Review Category: Movie

Review: The Casebook of Eddie Brewer / Cert: TBC / Director: Andrew Spencer / Screenplay: Andrew Spencer / Starring: Ian Brooker, Peter White / Release Date: TBC

Harking back to the classic ghost story of M.R. James, The Case Book of Eddie Brewer is a quietly haunting character study based loosely on the true life parapsychologist Maurice Grosse, who investigated the case of the Enfield Poltergeist, an apparently genuine incidence of paranormal activity that caused tabloid frenzy in the 1970s.

Ian Brooker plays the titular paranormal investigator, still troubled by the loss of his wife, who died in a car accident some 25 years earlier. The subject of a slightly scoffing TV documentary, Eddie is seen as something of a novelty act by the film crew who follow him around and is derided by the sceptics and rivals in his own field, who denounce his methods as old school. But when Eddie investigates genuine paranormal phenomena at an old house, an all-night vigil becomes a matter of survival for Eddie and the film crew, and Eddie is forced to confront his darkest fears.

Filming in a surprisingly spooky Birmingham, using local talent, director Andrew Spencer fuses gritty social realism with supernatural horror to powerful effect: a fan of classic British horror films like The Innocents (1961) and The Haunting (1963), Spencer brings the same psychological ambiguity to The Case Book of Eddie Brewer. We’re never quite sure whether the supernatural goings-on are real or ghostly manifestations of Eddie’s tormented mind. Spencer is aided in this by sound designer Jamie Robertson who imbues the film with an eerie mood throughout. It’s not quite, but almost, The Exorcist directed by Ken Loach.

Brooker brings a quiet intensity to the role of the dedicated but disparaged Eddie, who gradually becomes unravelled over the course of his investigation. His scientific stoicism slowly peels away to reveal the terrible pain of loss so that we genuinely fear for Eddie – will he survive the inevitable showdown with the forces of darkness? Andrew Spencer’s solid direction combines mock-documentary and ‘fourth wall’ drama that gives Eddie Brewer the feel of Most Haunted meets The Stone Tape, invoking the work of Nigel Kneale and Stephen Volk in its sense of slowly mounting dread, as normal life becomes threatened by the inexplicable. Fans of Ghostwatch and Supernatural will love it.

Review: The Wicker Man – The Final Cut / Cert: 15 / Director: Robin Hardy / Screenplay: Anthony Shaffer / Starring: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt / Release Date: September 29th

If we agree – and surely we all do? – that Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man is one of greatest British movies of all time, then we also almost certainly agree that the fabled missing ‘original’ cut of the 1973 classic probably qualifies as cinema’s Holy Grail. Extensive archival searches and public appeals for the excised material have drawn a frustrating blank. But fans can take some solace from the recent recovery of an original 35mm print at the Harvard Film Archives which Hardy quickly confirmed was the cut he had put together in 1979 for US release. This version, beautifully restored, is the edit which now enjoys a brief new theatrical lease of life before arriving on DVD and Blu-ray in October. There’s no new footage here and the material already available in the so-called ‘Director’s Cut’ remains absent from this edit, which finally restores the originally intended story order (the film’s events now properly take place across a 72-hour period) and Hardy himself says that this ‘final cut’ “fulfils my vision of what it was intended to convey to the audience.”

And what a vision. The Wicker Man remains an extraordinary piece of filmmaking, the story of staunchly Christian Police Sergeant Neil Howie (Woodward) who travels to a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. He finds the island inhabited by “bloody heathens” who, under the stewardship of the urbane Lord Summerisle (Lee) carry out flamboyant pagan rituals and acknowledge Christianity only as a comparative religion. Howie’s investigations are met with resistance and obstruction and the longer he stays on the island, the deeper he’s drawn into an elaborate trap which threatens not only his own belief system but also perhaps his very life.

The Wicker Man is a vivid and complex picture, Anthony Shaffer’s elegant script populated by immaculately drawn characters brought to life by lead actors clearly utterly invested in their roles. In Summerisle Lee was finally able to shake off the shackles of the Hammer horror factory and Woodward, wonderfully resolute as the starchy Howie, gives a performance of astonishing depth and intensity. Few who have experienced The Wicker Man can forget its sizzling pent-up eroticism (Britt Ekland‘s incredible night-time seduction dance), the haunting yet joyous folk songs which propel and define the story as much as (if not more than) the actual narrative and, of course, that ending as The Wicker Man effortlessly transforms from a quirky, unsettling and darkly comic thriller into a full-on horror movie.

Horribly treated by distributors at the time of its original release, frustratingly butchered and under-appreciated, The Wicker Man has in the intervening years become properly and rightly recognised as a masterpiece of British cinema. This new and ‘final’ cut provides a wonderful opportunity for fans and newcomers alike to at last experience it the way its director always wanted it experienced.

Expected Rating: 10 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Nosferatu / Cert: PG / Director: F.W. Murnau / Screenplay: Henrik Galeen / Starring: Max Shreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder, Alexander Granach, Ruth Landshoff, Wolfgang Heinz / Release Date: October 25th

Nosferatu is the earliest known adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It was also unauthorized, incurring a lawsuit from Stoker’s widow as a result. Due to this, several prints of the film were destroyed, but this re-released version has been painstakingly put together using surviving reels from different countries.

The film starts with young, loved-up estate agent Thomas Hutter (von Wangenheim) living in the fictitious German town of Wisborg with his wife Ellen (Schröder). His insane boss Knock (Granach) sends him to Transylvania’s Carpathian mountains to sell a local house to the mysterious Count Orlok (Shreck).

The townspeople fear Orlok and Hutter soon finds out why – the looming, bat-eared, long-fingernailed Count has a penchant for sleeping in a coffin during the day and biting people’s necks at night. After reading a book on vampires, Hutter strongly suspects that Orlok is one, and he passes out as the menacing nosferatu approaches. Luckily, he awakens in time to see Orlok climbing into one of several coffins on a coach and leaving the castle for Wisborg. Hutter must then hurry back home to save his wife from Orlok, who leaves behind a trail of death on his journey which is blamed on the plague.

Released in 1922 (the same year Christopher Lee was born, ironically), the film was a product of the German expressionist movement of the time. A silent film, it features an almost forgotten style of acting that will be refreshingly new to a younger generation of horror fans and endearing to lovers of classic cinema. Despite only being on-screen for a tenth of the film, Shreck puts in a performance so creepy and compelling that it sparked rumours he was an actual vampire; this myth being explored in the 2000 film Shadow of a Vampire. In a beautiful coincidence, his surname means ‘terror’ in German. The perfectly timed score complements the haunting tone of the film, with Shreck’s prowling, unblinking monster stalking up the stairs the moment Murnau tints the film blue to signify nightfall.

Nosferatu is one of the finest movies in history, and not just in the horror genre. In a world containing The Lost Boys (great) and Twilight (utter *bleep*), this is a welcome return for the great-grandfather of vampire films.

Expected Rating: 10 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: The Dead 2 – India / Cert: 18 / Director: Howard J. Ford, Jonathan Ford / Screenplay: Howard J. Ford, Jonathan Ford / Starring: Joseph Millson, Meenu Mishra, Anand Goyal / Release Date: TBC

Another continent is taken by an undead storm as the plague of The Dead spreads to India, where it doesn’t take long at all for the groaners to get going. American turbine engineer Nicholas Burton (Millson) is working in the Indian countryside when the dead make their presence known.

In terms of scale, The Dead 2 doesn’t put a foot wrong. The Indian countryside looks incredible – a far cry from the deserted streets or boarded-up old houses we’ve become accustomed to seeing in zombie cinema. The story sends Nicholas battling through three hundred miles of zombie-cluttered desert to get to pregnant girlfriend Ishani (Mishra) who lives in the slums of Mumbai. It’s like a man-eating version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles or Due Date. In the John Candy/Zach Galifianakis role we have young Javed (Goyal), a young street rat Burton meets on his travels. It’s a striking concept, even if it isn’t that far removed from the plot of the previous film.

Sadly, it absolutely crumbles under close scrutiny. The cinematography is incredible, the setting a great idea, but everything else repeatedly comes up lacking. The Ford brothers have collected a whole host of first-time actors for their film, and it shows. All three local leads are noticeably green. This isn’t helped by the decision to have them act in English, even when they’re interacting with their friends and family. This extends to Millson, with his needlessly put-on American accent. He’s a fine enough actor, but the Yank-speak does him no favours. Many will claim that little Javed is the film’s breakout star, but we found him to be the worst thing about it. Then again, we do have a low tolerance for children in horror films (Damien from The Omen aside).

Elsewhere, the film remains pretty but dull. Burton and his zombies shuffle from set piece to set piece, with only the odd gunfight and paraplane (by far the film’s best moment) to liven things up. It feels interminably long; every step of Burton’s trudge deeply felt. As the opening film at FrightFest, it was an odd choice, dampening the mood, and even putting one or two audience members to sleep (guilty) for a few moments. While technically beautiful, it lacks a sense of excitement or fun. A good idea spoiled by workmanlike direction and bad acting, The Dead 2 really puts the ‘zzzz’ into World War Z.

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: The Mortal Instruments – City of Bones / Cert: 12A / Director: Harald Swart / Screenplay: Jessica Postigo Paquette / Starring: Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan, Kevin Zegers, Lena Headey, Aidan Turner / Release Date: Out Now

Hollywood’s desperation to find a new blockbuster teen fantasy franchise with Twilight-like box office potential continues apace and it looks like we can comfortably add The Mortal Instruments – City of Bones to a growing list of misjudged misfires (The Host, Beautiful Creatures). This adaptation of the first in Cassandra Clare’s series of novels fumbles the ball by trying to cram in too much, too soon, and ends up punctuating its frantic action sequences with acres of clumpy exposition in a story which is already too haphazard for its own good.

It’s a shame because it all starts off quite well. Initial New York sequences are punchy and atmospheric, as our heroine Clary Fray (Lily Collins, daughter of grizzled former Genesis drummer/singer Phil) stumbles into a world of demons, monsters and mysterious, leather-clad warriors called Shadowhunters who seem to be invisible to everyone except her. It’s an intriguing set-up and the first FX setpiece, Clary trapped in her own home and attacked by a grotesque dog-blob demon, is repulsively gruesome and surprisingly exciting. But it all gets a bit sluggish when the mean and moody Shadowhunters rock up, contemporary New York is left behind and Clary and her ‘mundane’ mate Simon (former Misfit Sheehan) find themselves in the Shadowhunters’ massive Gothic folly home, a huge invisible building smack in the middle of the city. The endless info-dumping starts here as backstory is revealed in tortuous flashback and static dialogue-heavy sequences. As if sensing that the audience’s attention is wandering, the story (something to do with salvaging a mystical, magical goblet) throws in a random battle with a horde of vampires in their abandoned hotel fortress, a pack of poorly animated werewolves, some fire demons and, of course, much sighing and pouting and tortured teenage angst.

The action, when it comes, is much tougher and more brutal than most teen fantasy flicks – people die and they die nastily – but there’s altogether too much flab in between the fighting, although at least what threatened to become a dreary romantic arc for Clary and Bower’s wiry Shadowhunter Jace is derailed by a welcome, if unlikely, plot twist. Watch out for the hilarious Magnus Bane, the so-called ‘High Warlock of Brooklyn’ who makes Gok Wan look like Jason Statham as he wanders round wearing just a frock coat and underpants for no apparent reason.

City of Bones might have hit the mark with a shorter running time and a tighter narrative, and whilst it’s not a complete creative disaster, it’s clearly not the stuff long-running franchises are made of. Judicious editing and a more coherent storyline could save the day but Sony might yet have cause to regret fast-tracking the already-in-production second movie, City of Ashes.

Expected Rating: 6 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Cheap Thrills / Cert: 15 / Director E.L. Katz / Screenplay: David Chirchirillo, Trent Haaga / Starring: Pat Healy, Ethan Embry, David Koechner, Sara Paxton / Release Date: June 6th

Think Neill Blomkamp’s District 9, think Gareth Edwards’ Monsters. Great directorial debuts, films all produced for not much at all that made a big impression on genre fans. Well, now you can add another to the list, because E.L. Katz’s Cheap Thrills is an astonishingly assured and well-crafted piece of work that deserves a huge audience.

After being served an eviction notice and then being laid off, down on his luck new father Craig (Healy) ends up in a bar, where he meets high school friend Vince (Embry) who he hasn’t seen in about five years. The two of them encounter a wealthy couple Colin and Violet (Koechner and Paxton) who are not shy of dishing out their cash as it is Violet’s birthday. Colin starts to issue dares that start out relatively harmless ($50 to smack a stripper’s behind, etc) but soon escalate into a cavalcade of the grotesque. Craig and Vince find themselves thrust into competition with each other in a battle of greed and desperation that leads to ever increasing violence.

The film that Cheap Thrills is most reminiscent of is Reservoir Dogs as it takes place mostly in one location and has brilliant characters with well written, real-sounding dialogue. It also escalates the tension in a very natural way that never feels contrived. As the stakes increase and the desperation mounts, you are right there with the characters and in your head you start to play a game: what would you do when faced with the same situation.

Even though many of the characters’ actions are despicable, somehow they all remain likeable thanks to the brilliant performances. Pat Healy is an actor who is becoming really fascinating to watch with each new role; his character is the window into this awful night and because we start with him, he remains the anchor for the audience’s sympathy and fulfils this role very easily. Ethan Embry plays a low-life thug a world away from the teen idol characters he started his career with, but he gives a seemingly shallow character hidden depths as the film goes on. David Koechner is an actor mainly known for bit parts in raucous comedies but here his performance is more mannered and subtle and somehow absolutely chilling and one that stays with you.

Knowing very little about the unsavoury places that Cheap Thrills goes is probably the best way to see the film; its dark, funny, unsettling and sneaks up on you. E.L. Katz has made a black comedic masterpiece for these troubled times and proves to be a great storyteller and a major new talent.

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: R.I.P.D. / Cert: 12A / Director: Robert Schwentke / Screenplay: Matt Manfredi, Phil Hay / Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges, Mary-Louise Parker / Release Date: September 20th

Summer 2013 has been the most divisive ever in terms of your modern blockbuster. Almost everything that came out got praise followed by an angry backlash by the time it was on general release. Some things flopped massively like The Lone Ranger and you could sort of understand it, but then Pacific Rim disappointed and the old adage that ‘nobody knows anything’ proved true yet again. R.I.P.D. is a film, based on a comic, with a huge budget that was a gigantic flop in the states in July. It’s a perfectly serviceable, live action cartoon of a film but because it’s uncynical and not over two hours, it perhaps was released at the wrong time.

The films that R.I.P.D. seems to get lumped in with are Men in Black and Hellboy and it does have elements of both, but beyond the initial set up it becomes its own thing, which is a witty riff on the buddy cop action movie. Nick (Reynolds) finds himself shot dead and betrayed and ends up working back on Earth for the R.I.P.D., tasked with controlling dead souls who refuse to stay dead in our world. He is teamed up with former western gunslinger Roy (Bridges) and they begin working a case that links to why Nick was killed and may bring about the end of the world.

Perhaps too simple to succeed in our over-convoluted, bloated times, R.I.P.D. works largely based on the comedic chemistry between Ryan Reynolds doing his sarcastic schtick and Jeff Bridges doing a riff on his Rooster Cogburn. Their dialogue is the most surprising thing about the film and remains funny throughout – running gags about how Roy has died and reappeared on Earth somehow never growing old.

R.I.P.D. also has some wonderful special effects. The dead souls our duo hunt appear like large bloated men with obvious undead features and when found out they end up running amok across buildings and through windows in some really impressively shot action scenes where you can actually tell what is happening, all too rare nowadays. Added to this, this is the most impressive use of 3D for a while and you can tell that they took time with this aspect behind the scenes, which makes it a pleasure for the eyes.

If there is a complaint, it’s that we don’t spend long enough in the afterlife, getting to know the rules and the big players which are only hinted at. Nonetheless, R.I.P.D. is a hugely entertaining and witty action comedy the kind of which Hollywood has seemingly forgotten how to make and shouldn’t have been so ignored this summer.

Expected Rating: 5 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Kick-Ass 2 / Director: Jeff Wadlow / Screenplay: Jeff Wadlow / Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jim Carrey, Donald Faison, John Leguizamo / Release Date: Out Now

“As a great man once said… wait until they get a load of me.” So ended Matthew Vaughn and Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass, the sage set for a showdown between the titular Kick-Ass, breakout star Hit-Girl, and the newly villainous Red Mist. With the promise of more heroes, more deliciously entertaining ultraviolence, and more Mindy McCready, Kick-Ass 2 was set to be the Dark Knight to its predecessor’s Batman Begins. All this, and Jim Carrey too. How could it disappoint? Well, wait until you get a load of this…

Kick-Ass 2 picks up three years after the previous film left off. Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor Johnson) is retired and bored, coasting through life while Mindy (Chloe Grace Moretz) continues her ass-kicking ways as Hit-Girl. Eventually, the boredom becomes too much, and Dave has Mindy train him in the art of crime fighting – Big Daddy style. Initially a lot of fun, we see Kick-Ass join his very own Justice League (led by a distractingly scary Jim Carrey) and actually grow to become competent at his craft. And then The Motherfucker makes his presence known, and suddenly things aren’t quite so fun anymore.

Unfortunately, this carries over to the film itself. Always go darker for the sequel, is the general rule for superhero films, but given that Kick-Ass ended with Kick-Ass flying around with a jetpack, blowing up Mark Strong with a bazooka, while McLovin runs around wearing eyeliner and spandex, the same rules don’t quite apply here. The irreverent cheer and bombastic silliness has returned for the sequel (see Dave fighting a gang of thugs while dressed as a Great White Pimp, and Mindy bombing it across town on her motorcycle) but it sits ill at ease with the darker, crueller themes of the comic book. True, many of Millar’s more horrid ideas have been phased out, but his influence lingers there, insipidly whispering away in the background. By the time an attempted rape is played for laughs and (another) beloved character is violently murdered onscreen, there’s a very bitter taste left in the mouth. The laughs which follow intermittently between feel tainted and cheap. Where the first film was triumphant and optimistic – its shocking violence offset with a sense of fun and, above all, wit – this seems cynical, sad and hollow. Cheap, tonally inconsistent and reliant upon easy gags, the departure of Matthew Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman is deeply felt.

Which is a shame, because there’s a lot to like elsewhere. Obviously, Hit-Girl is the star, and Carrey puts in a great performance as Colonel Stars and Stripes, but it’s the likes of Donald Faison and John Leguizamo who really anchor the film, capturing that optimistic, humanist spirit that made its predecessor so likeable. Mindy’s own story is enjoyable too, a version of Carrie or Mean Girls, crossed with Kill Bill. Her beefed up screen time really works, and Moretz is growing into quite the impressive actress, in case you hadn’t noticed already. Well done, too, with the casting of Andy Nyman and Daniel Kaluuya as Chris’s goons. There’s always that giant Nicolas Cage shaped hole at the film’s heart, but Jeff Wadlow and his fine cast of actors and actresses do a fine job of making it seem less noticeable.

Ultimately, Kick-Ass 2 is a disappointment. It’s well-acted, amusing and occasionally a lot of fun, but that’s tempered with a mean, ugly streak that makes it quite sad to watch. Another general rule for superhero sequels is that there’s always one in which the hero quits, hanging up the cape ‘forever’. In this case, one can’t help but feel that would have been for the best.   

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: Man of Tai Chi / Cert: 18 / Director: Keanu Reeves / Screenplay: Michael G. Cooney / Starring: Tiger Hu Chen, Keanu Reeves, Karen Mok / Release Date: TBC

Keanu Reeves successfully moves from one side of the camera to the other with a surprising choice for his directorial debut: an old school Hong Kong martial arts film. Reeves plays the antagonist, Mark Donaka, wealthy Hong Kong security company owner and operator of a shady underground fighting ring, who sets his sights on enticing innocent Tiger Chen, (played by the martial artist also known as Tiger Hu Chen, Reeves’ martial arts teacher on the Matrix films), the titular Man of Tai Chi, into the ring.

Tiger Chen, a harried courier in Beijing, is the only heir to his particular brand of tai chi passed down through 600 generations, and he aspires to show that it can be much more of a combat-focused martial art than traditionally thought by taking part in legitimate competitions with other martial artists. However, Donaka’s fights soon set him down a dark path of needless aggression and unbalanced chi.

Parallel to this story, Sun Jingshi (Mok), a Hong Kong police officer, tracks Donaka and eventually Tiger Chen, hoping to bring down the fighting ring, as she knows that (as shown in the first sequence of the film) no one ever leaves this ring alive. Can Tiger Chen redeem himself before he loses too much of himself and what else has Donaka got in mind for him?

For a first-timer, Reeves directs all aspects of the film very well, taking the necessary time to set up the characters and stories before jumping into the fights, and the decision to keep almost half the dialogue in Chinese (25% Mandarin and 25% Cantonese if reports are correct) keeps the film firmly grounded in reality, apart from a minor fantastical element near the climax that warrants its inclusion in Starburst.

It is a martial arts competition film however, and much of the remaining running time is taken up with Tiger’s bouts against opponents from all types of martial arts – the increasing difficulty, and number, of his opponents reflecting his own problems staying true to his sifu’s teachings and his love of tai chi.

Reeves had to abandon plans to use a special rig to move the camera seamlessly around and above the actors while fighting. We can only imagine what visual delights this would have provided, but even so the fighting on display is solid and visceral, the camera staying close in to the combat but still allowing the fight progression and impressive moves to be fully appreciated. These scenes escalate in their brutality as the film progresses, starting with elegant use of tai chi to avoid and redirect blows and graduating to vicious no-holds-barred battles later in the film.

A few scenes using wirework break the tone of the fights due to the unrealistic lack of weight of some characters, but it appears that Reeves himself didn’t appreciate this approach as the technique is quickly dismissed and doesn’t seem to be used again. Acting-wise Chen is likeable as the lead and Reeves provides a first-rate antagonist, even getting his hands dirty later in the film. Man of Tai Chi should appeal to all fans of Hong Kong (and international) action cinema and shows a promising start to what will hopefully be a long and interesting directing career for Reeves.

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

Actual Rating:

Review: 100 Bloody Acres / Cert: 15 / Director: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes / Screenplay: Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes / Starring: Damon Herriman, Angus Sampson, Anna McGahan, Jamie Kristian / Release Date: October 11th (Frightfest London preview: August 23rd)

There’s always been something special about Australian horror films; they are generally naturalistic yet offbeat and have a streak of black humour running through them. The brothers Cairnes’ 100 Bloody Acres carries this on tradition with ease.

The Morgan brothers, Reg (Herriman) and Lindsay (Sampson) run an organic fertiliser company, using road-kill and the like to create the best blend of blood and bone to enrich the local farmer’s soil. Reg begrudgingly offers a lift to three stranded friends, who are en-route to a local music festival – with Sophia (McGahan) up front, her boyfriend James (Ackland), and their acid-dropping friend (whom she is also carrying on with) Wes (Kristian) in the back with bags of fertiliser and rotting cow carcases. Oh, and the body of a festival roadie Reg happened to find in a crashed van. It seems the best ingredient for this plant food is a recently deceased human.

To reveal more would be unfair on the audience, as the film builds surely, with plenty of low-key surprises and tons of the aforementioned antipodean black humour. The joy comes not from standard tropes and genre trappings but from the characters and situations, where both the horror (and it does get gloriously gory) and comedy (there are several laugh out loud moments) develop entirely naturally. The fact that the ‘bad guys’ are just yokel saps looking to make ends meet with the best product they can produce instantly subverts the expectations of the audience. They are not well-equipped murderers, rather small time chancers who, by accident more than design, become involved in the killing business. Sampson sports a fabulous moustacheless beard, which is always good for a laugh, and his character Lindsay is the brains of the team, keeping his younger brother at a more subservient level, which certainly plays with the audience’s allegiances.

This is the film Tucker and Dale vs Evil should have been: a fun experience from start to finish. Make sure you stick around during the end credits, too, for a wonderful coda.

Expected Rating: 6 out of 10

Actual Rating: