We Bought a Zoo

Running Time: 123 minutes.
Media: Cinematic Release.

I had the unique opportunity to see the new movie with Matt Damon, called "We Bought a Zoo" about two weeks ago with my partner... I had my initial reservations, naturally, given that I thought this movie would be a very sappy rendition of a family that bought a zoo, which seems like the appropriate assumption given the title...

To my delight, I found this film quite appealing, only due to the fact that there were warm cuddly animals, and Scarlett Johansson ;) Matt Damon plays journalist, Benjamin Mee, who basically quits his job and moves out to the country to take ownership of Dartmoor Wildlife Park. His daughter Rosie has no issues with the move, in fact she relishes it. His son Dylan, is the usual teenage stereotype rebel; talented, smart and resents his school, his family, the move, the animals, and probably the rest of the known universe...

This film has the clichés that tend to result from the usual biopic with a family involvement... The hard-working optimistic father; the token rebellious older child; the token irrepressibly cute younger child, who usually has one line that cracks the audience up in laughter; the hard-working but socially-inept love interest that everyone knows will be honing in on the protagonist at the very end of the movie, picked out by the audience from the moment they see her, the person who seems a little out of place because they're either a bit crazy, a bit drunk, or both; the predictable happy ending...

These and the saccharin sweet performances of  Maggie Elizabeth Jones and Elle Fanning (who plays Lily, Dylan's eventual love interest), kinda taint the storyline a bit... From what I've read about the back story for this movie (seeing it is based off real life events) there are a number of discrepancies that changed the movie for a more suitable audience in the States; stuff like the actual location of the zoo... Rosemoor Wildlife Park was based off the original zoo, Dartmoor Zoological Park, which is actually located in Devon, England. Although the necessary changes that were made to the film for a US audience were approved by Benjamin Mee for the film itself, I can't help but feel that the true story itself has changed considerably as a result.

As much as I enjoyed this film, I'll have to give this film 4 stars... Don't get me wrong, it's an excellent movie, but I feel that the number of changes made to the original story make it less "based on a true story" and more "trying to appeal to as many US movie-goers as possible." I guess that's Hollywood for you...

The Cup

Running Time: 106 minutes.
Media: Cinematic Release.

The Cup was movie Number One of my seven movie marathon on 29/10/2011. I crazily enough dragged along to the movie marathon my brother-in-law, an avid film fan, rather much like myself.

The Cup is an biographic film covering the two months prior to the 2002 Melbourne Cup (which coincidentally enough will occur in a few days time). It details the trials and tribulations surrounding the life of Melbourne Cup winning jockey Damien Oliver, who won with the horse, Media Puzzle in 2002; but had also lost his brother, fellow jockey Jason Oliver due to a tragic racing accident some weeks prior to the Cup.

An emaciated looking Stephen Curry (of The Castle fame) captivates the screen with his portrayal of Damien Oliver, the jockey facing both tragedy and victory within the film. Brendan Gleeson plays Dermot Weld, the Irish racehorse trainer who entrusts his victory to Damien winning the cup with Media Puzzle. Gleeson plays his part well, though his voice kinda reminds me of the voice he used when he played Professor "Mad-Eye" Moody in the Harry Potter series, but that was just a momentary observation which doesn't spoil the storyline.

The movie plays slowly, but really kicks in about fifty minutes in... Coincidentally enough this seems to kick in around the time of Jason Oliver's death. As this was an event by which was felt by pretty much all Australians back then, it proved to be quite tear-jerking even in the cinema. Curry's sense of grief is felt by the audience as he shows his vulnerable side. I couldn't help but feel the sense of anguish that Curry felt.

I had heard that Stephen Curry had to lose about 12 kilos (about 27 pounds) to get his body in the right shape to play the part of Damien Oliver. This contrasts considerably to the last biopic he made, The King, where he played the younger and older versions of Graham Kennedy, and was required to lose 14 kilos (30 pounds) to play the role of the younger Kennedy, but then had to put it all back on within two weeks in order to play the older version of his character.

All in all, the film is a joy to watch and proved to be a great start to my movie marathon. It's well deserving of its 5 star rating I've given it.