Frankenweenie - review.

Martin Short, Charlie Tahan and Catherine O'Hara as Edward Frankenstein, Victor and Susan Frankenstein.

Think of every schlock horror or B movie ever, add in all the cheesy monster ideas, silly special effects, then update it to 2012. The final result, hopefully, should be Frankenweenie. Tim Burton returns back into his proper comfort zone after the shocking Alice In Wonderland and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Dark Shadows was brilliant but Frankenweenie has topped that. 
After poor Victor's (Charlie Tahan) dog, Sparky, is hit by a car, Victor goes all "Victor Frankenstein" and brings the deceased pooch back to life. The dog suffers minor scars but is essentially the same beast. Victor's "secret" is hidden from his unsuspecting parents, (Martin Short and Catherine O'Hara) but is accidently revealed to a deformed, igor-like schoolmate (Atticus Shaffer) of Victor's, Edgar. The drama is set in the small town of New Holland, a white picket-fenced group of cul-de-sacs reminiscent of Burton's fictional neighbourhood in Edward Scissorhands. The mayor is Mr Bergermeister, a fat and grumpy man who spends more time attending his precious flowers and plastic flamingos than to his teenage niece, Elsa (Winona Ryder). Once the secret is out to Edgar he can't possibly keep it and soon many of New Holland's youngsters know of the Frankenstein-like revival.
Its absolutely brilliant, giving you ever cliche known to any horror movie fan, giant creatures, resurrected hounds.. the key ingredients to a brilliant movie.

4/5

Untouchable - review.

Suave drama...Omar Sy and François Cluzet in Untouchable.

Its been hyped to the max and sugarcoated(wolfgang) to almost every level, Untouchable is a charming buddy movie about an ex-con and his quadriplegic employer. I first saw it advertised a few weeks ago and it came emblazoned with four or five star ratings from critics. An American voiceover tells us "critics rave about it" and I merely assumed it would be pretty awful as it looked pretty cheesy and unattractive to a movie-goer like me. I ended up going and now I've come out of it literally raving. Omar Sy is the ex-crook, (a rather undeveloped plot strand) Driss, who has just done time for robbery. To gain benefits he enters an interview to become carer to wealthy quadriplegic Philippe (Cluzet). A trial month ensues and Driss quickly becomes a full-time carer and friend to the millionaire. For once I actually enjoy the embarrassing sequences that are supposed to be 'heart-warming'. I wasn't cringing, shamed to be in the audience, I was just grinning like an idiot. The relationship between the two doesn't rise above sentimentality but keeps the pace going. When Driss discovers Philippe has lost his love, he sets out to match his employer up with his pen-pal Eleonore, a woman he's been enticing with romantic poems. The jokes are fresh and witty, bouncing off Philippe's condition and others around the pair. Now lined up for a foreign language Oscar, it will surely win. Untouchable is one of those films, you'll remember the next morning.

4/5