MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN – Rated PG-13
2 hrs. 7 min.
Starring Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Samuel L. Jackson, Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, and Chris O’Dowd
From the Director known for bringing DARK & DEMENTED to the big screen ~ Tim Burton ~ comes the film made from the rather unusual novel penned by Ransom Riggs by the same name..as we venture into a place as mysterious, and peculiar as the inhabitants who live there…this is MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN!!!
Living a strange and mysterious life and past, you know, the kind that stories are made of, we meet Grandpa Abe Portman (Terrance Stamp). Abe has tried to share everything about his life with his grandson Jake (Asa Butterfield), hoping to enlighten Jake to some of life’s other possibilities outside his normal upbringing…
When Abe is taken from this earth, and at the hands of a giant that seemed to come out of no where, Jake is forced to face that the tales his grandfather has shared with him over the years, might actually be TRUE!
Searching for answers in the wake of the loss of his grandfather, Jake decides to seek out the strange and exotic place where his grandfather grew up, having been told to seek out Miss Peregrine, if his grandfather ever met with his demise…
Finding this very strange woman, and her menagerie of very different children living with her too, Jake is thrilled to meet each of the individuals his grandfather told him so much about growing up..even though it seems, they haven’t changed a bit…
Entranced by this world he has been told about all his life, Jake must decide if he is to stay and help these other peculiars, or return to the life where he has never really fit in, no matter how hard he’s tried…
I give MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN a rating of WAIT AND CATCH THIS FILM ON DVD OR NETFLIX: As the trailer, and all of the promotion eludes to prior to release, this film is a very merry mix of the magic that drew us all into the HARRY POTTER phenomenon, with the tweak of providing an opportunity to access a few other X-Men like characters along the way too. The storyline is good, but not exceptional, as we find that being peculiar isn’t exactly A BAD THING. But, Samuel L Jackson is just back to his old tricks, as we don’t get anything new here that we haven’t seen from him before, and if you love the dark and dreary feel that Burton usually takes with most of his films, then you will enjoy that presence with this film too, but I was finding the whole thing nothing more than quite a bore in my estimation. And I must warn the parents out there too, take heed of the PG-13 rating, as some of the plots and elements of this film, may be way too scary and demented for some younger viewers. All it all, this film isn’t near as exceptional as I was hoping it would be going in, even with Burton’s touch moving through it, and all its peculiarity…
Kathy Kaiser
MATINEE CHAT with Kathy Kaiser 