The Jungle Book Review

Story: The man-cub Mowgli flees the jungle after a threat from the tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba). Guided by Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) the panther and the bear Baloo (Bill Murray), Mowgli embarks on a journey of self-discovery, though he also meets creatures who don't have his best interests at heart.

Based on the novel by Rudyard Kipling, director Jon Favreau pulls a James Cameron and creates a jungle that is immersive and a character all in itself.  Like Avatar, The Jungle Book's jungle and animal inhabitants are completely done in CGI while also using motion capture to really add depth and human emotions. The detail put into this really fantastic. To make the animals and jungle look so real they took many photos of the indian jungle and got photos of animals to get all the features just right. The Jungle Book sets a new standard for CGI and is sure to get a nod for Best Visual Effects.

Neel Sethi is perfectly cast as Mowgli and he does an excellent job working along the many amazing visual effects. He is basically working all alone and he does such great work here. It is also his first film and I am very impressed, would love to see him in more.

 The voice cast is on mark, Ben Kingsley plays the black panther Bagheera, Bill Murray plays the loveable bear Baloo, and Idris Elba plays the terrifying tiger Shere Khan.  These three are craft the most interesting sidekicks, comics and villains. Idris is by far the best villain so far this year. Lupita Nyong'o is a great addition to the cast, she is so sympathetic as the wolf mother, Raksha. Christopher Walken plays the part of King Louie and is brilliant. And the late Gary Shandling makes his last voice/screen appearance as a little character called Ikki. One who is very underused is Scarlet Johansen. It may be due to her commitment to work with Marvel but I would have loved more exploration into her snake character like what they did with Mother wolf.

Composer John Debney does a wonderful job with the score. His score with the combination with the amazing visuals add to the enticing fun you'll have watching this movie.

The Jungle Book is bottom line the new Avatar with a better story and a much more family friendly adventure.

A sequel has been confirmed with the same director and hopefully the same cast. There is still more material to mine so it is an excepting treat. I wish it to come out sooner than the many Avatar sequels, maybe go head to head with Andy Serkis's adaptation, I would say this one would still win out. In all honesty, why is Andy even doing an adaptation this one is the best. If Andy doesn't get the visuals right it will flunk, the story is a family friendly story and Disney has done the best job. I am also afraid Tarzan has big shoes to fill.

Thats what made this film work, it was not dark, it was pure family fun adventure and did not try to be anything else. Andy's take and Tarzan may only be good and not be the fun family adventure that this was.

Rating = A +, 5/5, Gold Star
 

The Boss Review

Story: Melissa McCarthy headlines The Boss as a titan of the industry who is sent to prison for insider trading. When she emerges ready to rebrand herself as America's latest sweetheart, not everyone she screwed over is so quick to forgive and forget.

This is another comedy from the husband/wife duo of Melissa and husband Ben Falcone, Tammy being their first directed team effort movie.  Kristen Bell, Kathy Bates and Peter Dinklage co-star as her assistant, her idol and her ex-lover Ron. Its a great cast which is full of great laughs, some sadly which are spoiled from the trailer.

As the story goes her ex lover gets her thrown in jail for insider trading and when she comes back out, he's taken her company away from her. So, she stays with her ex-assitant, Claire, for a while until she comes up with a plan. After tasting Claire's brownies and taking Claire's daughter, Rachel, to her Girl Guide's meeting Michelle creates a group of tough ass chick girl guides selling brownies.

The shenanigans she gets up to with the girls, the street fight, are hilarious and worth the price of admission. Eventually, things get awkward when Rachel gives Michelle a family made gift. This causes her to cut Claire out of the girl brownie guides and eventually she sells the company all because, like her idol (played by Kathy Bates) she gets to close to her business partner and she breaks things off.

It is a surprisingly short film which climaxes in a heist to steal the papers about selling the company to her ex, Ron. Dinklage is a perfect comedian and is perfect in this, he goes so far as to sword fight with Melissa, which was both cool (he was in Game of thrones) and hilarious. Kristen was great as ever, her best scene is the bra scene with Melissa, which was sadly spoiled in trailers. Kathy Bates was also quiet the funny bone tickler as she played up the role of Boss to Michelle. Tyler Labine from  comedies such as Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and Animal Practice plays the love interest of Kristen and gets a funny role to play in the film's third act. Comedian Kristen Schaal also appears as one of the girl guide leaders, she provides some good chuckles as well.

While not as emotional as Tammy or gut wrenchingly funny as Spy it is still a fun enjoyable little movie to see for fans of Melissa McCarthy, she is a true comedian and will knock all expectations out of the park this summer with Ghostbusters!

Rating: B