One of the great things about the film is that it shows the sushi. We see the sushi (in focus)get placed on a plate. The background (out of focus) is the kitchen. David Gleb, the director of the movie watered my mouth, fulfilled my curiosity, and filmed it all with intensity that is leagues ahead from your average modern action movie. For anybody hoping to watch an intoxicatingly gripping documentary, this is for you. The interviews reveal much about Jiro: his childhood, his love of sushi, his sons, and how to massage an octopus for forty minutes.The music is dramatic and gives life to Jiro and his apprentices.The one criticism I have is that towards the end, the film got repetitive and I almost felt as if I was about to watch what I had already watched. But fortunately, Gleb serves us a delicious ending… And it’s right out of the oven.

My favorite character is Jiro because of his expansive knowledge of sushi.

My favorite scene is the end because it wraps everythting up and saves the film from being repetitive.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is rated PG but there is just about nothing inappropriate. The film is however, slow and younger kids may get bored easily.

A wonderful documentary; full of interesting facts and dramatic music. Best of all is Jiro is there in the center of it all.

After being recruited, Agent J joins Agent K to protect the world from alien invaders.

Men in Black is the kind of movie you would think you watch and then it’s over and  then you don’t really think about it… But it’s not. The film achieves something better. It manages to be lot’s of fun with all of the chills and thrills you expect from a sci-fi film starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, and yet after watching it, it wasn’t swiped from my memory. I can still remember it very clearly. That’s good.

Smith and Jones have excellent chemistry in this film; if Smith throws a line at Jones, Jones will quip right back. That’s the essence of the movie, these two central performances. The entire film is witty; it’s as if your average a-couple-of-guys-go-save-the-world-from-aliens-movie was wittified (if that’s even a word). The action blends perfectly with the wit. After all, watch Smith and Jones battle aliens would be nowhere near as fun without the pair yelling comical lines at each other or vice versa.But, wit and aliens can only carry a film so far. In other words, Men in Black could have used a bit more heft. Somewhere in the middle of the film it gets lost, though fortunately, not for long. The doctor character, Laurel is halfway between a romantic interest for Jay and a damsel in distress: it’s too bad that she’s not good at being either one. But come on! Are damsels in distress and ten minutes of a storyline gong wrong, enough to spoil the fun in Men in Black? Even if you’re zapped with Jones’ “flashy red thing”, the answer is no.

My favorite character is Agent J because he proves his worth and Smith executes his lines hilariously.

My favorite scene is when J gets his MIB outfit on because Danny Elfman’s score is creepy (as always) and Smith gets to deliver the best line in the movie.

Men in Black is a lot of fun. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are wonderful, Danny Elfman livens things up with his heart-racing score, and Barry Sonnenfield brings it all together with his direction. Modern sci-fi films could learn a lesson here: invest us in your characters and then use your gazillion $ effects. It’s just too bad that the difference between Men in Black and Transformers, etc. is that MIB makes sci-fi look good.

Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. assembles Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye to stop Thor’s brother Loki from destroying the world with the Tesseract .

The wait is over. But was the four years of watching Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor worth it? Let’s just say I was hoping for a little more. There’s action galore in The Avengers, Joss Whedon’s new film. Whedon himself has described the film as having a three act structure. I completely agree, but that’s the problem with the film: it’s too structured.The first act (the worst of the three) could have lost twenty minutes and nothing important would have been lost. Nothing of course, except Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor beating each other up while spitting hasty one liners at each other.

The second act of the film is a lot better; the Avengers are finally united and they battle Loki, Thor’s evil brother (played with a Shakespearean fizz by the up and coming Tom Hiddelston who you might recognize from The Deep Blue Sea, Thor, War Horse or Midnight in Paris). My description of the second act sounds very been there, done that, but it’s not. Whedon manages to pull it off and hurtle the action onto the screen with great skill.

The third and final act is the best. Anybody who’s ever wanted to watch seven different superheros go head to head with a villian played by one of the great modern British actors (it’s a lot of fun watching Robert Downey Jr. and Hiddelston spar with each other while battling) and an army of aliens will get their money’s worth. The action goes on and on and on, but it never loses it’s comic vibe or how-did-they-do-that CG.But even if the second and third acts are enjoyable, you have to admit as with any superhero movie (except Richard Donner’s Superman and maybe one or two others) there’s not a lot to think about. Actually there’s nothing to think about except for one liners, crazy action scenes, and evil gods. The story is slim, no matter which way you look at it: superheros come together to save the world. Sometimes they clash their egos, sometimes they yell at each other, sometimes they punch bad guys, but never ever do they sit down for a quiet moment to just think about what’s happened (except for after alllllll the credits).

There’s really only one redeeming factor about this movie and in my opinion it’s why anybody even bothers to go to these crazy movies: the action. Whedon let’s it kick in full throttle especially in the third act, which is a lot of fun. The action is THRILLING. THRILLING. It’s absolutely amazing but if that’s all you’ve got for me, Whedon, Marvel, superheros then I’m… done.

My favorite character is Iron Man because he’s played with charisma by the charming Robert Downey Jr. and he’s by far the funniest character in the movie.

My favorite scene is the climax because the 3-D came right up in your face only at key moments (it did the same throughout the whole film) and the Avengers finally worked as a team.

The Avengers is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, and a mild drug reference and I agree.

Joss Whedon’s The Avengers is a lot of fun, but in terms of story it’s underwhelming. However the effects are spectacularly overwhelming (and the 3-D is wonderful).

The following videos display Flack and my critiques of all the films we saw while at the fest. I hope the videos are interesting, critical (but not rude), and enjoyable. And now… dim the lights, sit back and enjoy our pure film festival analysis. Click on the link to view all of our videos on Vimeo.

This year’s festival has films from 41 different countries. “It’s our biggest festival yet,” says Muskala. That’s easy to see. This year marks the 15th anniversary for the fest and the digiPlaySpace was introduced this year. This digital playground for kids is an outstanding, fun place to learn through technology.  For example in one of the sections, kids can play with engaging apps that also teach them something.  In one of the apps, you build a robot with quadrilaterals. I had two favorite sections. The first was one involves you driving a digital car with a video game controller, while avoiding real household objects. The second favorite was a table full of animals and a tree (mostly) sculpted out of clay which were easy to bend making for a great stop motion film which I participated in making. I glanced over at the computer screen that shows the pictures that are taken, and saw that over 750 pictures had been shot while I was there.This year’s selection of films ranged from Chimpanzee (the Disneynature opening night film) to Sky Force 3-D (an animated film geared to younger kids from Hong Kong, dubbed in English). Muskala says “Chimpanzee was such a natural selection.” Earth Day falls on April 22nd and there’s an environmental theme running through all our programming this year.  ”Chimpanzee hit all the boxes.” On Sky Force she says, “Because opening night is good for ages 8-9 plus, we wanted closing night to be good for younger audiences (5 plus).” Note: While Chimpanzee and Sky Force are both big budget this year’s TIFF Kids also features many fascinating foreign and independent films.

I learned many things from interviewing Muskala, but the most interesting would be that she thinks people should have a good time, but also equally be enriched at TIFF Kids. I completely agree.

To get selected as jurors, children write a movie review online and submit it (for some it was part of a school project). Nine kids are picked. The jurors we interviewed, reviewed Captain America: The First Avenger, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Hugo, Bridge to Terabithia, and WALL•E (reviewed by 2 kids). The kids are only allowed to be picked as juror’s once, but they can enter more times just for fun.

While watching TIFF films, they look for good acted, well done feature films and shorts with a great story.  Films and shorts they juried included: Stay!, The Blue Tiger, Gattu, Alfie the Little Werewolf, Famous Five, Magic Piano 3-D, The Gruffalo’s Child, and Mouse For Sale. They watch each film only once with a regular audience or sometimes in a private theater. Then they agree on their favorite movies or shorts to award the Golden Sprocket.

It was interesting to hear how their jurying process is different from the Providence Children’s Film Festival‘s (PCFF) process. (awarding already picked TIFF Kid movies vs. selecting the movies to be in the PCFF)  It was fun talking to people who love movies as much as we do and hearing what their favorite movies are. The jurors’ favorite non-TIFF movies include: The Hunger Games, WALL•E, Hugo, The Sting, Nancy Drew, The Harry Potter movies, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, John Hughes’ movies, and The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. We definitely enjoyed interviewing the Young People’s Juries, and it was loads of fun.

At a ceremony held April 22, 2012 at TIFF Bell Lightbox, the award winners for the 15th annual TIFF Kids International Film Festival were announced. In addition to Audience Choice Awards, three Young People’s Juries weighed in on the recipients of the coveted Golden Sprocket Awards. Winners of the Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase were also announced, as determined by a jury of film industry professionals.

AND THE TIFF KIDS AWARDS GO TO…..

TIFF KIDS AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS
TIFF Kids Audience Choice Awards are voted on by Festival-goers who attended public screening weekends (April 14 to 15 and April 21 to 22).

TIFF Kids Audience Choice Award — Best Feature Film
Cool Kids Don’t Cry (Achtste Groepers Huilen Niet), director: Dennis Bots, The Netherlands
Grade eight student Akkie has only two concerns: going to high school with her best friends and winning the soccer championship.
Tough-girl Akkie never backs down from a challenge or lets the class bully Joep target her friends. Her whole class is shocked when Akkie is diagnosed with leukemia, yet she faces the disease with unwavering courage. While on her class graduation trip she must rely on Joep, the one classmate who didn’t visit her in the hospital, to help her with a dilemma. Is this is the beginning of a new friendship? Akkie fears she won’t have time to find out. Based on the best-selling Benelux novel by Jacques Vriens, this film adaptation will leave viewers inspired by Akkie’s spirit and resolve in the face of adversity.

TIFF Kids Audience Choice Award — Best Short Film
Joanna Makes a Friend, director: Jeremy Lutter, Canada
Joanna likes to wear dark clothes and sketch spooky illustrations. As a result, the kids in Joanna’s class don’t like her, and she doesn’t much enjoy their company either. So, when her father tells her to “make a friend,” Joanna takes it a little too literally.

GOLDEN SPROCKET AWARDS
Two film juries representing different age groups — ages 8 to 10 and ages 11 to 13 — each selected a winning feature film. Another jury comprised of children aged 9 to 13 determined a winning short film.

Golden Sprocket Award — Feature Film
Jury 1 (Ages 8 to 10)
Famous Five, director: Mike Marzuk , Germany
Three siblings, their cousin and a canine companion become summertime sleuths in this adaptation of the famed Enid Blyton novels.
On choosing this film, the jury said, “Famous Five is a great mystery that keeps you guessing and makes you feel like part of the adventure.”

Golden Sprocket Award — Feature Film
Jury 2 (Ages 11 to 13)
Nicostrados, the Pelican, director: Olivier Horlait, France/Belgium/Greece
Fourteen-year-old Yannis enjoys a simple life with his widowed fisherman father on the Greek island of Zora. That is, until he trades his mother’s golden cross for Nicostratos, a neglected white pelican. This charismatic, mischievous and gigantic bird becomes Yannis’ best friend, but he also becomes a major tourist attraction.

The Young People’s Jury explained their decision, “We are in awe of how this movie took us on a rollercoaster ride of emotions in such a beautiful setting, which was exquisitely captured in the film’s photography.”

Honourable mentions go to Cool Kids Don’t Cry, The Netherlands and Havanastation, Cuba.

Golden Sprocket Award — Short Film
Jury (Ages 9 to 13)
The Little Team, directors: Roger Gomez and Daniel Resines, Spain
In this sweet and charming documentary, the fourteen little kids that make up the Margatania FC go over an unsolved football mystery, and they end up teaching an unexpected life lesson to grown-ups.

Said the Young People’s Jury of their unanimous decision, “We admire that this movie conveys messages of perseverance and inspiration that we can all learn from. And it is told from a great point of view.”

Photos Courtesy of TIFF – Toronto International Film Festival

Flack reviews The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

Flick reviews The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

Photos Courtesy of TIFF – Toronto International Film Festival.

Where to begin? Let’s start with something I haven’t mentioned in my brief introduction: the general appeal of the audience. Nowadays every week at least one action/3-D/thriller/science fiction film is released. Some people like these movies. Some don’t. There is no real general appeal of the audience it’s all just “they like that”, “he like’s this” and “she doesn’t like this.” Hollywood thinks that they should release the action spectacle and so on because they will please the most amount of people they possibly can. (A.k.a get their hands on the most money they possibly can.) Then, there’s whether or not it’s worth it…3-D is currently one of, if not the most popular addition to watching a film. At times it can be irritating, at times it can be exciting but it always serves up Hollywood’s first order of business: it serves up money. Either critics recommend it or some gut instinct inside of you says “3-D. Must watch movie in 3-D.” Whatever reason  so many people go to see films in 3-D beats me. But one thing is certain: 3-D won’t be leaving cineplexes anytime soon. None of the stories “went anywhere”, they just disappeared because not enough people went to see them anymore. I could go on for hours about all this, but it all comes down to people are paying to go see spectacles more than they are paying to go see dramas or films with a story. Do you miss the movie theaters? Do you wish the ticket prices were less expensive? The theaters could be going out of business and streaming devices like Netflix could become the new  movie theater. I think that watching a film on the big screen can make the way you view a film entirely different from watching it on your iPhone or iPad or even your TV. Not only is the screen much bigger, but also the shared experience of watching the movie with other people is entirely different (and in my opinion much more fun).One question that I would like to have answered is “Do we have anything to look forward to?”. This whole article I’ve been talking about what isn’t good about the current state of films. I think effects will certainly advance which will completely change the way movies are made just the way films like Avatar have changed the industry already. Also new filmmakers will come into our world and someday all of the directors directing right now will be replaced by completely new directors.

With all the money they’re making (and all the money Flack predicts they’ll make in the future), Hollywood won’t be dying soon and as for the rest if you look hard you can find many enjoyable movies, lately War Horse and Hugo have been some of my favorites. Thanks for reading! If you agree or disagree with my predictions for the future or would like to add something that I didn’t mention please comment. After all, the future of the movies is endless in terms of possibilities.