Interview with Rise of the Guardians director Peter Ramsey

FOLLOWING THE RECENT home video release of DreamWorks Animation’s Rise of the Guardians – in which Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and Jack Frost come together to battle Pitch, aka The Boogeyman – I spoke with the film’s director, Peter Ramsey.

Before joining DreamWorks Animation in 2004, Ramsey amassed an impressive resume as a storyboard artist and illustrator for live action films, including Minority Report, Cast Away, Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, Men in Black, and Backdraft. He was also second unit director on films such as Godzilla, Higher Learning, and Poetic Justice. Ramsey spoke about the impact of Guardians on adults as well as children, the importance of nailing Jack Frost’s character, how he got his start in animation, and what’s next for him and the Guardians.

Congratulations on the home video release of Rise of the Guardians.
Thank you very much.

The film does a tremendous job of stressing the importance of children to believe in the Guardians. Do you feel it gives adults a chance to relive that childhood feeling of believing as well?
If all the people who’ve spoken to me after tons and tons of screenings is any indication, then yeah, I think so. I can’t tell you how many people have come up and said, “You brought me back to my childhood,” “You made me feel like a kid again,” and variations on that idea. I knew going in to this project that dealing with and embracing these characters might have that effect, but I was kind of surprised by how much it actually did.

In a way, the film really focuses on one character’s rise to the level of Guardian: that of Jack Frost. Was his journey always the focus of the film, even in the early development stages?
It took a while from the time Bill [Joyce, author of the Guardians of Childhood books] first brought us the project to get to that point. When I came on, I felt pretty strongly that we needed one character to track through this incredible fantasy world. You need to have an emotionally relatable idea that you can hold on to in the midst of Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, and all that stuff. If you have one character you can experience it with, who can be the audience’s eyes…that’s really important. Pretty early on, we all felt we should do that through Jack.

Jack is introduced to many aspects of the Guardians’ world at the same time as the audience. Do you see him as a sort of surrogate for the viewer?
Oh, yeah. Very much so. In the beginning of the film, it’s pretty clear he’s not up to the level of these legendary figures. He’s just a normal kid who wants to go out and have fun. He doesn’t want a lot of responsibilities, yet he has questions about his place in the world. All of that makes him a pretty good audience surrogate.

The film also does a great job of establishing a truly challenging villain in Pitch. He really embodies the classic animated villain: He's scary, sinister, condescending, resentful, smart, and even a bit of a sociopath when trying to convince Jack to join him.
Yeah, exactly. In the way that the Guardians each have centers that are positive things, Pitch’s center is fear. We modeled that fear after what kids fear in the real world, how they react to it, and what fear does in terms of limiting or preventing you from living a full, rich life. Kids deal with fear every day of their lives. They know it’s real, they know it exists, and they look for ways to deal with it. To not take the “fear” part of the story as seriously as the “wonder and hope” part felt like a cop-out. A story like this is only as good as its villain. If [the Guardians] don’t have something real to push against, their stature is going to be diminished as well. So we dealt with the theme that while there’s fear in the world, there are also forces out there that are going to help you deal with it if you open up to them.

With Pitch and Jack Frost, they’re literally the black and white of the situation – the dark and light sides of the same personality.
Yes, that was another important point for me. We have Jack Frost, who has these powers and can do amazing things, but he doesn’t have a context or a real picture of who he is. He’s ultimately shown that he has a choice: You come into the world, you have things to offer, but it’s up to you which path you’re going to take. So we dramatized that between Jack and Pitch to demonstrate that, once upon a time, had Pitch done things differently, he could have accomplished what Jack does. We tried to keep the story clear yet entertaining, but there’s a lot of stuff working underneath in the same way that the old fairy tales do.

You started out working on live action films, then moved to animation with Shark Tale in 2004. What prompted that transition?
Actually, the film [where I started in animation] was Shrek the Third. I only worked a little bit on Shark Tale, maybe a week, while I worked on Shrek the Third for about a year. What happened was, in my live-action days, I worked with a producer named Aron Warner on a movie called Tank Girl. He went on to produce the Shrek films. Several years [after Tank Girl], he called me and asked if I’d be interested in animation. He said I should check out [DreamWorks], that they could use a guy with live-action experience. So I checked it out, I liked what I saw, and I starting learning the craft of animation. It was the beginning of the journey that got me in the director’s seat for Guardians.

Rise of the Guardians was your first time directing a feature film for a major animation studio. So, no pressure, right?
[laughs] Yeah, right [sarcastically].

Prior to directing, you worked on dozens of films as a storyboard artist and illustrator. How far were you able to immerse yourself in the storyboarding for Rise of the Guardians while still dedicating yourself to the responsibilities as director?
Not as much as I would have liked, but I had a pretty good dose of it early on when we first began digging into the story. It was a very small story team. I did some of the initial storyboarding just to get the ideas rolling and the feel of the film. For the first four or five months, it was just me and Hamish Grieve, who’s head of the story department [at DreamWorks Animation]. But later on, there were spots where I would come back in, board something myself, and take it to the layout team and the animators. I definitely jumped in wherever I could.

My family watched Rise of the Guardians together for the first time last week, We all enjoyed it immensely, then my nine-year-old son ran off with it and immediately watched it two more times.
Oh, wow. That’s great! That’s so cool.

So when I asked him if he’d like to ask you a question, he instantly blurted out, “Will there be a sequel?”
[laughs] We all want one. We’ll have to wait and see what the moon says.

In the meantime, what’s next for you?
I’m trying to figure that out. I’ve got a couple of projects I’m thinking about, but it’s all in the very early stages. We only finished Guardians at the end of October, then it was three straight months of press, publicity, and awards season. It’s only been within the past month that I’ve been able to actually stop working on it. I’m talking to a bunch of different people. Nothing firm or definite yet, but that’s kind of nice.

Thanks for taking time to speak with me today.
Thank you. I’m so happy your son enjoyed the film. Tell him from me.

Rise of the Guardians (2012)

What is your center?

That’s the question posed by the imaginative and inspiring Rise of the Guardians, where Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman), the Tooth Fairy (Rango’s Isla Fisher), and the Sandman try to recruit the reluctant, wayward Jack Frost (Chris Pine) to join them in the fight against Pitch Black (Jude Law), a malicious spirit determined to take over the world and destroy the innocent beliefs and dreams of children.

Granted, the idea of Santa Claus as a Russian émigré with tattooed forearms, or a six-foot Easter Bunny who wields boomerangs and an Aussie accent, is an acquired taste. But director Peter Ramsey soon puts those concerns to rest by giving us deep, fleshed-out characters to believe in without having to delve into their origins.

Our guide to this world is the apprehensive Jack Frost, as we follow his quest and internal struggle to determine if he has what it takes to become a Guardian – in other words, to stop making mischief and recognize his true calling.

What’s at stake here, as Pitch is quite aware, is that if kids don’t believe in the Guardians, they will cease to exist. With the help of a young boy named Jamie (Dakota Goyo) as their unwavering believer, our heroes attempt to prove that even the scariest of boogeymen is no match for the bravery and beliefs of children.

The film features enthralling, breathtaking animation in which Ramsey and his team take full advantage of the 3D without going overboard or making it seem like a retro-fit. The battles between the Guardians and Pitch’s army of nightmare creatures are truly amazing, including a show-stopping finale involving more characters than you can shake a freezing staff at.

With Rise of the Guardians, it’s another crowning achievement for DreamWorks Animation (How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda 2) as they pull even further ahead of Pixar and its recent lackluster offerings (Cars 2, Brave).

If you didn’t experience Rise of the Guardians in theaters, here’s your chance to see what an amazing film you missed. Your kids will believe. And so will you.

Rating:

What did FilmBoy think?

He had high hopes going in to Rise of the Guardians. His verdict? “It was even better than I thought it would be.” In fact, after our whole family watched it, he ran off with the disc and immediately watched it two more times. Can you say “ringing endorsement?”

Is it suitable for your kids?

Rise of the Guardians is rated PG for “thematic elements and some mildly scary action.” The idea of Pitch turning kids’ dreams into nightmares may be scary for very young children. Pitch kidnaps Tooth’s fairies and later threatens to crush one of them in his hand. Santa wields two large swords when doling battle with Pitch’s army. One of the Guardians appears to be destroyed by Pitch. Jack’s actions inadvertently cancel Easter. Jack’s backstory (shown in flashback) involves him drowning after falling through the ice on a lake while rescuing his little sister. The Tooth Fairy (ironically and comically) knocks out one of Pitch’s teeth. There’s no inappropriate language, aside from the Easter Bunny’s occasional use of the Aussie adjective “bloody” and Pitch tells the Easter Bunny to “go suck an egg.”

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

Yes. Rise of the Guardians is full of tremendous storytelling, amazing animation, and the theme of keeping children’s beliefs alive. Make it essential viewing for Family Movie Night.


Rise of the Guardians
* Director: Peter Ramsey
* Screenwriter: David Lindsay-Abaire
* Stars: Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Jude Law, Isla Fisher, Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo
* MPAA Rating: PG


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Win a DVD of the new horror film Dark Feed!

YOU COULD WIN a copy of Dark Feed, the new horror film from the writers of John Carpenter's The Ward, available on DVD, digital download, and video on demand March 19.

Synopsis: A film crew moves to an abandoned psychiatric hospital with a shadowy past to shoot a low-budget horror film. The late nights and lack of sleep begin to take a toll, and the longer this crew works, the more the leaky, wet building seems to be coming back to life, feeding off its new inhabitants. As the shoot wears on, members of the crew exhibit increasingly strange behavior, making those who are still sane realize they need to get out of this place before they too succumb to the building’s infectious hold. The only problem: The old hospital is not ready to let them go.

How to Enter:

• Comment on this post by March 17, 2013. You must provide a way for me to contact you if you win. For example, your e-mail address must be available on the page/site that's linked to your name ("Bob said..."), or include your e-mail or Twitter handle in your comment.
• I will then pick one comment at random and post the winner.
• Prize is available to United States mailing addresses only. (No P.O. Boxes, please.)

Good luck!

Official trailer:

Congrats to the winner of the Rise of the Guardians Blu-ray/DVD Gift Pack!

And...

 

The winner is...

Jamie!

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest!

Win a Blu-ray/DVD Gift Pack of Rise of the Guardians!

JUST IN TIME FOR EASTER BASKETS: You could win a copy of the Rise of the Guardians Blu-ray/DVD Gift Pack, featuring two hopping toy eggs inspired by the film!

Synopsis: In this adventure from DreamWorks Animation, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and Jack Frost come together to battle Pitch, a malicious spirit determined to take over the world and destroy the innocent beliefs and dreams of children. 

How to Enter:

• Comment on this post by March 10, 2013. You must provide a way for me to contact you if you win. For example, your e-mail address must be available on the page/site that's linked to your name ("Bob said..."), or include your e-mail or Twitter handle in your comment.
•  I will then pick one comment at random and post the winner.
• Prize is available to United States mailing addresses only. (No P.O. Boxes, please.)

Good luck!

Sushi Girl (2012)

ON A DARK AND RAINY NIGHT, four men who botched a diamond heist six years ago reunite to celebrate the arrival of their fifth member, Fish (The Neverending Story’s Noah Hathaway), who was just released from prison and has kept his mouth shut about his partners in crime and the location of the diamonds. The celebration takes place during a sushi dinner, served off the naked body of a beautiful woman (Cortney Palm).

However, the celebration quickly turns to suspicion: The four men – leader Duke (Candyman’s Tony Todd), foul-mouthed hothead Max (Andy Mackenzie), recovering addict Francis (James Duval), and effeminate sadist Crow (Mark Hamill) – believe that Fish knows where the missing loot is. And they’ll stop at nothing to find out the truth.

Comparisons of Sushi Girl to Reservoir Dogs are inevitable and multiple. Much like Quentin Tarantino’s neo-classic, Sushi Girl takes place entirely in one central location; several of its criminals torture and mutilate a person to get information; suspicion grows that there’s a rat among them; their heist and its fallout are shown in flashbacks; and it all revolves around a missing stash of diamonds. Sushi Girl even ends with a Mexican standoff between several members of the crew, a la the final showdown between Dogs’ surviving criminals. (A twist following Sushi Girl’s standoff comes off more as “huh” than “wow.”)

Much like Reservoir Dogs, Sushi Girl’s singular setting could lend it to a stage performance – an irony, since the cast delivers their dialogue with such heavy-handed melodramatics it feels as if they’re playing to a theater audience. Nearly unrecognizable in the cast is Star Wars’ Hamill, looking like the love child of Kurt Cobain and Truman Capote. He really seems to be relishing the role, hamming it up without being a complete camera hog. (The cast also includes why-bother cameos by Michael Biehn, Jeff Fahey, and Danny Trejo (The Grind), all crammed into one five-minute flashback.) 

Sushi Girl director Kern Saxton (who co-wrote the script with the co-star of Bravo’s Millionaire Matchmaker) offers some wonderful tracking shots and tinges of dark humor. But he makes it hard for us to believe this group of drastically different and combative criminals would even agree on where to get lunch, let alone collaborate on an armed diamond heist. Derivative, gratuitous, and self-indulgent, Sushi Girl is indeed raw…but watching it feels like getting food poisoning of the eyes.

Rating:

Is it suitable for your kids?

No. Sushi Girl is rated R for strong bloody violence, torture, language, nudity, and brief drug use.
Strong Bloody Violence: Multiple people are shot, with blood splatterings a-plenty; one man has his hand cut off, and the bloody stump is shown.
Torture: Long scenes of torture, where a character is punched repeatedly, has his ribs broken, chop sticks are driven into his legs, and his face is ripped to shreds from a swinging bag of broken glass.
Language: A countless amount of strong profanities, racial epithets, gay slurs, and crude insults.
Nudity: A woman's nude body is shown in close-up and in long shots throughout most of the film (sometimes with strategically placed pieces of sushi covering the naughty bits).
Alcohol/Drugs: The men at the sushi dinner drink sake. A man snorts a line of cocaine.
Miscellaneous: A man vomits into a sink.

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

She may be intrigued by the casting of Star Wars icon Mark Hamill in a way-against-type role, but the overabundance of tough-guy talk combined with the graphic violence and torture will probably turn her off.

(gulp) "Uh, I'm sorry sir, but your card has been declined..."

Sushi Girl
* Director: Kern Saxton
* Screenwriters: Destin Pfaff and Kern Saxton
* Stars: Tony Todd, James Duval, Noah Hathaway, Andy Mackenzie, Mark Hamill, Cyrus Alexander, Michael Biehn, Sonny Chiba, Danny Trejo, Jeff Fahey, Cortney Palm
* MPAA Rating: R



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Junior High Spy (2012)

PUT OFF BY the high-quality entertainment and production value of Spy Kids and Agent Cody Banks? Have we got a movie for YOU!

Junior high student Ricky (Christopher Lazlo) is a budding secret agent in training, thanks to the support of his FBI father, Richard (Harry Edison). But when his dad is kidnapped by Very Bad Men and the FBI’s leads dry up, Ricky enlists the help of his whiz-kid friend Jack (Matthew Downs) to help him track down the bad guys and bring his dad home.

Despite the fact that Junior High Spy is centered around the American-based FBI, the film is obviously a Canadian production – from the unmistakable accent (they talk aboot Ricky’s dad being held hostage in a big hoose, eh?) to the maple leaf flag displayed on the speedboat where the bad guys knock Ricky out and abduct his dad.


This is obviously an independent feature with a limited budget, but the filmmakers should’ve squeezed out a few extra bucks for acting lessons. The kid actors’ wooden, unconvincing performances are fittingly on par with a junior high play, and the adult actors aren’t much better.


The script by Barry Cowan is solid – it’s the execution that comes up short. Flat delivery of lines, uneven pacing, odd editing, and long stretches where nothing happens to advance the story or character development. And despite an abundance of FBI agents and Very Bad Men, not one gun in sight. (Oh, those polite Canadians and their wacky gun control laws!)

Even at just 87 minutes, Junior High Spy is stuffed with gobs of filler – mostly consisting of Ricky patrolling the mansion grounds on his ATV or cheesecake footage of teenager Kate (Jessica Ducharme) strolling the hillsides in a bikini top and short-shorts. In addition, the musical score consists of exactly four themes, repeated ad nauseum: there’s Main Titles Theme, Investigation Theme, Suspense Theme, and Action Theme.

Halfway through Junior High Spy, FilmBoy and I started talking back to the screen at all the ridiculousness. The stiff performances, the “oh no, not again” recurrence of the film’s limited soundtrack, the unconvincing fight scenes…they all provided fodder for us to make goofy comments and turn the experience from brutally painful to barely tolerable.

Released by independent studio Skylight Films and distributed by Inception Media Group, Junior High Spy eventually reaches its happy ending, but leaves the door open for a sequel. One can only hope!*

*That it never happens.

aka Ricky Lazio Jr., FBI.

Rating:

Normally a movie like this would rate 1 star,

but for unintentional entertainment value, it gets:

What did FilmBoy think?

“Okay. It was good. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever seen.” The repetition of the same four soundtrack themes did start to get on his nerves. He also thought it was hysterical the way the Canadian cast says “house” (“hoose”); the fact that it’s said repeatedly by Ricky only made it funnier.

Is it suitable for your kids?

Language: Mentions of “butt,” “dummy,” and “perv.”
Violence: There are several fight scenes, mostly involving martial arts. No bloodshed or deaths.
Adult situations: Kate is seen in various skimpy clothing and bikinis; Ricky shares a kiss with Kate’s younger sister, Kylie (Mikayla Ottonello). The antics of 12-year-old Jack are sometimes uncomfortable: He describes Kate as “definitely hot,” comments on her “heavenly body,” literally pants over her in one scene, and tries to sneak a glass of wine at a swank party at the mansion. There’s brief mention of the bad guys being involved in “smuggling,” though it’s never made clear exactly what they’re smuggling.

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

Can’t think of one reason why she would.

Let's go to work.
(While being mindful of child labor laws.)

Junior High Spy
* Directors: Mark McNabb, Kelly Rae Irwin
* Screenwriter: Barry Cowan
* Stars: Christopher Fazio, Mikayla Ottonello, Matthew Downs, Harry Edison, Dorothy Downs, Jessica Ducharme
* MPAA Rating: N/A



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So Undercover (2012)

LET’S GET THIS OVER WITH: Miley Cyrus (Bolt) plays a private investigator named Molly (that’s Molly, not Miley) who’s hired by an FBI agent (Jeremy Piven) to protect the daughter of a key mob witness while the daughter is living in a college sorority house. To accomplish this, Molly (not Miley) goes undercover as a student to keep the daughter safe, while trying not to blow her cover or fall for beau-hunk classmate Nicholas (Joshua Bowman).

Whether or not you’ll enjoy – or even tolerate – So Undercover depends on how open you are to believing the FBI would put their trust in a two-bit junior PI to protect the relative of an important government witness. And for someone who’s been assigned to closely protect this relative, Molly spends large amounts of time apart from her as she endures numerous debriefings from Piven’s agent and makes goo-goo eyes at Nicholas.

So Undercover is almost nothing but variations of Molly unknowingly spewing a bunch of inside-speak about her profession, then poorly covering it up with a bimbo-esque declaration. As Molly’s boss, Piven brings more to his role than the film deserves, and it’s a bit sad that this is the kind of work you get after winning three Emmys on Entourage.

Devoid of laughs, charm, or believability, So Undercover is Cyrus’ latest attempt to shake her teenybopper image and play grown-up, complete with parading around in her underwear and occasionally swearing. But her cherubic looks and disturbingly bleach-white teeth betray her attempt at portraying a cynical FBI operative. Cyrus probably feels like she’s got something to prove to make America forget about Hannah Montana, but So Undercover is so not helping.

Rating:

Is it suitable for your kids?

So Undercover is rated PG-13 for “mature and suggestive content.” It includes mild profanities peppered throughout, alcohol consumption at a party, several close-ups of girls’ chests and/or cleavage, and random gunplay.

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

Unless your FilmMother is twelve (and if she is, you’ve got bigger problems), I doubt it.

(*sigh*) Of course they're making me do

Gangnam Style as part of the initiation...

So Undercover
* Director: Tom Vaughan
* Screenwriters: Allan Loeb, Steven Pearl
* Stars: Miley Cyrus, Jeremy Piven, Mike O'Malley, Kelly Osbourne, Eloise Mumford, Megan Park, Lauren McKnight, Autumn Reeser, Matthew Settle
* MPAA Rating: PG-13



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The Oogieloves in the BIG Balloon Adventure (2012)

THEY COME FROM THE MAN who gave us the Teletubbies.

They look like Barney the Dinosaur, the Doodlebops, and H.R. Pufnstuf had a freaky three-way.

They had the worst box-office opening of all time.

And now, they’re coming to your home.

Yes, last fall’s infamous bomb The Oogieloves in the BIG Balloon Adventure is now available on home video. It features the adventures of full-bodied puppet-kids Goobie, Zoozie, and Toofie as they plan a surprise birthday party for their friend Schluufy, who happens to be…a gibberish-spewing pillow. But when their friend, a vacuum named J. Edgar (because he’s a Hoover, get it?), trips and loses five magical balloons meant for Schluufy, the Oogies set out to retrieve the balloons in time for the party.

The Oogieloves in the BIG Balloon Adventure is an interactive movie, with the Oogies talking to the screen and urging preschoolers to get out of their seats at various points in the film and take part in song and dance routines, complete with follow-the-bouncing-ball lyrics displayed at the bottom. These overzealous commands quickly spiral out of control, often coming just minutes apart and sometimes lasting for mere seconds before the kids are told to sit down. (It makes the stand-sit-pray frequency of a Catholic mass look tame.) The songs are of the Chinese-water-torture variety, repeating the same verse over and over until you confess to crimes you didn’t even commit.

The Oogies encounter actual human beings in their journeys, and it makes you wonder what career-ending scandals these actors are hiding that allowed them to be blackmailed into appearing:

• Cloris Leachman as a polka-dot-loving shrew named (wait for it) Dottie
• Chazz Palminteri as Marvin Milkshake, who basically hazes his customers into dancing for their drinks at his dairy bar
• Toni Braxton (whose recent bankruptcy might explain her presence here) as a pop diva in a painfully long segment where she sings a ballad about coughing and sneezing
• The Princess Bride’s Cary Elwes, who seems to be enjoying himself way too much as a bubble-loving cowboy whose bouncy swagger makes him look like he has to pee
• Jaime Pressly as a latino salsa dancer and her partner Christopher Lloyd, who’s dressed in flamenco garb and speaks only by beating his bongos

And just when it seems all of Schluufy’s birthday balloons are safely retrieved by the Oogieloves, they’re lost again due to a strong wind. But before you can say deus ex machina, the balloons declare, “There’s only one thing stronger than the wind: love!” So the Oogies – and I am not making this up – start blowing kisses over and over to bring the balloons back. It’s at this point your mind starts coming to grips with the fact that the entire film centers around a surprise birthday party for a pillow. (When does life exactly begin for a pillow? Is it the manufacture date on the tag?)

Spoiler alert: The Oogies’ kisses bring the balloons back and the party is a success, as Schluufy sits there like some kind of stuffed invalid while everyone dances around him, seemingly rubbing their mobility in his face.

On some level, the Oogieloves’ creator Kenn Viselman (he of Teletubbies and Thomas the Tank Engine fame) should be commended for trying something different with the interactive nature of The Oogieloves in the BIG Balloon Adventure and its world of bright colors, soft shapes, and surreal settings. But factor in the trite, grating musical numbers, stilted dialogue, inept animal puppetry, often-insulting tone, and complete lack of substance, and you’re left with nothing more than an 88-minute mess. The Oogieloves in the BIG Balloon Adventure may be filled with the best intentions, but so is the road to Hell.

Rating:

What did FilmBoy and Jack-Jack think?

FilmBoy thought The Oogieloves in the BIG Balloon Adventure was awful, declaring at mid-point, “How is the guy who created this not embarrassed?” Jack-Jack kept saying repeatedly, “Why was this in the theaters?” – though secretly, I think he may enjoy the film more than he lets on.

Is it suitable for your kids?

From a strictly content perspective, yes – unless you consider Jaime Pressly kissing the Oogieloves’ pet fish on the lips to be subversive.

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

My FilmMother thought The Oogieloves in the BIG Balloon Adventure was trippy, annoying, and devoid of any educational value. Halfway through, she said to me, “We’re never gonna get these moments back, you know.”

More like the Oogiehates, amiright?

Thank you, try the veal.

The Oogieloves in the BIG Balloon Adventure
* Director: Matthew Diamond
* Screenwriter: Scott Stabile
* Stars: Christopher Lloyd, Cary Elwes, Jaime Pressly, Cloris Leachman, Chazz Palminteri, Toni Braxton, Garrett Clayton, Maya Stange, Nick Drago, Malerie Grady, Steve Blackwood
* MPAA Rating: G


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Citadel (2012)

HERE’S A QUESTION for all the dads out there: Could you protect your child from evil if you were afraid of everything?

That’s the dilemma posed by the Irish horror import Citadel, where we meet Tommy (Aneurin Barnard), a young father afflicted with chronic agoraphobia after his pregnant wife is brutally attacked by a gang of hooded youths (children, to be exact). When the same gang starts terrorizing Tommy again, intent on kidnapping his baby daughter, he seeks help from a doubting yet sympathetic nurse (Wunmi Mosaku) and a vigilante priest (James Cosmo) to overcome his fear and destroy the gang for good.

Drawing from his own experience with agoraphobia following a violent mugging, Citadel’s first-time feature writer/director Ciaran Foy paints Tommy’s world as a bleak, grimy landscape of blues and greys (much like how Tommy views his life and his future). Foy does an effective job at balancing scares with cares, putting Tommy in the hands of Mosaku’s nurse just long enough to provide the viewer with a false sense of relief before throwing Tommy back into danger at the hands of the gang. (Also great: Foy’s use of Tommy’s old apartment number (111) and the recurring theme of threes.)

Looking and acting like Elijah Wood’s strung-out big brother, Barnard does a great job capturing the struggle of a new parent stricken with a crippling fear and topped with a coating of paranoia. Cosmo’s embattled priest, while quite the screen presence, is a somewhat uneven mishmash of profane wisdom, jarring frankness, and tough love. Also, his exposition explaining the origin of the feral children is muddled and dodges the obvious question: If this gang of children has been around for decades, wouldn’t there now be a few adults in the group?

Winner of the Midnighters Audience Award at the 2012 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, Citadel is nearly everything a horror film should be – “nearly” because of the third act, a showdown in the abandoned apartment tower where Tommy and his wife lived when she was attacked. This finale plays like a haunted-house action sequence and betrays the creepy, atmospheric tone Foy set in the first hour. The film also ends somewhat abruptly: one side wins, and almost immediately the credits roll.

As good as Citadel is, a word of warning to anyone who’s an expectant father, a single dad, or a parent of an infant: Before you know it, you’ll soon be wondering if you would have what it takes if faced with the same terrors as Tommy.

Rating:

Is it suitable for your kids?

Absolutely not. In the opening scene, Tommy’s wife is viciously attacked by the gang; Tommy’s emotional breakdowns are harrowing to watch (though he’s oddly emotionless when taking his wife off life support); the hooded children are truly scary: they attack and kill several people, complete with graphic noises and bloodshed, either in shadows or off screen; Tommy’s baby daughter is put in peril in several scenes; one of the hooded children’s throats is slit, complete with spraying blood; there are many profanities.

Will your FilmMother want to watch it?

With a pregnant mother beaten to death in the opening scene, a gang of mutated killer children, and the ongoing threat of a baby girl being stolen by the gang, I can’t see too many mothers who would be willing to sit through Citadel.

"Candy-Gram."

Citadel
* Director: Ciaran Foy
* Screenwriter: Ciaran Foy
* Stars: Aneurin Barnard, Wunmi Mosaku, James Cosmo, Jake Wilson, Amy Shiels
* MPAA Rating: R


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