Fresh and Exciting

Don't Believe the Hype

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Beautiful is the first word that comes to mind for me. Story telling in this movie is so well done, you can watch it several times and find nothing but confirmation. Shifts away from reality (through different kinds of animation) are used to ease in and out of the memories of an agoraphobe, reliving the story of what made him a shut-in; also signifying a reluctance to relive said story. The hand crafted animations and interesting characters in this well written story of the travels of two best friends add to the overall feeling of watching a well presented story unfold from the comforts of your couch (and your safe home) Love to detail, a really pleasant tempo and good actors weave a really well done picture.

"Bunny and the Bull" is possibly the most visually inventive film I've seen in my life. It begins with a title credit sequence with the camera gracefully flowing from object to object in a small room, like in Jeunet-Caro's classic "Delicatessen". It stays in that same Delicatessenesque vein while we meet our hero, an agoraphobe who evidently hasn't left his apartment in 1 year, and then the real fun starts...Our hero "Stephen" (Edward Hogg) stares at random objects in his meticulously cluttered apartment, and each object triggers a flashback. Each flashback is vividly adorned in scenery relating to the object that triggered it. For example, his first flashback comes from a box of fast food takeout. The flashback scene contains the actors and some real props but they are sitting inside an animated cardboard box. Occasionally cars will pass by the window outside, similarly animated cardboard cutouts.I found this visual style to be both eye-catching and wonderfully creative. Animation is very old school, using tricks of stop motion photography, hand drawings, confetti for snow, and projection screens showing dreamlike landscapes behind the action. It reminded me of the work of Michel Gondry ("The Science of Sleep", "Eternal sunshine of the Spotless Mind") or Tim Burton's old school stuff ("Nightmare Before Christmas", "Edward Scissorhands", "Peewee's Big Adventure") but ramped up on steroids. Everything is very vivid and pleasing to the eye with cartoonish colors and simplicity surrounding what ultimately ends up being a very complex story.The actors present a fabulous dynamic with "Michael" being the obsessively uptight dweeb who courts a girl for 3 years before working up the nerve to say he likes her, while his best friend "Bunny" (Simon Farnaby) is the antithesis: a devil-may-care hedonist who can bed any girl in under 2 minutes it seems. The movie is a series of flashbacks unraveling a strange adventure that the two of them had together, mostly silly escapades culminating in a life-altering event that just might alter your life as well.Something I found particularly funny was the way our hero is an animal lover, and a very outspoken one at that. He has a hilarious way of turning almost any situation awkward by expressing his views, almost like a "Debbie Downer" character. But if you're an animal lover you may find yourself cheering him on. For example, in one scene they are talking to a would-be matador who is relating the joy and elegance of bullfighting. He says something like "It is not a fight. It is a dance. A beautiful dance as only man and beast can do." And our hero Michael fires back "Really? I thought it was all about stabbing a defenceless animal in the back of the neck until he dies." And the matador says, "It is a peculiar dance, I'll give you that." Great sarcastic & deadpan humor along with hilariously awkward situations pepper this film throughout, making it fun from beginning to end. And as I alluded earlier, there is ultimately some great depth and power to this seemingly whimsical flick.If you're a fan of the directors I mentioned above, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Michel Gondry & Tim Burton... and I'll throw in Charlie Kaufman & Spike Jonze ("Being John Malkovich", "Synecdoche NY") and maybe Terry Gilliam ("Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas") then do not hesitate to see this wonderfully bizarre flick. In over 500 films, I've only given out about 20 perfect "10" ratings, but this film truly deserves the honor.

Plot: Two friends take a road trip through Europe.Thank God the UK Film Council was abolished, considering it was funding such repulsive tripe as this. The film is a self-indulgent mess that confuses quirkiness for humour. The jokes are uniformly terrible, the nadir being a sideways shot of a flaccid penis that is supposed to provoke laughter. The lead is a perpetual adolescent, a whining bore who won't stop sulking about his failure at life. I wanted nothing more than to reach into the screen, slap him and tell him to pull himself together and stop being such an infernal wuss. That the script seeks every opportunity to degrade and humiliate him provides no emotional sympathy, whilst revealing a deeply unpleasant streak in the film makers. The plot is predictable and the 'wacky' characters tiresome - with quirkiness used to try and disguise the lack of depth to both. There are one or two visually interesting moments using the home-made arts and crafts aesthetic dear to hipsters but it never matches the wild abandon of 'The Mighty Boosh', which is its clear influence.Worth no viewings.

This is the debut effort from director Paul King (Mighty Boosh), advertised as 'Withnail and I for the mentally ill'. This is an attempt to get audiences in, but oversimplifies the film to an extent of misleading the viewers. Yes, it is based on two young men going travelling, however what makes both these films great is their style, and that could not be any more different.'Withnail and I' is famously bleak, portraying the struggling characters in the context of a social-realism drabness. However, stylistically, Bunny and the Bull can compete with the classics in eccentricity; stealing nuggets of genius from directors such as Gondry, Gilliam and Burton. By imitating Gondry's use of set design, theme parks are created from clock workings, and train cartridges from toilet parts. This manages to create stunning visuals along with awe-inspiring animation; but still retains the charm and spark of a low-budget movie.Essentially a road movie, it tells the story of an obsessive-compulsive Stephen Turnbull (Edward Hogg) as he travels around Europe with unlikely friend, Bunny (Simon Farnaby). Over the course of 100 minutes, the cause of Turnbull's crippling agoraphobia is explained with the help of his catalogued mementos of the trip. These are used as jumping-off points into flashback scenes, as shot from his mental illness-addled imagination.While at moments touching, the main problem seemed to be the lack of shots helping us to engage with the two leads. With the plot holding the potential to get an audience gripped and engaged, the acting seemed rigid and confused in places. The titular character, Bunny, is not fully realised, flickering between off-the-wall quirkiness, reminiscent of Seinfeld's Kramer, and a one-dimensional, Northern booze-hound.With cameos from Mighty Boosh's Noel Fielding, playing an unhinged matador, and Julian Barratt as a dog-milk-craving tramp, the expectations are understandable for this to be a feature-length episode of the show. However, the film takes the much loved quirks from first series of Boosh and manages to restrain them; connecting its celebrated vivid imagery with the real world, which allows viewers to connect better with the narrative.While in parts uncomfortable, the state of Turnbull's mental illness slowly dawning, the film action never slows and gives the audience chance to get bored. Not as quick-paced as Boosh, this only serves to help the plot lines form naturally and the film to flourish, highlighting the real star of the film; Paul King.