Movie Review: "Paddington" a must see family film, now let me digress and bash Hollywood for a moment...

One of the best movies I have seen in a long time came to me as a surprise because the previews made it seem like just another movie pandering to kids to get them to nag their parents to go see another fictional children's character come to life so the big studios could cash in on our kids, using them as agents of extortion to buy movie candy and toy merchandise.

I guess I've just become more cynical of the blockbuster Hollywood money machine.  I wonder why.  I wish Hollywood would aspire to make more films like "Paddington"...

I really admire the craft and creativity for producing so many special movies for the ages, yet I find so many in Hollywood are so undeserving of such public idolatry, especially when they say things... off script.  After all, don't they read lines, recite and repeat for a living?  Acting and making movies is hard work, yes, but so is construction and thousands of other jobs.  Like being a Navy Seal or an Airborne Ranger.  You see where I'm going with this?  I think it's great they and professional athletes make so much money and our society rewards their efforts and products through our free market system  That system our men and women in uniform serve to protect.

In case these Hollywood actors, directors and producers were wondering how they got so rich, it's call capitalism, and whether they want to admit it or not, they are capitalists.  Very successful ones at that.

I guess I'm growing tired of the fat Michael Moore / Seth Rogen types who open their mouths and say things like American Sniper Chris Kyle was a coward and watch as their benign and American-hating opinions spread across the webosphere like so much misinformed stupidity spreads like mold spores online.  Thankfully, the news their remarks generate usually not only extinguish themselves, crushed by the content's own futile idiocy, they usually receive more backlash from the public, leaving these geniuses baffled at how stupid we Americans must be to not see things from their privileged, skewed, perverted, and narrow point of view.

These same Hollywood "limousine liberals" who bash big business, Republicans and the Koch brothers don't seem to notice the hypocrisy of them earning $10 million for a few month's of "work."  These are a strange lot of conflicted souls, indeed, many of these Hollywood actors.  At least the ones who criticize corporations and espouse their narrow-minded views on politics and social issues based on the glossy Cosmopolitan headlines someone from their entourage recites to them as sources of their naive and generalized information.

All I can say is God bless Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper, they may not have intended to, but American Sniper's success came partially from them wielding the power of Hollywood against itself, much like Hollywood uses our free market capitalist system against us.  Hollywood could really use some retrospective and look itself in the mirror and admit they're a money-making business.

I can't help but admire most people who work hard for a living doing real jobs than those who claim to be working by pretending to be somebody else while in front of a recording contraption called a camera.

Wow, so this started out as a "Paddington" review, how easily I can digress when it's on my own review blog!  I can't say enough good things about this movie.

I know what you're thinking if you've read this far -- where is this guy going?!  It doesn't matter, hardly anyone reads my movie reviews peppered with my Libertarian politics anyway.

Back to "Paddington"....

Director Paul King is a master.  Every camera angle and composite shot of Paddington placed in post production in his every deserving scene is worthy of praise.  The cast is exceptional throughout.  The acting is perfect.  The little playful touches of the street side Jazz band accentuating the mood throughout is fun.  The little visual touches and lighting are perfect in every scene.

This is a movie any budding movie maker should buy, just to study the scenes, the cuts, the camera motion, the lighting, and the pace.  Paddington is full of charm and humanity without being sappy.  In many scenes, it's sometimes sweet and sarcastic at the same time.

I really think it was so well produced, so well written, that it is deserving of the best film of the year.  The special effects were so seamless, Paddington, 3D generated throughout the movie, moves effortlessly and naturally across the screen.  It's amazing only a few years after Harry Potter and Avatar how much better and realistic these 3D special effects have become.

Emma Thompson had a part in writing it, as there is a noticeable touch of the charm a la Nanny McPhee with the kids.  Hugh Bonneville, from Downton Abbey fame, is perfect in the role as the overly protective patriarch, and Sally Hawkins is the perfectly quirky wife with the big heart.

Go see Paddington with  your kids, and if you don't have kids, go see Paddington.

-  Aaron Belchamber