LIFESTYLE 43
SUNDAY JUNE 1 2014
VERDICT: MORE TO MALEFICENT THAN MEETS THE EYE
For she’s a Jolie good baddie
Angelina Jolie plays the title role in Disney’s Maleficent, her first time back in front of the camera since The Tourist in 2010, and she makes a feast of the part
MALEFICENT
97 minutes (M)
Director: Robert Stromberg (The
Hunger Games)
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley and Sharlto Copley
Reviewer: Charley Rico
****
THE 17th century playwright
William Congreve wrote “hell
hath no fury like a woman
scorned” and Disney’s latest
feature Maleficent perfectly
encapsulates the phrase.
But as it turns out, there’s a
lot more to the “evil fairy” than
meets the eye.
For starters, she’s quite
funny and Angelina Jolie in
her convincing prosthetic
horns, gives impeccable timing
and delivery. As for the plot,
it’s completely unexpected.
The movie posters feature
the slogan “Don’t believe the
fairy tale” and you should definitely forget everything you
remember about Disney’s 1959
film Sleeping Beauty.
In this version, the young
Maleficent was an adorable
happy fairy, flying through the
clouds and sleeping in a tree.
As she grows, she becomes
the protector of her beloved
moors where she lives with
magical, mystical creatures.
But then she is brutally humiliated and betrayed and for
those of you not into English
literature, the current adage
“bitch be crazy” applies here.
Girlfriend goes a little nuts
with rage and erects walls of
thorns to protect the moors
where she lives, which soon
turn dark as Maleficent’s lust
for revenge turns her heart to
cold, hard stone. Yikes.
But hey, let’s not pretend
that given the chance to get
back at someone who has
scorned us, we wouldn’t take it.
Well, maybe not quite like
Maleficent, but you get the
idea.
There are snippets of the
original Sleeping Beauty here,
including when Maleficent
crashes Princess Aurora’s
christening to put a curse on
her. The baby girl is then
whisked away to live in the for-
est with three “good” fairies
charged with raising the child
Aurora, played by Vivienne
Jolie-Pitt, Jolie’s own fiveyear-old darling with Brad Pitt,
in secret until her 16th birthday, when she is played by Elle
Fanning.
The fairies are completely
useless, albeit amusingly so.
Maleficent bides her time playing practical jokes on them,
while waiting for Aurora to
turn 16 so she can prick her finger on a spinning wheel and
sleep until true love’s kiss
wakes her up again. But what
happens next will surprise you.
While Prince Phillip makes
an entrance, as does the firebreathing dragon, their roles
are not what you’d expect.
The special effects in this
movie can’t go unmentioned
and good on Disney for not
holding back for concern they
may frighten children.
Not one, but two epic battles ensue between the human
world and the magical one and
it’s like scenes straight out of
300 – brutal but awesome.
VERDICT: CLEVER CRACKS DON’T QUITE MAKE THE CUT
Quick-draw gags take wild out of West
A MILLION WAYS TO
DIE IN THE WEST
116 minutes (MA15+)
Director: Seth MacFarlane (Ted)
Starring: Seth MacFarlane, Charlize
Theron, Liam Neeson, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi
** ½
AFTER creating a monster hit
from behind the scenes with
2012’s Ted, one-man comedy
machine Seth MacFarlane
steps before the cameras for
his feature acting debut.
It comes as no real surprise
that the prolific creator of TV’s
Family Guy (and one-off Oscars host) doesn’t really have
the performing smarts to anchor a near two-hour movie.
Nevertheless, there are just
enough clever, cracking laughs
to be found in this tale of a
whiny, self-obsessed sheep farmer in the Wild West to earn it
a pass mark.
If you can venture beyond
MacFarlane’s ungainly screen
V1 - NTNE01Z01MA
presence you will find enough
genuinely funny material to
save the whole shebang from
becoming a vacuous vanity
project. Exhibit A for the defence of A Million Ways To Die
In the West: the spectacularly
surreal sight of a sunflower
growing from a place where
the sun doesn’t shine on Liam
Neeson.
There’s plenty more of that
kind of proudly lowbrow, highly amusing stuff. (Don’t look
up the cast list on IMDb, whatever you do. There are killer,
blink-or-miss celeb cameos
threaded right throughout the
picture.)
Invariably, the best jokes
come along just at the point
you’re feeling you’ve almost
had enough solo Seth MacFarlane to last a lifetime.
MacFarlane plays Albert
Stark, an 1880 malcontent with
a 2014 turn of phrase who
hates everything that frontier
life stands for.
Albert’s misery is usually
expressed by a series of extended monologues that sound
like expired stand-up routines.
The film, also starring Charlize Theron (pictured), could
have done with less of this pedestrian patter – which MacFarlane needlessly peppers with
expletives – and more of the
comic’s winning way with a
sight gag.
NOW SHOWING
SEE IT IN
CASUARINA
MALEFICENT (M) ●
5.05, 9.15PM
CC AD SUN - WED 10.50, 12.55, 3.00, 7.10PM
3D SUN - WED
2D
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (M) ●
11.40, 2.30, 5.20, 8.10PM
SUN/TUE 10.30, 1.00, 3.40, 6.20, 9.00PM
WED 10.30, 1.00 ✿, 3.40, 6.20, 9.00PM
3D SUN - WED
2D
2D
CITY
MALEFICENT (M) ●
A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE
WEST (MA15+) ●
SUN - WED
11.20, 1.50, 4.20, 6.45, 8.20, 9.10PM
THE FAULT IN OUR STARS (M) ● ▲
WED
6.30PM
BAD NEIGHBOURS (MA15+)
SUN - WED
1.10, 3.10, 5.10, 7.15, 9.20PM
SUN - TUE
WED
10.30, 1.30, 4.00, 6.30, 9.10PM
10.30, 1.30, 4.00, 9.10PM
THE OTHER WOMAN (M)
SUN
12.50, 3.05, 5.45PM
MON - WED
10.30, 12.50, 3.05, 5.45PM
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 (M)
MUPPETS MOST WANTED (G) ✤
SUN - WED
SAT/SUN
10.40AM
10.30AM
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (M) ●
SUNSHINE ON LEITH (PG)
SUN - WED
SUN - WED
10.30, 1.05, 3.45, 6.20, 8.55PM
BAD NEIGHBOURS (MA15+)
12.30, 2.30, 7.00PM
3D SUN - WED
SUN - WED
2D
FADING GIGOLO (M)
2.55, 9.10PM
CC AD SUN - WED 10.45, 12.50, 7.05PM
GODZILLA (M)
10.30, 12.50, 2.55, 7.10, 9.20PM
5.00PM
THE GRAND BUDAPEST
HOTEL (M) CC AD
SUN - WED
5.00PM
A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST
SUN - WED
GODZILLA (M)
THE OTHER WOMAN (M)
SUN - WED
SUN - WED
SUN - WED
(MA15+) ●
11.00, 1.30, 3.55, 6.25, 8.55PM
4.30, 9.05PM
10.35AM
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