Birds Beasts and Beastly People

The eponymous Rio plays out the story of Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) and Jewel (Anne Hathaway), two Spix’s Macaws, the former a pampered pet from Minnesota, the latter a wild bird kept in captivity, in the city of the same name. The two are the last of their species and have been brought together to (hopefully) mate. Stolen by smugglers, the duo manage to escape into the rainforest, but are constantly constrained by the fact that Blu cannot fly, and also that the two are chained to each other. With the help of Rafael (George Lopez), the two birds get to Luiz (Tracy Morgan), but danger is not far behind, and the owners Linda and Tulio are also hot on the trail in their search for the missing birds. A riot of colour – an outstanding visual spectacle, and an entertaining children’s adventure. In the inevitable comparison, Rio does not capture the wry humour of Rango, but nor does it seek to – it is intended for a simpler audience, child or adult

13/20

You Wont Like Me When I'm Angry Part IV

I first saw X-Men Origins - Wolverine in a truly disastrous edition on the PC. The graphics were incomplete, and Hugh Jackman and the rest of the cast and crew were justifiably livid over the release of this pirated edition. Wolverine’s beginnings have shadows of that of Magneto – a repressive family bringing memories of a Nazi concentration camp. A complex relation with a brother who falls astray and a few twists later, one could well be convinced that there was sufficient provocation behind the coming-of-age of a truly angry (young?) man, But then, I don’t think the audience needed any convincing on that front anyway in respect of Wolverine. A watchable movie but superfluous in terms of its contribution to the X-Men franchise

12/20