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TOMORROWLAND - A WORLD BEYOND

Which wolf do you follow?

'Tomorowland' is a 2015 American science fiction mystery, adventure movie, and subtitled 'A World Beyond', with the screenplay by Damon Lindelof and Brad Bird. It's got an all star cast with George Clooney who plays Frank Walker, Hugh Laurie who plays Nix, Britt Robertson who plays Casey Newton and Raffey Cassidy plays Athena and you may recognise her from Mr Selfridge which was a British TV drama some time ago. She played one of his daughters, Beatrice. The supporting cast is good. You have Thomas Robinson who plays the young Frank Walker, you've got Tim McGraw who plays Casey's dad and he's also one of my favourite Country and Western stars. Then you've got Keegan-Michael Key who plays Hugo and you may recognise his voice from 'Bob's Burgers'.

So I ask - is it right, "Anything is possible and nothing is impossible?" and "Which wolf would you follow and how will you know?" Let's get right into this movie review and find out.

Have you ever thought about 'tomorrowland' and the future? It's the same thing really - what are we doing today to make sure that the future is better for us? Who are we listening to? Who are we following? So many questions but which is the right answer? We just don't know, we just have to keep going and trying. As long as we have that 'possible' and not 'impossible' attitude then anything can be done. The wolves that you need to follow are the 'darkness and despair' ones or the 'light and hope'. I know which one I want to go for and it's not dark! Casey believes in that and we see her throughout this movie trying to sort the future out. She's one of those that's on that journey and she's going to do anything she can to get to where she wants to be. But, let's see her journey and see who stands in her way and who helps her. Let's look at the plot.

So another great movie but you wouldn't expect anything else from Disney. It's set in 1964 and 1965 and it's also set in 1985, 2003 and 2015. The story goes backwards and forwards but it starts at the end. As you know, I say the end is always a new beginning and they're basically telling you the story of how they got to that point. It goes back through different points in time and shows what things were like at those different points. It shows the young Frank as a child, an inventor, a person that can see the future that he wants and he wants to be a part of it. It shows how he meets Athena at the World Fair in 1964 and it's an amazing place. Then we also see Casey's side of the story. Casey is a young girl, a teenager who can see the world how she wants it to be. She sees good in everything, as we all did once but some of us become, you know, bogged down with things that we shouldn't do. It's a story of her getting to different places and at the start she doesn't know how she does that. She's given a pin which shows her the future and that gives her even more desire to find out all about it. She tracks a shop down somewhere else in the country and the shop is called 'Blast From The Past'. There's some strange people there, you know, it's one of those collector's shops. She shows them the badge. They want it bad but they don't just want 'it' they want the person that delivered it. Of course, Casey doesn't know that at that point. Anyway there's a big fight scene, laser guns, all sorts of things, you know, futuristic type things which you would expect from someone that's travelled back in time.

And then we see Casey and Athena finding out about each other on the trip to go and find Frank. Casey gets dropped off at Frank's place. Frank's a bit of a loner now. He's isolated, he tries to keep people out, as most of us do because people don't understand who we are or what we are. When she eventually gets into his fortress, which is his house, she sees that he's tracking the countdown of destruction. He's got lots of devices, lots of things he's invented, but she doesn't know anything else about it at that point. Obviously, from the future, people have been sent because the future doesn't want catching up with, so there's people trying to get Casey and then Frank. Again, there's some scenes at the house where the baddies are trying to get her and they're all futuristic, like robots and things like that, who can walk through walls! There's a scene where the bath flies through the air and ends up in a ditch in the big lake and then there's a motorbike but that's not needed - they're all things that have been stored for getaways - because Athena turns up. They have to get to a Station for time travel. This is really intriguing Casey. Where will it all lead to? Anyway, it leads to Paris. At Paris at the Eiffel Tower, there's a rocket. I know this seems a little bit far fetched, but bear with me. The rocket is launched, they fly through space and time warps and they end up in Tomorrowland. Tomorrowland is a bit different from what Frank remembered. It's now ruled by a tyrant, called Nix, played by Hugh Laurie. He controls everything and he wants his world to survive and the Earth World not to.

After some to-ing and fro-ing we realise that Casey works out that nothing's going to change. She sees the future, the death, the destruction. What can be done? The time is ticking. Anyway, they are going to be deported back because Nix wants his world to carry on. He doesn't want the old world, he wants it wiped out because they can't look after themselves so why should anyone from the future try and look after them. There's a great scene where Casey works out what it's all about because it's the wolf feeding you the wrong information. If you preach that enough, you'll believe it. It's easier to, after all. But is that right? Surely, if you are preaching bad messages you can also preach good ones. It follows, doesn't it?

Anyway, as usual, I'm not going to spoil the end of the movie, only to say that the end is the new beginning and things work out pretty ok but there are some sad bits as well. There's always 'darkness and light', there's always negative and positive. Is everything possible and nothing impossible? Well no, I'd be lying if I said it was. After all, life is life, every day, 24 hours, 7 days a week, trying to find your 'tomorrowland' which is your future basically. You've got to try and do things for today. Easy for me to say! No, try and live by a way where you can get through each day and if it goes wrong sometimes it doesn't matter it will always pick up some time in the future.

As you know, wolves in this story, there's two of them. There's the 'Darkness and Despair' and there's the 'Light and Hope'. It's just like life really, it's an analogy. What we all need to do is try our hardest and if we all keep building he won't only come - a different film altogether! - but 'Tomorrowland' will be a better place.

The trivia in this movie is great.

Did you know that it's all based on Walt Disney's plan for a 'Tomorowland'. All his resorts, they look like the movie sets.

And EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype City/Community of Tomorrow.

Another bit of trivia for you is the 'Blast from the Past' store that Casey visits is also the store that Marty McFly visits in 'Back to the Future'. A different one albeit but one with the same name. In the 'Blast from the Past' store there's Disney memorabilia all over the place. You've got 'The Incredibles', you've got 'Iron Giant', you've got Zurg from 'Toy Story'.

The owner of the 'Blast from the Past' store is called Hugo. And, did you know that HUGO is an award for sci-fi. How about that.

If you've ever seen the 'Monsters Inc' movies and you look at the end of the first film which became the second film, and then the first film was done as a prequel, if you know what I mean - there's a picture of 'Tomorrowland' on one of the walls.

And the final bit of trivia is, when Casey gets her stuff back from the police station there's a pack of Beeman's chewing gum. Did you know that the movie, 'The Rockateer', back in 1991 - in the movie he carried a pack of Beeman's with him for good luck. Another Disney movie I believe. Also, pilots often chew that brand for altitude purposes. Apparently it works!

The music in this movie is good too - You've got all the traditional stuff, such as the Sherman brothers as well as Michael Giacchino's score that runs through the movie. You've also got music by The Black Keys, John Williams and Bobby Huff, to name but a few.

THE COMMITMENTS

If you put something together, will it stay together?

'The Commitments' is a 1991 movie. It's from a book written by Roddy Doyle and the screenplay is written by Roddy himself with Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. It's directed by Alan Parker and he's done things like 'Evita' and 'Fame'. There's a great cast. You've got Robert Arkins who plays Jimmy Rabitte, you've got Johnny Murphy who plays Joey 'The Lips' Fagan and Andrew Strong who sings in the band as Decco (Cuffe). You've got Maria Doyle Kennedy, she plays Natalie (Murphy) and she was in the 'Tudors', 'Orphan Black', and 'Outlander'. You've got Bronagh Gallagher, who plays Bernie (McGloughlin) - she's just been in Julian Fellowes 'Belgravia' and 'You, Me and the Apocalypse' before that. Angeline Ball who plays Imelda (Quirke) and she was in 'Shameless'. There's a great performance by Colm Meaney who plays Jimmy's dad (Jimmy Rabitte sr) and he was in 'Layer Cake', 'Tolkien' and 'Gangs of London'.

So I ask - "Where's the destination you would ask the man at the railway station to go to?" and "If you put something together, will it stay together?" Let's get right into this review and find out!

Have you ever tried to put something together and hoped it would work? You know, like a team at work or an event like a party for family and friends. Lots of elements that all need to work at the same time.The vision that you have, the destination you want to get to. The problem with that is, is everybody getting a ticket to the right place and will it work in the end?

We're going to follow Jimmy through his story in the movie. His vision and dream is to build a band, put them out there and make them successful but we know the problem with that, there's lots of characters and everybody's got an opinion! Will it work? Will it fail? Let's get right into this plot and find out!

So Jimmy lives in Dublin, He hasn't got a job, he's been unemployed ever since he left school. He makes a bit of money by selling bootleg items such as t-shirts, LP's, video cassettes and music cassettes, whatever they might be! He's grown up through the '70's and '80's and now we're in the early '90's. Dublin's a fabulous, vibrant place, full of culture, different mixes, and it's a good vibe to be. Jimmy wants to put a band together and he only knows two musicians, who've recently left the band that they were in due to musical differences. So he now has Derek and Outspan. He puts an advert in the local paper and all the auditions take place in his Mum and Dad's house in front of him, his mum and dad and his brothers and sisters. There's Cajun music being played in the bathroom. There's Skiffle music being played on the stairs. There's people doing tap dancing. There's a guy doing Thrash Metal with a guitar on his back and there's also a guy doing a rendition from 'Fame' and I think that's something to do with Alan Parker. There's a great bit in it where there's someone playing the fiddle. In the background in the living room just towards the kitchen, you can see his mum and his sisters all doing an Irish jig. From the auditions, they get Dean and he's a saxophonist and he wants to be a part of the band too, so now there's three.

The story is going to move on a little bit here. We don't see any more of the auditions but somehow we get a pianist in Stephen and he plays organ at the local church but he can get a piano so he's in the band. We see Billy, who's a local Blacksmith. He plays the drums and he can get hold of a set of drums and a van to move them around in. There's also Decco. He's a bus conductor and he's a great singer because Jimmy saw him once and he knows he's got a great voice. The only person missing now is Joey (The Lips) Fagan. He's a 50 plus year old man who's supposed to have played with all the greats but we're not sure whether that's true or if it's all made up! Then there's the three backing singers, Imelda, Natalie and Bernie, and they become 'The Commitmentettes'. And so The Commitments are born.

As they are chatting about it, the type of music they're going to play, and getting to know each other verbally, there's a great scene on the Metro where they start singing 'Destination Anywhere'. And if you remember, if you have been paying attention, that was one of the questions that I asked at the start. They practice at the local Pool Hall on a number of occasions to get better and the music starts to come together. They play a local benefit at the church for the priest. It's to do with 'heroine' and there's a misspelling but you'll have to watch the movie for that. At the end of the gig somebody nearly gets electrocuted. They rush to the hospital but all is well.

So, from the gig we move on to play different gigs to get them better. There's a skating rink and there's some other venues but we're heading towards the end of the movie. There's going to be a big concert, or a gig that is, in one of the big bars in Dublin city centre. Joey has organised that Wilson Picket will come and play with them, but will he or won't he? That's the big question, but it certainly brings the crowds in.This is where we see the band at the end when they are actually very good. There's some great renditions - 'Mustang Sally' , and 'Try a Little Tenderness', as well as 'Never Kissed a Man' and 'Chain of Fools'.

It shows the band waiting but, you know, I can't give away the spoilers because I never do. All I can say is this is a great movie, the script is good, the characters are good, it's natural, it's raw and it's full of comedy as well.

If you want to know what happens in the end, then, like I always say, you'll have to watch the movie. We're all heading to a destination but can we get there and can we all find the same one? Do we all want to find the same one? We're all different at the end of the day. The thing about it is, when you go somewhere, an event maybe, just have a think because somebody's destination is where you're at. So do your best at it, enjoy it for what it is. Somebody's put a lot of time and effort into it, you would expect them to do the same. And always remember, you know the end of the movie, or the story, whatever it is there is always the chance for a new one to begin.

The trivia in this movie is really good too.

In the early part of the film, at the auditions, there's a boy with a skateboard outside the house. He's called Peter Rowen. He's quite famous but you won't recognise him as he was there because in 1980 U2 had an album called 'Boy' and he's photographed on the front cover. And also, they had an album in 1983, called 'War' and he's on the front cover of that. A lot younger, obviously.

Did you know that this is one of Quentin Tarantino's favourite movies and as a result of him watching it Bronagh Gallagher, who he likes a lot, got the part of Trudi in 'Pulp Fiction'.

Did you also know that 4 of the band 'The Corrs' appear in this movie, obviously a long time before they formed the pop group. In fact the bit that I told you about, where someone is playing the fiddle and they're all dancing in the kitchen, that's actually one of the Corrs.

The final bit of trivia for those of you who know guitars, there's a bit where Derek is playing a Fender bass. He's playing it left-handed but if you look closely you'll see that it's actually a right-handed one and they've just turned it over for the movie.

The music in this movie is just exceptional. The original soundtrack is well worth listening to because each of the songs that they do are just as good as the original artist. I'm not going to tell you which other songs there are as I've already mentioned a few in the movie. All I can say is, it's well worth getting.