THE BFG [2016]

Director Steven Spielberg & Disney conjure up a bit of a rare miss for the duo with the big-screen adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's novel The BFG.
Here we follow a young orphaned girl who is whisked away into a world of giants, where all but one have a taste for human flesh, the Big Friendly Giant who vows to keep her safe from his man-eating peers.
Unlike most of Spielberg's works this one manages to lack the magical whimsy that other films of this style seem to excel in.  It's not that it doesn't have heart or imagination, it just doesn't seem to always have the wondrous enthusiasm one would expect from such a film.  There's plenty of scenes of inspired delight but there's also plenty that are quite the opposite.  The film's greatest strength is the chemistry between it's two leads where the storytelling finds it's most joy.  If not for it's insanely dull second act and whimpering climax I might have enjoyed it a lot more in the end.

2½ dream jars out of 5

SHAUN OF THE DEAD [2004]

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost & Edgar Wright, vets of the British TV series Spaced, come together again for the zombie comedy Shaun Of The Dead.
What's great about Shaun is that it takes it's zombies very seriously. Zombie film first. Comedy second.
It's funny enough to humor and entertain the casual viewer but filled with enough Spaced in-jokes and past zombie film references to delight the hardcore fans as well. Wright's near perfect direction is complimented with a talented cast and excellent use of "old" zombie film music both original and re-recorded. Fleshed out with some surprisingly intensely emotional moments, great thrills and chills, cameos galore and enough gore to please the splatter-hounds, Shaun is an instant cult classic.
It's great horror-comedy for everybody granted you can handle a little bit of colored language and blood.

5 Fried Gold moments out of 5