Paddington 2 (2017)
Directed by Paul King
Paddington, now happily settled with the Browns, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy, but it is stolen.
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18 films that influenced Paddington 2
What critics say influenced Paddington 2
He is enmeshed in a series of cogs, as Chaplin was in “ Modern Times ” (1936), and the homage that King pays to Wes Anderson, not least to the jailbreak in “ The Grand Budapest Hotel ” (2014), is positively slavish.
Paddington 2 exhibits its bona fides as a film for all ages with subtle nods to Modern Times (a Chaplin-esque mustache), The Untouchables (a line about bringing a knife to a gunfight), and the overproduced musicals of the ‘30s (Busby Berkeley would have been proud) alongside the more obvious kid-friendly elements.
Cineastes will delight in the witty homage (Paddington's prison break incorporates a marvellous nod to Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times ).
When it comes to comedy, Paddington 2 draws inspiration from Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, both who gets nods in this with allusions to The General and Modern Times.
Other inventive bits include an equally accident-ridden window-washing gig, a prison break that features an homage to Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, and a climactic train chase that's equal parts humorous and thrilling.
There are even certain moments where the comic timing, color scheme and set design harkens to Wes Anderson, specifically The Grand Budapest Hotel with the pink color scheme in Paddington 2’s prison set.
What if they had extensive prison sequences (seemingly) inspired by a subplot in “The Grand Budapest Hotel“?
There’s a jailbreak straight out of Wes Anderson and “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” a somewhat protracted chase sequence set aboard a train, and an end-credits sequence featuring Grant and a “Prisoners of Love”-type chorus performing an unlikely Sondheim song (“Listen to the Rain on the Roof,” from “Follies”) as a finale.
He is enmeshed in a series of cogs, as Chaplin was in “ Modern Times ” (1936), and the homage that King pays to Wes Anderson, not least to the jailbreak in “ The Grand Budapest Hotel ” (2014), is positively slavish.
And a prison break-out that equals The Grand Budapest Hotel?
The stuff in the prison feels like it was pulled out of some Wes Anderson stylishly imaginative fever-dream, the whole section a mad cross of Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel .
What Paddington 2 demonstrates is that in the currently messed-up and hectic world we currently live in, we need films like this to remind us how we need something loving to make our lives endearing, akin to the warm message of It's a Wonderful Life.
(There are movie references galore here, from "The Lone Ranger" and "It's a Wonderful Life" to the silents of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton) It is Mary Brown (Sally Hawkins), here more than ever the human equivalent of Aunt Lucy, who deduces that the pop-up book is a treasure map and that the multiple strange sightings at Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Serpentine in Hyde Park are one man in disguise.
When it comes to comedy, Paddington 2 draws inspiration from Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, both who gets nods in this with allusions to The General and Modern Times.
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The sort of pandering that children’s films are often prone to—the ear-toothbrush sequence in the first movie, for instance—has largely been replaced by jokes that are charming for charming’s sake, and the references, which range from Chaplin’s City Lights to Sondheim’s Follies , are lovely even if the specifics may fly over younger viewers’ heads.
He's made himself a popular and well liked member of the community in way that reminded me a little of Bill Murray in the last reel of Groundhog Day.
He’s a gregarious grouch (Brendan Gleeson) but darned if that sweet-mannered bear and his recipe for marmalade don’t win him and the diverse and brutishly whimsical prison population (Noah Taylor of “Shine” among them) over.
Paddington 2 exhibits its bona fides as a film for all ages with subtle nods to Modern Times (a Chaplin-esque mustache), The Untouchables (a line about bringing a knife to a gunfight), and the overproduced musicals of the ‘30s (Busby Berkeley would have been proud) alongside the more obvious kid-friendly elements.
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Unfortunately, faded actor Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant, Florence Foster Jenkins) has his eye on the same gift.
The introduction of Hugh Grant (2016's " Florence Foster Jenkins "), dynamite as the incorrigible Phoenix Buchanan, is where the picture really takes off.
Like his character’s namesake, Grant has rapidly risen from the ashes the past two years with his acclaimed work in “Florence Foster Jenkins” and “Paddington 2.” It’s a timely reminder what a treasure he is both as an actor and comedian.
Okay, he danced a little in "Love, Actually", but this is a different story.