Inside Out Review

The film is directed by Pete Doctor (director of Monsters Inc. and Up [which I haven't seen yet. I know I should watch it, and it might come to a bit of a shock to some people that I haven't seen it, as I am a big film fan, and I love Pixar, but for some reason never sat down and watched it. I will soon though]). It is the 15th Pixar film. The story is to put it brief: Riley (played by Kaitlyn Dias) is a young girl who is happy and loves hockey. She soon moves from Minnesota to San Francisco with her parents (played by Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan), and inside her head are the emotions Joy (played by Amy Poehler), Sadness (played Phyllis Smith), Anger (played by Lewis Black), Fear (played by Bill Hader) and Disgust (played by Mindy Kaling), and they conflict on how to navigate Riley in this life changing event.

That is all I'm going to tell you for those who haven't seen it, as I myself knew very little going into this movie. I never even saw a trailer, just small clips on the TV. I think it's best that you know very little about this film going in, as this movie is seriously one of the best films of year. This absolutely lives up to the hype, maybe even more if that is possible. I absolutely loved Inside Out. I had a giant smile of my face for most of the running time. It is so inventive with its concept and ideas.The writing is wonderful, some of the best Pixar has ever done, as it's a very funny and creative film, and the emotions have great interactions with each other, especially Joy and Sadness, who are the 2 emotions the film focuses on the most. Anger has the funniest lines in the film, and Lewis Black is perfect as Anger. The film isn't just all funny though. This film has a poignant feel to it, like some other Pixar films, and the film also challenges the brain a bit with its ideas and message, but not to the point that it would be confusing to some kids. Kids (while some jokes or aspects of the film might go over their heads) can understand and follow the film well, and can be just as engaged in the film as adults. There is one scene in this film that might hit people in the feels, as it is an emotionally powerful scene.

The animation just pops wonderfully on screen. It has such vibrancy and kinetic energy to it. Some of the animation is up there with the best they've done. Pixar truly is one of the best at doing animated films, as they make animated films that everyone can go see. Adults can maybe even get more out of their films for the most part, and Inside Out is no exception. This film is truly Pixar at its best, and it's certainly one of my favourite Pixar movies. Top 5 for sure. I love the Toy Story films, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, but in 15 years someone could come to me and ask me what in my opinion is the best Pixar film, and I might just tell them Inside Out, as I think Inside Out will hold up extremely well, and get better with age.

I laughed. I felt emotion. I was just sucked into this wonderful world inside a child's brain. I loved all the characters in this world, and if they come up with a script as good as this I would gladly spend time with these characters in this world again for a sequel, but as I said only if it is as inventive and creative as this film was would I want a sequel. This is the best animated film of the year and will no doubt be one of the best films I see this year. I can't recommend this movie enough, and even my review might be doing this film injustice, but I truly want people to experience this film without me telling them too much or me telling them even a tiny spoiler about the film, and I hope you can love this movie as much as I did.

Jurassic World Review

UPDATE: Having watched the film again and it being a couple of years, I no longer like this film and think it is very mediocre. I still find the last 3rd with the T-Rex kind of enjoyable, but the rest of the film is both boring and stupid. Never bothered with Fallen Kingdom and don't care to see it. From what I heard it was even worse, so I dodged a bullet. 

Jurassic World is set 22 years after the first one, and the film seems to ignore the events of Lost World and III, so in the new timeline they don’t exist, and Isla Nublar now features a fully functioning theme park that was original envision by John Hammond, but as we know from the first that plan went pair shaped. The theme park is called Jurassic World, because it’s much much bigger than the first one, and features more in it. They also decided to rename because they thought it might be in poor taste to name it Jurassic Park since that was the park that many people working on it got killed in. Visitor rates are declining, as people aren’t as impressed with dinosaurs anymore, so new species of dinosaurs are created to re-spark interest for the park. One in particular is a hybrid dinosaur called the Indominus rex. Things go horrible, as he gets out, so the people working at the park have to try getting every visitor in the park to safety, and then trying to find a way to stop the rampaging dinosaur.

I’m going to be honest I wasn’t looking forward to this film, as I believed that you can’t do a sequel to Jurassic Park without it being almost exactly like original, and with this film it is kinda, but with more people. However, once I got past the 40 minutes of set up and exposition, which I found fairly boring and uninteresting for the most part, I got into the this film. This movie delivers on the spectacle, and is entertaining for the most part. The park looks awesome. The amount of detail that goes into the park is outstanding. I was really interested in seeing the park operate. They do do something different with the film, which I liked very much, unlike Lost World and III, which basically do what the first did, but less interesting and more stupid.

The action set pieces are filmed really well, and it has good special effects for the most part (the beginning of the film has some poor CG). It’s not as impressive as the first, as the first film had so little CGI, as most of it was animatronics or puppets, so that gave the first a more real feeling, as the T-Rex from the first you were actually seeing a real life animatronic, with CGI added to it in some of the more wider scenes, or more difficult scenes, as in a scene you couldn’t do practical even if you tried. The first Jurassic Park is still a landmark in dinosaur special effects, and they still hold up, and it's maybe sad to say that the effects in the first look better than the effects in this film. The effects in this are clearly CG, and that’s fine, because the CG looked good in my opinion for the most part, although obvious, but I’m a big fan of practical effects, as I think it makes a film look more authentic, and I would have loved if they built dinosaur animatronics.

The tension I thought was lacking, as the first one is one of the great examples of building up tension in a film, as when the power gets cut, you see our main characters sitting in the car, and then all of a sudden you hear a thud, and it gets louder and louder, and the camera slowly reveals the T-Rex, and it’s a gripping moment, and what follows is equally gripping. You feel the danger and tension in the first film, and you are gripping your seat worried that the characters might not make it out alive.

On to the characters. Our 2 main characters are Claire [played by Bryce Dallas Howard] and Owen [played by Chris Pratt], and they are likable [well Claire has some poor characterization, but I’ll touch on that when I’m discussing Claire’s character], especially Owen, and what’s interesting about him is that he’s an expert in training Velociraptors, and you see the bond that he has developed with the Velociraptors, and it’s the best part of the film in my opinion. He’s a lot more toned down than Chris Pratt's characters generally are, but he still has some funny quips in the film, and you totally believe Chris Pratt as an action star. Guardians of the Galaxy was not a fluke, Chris Pratt is the real deal.

Claire is the operations manager and her nephews [played by Ty Simpskin and Nick Robinson] are supposed to be spending the weekend with her, but she is rather busy and her personal assistant looks after them, and then they are on one of the rides when the Indominus rex is loose, so her and Owen have to get to them before the Indominus rex eats them. She is interesting, but there are also parts where she’s a very stereotypical female character. She does have an actual arc though, so I’ll give her that, as she starts off very business focused, and then she becomes more concerned when her nephews might be in danger. It’s just some of the writing for her character bugged me.

The rest of the characters aren’t that well written, and are just there to spout exposition. Vincent D’Onofrio is a fantastic actor, and I love him as Kingpin on Netflix’s Daredevil series, as he does a great job of fleshing out and humanizing Kingpin, but here he is the head of security, and he wants to use the Velociraptors Owen is training as weapons, and the whole movie he is just a one note bad guy, and not an interesting one. A waste of a very capable actor in my opinion.

None of the characters are as interesting as Alan [Sam Neill], Malcolm [Jeff Goldblum], Elle [Laura Dern] and Hammond [Richard Attenborough] in the first film. The interaction with them is great to watch in the first film. Here you don’t really care about the overall interaction between characters. You also aren’t as worried if something happens to them. Maybe Claire and Owen, but that’s it. The kids in this are also not as likeable as Tim and Lex in the first film. The kids are boring. They get way too much screentime, and the scenes just don’t work for me.

Colin Trevorrow does a fantastic job with directing the spectacle and action set pieces for his first time directing a big budget summer blockbuster. John Williams score is used sparingly, and I got goosebumps when I heard the familiar score. It’s such a beautiful score. The score by Michael Giacchino is great, and fits the film’s scope really well.

The ending to this film is one of the best things about the film, as it’s really well handled and very entertaining. There's a lot of things I think they could have improved about the film, like making characters more likeable, improving some of the writing and logical issues, but the ending was one of the best things about any Jurassic Park film, as it was awesome.

The film is certainly bigger in scope and scale than the first film, but it’s not as intimate or as impactful, and the writing is certainly not as strong, but it’s ok, as just shove popcorn [or whatever you like eating when you go cinema] into your mouth and have fun with it. Overall Jurassic World is fun and entertaining, and the sequel to the first that we never got. It’s a popcorn film that is best seen on the big screen, and if you are a fan of Jurassic Park you should be satisfied, unless you think about the plot too much. 

Mad Max: Fury Road Review

Mad Max: Fury Road is the first Mad Max film since Beyond Thunderdome back in 1985, and has been in development hell since 2000, although I'm not sure if it was the same story as this film back then. George Miller [the director of this film, and the previous 3 Mad Max films] planned to shoot the film in 2001 with Mel Gibson as Max, but 9/11 happened, and it halted the project. George Miller said he wanted to recast Mel, because he wanted Max to be a younger age, and Mel was near 50s. In around 2008 or 2009, they planned to shoot the film with Heath Ledger as Max, but due to his unfortunate death, that didn't happen. Finally Tom Hardy was cast as Max Rockatansky in June 2010, and filming began in July 2012, and it ended in December 2012 with re shoots in November 2013.

Mad Max: Fury Road opens with Max [Tom Hardy] in the wasteland desert being haunted by a little girl who he failed to save, no word on whether it's his daughter [in the original he only has a son, but Miller could have changed his backstory around, so he had a daughter], or someone he failed to save possibly after Thunderdome [George Miller said in his mind this film is set after Thunderdome, but it could have also happened at any point in the Mad Max timeline, maybe even after Road Warrior, or maybe it's set after the 5th film possibly]. Max is also driving away from the War Boys, the army of tyrant cult leader Immorten Joe [Hugh Keays-Byrne, Toecutter from the original Mad Max], and he gets captured, put into chains and is being used a blood bag for the sick War Boy Nux [Nicholas Hoult]. We see Immorten Joe, and to describe him would be that he is a cross between Bane and Beetlejuice, as he has a breathing mask, and he also has white skin and mad hair. Anyway Immorten Joe is the leader of the Citidel, and he owns a supply of water, and also gets milk from his wives breast. Furiosa [Charlize Theron] driving her heavily armored War Rig full of gasoline, decides to flee from Immorten Joe, and takes his 5 wives, which are used for breeding children, and Furiosa is hoping to find her home. Immorten Joe and his army decide to chase after Furiosa, and get back his wives, and soon Max gets caught in between, as Max is strapped to the hood of Nux's car, but he then escapes Nux, and joins Furiosa and the wives.

Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the best action films I have ever seen. It is a wild, crazy ride. This film rarely slows down, as it is very fast paced chaotic balls to the walls action, and it's awesome. There is a scene in the film where a guy is playing a guitar that shoots flames out it. It's bonkers, but awesome at the same time. The film also doesn't have any unnecessary exposition, as people talk when they need to talk, and when they do it's actual conversation, not explaining stuff that you can pretty much figure out yourself, as it's not that hard to figure what the plot of the film is in my opinion. Also what separates this film from lets say a Transformers film, is that 90% of the action is all practical, as there is real stunt work and explosions happening in this film, and they only use CGI when it is necessary. For example, they drive through a thunderstorm, and there is thunder and lightning, and we know that's not real and is CG, but the actual chases and explosions are real, and also the desert they are in is actually a desert, and not green-screen. Also another big element of this film, is the characters. Furiosa and the wives are characters that you develop an emotion connection to, as you see that they want out of this shitty wasteland, and that they want actual safety and not be ordered around by a tyrant like Immorten Joe.

Tom Hardy makes a fine replacement for Mel Gibson as Max Rocatansky, but the story isn't about Max, so a lot of people could have played Max in this film, although I did really enjoy Hardy's performance as Max. The story is centered around Furiosa trying to find her home, and Max is there to help her. It has always been that way since Road Warrior. In the original Mad Max it is clearly about Max, as we see him interacting with his family, and also doing his job as a Main Force Patrol officer. In Road Warrior, Max is a drifter who gets caught in a war between oil settlers and bandits. In Thunderdome, Max gets caught in the middle of a struggle for power between Aunty Entity [Tina Turner], the ruler of Bartertown, and a dwarf named Master,who wants to dethrone Aunty Entity. This is another chapter in the life of Max as a drifter, as every Mad Max film is somewhat tonally different [especially Beyond Thunderdome, as that is hardly a Mad Max film until the final 20 minutes], and no characters other than Max return for the sequel. Every Mad Max film after the first could essentially be a reboot, as like I said there isn't really much story continuity besides Max, and even Max barely gets much character development after the first other than becoming a silent emotionless drifter.

However that being said, I did miss Mel in the role, but I completely understand why he wasn't in the film, as he's a bit too old for the character in this film, and he's still blacklisted in Hollywood based on his controversial views, which in my opinion is absolutely ridiculous, as the man is a pro when it comes to acting and directing, and rarely brings his personal life on set, as he commits to a film. I hope we eventually see Mel back as Max in one of the sequels, maybe even the final ever Mad Max film, as they could do a film where Max is near the end of his life, and wants to do one more mission before he dies. Something like that, as not bringing back Mel to the role he made famous would be wrong in my opinion, as he is Mad Max.

Speaking of Charlize Theron, she is excellent in this movie. She is the heart and soul of this film. Her Furiosa is a strong female character, one that has shades of Ellen Ripley [Alien franchise] and Sarah Conner [Terminator franchise]. She is badass, but also very human, as you see how much she cares for the wives, and how determined she is to find the home she was taken from as a child. The wives are also interesting in their own way, as all of them are strong and badass, and have that same desire to survive and get safety like Furiosa.

Another character who is very fascinating is Nux. Nux is a War Boy, and the War Boys are crazy white skinned soldiers that worship Immorten Joe, and they all want to be granted to go to Valhalla, which is heaven for them. There is a great scene with Nux driving a car in the thunderstorm, and him getting very excited and screaming "Oh what a lovely day! What a very lovely day!", and it's so mad and gets you pumped up [well it did for me anyway]. Nux starts off the movie very mad and worshiping Immorten Joe, but then he starts viewing things differently midway through the film, and it's very interesting. Nicholas Hoult gives his most energetic performance yet, as he's great in the film.

The movie is shot to perfection. This movie looks gorgeous. It is seriously one of the best filmed action films I have ever seen. It is beautiful chaos, and there are many shots in this film that look visually appealing. I have gushed over the action, but I'm going to do it again, as the action is seriously amazing. The action is very clear and open, unlike some action films that have shaky cam, and you can barely see what is going on. You can see what is going on in this film, and it's just a masterpiece in action set pieces in my opinion. It's an exercise in how much action can be in one film, and not being bored by it, as the action is done with such great energy to it. I was never bored by the action at all, as it was an adrenaline rush. The stunt team should get around of applause, as they did a terrific job with making the action so spectacular. George Miller should get the biggest applause, as he was the captain abroad the ship. He guided everyone to bring their A game, and they did.

Good luck trying to top this film Hollywood, as there won't be a better action film all year than Mad Max: Fury Road.

I absolutely recommend Mad Max: Fury Road if you enjoyed the first 3 Mad Max films, and if you are a fan of action films that are have great energy to it, and also have badass and interesting characters.