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Paddington In Peru (2024) – Movie Review

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Paddington In Peru (2024) – Movie Review

Paddington in Peru, 2024.

Directed by Dougal Wilson.
Starring Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Samuel Joslin, Madeleine Harris, Antonio Banderas, Olivia Colman, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Carla Tous, Hayley Atwell, Oliver Maltman, Joel Fry, Robbie Gee, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Imelda Staunton, Ben Miller, Jessica Hynes, Ella Dacres, Aloreia Spencer, Nicholas Burns, Ashleigh Reynolds, Amit Shah, Ella Bruccoleri, Carlos Carlín, Simon Farnaby, Emma Sidi, Hugh Grant, and Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

SYNOPSIS:

Paddington returns to Peru to visit his beloved Aunt Lucy, who now resides at the Home for Retired Bears. With the Brown family in tow, a thrilling adventure ensues when a mystery plunges them into an unexpected journey.

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A beary take on the treasurer of El Dorado, Paddington in Peru trades London fish-out-of-water hijinks and tear-inducing pleas for kindness for a CGI-heavy formulaic Amazonian adventure of peril that, while endearing, never reaches the highs of previous installments. It’s a noticeable step down in quality, often playing like your average family-friendly film, at a certain point mainly going for thrills rather than witty banter and heartwarming lessons in manners. Even the thematic messaging seems like an afterthought this time, reminding what the movie is about moments before the epilogue in a halfhearted, slapdash fashion.

Truthfully, none of this should be surprising. Director Dougal Wilson takes over duties from Paul King (responsible for the first two entries before moving on to his take on Willy Wonka, only contributing to the screen story here), working from a screenplay by Mark Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont (with Paddington created by Michael Bond), none of whom have worked on either of the previous movies. The latter two have worked on an animated TV series titled The Adventures of Paddington, which explains why Paddington himself (still voiced by Ben Whishaw with an innocent and polite gentle warmth) feels in character.

However, most of those amusing gags occur early on (a photo booth in London, a hilarious broken floorboard gag when searching for a clue, a struggle climbing into a hammock) and, as already mentioned, fade away once the plot transitions into three groups of characters competing for treasure. To clarify, Paddington is looking for his missing Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton), who had written to her nephew saying she was feeling lonely, only to be gone when he and the Brown family arrive in Peru’s Home for Retired Bears. In charge is the suspicious Mother Reverend (a playful Olivia Colman, also getting a chance to do some equally silly singing), who often blatantly incriminates herself in a running gag of obviously having something to do with the disappearance. All that remains left behind are Aunt Lucy’s glasses and a sacred bracelet connected to El Dorado that might have something to do with where the bear went.

Together with the supportive Brown family, now with grown-up children and becoming increasingly distant, deciding that this vacation is just what they need to reconnect, Paddington and they enlist a boat tour guide named Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas) alongside his daughter Gina (Carla Tous) to navigate the waters and into uncharted territory. It is a journey that Gina advises against, but Hunter sympathizes with the emergency and braves the danger. It also turns out he sees literal ancestral ghosts (also funnily played by Antonio Banderas) egging on a family curse and obsession to find the El Dorado treasure.

There are encounters with potentially deadly spiders, treks throughout the jungle, and character betrayals on the path to the treasure. While that might sound tantalizing, ambitious, and refreshing for this series, it’s also somewhat perfunctory and only elevated by the reliable Paddington charm. Even the Brown family (played by Hugh Bonneville and Emily Mortimer stepping into the Sally Hawkins role, now with adult children played by Samuel Joslin and Madeleine Harris) don’t have much to do. The latter two are noticeably silent at times; basically, they are out of obligation for the thread about family the film tries to emotionally tie everything back to.

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Technically, Paddington in Peru is something new for the series and does retain the signature delight of the characters, comes with more likability wacky villains, and the wonderful voiceover work from Ben Whishaw also still delivers a moving touch, even if there isn’t much of an emotional pull here this time. It’s solid but no treasure like the previous two films.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist

 

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'Holy Night: Demon Hunters' Review — A Punchier Version Of 'Constantine'

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'Holy Night: Demon Hunters' Review — A Punchier Version Of 'Constantine'

Ma Dong-Seok as Ba Woo in ‘Holy Night: Demon Hunters’ (2025), Capelight Pictures

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Written and directed by first-time filmmaker Lim Dae-hee, Holy Night: Demon Hunters follows three underground demon hunters, operating like private investigators who are too unorthodox to be cops and too accepting of the occult to be associated with the church.

The demon-hunting trinity is led by Ba Woo (Ma Dong-seok), a beast of a man capable of solving most of his problems with his bulking fists. Whatever slips through Ba Woo’s fingers is typically dealt with by Sharon (Seohyun), a woman who can sense and exorcise demons. Then there’s Kim Goon (Lee David), a demon hunter in training who is the team’s tech support.

(L-R) Seohyun, Ma Dong-seok, and Lee David as Sharon, Ba Woo, and Kim Goon in Holy Night: Demon Hunters (2025), Capelight Pictures

RELATED: The Dismal Ending Of Blumhouse’s ‘The Woman In The Yard’ Isn’t Pleasing Some Horror Fans

A neuropsychiatrist named Jung-won (Kyung Soo-jin) is trying to help her sister Eun-seo (Jung Ji-so) who is in desperate need of an exorcism. With the church unable to assist with their stance on exorcisms, it’s up to Ba Woo and his team to save Eun-seo.

It feels like Holy Night: Demon Hunters is the second installment of a franchise that nobody knew about. A prequel webtoon called Holy Night: The Zero is available on Naver Webtoon and is currently 13 episodes long. The webtoon could add more depth to the film since Holy Night: Demon Hunters seems to struggle to keep your interest for its measly 92-minute duration. Like Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales though, viewers shouldn’t have to read or watch something else to fully appreciate a director’s vision.

Jung Ji-so as Eun-soo in Holy Night: Demon Hunters (2025), Capelight Pictures

The action horror film teases a real-world takeover by not only demons but Lucifer himself. The credits introduce the audience to every demon that could come into play. Holy Night: Demon Hunters barely scratches the surface of the ideas it introduces, so it’s a bit confusing why so many aspects are shown and not utilized. The film then decides to vaguely describe semi-intriguing backgrounds for characters barely seen through to completion.

Ba Woo is using all the money he’s making as a demon hunter to build an orphanage. He grew up as an orphan. And the people from the orphanage he grew up in were slaughtered by his best friend, whom he viewed as a brother. The two of them gained a demonic power, and Ba Woo used his power for good while his brother became a demon.

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RELATED: ‘Badland Hunters’ Review – Ma Dong-seok Delivers Frenetic Guillotine Action

The majority of the rest of the film is devoted to Eun-Seo, her exorcism, and which demon has possessed her. The exorcism Sharon uses on her is broken down into six stages (and a piece of bamboo since it thwarts off demonic energy for whatever reason). The six stages of exorcism are presence, deception, break point, voice, clash, and expulsion.

Most of the characters in the film are underdeveloped. Ba Woo is a big, buffed dude struggling with both literal and inner demons inside of him. Sharon is in the same boat, and her power could easily sway her to the dark side. Apart from asking for a raise and being the most sympathetic of the bunch, Kim Goon doesn’t do much.

(L-R) Seohyun, Ma Dong-seok, and Lee David as Sharon, Ba Woo, and Kim Goon in Holy Night: Demon Hunters (2025), Capelight Pictures

Jung-won is so annoyingly written. The character is meant to be a burden by being in the room during the exorcism for no reason other than being an obstacle, making stupid decisions at every turn, and being an inconsolable crier at every turn.

The VFX in the film is a mixed bag. Sometimes they look almost great, like when Ba Woo punches demon-possessed people, as smoke seeps from their bodies or the weird shadow demon that haunts him throughout the film. But the CGI highs come with a lot of visual lows, and Holy Night: Demon Hunters struggles with decent-to-janky CGI the majority of the time.

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(L-R) Ma Dong-seok, Seohyun, and Lee David as Ba Woo, Sharon, and Kim Goon in Holy Night: Demon Hunters (2025), Capelight Pictures

Holy Night: Demon Hunters is a punchier version of Constantine. There are some fun sequences, but the film is a bummer overall. Ma Dong-seok typically chooses great projects to be a part of, and it’s unfortunate that Holy Night: Demon Hunters feels so rushed and incomplete. A big dude storming around the city punching demons into submission sounds so awesome, but somehow Lim Dae-hee turned it into this thin, dull, and lifeless attempt at purification.

NEXT: Capcom Censors Oyu’s Extra Costume In ‘Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny’ Remaster

Holy Night: Demon Hunters (2025), Capelight Pictures

PROS

  • Ma Dong-seok
  • Some of the action and VFX are fantastic

CONS

  • Mutilates a fun concept
  • Makes 90 minutes feel long
  • Thin story
  • Little to no character development
  • Opening credit terminology seems longwinded for no reason
Chris Sawin is a Tomatometer-approved film critic who has been writing about film for over a decade. Chris has … More about Chris Sawin

Mentioned In This Article: action Capelight Pictures Don Lee Holy Night: Demon Hunters Horror Ma Dong-seok Movie Review Movies

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Film Review: ‘Caught by the Tides’ is Another Daring Work of Art from Jia Zhangke – Awards Radar

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Film Review: ‘Caught by the Tides’ is Another Daring Work of Art from Jia Zhangke – Awards Radar

Less a narrative feature than an impressionistic work of art, Jia Zhangke distills the past twenty years of his life through the perspective of Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao) in his latest film, Caught by the Tides. The only “newly” shot portion for the movie occurs during its final half, set in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic, as Qiaoqiao reunites with her former lover, Bin (Li Zhubin), for the first time since their separation. What precedes this section is a non-linear assemblage of footage shot by Jia, either for his past films, such as Still Life, Ash is Purest White, and Unknown Pleasures, or footage he kept for himself until today. 

Watching such a movie feels truly daring, as Jia moves away from his linear works into associative territory, linking one piece of shot-on-video footage with another, completely different, celluloid image. The most impressive moment occurs near its end, as the movie cuts from a top-down shot of a ballroom, where a group of people dance during the pandemic, to a fish-eyed digital zoom of a supermarket CCTV camera, first honing in on a pack of oranges, then clumsily careening around the space, desperately looking for an image to focus on. The camera follows Bin inside the market as he reunites with Qiaoqiao. From there, pure cinema occurs. 

Bin reunites with Qiaoqiao and, despite the face masks they are wearing, the two immediately recognize each other’s eyes. Jia lingers on their masked faces for a bit before Bin removes it, to the shock of Qiaoqiao, still unable to process that he’s in front of him, after so many years apart. It’s one of the most potent images in post-COVID filmmaking, where the director is able to find purpose in the sanitary limitations of the era, showing us that connections were still possible, despite the tragic situation the characters were living in.  

Many filmmakers have tried to express the COVID-19 era in film, but have failed to draw anything meaningful out of it. The only artist who got something out of the anxieties such an event drew was Steven Soderbergh when he made his paranoia thriller KIMI in 2022. Radu Jude also tried to say something out of such an event with his unofficial duology Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn and Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (both are masterpieces, by the way), but no filmmaker expressed dramatic power the way Jia does in this particular section with Caught by the Tides, let alone letting the silences of his (masked) actors speak in ways that words cannot. 

Zhao Tao’s performance is entirely silent, barring a section taken from Unknown Pleasures where the protagonist sings. But there isn’t a spoken word uttered by Qiaoqiao throughout the entire movie, and Jia lets us sit with her in silence, contemplating her future and the choices she has made that ultimately lead her to where she is during the pandemic. Even her exchange with Bin, preceding their breakup, is told through intertitles, with only their looks as the point of reference to make us feel their emotions. To some, that may be an alienating way to watch a movie, especially when Jia flows from one scene to the next without tangible linearity, a massive departure from what he is usually known for. 

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However, there’s something so emotionally stirring in Zhao Tao’s portrayal of Qiaoqiao, whether in the repurposed footage from Jia’s past films or what was shot for this movie, that makes the experience so worthwhile. The best parts of acting are conveying everything you want to say without having the need to say anything. Few actors can accomplish this feat well and express a litany of emotions like this, yet Zhao Tao does it so effortlessly. Her forced smile hides feelings she doesn’t want to put forward, even though we can clearly read them. Qiaoqiao isn’t happy, and her current trajectory ensures she won’t find the peace she wants. 

It’s only during an interaction with a robot, in one of the year’s most moving exchanges, that we get to see the real Qiaoqiao, who warms up and happily smiles, for the first time, after the machine tells her, “Mother Teresa once said, if you love until it hurts…there can be no more hurt, only more love.” It’s the first occasion where we see her feel something, and the rest of the film, where Qiaoqiao ties up all of her past loose ends, gives her the courage to do what she needs to do to move on. It’s simultaneously heartbreaking and profoundly affecting, even if Jia’s associations sometimes lose their meaning, particularly in the movie’s midsection. 

That said, even if Caught by the Tides sags and loses its intent in a few places, Jia Zhangke knows he has to anchor his decades-spanning emotional journey through the eyes of his wife and creative partner, Zhao Tao. It’s through those sullen, devastating looks that pierce the artifice of cinema and touch us so profoundly that we’re ultimately moved by this daring proposition from one of China’s greatest formalists, caught in the tides of the past and present, and offering us no solutions for a future that doesn’t look as promising as it might have been envisioned, by Qiaoqiao, or society itself…

SCORE: ★★★1/2

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Movie Review: ‘Friendship’ is Both Unique and Depressing | InSession Film

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Movie Review: ‘Friendship’ is Both Unique and Depressing | InSession Film

Director: Andrew DeYoung
Writer: Andrew DeYoung
Stars: Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd, Kate Mara

Synopsis: A suburban dad falls hard for his charismatic new neighbor.


I don’t think it would be unfair to say that the expectation of Friendship is that this would be a feature length I Think You Should Leave sketch. Tim Robinson has a unique style of humor that is strictly his own and while it may not work for everyone, it definitely works for me. Starting off, the theater was laughing at every little thing Robinson was doing on screen. However, as the film went on, a collective anxiety and unnerved feeling washed across the theater. Friendship definitely lives up to the expectation that I described before, but what I didn’t expect was something so nightmarish and, to put it bluntly, depressing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hilarious, but by the time the credits roll I was wiped out.

Craig Waterman (Robinson) is a simple man that does very little outside of his day-to-day work. He is a married man with a son in high school, he gets a new neighbor that he quickly befriends, and frequently talks about “the new Marvel.” What sets him apart from the other characters in Friendship is he speaks almost exclusively in awkward jokes – common fare for his characters in I Think You Should Leave. But as the film progresses and he opens himself up more, it’s clear he is afflicted with arrested social development as he makes off putting comments and does bizarre things like shoving a bar of soap in his mouth as a joke (which does not land). 

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What makes I Think You Should Leave likely to be rewatchable is that everyone in each bit is in on the joke to some degree. In I Think You Should Leave you’re being transported to some bizarre other world where the inhabitants are mild mannered individuals and one or two characters that perpetuate and drive a bit. In Friendship, if you remove Tim Robinson, it is a deathly serious movie. No one is feeding into a bit outside of him. The coverage of topics in Friendship include cancer, marital collapse, and a situation involving a missing person. I know the goal, even in the I Think You Should Leave bits, is to make the viewer cringe, but at times Friendship becomes a little suffocating.

Furthermore, Tim Robinson’s character he does – which he does for all of his comedy – works in small doses. On Saturday Night Live and I Think You Should Leave you’re given about 5 minutes, max, of this type of character. However, this type of character in a feature film is a little too much by the end. Each bad decision or off putting comment Craig would make compounds in the viewer. While I’m not entirely averse to the ‘cringe’ comedy, by the time the 100 minute runtime is up I was thoroughly exhausted.

With these things in mind, I weirdly found Friendship to be affecting. While I don’t directly identify with the Craig Waterman character or the things that he does, that feeling of longing was extremely palpable. Connecting with people is incredibly difficult, I wanted to see Craig win even if I wouldn’t want to be friends with him personally. And anytime he didn’t win (which is frequent in Friendship), I couldn’t help but feel a little sad. Life is weird how we’re just thrown into things and there’s a certain socially acceptable, binary way of living while we’re all extremely different from one another and offer completely different things to each other.

The Friendship trailer stars Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd | The FADER

To that extent, even if there were elements of Friendship I found exhausting, the other elements elevated it to the same, yet opposite, levels. There was a cohesion to this film that is rare to find in films from sketch comedy regulars. For example, while I love films like Stepbrothers, Wayne’s World, or Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, the bits in those movies act as a way to get laughs rather than something that coexists with the world in their respective films. In Friendship you find a collection of bits that feels like it belongs to the world being built. The one bit I’ll mention, as to not spoil anything, is the “Marvel” bit that they’ve already pushed in their marketing. Once the “Marvel” is introduced it is integrated effectively and not seen as just a one-off. There’s a particular moment involving a client meeting where the bit isn’t directly referenced but is alluded to and the pay off is incredible.

Rarely does a film come around where I feel so starkly conflicted about it. And even with that, I really want to see it again. If you’re not a fan of the Tim Robinson style of comedy, this is probably the last thing you should consider if you’re looking to change that. But if you’re already a fan, this is a four course meal and then some. This film is nuclear levels of hilarious and simultaneously the worst trip imaginable. Friendship absolutely rules and should be seen in the largest and most uncomfortably crowded room imaginable. Excited to tell my therapist about this film!

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Grade: C+

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