War Horse

War Horse

On my 'Hiddles 39th Birthday' post I already mentioned that every year on his birthday, I do try to watch a movie/series in which Tom Hiddleston has a role in. Last year I had watched a part of The Hollow Crown and the year before that I had watched Midnight In Paris. This year I watched War Horse and thereby I've broke the chain of watching something of him that I hadn't seen yet, because I have seen War Horse once. Although, that was long before I've discovered the Thor/Avengers movies, so I couldn't remember much about Tom's role. So perhaps you can say I've now watched War Horse from a total different view! I really do like to write reviews/blogs about films, so I thought let's do a blog about a Tom Hiddleston movie!

Even though I'm talking about a film from 2011, in case someone who hasn't seen this film yet and is planning to, I'll warn: There are spoilers below. 

Years ago I had already experienced War Horse as a breathtaking film and seen from the fact that war related films are not so easily forgotten and because I have a weakness for animal films, parts of War Horse were still very present inside my memory. War Horse is the story of Joey, the horse seen as a Wonder Horse and the relationship that has developed between him and a young man named Albert. After several threats of taking the horse done by a horrible man named Lyon when the father faces trouble in paying their monthly payment for the farm they are living in, the father decides to sell Joey to the army who are seeking horses for World War I. Albert arrives too late, Joey is already sold to Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston), who admits he totally underpaid for a well trained horse as Joey is, but he just hadn't had more to offer. During the whole film Joey manages to touch the hearts of many human he crossed paths with, Tom Hiddleston's character is the first one who separated the Wonder Horse from one of the concerning humans. 

Now I make it sound like Nicholls is just as horrible as Lyon, who I mentioned earlier. He definitely is not! (See the GIF on the side, I see the opposite of a horrible man. 😇)

The GIF where Tom Hiddleston takes off the hat and makes the average woman faint, is where he promises Albert to take very well care of Joey and if he can, he would even bring back to horse after the war is over. Scenes between Joey & Albert I found very touching, the same is to be said about Joey's following 'owners', starting with Captain Nicholls who plainly has sympathy for Albert. We get to see him making a drawing of Joey, meant for Albert. Just like Tom (I adore the pictures with him and the horse, and see the bonus picture at the end of this blog!), Nicholls has heart for animals, so despite of the circumstances, Joey still is in good hands.

Tom & Benedict

I knew that War Horse had been the first film Tom Hiddleston & Benedict Cumberbatch both portrayed in. War Horse, a film set in times of war, was the beginning of a still standing as strong as a rock beautiful friendship between Tom & Benedict. Also I very much enjoyed the first scene that Loki and Dr. Strange..- uhh.. Captain Nichols and Major Jamie Stewart shared. Two great actors who put their heart and soul into the character they are portraying.

After seeing Infinity War I've came across of a meme once that showed Loki arriving in heaven, meeting up with other decreased Hiddleston characters. One of them was Captain Nicholls, so besides that I already had guessed it, I knew his faith. I just totally didn't expected to see it happen so soon in the movie! I really thought Tom had some more screen time. This once again proofs that he doesn't need much screen time to stand out! 

Both Topthorn (Steward's black horse) and Joey were fallen into the hands of the German. This ends with a beautiful evening 'shot' as we see the wicks of the mill distracting the view of another cruel war act, created with other kinds of 'shots' that I wouldn't refer as beautiful.. But luckily, in the next scene the horses are looking in the beautiful innocent eyes of Emilie, their new next young owner. Seeing her hiding the horses into her bedroom, training Joey in the hope of learning him some tricks, is one brighter part of the movie. Although her story too has a sad history. Emilie lives on her grandfather's farm and her parents are (recently) decreased. She also suffers from a illness but as stubborn and brave as she is, she's determined to ride Joey! And she does so but you do see it coming, all good things do come to an end. Here another innocent, pure heart breaks into a million pieces when both the horses are brutally taken away from her.

Another thing I definitely like about animal related films is the developing relationship among animals. Mostly it starts with some hostility during the meet but in the end that has made a huge turn. (Well okay, this movie didn't had a lot of hostility among the two horses, perhaps for them there was enough war around them already..) War Horse really has some stunning shots in where the friendship of Joey and the black Topthorn (Hey, there's Thor in the name) was to be seen. True friendship is wanting to sacrifice yourself for the other and Joey definitely had no doubt in doing so. 💔🐎

Here's a list of animal-related movies that have touched me to:

• Two Brothers
• White Fang
• Call of the Wild
• Homeward Bound
• Life of Pi
• Lion King/Jungle Book
• Bambi
• Dolphin Tale
• Hachi
• 101 Dalmatians, Lady & The Tramp, Frank & Frey
• Black Beauty
• A Dog's Purpose
• We Bought a Zoo
• Dolittle Movie
• A Dog's Way Home

And many many more.

Just like about Loki, I can go on and on about this film. I mean, the no man's land scene and the truce Joey had created. Wow!

It's really in the details and films who are able to have beginning-details return later/in the end, mostly do something to me. They really get me. One strong detail is the regimental pennant Albert attached to Joey during saying goodbye. It later touched Tom Hiddleston's hands (😊), was used in the training done by the young girl Emilie and finally made it's way..- (Just look the film again because it's worth the watch until the very end!) In the beginning of the film Albert had learnt Joey to come to him when he made an owl sounded-like whistle. Not to mention I had experienced those scenes as highly funny when seeing Joey run over everything like a dog would do to get to his owner. When Albert did this again during the end of the movie when he heard about a Wonder Horse while he was being treated for his eyes, try to keep your eyes dry.. Really hard right?

And here's the bonus Tom Hiddleston I mentioned as a closure of this blog post!

Dolittle Movie

The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle (Universal Pictures)

Set Robert Downey Jr. in the middle of a bunch of animals, add a dose of humor and a golden combination has been created! I suppose that might have been a thought from the makers of The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle. Smart move because Downey Jr. has a huge fan base and a real fan (like me) shall not skip one of his movies! Do you say Dr. Dolittle, then images of the humorous Eddy Murphy, who has played the role in quite some films, are coming in right away. Now it's up to Robert Downey Jr. to portray the role of Dolittle, the doctor who’s able to communicate with animals. Of course Robert is best known as Tony Stark / Iron Man, a role that in my opinion truly was made for him! But also as detective Sherlock Holmes, he proved that he can be called an actor with the capital letter A. 

In Dolittle, the Avengers actor brings along one of his Marvel colleagues: Tom Holland, the current Spiderman from the MCU. As Jip the dog, he dropped four legs. (Because spiders have 8 legs, I know bad joke..) Bohemian Rhapsody actor Rami Malek also has a role in this film, namely Gorilla Chee-Chee. The female roles in this film are portrayed by (among others) Emma Thompson and Selena Gomez.

If you are following Robert Downey Jr. on social media, you probably have seen some of the promotion that he did for Dolittle. Around the 10th of December, he shared a humorous video in which the animals supposedly did an audition. (Several existing films included, shall add the video below). One thing was Barry the tiger (Ralph Fiennes) roaring like a dinosaur from Jurassic Park. A little later he says: "Put me in the movie or it's Downey for dessert .." I saw that in the morning, so I didn’t wanted a dessert, but it did made me look forward in seeing the film even more!

Also, from the first second, the trailer took me to the adventurous and somewhat fairy-tale world of Dolittle. The film was produced by the makers of Disney's Alice in Wonderland & Maleficent and you can certainly see that in it. Dolittle is set in the Victorian era and based on the equally named children's book series (the first one now is a 100 years old). Eddy Murphy’s version was compared to the books and earlier films quite different in details such as time, story and characters. Dr. John Dolittle, portrayed by Downey Jr. with some traits of characters that can be found on the IMDb list from Johnny Depp, prefers only animals around him. Due a serious illness of the young Queen Victoria, the eccentric doctor is needed, urgent. Together with his faithful parrot Poly and a student (Harry Collett), he’s going on quite the adventurous quest to find an extremely rare medicine for the queen. The rest of the crew includes a polar bear and an ostrich who are constantly arguing, a squirrel with sinister plans and a silly duck. Compared to Dolittle’s animal chaos, Tony Stark was lucky with just one talking raccoon!

Dolittle is a film for the whole family. (Although Dolittle takes his pet gang everywhere, I don’t think the employees at the cinema will appreciate it if you bring your own pets to the film..) Not just among children, but also among grown-ups, animal films are still hugely popular. And obviously the dose of animals and humor are all well present in Dolittle! 

 And no, I’m not Robert Downey Jr. tired yet. Hell no! I’m happy that we will at least see him one more time as Tony Stark in the Black Widow movie & that there’s a Sherlock Holmes film scheduled for 2021!

Have you seen Dolittle? What did you think of it? Feel free to share it in the comments!

Joker

Joker

I don‘t need to ask you who officially doesn't belong in this list..

My blog is not dedicated to Tom Hiddleston/Loki for nothing, so when I found this amazingly made Loki/Joker fan-art from TheMainManCreation (I have permission to use the image) I couldn't resist using it. Of course linking the Joker with Loki, who‘s in the Norse myths also known as the trickster, is not such a weird thing (+they are both genius), I don‘t know if I want to see Tom as the Joker. But I cannot judge about something I've never seen before, so if it ever happens I shall not complain. However after I have seen the new Joker, I think with Joaquin Phoenix they have found a really good Joker so I hope this wasn't his last and only performance of it.

Feel free to share your opinions!

Photo: DC Comics

“When you bring me out, can you introduce me as Joker?” 

Finally, the Joker, labelled as the most impressive and popular villain of DC Comics, now has its own standalone solo film! In this film called Joker (yes, without 'The' ..), actor Joaquin Phoenix, whose name I also found in the list called: ‘7 celebrities whose names you've been pronouncing wrong’, crawls into the skin of this rouged psychopath. The actor is one of all trades, in 2018 he portrayed Jesus in the film Mary Magdalene. The last Joker portrayed by actor/singer Jared Leto ( Suicide Squad ), was a somewhat disappointing one. The most famous Jokers perhaps are Jack Nicholson (Batman 1989) and Heath Ledger, who in The Dark Knight (2008) truly had set the bar very high! After Ledger‘s performance, hardly no one talked about the Joker from Nicholson anymore. Now Phoenix succeeds in portraying an equal Joker like Ledger did and with this role he also paid a nice tribute to his deceased friend.

I have a huge respect for this artwork of Anarchy Graphics.

It also requires a whole lot from the actors to be able to empathize in the role of this psychopath. To lose weight for the role, at least Joaquin Phoenix probably had to say no to a lot of food, which for example I think was easier for a vegan like him than for a great meat-lover. A more extreme example is the tragic story of Heath Ledger, who died in 2008 at the age of 28, before The Dark Knight premiered. If this had not happened, the closing part of The Dark Knight trilogy would probably have looked very different and perhaps Jared Leto was never given the role (that‘s what I think though).

Heath Ledger & Jared Leto.

"Knock, knock .."

Now in 2019, this manically disturbed villain from the comics is back in the cinemas! Personally the trailer had blown me away already. The critics mentioned that Phoenix managed to make the Joker look even more kooky than his predecessors did, personally I think the kooky look still remains with Ledger‘s version. With this film Todd Philips gives you a glimpse into the life/head of Arthur Fleck, a resident of Gotham City, whose mental condition does not fit within the norms of society. During the day he‘s earning his money as a clown and in the evening he tries to become a successful stand-up comedian. However, he discovers that it is a tough world and is laughed away by his crowds. Let‘s say the balloons in his head are about to pop.. Also his past with Batman/The Wayne‘s will be a little bit more highlighted. For this role, Phoenix has already received much praise. In Venice, where the film already premiered in August, it won the important prize called the Golden Lion at a film festival. Phoenix is ​​also ‘tipped’ to have a big chance of winning an Oscar. Heath Ledger had also won an Oscar for his role as the Joker, so if Phoenix manages to win one, it means that two actors receive an Oscar for the portrayal of the same role, something that is rare! In fact Robert De Niro (who also has a role in this film) is the only other actor who has succeeded this.

"Send in the clowns.."

With both Joker and Pennywise in IT: Chapter Two, the horror clowns are definitely taking over the cinemas for a while! Although these clowns are a lot more frightening than the typical carnival clowns, thanks to films such as these people occasionally are taking a different look at these painted entertainers. Besides children and teenagers there are also many adults who are suffering from a clown phobia, perhaps partly caused by the horror clowns seen in films. For one I remember the clown-like puppet riding the bicycle (I shall not add a picture of this puppet called Billy..) in the Saw films really caused me some scary nights.. Oh well, as long as you can tell the difference between reality and imagination (which Arthur doesn't really in this film..) I assume it‘s all fine. Seen from the style and among others, the film-music, I think Joker definitely fits well with Nolan‘s The Dark Knight trilogy, but I can certainly recommend Joker to anyone who has rated Tim Burton’s Batman films, especially Batman Returns, high. Next year Harley Quinn, Leto's Joker ex-partner in crime, will get her own film. But in 2021 DC will release a movie called The Batman with Robert Pattinson (Twilight / Harry Potter) as the new Batman and in which reportedly Jeremy Irons will return as Alfred. According to some rumors, we will also see drain-villain The Penguin again. Joker is not part of the DC Extended Universe, so that reduces the chances of getting to see Joaquin Phoenix's anti-hero and Batman (all grown) in the same film. Although, never say never! Given the worldwide success of Joker, if I were DC, I wouldn't give him a goodbye-wave yet.. All with all, Joker is definitely worth the watch! 

Photo: DC Comics

*If the multiple Joker pictures in this blog post caused you any nightmares, I‘m deeply sorry!