Paddington 2

The choice of this film was a unanimous decision by the Committee bolstered by requests from several of our regulars.

We had screened the original Paddington film and that had gone down well.  i had enjoyed it very much but after the reviews for the new film I saw it at the cinema last year and really enjoyed seeing it again: on a second viewing you get a chance to pick up on the incidental detail that passes you by first time around.

It was a good evening - and also very well attended.

Here are my notes

Paddington 2

UK 2017          104 minutes

Director:          Paul King

Starring:            Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins and Hugh Grant

 

Awards and Nominations

• Nominated for three BAFTAs – Best Supporting Actor (Hugh Grant), Best Film and Best Adapted Screenplay
• A further three wins and five nominations

“This is the follow-up to the first Paddington movie of 2014 and it’s a tremendously sweet-natured, charming, unassuming and above all funny film with a story that just rattles along, powered by a nonstop succession of Grade-A gags conjured up by screenwriters Paul King (who also directs), Simon Farnaby and Jon Croker. Their screenplay perfectly catches the tone of the great master himself, Michael Bond, author of the original books, who sadly died in June this year at the age of 91, creative and productive to the end.”

 

Peter Bradshaw

Paddington is now happily settled in Windsor Gardens with the Brown family. While searching for a present for his Aunt Lucy’s 100^th birthday he finds a unique pop-up book in Mr Gruber’s antique shop, and undertakes a series of jobs to earn money to buy it. However when the book is stolen Paddington and the Brown family have to unmask the thief.

The global success of Paddington (2014) made it inevitable that a sequel would follow and the film reunites the same director and principal cast members, with the addition of newcomer Hugh Grant in a scene-stealing role as Phoenix Buchanan, an ageing actor now reduced to appearing in commercials for dog food. The main characters have come from the books that Michael Bond wrote, and thus the film qualifies for nominations as a “best adapted screenplay”  but, just as in the first film, the screenwriters have produced an original screenplay that nonetheless manages to retain the spirit of the published stories: Michael Bond was partly inspired to create Paddington by his memory of seeing child evacuees with labels around their necks and carrying suitcases as they left London at the beginning of the Second World War, both Paddington and his best friend Mr Gruber (Jim Broadbent) are immigrants and the area of London where the Browns live is, with the exception of Mr Curry (Peter Capaldi), most definitely multi-cultural. It is impossible in the current environment to escape entirely from the long shadow of politics, even in what is ostensibly a children’s film, and thus Sight & Sound was able to lead its rave review of the film with the memorable headline “Brexit, pursued by a bear”.

From an audience approval perspective the film has an approval rating of 100% on the aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and thus joins an elite and eclectic list which includes established classics such as Bride of Frankenstein (1931), Mary Poppins (1964) and Day for Night (1973). The film also appeared in 18^th place in The Guardian’s list of the best films of 2017.  As a result of the global success of the film the CEO of StudioCanal has confirmed that the studio is committed to making a third Paddington film, although no details have yet been released.
 

The film is dedicated to the memory of Michael Bond, who died at the age of 91 while the film was in production.

Here's the trailer:

 

 

Paddington

This was our last film before Christmas, and so we wanted something that would be a bit of fun.  I knew that the film had been well reviewed, but had not expected to have enjoyed it so much and laughed out loud so many times.

After the film I started thinking about Theorem and Boudu Saved from Drowning. Was Paddington an ursine remake?

Here are my notes:

UK 2014                      95 minutes

Director:                      Paul King

Starring:                        Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi and Ben Whishaw

Awards and Nominations

• BAFTA nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay
• Nomination for Alexander Korda award for Best British Film
• BTVA nomination for Best Voice Acting Award (Ben Whishaw)
• Winner of Best Comedy at the Empire Awards
• Two for nominations for Best Film

“The jokes are good…, ranging from laugh-out-loud observations about the transformative effects of parenthood (and knowing mentions of “exotic wrestlers”) to slapstick bathroom episodes. Ben Whishaw turns out to be the perfect voice of Paddington …, his lilting diction at once childlike and wise, his delivery naive yet oddly noble. ‘Please look after this bear’, says the tag around Paddington’s neck. Rest assured, they have.”

Mark Kermode

 

After travelling from Peru to London in search of a new home, a polite young bear meets the Brown family at Paddington station. The bear is lost and alone so the Brown family offer him a place to stay – and name him Paddington.

 

Paddington Bear first appeared in print in 1958, and since then he has featured in more than twenty books of stories by Michael Bond. In the 1970s the BBC broadcast a series of short films adapted from Michael Bond’s stories with Michael Hordern memorable as the narrator.  For this film Paul King worked with screenwriter Hamish McColl (who had worked with Rowan Atkinson on Mr Bean’s Holiday (2007) and Johnny English Reborn (2011)) to develop a new story that included characters and elements from Bond’s works.

Paddington was Paul King’s first cinema film as director.  He began his career on TV where he directed 20 episodes of The Mighty Boosh and six episodes of Come Fly with Me, although he has also worked in theatre where he has specialised in comedy. David Heyman, best known as producer of the Harry Potter films, bought the film rights to Paddington Bear in 2007 and worked on the story in consultation with Bond and King since then.  Heyman’s aim with the character of Paddington was to achieve the level of verisimilitude for CGI characters achieved in the Harry Potter and recent Planet of the Apes films, although the film also used an animatronic version as well.

Paddington was the most expensive film ever produced by production company StudioCanal but it was a global success with total earnings of USD 259.6 million. It has now been confirmed that there will be a sequel, with King in discussions to direct it.

 Here is the trailer:

 

 

Skyfall

I missed Skyfall at the cinema, so I'm very much looking forward to seeing this: somehow it doesn't seem quite right watching a James Bond film for the first time at home on TV.

Here are my notes:

Skyfall

 UK 2012                      143 minutes

Director:                      Sam Mendes

Starring:                        Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris

Awards and Nominations

• Won two Oscars (including Best Original Song for Adele) and three Oscar nominations (including Best Original Score)
• Won BAFTAs for Outstanding British Film and Original Music (plus nominations for Javier Bardem and Judi Dench as Best Supporting Actor and Actress)
• A further 25 wins and 51 nominations

“In this 50th year of the James Bond series, with the dismal Quantum of Solace (2008) still in our minds, Skyfall triumphantly reinvents 007 in one of the best Bonds ever. This is a full-blooded, joyous, intelligent celebration of a beloved cultural icon, with Daniel Craig taking full possession of a role he earlier played well in Casino Royale, not so well in Quantum -- although it may not have been entirely his fault. Or is it just that he's growing on me? I don't know what I expected. I don't know what I expected in Bond No. 23, but certainly not an experience this invigorating."

Roger Ebert

When M’s past comes back to haunt her Bond’s loyalty is put to the test.  MI6 itself comes under attack and it becomes Bond’s mission to track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost to him.

Skyfall is the 23^rd Bond film and many critics hailed it as possibly the best ever, with the only real challenger being the 2006 version of Casino Royale, which followed closely the plot of Fleming’s first novel.  Skyfall has no direct link to Fleming’s work but shares two of the writers who worked on Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace and is true both to his spirit and the series (Skyfall is the name of Bond’s family estate in Scotland).

Sam Mendes made his name with the Oscar winning American Beauty (1999) and followed this with Road to Perdition (2002), Jarhead (2005) and Revolutionary Road (2008), all made in the US.  There was some surprise when it was announced that he would direct Skyfall, but Daniel Craig had worked Mendes in Road to Perdition and had made the initial approach with regard to the Bond film.  Mendes had also worked with Judi Dench early in his career when he had directed her in a stage production of a Chekhove play.  In Skyfall he gives her a role, almost a co-starring role, worthy of her talent which is reflected in the BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actress, although Anne Hathaway won the award for her role in Les Miserables (2012).

It has recently been reported that Sam Mendes has declined an offer to direct the next James Bond film in order to focus on his theatre work, although the film’s producers have not discounted him directing another Bond film at some point in the future.

 Here's the trailer: