A madcap dark comic gem from Wes Anderson

Rating: 8/10 (29 May 2014)

I love Wes Anderson. There I said it. His films fill me up with some much glee and joy. The man loves film making. He makes stories for film fans. Look at his filmography and you can tell the man must watch hundreds of films a year. He's almost created his own genre. I would say the quirky comic fantasy is his and his alone. I never know when he's going to drop a film but then I get a trailer. I get so excited like a little kid for that new toy release. I was the same way when I saw the first trailer for The Grand Budapest Hotel.
The trailer, mainly the cast blew my mind. He always able to get a great cast for his films. And what makes me happy the most is that I saw familiar faces from his other films were going to show up in this film. It was a hilarious trailer that I had to tweet, Facebook and post on Tumblr. The viewing for this movie for me was going to be in a power packed week. I had seen Noah before it and The Winter Soldier after. I should have know this would be a standout.
Wes Anderson has once again created a whole world that could be somewhere on earth. His characters are deep and engaging, his direction is fantastic and his actors bring out their best as usual. The story is a wild murder mystery with some eccentric characters on display. This film is the most R-Rated film of his. It's dark, much darker than anything his ever done. And I welcome it. He gets pretty serious, especially when some of the events start to unfold after the initial introduction. There is no main character that doesn't have something tragic happen to them. If I would say anymore it would give too much of the plot.
For me The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is my favorite Wes Anderson film and one of my favorite films of all time. The Grand Budapest Hotel is a much darker tone of film than that but no less funny with some serious moments. I was laughing hysterically from beginning to end. There are some classic comic moments that haven't been seen in films in a long time. This harking back to the 70's and 80's days. The entire cast is one point. Ralph Fiennes, Willem Dafoe and Adrian Brody standing out. And the litany of cameos will make you smile and many times giggle.
This film stuck with me for longer than I thought after walking out of the theater. I felt for these characters and would have loved to see more. That's the type of film for me that stands the test of time. I'm not putting this on an all time comic level but The Grand Budapest Hotel is an another excellent outing from a director who has slowly crafted his own universe and genre. There's nothing more I could say other than I haven't laughed this hard in a movie in months.