I've gotta say, some of Pixar's more recent movies have been somewhat sub-par. Neither of the Cars movies moved me very much, though I don't blame Pixar for Cars 2 -- Disney basically forced Pixar to make it, even after Pixar declared that they'd said everything they wanted to with the first movie.
And though I loved Monsters, Inc., Monsters U. was -- a disappointment.
So it's really gratifying to see them hit it out of the park with Inside Out. Pixar's still got it.
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“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
Agreed on most points, though I like Cars better than most.
I admit to being leery of Inside Out initially because even the trailers felt tonally different. Little did I know, it was different in a very good way.
And now I'm leery of The Good Dinosaur. The postponement of the premiere does nothing to settle my unease.
I thought Cars was a whole lot of fun. But I have a bias working on me. I already like automobiles and NASCAR in a nostalgic way. I still haven't seen Cars 2.
Something that didn't dawn on me for quite awhile is that Joy and Sadness both have blue hair. Every other character (Disgust, Anger, Fear, Sadness) has hair the color of his/her skin, so you'd expect Joy to be blonde. But Joy's hair is the same color as Sadness' hair.
That was probably intentional. It's a fairly subtle way of showing that Joy and Sadness are the two sides of a coin, and that you can't really have one without the other. Nicely done, Pixar.
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“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
Cars and Ratatouille were... not good. I didn't see Monsters U or Cars 2, and I frankly didn't even realize until it came out that they had a new movie.
Just got back from Jurassic World. I enjoyed the nods to the original (p. sure I nearly wore out my VHS when I was a kid), and though it's not going to win any awards (except maybe a nod for VFX), it was fun. Christ Pratt is great.
I thought Inside Out was very good as well. Also had some relevance to my childhood in the big move from Cleveland (Ohio, of course) to semi-rural North Carolina, which I was not particularly happy about at the time. In retrospect... I still think it was a mistake. We all would've enjoyed a more urban area of NC better.
I was slightly bothered by the fact that Riley's emotions aren't all the same gender, but everyone else's were.
I really liked Herman's Head. Ironically, it got better the more it got out of his head and focused on other characters. I still use a line from it all the time. "It was lost in a tragic purse cleaning accident."
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"freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order."
- Justice Robert Jackson, West Virginia State Board of Ed. v. Barnette
Yay, Pixar's back!
This is easily going down as one of their classic tales that no one's done in such a visually stunning way. I loved the energetic shimmer coming off the emotions giving them a sense of constant motion.
They also nailed SF, and I don't just mean the tourist spots but the streets and building styles were right on, I almost swear I've walked down that alley. There are also multiple schools that look like some sort of distopia prison.
Did you laugh at the dead dog joke? I did.
Given the way the movie expands on sadness and her Mom wasn't obviously depressed or anything my guess is her main driver is the evolved form of sadness, 'empathy.'
Apparently, Inside Out was written specifically for the Li'l Puppet. It was so painfully on the nose that I don't think we'll be able to see it again terribly soon. It wasn't Minnesota, nor hockey, but other than that -- damn.
At the end of it, she wanted to stay to see if
the imaginary friend was really gone forever, or would pop up somewhere in the credits.
When that didn't happen, she started crying anew -- but she said, "I'm not crying about that, it's just ..."
"I know," I told her.
I, of course, was the stoic and strong he-man I always am. It must've been damned hot in that theater, though, 'cause my shirt was all wet before that Lava thing was even over, and stayed that way all through the movie. I should've complained to management.
Oh, we also saw Tomorrowland before we went to Disneyland, which was fun. But stupid Disneyland actually had the Innoventions building freaking CLOSED the whole time we were there. I saw your damned movie specifically to prepare for that! The wall around it is decorated with shots of Athena & friends in the flying thingie, so I'm guessing they're in the process of adding movie-related stuff; I just thought it would make sense to finish that by the time the film came out. Fucking stupid mouse.
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"Her eyes in certain light were violet, and all her teeth were even. That's a rare, fair feature: even teeth. She smiled to excess, but she chewed with real distinction." - Eleanor of Aquitaine
Wife and I spent a romantic afternoon, watching Gone Girl. I enjoyed the movie as much as I enjoyed the book. The pacing was tighter in the movie, but that is to be expected.
By the end, we felt pretty good about our relationship.
It's the story about a woman hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (I think that's what it's called anyway) to sort of re-discover herself. Sounds pretentious but is really, really great! I'm not a big fan of R. Witherspoon butr she's great here. Really great!
We saw the Apu trilogy , and it was amazing. There is something a little daunting about three movies just about some kid and his life, but the story is engaging and beautifully told, and it's sad and funny and charming throughout, and each of the movies stands on its own, so you don't even need to commit to the whole series if you don't want to. And the restorations are amazing. There are a few isolated scenes where parts of the soundtrack cut out for a few seconds, but other than that, you'd never know it was almost lost forever.
Also, the kid in the first movie is on the short list of the best (and also cutest) kids on screen. It always baffles me how some filmmakers can get these tiny little children to act so naturally on screen. Little kids in movies are almost always just sort of cringe inducing for me. They're too stupid, too smart, too twee, too obviously shallow representations of children rendered by adults, but every now and again, you get a kid actually acting like a kid in a movie, and have to wonder how they even made that happen. (For the record, other contenders are The Spirit of the Beehive and pretty much every kid in a Jane Campion movie.)
It has been held over in some cities, and the releases are staggered, so if you're inclined, you might be able to find some showings still.
Minions - Entertaining but not ground shattering. If you've seen the trailer you've seen a portion of the movie, and the plot doesn't get anymore complex than that, in fact I'm not sure if I could even spoil the movie and yet I was still entertained.
My minion was amused and now needs a pet rat of his own! (I have a minion backpack I've been slowly modifying).
It's kind of impressionistic and surreal, and it's very dark, but it's also very funny. There is a particular part where it takes a sudden grim turn that Matlock said almost ruined it for him, but I like movies that mess with you like that, so I actually thought that was a high point.
It's the third in a trilogy, and I really wanted to come home and find the first two streaming somewhere, but neither one is legally available on any of the services I checked. BOO. BOO BOO BOO.
It's the story of a young jazz drummer (Miles Teller) and his teacher J.K. Simmons. Brilliant movie with fantastic actors (especially J.K. Simmons! Holy shit!).
Robert Cole, a boy in 11th Century London, was orphaned when his mother died of a mysterious illness, probably appendicitis. He was too old to be adopted, so he apprenticed to a traveling barber-healer-showman played by Stellan Skarsgard. Rob, played by Tom Payne, learns all he can from the barber, but yearns to know more and better ways to heal people. He leaves England and travels to Persia, pretending to be a Jew because the Muslims tolerate them, but kill Christians. He seeks to be trained by the Persian physician and teacher, Ibn Sina, played by Sir Ben Kingsley. Rob and Ibn Sina are sentenced to die after Rob opens up the corpse of a Persian non-muslim who died of the same illness that befell his mother, to find out why. He found the man's infected appendix. He is spared so he can save the Shah from the same fate of a burst appendix by doing surgery on him. There were fires and battles and so on, then he returns to London to start a hospital.
The cinematography was amazing, many shots look like paintings. The makeup and set design was superb. The acting was p. good too.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
There is a cataclysmic event that will end all life on Earth, an asteroid or comet or something, and the death it deals is coming to Australia at a thousand miles per hour. People are either going crazy, burning, killing, and raping for fun, or partying like it's the party to end all parties. Those that aren't are hiding from the crazies, suicidal from fear of what's coming. Jim wants to take his girlfriend to a party like no other parties and see the end out that way, but she's rather suicidal and wants him to go away. Jim is drinking and driving, gets carjacked by a maniac, who jumps out to murder someone with his machete. Jim escapes him, then rescues a little girl that was going to be raped and killed by two other maniacs. He takes the girl to the party. Then things get weird.
This is a fast-paced film with Jim facing mortality and morals, then finding himself before the end.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
It's an Argentinian movie nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. It's actually 6 short stories revolving around revenge. It's dark (very, very dark), brutal, funny and so very good! A must see!
Daughter and I will be doing a matinee weekend. She wants to see Jurassic World (!) and I want to see Inside Out. Folks who have seen both, help me convince her that my choice is the right one!
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