The Shape of Water is certified fresh

Movie Title:     The Shape of Water

Grade:   A-

Rating: R, 119 minutes

In a Nutshell:   Certified fresh!  This "adult fairy tale" was produced, directed, and written by Guillermo Del Toro.  The film combines a love story with science fiction and Cold War drama.  Some critics have likened it to Beauty And The Beast meets Creature from the Black Lagoon.  It's odd, for sure.

This film has received more Oscar nominations than any other film!  Many of them are technical noms.  We'll see how many they win.

Tips for parents: 

• This movie is rated R for a reason.  It's not appropriate for children's viewing.
• A LOT of full frontal nudity of a woman.  Another woman opens her shirt to reveal her bare chest.
• Woman pleasures herself in a bathtub
• Crude language, F-bombs, and profanity
• You see a married couple have sex.
• You learn sign language for some words.
• Racism
• Homosexuality
• Hypocrisy 
• Hope, compassion, humanity

Uplifting theme: 

• Feeling incomplete and unfulfilled in life and how we fill that void.
• Love can’t be defined.
• Humanity, outsiders
• Friendship, loyalty

Things I liked:

• Sally Hawkins gives a really great performance with no words.  Guillermo Del Toro said that he wrote the movie with only her in mind.  Her character's last name is "Esposito" which is Italian, given to orphaned children, meaning "exposed" or "abandoned."
• Michael Shannon is fantastic, as always.  He successfully makes you hate his guts. 
• The talented ensemble also includes Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, and Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer.
• Some people watch a classic scene from a Shirley Temple movie.  Music and dance play a role in the movie.
• Beautiful production design with incredible colors.  It uses practically every shade of green.
• I loved the Old Hollywood nods to lots of other movies.
• A surprising musical number.
• Doug Jones spent three hours every day to get into his costume.

Things I didn’t like:

• Way too much nudity, awkward sex, and crude language.
• The end is pretty predictable.
• A bit of a creepy love affair.

Interesting lines:

• “He’s not even human.” – Giles (Richard Jenkins)

“If we do nothing, neither are we.” – Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins)

• “Life is but the shipwreck of our plans.” – Daily Thought
• “I’m not a good liar…except Bruster.  It takes a lot of lies to keep a marriage going.” -   Zelda  (Octavia Spencer) 

                                          @trinaboice

Pacific Rim floods senses with special effects

 
Transformers meet Godzilla with an inspiring speech worthy of Independence Day.  There, now you know the whole plot of Pacific Rim, the summer’s latest popcorn blockbuster.  My movie buff son absolutely loved it and said “I’d give it a TEN and see it AGAIN!”  This is one that movie goers will line up for again and again.

My son who is currently an animation student in college said it included all of his favorite things: giant robots kicking alien butt in the Lovecraft genre style of horror, complete with lots of explosions, a cute Asian girl, Japanese references, Director Guillermo del Toro, and amazing CGI.  He even got a kick out of hearing the same actress who voices the popular video game “Portal.”  He said the only thing he thought the movie lacked was Liam Neeson.  Ha ha

You probably won’t recognize a lot of the actors, such as big screen newbies Charlie Hunnam and Diego Klattenhoff, who play brothers whose minds become linked when fighting inside a giant robot called a Jaeger, designed to fight cool alien creatures from the sea.  The actors actually look alike, as does Burn Gorman, another Jaeger fighter who tries to save the world from threatening monsters.  You will, however, get a kick out of seeing Hellboy’s Ron Perlman, who plays Hannibal Chau, named after his favorite historical figure and second-favorite restaurant in Brooklyn.  Director Guillermo del Toro admitted that if he could ever form a neural handshake with anyone that it would be Ron Perlman.  Yeah.  Ron Perlman has been in every single one of Guillermo del Toro’s movies.

The movie has that “Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots” feel to it and is even a little comic book clichéd, but it has enough incredible CGI special effects to fill the Pacific Ocean.   Watching it in 3D will keep you right inside the action, but if you’re sitting too close to an IMAX screen you will get swallowed up by it. 

Unlike some alien movies, you get to see a LOT of these creatures up close.  They’re super cool-looking, scary, and even have some pretty Avatar blue streaks and ooze.  Director Guillermo del Toro includes a whirling mixture of digital, analog, complicated mechanisms, iconic big Russians, funky science with alien body parts, Iron Man mobility, and Steam Punk.  The sound effects are beyond big and cool.  Rinko Kikuchi as a little girl is the cutest thing ever.

Idris Elba’s delightful accent underscores the movies theme that it takes the whole world’s efforts to save itself.   The “drift” introduces the idea of two people’s minds united in a common cause.  Who would YOU want to join with in the “drift”?  No spoiler alert here: the world is saved and you’ll leave the theater with a silly grin on your face.

Two fun quotes from the flick that show how it doesn’t take itself too seriously:

“We can either sit here and do nothing or we can grab those flare guns and go out there and do something really stupid.”  (Herc Hansen)

“Today, at the edge of our hope, at the end of our time, we have chosen not only to believe in ourselves, but in each other.  Today we face the monsters that are at our door.  Today we are canceling the apocalypse!”   (Stacker Pentecost)

Grade:  A-