Fellowship of Filming(s)

Assassin’s Cread: Lineage

Assassin’s Creed: Lineage is a series of three Canadian short films based on the Assassin’s Creed video game series, directed by Yves Simoneau. The films are made by Ubisoft Montreal in collaboration with Hybride Technology, and mark Ubisoft’s first attempt to step into the film industry. The three short films were released on YouTube to promote Assassin’s Creed II, to which they serve as a prequel, describing the history of Ezio Auditore da Firenze and his family before the events of the game. The films primarily revolve around Ezio’s father Giovanni (played by Romano Orzari), an Assassin from 15th-century Florence, and his investigation of the mysterious murder of the Duke of Milan, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, which leads him to confront a larger conspiracy.
via Wikipedia

This… was not exactly what I was expecting when I picked up this DVD (yes, it was available in the $3 bin at Walmart).

While I did enjoy it, even a little more so than the last Assassin’s Creed film I watched, it is short, very short. The DVD boasts 2.5 hours of running time, including extras. The extras are the making of the short film, and bonus segments from the games that are being promoted. That’s it. Short and sweet.

It’s a little disappointing since you can find the entire thing on YouTube for free.

It’s a collectors item that I opened and watched.

My Rating: ★ ★

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a 1971 American musical fantasy film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Bill Walsh for Walt Disney Productions. It is loosely based upon the books The Magic Bedknob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons (1944) and Bonfires and Broomsticks (1947) by English children’s author Mary Norton. The film stars Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson, John Ericson, and introduces Ian Weighill, Cindy O’Callaghan, and Roy Snart.
via Wikipedia

Another piece of childhood nostalgia here with this musical film about witches in Nazi Germany. We find ourselves in an out of the way English sea side town, where many victims find themselves being evacuated after the London bombings. Here we find a lovely lady named Ms. Price holding her own and taking a witchery by mail course in an attempt to help her country. She suddenly beset with three children to take care of and a very abrupt end to her witchery by mail course.

And so begins an adventure into the unknown, through the streets of London, to the fantastical island of Naboombu, and back to the little town of Pepperinge Eye. With musical introductions and explanations along to the way of course.

I love the cast here, Angela Lansbury is so wonderful to watch on screen, the same with David Tomlinson.

My Rating: ★ ★ ★

Babes in Toyland (1961)

Babes in Toyland is a 1961 American Christmas musical film directed by Jack Donohue and distributed to theaters by Buena Vista Distribution. It stars Ray Bolger as Barnaby, Tommy Sands as Tom Piper, Annette Funicello as Mary Contrary, and Ed Wynn as the Toymaker.

The film is based upon Victor Herbert’s popular 1903 operetta Babes in Toyland. There had been a 1934 film also titled Babes in Toyland starring Laurel and Hardy, and three television adaptations prior to the Disney film, but Disney’s was only the second film version of the operetta released to movie theatres and the first in Technicolor. The plot, and in some cases the music, bear little resemblance to the original, as Disney had most of the lyrics rewritten and some of the song tempos drastically changed, including the memorable song “Toyland”, a slow ballad, which was sped up with only the chorus sung in a march-like rhythm.
via Wikipedia

This little piece of nostalgia is what I grew up watching in the 80s. It’s a musical with very cartoonish action sequences, such as large, inappropriate hammers, sinking into a puddle, and nearly being pulled into a piggy bank.

It is a fun little romp through Toyland, the world of Mother Goose and her nursery rhymes. Where the characters come to life and live happy little lives. So happy in fact they’re about to have a wedding between Mary Contrary and Tom Piper, but someone in Toyland is not at all happy about the wedding and makes plans to derail it entirely.

And this is all done to music, because of course, this a musical with lots of dancing, singing, and frolicking. Yes they do frolic. It’s family friendly fun.

My Rating: ★★★★

The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)

The Man in the Iron Mask is a 1998 American action drama film written, directed, and produced by Randall Wallace. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio in a dual role as the title character and the villain, Jeremy Irons as Aramis, John Malkovich as Athos, Gérard Depardieu as Porthos, and Gabriel Byrne as D’Artagnan. Some characters are from Alexandre Dumas’s D’Artagnan Romances and some plot elements are very loosely adapted from his 1847-1850 novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne.

The film centers on the aging four musketeers, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D’Artagnan, during the reign of King Louis XIV. It explores the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask, with a plot closer to the flamboyant 1929 version starring Douglas Fairbanks, The Iron Mask, and the 1939 version, directed by James Whale, than to the original Dumas book. The film received mixed reviews but was a financial success, grossing $183 million worldwide against a budget of $35 million.
via Wikipedia

When I bought my first DVD player, I bought this copy of The Man in the Iron Mask. It is my first DVD and I still own it. I know I’ve been going overboard with nostalgia from my childhood, and this is a continuation into my young adult years. Yes, I did consider Leonardo DiCaprio serious eye candy at the time.

This is some fun history from France, ladies in waiting, knights in armor, princes, queens, and lots of action. There is some basis in history for this movie, but it was more of a rumor, and based on a single line of text from a prisoner log in the Bastille.

This movie is also based on some books about the three musketeers, from the author Alexandre Dumas.

It’s a fun, action adventure, through historic France, with lots of eye candy, an aging Pothos, and quite a bit of romance.

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Don’t Listen (2020)

Don’t Listen (Spanish: Voces, lit. ‘Voices’) is a 2020 Spanish horror and supernatural thriller film directed by Ángel Gómez Hernández [de] in his feature film debut. Its cast features Rodolfo Sancho, Ana Fernández, Ramón Barea, and Belén Fabra, among others.
via Wikipedia

This is a typical haunted house set up movie, but made in Spanish and dubbed over to English. There’s an overall theme of death, as even the people arriving to help find the answers for the young family in distress have recently had a loss themselves.

It’s a pretty creepy movie through sound. The sound is what gets you in this movie, not the visuals. Disembodied voices, creepy noises, and just very spooky. Turn up the sound with this one.

The storyline is straightforward, with a fairly typical haunted house ending, so nothing overly special here with that. Just a good, standard, haunted house movie.

My Rating: ★ ★ ★

Inkheart (2008)

Inkheart is a 2008 fantasy adventure film directed by Iain Softley, produced by Cornelia Funke, Dylan Cuva, Sarah Wang, Ute Leonhardt, Toby Emmerich, Mark Ordesky, Ileen Maisel and Andrew Licht, written by David Lindsay-Abaire, music composed by Javier Navarrete and starring Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent, Andy Serkis, and Eliza Bennett. It is based on Cornelia Funke’s 2003 novel of the same name.
via Wikipedia

This is a movie based on book (actually a series, it’s in my to-read list) about a family with a very special gift – they read characters out of a story book, but it takes someone from the real world to replace them in the book.

This leads to some rather dangerous situations, when Mo is reading a bedtime story to his young daughter, Meggie, it takes her mother, Resa, and brings out three characters: Dustfinger, Capricorn, and Basta. Capricorn ending up being the villain of that story, and the current plot.

The family is taken hostage and forced to… read books.

Yeah, it’s a little weird, but I’m thinking the books are better than the movie which is usually the case. I’ll let you know when I get around to reading them. Brendan Fraser is always fun to watch on screen though.

My Rating: ★ ★

Gods of Egypt (2016)

Gods of Egypt is a 2016 fantasy action film directed by Alex Proyas based on a fantastical version of some ancient Egyptian deities. It stars Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Brenton Thwaites, Chadwick Boseman, Élodie Yung, Courtney Eaton, Rufus Sewell, Gerard Butler, and Geoffrey Rush. The film portrays the Egyptian god Horus who partners with a mortal Egyptian thief, on a quest to rescue his love, and to save the world from Set.
via Wikipedia

In Egyptian Mythology, Set does kill Osiris, and Osiris becomes the lord of the underworld for it. It’s a fairly famous legend. There are many nods to the original mythology, Horus as the protector of pharaohs, light, the sun, and the sky. Set and Horus have historically fought for control of Egypt. I don’t personally know of a myth where Set blinds Horus, but the Eye of Horus is a symbol of protection and of royals. This is the reason I wanted to watch this movie.

This movie did badly because of the decision to cast lead actors who were white, instead of middle-eastern or African. Though there are few casting decisions that redeem it somewhat. The movie storyline and plot are actually pretty good, especially if you enjoy mythology, it does stay true to that at least.

Also, either of the two ways this movie could have ended would have been alright and in line with what was going on.

My Ranking: ★ ★ ★

More Movies to Watch:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 science fiction comedy film directed by Garth Jennings, based upon previous works in the media franchise of the same name, created by Douglas Adams. It stars Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Bill Nighy, Anna Chancellor, John Malkovich, and the voices of Stephen Fry, Helen Mirren, Thomas Lennon, Richard Griffiths, Ian McNeice, Bill Bailey and Alan Rickman. Adams co-wrote the screenplay with Karey Kirkpatrick but died in 2001, before production began; the film is dedicated to Adams. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed over $100 million worldwide.
via Wikipedia

You know, I don’t think I ever got the hang of Thursdays either.

This is a movie based on a book I read all the way back in college, and it retains all of humor the book provides. It actually is alot like what would happen if the citizens of Discworld went to space.

Arthur Dent is chilling at home when his friend Ford Prefect comes running in, tells him to grab his towel, the world is ending, let’s go for a pint at the local pub. Thus begins an epic space adventure, where they run into several aliens, a depressed robot, Arthur’s potential love interest, an eccentric politician, and a very special, stolen space ship.

It is a hilarious space romp to find the meaning of the Universe, complicated by the Volgons, a bureaucratic alien species with terrible poetry, a very competitive political campaign, and limitless possibilities.

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

More Movies to Watch:

The Open House (2018)

The Open House is a 2018 American horror film written and directed by Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote. The film stars Dylan Minnette, Piercey Dalton, Sharif Atkins, Patricia Bethune, and Aaron Abrams. The film was released on Netflix on January 19, 2018.
via Wikipedia

A small family who has suffered the loss of her husband and his father move into a friend’s house. The friend has intentions of selling the house and the family is staying there to help with the upkeep until it is sold.

Well, the townsfolk give off small town creepville vibes, there are bumps in the night, and the neighbor lady is more than a little off her rocker. However, there are some nice people in town who genuinely try to help out.

This isn’t as bad as most of the reviews say it is, but then I really have a thing for horror movies, and as far as Netflix produced films go, this one isn’t half bad. The ending is different for sure, but traditional horror storylines usually have sad endings so I think it does work.

My Ranking: ★ ★ ★

The Revenant (2015)

The Revenant is a 2015 American action drama film directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. The screenplay by Mark L. Smith and Iñárritu is based in part on Michael Punke’s 2002 novel The Revenant, which describes frontiersman Hugh Glass’s experiences in 1823, and which is based on the 1915 poem The Song of Hugh Glass. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. The film is also considered a remake of the film Man in the Wilderness (1971).
via Wikipedia

I first heard of this story when I read it during college, Michael Punke’s version. I do enjoy a good survival story, and this one is somewhat historical. The basic storyline is that Hugh is out with a party of frontiersmen and gets attacked by a bear and left for dead by his party. When he awakes from his attack he wants revenge on those who left him behind. What follows is his journey back to their camp outside the fort some miles away.

Good Ol’ Leo is back for this one, and maybe it’s because I read the book, maybe it’s Leo, but I really do like this movie. Its different from the book of course, what movie isn’t? There’s still something about seeing a book you’ve read on screen and enjoying the story a second time.

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★