Hoodwinked
Take the lead
Hoodwinked
This parody of the fairytale genre takes the story of Little Red Riding Hood, twists it about and adds loads of action, wisecracks and hip-hop tunes. The Goody Bandit is stealing all the goody recipes so the shops in the forest have to close down. All suspects in the case, Little Red, her Granny and The Wolf are taken into questioning at the police station. As each of their stories play out and intertwine, we get closer to the identity of the evil Goody Bandit. This animated feature gets a lot of plusses for ideas, energy and good intentions, but you just can't ignore the poor execution.
The animation isn't any good 's we have gotten so used to Pixar and DreamWorks, one wonders whether this sort of amateur approach will just pass eventually. The filmmakers do their best to keep things moving forward at breathtaking speed, but it feels like they have too many ideas and jokes to fit into one movie. All these millions of ideas are tripping over one another, leaving the narrative hanging in all directions. The movie has a certain atmosphere of slapdash and clumsiness. All you can really say is: "Better luck next time."
( Julie Vinten )
Once again, animators have given a classic fable a digital 21st-century makeover, with a touch of wit and bouts of social satire. Like "Shrek," "Hoodwinked" resurrects a fairytale cast of characters, from Little Red Riding Hood (Anne Hathaway) to the Big Bad Wolf (Patrick Warburton), to a delightful talking frog. But the film doesn't come anywhere close to "Shrek" - not with its humor, storyline, characters or mediocre animation. The jokes are well-intentioned but half-hearted, so that while staring at those cartoon eyes - quivering, begging for a laugh - you end up choking one up just to give the film a bit of motivation. First-time director Cory Edwards, who also co-wrote the story and screenplay, was most likely trying to create another savvy and pithy digital cartoon for adults. But in the end, it's the kids who'll get the most from this film. No doubt every seven-year-old will be entranced by the cute and comical characters. They'll squeal from fear when the villainous wolf leaps into the frame. They'll laugh out loud at the Woodsman (Jim Belushi), a struggling actor who drives a schnitzel-on-a-stick truck by day. But, unfortunately, that's about all you can expect from "Hoodwinked."
( Tim Ochser )
Ultraviolet
A handsome, white dance instructor (Antonio Banderas) takes it upon himself to sort out the lives of a group of young, black ghetto kids whose existences consist of drugs, gang-killings and prostitute-mothers, through the magic of ballroom dancing and a cheery attitude. Why these kids 's all accomplished hip-hop dancers 's should learn ballroom dancing is a mystery. Banderas' lame monologue about how learning how to hold a woman with dignity in ballroom dancing will teach kids something good…well, it's very naive and not very convincing. The movie is also unintentionally racist. These kids are too nice and too easily won over 's it's not believable. If all this movie wanted was to be a lighthearted dance flick this would have been okay, but the movie wants to get a deep and heavy message across - and does so with a total lack of elegance. The music never makes you want to dance and the youngsters never have the same passion and energy doing ballroom dances as they have in the short hip-hop sequences. This feature is a total drag.
( Julie Vinten )
I went into this movie prepared for the worst but came away with a distinct smile on my face and spring in my step. Perhaps my brain was deficient in schmaltz and "Take the Lead" was the perfect antidote with its tale of impoverished urban kids learning how to waltz. Or perhaps it really was a good film. It's hard to know sometimes. Banderas plays Pierre Dulaine, a suave, extremely well-mannered dance teacher who peddles his refined wares to rich white folk who just love to tango and foxtrot the night away. One night while cycling home Dulaine witnesses a black kid smashing up a car with a golf club and (almost inconceivably) approaches him to ask what he is doing. Rock (Rob Brown) runs off but Dulaine finds an ID card for a school principal and quickly deduces what Rock was up to. The next morning he shows up at the school and offers the principal his services as a dance instructor to the meddlesome, gun-wielding pupils. But of course Dulaine soon wins them over with his dance-as-life philosophy. I cannot say that "Take the Lead" is an especially good film because it's not. But it sure put me in a good mood after watching it, which is about as much as you can hope for from a "real story."
( Tim Ochser )