:00:00. > :00:00.tomorrow's new Premier League season on the cricket. That all coming up
:00:00. > :00:19.at 6:30pm. Now time for The Film Review.
:00:20. > :00:27.Hello and welcome to The Film Review BBC News. To take us through this
:00:28. > :00:33.week's similar releases is Anna Smith. What we have their say? It is
:00:34. > :00:37.all about the animals, we have Phil, the Disney film is reimagined for
:00:38. > :00:41.the modern era. And we have The Shallows, in which Blake Lively is
:00:42. > :00:47.threatened by a shark, a summer horror thriller. And finally
:00:48. > :00:53.Wiener-Dog follows a dog as she goes from an eccentric family to another.
:00:54. > :00:57.A dog a shark and a dragon. Let's look at the Dragon. Phil, I wasn't
:00:58. > :01:02.expecting to love this but I adore it. It is charming. Disney had been
:01:03. > :01:05.doing a live action series for a while, Jungle book... I like to
:01:06. > :01:10.Cinderella but I didn't like the BFG very much. This did everything the
:01:11. > :01:14.BFG was supposed to do. A charming story of boy meets dragon and be
:01:15. > :01:19.friends dragon, loosely based on the original. At the beginning it
:01:20. > :01:23.reminded me of Up. I was choked up from the start of this. The little
:01:24. > :01:28.boy is orphaned and wanders into the forest and what is New Zealand, but
:01:29. > :01:31.passing for America. He befriends a dragon. The Dragon sort of brings
:01:32. > :01:36.him up and then he used as covered many years later by the forest
:01:37. > :01:40.ranger, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, who has always maintained
:01:41. > :01:43.she doesn't believe her father, played by Robert Redford, that there
:01:44. > :01:48.are dragons in the forest. Let's take a look.
:01:49. > :01:57.Looking for something? You scared me. Why aren't you asleep? The same
:01:58. > :02:03.reason you're not, I suppose. I guess you heard about the boy? I
:02:04. > :02:09.did. Word travels fast in this town. How long has he been out there? Six
:02:10. > :02:15.years. Six years? No one can survive in that forest for six years, or at
:02:16. > :02:27.least not alone. Well, he says... He says he wasn't alone. He drew this?
:02:28. > :02:32.He says it's his friend, from the forest, and it reminded me of... I
:02:33. > :02:36.know what it reminded you of. That one?
:02:37. > :02:43.It is kind of do you believe in magic, yes, dragons do exist.
:02:44. > :02:48.Terrific performance from Oakes Fegley, the young boy who plays
:02:49. > :02:52.Pete. The Dragon itself is the star, SEG creation with a mossy like fur
:02:53. > :02:56.and very doglike movement. It doesn't speak, which is away is a
:02:57. > :03:00.blessing in these films. As an adult I found myself watching it and
:03:01. > :03:04.getting very involved. It is not just a kids film. It harks back to
:03:05. > :03:08.the kind of Disney films of the 70s, the matinee films. Very wholesome
:03:09. > :03:12.family values, which can be very sickening, but is done in a very
:03:13. > :03:23.elegant and simplistic way. The Dragon is a bit like Chewbacca,
:03:24. > :03:26.hairy and very. Also, one of the difficult lines in children's films
:03:27. > :03:29.as Howdy make the Dragon scary enough kids kind of greener little
:03:30. > :03:38.bit but aren't terrified question mark this is definitely a friend --
:03:39. > :03:42.friendly dragon but only friendly to children it trusts. You have people
:03:43. > :03:46.coming in to hunt it and you see what is capable of, but it is a
:03:47. > :03:50.large, wounded animal. It is capable of being invisible, which is
:03:51. > :03:54.exciting. The flying scenes are the best, the boy flying on the back of
:03:55. > :03:57.the Dragon. I was tried in the Venney children film or story which
:03:58. > :04:01.really connects with you when they are separated from their parents.
:04:02. > :04:06.This one is the sad event, death of parents at the start. But Jungle
:04:07. > :04:10.book, there are so many in which the whole point is separation and
:04:11. > :04:14.finding something in the animal kingdom or supernatural kingdom they
:04:15. > :04:18.can relate to? Absolutely, Disney specialise in this. It is rare to
:04:19. > :04:22.have a child with both parents in a Disney film. This is also that if he
:04:23. > :04:31.should we assimilate into society for the human world. The Shallows. A
:04:32. > :04:34.very different non-family film. This does Blake Lively, who is coming
:04:35. > :04:39.into her own as an actress. Originally best known for TV and
:04:40. > :04:42.then marrying Ryan Reynolds and great fashion choices but she puts
:04:43. > :04:46.in a good performance in this film, which could have been a low rent
:04:47. > :04:50.thriller. But it is glossy and really sustains the tension. She
:04:51. > :04:56.plays a girl who goes out to a secluded beach and finds the sort of
:04:57. > :04:58.paradise she was looking for. She goes surfing, perhaps unwisely
:04:59. > :05:03.continue surfing when everyone else has left the beach and then is
:05:04. > :05:09.attacked by a shark. She then crawls to the nearest reef, only 200 yards
:05:10. > :05:13.from the shore, with the shark circling and with nobody around and
:05:14. > :05:16.badly injured. Luckily she is a medical student or the film would
:05:17. > :05:20.have been a lot shorter! She tries to survive. It is a castaway
:05:21. > :05:25.survivalist thriller as much of a shark thriller. I heard about this
:05:26. > :05:30.film on my first reaction was, it is amazing this has never been done
:05:31. > :05:33.before. If you take jaws and a survivalist kind of film, will she
:05:34. > :05:37.or won't she, how can she get back to the beach without the big monster
:05:38. > :05:41.and the tide is coming in and getting higher and higher... To me
:05:42. > :05:45.it is a brilliant concept. It is a good exercise in suspense. The end
:05:46. > :05:49.is a little ludicrous but prior to that I was with it. Jaume
:05:50. > :05:54.Collet-Serra is an accomplished director. It is better than it might
:05:55. > :06:00.initially seem. Isn't it something more like 127 hours, the guy stuck
:06:01. > :06:04.down the hole and what does he do about his armour? What can he do to
:06:05. > :06:11.get out question yes, one person against nature and will they survive
:06:12. > :06:19.with their wits? Wiener-Dog. Todd Solondz, great director, especially
:06:20. > :06:24.with Happiness. This is probably his best work since then. An American
:06:25. > :06:30.Indian director. He uses this dog to wonder from family to family. There
:06:31. > :06:35.are four different groups of people, owners, including Greta Gerwig and
:06:36. > :06:39.Danny DeVito. He plays a very faded university lecturer, who talks about
:06:40. > :06:44.film studies a lot. His students hate him. He's also trying to flog a
:06:45. > :06:48.screenplay and his agent won't return his calls. Eventually his
:06:49. > :06:50.agent says, I a hot, new agent for you. Let's see the conversation may
:06:51. > :07:12.have. -- I have a hot, new agent. Hello? Hello, this is David question
:07:13. > :07:21.at please hold, I have Karen Hauer. -- for you. How are you doing? I
:07:22. > :07:31.don't have cancer. I was warned about you. How are things going? Oh
:07:32. > :07:36.my god... Are you sitting down? Yes. I slipped a copy of your script over
:07:37. > :07:41.to Jane Marks. When do you think they will read it by? I should know
:07:42. > :07:46.by Monday. Really they are desperate for new material. Did you read it?
:07:47. > :07:49.Are you kidding me question at it is genius. I'm telling you, the script
:07:50. > :08:02.is going to be a game changer. I want to see the dog! Black
:08:03. > :08:07.comedy... The problem with that comedy, when I see that I tend to
:08:08. > :08:10.think, it's not that funny. It is actually really funny. If you had
:08:11. > :08:15.seen the build-up to that, it is quite sharp. I like the idea of
:08:16. > :08:18.cutting through the idea of people being insincere and stringing people
:08:19. > :08:22.along instead of saying, I love the script, but they don't mean it at
:08:23. > :08:29.all. They're just tried to maintain oration job with someone who was
:08:30. > :08:38.once successful. You get a sense of autobiographical nature to this.
:08:39. > :08:44.Julie is a star for me, she plays a mother who has a son, once this dog.
:08:45. > :08:48.It is such a relief, dogs are nearly always mail in films! There is the
:08:49. > :08:53.whole thing about the dog being sprayed and the kid says, what about
:08:54. > :09:01.if the kid wants puppies quest much she says, it won't, it's a complete
:09:02. > :09:05.myth. It is like the same hotel room or the house, to get a series of
:09:06. > :09:09.stories together and it only works if the stories are good. Most of the
:09:10. > :09:14.stories are good, but not all of them. It doesn't add up to much but
:09:15. > :09:17.it is funny at the time. You said that very sincerely, unlike the
:09:18. > :09:23.agent. Your Best of the week is Maggie's Plan. Yes, another Greta
:09:24. > :09:29.Gerwig film. She plays a young woman who is to turn in to have a child.
:09:30. > :09:32.Then she meets Ethan Hawke, plays a university professor. He happens to
:09:33. > :09:37.be married but that does not get in the way. When Love doesn't run as
:09:38. > :09:41.smoothly, she tries to get him back with his ex played by Julianne
:09:42. > :09:47.Moore. A terrific cast. It is a bit of poking fun of academia. Julianne
:09:48. > :09:58.Moore in one of her scary woman rolls? Yes, a harsh Danish woman.
:09:59. > :10:03.Your DVD of the week has got an Olympic raver? Yes, Eddie The
:10:04. > :10:11.Eagles. I love this film, and other family film. -- Olympic flavour. It
:10:12. > :10:14.is the story of the underdog, the Olympic ski jumper who shouldn't
:10:15. > :10:19.have succeeded and somehow got to the Olympics. Real feel-good. We
:10:20. > :10:21.love that, especially now we are winning some medals, makes it even
:10:22. > :10:21.better. That's it for this week though,
:10:22. > :10:25.you can catch up with our previous