Star Wars: The Force Awakens

It's everything that the prequels were not!






**** Must See - So much fun!
Rated PG-13 (for violence)

Official Site: http://www.starwars.com/the-force-awakens/

Inside Out

Meet the emotions inside 11 year old, Riley's head that make up who she is; Joy, Anger, Fear, Disgust and Sadness.  When her family moves from the comforts of Milwaukee to a new home in San Francisco, Riley's world, and her emotions are turned upside down.

This is Pixar at its best; amazingly original, clever and full of heart.  I'm not ashamed to say it squeezed a tear or two out of me.  The animation is beautiful, with very fun Tex Avery style animation when we go inside the world of Riley's brain.  It also made me want to never move at any point in my children's lives.  In the end it communicates a wonderful message in a very funny, inventive way.

**** out of 4

Official Site: http://movies.disney.com/inside-out/

Jurassic World

The park is open, and has been successfully entertaining guests with genetically engineered dinosaurs for the past 22 years.  But corporate wants more; more money, more teeth.  Genetics have advanced and more comes in the form of a new genetically modified hybrid dinosaur, that is bigger, faster, stronger and has more teeth...what could possibly go wrong?

The original Jurassic Park is my favorite film of all time.  I credit it as my main inspiration for becoming an animator.  The subsequent sequels are two of my most despised movies of all time.  So, I approached Jurassic World with ridiculous levels of excitement and a healthy dose of trepidation.

So, after viewing Jurassic World, the first thought that comes to mind is fun.  The original it is not, but this is a very entertaining movie.  It doesn't quite capture the awe and wonder that the original did, but it couldn't, and it plays on that in a fun way that makes sense; we've been wowed, now give us more.  There's a certain level of camp and cheese that works well, for the most part.  The action and pacing is quick and well constructed.  The climax is quite epic (I may have fist pumped/cheered).  I actually saw this twice on opening weekend and both showings inspired a loud round of applause when the credits rolled, pretty fun, I haven't seen that in quite some time.  I have my complaints about some of the dinosaurs that only a dinosaur nerd like myself would care about (where are the feathers on T-Rex and the raptors!?), but I'll spare you my ramblings, and actually most of my complaints are explained away with a simple line from Dr. Wu while he's arguing with the park owner.  See, I've already started to ramble.  Fine summer fun and a worthy sequel to Jurassic Park.

*** out of 4: Must See

Official Site (very fun site, made as if it's the site for a real park): http://www.jurassicworld.com/

Inside Out

A little girls emotions are at the helm of her brain and take pride in running a tight and happy ship. When her family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco - Joy and Sadness are displaced leaving, fear, anger and disgust to run the show.

This is a very cute, very creative take on the human psyche.  The characters are all very endearing and sweet.  The story is charming and fun and at 94 minutes is perfectly timed.  There is the slight oddity that Riley's emotions are both male and female while everyone else seems to have single gender - story glitch or current social climate? You be the judge.

Children will find this new and exciting while adults will find it nostalgic and poignant.

Well done Pixar.

***1/2 Must See

Rate PG (not sure why it's not G - scary clown maybe?)

Official Site: http://movies.disney.com/inside-out/

Jurassic World

During a preliminary review of a newly developed species at a theme park, the coming attraction breaks free from its' contained habitat and runs amok putting all the guests in peril.

Does this sound familiar? It should, as it is essentially a remake of the first Jurassic Park.  Two children visit a relative that is in charge of the Dinosaur theme park. Due to the greed and inept people at InGen, the park suffers a break down and the dinosaurs wreak havoc on the park visitors.  You get the gist; it's a bit more evolved but fundamentally the same. Just bigger, scarier, and more teeth.

Overall it is the best of all the sequels even if it is a shiny remake.  It pays just enough homage to the original film that you can almost overlook that there are actual scene by scene reproductions - again just slightly more technically enhanced.

For Jurassic Junkies it's a total must see and even for the casual movie goer - it's lots of summer fun.

***Must See

Rated PG-13 (for language and violence)

Official Site: http://www.jurassicworld.com/

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

It’s part three.

OK kids, you know that I would rather walk on my lips than to criticize anybody… nevertheless let me take a moment to re-assess our situation here with the Hobbit.

The prequel to The Lord of the Ring trilogy....



To recap, the book The Fellowship of the Ring is 398 pages long. The book The Two Towers is 327 pages and the book Return of the King is 412 pages long. Each of these books were neatly adapted into award winning films of some length --178 minutes, 179 minutes, and 201 minutes respectively.



Once again, with this information, could someone please elucidate as to why the book The Hobbit, a book that is only 310 pages long was adapted into three, yes three cinematic episodes 169 minutes, 161 minutes, and finally a 144 minute picture? It makes no sense! Let me, if I may, point out the following; if I am not mistaken The Hobbit is a children’s’ book. A predecessor to the epic stories of The Lord of the Ring it may be, but it was first and foremost a CHILDRENS book. Now in my mind I would think that this is a great opportunity to create a film that is

A) Scaled back, literally and figuratively told from the perspective of a Hobbit, perhaps making it not so extravagantly warlike and grisly.

B) Is childlike, more whimsical while still full of intricate details that pay homage to the stories that will follow, yet still shrewd enough perhaps only to be appreciated by the truly devout fans, thereby letting the story and film stand on its own.

And

C) Made once (not three times) and under two hours!

This final chapter to a seemingly never ending story was in my mind a huge let down. It picks up right where we last left off and like the subtitle informs us, it is a battle of the five armies. That’s pretty much it. That's right ***spoiler alert*** there is an ostentatious battle of five armies. No plot points mind you – just a giant mêlée that plays out like a soap operatic epilogue. Although the special effects are spectacular the movie itself presents the audience with about 3 minutes of new information divided up by 141 minutes of fighting and backdrops.

For those that are earnest fans of the marathon stories it is a must see, but for those that are barely enthusiasts. Ehhh.

** Rentable

Rated PG-13 (for violence and gore)

Official Site: http://www.thehobbit.com/

Penguins of Madagascar

Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private become the target of the devious Dr. Octavius Brine. An elitist’s special ops group, known as The North Wind, comes to the rescue in an effort to stop Dr. Oct and his evil plan.


It’s forgettable. It’s cute and has very clever dialogue, most of which will be way over the head of small children. The plot itself is marginal and the characters are pretty one dimensional. However what it lacks in heart it makes up for in cynicism as it doesn’t take itself seriously in any way, which can be fun.

Nothing to run out and see, but a tolerable hour and a half at the movies if needs be.

** Rentable

Rated PG (for mild rude humor and action)

Official Site: http://madagascar.dreamworks.com/

Interstellar

In the not too distant future the earth is dying, running out of natural resources.  While humanity concentrates its efforts, finances and education on the necessities of survival; food and water. One man and his crew of explorers look to the stars to find hope and a new home for the human race. 

Writer/director, Christopher Nolan has been nearly flawless in his career with hits like Memento, The Prestige, Inception, The Dark Knight trilogy to name a few.  However, this one kind of missed the mark for me.  It's a thought provoking, somewhat mind-bending film, that is apparently based very much in scientific fact (all the more mind-bending).  An all-star cast gives great performances all around with some unexpected and unadvertised big name actors.  The special effects are very well done, to the point where you don't even think about them as effects.  

The story starts out well enough, but we don't quite fall in love with the characters, I didn't seem to care enough about them.  Also, the looming doom of the human race could've been a little more explicit.  The movie is far too long and I kind of lost interest about 30-35 minutes from the finish line.  Thankfully the resolution is fairly satisfying but still lacked the high level emotional punch that most of Nolan's films seem to end with.  

Where the film does succeed on some levels is in making you contemplate the vastness of space, the insignificance yet essential role of mankind in the universe and the great importance of being present for our loved ones and making the sacrifices necessary for their survival.

**1/2 Rentable

Rated PG-13 (for language and intense situations)

Official Website: http://www.interstellarmovie.net/

The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay, Part 1

Katniss Everdeen has been covertly freed from the life-threatening, population-controlling Hunger Games and is now the face of the rebellion against the Capitol.

Yet another series divides the final chapter into 2 movies, further padding the studios pockets and supposedly giving the fans more of what they want.  While this is a very intense, well acted movie, it does feel like they had to stretch things out to make it a full length movie.  Also it fails to give us a true resolution, which of course we'll get in part 2 of the finale.  Like I said, it is very intense, but possibly in need of a little more humor here and there to change the pace up a bit.  I have not read the books, but I can only imagine the intensity is lessened when you know what's going to happen, as I'm told the films are quite faithful to the books.  I enjoyed the movie, was very into it, but was annoyed when it ended, realizing I had to wait another year or two to find out what happens...or I guess I could read the books.

*** out of 4 - worth a trip to the theater, especially if you've invested time in the first two.

Official Site: http://www.thehungergamesexplorer.com/us/

Big Hero 6

Young science prodigy Hiro Hamada, his robotic health care companion, Baymax and friends team up to create a new band of superheroes.

Because of my line of work I was allowed to see this movie several months ago when it was nearly 80% storyboards. It was interesting to see the changes from storyboard animatic to completely animated, rendered, finished film. The story barely changed. Where it made leaps and bounds was obviously in the subtlety of the performances through completed character animation. The characters are completely endearing, appealing and funny, especially the robot Baymax. The story has a surprising amount of heart and emotion, as well as some really, inventive action sequences.

Must See ***1/2

Official Site: http://movies.disney.com/big-hero-6/mobile/