Every Sunday, Gill delves into his archive of over 800 movie reviews and randomly selects three for your enjoyment! Here are this week’s…
Mr. Go
South Korea’s first 3D movie Mr. Go follows a young circus performer and her pet gorilla as a sports agent recruits the gorilla to bat for his failing baseball team. As Mr. Go and his team ascend the ranks, the reigning champions of the series ally themselves with a loan shark who is bent on taking over our hero’s circus in order to stop Mr. Go from winning the big game. Yes, this is an underdog sports movie about a gorilla that plays baseball, and in an odd turn of events, this isn’t really a comedy. The filmmakers chose to play this premise straight, and deliver a sports movie that, aside from a big CGI gorilla, feels pretty standard. You have seen all of these sports movie tropes before: the evil manager of the rival team, the injury right before the final game that threatens to ruin everything, the rival team bringing in a new player with skills that are comparable to the heroes (yes, the bad guys bring in a pitching gorilla)…the plot offers very little new material. As such, I was a bit disappointed in Mr. Go, but considering this is a baseball-playing gorilla movie, I can’t deny that I was given exactly what was promised.
3 out of 5
Goal of the Dead
I didn’t expect much from this French film about a soccer team who has to fight their way through a zombie outbreak, but I was pleasantly surprised when it delivered everything I wanted (and some stuff that I didn’t even know that I wanted) out of a soccer/zombie mashup. I wouldn’t say this film breaks much new ground. The plot follows a team of soccer players who are forced to play a match in a small French town in order to make it to the championships. The small-town team captain, however, has bought some black market Russian steroids, and upon taking them, transforms into a zombie. All hell breaks loose. What Goal of the Dead lacks in new plot material it more than makes up for by giving the film’s target audience what they want. All of the characters are well-developed and really funny, and the zombie kills are wonderfully gorey. Yes, a zombie head is kicked like a soccer ball. Both sports movie fans and zombie movie fans will delight in this one.
3.5 out of 5
Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder
Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder is a Norwegian film based on a series of popular children’s books, and while watching it, I was struck by how much the movie reminded me of the works of Roald Dahl. All of the adults except for the eccentric Dr. Proctor are depicted as grotesque, fat, and stupid. The two main kids, Lisa and Nilly, are plucky and smart, whereas the two school bullies are hulking, ugly idiots. And, of course, the central plot has that wonderful, naughty Roald Dahl feel to it, as our two young heroes befriend the local mad scientist and discover that he has created a powder that, when ingested, causes you to fart with such force that you can fly. Another local inventor then plots to steal the invention, and did I mention there’s a giant snake in the sewer? Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder is utterly ridiculous, as you can imagine, but I had a really good time watching it. If I were about 8 years old, I don’t think I would have stopped laughing.
3.25 out of 5
See you next Sunday for three more thrilling short reviews!