Tag Archives: Film/TV Show Reviews

Schitt’s Creek and Happy Endings

Over three weeks ago, the series finale of Schitt’s Creek aired on CBC. If you had told me three months ago that I would eagerly watch it and bawl my eyes out throughout the episode and the subsequent documentary about the show, I wouldn’t have believed you. It’s crazy that in such a short amount of time this show has come to mean so much to me. I have a deep connection to this show, and I expect that I always will.

I started watching Schitt’s Creek during a very turbulent time in my life. I was less than two months away from finishing my degree, and my long-term relationship had just ended. Things were changing in my life, and it was a sad, scary, and lonely time. I was looking for some hope and joy, and that’s when I discovered Schitt’s Creek.

I had heard of the show, of course. It was a rarity – a Canadian show that successfully broke into the U.S. market. I had seen video clips from the show in my Facebook news feed, and though I sometimes gave them a try, I didn’t usually find them funny. More recently, I had read a lot of good reviews about it on reddit, and as someone who tends to trust the opinions of random people on the internet for some reason, I decided I would have to give it a try sometime. Well, I found myself single and alone with no idea how to spend my newfound free time, so I figured it was the perfect time to start watching it.

Now, for those of you who haven’t seen the show, here is a quick synopsis, as you’re typically supposed to include those. Schitt’s Creek follows the filthy rich Rose family as they lose everything and are forced to move to a small town they bought as a joke many years ago, appropriately called (you guessed it!) Schitt’s Creek. There they are humbled and learn to become better people and what not. The show is kind of like Arrested Development but with way more heart (not sure Arrested Development has any heart to be honest, but I still love it).

And that’s why I fell in love with it. The heart. This show is oozing with positivity and love, and it was exactly what I needed at the time. It’s not mean-spirited in its humour, and the drama isn’t so serious that it makes you feel stressed just watching it. It is incredibly easy to fall in love with the characters in this show – both those in the Rose family, who are endearingly selfish but massively entertaining, and those in the town itself, who are all unique and interesting characters that feel like real people.

My favourite thing about this show is the love. It’s ultimately about love – familial, platonic, and romantic. It is incredibly refreshing to watch, especially when you’re going through a hard time. I felt the love between the characters, and it felt like I was the one receiving it. Every kind of love on the show warmed my heart, and made me appreciative of my friends and family, and hopeful that I can find a romantic love like those displayed in the show.

Watching the finale air live was extremely bittersweet for me. The show had come to mean so much to me in a short amount of time. Few TV shows have made me cry as much as this one has – it’s a special one. It helped me get through a tough time, and reminded me that happy endings do exist (and that every person’s happy ending is different), and for that I will forever be grateful.

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The Lion King Remake: Enjoyable but Missing Something

About a week ago, I watched the remake of The Lion King. Full disclosure: I am not one of those people who is obsessed with Disney movies and has seen each one over 100 times. The last time I saw the original Lion King was well over ten years ago, and I barely remembered it, aside from the main plot points (for example, I completely forgot that the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” was in the movie…oops!). Despite my lack of enthusiasm compared to hardcore Disney fans, I was still excited for the film. The visuals looked spectacular, and I enjoyed the live action remakes for The Jungle Book and Beauty & the Beast, so I was optimistic.

After having seen the movie, I can say that it was enjoyable, and even good, but it was missing…something, although I can’t put my finger on exactly what that something is. I think it was several things put together, so to help me explain it, I am going to list what I liked and didn’t like about the movie. Warning: spoilers ahead!

What I Liked About The Lion King

  • The visuals, obviously! The CGI in this film was absolutely spectacular. It is probably the best CGI I have ever seen. Characters such as Mufasa, adult Simba, Scar, and Pumbaa looked so real it was unbelievable. Don’t even get me started on the landscape – if someone told me that they shot the entire movie on location in Africa and added the animals in post, I would have believed them.

  • I know a lot of people have complained about the fact that the animals can’t emote like their animated counterparts, but there were a few that I felt emoted very strongly. You could always tell exactly what Pumbaa was thinking and feeling, despite him being an ultra-realistic looking warthog. Scar’s expressions were also brilliant, and he looked far more menacing than his animated counterpart, which made him a better villain in my opinion. I was also very impressed with Sarabi’s facial expressions – they were probably the best of all the animals, as they conveyed shock and heartbreak brilliantly.

  • There were some excellent performances. Pumbaa was perfectly cast, and Timon was also great (I had high expectations for him because he is my favourite character, but Billy Eichner did a wonderful job). I was also very impressed with Scar – I had read online that people weren’t happy with Chiwetel Ejiofor’s performance, but I thought it was perfect. His voice was very intimidating and villainous, and made Scar a much more interesting antagonist. Scar’s scenes were probably my favourite part of the movie because I was so impressed with his characterization.

  • Timon and Pumbaa’s scenes were terrific, and were the most fun part of the movie. Their dynamic was great and real, and although Seth Rogen’s singing voice isn’t the best, Billy Eichner has one of the best voices in the movie, and together they make the musical numbers vastly entertaining. Also, Timon’s use of “Be Our Guest”to tempt the hyenas was absolutely hilarious.

  • This movie gets bonus points for depicting my two favourite animals (meerkats and lions, respectively).

What I Didn’t Like About The Lion King

  • It felt a little … rushed. It didn’t feel like one cohesive movie, and instead felt like a bunch of different clips thrown together. I felt like the story needed more time to breathe instead of rushing to the next event, but from what I’ve heard the original was quite rushed as well, in which case this complaint is more about the story in general.

  • Sorry Beyoncé fans, but the singer’s performance was my least favourite thing about this remake. Her voice is not suited for voice acting at all – it was so quiet that I could hardly hear her at times, and she barely expressed any emotion, even in scenes where it was required. It felt like she was simply reading her lines and not putting any effort into voice acting­. Her performance really pulled me out of the film, as it felt and sounded like a person reading lines as opposed to a character speaking. I truly feel that if they had cast someone else I would have enjoyed this film much more.

  • I love Donald Glover as an actor (hey, fellow Community fans!), but I just didn’t feel that his voice really suited Simba. Don’t get me wrong, he did not have Beyoncé’s problem of not putting any emotion into his lines – in fact, his performance was great. I just don’t think his voice matched his character. When I see a large, majestic lion, I imagine a deep, powerful voice and presence, such as that of James Earl Jones. Donald’s voice just doesn’t scream powerful, majestic animal to me.

  • I wasn’t super happy with Mufasa’s death scene or his speech to Simba in the clouds. His death is a heartbreaking moment, and to be honest I was tearing up just thinking about it, but when it actually happened, it didn’t hit me as hard as I expected it to (I did cry, but not that much). Simba’s reaction to his father’s death just didn’t do it for me, especially because he is only sad for about ten seconds and doesn’t even cry. I was dreading this scene, but it honestly wasn’t even that bad. Mufasa’s speech to adult Simba was also lacking, mostly because we never see his face like we do in the animated version. This really took away from the emotional impact, and made it feel hollow.

  • This movie didn’t feel as fun as the original, perhaps because it was so realistic. This is kind of a vague complaint but it just felt far more serious, and seemed to lack some of the Disney magic that made it a classic in the first place.

Overall, I would probably give this movie about a 6.5/10. Certain aspects of it were very impressive, but it was really brought down by the miscasting of the two leads, the lack of feeling in two crucial scenes, and the more serious approach. I would watch it again, but I feel that most Disney fans will probably prefer the original (which I need to rewatch).  

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Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a Failure

Last week, I was finally able to see the new Fantastic Beasts movie. I had heard from several people, including massive Harry Potter fans, that it was terrible, so I went in with low expectations. Surprisingly, I was still disappointed.

I could write a twenty-page essay on why this movie was terrible, but I’ve tried to condense my thoughts and focus on the biggest problems I had with the film. I still wrote a lot, which I apologize for, but I just had to get my feelings out. This review will have minor spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, and if you need a refresher on its premise, click here to watch the trailer.

Now, where to start? The Crimes of Grindelwald has so many flaws, but the most striking one is the lack of any discernible plot. Aside from a few major events in the beginning and end, nothing really happens in this film. It mostly consists of exposition, and feels like a buildup to the real story, which we never get. I was surprised when it reached the climax, because it felt like nothing had happened yet. Part of the cause of this problem, in my opinion, is the fact that Fantastic Beasts is going to be a five-film series, which is clearly just a cash grab. This second installment shows that there is not enough material to cover five films, as it is not a self-contained story with a typical story arc and conclusion, but rather a prolonged exposition setting up the next movie, where, presumably, stuff actually happens. The Crimes of Grindelwald is meant to be watched immediately before watching the next film in order to understand what is going on, instead of being watched because it’s a complete and enjoyable story on its own.

Another gaping problem with The Crimes of Grindelwald is the characters, as there are too many, their arcs are either nonexistent or not believable, and, despite the film being almost two and a half hours long, it felt like I spent very little time with each character. Unlike the first Fantastic Beasts film, which has four main characters and a couple side characters, the sequel has a large cast of characters, new and old, and it just feels crowded. There were so many people to keep track of that I eventually gave up, and I genuinely can’t remember the names of some of the new characters. To make matters worse, the characters are broken up into small groups, so the story constantly shifts to show what is going on with other characters, and this makes the time we spend with each character feel shorter. It also feels short because nothing really happens to these characters, and most of them don’t grow or change at all. Contrastingly, one of the characters changes significantly, but the change is extremely radical and receives little explanation, so it does not feel believable and just serves as shock value. The issues with the characters make this already unappealing film even more difficult to care about.

Lastly, one huge issue that I (and most Harry Potter fans) have with The Crimes of Grindelwald is that it commits the worst crime possible: it goes against Harry Potter canon. Casual fans of Harry Potter may not notice or care about this, but for hardcore fans such as myself, it is unacceptable. J. K. Rowling spent years crafting this world and making sure she got every detail right, so it is extremely strange and disappointing that she could either forget what she originally wrote, or decide to change it after the fact. One example of her going against canon is that Professor McGonagall is teaching at Hogwarts in this film, despite the fact that she wasn’t even born yet. Perhaps J. K. Rowling decided to change her birthdate to include her in the film, but she has such a small part that it seems unnecessary; she is essentially only there so fans can go, “OMG, it’s McGonagall!”. The other option is that she forgot that McGonagall wasn’t born yet, which is even more disappointing, because it shows that she does not really care about this series, and that makes it difficult for me to get invested in it.

The other instances of breaking canon are different; she did not make a mistake or forget something, but rather changed certain aspects of the Harry Potter storyline. Fans such as myself who have read the books will notice this immediately, and likely feel angry that she carelessly went back and changed her original story in big ways. I have seen arguments attempting to explain why these changes were not included in Harry Potter from the beginning, but I don’t buy any of them. She describes everything in detail in Harry Potter, so there’s no way she wouldn’t have included these aspects of the story. It is clear that she decided to change these after the fact, despite the fact that these changes make no sense in the canonical story. One big revelation changes everything, and it doesn’t even make sense in the film itself, as there are no hints or clues for it. It seems to exist almost entirely for shock value, which is very disappointing and once again shows how little effort and care were put into this story.

Now the question remains: Can the Fantastic Beasts franchise be saved? After seeing the second installment, my hopes have dwindled significantly. If the subsequent films have actual plots and character development and explain the choices to go against canon, I could potentially get behind them, but I’m not going to get my hopes up, and neither should you. I would give The Crimes of Grindelwald a 4/10, and I would suggest that potential viewers just stick to Harry Potter.