The BFG
2016  PG  FANTASY  1h 57min
CAST— Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton, Jemaine Clement, Rebecca Hall, Rafe Spall, Bill Hader
MUSIC— John Williams  DIRECTOR— Steven Spielberg  BASED ON— The BFG (novel), by Roald Dahl

     Less than impressive effort from Steven Spielberg features giants, mutilated English and uncontrollable flatulence. An orphan named Sophie peeks out her window and sees a giant skulking around, he sees her and for some reason gently kidnaps her and takes her to a land of giants, where danger and adventure are around every corner. This particular giant, called the Big Friendly Giant (BFG, FYI) is a dream catcher; he can catch dreams both good and bad, can mix them around and, with his over-sized trumpet, blow the dreams into those who are asleep. But the BFG seems to be the only friendly giant in Giant Country; the rest are smelly people-eaters who are onto the fact that the BFG is hiding a human from them. Sophie has the idea to enlist the Queen of England in the fight against the bad guys, which is fine with the queen because she’s nice, too. The film is predictably overloaded with exaggerated CGI, nothing really convincing aside from the talents of Mark Rylance, whose performance as the BFG steals the show. If only there were much else to recommend.
OUR RATING— **
ORIGINAL— The BFG (1989)