Review
DULCIE PEARCE
A Minecraft Movie Review: High-energy, immersive & delightfully strange – this film is perfect for families
And a comedy horror takes a beating from our critics
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
(PG) 101mins
★★★★☆
3
AS the best-selling video game ever, it was only a matter of time before Minecraft made the leap to the big screen.
After countless false starts — it was scheduled to go into production in 2014 — we finally have an exciting adaptation just in time for the Easter holidays.
Starring Jason Momoa and Jack Black and under the direction of Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), it is a hilarious action-packed family adventure.
The plot sees four misfits — Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Momoa), Dawn (Danielle Brooks) and siblings Henry (Sebastian Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers) — who are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld.
This is a bizarre, cubic wonderland where anything is possible, as long as you know how to build it.
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Can they make their way home again? They are later joined by Steve (Black), a longtime resident who has chosen to live within the game as a retreat from the pressures of reality.
Visually, the film does a rather decent job of translating Minecraft’s blocky aesthetic.
The CGI fully embraces the surreal, chaotic nature of the game’s world, making every towering structure and pixelated landscape feel both immersive and delightfully strange.
The surreal tone is further amplified by Hess’s signature offbeat, quirky style, which works wonders in crafting a wacky, anything-goes atmosphere.
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Perhaps the most endearing thing about the film is its refusal to take itself seriously, even for a millisecond, which is why it works.
Jack Black, as expected, is brilliant, delivering a high-energy, wonderfully bizarre performance packed with hilarious one-liners and the odd rendition of a rock banger.
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Momoa brings an entertaining mix of bravado and goofiness.
And there is a laugh-out-loud performance from Jennifer Coolidge (The White Lotus), too.
Ultimately, Minecraft: The Movie is a fun, if slightly conventional, adventure that will likely entertain younger audiences and casual fans.
Its visuals are impressive, its humour is light and accessible and it successfully captures the playful spirit of the game.
While it may not be a masterpiece, its sheer sense of fun make it an easy win for families looking for something to watch during the holidays.
LINDA MARRIC
MR BURTON
(12A) 124mins
★★★☆☆
3
IT’S 1942, war is raging in Europe – and 17-year-old Richard Jenkins has a drunk miner for a dad who can barely remember his name.
Richard lives with his sister and her husband, who doesn’t want him around.
But he has hope, in the form of his inspiring English teacher, Mr Burton.
This well-crafted Welsh movie tells the story of how Richard Jenkins became one of Britain’s greatest actors – Richard Burton.
Industry actor Harry Lawtey does a great job in his portrayal of a “jealous and proud and spiteful” man.
We see all his frailties and strengths as he transforms from an unschooled youth into a Shakespearean thespian.
This is Educating Richie with Toby Jones’s Mr Burton and his landlady Ma Smith (Lesley Manville) refining his very rough edges.
However, there is little fresh in the script because all the ups and downs are in the usual places.
Fortunately, Jones and Manville, who are always a joy to watch, clearly relish telling this story of a decent man who gives so much to a student without expecting anything in return.
They, like Burton, are a different class.
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DEATH OF A UNICORN
(15) 107mins
★★☆☆☆
3
ANOTHER week, another high-concept comedy horror movie. Another week, another set of corporate bad guys who put money before life itself.
In this one, Paul Rudd is pharmaceutical executive Elliot Kintner who accidentally runs over a unicorn on the way to his boss’s rural retreat.
The beast has special powers which Elliot’s daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega) seems to understand, but everyone else wishes to exploit.
Turns out you wouldn’t like a unicorn when it’s angry. The result is a limb-ripping, entrails-spilling bloodbath.
The violence is done for laughs, which is fun when Richard E Grant, as the morally bankrupt Odell, is in a full vein-popping rage.
But Rudd spends much of the film doing his nonplussed expression, rather than forming an emotional connection with Ortega.
To her credit, Ortega, from the Addams Family spin-off TV show Wednesday, does try to make us believe in unicorns. Sadly, Elliot is wrong when he says that “there are no bad ideas.”
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Without a more original script, Death Of A Unicorn should have been spiked.
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