Inside Out!: Pixar Does It AGAIN!

Because I currently live in the UK, some movies come out at odd times. Inside Out just came out here even though it has been out in the States for a month. I finally saw this movie and I have one reaction for Inside Out.

Inside Out was fantastic. Pixar did it again and I think they outdid themselves. I absolutely loved this movie, but first I want to talk about the short that played before the movie.

I loved this short and I forgot that they do this. Its been a while since I last saw a Pixar movie in a theater so I wasn't expecting this. I loved the short story and thought it was beautiful that the whole piece was done in song. It is a simple love story and was strikingly, gorgeously animated. The short animated film is an art in its own right and this one is awesome.

Now lets get back to the main feature. Inside out was great and was great for a number of reasons:

1. Characters.

        The characters in this film were an achievement. The characters are emotions, so going in I questioned how they were going to bring these emotions to life as full fledged characters. How do you give a full range of emotions to a character that is supposed to be a single emotion? Can you give joy fear, anger, sadness? These were my questions going into the film and boy were they answered. The film makers did a great job giving each emotion character motivations and overall personality with complex emotions. Joy could be happy and sad and confused and angry and afraid. Their most significant trait was their base emotion, which makes sense, but they carefully crafted each character into full blown complex characters.

2. The Premise

        The premise of this movie is really unique. It follows a group of characters, which control the emotions of a person, who live inside a young girl, Reilly's, brain. They help control the emotional reactions of Reilly and and make sure that she lives as great a life as possible. I love the idea of a story that follows the shenanigans and adventures of the emotions in Reilly's head. It was great.

3. The Story

       The story in this film was great and it was based on two interlocking stories. Reilly and her family moved from Minnesota to San Francisco and her story followed how she dealt with the changes in her life. The other story was about the mistakes and subsequent adventure that Reilly's emotions went on. The two stories tied together because  just as Reilly made the move, problems began to happen for the emotions which in turn caused more problems for Reilly. As more and more went wrong for the emotions, Reilly's experiences in San Fran got worse. The story did a great job getting the audience invested in all the characters and the audience cared what happened to everyone.

Inside Out was amazing and once again Pixar was not afraid of dealing with complex concepts. The film deals with complex emotions and can be seen as an example of how emotions work. It shows how emotions are not simple and have complex and different results. I could really see this film being used to teach kids about emotions and used to help kids control, rationalize, and understand their own feelings. The film even deals with death and the emotions that result from that. I thought this film was really powerful and potentially one of the most influential Pixar films yet. It had lots of great moments and was overall one of their best. I give Inside Out a 5/5. This movie was amazing and if you haven't seen it yet please go now!

Ant-Man Review: It doesn't get any bigger than this! And I tried something new!

Today I am reviewing Marvel’s newest masterpiece, Ant-Man. And I am not using the word Masterpiece lightly. Ant-Man is absolutely fantastic! All parts of this film were great including the story, the characters, the actors, and the special effects. But this movie was never a guaranteed success due to early production problems and setbacks and honestly the character Ant-Man is an odd concept. The first director and writer for the film was Edgar Wright and after years of development he left the project due to creative differences with Marvel. Production of Ant-Man started years ago before what we now know as the Marvel Cinematic Universe had coalesced into what we see today. Edgar’s vision for Ant-Man no longer matched the thematic and tonal characteristics of Marvel studios, so it was better for both parties to go their separate ways.

After Edgar left, Marvel hired Payton Reed to direct the film and brought in Adam McKay along with their leading actor Paul Rudd to rewrite the screenplay originally written by Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish. McKay and Rudd stated that they rewrote the film in order to make it fit better into the MCU but that they maintained the heart and core of Wright’s version. We will never know exactly what was included in the original version and what was added or changed in McKay and Rudd’s version but whatever the mixture was created a great story that translated into a great film.

The story of this film is broken down into a few simple tropes. First it is a heist film. Our heroes Hank Pym, Hope Pym, and Scott Lang attempt to break into a top secret facility in order to steal shrinking technology that would send the world into chaos. We get all the classic heist film motifs involving planning the heist, training for the heist, and even having to break into another facility to recover the one tool needed to complete the job. This particular scene was one of the highlights of the film. Scott must break into an old Stark facility to steal a piece of tech that will allow them to completely wipe Darren Cross’s memory core. But nothing is ever that simple. The facility turns out to be the new Avengers base seen at the end of Age of Ultron. Scott goes up against Falcon, beats Falcon, and recovers the device. What ensues is a classic heist where the heist goes wrong, the villain goes after our hero’s loved ones, and the hero must step up and put his or her life on the line to save the day. The other highlight of the film was the climatic fight scene. What was so great about this scene was it is a great fight between Ant-Man and Yellow Jacket inside a young girl’s bedroom. It is one of the coolest fight scenes in a movie I think I have ever seen. The whole idea of putting a fight inside a bedroom is genius and it would only work in the context of this film. The results are that the heist failed, but Scott saves the day, stops Yellow Jackets, and becomes a true hero.

Another theme is that the film is a redemption story. Scott is a criminal. He has been in prison and has difficulty separating himself from the lifestyle of crime. But Hank Pym gives him a chance to change and become a better man. He eventually takes the offer and becomes that better man. He is redeemed in the eyes of Hope, his friends, his ex-wife, and her new husband.

The final theme of the story is that it is a story about fathers and daughters. There are two father/daughter relationships in this film. The first is between Scott and his young daughter. All Scott wants to do is be there for his daughter. To provide for her. But due to his past he has difficulty paying child support and without it he is not allowed to spend time with her. She idolizes him, but he isn’t the person she thinks he is. So he seeks to be the man she thinks he is, and that is his motivation for becoming Ant-Man. He never needed to be redeemed in his daughter’s eyes, but he wanted to be better for her and he becomes that better man. He is able to provide for his daughter and be there for her and be the man she always thought he was. The other father/daughter relationship in this movie is between Hank and Hope. This relationship need more fixing as there was decades of animosity built up between them. After Hank’s wife died, he dove into his work to try to recover her, but kept everything that happened to her and what he was doing from Hope. All she saw was a man who was not there for her when she needed it the most and who didn’t care for her. Then she voted him out of his own company and they were estranged for years until Darren Cross attempted to recreate Hank’s shrinking tech. Through working together to stop Cross, Hank and Hope finally talk about what happened to her mother and talked through their differences. They mended the break between them, realized how much they actually care for each other, and now have a future where they can have a lasting relationship. In the first post-credit scene, Hank gives Hope a prototype Wasp suit. This action symbolizes the mending of their relationship and the trust and confidence they now have in each other.

The special effects for this movie were spectacular and needed to be for this film. The idea of Ant-Man pushes towards the absurd and the effects played a big part in making this movie just believable enough that you could suspend your disbelief. The shrinking effects had to be good and all the effects when Ant-man was small needed to be really good. The effects in this film may be the best in any Marvel movie. All the ant animations were great. The digital environments looked real. The use of the effects to push the story forward and to add flavor to the battle scenes was great. The constant switching between big and small made sense and added a layer to the fights that isn’t possible in any other story. It also allowed them to use the effects for comedic effect, such as during the train sequence. The effects in Age of Ultron felt rushed and incomplete, but here they were almost perfect. This film was beautiful and was successful because of the effects.

The story and themes in this movie are great and are classic pieces of filmmaking. The effects are brilliant. But none of it would work without great characters and great actors playing those characters and this film has all of that. Hank Pym played by Michael Douglas. Scott Lang played by Paul Rudd. Hope Pym played by Evangeline Lily. Michael Pena as Luis. Anthony Mackie as Falcon. Abby Ryder Fortson as Scott’s daughter Cassie. All these actors shine as their characters. Michael Douglas is really really good in this movie. He is perfect as Hank Pym. When older actors sign on for these big films, I worry that they will just phone it in, but Douglas does not. He took it seriously and that comes across. He became Hank Pym. Evangeline Lily is awesome as Hope. She plays a great character who is skeptical of Scott and knows she could do the job just as good. She is a strong, independent character and Lily does a great job portraying the changes her character goes through throughout the film and I cannot wait to see her become The Wasp. She will be great at that! Paul Rudd steals the show though. This is his best performance in a movie in my opinion. He really becomes Scott Lang. He is charming and funny like you expect, but he also is believably heroic. He expresses his motivations and you really understand his character. The side characters are also really memorable. Anthony Mackie’s appearance is great. Anytime he is in a Marvel movie is a great time. Fortson steals every scene she is in. She is adorable as Cassie. But the funniest person in this film was Michael Pena. His Luis character was hilarious. Every time he was onscreen I was laughing. His sequences where he explained how he got a tip were hysterical. His delivery was awesome and I hope he keeps popping up throughout the MCU.

That all being said Marvel still has a problem. They have trouble creating good villains. Darren Cross is the villain in this movie, but he is not that developed. His motivation is the perceived slight from Hank. It’s hard to believe that a perceived slight would cause a guy to want to build a superweapon, want to kill Hank, unleash chaos on the world, and threaten to kill a little, innocent girl. This film’s villain fits into Marvel’s tendency for cookie-cutter villains. They need to give their villains more depth. Hopefully Thanos will be good but as of now their only great villain is Loki. Cross is ok and is definitely better than most of Marvel’s villains, but he is still nothing spectacular. They really need to up their game.

Overall this is a great movie. I absolutely loved it. It has great story elements, beautiful special effects, and many great characters. All of that including the mediocre villain makes this one of my favorite Marvel movies. It is one of my top 5 favorite films and one of my top 3 favorite films of this year.  As for a rating, I will give this movie 4.75 out of 5. If the villain had been better I would have went higher, but it is still a great movie. I can’t wait to see it again and am excited to see what Marvel does next with Captain America Civil War. Well, that’s all for now. 

Mr. Holmes: Not Your Traditional Sherlock

Mr. Holmes is not a big summer blockbuster. It is a smaller film made by Miramax and BBC Films. I didn't know this film was coming out, but about a month ago I saw a trailer for it while seeing another movie and was intrigued. The basis of the film is that it shows Sherlock Holmes trying to solve a few mysteries later in his life.

In actuality, Mr. Holmes follows three separate but interconnecting story lines. The film starts off with a 90+ year old Sherlock returning from a trip to his country home with his live-in housekeeper, Mrs. Munro, and her young son Roger, who is about 10-12 years old. He develops a bond with Roger over their mutual interest in bee keeping. As the film progresses it is revealed that Sherlock is suffering from a disease like Alzheimer's which is causing him to quickly loose parts of his memories, forget peoples' names, and whole conversations and that he is trying to stave off the effects for as long as he can so he can write the story of his final case as to correct the many fallacies that Dr. Watson included in his publications. This is one of the three storylines. The second unfolds as he remembers parts of his final case which occurred decades earlier. This storyline reveals what happened and what caused Sherlock to stop solving cases and move to the country in exile. The third storyline revolves the complex relationship he has with Roger and his mother. He is fond of the boy and encourages him to follow his interests and learn as much as he can and be observant of the world around him. Roger eagerly works with Sherlock follows his advice. This causes friction between Roger and his mother and between the mother and Sherlock as she believes Sherlock is a bad influence on her son.

By the end of the movie, Sherlock has remembered his final case and the reasons why he quit and went into hiding, he has come to terms with his deteriorating mind, and mended his relationship with Roger and Mrs. Munro, and finally learns the valuable social skills needed for interpersonal interaction that he lacked when he was younger.

This is a wonderful movie. Ian McKellen is great in this role. The way he portray's Sherlock Holmes is exactly how I would have envisioned him in his later years. He played him perfectly. It was some of the best casting I have seen in a movie this year. He was great. I like him a lot better as Sherlock than Robert Downy Jr. who was really fun too. The best modern Sherlock is still Benedict Cumberbatch, but McKellen was spectacular. Laura Linney was also really good in this movie. She plays Mrs. Munro and her character growth is wonderful. She does a great job portraying the characters changes over the course of the movie. She really does a great job evoking emotion from the audience and is really memorable. Milo Parker stole the show though. He plays the young boy Roger who befriends Sherlock. It is not an easy task to work alongside a great like Ian McKellen and hold your own and Milo does this wonderfully. You really like watching this character and pull for him to learn from Sherlock and climb higher than his social status traditionally would allow. When he argues with his mother and yells at her he plays the emotional roller coaster it sets him on with ease. You see his character grow and learn and plays a positive influence on both Sherlock and his mother. I really liked him and really succeeded in the critical role he played in the film.

Overall this movie is really good. It has a well thought out and executed story. It has really good characters and fantastic actors playing the roles. The director does a great job switching seamlessly between the different storylines and the different time periods. Set design was really good and Ian McKellen's make-up for this film was great. They made him look two different ages and if it wasn't successful the movie would have not been as believable. If you like movies and are looking for a quiet movie instead of the loud, bombastic summer blockbuster than this is the movie for you. My final rating of the film is 3.75/5.

Please Stop Coming Back: Review of Terminator Genisys

Terminator Genisys was exactly what I feared it was going to be. Not very good. Actually looking back it was bad. A complete disappointment.

The Terminator franchise has so much potential. Terminator and Terminator 2 were great films. The first was a sci-fi horror action movie and the second was more of characteristic sci-fi action film. In my opinion they are two of the greatest films of the last 30 years. Masterpieces. With that type of heritage, expectations are raised for sequels. Terminator 3 was ok but not near as good as the first two. And then there is Terminator Salvation. I loved the idea of the movie. Show the war with the machines in the future after Judgement Day. But the execution was so so. I didn't hate that one but wasn't blown away either. It was kinda boring, and a Terminator movie being boring is a bad sign.

So now we have Terminator Genisys. An opportunity to right the ship and take Terminator back to glory. The filmmakers talked about how this was going to call back to the originals and feel like the originals and try and use the same tones as the originals. We were going to go back and visit recognizable characters like Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor. This movie had potential. It could very easily have been good, even with its stupidly spelled title. But it wasn't, so here is my breakdown of why this movie was bad.

1. The trailer: I know that this actually isn't the movie, but it pretty much was. The marketing department for this film was idiotic. If you haven't seen the full movie yet but you are familiar with the trailer, then you have pretty much seen the movie except for the final action sequence. It includes the money shots from almost every action sequence. Every surprise reveal. It even includes the biggest twist in the movie. If you have seen the trailer it effectively ruins the movie. All the dramatic tension and suspense is drained from the film because you know what to expect. It makes the movie a lot less enjoyable.

2. The Story: The story of this movie is terrible. Due to the crazy time travel dynamics in this film, they have erased the other films, including the original two movies. Similar to how J.J. Abram's Star Trek film created an alternate timeline, the events of this movie result in the events of the previous films never happening. Instead of taking what works and building upon it, they gutted the franchise and erased the parts of it that fans actually liked. The story was convoluted and confusing. It jumps around time periods too much and doesn't focus on the parts of the story that actually work. It didn't feel like a Terminator movie. It had Terminators in it, but that alone doesn't make it a Terminator film.

3. Jai Courtney: Can we please stop putting this guy in movies! His portrayal of Kyle Reese was terrible. He looked out of place, had no chemistry with the other actors, and dragged down scenes he was in, which is almost every one. And his character had no personality. But these are recurring problems for Jai. He had similar issues in Jack Reacher, has no personality or gravitas in Divergent, was terrible as John McClain's son in A Good Day to Die Hard, and in this he wasn't good. Maybe he will be better in Insurgent, but i'm not expecting anything. But he needs to be better in Suicide Squad. It might help that he will be surrounded by great actors and a great director for that, because he was really good on the Starz show Spartacus which had a large cast. Studios need to stop putting him in leading roles.

There were some things that were ok with this film. Here they are.

1. Emilia Clarke: Emilia Clarke is famous for her role as the Mother of Dragons on Game of Thrones, but she is not as spectacular in this role. At the beginning of the movie, it feels like she is doing a poor Linda Hamilton impersonation, but as the film progresses, she takes the role and makes it her own and she grows into it. By the end of the movie you believe that she is Sarah Connor, but it is not seamless. She is good in this movie but not great. If they make another one of these, she could be better, but I hope for the sake of her career that they don't. I like her as an action star and think she can pull it off. She needs however a better franchise that she can make her own, just like she made her character in Game of Thrones her own.

Things that were actually really good!

1. Arnold Schwarzenegger: This was the biggest surprise in this movie. Arnold was awesome. For a few years now Arnold has been trying to reestablish himself in the film industry and this is by far his best attempt. He was really good in this movie. His take on this Terminator, being older and more experienced, was a great character progression and he played it brilliantly. Even with a bad story around him, Arnold shined in this film. He was funny, you felt for his character, and he was shockingly relate-able. You understood his characters motivations and were able to connect with him. He was the best part of this movie. I just wish that the trailer wouldn't have ruined many of his best moments.


Overall this movie was not good. I was bored in the theater, but felt that if the trailer had not given the whole movie away ahead of time it would have been better. There was a whole 10 minutes in the middle where the audience is obviously not supposed to know what is going on so that they are as shocked as the characters are at the big twist. But because the trailer revealed the twist, the importance and magnitude of the sequence is lost. If I had never seen the trailer I think I would have given this movie a 2.5/5. But I did see the trailer and the movie suffered for it, my final grade for Terminator Genisys is 2/5.