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- Jake Lipson
Title: Paddington 2 (2017)
Tagline: It takes a bear to catch a thief
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Family, Animation
Director: Paul King
Cast: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Samuel Joslin, Madeleine Harris, Julie Walters, Brendan Gleeson, Hugh Grant, Peter Capaldi, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, Michael Gambon, Simon Farnaby, Ben Miller, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Joanna Lumley, Richard Ayoade, Nicholas Woodeson, Tom Conti, Eileen Atkins, Marie-France Alvarez, Jessica Hynes, Noah Taylor, Shola Adewusi, Nadine Marshall, Michael Mears, Louis Partridge, Robbie Gee, Enzo Squillino Jr., Sam Payne, Catherine Shepherd, Claire Keelan, Meera Syal, Geoffrey Lumb, Alex Jordan, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Virgile Elana, Emeson Nwolie, Nicholas Lumley, Stephen McDade, Deepak Anand, Cal McCrystal, Aaron Neil, Geoffrey Banks, Tom Davis, Jamie Demetriou, Stewart Gilchrist, Justin Edwards, Kya Garwood, Maggie Steed, Tim Fitzhigham, Joel Fry, David J Biscoe, Dan Antopolski, Gus Brown, David Sant, Jennie Legat, John Shearer
Release: 2017-11-09
Runtime: 103
Plot: Paddington, now happily settled with the Brown family and a popular member of the local community, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy's 100th birthday, only for the gift to be stolen.I'm surprised there isn't a thread for this movie already.
The first Paddington is a movie that I think was terribly mismarketed. It looked horrible. Every year around this time there are a few kids movies that come out now and clearly aren't good enough to be released in bigger seasons and you're like, "How did that even get made?" because they're just such clunkers and demonstrate no effort whatsoever, with dumb plots, weak characterizations and a general feeling of "We don't have to try because this movie is just going to be a babysitter anyway." The marketing for Paddington made it look like one of those, and was super-annoying, so I didn't go see it in theaters because of that. But afterwards, I started hearing from people that it was actually pretty good, and then once it turned up on Netflix, I thought, "Okay, I'll give this a shot since I have nothing else to do and I'm not paying for it." It was then that I discovered a total, complete gem that is an utter joy to watch. The marketing completely failed to communicate the film's unique charms.
So, obviously, I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice and rushed out for Paddington 2 on opening weekend. I'm so glad it escaped the current mess with TWC and that it got released by WB rather than languishing in limbo like some other films TWC has the rights to, because it's even better than the first one and deserves to be seen. This is an instant family classic in the vein of Willy Wonka or The Wizard of Oz or Hugo, or Willy Wonka, where it's just completely wonderful and basically absolutely nothing in it doesn't work. The first one was already great, but they've improved upon it here. It just checks every box, with satisfying moments and payoffs for every single character, and they're free to go deeper since it is a sequel and the cast has already been established. Plus, Hugh Grant as the new villain hams it up in what is, I think, the role of his career.
You don't need to see the first one to fully understand and love this one -- I went to it again this past weekend with my mom and a friend, both of whom are seniors and wouldn't normally go to "children's films," and neither of whom had seen the first one, and they both thought it was great. You don't even need to bring a kid; there's lots of humor for adults in it too (although nothing that would be kid-inappropriate.) Fortunately, the second time through didn't dim my appreciation for it at all, and even helped me to notice and appreciate some jokes I missed the first time through due to laughing so much at others. Even though it isn't, this feels like a Pixar film, in the best sense of their brand. It is, obviously, a film that is appropriate for young children to watch, but it doesn't treat kids like they are stupid or dumb something down for them like they are any less deserving of quality cinema than the rest of us, and as proven by many of the trailers that are currently screening ahead of it, that's not always the case.
Even though it's only February, it's going to take something really incredible to dislodge this film from my best-of-2108 list.
It is now Rotten Tomatoes' best-reviewed film ever based on critics score, and it's easy to see why. It's just fantastic, warm, and positive. I had a giant smile on my face the entire time I was watching it, and the ending made me cry happy tears. I can't reccomend this film more highly. It has been more satisfying than many of the Oscar contenders playing right now, and is certainly the most pure fun.
Its $36m domestic gross to date depresses me because it should, by rights, be doing much better. But it's huge in the UK, so we should get a third on anyway, hopefully.
Anyway, y'all should see it. It's awesome.
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