The Lorax (U)
HH
Dir: Chris Renaud, Kyle Balda
Voices of: Zac Efron, Danny DeVito
Running time: 84mins
THIS latest Dr Seuss adaptation comes from the same team behind the enjoyable Horton Hears A Who! but is neither as fun nor as memorable. Rather, it's preachy to the point of irritating and even hypocritical.
Seuss's children's book was a short, sharply observed eco-parable that sought to warn against the dangers of corporate greed. But the film suffers from a lot of the vices the author was seeking to address, especially when attempting to pad things out.
It follows the story of Ted (voiced by Zac Efron), a young boy who lives in a manufactured town where even fresh air is owned and sold by a ruthless businessman. While attempting to impress the girl of his dreams by finding a long-lost tree, however, Ted comes to hear of The Once-ler (Ed Helms), his battle with The Lorax (Danny DeVito) and the reason why there are no more trees.
In its favour, The Lorax boasts some colourful animation and is fun when sticking closest to the source material. But the environmental message is still hammered home, while the addition of a half-hearted coming-of-age romance, some forgettable songs, pop culture references and product placement mean that the movie rather misses its own point for much of the time.
Reviewed by Rob Carnevale
The Man Inside (15)
HHH
Dir: Dan Turner
With: Peter Mullan, Michelle Ryan
Runnning time: 98 mins
GLASGOW'S Peter Mullan plays a mean old bear of a boxing trainer in Dan Turner's spiky urban drama. Young fighter Clayton (Ashley Thomas, right) has a promising career ahead of him, if only he can forget his troubled past and trouble-making siblings. Though you may feel you've seen this story one too many times before, writer-director Turner does well to put a few fresh spins on the tale, and he is aided by a young cast, including Michelle Ryan, giving it their all. Mullan, meanwhile, lends heavyweight dramatic support as the mentor trying to show Clayton what it means to be your own man. Though it looks as though it was filmed in the dear green place of Glasgow, it was actually Newcastle.
Reviewed by Alison Rowat
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article