Review: The Monuments Men (2014)

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So, I'm doing reviews on and off lately. School has gotten pretty hectic lately, so there are some weeks where I don't have much time to watch/write anything, so just bear with me for a little while. But this week, I do have a review for you all.

A week or so ago, my parents and I got to see The Monuments Men, which is about how the Nazis stole precious art from various places around Europe. It seemed interesting and since we all like history and were looking for something to do over the weekend, my parents and I went to see it. I was surprised to see that Bill Murray was in this movie, considering he tends to do comedic roles, but I also saw that Hugh Bonneville was in this movie as well, so I looked forward to his acting.

Synopsis
Set towards the end of WWII, The Monuments Men follows a group of civilian men that accompanies the Allied forces to Europe. Their mission: to recover pieces of art that have been stolen by the Nazis to fill Hitler's intended Fuehrer Museum. Their goal is to preserve the culture and history that has been built up in Europe over centuries from destruction from the war and to collect the pieces and return them to their rightful owners before the Nazi destroy them.

Review: Upstairs Downstairs - Series 2 (2012)

Took me long enough to review this. I actually watched Upstairs, Downstairs: Series 2 when it aired on PBS last year, but I ended up pushing this review back further and further, adding to it little by little until now. As you may remember, I was not a fan of the first series of the reboot of Upstairs, Downstairs, but I watched Series 2 hoping that it would get better. Though I didn't think it would live up to the original series, I still watched and expected it to be a decent period drama. How did I find it? Well, read on!

Note: This review contains spoilers from Series 1 of Upstairs, Downstairs. If you do not want to run into spoilers, then do not read this review. If you want to read up on Series 1, you can find it here.

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Synopsis
The story starts just before England entered WWII. Lady Agnes Holland has given birth to her second child, but does not have any more hopes of having any more children. Hallam's aunt, Blanche Mottershead, has moved in with the Hollands after the death of Hallam's mother, Lady Maud. Lady Persie returns from Germany after a riot breaks out and resettles back in 165 Eaton Place seeming to renounce her Nazi views. There is also some additions to the staff: Beryl Ballard as the new nursery maid and Eunice McCabe as the new kitchen maid.

Review: The Remains of the Day

In one of my classes for a couple of days, we watched this movie (and I am far from objecting to watching movies in class, especially if they're period dramas). So I hadn't known too much about this movie other than Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins were in there. And since it takes place before the 1950s, I decided I would review it and still call it period (my cut off for period dramas is the 1950s, but I'm thinking of expanding it to 1959. Thoughts?). So, here we go.

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Synopsis
Mr. James Stevens, the butler of Darlington Hall located in Oxfordshire, has been the butler to previous owner Lord Darlington, but after Lord Darlington died, an American congressman, Mr. Lewis, buys Darlington Hall and becomes Mr. Stevens's new boss. Mr. Stevens receives a letter from his former housekeeper, Miss Kenton (now Mrs. Benn) who reveals that her and her husband have separated and that she may be interested in returning to Darlington Hall.

The film flashes back and forth between post WWII England to pre-WWII England when Miss Kenton arrived at Darlington Hall and worked there for a couple of years before marrying Mr. Benn.

Review: From Time to Time (2009)

Oh, Netflix, how good you are to us! I found this movie on Netflix, which I had heard of before. I told my mom about it and how it had Maggie Smith in it. I also recognized that Julian Fellowes, who created Downton Abbey, was the screenplay writer and director. My mom and I sat down to watch it one evening not knowing anything about it other than what Netflix said. Also, after watching the movie, I found out that it was a based on a book called The Chimneys of Green Knowe in a series of books called Green Knowe.

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Synopsis
Towards the end of WWII, Tolly, a young boy whose father is missing in action, is sent to stay at his grandmother's estate of Green Knowe. Tolly originally doesn't like his grandmother, Mrs. Oldknow, since she disapproved of his mother. When Mrs. Oldknow begins to tell Tolly the story of Maria Oldknow, an ancestor from the early Regency era who had her jewels stolen, Tolly begins to encounter the ghosts who lived at Green Knowe at that time.

The story shifts back and fourth from 1944 to 1805. In 1805, Captain Oldknow, Maria Oldknow's husband returning from sea, arrives with a little boy named Jacob who he rescued from slavery and brought with him to Green Knowe as companion for Susan, his blind daughter. Susan and Jacob become very close friends, much to the chagrin of Sefton, Captain Oldknow's eldest son, who mistreats Jacob and wants him out of the house.

Review: The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

Sorry that my hiatus for reviews went on longer than expected. I plan on going back to reviews starting with this one. They will still be posted either on Monday or Tuesday of each week (though most likely Monday). Thank you for your understanding.


I didn't really consider this a period drama at first, but upon further thought, it kind of is. A period drama is, after all, a miniseries, movie, etc. that takes place during a time in history. Since Tintin was published in the 1940s (therefore I'm assuming that it takes place in the 40s), I would consider it a period drama (for reviews, I review movies that take place pre-1950s). We saw this movie on New Years Eve in 3D: I had only seen one other movie in 3D (Up), so this was my second time watching a 3D movie in theaters.

Synopsis

The Adventures of Tintin is based off of the popular comic series by Hergé. When Tintin, a reporter, buys a model ship of The Unicorn, he finds that there are two men who want to buy the ship from him: one warns him that it is cursed, the other wants the ship for his personal interests. Tintin and his dog, Snowy, research the ship and are taken on an adventure. Secrets are to be revealed.

Characters
There are some actors that you may recognize from other period dramas in "Tintin". Jamie Bell (Tintin) was also in Nicholas Nickleby. Andy Serkis (Captain Haddock) was in both The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Little Dorrit. Toby Jones (Silk) was in Amazing Grace and The Way We Live Now.

I was not at all familiar with Tintin before seeing this movie. I liked the character of Tintin, though I did think that he looked pretty young to be a reporter and living away from his parents. Tintin is always accompanied by his dog Snowy, a white Wire-Fox Terrier. I must say, Snowy stole part of the show from Tintin: that dog is just so cute! Snowy is very easily one of the main characters, though he has no speaking parts (though Tintin does talk to him a lot). Tintin is a very likable character: he is a young reporter who likes to dig deeper and ask questions. It was very easy to like him (though Snowy might have helped!).

Tintin (front) piloting a plane. Behind him is Captain Haddock.

I have only seen Andy Serkis in movies where he is a villain. In Tintin, his character, Captain Haddock, is actually a good guy, though with some vices. His vice is that he indulges too much in drink, which proves to be a part of his character and when he is taken away from his drink, it can be disastrous (though it can be nearly disastrous when he has his drink). Andy Serkis wasn't creepy in this role: his villains (at least the ones I have seen him in) were creepy, but here he was not: flawed, but not creepy. His character holds the secret of The Unicorn. His ancestor is connected with The Unicorn, and only a Haddock could solve the puzzle that The Unicorn has left. 

There is an additional subplot which doesn't have too much of an impact on the main plot. It concerns the pick-pocketer, Silk, and the officers, Thompson and Thomson, who try to catch him. Silk impacts the main plot in such a small way that it might not have been necessary to include it in the film, but it was still entertaining and didn't take away from the main plot.

Animation
I saw this movie in 3D. If you can, I would say see it in 3D. My mom at the start of the movie asked me if it was a cartoon or real people. The animation was very well done, and the animation did look real. There are a lot of very nice scenes throughout the movie, and a variety of them. Scenes take place from England, to a ship, to an airplane, to a desert, and more!

Snowy, Tintin's faithful dog.

Music
The music is very good (and the soundtrack is available at Amazon if you're interested). The theme song sounds like it keeps with the time and place, like something out of 1940s Europe. The music varies from tone to tone: some songs sound as if they came out of a mystery movie, others an action movie, and one opera song (which is involved in the plot). Overall, good music.

Overall: 4/5
I very much enjoyed this movie. I was not at all familiar with Tintin before seeing the movie, but I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Towards the end, it is much more action packed than the beginning and middle of the movie (I did get a little weary of it towards the end); there is some action during the beginning and the middle, but there was also enough of the plot in there to even it out, but action is much more concentrated towards the end of the movie. There is some violence, but the violence isn't very bad: there are a lot of gunshots during the movie, and one man dies and a little bit of blood is left on a newspaper, but nothing is graphic. I think I recall one use of a swear word.

The Adventures of Tintin is now out in theaters in both regular and 3D showings. It is rated PG.

A clue!