Toy Story 4 (2019) Review

Toy Story 4 (2019)

Directed by Josh Cooley

Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Madeleine McGraw, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Ally Maki, Jay Hernandez, Lori Alan, Joan Cusack

Music by Randy Newman

Production Company Walt Disney Pictures & Pixar Animation Studios

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDb)
When a new toy called “Forky” joins Woody and the gang, a road trip alongside old and new friends reveals how big the world can be for a toy.

My Opinion:

I adore Pixar. I think they make all-time classic family films that are far better than the majority of live-action films these days. When they became a part of Disney, I knew we might get the problem of “too many sequels” since Disney love to squeeze out these easy money-makers. I know we all love these characters but did we really need yet another Toy Story film after such a perfect trilogy? No, we didn’t. Is it bad? Of course not. Other than the Cars films, Pixar don’t tend to make bad movies. Even their “not as good” films are way better than animated films from other studios. Toy Story 4 really did feel a bit pointless to me, though. While I enjoyed it and liked seeing Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang again, I felt very underwhelmed after thinking about it for a while. I also saw it a second time as extended family wanted to go to it so it was interesting to find that I actually liked it a little less the second time. I didn’t expect that.

I’ll start with the good: Forky is a great new character. I loved his whole existential crisis and wish they had actually explored that much more than they did. We also get a lot of Woody for people who are Woody fans. Wow – these names sound a bit dirty… Who wants a good Woody Forky!?! (I do). I also loved the creepy ass dummies because creepy ass dummies are awesome (I highly recommend the movies Magic and Dead Of Night if you like creepy ass dummies). I loved getting to find out what happened to Bo Peep since they just dropped her ass from these films and it’s great that she turned out to be pretty damn cool. And the animation is AMAZING. Remember when the first Toy Story came out and we were shocked at how brilliant it looked? It looks so primitive now compared to Toy Story 4. OH! I almost forgot to mention Keanu! Keanu Reeves is in this so, of course, his mere presence makes every movie better (in my opinion, at least).

Now for some of the “not so good” things: Buzz Lightyear had nothing to do in this. Neither did Jessie. Both were really wasted in this film (as were all our most beloved original characters other than Woody & Bo Peep, obviously). I know Woody was the focus of this one but that’s always been the case yet other main characters still got some decent screen time in the other movies. I wasn’t all that into the whole Gabby Gabby story, either, as its outcome was so extremely predictable. I also think they haven’t managed to get us to like Bonnie & her family all that much compared to how we feel about Andy & his mother. It just seems like we know Andy far better than we do Bonnie. Oh, and Ducky & Bunny were annoying more often than funny. The only good new addition to this one was Forky. Oh, and Duke Caboom! But that’ll be because I adore Keanu. I’d just rather have spent more time with our favorite characters than with a bunch of new ones. To be fair, a lot of new characters were added to Toy Story 3 as well but they were far stronger than the new additions to this one. I also found that the jokes in this one, for whatever reason, didn’t make me laugh the second time around whereas I still love every funny bit from the other three films. (Well, except for the high-five Combat Carl bit, which cracked me the hell up both times)

Toy Story 4 was okay. At least it’s much better than Monsters University and Finding Dory as far as Pixar sequels go. It just doesn’t have the heart of the first or the third Toy Story or the humor of the second one. People are saying they got emotional all over again with Toy Story 4 but I didn’t feel that way in the slightest. I just about burst into tears at the end of Toy Story 3. Maybe I’m just heartless now? But Inside Out still gets me feeling all emotional every damn time (and I’ve seen that one a lot now), so I think I just have sequel burnout. Enough with the sequels, please! I still love these characters and, yes, I always enjoy seeing them. But I can’t pretend that I didn’t find Toy Story 4 unnecessary.

My Rating: 7.5/10

Us (2019) Review

Us (2019)

Directed & Written by Jordan Peele

Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker

Plot Synopsis: (via IMDb)
A family’s serenity turns to chaos when a group of doppelgängers begins to terrorize them.

My Opinion:

I saw Us almost a week ago and am still trying to decide how I feel about it. I think it’s a much better film than Jordan Peele’s Get Out, so I’m happy about that. I think what frustrates me nowadays is that so many people like to shout “It’s a masterpiece!” about waaaay too many current releases. If a movie is halfway decent these days, you’ll find a bunch of people with social media accounts declaring it a masterpiece. I swear if I see one more person on Twitter praising Christopher Nolan like he’s some kind of god or saying that the quite-good-but-not-brilliant La La Land is an “all-time classic!!!”, I’m gonna snap like Thanos.

Yeah, there have been some brilliant films in the past decade. There have even been a few where I’ve been guilty of using the word “masterpiece”. I think it’s easy to do when a film lover is on a high after seeing a film they truly loved. But I think we need to see if something stands the test of time. Will Us be seen as an all-time classic 10 years from now? 20? 30? Maybe by some. I think it’ll always be a well-respected film within the horror genre. For me, Us is just a really good horror film. I won’t see it as an all-time classic years from now like I do with films like The Shining or Rosemary’s Baby. It’s not in the same league. However, I respect the film. I’m extremely grateful for “cerebral horror” and loved that this was one of those movies I looked into afterwards to read about all the symbolism and peoples’ different interpretations of the film.

I’ll start with the good: I liked the look of this film. Peele has a good eye for this and there was some great imagery (a lot in the photos in this post, although there are some I won’t post due to spoilers). I also thought the score/soundtrack was pretty great. The look & the music created the sort of moody atmosphere I expect from a good horror film (I’m a sucker for this – that’s why I appreciate films such as Mandy). I also loved once again having a likable group of people. I liked this family. Horror writers have started to finally realize that we want to like the main characters if we’re going to give a shit about what happens to them.

Now for some (small) negatives: For me, the main thing that will probably keep this from becoming a favorite modern horror of mine is that, if you think about the film too much afterwards, the story falls apart. There are too many loose ends and unanswered questions. While I often like this as I hate a movie that spells absolutely everything out for you, in this case you realize that too much doesn’t add up. It’s a great idea for a story, though, and I loved that. I can see why Peele is doing the new The Twilight Zone as this is that type of story. By the way, that’s my all-time favorite TV show so I’m going to be picky as hell with his reboot. All I can say is, as much as I know people are loving this movie, I’m actually expecting better stories for The Twilight Zone. I want ones that don’t fall apart under scrutiny.

And as for one more small negative, I didn’t love Lupita Nyong’o. I really like her as an actress so that was disappointing, especially after I’d heard such high praise. I think she’s great in the main role but, as “Red” (the doppelgänger), I found the character bordering on silly. Oh man, I hate to say that! It’s a small complaint, though. Overall, I really liked the family and their relationship so that made up for the doppelgängers (all of them) not being as creepy as I’d hoped. I just really wanted to love this film. I liked it a lot. It’s very good and I eagerly await Peele’s next film. But, at this point, I don’t think Us will make it into my list of My Top Twenty Horror Movies Of The 21st Century. But it’s possible that this film is one that may go up in my estimation once it has aged a bit more.

My Rating: 7.5/10

Get Out (2017) Review

Get Out (2017)

Directed & Written by Jordan Peele

Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, Lakeith Stanfield, Catherine Keener

Plot Synopsis: (via Wikipedia)
Get Out follows a young interracial couple who visit the mysterious estate of the woman’s parents.

My Opinion:

Get Out was a pretty good and enjoyable film, especially for something from the “horror” genre (90% of modern horror movies suck). Then again, it’s not exactly your typical shitty, slasher-type crap. It had some thought put into it, a decent script & acting, and some likable characters. It also feels somewhat original compared to the usual stale horror movie crap that Hollywood pumps out. However, I don’t think it’s as groundbreaking as I’d expected from the little I had read of it. To be fair, I’m old & watch too many movies so I’m harder to impress but I do feel like I’ve seen this movie a few times already, just with a different spin.

Okay, I can’t do this completely spoiler-free. HUBBY – STOP READING HERE. (He hates even the tiniest spoilers). I’m not exactly going to spoil this movie but I AM going to name a few movies this film immediately brought to my mind as I watched it. So, if you’ve seen them, I guess that spoils this one for you. I’d already heard this movie compared to one specific film when skimming some reviews & it ruined it a bit as it meant the ending wasn’t really a surprise to me. So, SLIGHT SPOILERS NOW:

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This is very much The Stepford Wives (with racism instead of sexism) and I wish I hadn’t read that beforehand. However, I think updating the concept behind The Stepford Wives was actually a good idea & it worked very well in Get Out. I’ve always liked The Stepford Wives (and, bizarrely, The Stepford Children, a cheesy 1987 TV movie that I was obsessed with at the time & reviewed HERE). The other two movies I was reminded of were two guilty pleasures: the body horror classic Society (which I sort-of-reviewed HERE) and the super cheesy but kind of fun The Skeleton Key (which unfortunately has Kate Hudson in it. Ew). Between those three movies, you have Get Out. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing as plenty of movies are influenced by others and Get Out is certainly a better film than The Skeleton Key, is probably better although less memorable than Society, and is a worthy homage to the Stepford films.

I’m not going to ramble on about this film. It’s had excellent reviews & a lot of people really loved it. I can understand why as it’s a well-written social commentary with some fun comic relief provided by the dog-sitting friend. The acting was better than you get in your standard sort of horrors (just Allison Williams was weak) and I really liked the tone & use of music. But I still feel like this story has been done before & the movie is probably getting a little more hype than is deserved just because of its message. And I prefer to think the message is “Rich people are assholes”. Right??? I think that’s something we can all agree on. Yeah. Rich people. Rich people suck. 😉

There is one very important life lesson that I gained from this film: Bangs (or a fringe as they call it in the UK) do NOT suit everyone. Allison Williams, you gotta grow that shit out. That was a very bad decision.

My Rating: 7/10