• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments on Cult of Whatever
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • Lethal Weapon: Danny Glover and Mel Gibson as Roger Murtaugh and Martin Riggs

      Lethal Weapon is still awesome thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 9, 2022
    • Nope: Keke Palmer and Daniel Kaluuya

      REVIEW: “NOPE” wants to be more than it is, which is just good enough

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 22, 2022
    • Brave: Kelly Macdonald voices Princess Merida

      Ten years later, BRAVE remains Pixar’s most underrated film

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 21, 2022
    • A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Heather Langenkamp as Nancy

      A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 20, 2022
    • Where The Crawdads Sing: Daisy Edgar Jones and David Strathairn

      REVIEW: Where the Crawdads Sing deftly blends genres to good effect

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 19, 2022
    • Thor Love and Thunder: Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth as The Mighty Thor and Thor

      REVIEW: THOR – LOVE AND THUNDER is an adventure of mirth and sadness alike

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 9, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Beatles Selfie 1966

      August 29, 1966: Candlestick Park, 50 years later...

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 28, 2016
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Nancy Drew S03e01: Kennedy McMann as Nancy

      Nancy Drew S03E01 Review: The Warning of the Frozen Heart - Uh-oh!

      By Salome G
      | October 10, 2021
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • American Horror Stories S02e04 Cody Fern and Seth Gabel as Thomas and Walter

      American Horror Stories S02E04 Review: Milkmaids – Very ambitious

      By Salome G
      | August 14, 2022
    • Roswell New Mexico S04e09: Allie Myers and Jeanine Mason as Shiri Appleby and Liz Ortecho

      Roswell, New Mexico S04E09 Review: Wild Wild West- Okay…

      By Salome G
      | August 11, 2022
    • Evil S03e09: Party Time

      Evil S03E09 Review: The Demon of Money – Dark moments…

      By Salome G
      | August 8, 2022
    • American Horror Stories S02e03: Bella Thorne as Marci

      American Horror Stories S02E03 Review: Drive – Unsettling experiences

      By Salome G
      | August 8, 2022
    • The Orville S03: Penny Johnson Jerald and Mark Jackson as Dr. Claire Finn and Isaac

      The Orville season three finale review: Don’t say goodbye

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 8, 2022
    • Roswell New Mexico S04e08: Michael Vlamis as Michael Guerin

      Roswell, New Mexico S04E08 Review: Missing My Baby – The truth hurts

      By Salome G
      | August 3, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Nintendo Switch Logo

      Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 15, 2022
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
    • Mario Headphones

      The SNES Turns 30: A look at some of the system’s best soundtracks

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 22, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • Wwe Payback 2017 Poster 2

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE Payback 2017

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 30, 2017
      WWE Blogs
    Recent
    • AEW Dark: Ricky Starks (22/09/20)

      The future of the AEW World Championship

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 14, 2022
    • AEW Forbidden Door 2022: Claudio Castagnoli

      ROH Death Before Dishonor 2022 kickstarted a new era with a bang

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 25, 2022
    • Vince Mcmahon Stone Cold Podcast

      Vince McMahon is out as WWE chief. First reactions here…

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 22, 2022
    • AEW Double or Nothing 2022: CM Punk vs Adam Page

      REVIEW: AEW Double or Nothing 2022 delivered an up-and-down show

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 30, 2022
    • MJF on AEW Dynamite 17th November 2021

      Getting AEW to the next level…

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 29, 2022
    • Raw 210501: Triple H and Stephanie McMahon

      May 21, 2001 – A (forgotten) date that will live in WWE infamy

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 20, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants
    • American Horror Stories S02E04 Review: Milkmaids - Very ambitious
    • The future of the AEW World Championship
    • Roswell, New Mexico S04E09 Review: Wild Wild West- Okay...
    • Lethal Weapon is still awesome thirty-five years later
    • Evil S03E09 Review: The Demon of Money - Dark moments...
    © Disney

    The BFG Review: For a rainy day recess

    By Matthew Martin
    | July 4, 2016
    Movie Reviews
    © Disney
    © Disney

    The BFG Review: For a rainy day recess

    By Matthew Martin
    | July 4, 2016
    Movie Reviews

    I have vivid memories of being a kid in school and hating the rain. It always made the day gloomy and seem to drag endlessly longer than a typical—sunny—day would have. And the tile floors would always become slippery, with speckles of dirt on the floor (tracked in from students who refused to wipe their feet after coming in) that seemed to cling to my trapper-keeper like a magnet. It wasn’t all bad, however. If there was one silver lining to a rainy school day it was the fact that recess was spent indoors.

    Sure if you were the athletic type this might have been a drag, but I was in the band. Let’s just leave it at that.

    Denied the “privilege” of wandering up and down the school’s grounds during recess, students instead spent their break in the classroom. Thankfully our teachers didn’t force us to continue working. Instead they wheeled out this bad boy:

    Tv Vhs Wheels

    This was the Holy Grail of school equipment.

    Growing up my school had two fifteen minute recess periods (one on each end of the day), with a thirty minute recess in between. That’s one hour of movie time spread across the day. I watched the first halves of many kids-movies that way. Many of them were direct-to-crap movies that Disney was churning out, straight-to-VHS in the 90’s (Aladdin 2, Lion King 2, etc). Every now and then, though, we’d be treated to an actual, honest-to-goodness well-produced Hollywood movie, albeit ones that usually came out in the 70’s.

    It was during these recesses that I discovered Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. If not for a rainy day recess I never would have sought out more Wilder movies and I never would have experienced the joys of Young Frankenstein or Blazing Saddles. During these recesses I first watched Charlotte’s Web, The Brave Little Toaster and The Mouse and the Motorcycle. Those movies led me to the books on which they were based. My love of reading, that I still have two decades later is all thanks to those rainy day recesses.

    Everyone has been comparing The BFG to a previous Spielberg kids-movie, and there are obvious connections to E.T. to be found (both are penned by Melissa Mathison, both feature a child lead, both are fantasies based in the real world), yet the movies are quite different. E.T. was a parable about a child growing up and being thrust by circumstances (being abandoned by his father; being abandoned by his mother-ship) into maturity. E.T. had a powerful center to its story and much more depth than is obvious when watched with a child’s eyes. By contrast, The BFG is a simple—to the point of being “thin”—children’s story, lacking a moral at the core or any kind of “lesson learned” for either of the main characters (the orphan girl, Sophie and the titular Big Friendly Giant). It’s very much a Roald Dahl story, in that it has charming characters, some memorable settings and scenes, but ultimately lacks much of a point beyond the fun and escapism it briefly offers.

    Bfg Poster

    Steven Spielberg—in this, his first “children’s” movie since Hook (not counting the animated TinTin film from 2011)—directs the movie as though his goal is simply to bring the story to life. The acclaimed director has said that his interest in the project was based on his love of the book (which he read to his kids at night after he first acquired it).  Mathison’s screenplay tweaks a few things here and there, a few things are cut and a few things are added, but for the most part the script is extremely faithful to the source material. Fans who grew up loving the book will be thrilled to see so many parts translated from page to screen: The BGF himself looks exactly like the book’s illustrations; snozzcumbers and frobscottle are given their moments to shine; the meeting with the queen, breakfast at Buckingham Palace, Dream Country and more are all brought to life exactly like they were described by Dahl and drawn by Blake.

    Bfg Mark Rylance 3

    But faithful translations work both ways. The weakness of Dahl’s story is present in the movie too. There’s very little character development on Sophie’s part. The BFG himself grows a little courage in one scene when he stands up to the bigger giants, but there’s little the story does with that arc. The sudden “hey let’s get the Queen to help!” idea is just as random on the screen as it was on the page. It’s not exactly a Deus Ex Machina if you go to visit the “Deus” to ask for help, but it’s still a solution to the movie’s problem that’s a little too easily achieved.

    Bfg Ruby Barnhill Sophie

    And speaking of, there simply aren’t enough stakes and/or sacrifice to keep your interest level at 100%. We hear that giants have been kidnapping children (and in the book the giants had been snatching kids from multiple countries), but there’s little said about it after the threat is resolved. No one sacrifices anything to achieve the happy ending, either. It’s just a series of “going from one interesting place to another, and one fantastical setting to another” over and over until the story just ends.

    It’s all very competently handled; it’s well-acted, the John Williams score is whimsical, Mark Rylance is charming as the BFG, the visuals are great…it’s just all a little hollow.

    It’s not E.T. That movie will continue to endure for generations to come. This one will not. It will probably do good enough at the box office to avoid being labeled a failure, but it’s not going to unseat Disney’s other big summer movie (Finding Dory) nor will it be remembered as a Spielberg-classic. It will probably find a comfortable home in elementary schools everywhere, to be brought out on a rainy day recess, alongside Matilda, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Stewart Little and so many other kids movies to be enjoyed in fifteen-to-thirty minute intervals.

    7/10 – fans of the book will be happy to see the book so faithfully recreated, but everyone else will probably be a tad underwhelmed by the limitations of the story.

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    Adventure MoviesFamily MoviesFantasy MoviesRoald DahlSteven SpielbergThe BFG

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest

    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest

    0 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments

    You might also like

    • Review: Alice through the Looking Glass (no spoilers) – Sad Hatter.

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 28, 2016
    • Tomorrowland Review: A passion project that misses the mark (minor spoilers)

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 25, 2015
    • Review: The Jungle Book (and a brief history of 3D films)

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 17, 2016
    • Goosebumps Review: Stop calling it Jumanji

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 28, 2015
    • Finding Dory Review: A fine sequel, but still…a sequel

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 19, 2016
    • Peanuts Review: Go fly a kite, Charlie Brown

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 17, 2015

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    Movie Topics

    Recommended for you

    • Lethal Weapon is still awesome thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 9, 2022
    • REVIEW: “NOPE” wants to be more than it is, which is just good enough

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 22, 2022
    • Ten years later, BRAVE remains Pixar’s most underrated film

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 21, 2022
    • REVIEW: THOR – LOVE AND THUNDER is an adventure of mirth and sadness alike

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 9, 2022
    • REVIEW: ELVIS beautifully mythologizes the King of Rock and Roll

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 25, 2022
    • REVIEW: Jurassic World Dominion – Here we go again…again

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 12, 2022
    • REVIEW: Top Gun Maverick is a sequel that soars!

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 27, 2022
    • Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Read the Book Instead: The most disappointing book-to-film adaptations

      By Oliver Johnston
      | September 20, 2021
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz