Tag Archives: cats

Apocalypse Z

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Vampire Owl: Are we going to watch the end of the world again?

Vampire Bat: We are never tired of watching it.

Vampire Owl: Would this be like World War Z?

Vampire Bat: Well, there is never really a shortage of movies showing the end.

Vampire Owl: How beautiful can the end of the world be?

Vampire Bat: I would say that it would be a life with less anxiety and depression.

Vampire Owl: Train to Busan showed a lot of anxiety.

Vampire Bat: It was lessened with Peninsula, right?

Vampire Owl: You know where Resident Evil stands.

Vampire Bat: Still, not all sequels of Resident Evil stands at the same level.

[Gets a paneer puffs and three cups of Sikkim tea].

What is the movie about? :: Manel (Francisco Ortiz) and his wife Julia (Iria del Río) returns home after visiting his sister Belén (Marta Poveda) and her husband Mario (Oriol Ruiz), and meets with an accident on road while losing focus during an argument about having children. Following the incident, he leaves the town and lives in isolation with his cat. Due to the same reason, he does not care about a new virus called TSJ which has spread around the nation and even outside the continent like COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Then, the one thing which is not said in the news is that this particular pandemic differs from the corona virus and would cause people to turn into flesh-eating zombies. The whole Europe has been under attack and going down for some time, and the Germans had already evacuated Berlin. As Belén’s family is evacuated to the Canary Islands, Manel tries to join them, the government closes the borders, and declares a general state of emergency which cancels all the flights and leaves people where they are.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: With no option to join his sister and brother-in-law, and having all routes closed, he promises her that he will stay there safe and within the house, only to lose all internet and communications soon enough. While going out to collect supplies, he finds out that people are quickly turning into zombies, and finds even police officers turning into zombies or killing themselves to escape from the terrible fate. Running out of supplies and while searching for food in nearby homes, he comes across an old lady named Gabriela (Amalia Gómez) who has also run out food herself. They help each other, as she knows where he could find the food and he get them with relative ease. Soon, they are able to intercept a radio transmission which has a message from the survivors who feel that they would be evacuated soon and it is safe where they were staying. This provides hope for both of them, even though Gabriela is not sure if she would survive the journey.

And what more can follow in a zombie-infested world? :: Gabriela understands that she would only slow him down and could end up being a burden, and commits suicide when Manel comes to get her on the next day. This leaves him and his cat to go through the journey to the place which might be a safe haven. With the cat Lúculo, and with a diving suit and a speargun for defense, Manel barely manages to escape from a zombie horde, but finds all larger boats either taken away or unusable. After finding a little zombie toddler, he is only able to use an inflatable dinghy to travel to his destination, with all roads taken over by zombies. On the way, he finds a few Russians who asks for his help while on the way and offers him a cabin to stay in their big boat. But Manel feels that the Russians are not that straightforward as they claim to be, even though the only person in the ship who can speak Spanish denies his suspicions. Now, it seems that it would not be that easy to get away and reach the new place which is claimed as a safe house. Can he somehow do what he has been planning to?

The defence of Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End :: Some of the most interesting foreign movies which I have watched were in Spanish, and the movies like The Platform has always gained the attention of a wider audience. As the main character grapples with the zombie-powered societal collapse and fights to reunite with his only family, this movie remains strong both as an emotional as well as terrifying one, with an adventure that keeps us going. The man’s survival from a tragic loss makes this another journey of a flawed character who wishes to finally get back to his family from that self-inflicted solitude. All those real‑world COVID-19 pandemic responses like acts of selfishness which are not limited to panic buying, along with those lockdowns and quarantine that we have experienced will keep us close to the movie’s reality, for it does not give away the fact that there are zombies involved until quite some time into the film. The terrifying elements do follow, and they are pretty much effective along with the emotional side.

Positives and negatives :: There might be similarities to the other titles dealing with similar topics, and it is not easy to come out of that feeling that we know what would happen, and it is know how this would keep going. Yet, powered by the performance provided by Francisco Ortiz, the movie rises above the usual expectations. One cannot help wondering how well the Spanish movies have managed to keep its side strong, no matter what kind of a genre it deals with. The support is really good too, even from the kids and one cat. There is a certain amount of realism when the zombies are shown, as they also seem as much desperate as humans for food, seemingly emotional too, unlike the usual mindless displays. It is also based on the novel by Manel Loureiro, and how much this one stay close or deviates from the original, is something we can only understand from the fans of book. The heartfelt zombie film seems to be appreciated enough to bring more viewers to the same on OTT.

How it finishes :: We are never short of some fine zombie movies, and the apocalypse is something we can never stop waiting for, whether in fiction or in reality as an inevitable fate. There is a fine journey through the world affected by the terrifying zombie reality which is slowly destroying the world as it is known. The terrible situation is shown with a fine scary side as much the emotional moments which makes this one a thriller drama as well as part of the genres of horror and adventure. This movie becomes another addition to that fine list. The ending makes sure that a scope for sequel is there to be taken, and from what is heard, it is there to come soon enough. Among the movies about the end of the world, it seems that the Spanish has managed to get on a higher level. We can have many similar movies to follow, but in between the earlier movies and those which are to come, this one has maintained some fine class while keeping the entertaining side high enough.

Release date: 31st October 2024
Running time: 118 minutes
Directed by: Carles Torrens
Starring: Francisco Ortiz, José María Yazpik, Berta Vázquez, Iria del Río, Marta Poveda, Amalia Gómez, María Salgueiro, Yuri Mikhaylychenko, Oriol Ruiz

<<< Click here to go to the previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

The Secret Life of Pets

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Vampire Owl: I told you that they had secrets, very dangerous ones.

Vampire Bat: Who are you talking about here?

Vampire Owl: The pets. The minions. The zombies. They all have such secret lives.

Vampire Bat: Actually, this movie is not about your theory of animals stealing your writings. It never really happened, and is just a vampire conspiracy theory.

Vampire Owl: What? No! I know that they are having evil plans against us.

Vampire Bat: How can you look forward to big evil plans in an animated movie?

Vampire Owl: Animated evil is still evil, and it can also be brutal.

Vampire Bat: This one even won 2017 Kids’ Choice Awards.

Vampire Owl: Then I will look for the same in another evil animated movie.

Vampire Bat: Okay, just leave this one as a simple animated movie for now.

[Gets three cups of masala tea with a blueberry cake piece].

What is the movie about? :: A Jack Russell Terrier named Max (Louis CK) is living happily with his owner Katie (Ellie Kemper) in an apartment in the city. He wishes to spend most of his time with her, but she has to go to work. After Katie leaves, he spends his time with other pets who also live in the same building: a fat, apathetic and proud cat Chloe (Lake Bell), a smart and always excited pug Mel (Bobby Moynihan), a happy and easy-going dachshund Buddy (Hannibal Buress), and also a parrot Sweetpea. There are also other two significant pets, Norman (Chris Renaud), a guinea pig who keeps losing his way in the apartment, and Gidget (Jenny Slate), a white Pomeranian dog on the opposite apartment having a desperate crush on Max, but haven’t been able to tell him that due to fear of rejection. All the pets socialise and lead a different life after their owners leave.

So, what happens next? :: As things go like this without anything new or special happening with their lives, Katie adopts Duke (Eric Stonestreet), a large mongrel from the dog pound. This leaves Max jealous about having to share his house and also his belongings with someone new. Despite Duke’s repeated attempts to make a deal to share things, Max doesn’t agree and claims everything for himself. He even attempts to make Max look bad in front of Katie even though she has decided to share her love between the two. Angry at Max’s attitude towards him, Duke tries to teach him a lesson outside, but they are both a group of stray cats who remove their collars and leave them on the streets to be caught by Animal Control. Max is desperate to get home again, while Duke is afraid that he will be put down if he goes back to the dog pound.

And then how do things go from there? :: But things don’t end there for them as help is on the way. There is Snowball (Kevin Hart), a white rabbit who leads a rebel group of pets who were mistreated and disowned by their owners. Max and Duke are saved, and they go with anti-domestication gang into the sewers, hoping to find their way back home one day. There are tales of cruelty from humans against the pets told by the members of the group, and hatred runs wild against the human species. As Max and Duke also pretend to hate humans, and even claim to have killed one, Snowball invites them to join the group. But their earlier enemies, the stray cats come in and tell the truth, and they escape, but not without Snowball on their trail vowing to kill them as they had ended up accidentally killing their holy viper. So, the question remains if they can save themselves, or even their old friends find them and save them before Snowball gets his hands on them?

The defence of The Secret Life of Pets :: The movie nicely takes on the other world, leading us through the imaginary space that our pets consider theirs. The voice cast is very much suitable, and there is lot of fun in store in this one. The kids are going to love this one, as already proven with Kids’ Choice Awards, and the people with pets will love it even more. This will appeal the most to the owners of dogs, but the rest also gets their due. There is the message of adjusting to the situations and also to consider the feelings of others, keeping family and friends close to each other. It also tells the owners of animals and birds to be nice to them, and to keep them close and provide the needed, as they are required to be. Well, we get to associate with more pets than we think we will have to; and The Secret Life of Pets will come into the mind more than once. The whole thing remain cute, even with the talks of murdering others.

The claws of flaw :: There are times when The Secret Life of Pets gives that feeling that we have known and seen this before; there are also moments of predictability and repetition, something that the animated movies have struggled so hard to avoid. There will no new level of animated awesomeness to be set here, and this one surely trails in front of the two big animated movies of the year, Moana and Zootopia or the earlier big one, Inside Out. The movie also focuses on the dog’s side, and it is no surprise with the number of people who have or feel the need to have the dog rather than any other. But a tale about pets like this one could have had more of the cats, and hopefully the sequel will have the same. It is a need, and with this stereotyping that has been going on and on with cats and dogs, maybe there will be a day on which all these things will turn the other way around – it is that day which will have the best of movies of this kind, and we hope that it is The Secret Life of Pets 2 that we can talk about like that.

How it finishes :: With the sequel coming up in the year 2019, what the makers need to realise is that a movie like The Secret Life of Pets doesn’t need to focus that much on making people laugh, because it is funny – maybe some divergence is what the second movie of this series should be having. There is no doubt about the box-office too with this one becoming the highest grossing original animated movie which is not produced by Disney or Pixar, and The Secret Life of Pets is also the the sixth highest grossing film of 2016. It is even above the much hyped movies like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Deadpool, Suicide Squad and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. So, the first movie is a winner in so many ways, and what we will need to have is something different and special in the second one, thus maybe even going on to win the Academy Awards for the Best Animated Feature Film – even that much can be done with this material.

Release date: 8th July 2016
Running time: 87 minutes
Directed by: Chris Renaud
Starring: Louis CK, Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Buress, Bobby Moynihan, Steve Coogan, Albert Brooks, Chris Renaud, Michael Beattie, Sandra Echeverría, Kiely Renaud

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

A Street Cat Named Bob

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Vampire Owl: This one looks like the Vampire Cat in disguise.

Vampire Bat: How can you talk like that about such a cute ginger cat?

Vampire Owl: Even the Vampire Cat is cute.

Vampire Bat: No, he is not. That makes no sense.

Vampire Owl: You just have to look at the right angles.

Vampire Bat: Dude, the long fangs say that it is not “cute” territory.

Vampire Owl: But how can that one be a cat and not cute?

Vampire Bat: That is a good question. But a cat is normally not cute with all his nine lives left even after death.

Vampire Owl: I am just glad that he is not a Zombie Cat.

Vampire Bat: Well, not part of your zombie minion squad, that is for sure!

[Gets three cups of masala tea with special masala dosa].

What is the movie about? :: James Bowen (Luke Treadaway) is a recovering drug addict who has nothing going in his way. With his father Nigel Bowen (Anthony Head) married again with a woman with two kids, it is his support worker, Val (Joanne Froggatt), who tries so hard, and helps him to get his own flat to live in. He has been trying to earn some money by singing on the streets, but it is not of much use. One day, a ginger cat enters his apartment to find some food. It is a friendly cat, and James tries to find its owner, but it seems that there is none. One day, it gets injured while fighting with some other stray animals. After taking it to the vetenary doctor, and with the advice of his neighbour, he names it Bob. It stays with him in the flat, and so he decides to let it be there.

So, what happens next? :: Everything begins to change as people notice him with the cat which stays on his shoulders as he walks through the streets and sings – at the same time, James also develops a relationship with his neighbor Betty (Ruta Gedmintas). These things make him more responsible, and he manages to become a better person. He finds himself responsible for the life of Bob as well as himself, and manages to stay away from drugs for enough time to get clean. Everyone in the streets admire the team of two, and even James’ father appreciate his efforts to get better. With the question remaining about helped whom more than the other, the James and Bob seems to have managed well enough to be a lot helpful to each other. But their times don’t end here, as it continues to make a bigger impact on them as well as the people around them.

The defence of A Street Cat Named Bob :: The movie has its heart and soul at the right place which makes this one a movie not just for the cat lovers – that specific category is certain to love this movie more for sure though. There is no difficulty in falling in love with a movie as feel-good and cute as this one, with its dark sides nicely controlled and gotten rid of. There is a lot of focus on its message, on what it means to be loved, and what it is about having someone to love – how it changes a person completely. There is also the message against doing drugs, as we see the protagonist go through the different phases of his life. Dealing with a subject like this, and still managing to be realistic as well as inspirational, takes some effort, and thanks to a fantastic performance from Luke Treadaway, and the work from Bob the Cat himself, there is not much that goes apart in this one – the emotional side works really well.

The claws of flaw :: There is a certain slowness that can be felt, and this is certainly no special tale as all things go simple with this one. There was also the potential to make something bigger out of this tale, with the real life tale made into book, and the cat and the owner being pretty much famous. The potential for usual pet stories is nothing less either. You know what cats are capable of – I had one myself named Simona, and she was never lacking in skills. She could always provide the needed entertainment – there were no shortage of admirers for her in the neighbourhood. The movie could have easily added some moments which could look really good on the screen. There are always more interesting incidents that could have happened around here. We could have also had more interesting characters added to support the whole thing.

Soul exploration :: You see the tagline of this movie, “Sometimes it takes nine lives to save one” – it is one perfect thing to have. As the movie is based on real-life incidents, this happens to be a proven thing – I have often believed that my own cat called Simona has affected my life in a positive way too. With her daily activities, she had inspired me to write more and also see some happiness with her activities of fun. I have been depressed on a lot of occasions, and her presence was good enough to lift me up every time. Therefore, I can connect with this movie better than most of the people out there. It was just last year that she died, falling victim to a motor accident while crossing the road, and that came as quite a shock to us. During the times of sadness these days, I continue to miss her, and it was during one of those days that this movie came to me.

How it finishes :: The world needs more movies with cats. And more people also need to watch this movie at a time when the idea of an ideal pet has been more about having a dog. We can also be sure about having more movies in this series, with more books being present among the original collection of works by the same author with the same cat at the centre. The others include The World According to Bob, and more for children including Bob: No Ordinary Cat, Where In The World Is Bob?, My Name Is Bob, For the Love of Bob, Bob to the Rescue and a short story titled A Gift from Bob. A Street Cat Named Bob as the book was nominated for the UK’s National Book Awards and it was listed at No. 7 on a list of the most inspiring teenage books as part of a poll for World Book Day. Let’s see what the movie brings as more people gets to watch it.

Release date: 4th November 2016
Running time: 103 minutes
Directed by: Roger Spottiswoode
Starring: Luke Treadaway, Bob the Cat, Ruta Gedmintas, Joanne Froggatt, Anthony Head, Caroline Goodall, Darren Evans, Tony Jayawardena, Adam Riches, Beth Goddard, Ivana Basic, Jessica Woodland, John Henshaw, Akbar Kurtha, Lorraine Ashbourne, Llewella Gideon

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.