A series of four adaptations by Wes Anderson of Roald Dahl stories. Wes Anderson adapting a Roald Dahl story seems a perfect combination: the clever innocence of Dahl's writing, Anderson's whimsical, stylised direction. It's been done before, to great effect; 'Fantastic Mr Fox' (2009) was brilliant.

However, while none of the episodes are terrible, they are a bit of a mixed bag.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar - 7/10

An interesting plot, some highly engaging characters, some spot-on performances from an all-star cast (Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel, Richard Ayoade, all in multiple roles) and Anderson's use of seemingly basic effects, props and settings create a whimsical, child-like atmosphere.

On the negative side the matter-of-fact tone makes you feel like you're consuming bullet points of a plot rather than being engrossed in the movie. It's the downside to the whimsicalness, I guess. In addition, I was expecting a punchier ending which never came.

The Swan - 8/10

The best of the lot, with Dahl's emotional story of innocence-meets-thuggery set to Anderson's clever backdrops and special effects and imbued with the usual Anderson whimsicalness and child-like atmosphere. Rupert Friend is great as the narrator.

Not perfect though. The film seemed set up for a powerful ending but this never came, just fizzling out. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar was similar - great journey, lacklustre destination. Hopefully this isn't a characteristic of all these films.

The Rat Catcher - 6/10

From the previous two, the style and presentation of the films are a given. A quirky, reasonably engaging story, narration with the narrator talking in short, bullet-point-like sentences, highly-stylised backdrops and props, great performances (in this case from Ralph Fiennes, Rupert Friend and Richard Ayoade).

A less positive aspect has been that while the story is engaging, it has no punchline. It simply fizzles out. The Rat Catcher is no exception.

Here it is a touch worse in that the story never really seems to fully get going anyway. At least the other two had a fair degree of momentum.

Still, it's interesting and watchable enough.

Poison - 6/10

Poison is similar to the other three short films in the series in that it contains narration with the narrator talking in short, bullet-point-like sentences, an engaging story and some quirky backdrops and props. The backdrops are bit less of a factor here, due to this film being set almost entirely in one location.

The other three had a nasty habit of leaving you dangling at the end - setting you up with an engaging, seemingly set up for a powerful ending and then just fizzling out, sans punchline. This one seemed to be heading to buck the trend but, alas, it is more of the same. There is a half-theme around ungraciousness and racism at the end but it really isn't developed well enough to have an impact.

Interesting enough, just don't expect too much of the conclusion.

These four short stories are brilliant. With Wes' style it's like a match made in heaven. The stories almost feel like bed time stories. And the cast choice was superb. The only member i didnt like was Richard Ayoade, just because his lifeless acting and voice annoys me ?. First time watching all these in the big combined film

Story 1 - ' The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar', was great seeing Benedict in a Wes production. And the arc it took was supering interesting.

Story 2 - 'The Swan', was effortlessly told by Rupert Friend. Never seen him before, very talented.

Story 3 - 'The Rat Catcher', Ralph finnes at his best. Diving into this character, creepy, the voice, costume and mannerisms

Story 4 - 'Poison', was brilliant as Dave Patel & Bendicts chemistry was great. Would love to see these two together for future wes productions. Was quite comical which I loved.

Sleepy, nonsense, with too many meaningless long shots. The cinematography quite boring and stiff waste of time and money at triple speed to watch, audience walk out after 20 minutes, short-sighted, trivial, tasteless, lengthy. Precisely this is just another commercial that been originated by moron tobacco company. Speechless, so embarrassing, horrible, ridiculous, the director unbridled cheapening of time not only caused great physical and mental discomfort, do nothing just smoking only, nicotine addictive, documentary not like documentary, movie not like movie, if don't know how to make a film, just donate money, minus ten for rating.