf loves to see and feel like going to summer. I find this song is okay, again, not the worst song ever, its another song that il give it a pass, but of course, il give a credit for Josh Gad’s singing performance

Last, but not least, and probably the worst one “Fixer Upper”, which is the trolls’ song that they think Anna and Kristoff are in relationship for their “true love”, but SPOILER ALERT, she’s meant to get a true love relationship to Prince Hans (insert foreshadowing moment, more on that later). I think it safe to say, this is the most unnecessary and time wasting song ever, when Anna is in danger that her heart is caught freezing in life threatening form Elsa’s overwhelming of fear with her power’s going out of control! I mean for god’s sake, what was the excuse for? Fill in for another comedic song when we already have “In Summer” or “Love is an open door”? I mean come on, there’s NO excuse to giving a god forsaken song from these trolls…!! Im sorry, im just being taking too much pressure over this time wasting song, I know its not their fault that they wanna make something new, but il give a credit to the singers, but again, the execution is just wasting our time before we’re going to the third act.

While the songs are nowhere perfect, but they gave us some great songs, but so do to the animation for its beauty, creative and enjoyable to see.

The Characters

While the writing is very good, the same could be said for the characters? Well, absolutely, my friend, but in this movie, they gave us the most memorable ones.

Lets start off with our main princess (at the time), Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell), she’s the young, fearless and optimistic princess that, while she wants to see Elsa to be confident with opening the gate to see more people to coming in, along with curiously meets Hans. I find her to be enjoyable, since she’s more on a lighter side princess compare to Elsa, being open-minded, fun and generous that even she wants to the public, but also loves her sister Elsa, even if it wasn’t easy from the start. But of course, Kristen did a memorable performance of her role, especially with her singing.

Next is probably my favorite one in the movie, Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel), she’s the older sister of the family and the only one who has ice powers, while she likes to get used it, but once accident occurs, everything went down that her fear has grown, even for her struggling to control her power, especially she’s meant to be the queen of Arendelle, though, much like Anna, I would like to see her being confident to control her power and eventually her chance to shine for her chemistry with sister Anna, but then again, her fear is overwhelming her. Though I know she’s meant to be Snow Queen, but as we all know, she’s not the most threatening one in Arendelle, it was all of mix of fear and misunderstood who she is instead of being the menace from her power, we can definitely feel sorry for her from the people viewing her because of her powers, cause as Uncle Ben always said “With Great Power, comes Great Responsibility”. But of course, Menzel kicked ass of her performance of Elsa, along with her memorable song “Let it go”.

After that, we have Kristoff (voiced by Jonathan Groff), he’s an iceman who usually working to deliver ice cubes in winter season, but he usually like to hanging out with his trusty reindeer Sven. I also find him fascinating, sure we may assuming that he’s going to be Anna’s love interest (despite the love triangle part for our guessing game who’s her true love or not), but more like her partner to finding Elsa in snowing quest. But I think he’s also enjoyable for chemistry to Anna or even having fun to hanging out and making imagination voice of Sven, and Groff does a great and fun work of his role.

Then we have Olaf (voiced by Josh Gad), a living snowman who also act as new sidekick to Anna, and a comedic role in this movie. While Kristoff plays as Anna’s partner and sorta comedic role, Olaf is more of a comedic role, curious, playful and clumsy with being detached from obstacles. I think he’s also enjoyable, even he’s kinda cute as Anna and Elsa’s imaginary snowman to life. Aside his song aren’t as good (in my opinion), but Gad did a fun work of his performance as fun and curious living snowman.

And finally, we have Hans (voiced by Santino Fontana), he’s the prince from Southern Isles when Anna first encounters him, which at first, he’s going to be her love interest, like any traditional fairy tale stories when princess meets a prince. However, unlike Prince Charming, he’s much more protective that he wants her safe because of Elsa’s threat what he sees her. At first, you may think he’s just another prince who wants to save a princess, but like I said, while he’s charming and handsome, but he can be… Too protective and… Too good to be we Anna. But lets just save the last part at the third and final act. While he maybe an over the top, but I think he’s somewhat fascinating one, even if he could be too good to be with Anna. So imagine him as Gaston, but more of a brain than brawn, and Fontana did a great job to playing as Hans and perfectly fitting voice for him.

As for the rest of the casts, there aren’t anything else to say, most of them are either for plot developments, some humors or just there.

There’s Grand Pabbie (voiced by Ciaran Hinds, aka Steppenwolf from DCEU’s Justice League) is the king of trolls who gives us prediction for the plots whether it’ll work or not, Duke of Weselton (voiced by Alan Tudyk, aka Duke Weaselton from Zootopia, due to name in joke) is the first person who’s seen Elsa as a “Witchcraft”, Oaken (voiced by Chris Williams) is a big and fun owner of trading post and has a sauna (that’s a weird combination), and King Agnarr and Queen Iduna (voiced by Maurice LeMarche and Frozen’s co-director Jennifer Lee), who’re Anna and Elsa’s late parents for their protection and their responsible to close the gate for their concern before they came to untimely death when they’re sailing away.

The characters in this movie are no strangers that we love them for their fun performance, relatable and of course, lovable.

SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t seen the movie, if you don’t mind

The final act is quite unusual and of course, one that ended up becoming the biggest backstabbing moments in Disney film, for the time before those plot twist parts are overused, but long story.

After Elsa’s fatal accident of blasting ice power on Anna’s chest, a trolls’ time wasting, Anna and Kristoff are asking Grand Pabbie to healing her, but alas, it won’t work, cause it’ll be impossible to heal. The only way to save herself is to have a true love’s kiss, mainly from Hans, so they heading back to Arendelle. Meanwhile, Hans and his army are reaching to the ice palace to breaking in to hunting Elsa, but she tries to fight back against his army, but again, overwhelmed by her fear, she was taken to the prison, despite she’s gonna be waiting for Anna, or so we think, based on Hans. Thankfully, Kristoff has arrived with Anna, but the concern is rising that she’s dying from frozen heart, which is gonna be a right time to having Anna having a true love’s kiss, right?

Well, NO…

Instead, it was all setup from Hans that instead of kissing her, he chooses to potentially becoming the hero and ruler of Arendelle by planning to kill Elsa and forcing Anna to marrying, or taste the cold bloodshed if she refuses. So he locked her up and lying the dukes about Anna’s death from Elsa, which again, planning to murdering Elsa, despite Anna is struggling her own life. Elsa’s power is getting too much in the prison that she ends up creating a blizzard and using too much ice that she easily broke free, leaving Hans reaching his boiling point of betrayal to finding her, while Anna is about to die from freezing while being locked, thankfully, the door is unlocked by Olaf, despite learning about the betrayal, believing Kristoff is going to be her true love, so Anna and Olaf are breaking out of the castle to finding Kristoff in the middle of Elsa’s blizzard, while at the same time, Elsa is trying to hiding herself from Hans’s death sentencing at her. Once Kristoff arrives, it will be too late for Anna and at the same time, Hans found Elsa, pulls out his sword in attempt to kill her, fearing from losing her sister, Anna sacrifices to save her sister from her so-called “lover” Hans, completely freezing her to death in front of Elsa. But it wasn’t until Anna is slowly thaws, resurrecting from frozen heart to find out the true love will thaw the frozen heart, its mainly to stay connect with sisters together, which pretty much means love breaks Elsa’s fear and isolation to eventually feeling both confident and controlling her power, along with forgiving Anna for what happened (Yeah, the whole loving the sister is odd, but like I said before, its always difficult to connect when it comes to sibling relationship in the name of love and family). Meanwhile, Hans is briefly return for what happened, but Anna is no longer trusting the betrayer like him by giving him a satisfying Sucker Punch and sending him back where he belongs. And in the end, Kristoff and Sven received a gift from Anna with new wagon and giving him a duty as a delivery man, much of appreciation to him to giving her a kiss, Olaf enjoys to see the true color of summer (though he has a snowing cloud to keeping himself alive without melting, while Anna and Elsa are promising together to never closing gate ever again and they live happily ever after.

The final act is quite of rollercoaster ride, aside of time wasting song from trolls, but its pretty unexpected to have a prince betrayal to breaking the traditional love in fairy tale (kinda controversial, but hey, il give a credit). Sure the whole love of sister is odd, but again, this is meant to reconnect together with the power of sister. And of course, since we saw what Hans did is downright mean spirited for betraying Anna with lies, again, its satisfying for what he deserves.

And now for my final opinion of this film.

Overall, Frozen is quite of fun movie for being (formerly) a Disney Princess film, and its not hard to see why this movie was a BIG deal.

Despite the movie have some problems like a small flaw at the final act and one time wasting song, but its still a great movie with pretty good story, well written that we can relate with serious problems, beautiful animation, some fascinating songs, its funny and of course, they gave us memorable characters, especially I like Elsa (well I like Anna too, but still Elsa was like my waifu when I was 19).

This is Definitely a Must-Watch film for Disney fans and maybe even Andersen fans. Sure its more creative liberty and inspired form Snow Queen story than based on, but il give a credit what they wanted to make something different, I know its not easy for changing similar to Tangled, but still they did do their best and their succeeded. So if you wanna see this movie, get your friends and family together and watch it either physically or in streaming like Disney+. Cause im sure you’re gonna like it, well, depending if you like it or not, but il let you drawing your conclusion.

While the movie is close to be perfect, but it didn’t make a perfection by some flaws. When it comes to my rating, im gonna give this one a 9/10, along with earning the Trophy of Success.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Anthony like to say as always, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy Birthday to Jesus Christ. Though i have one more movie in 2024, but save it after the celebration. And Il see you guys in 2025.

Movie Review: Kraven The Hunter

 WARNING: The following review contains Strong Language. Readers discretion is advised.

(sigh) Hey guys… Im Anthony and welcome back to my Movie Review…

You know… As a fan of Spider-Man, I’ve always wanting to see something new when they’re giving us a movies involving villains and others, especially I was expecting to giving us another new role of Spider-Man, but boy was I wrong…! When they gave us the third and final one that same out this year. (groan) I feel like im not ready for this…!

“Kraven The Hunter” is a 2024 Superhero film that was directed by J. C. Chandor, produced by Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach and David Householter, and written by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway.

The idea of the movie wasn’t originated as a standalone film, but rather a supposed plans to having Kraven into Spider-Man movies before MCU or Sony’s own universe. Around after developing or releasing Spider-Man 3, our old friend Sam Raimi wanted to have Kraven on Spider-Man 4 as a villain, despite it was supposed to having The Vulture, but as I said in my review of Spider-Man 3, it was canned. After the release of The Amazing Spider-Man, Marc Webb was planned to have Kraven either in the sequel or a tease to having Sinister Six in the end via cliffhanger, but because The Amazing Spider-Man 2 got flopped, it was thrown out too. After MCU introduced Spider-Man in “Captain America: Civil War” and his first MCU standalone film “Spider-Man: Homecoming”, Sony would like to have Kraven in MCU, but they changed their mind to bringing him into their own cinematic universe to give Kraven as standalone film, but had been delayed to be released due to the Hollywood Labors Strike. Even though when they were planned during the starting of their cinematic universe with Venom, they were thinking that they wanted make an adaptation of “Kraven’s Last Hunt”, but decided to ditched it for focusing on his origin, at least what the writer Richard Wenk was hoped for when he stepped in to write his own take of Kraven following his release of “The Equalizer 2”.

But alas, this movie is released the same year as Venom: The Last Dance and Madame Web, this year was an absolute Shit Show that they’ve gave us a very bad results. In fact, a week before I released my review, Sony was announced that, because of the financial Fuck Ups and delays from the aforementioned labors strike, Kraven the Hunter is going to be the last film in Sony’s own Spider-Man Universe. That’s only Six films in their cinematic universe, this is even less and pretty weak to bad compare to DC Extended Universe that it has 16 movies before WB and DC Studio rebooted their cinematic universe, but I digress.

But after watching it… (groans) I still feel like im dreaded to talking about this final FU film from Sony’s Fuck Up take of their own cinematic universe…!

Lets find out…!

The Story

While il give a credit to make something new, but the execution is anything but…!

After giving us a moment when our main hero, Sergei Kravinoff escapes the prison to going back to the wild in Russia, the movie brings us to the origin in teenage years. After the mother took her own life, Sergei, his brother Dmitri and his father Nikolai are setting themselves up for drug trafficking. But when they’re on a hunting trip in Africa, Sergei sees a lion, he tries to shoot it, but refuses in concern, but got threatened by a gunshot by Nikolai, causing the lion bites Sergei and carrying him out of nowhere, laying and dying. But it wouldn’t be until we meet a girl from Africa named Calypso who hears the lion attack and Sergei’s dying to healing him with her serum (that was created by her grandma before she passed away), along giving her card of Tarot to him before he was rescued, which not only he’s survived, but also giving him animalistic powers like see far away, speed, agility and skilled fighting, hunting and camouflage. Once he comes back home to see his father and brother, but unfortunately, due to being having enough of families criminal activity and seeing a display of lion’s head, he left on his own to be sanctuary (in other words, he goes into a mix between Tarzan and Rambo). Fast Forward to 16 years later, Sergei, now renamed as “Kraven The Hunter” is now a lone vigilante in the forest,killing anybody on his way for ransom. But after reuniting with his brother Dmitri for his birthday, he leaves outside (because… He’s distracted from air vent to catch a fresh air??), but upon waking up, his brother was captured by a group of mercenaries, run by Aleksei Sytsevich (aka Rhino) and his partner as Foreigner. But after getting rejected by his father for ransom, he looks after Calypso (now as lawyer) to working together to not only save Dmitri, but also facing against Aleksei once and for all.

Now, the story sounds basic as you can get that its all about saving Kraven’s brother from the group of mercenaries, but alas, the writing, not only it just came off as too basic, but it was nothing but both boring and a mess, since it tried too hard to giving us a developments from either our heroes, the message or such, but most of them are either lackluster, no effort and lazy. One of which is a subplot that Kraven gets a cheap advice from his father Nikolai to “control his fear”. Oh gee, a superhero movie about control your fear? I never heard that one before… What’s worst is that despite we like to see Kraven vs Rhino and Foreigner, but writing is unfortunately is such a mess that instead of two, they gave us three with the inclusion of Nikolai to have a dysfunctional relationship between Kraven, Nikolai and Dmitri, especially cheap from name-calling coward based on being into fear, along with kid vs father is also been overused since Star Wars. But of course, I kinda feels like they wanna add a teeny tiny humors, but those “jokes” are barely there with zero chuckle for giving to me.

The story is boringly generic, the writing is a complete mess with cheap message, overcrowd villains and nowhere fun from get-go…!

The Presentation

The movie’s budget costs estimated $100M to $130M, yet another above cheap budget, but by looks of it, it feels like the same results as Madame Web.

For starter, the filming locations are pretty cool, the movie takes place on both London, England, Russia and Turkey. The first part is no stranger that they filmed in actual, London, which looks beautiful to see. However, the filming depiction of Russia is in Iceland, which I think its a rightful place, cause its a very long story how Russia has become today. As for Turkey, for my guessing they filmed in Glasgow, Scotland. Then again, due to countries’… Political reasons, but they filming locations for their depiction are actually pretty nice looking.

As for the traditional design, it seems to be rather minimal we have. Kraven’s costume appearance, while we never have a similar appearance from the comic, but I like this, looking him more like a wild anti-hero in animalistic theme weapons like knifes, darts and maybe even arrow.

Speaking of weapons, the action scenes are good for say the least, those action scenes are like the only good things in this movie. The best way to describing the action scenes, they’re like if you mix Tarzan for animalistic fighting style and Rambo for the use of melee and camouflage. Sure, its not perfect, but they’re good to watch, especially we may like to see Kraven either doing parkour from the forest and the buildings or even chasing cars in bare feet (talk about giving him a “Fist with your toes”).

But then came to the elephant in the room, its the digital effects. Much like two previous films in this year, the effects are just as either mediocre or just laughably bad. There ranging from fake blood in some action scenes (I feel like they’ve never learned from Venom’s third film) or even Rhino’s transformation form, the latter is just so bad that he probably made me laugh how dumb and nearly ugly he looks. Yes I know he’s meant to be some kind of experiment from the serum, but come on, do they really have to make him look that bad?? But don’t even get me started with The Chameleon appearance, but I won’t give you a spoiler, but when I saw his form, it also made laugh from its stupidity. Like… This fucking movie, man…!

While some traditional designs, the filming and the action scenes are pretty good, but good lord, the digital effects are just so bad that its either cringe or hilariously bad. On second thought, its probably both.

The Characters

With badly written in the story and such, its safe to say a lot of characters are probably being one dimensional, for the most. And not to mention, a very minimal of characters we have here.

Lets start with our titular protagonist, Kraven The Hunter, aka Sergei Kravinoff (played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, aka Kick-Ass), he’s a vigilante hunter in the wild for having animalistic abilities. I find him to be a fairly descent one, even if in this movie, he’s more like, again, a mix of Tarzan and Rambo for being an apex predator and much against from his father. While il give a credit for Aaron’s performance and he looks pretty jacked up (though not as greater than Jackman’s Wolverine in Deadpool and Wolverine, but he’s more of typical ruthless bloodthirsty vigilante in his frustration against his father, good performance, but not helping from a weak script.

Next, Calypso (played by Ariana DeBose, aka Asha from Disney’s Wish), a voodoo priestess, a lawyer and Kraven’s love interest that she’s responsible of reviving Kraven with serum, along with giving him abilities. She’s there to giving us a plot convenience about her family and creation of serum to Kraven, but she’s just there for details to our hero, that’s about it for her one dimensional appearance. While Ariana did a fine performance, but again, she’s just weak in her role.

After that, we have Dmitri Kravinoff (played by Fred Hechinger), he’s Kraven’s brother who’s said to be a “Master of Disguise”. Yes, I know he’s meant to be The Chameleon, but alas in this movie, not only he’s just his father’s second-in-command and even a dude in distress for being captured by Aleskei’s group. While il give a credit for Fred’s performance, cause I think he had a good time, but once again, the script killed his potential.

Next, we have two main villains, Aleksei Sytsevich, aka Rhino (played by Alessandro Nivola) and Foreigner (played by Christopher Abbott), these guys are the main villain for their capturing Dmitri for their… Reasons that we probably didn’t know. But I find them rather mixed, they have potentials, but they felt flat, ranging from Aleksei being silly villain with his serum to keeping himself in human form while has a transforming into the dumbest looking form of Rhino ever. As for Foreigner, I find him okay at best, he’s just a cold blooded assassin who’s hired with his eye that gives him the ability to hypnotizing anybody on his way, not bad, despite giving us another poorly digital effects. Once again, while il give an appreciation of their performances, but Nivola’s performance is just forced to make him over the top that he makes Jesse Eisenburg’s Lex Luther looks tame, while Chris Abbott is fine at best. They’re both fine, but, im gonna say again, the scrip and the effects are equally bad and cringe together.

And lastly, we have Nikolai Kravinoff (played by Russell Crowe, aka Jor-El from Man of Steel, aka Maximus from Gladiator, aka Zeus in Thor: Love and Thunder, aka… Pretty much any films if you’re familiar), he’s the father and the crime lord for drug trafficking to rewarding ransom, along with possibly bring the dread to Kraven ever since he was attacked by a lion. I get they wanna make something new to having Kraven having a feud with his father, but alas, not because Nikolai is such a forgettable villain for being an evil father cliché, but the movie is suffered with so many villains for being the “one hero versus more than one villain”, it feels like they took the same problem as Spider-Man 3, but unlike Spider-Man 3, it was very poorly executed for poor character development and cheap excuse of high profile appearance like Russell Crowe. Again, like some, I’ve nothing against Russell, great actor, but its just when he showing up, they gave him a very weak writing and his minor appearances.

With bad writing of this movie, this movie is no stranger that many characters in this movie are both underdeveloped, poorly executed and even cliché.

And now for my final opinion of this Fucking movie…!

Overall, Kraven The Hunter is pretty much the final “Fuck You” from Sony’s own cinematic universe.

While it has potential that I kinda like, such as the action scenes and Kraven himself and maybe even Foreigner. But like the previous Sony’s Spider-Man Cinematic Universe, everything else is just broken down Cluster Fucks with Shit writing, lame characters, overused clichés, crowded villains that are Shitty written and a horrendous digital effects.

This is definitely not hard to see why this is the last film of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe that they tried WAY too hard to be like MCU, but Sony are just WAY too stupid to make it look good, but in reality, they’re just clowning around with bad movies and box-office flips that it makes DCEU looked tamer. Sure the Venom movies are “meh”, but everything else are nothing but absolute Shit Shows! Especially this year is already doomed when they gave us Madame Web, and this one came out is probably the reason why Sony should give up and focus on a goddamn Spider-Verse or hell, maybe even give some a second chance with Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 or even Marc Webb’s The Amazing spider-Man 3, but in reality, Sony is pretty much Fucking around at this point…!

So folks, after watching this, im gonna say again, do me a favor and learn from my mistakes, just don’t even bother to watching this, its not worth it for how shit this movie really it. Or better yet, don’t even bother of watching six Sony’s own cinematic universe, again, while Venom is okay, but all of their movies are mediocre to awful. Like, Sony really needs to Fuck off to focus on other universe instead of what we have…!

For that reason, im gonna give this one a 2/10, along with earning the Dumpster Fire of FAILURE, have some shame of Failures you have there, Sony. Again, they really need to Fuck Off…!

So this ends of this stupid Shit Show, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.

Movie Review: Moana 2

 Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my Movie Review.

From 8 years ago, I’ve covered my review of Moana, sure my review back then aren’t as good, but when looking back at this movie I still think I like this movie for its creativity and the beauty of the animation, a nice jokes, memorable characters and its actually enjoyable. Sure its nowhere perfect with some small jokes aren’t as good, having a derpy chicken is questionable or “Shiny” song is okay at best. Back then, it was a big deal for its creativity and fun journey with Moana and Maui. And even Moana is inducted as part of Disney Princess, making her the second princess in 2010s (Sadly, Anna and Elsa won’t be counted, but long story), the latest princess we have today is Raya. With success of their work, either being originals or sequels, its no stranger they made cash at the box office, well, not so much for “Wish” that despite its meant to be the celebration of Disney’s 100th Anniversary, it didn’t go so well for both audience and the box-office that they lost $131M (though estimated), despite I find Wish isn’t the worst movie I’ve ever seen. Though it wouldn’t be until they decided to giving us a second journey with everyone’s favorite princess of Motunui.

“Moana 2” is a 2024 animated musical adventure film that was directed by David Derrick Jr. and Jason Hand, produced by Christina Chen and Yvett Merino, written by Jared Bush (the current Chief Creative Officer of Disney Animation Studio) and Bek Smith, and co-direct/co-written by Dana Ledoux Miller.

The idea of Moana’s sequel came during Disney Investor Day meeting in the late 2020, the Chief Creative Officer of Disney Animation Studio (at the time) named Jennifer Lee was announced that they’re gonna make a series based on Moana on Disney+. They were hoped in for the project with Osnat Shurer coming back as a producer, and David Derrick Jr jumped in as both writer and director. Although at the same time, they weirdly also announced a live action remake plan based on Moana (of freakin’ course…!). But that project was ultimately changed on February 2024, Disney’s current boss, Bob Iger, was announced the series plan has completely changed into a movie sequel that we have today after when he looked at the early project. Though I was doubtful about the idea that maybe it could’ve been fine as a Disney+ content than a movie, but that’s just me.

So, with all that said, will Moana discovers a new world building what’s missing, or is it not worth of Chee Hoo?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

Since is the new journey, you think the story is gonna be something new, magical and creative for Moana’s next adventure? Well… Yes and no, as always.

Picking up three years after breaking the corruption to bringing back Te Fiti and honored as a both chiefess and wayfinder, Moana set herself her own journey to discovering various islands, until she found an old broken artifact that shows a mysterious symbol that happens to be a long lost island, believing this could be the opportunity to seeking more people to connect the ocean. However, after getting nearly struck by lightning, she woke up in vision to see the spirit of ancestor named Tautai Vasa, who explains that finding the symbol of mysterious island called “Motufetu” is main island to connect the ocean see more people, but the main island is flooded all way down to the bottom of the ocean by the evil god of storm name “Nola”, warned that if no one can bringing back Motufetu, her home island will be wiped out. So its up to Moana for not only recruiting her own crew members (Moni, Loto and Kele) and reuniting Maui to find Motufetu bring it back out of the ocean before its too late.

I find the story itself of this movie is a double edged sword. Its mainly due to the story feels like its the same thing, she goes off the island to finding a missing island to bring it back while dealing with obstacles, which we may or may not notice this. But, il give a credit that despite its the same story, this one is all about bringing back a main island to seeking more people’s islands that connect to the ocean with the main island Motufetu, its nice to explaining us to the world building, but the world building part is unfortunately minimal that we like to see more outside of Motunnui and Motufetu. Ther’s also the subplot about dealing with obstacles where we have either discovering a living coconut pirates called “Kakamora” when one of their crew named “Kotu” (though never called in the movie) joining for the sake of their lost home island because of the aforementioned Motufetu situation, which is a nice inclusion, but the downside is about Kakamora’s home island is pretty much came to nothing, and lets not forget when Moan is dealing with obstacle of a giant clam that happens to be Matangi’s lair, which im assuming is she’s giving us a plot device for the whereabouts, but alas, it ended up pretty brief that we she’s just there to helping our heroes to break free and rescuing Maui. As for the writing for the humors and some heart? They’re fine, while the heart is there to believe in you as a wayfinder, which is okay, while the jokes… I think they’re average, I did had some chuckles, but most of the jokes are mediocre at best with some joke of them are “trying”, a little too hard, which I guess it explained why some Maui jokes are rather fun, minus some cheap fart and meme reference jokes.

While the new story is actually nice, but the writing is nowhere perfect due to the story felt like its a bit similar, some subplot is kinda wasted and some jokes are bellow.

The Animation

In comparison, the first Moana costs estimated $150M - $175M, here in this sequel, the budget is probably the same as $150M, I guess you can possibly said that they cut the budget, I said possibly due to the not the final figure of the first film’s budget. Aside the debate, at least this movie’s presentation is still looks good, even though the songs, are mixed.

Like the first movie, the Moana’s home world is no stranger to be a fantasy themed Polynesian with island surrounded from the ocean its bright, partially colorful and it looks beautiful from the environment of the island with small forest and cave and nicely building in Polunesia, especially for the style of their arts and their boats.

Of course, the water effect is both impressive, realistic quality and playful to making it alive, sure it maybe show a low quality, but at least its fun from waving and foaming water to even be fun and creative with the ocean communicates at people like Moana, I love the water effect in this and the first movie. Even Maui’s living tattoo is also fun to watch for a partial return of 2D animation, especially with the return of Eric Goldberg who did the Maui’s tattoo animation.

Speaking of animation, unlike the first film that was done in the main studio at Burbank, California, in this sequel, it was done in Disney’s new animation studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Sure, they first started in Burbank for pre-production and storyboarding before the project was moved into the newly opened Vancouver, making Moana 2, Disney’s first animated film done in Vancouver. Sure there was a time when Pixar had their own studio in Vancouver before it was shutdown and replaced by Sony’s own animation studio. So how did they process their animation? Well surprisingly, it looks and feels pretty good, with bringing back the character design based on Glen Keane’s character design, but in Polynesian, but with some updated designs, a nice wardrobe design and some nice, smooth and somewhat realistic animation movements on the people, but of course, some effects are also nicely done too with creature designs and animation, sure, the Kakamora are pretty much living coconuts with limbs which they look way too generic design to just give random items with arms and legs, but at least their animation movements are good compare to some cheaply movements (*cough “The Emoji Movie cough*). Though, while some animation can be good for the movements and such, but it can or can be a bit exaggerated, even if its due to some forced jokes

As for the songs in this movie? Well, I forgot to mentioning the first movie’s song that they’re actually pretty good, especially when up have the appreciation that they were done by our old friend Lin-Manual Miranda (who also did Encanto that I’ve covered). Sadly for this sequel, Miranda is nowhere involved, instead the songs are done by both Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, and those songs are… Not as good what I think, il pick a couple of songs to describe.

The first song is “We’re back”, which is… Basically the return of our old friend Moana for her journey as wayfinder, while its pretty nice to see her, but the lyric is a different story how um… She’s back in business. Jeez, it feels rather lazy to describing it.

Next is “Finding the way”, which is basically Moana’s first journey with her very own crew members, its more like a mix of build up and humor, which I find it to be the weakest part, while its nice build up for new adventure, but sadly, the inclusion of humor lyrics just ruined it.

After that its “Get Lost”, its when Moana meets Matangi in the aforementioned subplot, while the music is good, but the lyric… I feel like this song is out of place in the second act of the movie, it feels no reason and probably waste of time before we just want to see Moana, Maui and her crews to get the heck out of giant clam.

Speaking of Maui, the last one is “Can I get a Chee Hoo?”, its actually not bad, while its not perfect, but at least its actually a fun song for regain the motivation from Maui, especially The Rock is always did a great job of his singing performance since his days in WWF. Again, lyrically, its not perfect, but its actually nice, but not as greater than “Your Welcome”.

While the Animation looks beautifully well done as always, for the most part, since this is Disney’s first animated film in Vancouver, but the songs are sadly the weakest part that I was all like “I miss Lin-Manuel Miranda already...”.

The Characters

While we have a return to two of our familiar characters, you think that they, along with new ones will make a promising development when we used to? Well… Sadly no.

Lets start of with our titular heroine, Moana (reprised by Auliʻi Cravalho), she’s the princess in Motunui where she likes to going on the journey in her risky and bravery discovery after learning about the past. In this movie, she’s now the chiefess and her home island’s wayfinder that after briefly learning about Motufetu, she plays almost like a captain once she brought her unlikely recruitment. Its a slight improvement, even she’s gotta learn how to taking her journey to the next level when she has her own crew members with mixed result. While she’s not my number one favorite Disney Princess (my fav are Ariel, Jasmine and maybe even Mulan), but I find her fascinating, even with her slight improvement, along with welcoming return to Cravalho both for her voice acting and singing.

Next up is Maui (reprised by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), he’s the trickster and troublemaking demigod in Polynesia’s myth who carries large hook for his ability to turning into various animal forms and has a living tattoo. I find Maui is a fun sidekick with Moana, being strong-willing, funny and likable. In this sequel, while its nice to see him, but it felt like his appearance are rather minimal, especially that his own song didn’t play until before we reach to the 3rd act, which is almost like a similar appearance from the first movie, but much later, since we have to dealing with Moana’s crew members. Its a shame, since I enjoy Maui and The Rock, once again, did a fun work of his performance.

As for Moana’s crew members, they’re meant to be the new comedic roles, but alas, they’re nowhere good and funny than Maui.

You got Moni (voiced by Hualālai Chung) who’s flamboyant and a fanboy of Maui, Loto (voiced by Rose Matafeo) who’s craftswoman that she’s… Overly crafty in her quirky and “know-it-all”, and Kele (voiced by David Fane) who’s an old grumpy farmer who prefers to be in the island than going on a journey. I find these guys to be either irritating or weak comedic characters that they’re trying too hard to be funny. Sure, I did chuckle at some of their jokes, but problem is that Maui did it better. While il give a credit for their fun voice performances, but they’re nowhere good for their poor script.

And lastly is Matangi (voiced by Awhimai Fraser), at first we though she’s the main villain in this movie since she has the ability to bring out the swarm of bats and taking anybody into prison in her gigantic clam as her own lair if they’re crossing her way? But alas, she’s nowhere being the villain in this movie, so what we think. I find her to be the waste of space in the movie, she all like “Whoops! Didn’t mean to taking your crew into prison, go out there and fight Nalo.”, while il give a credit to Fraser’s performance, but she’s just as forgettable when she’s in the movie for just being wasting our time about kidnapping part and her own song.

As for the rest in this movie, they’re just there for either the purpose of the plot, or just being wasted. There’s Nalo who’s the menacing god of storm for being the culprit of burying Motufetu under the sea, Simea (voiced by Khaleesi Lambert-Tsuda) is Moana’s favorite little sister, Tui and Sina (reprised by Temuera Morrison, aka Jango/Boba Fett, and Nicole Sherzinger) who’re Moana’s parents and Tala (reprised by Rachel House, aka Hampton from Godzilla X Kong) who’s Moana’s late grandmother in manta ray spirit, which is nice to see her again, for the most part.

While the two main ones are fun to coming back, but most of new characters we have are pretty weak and sadly, barely funny that we can support or cooperating with Moana.

And now for my final opinion of this film.

Overall, Moana 2 is probably the weakest Disney sequel I’ve ever watched that it makes DisneyToon Studio’s sequel movies look good, for the most part.

While the voice acting, the new story, the message (for some) and the animation are pretty good and fun, as the first film done from Disney’s animation studio on Vancouver, which il give a credit what they’re trying. But alas, its nowhere good for how to make a promising sequel with nearly similar story from the first film, despite the bringing back Motufetu is good, the writing is poor, some jokes are not as good, the songs are weak without Miranda and the new characters aren’t helping to be promising.

If they’ve never canceling the Disney+ exclusive series, maybe it will be a fairly descent show that I can enjoy to watching, but instead, they changed their project at the wrong time, and I hate to say, it wasn’t the first time, there’s Belle's Magical World in 1998 which was planned to be the TV show, but changed into anthology that they embarrassed itself to making Princess Belle look so Derpy. And there’s the Atlantis: Milo's Return in 2003, the sequel of Atlantis that was also planned to make a show, but changed into a movie in the middle of the process that ended in a same, bad result. I feel like Disney has never learn their lesson, but at least Moana 2 isn’t AS bad as two previous films.

Even though its not the worst Disney film they’ve ever made, but its certainly the most disappointed after they changed their development. I think the fans of Moana can liking this movie, but for some like me, it will be fine to watch ONCE.

For my rating, im gonna give this one a 6/10.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.

Movie Review: Planes, Trains and Automobiles

 WARNING: The Following review contains Strong Language from the dialogue reference. Readers description advised

Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my Movie Review.

A months ago, I reviewed National Lampoon’s Vacation, which the film that not only its a helluva a family road trip for summer vacation to a theme park, but its also both fun and one of my favorite movie in the name from National Lampoon’s, even if I wish I have a magazine when they’re no longer with us anymore. Despite this, its no secret that we gave an appreciation to John Hughes for this masterpiece back in the early 80s. But what about when we’re still in the 80s, but instead of going to California, how about going back Chicago for Holiday celebration? Well, that’s exactly what we have in today’s review and another favorite of mine.

“Planes, Trains and Automobiles” is a 1987 Road Trip Comedy-Drama that was written, produced and directed by John Hughes. Wow, talk about a hard worker for his experience, eh?

The idea of this movie didn’t came from National Lampoon’s (otherwise, it’ll be a long story), but rather came from John Hughes experience. Back then, he used to work on New York that he took a plane to going back to his home at Chicago, right up until due to some reason, his flight was cut short to landing on Wichita, Kansas, and poor Hughes had to spending five days to going back to Chicago. As a result, he took his experience as his idea for his next movie, which took him three to five days to write the script before eventually putting into production with Paramount, despite the movie had been cut short to 1 in a half hour length due to either changing the script or even some scenes were cut due to lengthy reasons.

When the road trip to Chicago came out on November 25th 1987, it was yet another successful Hughes’s film, critics and audience love this movie Hughes’s writing, fascinating lines, fun performances and a good mix of comedy and drama, even if the movie was unexpected to be R-Rated. Of course, the same can be said with the box-office with earning $49.5M over the budget of $15M. And to this day, its considered the best Thanksgiving film, since many people love to watching this movie during the America’s Thanksgiving.

As for my experience, as always, my parents had a fun experience of this movie, I never seen it, until I gave it a shot to watching it back in 2023 via DVD, and I enjoyed this movie.

So, with all that said, will the road trip to Chicago will be an easy ride, or is this film is a living nightmare with obstacles like the Griswolds had before?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

For a movie about going back to Chicago to celebrating Thanksgiving, its actually pretty good, fun and struggling.

The movie begins in New York where we introduce our main hero name Neal Page, an advertising executive who’s anticipating to going back to Chicago to celebrating Thanksgiving with his family for less than two days. However, once he left the building, its gonna be a difficulty start when he’s trying to get a taxi cab in order to reaching at the airport. After ranging from missing a cab and probably damaging his business briefcase, he’s reaching to the airport, along with unlikely meeting the one man who took the cab before, Del Griffith, who’s the shower curtain rings salesman. But due to landing on Wichita, Kansas from airplane due to severe snowstorm in Chicago, its up to Neal and Del to going on a struggling road trip together to reaching Chicago for less than 2 days to celebrating Thanksgiving.

The best way to describing the story, its the opposite version of National Lampoon’s Vacation, since both of them trying to reaching at the destination for couple of days, and even dealing with obstacles from losing money, path gone wrong and of course, the main heroes arguing each other whenever something isn’t going on their way. Its easy to notice those elements if you’ve watched both Vacation and PTA (short term of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles”), but then again, they’re both written by John Hughes. But much like Vacation, this movie is surprisingly pretty good for the writing that we can relate on various moments from money struggling, uneasy to connect with unusual partner or losing various stuff, its always a pain in our asses that we had some before. While the writing is pretty good for how can relate, but the movie is also focus on both comedy and drama, but of course, Hughes’s comedy are enjoyable and fun from either insulting dialogues, an unusual build up of surprise and even on-screen humor, one of my favorite is when both Neal and Del sleep together in embarrassment when its not a pillows, their empty wallets without realizing they’re robbed, Del’s humorous lines, Neal gets grabbed from… Down bellow to schnutz, and of course, in the most shocking, Neal Page’s rant for demanding a car that was missing when he’s all like;

“You can start by wiping that FUCKING Dumbass smile of your rosy FUCKING cheeks…! You can give a FUCKING automobile. A FUCKING Datsun, a FUCKING Toyota, a FUCKING Mustang, a FUCKING Buick, four FUCKING wheels and a seat!”

“And I really don’t care for the way your company left me in a middle of FUCKING nowhere with FUCKING keys to a FUCKING car that isn’t FUCKING there, and I really didn’t care to FUCKING walk down a FUCKING highway, and across a FUCKING runaway to get back here to have a smile in my FUCKING face. I want a FUCKING car, right, FUCKING, now…!”

Its like “Jesus, that a lot of Fucking when you lost your car while arriving at car rental in St. Louis for your harshest complaint that’ll easily kick you out for hitchhiking”. In fact, when you first watching this movie, we thought this is a PG-13 film at the start, but when we’re at car rental scene, this scene is probably the reason why this movie is Rated-R when the movie dropped 19 F-bombs, its like completely out of nowhere, but again, its pretty surprised for this one since Clark Griswold’s ranting in Pheonix. But of course, the movie also adds a drama from Neal wants to call his wife in a second hotel, along with Del being stuck outside with burnt care while snowing (though in the original script he’s gonna be freeze to death, but dropped out for good reason), the argument in the first hotel that feels a bit too personal from Neal Page’s frustration from the start to Del admits what he is, but stood by his what he likes to do, and of course, the ending, il explain that later, that ending is actually satisfying with heart warming.

While it feels similar from other John Hughes’s film and can be a bit over the top, but at least the movie is pretty good from the writing that we can relate, we can laugh and sometimes, some parts could get personal.

The Presentation

The movie’s budget costed surprisingly $15M, that’s like the same budget as NL’s Vacation (though estimated), but say the least, the movie’s presentation is pretty good.

For starter, they started filming in New York from the City itself, as well as small locations like Batavia and South Dayton in order to imitates some locations like Wichita, Kansas, which im guessing they wanna stay in New York for saving their budgets. Sure they did filmed other than New York like St. Louis with the airport, and the same can be said with Illinois like Chicago (for the final destination at the ending) and two different hotels like Sun Motel and old courthouse. Although the house of Page’s family are in for Thanksgiving celebration is actually made from scratch, it costed $100K and took 5 days to build, which that caused a frustration from Paramount’s executives for costing budget. That sucks, but what can you do if you wanna make a house for filming purpose, eh?

While there’s not much details to explaining, but they do have some fascinating feats. While John Hughes had plenty of plans based on the writing he took that, according to the editor Paul Hirsch, the movie’s original cut was going to be 3 Hours and 40 Minutes long. Damn, that was long before Avengers Endgame…! But because long filming plans and the rewrites on the script about the subplots or new characters, the film was cut further down to 1 in a half hour long film that what we have in this movie.

It wasn’t just the rewrites, there’s also some scenes that were filmed, but had to be removed to cut the time the movie length, leaving some scenes what we found in Deleted Scenes, these includes;

• The airplane lunch time in the middle of flight from New York to Wichita, along with further character developments that we like to hear and some jokes.

• Del’s messing the bathroom onscreen while Neal is on a shower

• A poor timing when a pizza deliveryman arrived when our heroes are busy in a bathroom with ordering pizza and beer (the latter of which causing a hilarious mess on a bed and the mentioned messing bed during the argument in the first hotel)

• A first argument in the first hotel that it takes like an hour long from testing Neal’s patience from Del’s smoking to clearing pipes to prevent snoring from extended speech from both Neal’s rant to Del’s justification who he is. Along with eventually apologized. That is until they got robbed while sleeping, and oh yeah, that I mentioned the pizza deliveryman is also a robber at the same time? Yeesh, talk about not trusting a fraud to pretending to have a job, much like Harry who pretends to be a policeman before we found out he’s part of Wet Bandits in Home Alone (another film that was written by John Hughes)

• While its not in a deleted scene, there was a subplot planned involving Neal’s relationship into question where his wife, at first, doesn’t believing him and suspecting he sleeps with other stranger that happens to be a woman. Yeah, that deleted subplot is for the best, cause I find the whole allegedly cheating part is rather unnecessary.

With a long list like that (minus the deleted subplot), its not hard to see why its been re-filmed and rewrite to cut movie in half as, again, a 1 in a half hour long film than a 3 hours and 40 minutes long to cute some unnecessary scenes and such, even if it could’ve been interesting to show us more interesting. And not to mention, those deleted scenes were planned in the first act. Pretty shocking to know why the first act is almost shorter than we think.

Despite that, there are worth to mention, such as when Del got a car from rental, the car is nearly identical as Wagon Queen Family Truckster from NL’s Vacation. Though I have a theory that the car Del brought must’ve been subsidiary group from Wagon Queen, based on a similar car design with metallic pea and the wooden walls on the side, but that’s just my own theory. Which despite the near resemblance, the car is actually the 2nd generation of Chrysler LeBaron, but had to put a different name, if I call correctly.

However, while they cut the airplane scene with the aforementioned lunch scene, they probably also recycled the outdoor plane scene from “Airplane!”, one of the biggest parody film back in 1980.

While the deleted scenes are incredibly huge to understand why the film was cut short, at least the filming sets, the filmography and others are actually pretty good to watch.

The Characters

While the chemistry writing are fascinating, but the characters are only focusing on two main ones, while the rest are just there help and won’t come back for the rest of the movie, well okay, there’s some that we constantly shown in brief moments.

Lets starting out with the main hero, Neal Page (played by Steve Martin), an advertising executive who’s on his hurry to going back to his hometown Chicago for celebrating Thanksgiving with his family and his loved one. However, even for being a comedic actor that we all know, Neal Page is nowhere in funny mood from the start, he’s been struggling, annoyed and tempered when something isn’t going on the way to live himself in peace due to be in a journey with Del. Talk about an opposite between of two (more on Del later), he’s much more serious and patience that he wants to going back to The Windy City. Its easy we can relate the frustration we’ve been through from troublesome weather, being annoyed with a stranger or even losing important things what he needs like money, car or others. Despite of playing a frustration person, he does have some funny moments, especially Steve Martin did a great job of his performance, I guess its not hard to say that from what I’ve heard, he had a blast for his performance and even came up his ideas to Hughes, top-notch for him.

And finally, we have Del Griffith (played by the late John Candy, aka Russ Lasky from NL’s Vacation and Gus Polinski from Home Alone), unlike Page, he’s much more friendly and comedic role in the movie, he’s a shower curtain ring salesman to raising his money for his journey for various reasons (more on that later). I find him also enjoyable, even though being a salesman of shower curtain ring is an odd job to selling those rings to make a quick money. While he’s also fun, but sometimes he can be annoying, for Neal, not us, which again, its easy to understand when Neal first met him, it was difficult to start to get along for their journey, even if when Neal made a rant on him to get a point, Del does understand his personality, but again, he stood by who he is, especially for his wife and customers, in other words, he described himself as “Im the real article, what you see is what you get”. Despite his justification of his life and his business, but he also add some emotional moments ranging from he likes to do his own business for his wife and he said he haven’t in home for years, which made us, the views and Neal, questioned if he has home or not. But of course, il give an appreciation of his fun and emotional performance to John Candy, he did a great job of his role back then, especially that he feels almost like a dramatized version of himself, which, according to Steve Martin (in interview), he said the late John Candy and his role Del are similar as “He was a very sweet guy and complicated and so” and “He had kind of a little broken heart inside him”. Which I can sadly understand that he had a great performance, but like any celebs, his personal demons made him very struggling, especially he was gone too early on March 4th 1994 with the age of 43. Rest in Peace, John, you’re always be a great and fun actor.

As for the rest of the casts, they’re not much else as out heroes meet some.

There’s Susan Page (played by Laila Robins) who’s Neal’s wife who’s concerned that she likes to know where he is, Owen Mooney (played by Dylan Baker, aka Dr. Curt Connors from Raimi’s Spider-Man movies) who’s creepy and not-so threatening pickup driver for a lift. Gus Mooney (played by the late Charles Tyner) who’s Owen’s father and the owner of the first motel where our heroes stopped. Doobby (played by Larry Hankin) is the unique and decorative taxi driver from Wichita who gives our heroes a lift to the first motel, an agent of car rental (played by Edie McClurg) who’s sweet and fun agent in St. Louis, because reaching her disapproval with a punchline with one more F-Bomb (That will probably lead you to suspension for taking insult at customer, but what are you gonna do when some customer has no reason to be pissed off), the representative of Wichita’s airport (played by uniquely deadpan actor Ben Stein, im sure you’ve seen Ferris Bueller’s Day off, eh?) who gave us the announcement of Chicago’s closure from severe weather and lastly the first person (played by none other than Kevin Bacon, aka Jack from Friday the 13th) who’s racing against Page to get in the taxi cab (talk about racing away if he thinks Neal Page is Jason, eh?).

While its a damn shame that we only get to focus on two main characters, but at least some characters are fascinating to see, in a brief moments. But of course, we give an appreciation to have an unlikely chemistry between Steve Martin and John Candy.

SPOILER ALERT for those who haven’t seen the movie, or if you don’t mind.

The final act is quite of chaotic (kinda) to getting closer to Chicago.

After the infamous ranting with F-Bombs, and getting sucker punched and balls grabbed by a dispatcher (played by John Randolph Jones), he’s eventually get in a car that Del got his trusty car from rental, leaving them driving down the highway from dawn to night. But it ended up feeling like a highway to hell ranging from Del’s cigarette blown to the backseat from Fire Hazard to scratching the car on both sides from incoming trucks, when they’re in opposite direction, and the aforementioned cigarette cause the backseat burst into a fire, cause the car damaged in half, and also ruining Page’s cards when Del borrowed the card for refueling without telling him what happened, leaving Neal pissed again from argument to punching him in a gut (otherwise, as Del said, he could’ve kill him for slugging his gut like what happened to Houdini, I guess…).

After a worst night with damaged car and burnt wallet and cards, they reached to the final motel, but not be able to pay from expensive price with Neal had no choice to take out his physical money and his wallet, even if Del does the same with pulling out his money and his Casio watch, but the result is only Neal gets in a room and Del left outside to putting his life in freezing. Neal, feeling pity for Del, gives him a chance to invite him to stay fresh from the cold to hanging out together with snacks and miniature drinks, which is like they’re reconciling together after all the trouble they have.

By next day, its Thanksgiving day, once they’re leaving motel (after accidentally crashing into it in reverse for being stuck in snow), they continued driving on the road for continuing their trip to Chicago, but only they got interfered by a police state trooper for not only speeding, but the damaged car from the fire is deemed “unroadworthy” that Del’s car is going to be impounded. Thankfully, Del comes back with a trucker with trailer to giving them a lift, only they gotta together on a refrigerated trailer (That’ll be also cold since riding on a pickup from behind). After been in a truck’s trailer, they finally reached to Chicago, when going to “L” Station, Neal bids a farewell to Del for helping together after been a long and chaotic journey, however, as Neal is on train to reaching his neighborhood, he had a daydream to looking back with his best pal Del, but one thing that he’s concerned is he haven’t been in home for years, he decides to going back where he left off to checking Del, only to sharing his unfortunate truth that he kept in secret… Del is homeless and his wife Marie died eight years ago, feeling sympathy for his losing home and being widower, Neal decides to give Del a second chance to come together to his home to meeting his family for celebrating Thanksgiving, and of course, finally see his wife Susan again. Which im sure Del will be appreciated to hanging out together in Thanksgiving to have a heart for him.

The 3rd act of this movie with the car is pretty fun to see, along with chaotic with various degrees of dangers what they’ve been, but of course, the drama is no stranger to add in for what happened to Del, along with Neal starting to feel pity and sympathy on Del to give him a chance to shine rather than constantly arguing and fighting, even with a surprise ending that hit us hard, it eventually gives a heart warming and even tearful ending. I mean with a mix of giving emotional and satisfying ending to arriving to Page’s home and giving Del another chance after the truth revealing, I actually cried with drop of tears from my eyes, a tears of satisfaction and emotional for sympathy to Del (or even John Candy himself) and even surprisingly a pretty nice and heart warming cover song called “Everytime you go away” by an unheard group called “Blue Room”.

Here’s a fact about the latter, John Hughes was originally going to play Paul Young version of “Everytime you go away” (though it was originally written by Daryl Hall & John Oates), which it would be a nice to play it, but the record company rejected his request, although Paul Young does accept it secretly, but gotta find the other musicians to make their own cover, which is why we have the Blue Room version in the final cut. But sadly, if you wanna listening to this version in soundtrack, this covered song isn’t in the album nor even released digitally, since Blue Room is pretty much faded into obscurity.

The movie’s ending is quite of a ride from problematic with a car to eventually an emotional and satisfying happy ending after a tragic truth, which like I said, Im both enjoyed and tearful at the ending for the first time.

And now for my final opinion of this film.

Overall, Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a one heck of a ride of struggling to get back to Chicago, but I enjoy this movie so much of re-watching both physically and digitally.

While the first act aren’t as perfect due to scenes that were planned were cut down due time length to make shorter as a one in a half hour long than longer more than three hours (which it really sucks that we want to see what’s happening), but the movie is still great, fun, emotional and relatable.

The Story is nicely done (again, aside the first act due cuts that left out), the writing is very good (along with surprising drop of F-Bombs), the presentation looks nice and surprisingly some beautiful shots and the characters, despite some are minimal, but the two main ones are enjoyable for their delivery and their writing.

Even if its slightly flawed, I love watching this movie to re-watching it all the times with fun moments, good jokes and fun chemistry between Steve Martin and John Candy. While I love NL’s Vacation, this one is also my favorite film done by John Hughes. So if you like to watching movie in Thanksgiving (in America), bring your friends and/or family together with Thanksgiving dinner together, cause this one is definitely a “Must-Watch” film to celebrating this holiday.

For my rating, im gonna give this one a 9/10, along with earning the Trophy of Success.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out and Happy American Thanksgiving.