Tag Archives: ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’

Film, Movie Reviews

Movie review: ‘Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald’ loses ‘Harry Potter’ magic

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“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” (PG-13)

After a wild and entertaining start to author-turned-screenwriter J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” prequel “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise has tamed considerably with “The Crimes of Grindelwald,” a lukewarm follow-up to the 2016 blockbuster.

Eddie Redmayne is back as magizoologist New Scamander, whose new mission is to track down a gifted wizard Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller, in a surprisingly muted turn) and save him from the grasps of the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) who is hell-bent on recruiting other magic folks to rule to the world.

Depp, who was introduced in the last scene of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” is not the only notable face to join franchise. Looking to establish back stories for some of her Harry Potter favorites in an effort to keep her Wizarding World empire alive, Rowling decided to employ the talents of the always-great Jude Law to play the young Albus Dumbledore in “The Crimes of Grindelwald,” a move that might have work had she featured him more.

Instead, the movie spreads the narrative way too thin by employing one-off stories for each Newt, Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Credence, Queenie (Allison Sudol) and Jacob (Dan Folger – who stole the first movie and only has a handful of bright moments here), Queenie’s sister, Tina (Katherine Waterston – whose role is greatly diminished from the first film) and Leta Lestrange (Zoe Kravitz), who has role that most closely resembles a lead. The problem is, the more spread out the narrative of “The Crimes of Grindelwald” becomes, the more confusing the movie gets.

After a spectacular opening sequence where Grindelwald escapes from confinement, the new “Fantastic Beasts” movie surprisingly shows franchise fatigue early on, even to the point of boredom. Only in the second half does the movie come alive thanks to some whiz-bang visual effects and Depp’s commanding performance as the title character. Despite having that opportunity to showcase his talents in the film’s most pivotal scene, Depp isn’t featured nearly as much as he should be in “The Crimes of Grindelwald,” and Law appears even less. It just seems like a tremendous waste of an opportunity, especially for a movie that’s 2 hours and 14 minutes long.

Naturally “The Crimes of Grindelwald” sets up another “Fantastic Beasts” chapter, trying somehow to capture the cliffhanger feeling established by such film classics like “The Empire Strikes Back.” Perhaps the biggest issue plaguing the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise is unlike the “Harry Potter” movies, it doesn’t have the benefit of sourcing worldwide best-selling novels to draw inspiration from.

And even though Rowling wrote the screenplays for the “Fantastic Beasts” movies, she is no doubt finding huge limitations to create original works for the film medium. As far as “The Crimes of Grindelwald” is concerned, it simply lacks the wondrous magic of the eight-film series that created the chance for it to be made in the first place.

Lammometer: 5 (out of 10)

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

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Film, Movie Reviews

Movie review: ‘House with a Clock in Its Walls’ a few ticks off

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VIDEO: See Tim’s review of “The House with a Clock in Its Walls” with Adrienne Broaddus on KARE 11.

“The House with a Clock in Its Walls” (PG)

While its title is one of the clunkiest movie titles in recent memory, “The House with a Clock in its Walls,” is exactly what the movie is about — a doomsday clock hidden within a haunted house that must be discovered before it starts ticking down to an end of days plan concocted by an evil warlock. Even though the film has all the talent it needs to succeed, however, the film plods along until the third act to fulfill its promise.

Relative newcomer Owen Vaccaro stars as Lewis Barnavelt, an orphaned 10-year-old in the 1950s who goes to live with his eccentric uncle, Jonathan Barnavelt (Jack Black), in a spooky neighborhood haunted house. Blank soon discovers that his uncle has magical powers as a warlock as does his quirky neighbor, the witch Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett), and begins to learn about the dark arts himself. But once Lewis begins to learn too much about and his curiosity gets him into trouble by carrying out a spell in a forbidden book, he, Jonathan and Florence must work together by preventing the doomsday clock from clicking ahead and its warlock creator (Kyle McLachlan) from fulfilling his deadly destiny.

AUDIO: Click to hear Tim’s review of “The House with a Clock in Its Walls” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ Morning Show.”

“The House with a Clock in Its Walls” feels like a combination of “Goosebumps” and “Fantastic Beasts,” and with a PG rating, it’s definitely aimed at the kids’ set. However, feels like it’s trying too hard to be a kids movie with its zaniness and doesn’t have anything remotely scary until the third act. On one hand, it’s great that kids have a rare opportunity to see a light-hearted, spooky PG movie in today’s marketplace, but on the flip side, an opportunity was missed to engage any prospective adults (re: parents of said kids they are brining to the movie). As movies like “Incredibles 2” have shown, movies can definitely be made to appeal to families as a whole.

The most interesting thing about “The House with a Clock in Its Walls” is that it was directed by Eli Roth, who has made some brutally sadistic movies in the past with such horror flicks as “Hostel” and its sequel, and “The Green Inferno.” And while Roth oddly showed signs of easing up on the violence and showing restraint on, of all films, the Bruce Willis remake of Death Wish, the fact that he is suddenly helming a PG film is a real head-scratcher.

Presumably Roth (who has a cameo in the film) did “The House with a Clock in Its Walls” to work with Jack Black, who is entertaining as usual, and Cate Blanchett, who brings class to every film she’s in. Perhaps Roth directed the film because he couldn’t convince her to star in “Hostel, Part III” … now that would have been truly scary.

Lammometer 6 (out of 10)

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

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Film, Movie Reviews

Movie reviews: ‘Fantastic Beasts’ unleashes magic; ‘Bleed for This’ delivers knock-out punch

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“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” (PG-13)

The magic of J.K. Rowling is back with “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” the first of five planned spinoff films rooted in the author’s “Harry Potter” universe. Forgoing the traditional sequel or prequel route to satiate the legions of fans wanting more from Rowling’s blockbuster book-turned-film series, “Fantastic Beasts” ingeniously taps into Rowling’s witchcraft and wizardry mythology as it examines the adventures documented in one of Harry’s textbooks featured in “Harry Potter and Sorcerer’s Stone.”

The end result is “Fantastic Beasts” feels like a Potter film with no mention of Potter (“Fantastic Beasts” takes place 70 years before the story of “The Boy Who Lived”), and instead concentrates on former Hogwart’s student Newt Scamander (the always great Eddie Redmayne) and his adventures to capture fantastical beasts all over the world.


Listen to Tim’s reviews of “Fantastic Beasts” and “Bleed for This” on “The KQ Mornings Show” with Tom Barnard.

But in an odd twist of fate, a bumbling factory worker (Dan Fogler) accidentally unleashes some of Newt’s creatures during a stopover in New York City – and the exposure creates a panic among a secret society of witches and wizards that fears the persecution of their human counterparts.

While the cast — including Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Ezra Miller and Colin Farrell — is terrific, “Fantastic Beasts” comes off a bit too heavy on the special effects. They’re great effects, no doubt, but unless you’re familiar with the source material (Rowling published the 128-page “Fantastic Beasts” in 2001), you may struggle to keep up with all the wizard-speak amid all of the crash-boom-bang.  As for everybody else, they’re in for, well, a magical good time.

Lammometer: 7.5 (out of 10)

“Bleed for This” (R)

Fans of hard-hitting, true-life drama will want to climb into the ring with “Bleed for This,” the incredible true story of champion boxer Vinnie Pazienza and his struggles to get back into the ring after a head-on car collision nearly left him completely paralyzed.

Led by Miles Teller as Vinnie, the cast is stellar all around, including brilliant supporting turns by Aaron Eckhart and Ted Levine, who are barely recognizable as Vinnie’s trainer Kevin Rooney and promoter Lou Duva, respectively.

Even though the film falls into the trappings of the boxing genre (there are only so many ways you can replicate a boxer training for a comeback), “Bleed for This” is an amazing study of character and determination in the face of adversity. For the lack of better words, it delivers a solid knock-out punch.

Lammometer: 7.5 (out of 10)

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