Director Steven Spielberg's latest film “The BFG" is an adaptation of a Roald Dahl children's book. Time Warner Cable News film critic Neil Rosen filed the following review.
The initials BFG stand for Big Friendly Giant, and it is about a kindhearted giant who whisks a young girl named Sophie away from an orphanage and brings her to a secret land populated by even bigger giants. These other giants are dangerous bullies who want to serve Sophie up as a meal and it is up to the friendly giant to protect her.
The friendly giant is played by the great actor Mark Rylance in a process called motion capture, and the film is a combination of live action and digital imagery. For a Spielberg film the effects and technology were sadly not all that impressive.
Rylance is wasted here, as his character mangles the English language with weird words. This is supposed to be funny, but it becomes really annoying after five minutes.
There is also an overly long, low brow flatulence gag that's also supposed to humorous, but I can't see that appealing to many people over the age of six.
The other giants are dimwitted, simplistic and cartoonish, while Sophie's character is one dimensional. Consequently, it is not engaging and you cannot connect to it emotionally.
The screenplay was written by the late Melissa Mathison, who also wrote "E.T.," but there's no "E.T." magic to be found here. Even the title, BFG, is redundant, as there is no such thing as a small giant. However, the redundancy is indicative of the entire film. The two-hour running time drags as this Spielberg misfire winds up being uninspiring and tedious.
One and a Half Apples