Film: Inside Out

GENRE: Animated Comedy/Drama

RATING: PG for thematic elements
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 34 minutes

STARRING: Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation, SNL)

Phyllis Smith (The Office); Richard Kind (Bug’s Life, Spin City)

DIRECTORS: Pete Docter (Up); Ronnie Del Carmen (newcomer)

WRITERS: Pete Docter (Monster’s Inc)

Josh Cooley & Meg LeFauve (newcomers)

PLOT: Sadness causes problems for 11 year old Riley as Joy is lost in her subconscious. It makes more sense when you watch it.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 What an unbelievably clever film. Pixar does such a great job creating stories. All their stories are chock full of emotions and this one puts those feelings in the forefront. Along with the emotions, the writers geniusly  create a whole new world inside someone’s head. It’s pretty amazing.

2 Speaking of amazing, the voice cast is top notch. Poehler is the embodiment of Joy and Smith is so effective as Sadness. I also love Lewis Black (Daily Show) as Anger and Mindy Kaling (Mindy Project) as Disgust. Bill Hader does a good Fear but his voice is strangely not that recognizable.

3 Since Sadness play’s a big part in this story, you may cry. I admit to shedding a tear. While many jokes will go over young children’s heads, they may enjoy the visuals and story but are still faced with a lot of sad things. Be ready to talk about sadness and memories.

4 Don’t know why this was in 3-D. Didn’t even notice any 3-D elements which makes me wonder why they bothered.

5 The glimpse inside the eleven year old’s brain was priceless. I could watch that scene over and over again.

RECOMMENDATION: Fun to watch on big screen
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Minions

Film: Jurassic World

GENRE: Action, Adventure

RATING: PG-13 for violence
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 4 minutes

STARRING: Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy, Moneyball)

Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help, The Village, Spiderman 3)

DIRECTOR: Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed)

WRITERS: Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes)

Derek Connolly (Safety Not Guaranteed) & Colin Trevorrow (newcomer)

PLOT: With Jurassic World open to the public, scientists stupidly design a new super dinosaur that predictably escapes and eats people.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 Even with all the dino-on-dino action, it’s Pratt that holds the film together. He is always a treat to watch. He’s come a long way from Everwood.

2 I loved Trevorrow’s indie jabs at corporations (studios) and how they are asking for trouble by only wanting more bells and whistles. Great to see Jurassic World has a Starbucks.

3 While Pratt is stellar, it’s Jake Johnson (New Girl) who steals the show as a technician who gets all the funny lines and looks. So fun.  

4 I like the many references to the original film from music to merchandise to Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong).

5 Howard does all that running in high heels? C’mon.

RECOMMENDATION: Blockbusters deserve a big screen
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Inside Out

Film: Spy

GENRE: Action, Comedy

RATING: R for language, violence and brief nudity
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 0 minutes

STARRING: Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids, The Heat, Tammy)

Rose Byrne (Damages, Neighbors), Jason Statham (Snatch, Crank)

DIRECTOR: Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat)

WRITER: Paul Feig (Freaks & Geeks)

PLOT: An analyst goes undercover for the first time to stop an arms dealer.    

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 I love that this was a spy movie first, a comedy second. It’s not Austin Powers. They aren’t going for silly here. The genre is taken seriously and it makes the film that much better.  

2 McCarthy is utterly fantastic. She is so good as the analyst and the newbie spy with skills but she really pours it on when she takes on the persona of a bodyguard. Laugh out loud moments throughout. Her friend/partner is a little too weird though.

3 Byrne brings it as the bad guy. Her condescending comments towards McCarthy are hilarious. Her hair is also a wonderful source of comedy.   

4 Statham has done comedy before, so I’m not as surprised as some people. His rants at perfectly done though his opinion of McCarthy’s spy starts to get old.

5 A little too many expected double crosses in this otherwise stellar plot.

RECOMMENDATION: Fun time at the theatre but also good at home
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Jurassic World

Film: Entourage

GENRE: Comedy

RATING: R for language and nudity
RUNTIME: 1 hours and 44 minutes

STARRING: Kevin Connolly (The Notebook, The Ugly Truth)

Adrian Grenier (Drive Me Crazy), Jeremy Piven (Old School)

DIRECTOR: Doug Ellin (newcomer; Entourage TV series)

WRITER: Doug Ellin (newcomer; Entourage TV series)

PLOT: Vincent Chase needs more money from Ari for his directorial debut but a financier’s kid is standing in their way.    

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 Not surprisingly, this film is just like TV series. It just feels like an extended episode. Which is not bad if you enjoyed the series. There are no extra bells and whistles. It even has a TV style opening title sequence.

2 Unfortunately, to make this movie work, they had to negate most of the finale of the television series. The happily ever afters of the entourage didn’t last long. They are all back at square one at the start of the movie.

3 Eric’s storyline was pretty boring. Enough with him and all these hot women who want to sleep with him. Then again, the main plot was pretty predictable too. So not many points for the screenplay.     

4 I didn’t think movies about DJs was trending but there happened to be a Zac Efron DJ movie preview before this film.

5 Fun to see all the celebrities they jam packed in the movie, especially during the party scene. Must have been fun.

RECOMMENDATION: Wait for it on HBO
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Spy

2015 Summer Preview

Summer is basically here. Network shows are done so it is time to look at the summer crop. Here are some shows that are returning and a couple new ones I’ll give a chance to. I also thought I would add the films I’m looking forward to. Weird how there is nothing interesting in August. Anyway here are the lists and such.

Returning Shows

Halt & Catch Fire:Season 2 AMC (May 31) 80s computer wars.

Hannibal:Season 3 NBC (June 4) Beautifully shot disturbing content.

True Detective:Season 2 HBO (July 12) Intense character drama

Masters of Sex:Season 3 SHO (July 12) Compelling chemistry

Orange is the New Black:Season 3 NETFLIX (July 12) More prison.

Last Comic Standing:Season 9 NBC (July 22) Funny stand-up.

Nathan For You:Season 3 COMEDY (July TBA) A marketing genius.

New Shows

Sense8 NETFLIX (June 5) 8 people can feel everything about each other.

Scream MTV (June 30) TV version of the popular horror franchise.

Fear the Walking Dead AMC (Aug TBA) The companion series.

Shows To Catch Up On

This summer I’ll be watching the four seasons of Suits on Netflix and watch the first season of The Flash.

If you are looking for some shows to watch this summer on Netflix, I suggest Bloodline and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Summer Films

Entourage (June 3) I watched the show, gotta watch the movie.

Spy (June 5) Melissa McCarthy in a spy flick? Sure.

Jurassic World (June 12) Love Chris Pratt and now with dinosaurs.

Inside Out (June 19) It’s Pixar and Amy Poehler. Perfection.

Terminator Genisys (July 1) More like T2 and not the other sequels.

Minions (July 10) So cute. My wife and I can’t wait for this.

Ant Man (July 17) I like Paul Rudd and Marvel. So why not?

Trainwreck (July 17) Amy Schumer is quite funny. Should be good.

Pixels (July 24) Pac-Man is evil. Hope Adam Sandler doesn’t ruin it.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (July 31) Love this franchise.

What’s on your list?

Film: Mad Max: Fury Road

GENRE: Action/Adventure

RATING: R for violence
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 0 minutes

STARRING: Tom Hardy (Inception; The Dark Knight Rises)

Charlize Theron (Monster), Nicholas Hoult (Xmen: First Class)

DIRECTOR: George Miller (Mad Max; Road Warior; Happy Feet)

WRITERS: George Miller (Beyond Thunderdome; Babe)

Brendan McCarthy & Nick Lathouris (newcomers)

PLOT: A high-speed car chase through the desert. Yup, that’s about it.    

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 The best way to describe this film is ‘relentless’. There are a couple quiet moments but everything else is an extended chase scene. Not much plot. So if you’re in the mood for that, this is for you. I don’t think it quite deserves the 98% on Rotten Tomatoes though.

2 I was impressed with the many ways the vehicles attacked each other. It was beautifully shot.   

3 At times, Miller changes the frames per seconds which takes away from the action. One of the opening scenes looked more like Keystone Cops than anything intimidating.    

4 I wish Hardy would have used his Inception voice for his ten lines of dialogue instead of his low Bane voice from Batman. It kind of took me out of the film.

5 Who needs a radio when you have a guitarist and drum section following you around?

RECOMMENDATION: See in theatres for the action
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Entourage

Film: Tomorrowland

GENRE: Action/Adventure

RATING: PG for violence
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 10 minutes

STARRING: George Clooney (Ocean’s Eleven, Up in the Air)

Britt Robertson (Under the Dome), Hugh Laurie (House)

DIRECTOR: Brad Bird (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol)

WRITERS: Damon Lindelof (Lost, Star Trek Into Darkness)

Brad Bird (Iron Giant, The Incredibles), Jeff Jensen (EW magazine)

PLOT: A smart optimistic teenager is chosen to change the world for the better but needs a former boy-genius to help her.    

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 I absolutely loved the themes of optimism, dreamers and imagination. They may hit you over the head with it, but it was refreshing and a tad inspiring.

2 The look of Tomorrowland (even with the Space Mountain prominence) and lots of the special effects were really cool. It was so much fun to watch.  

3 Most of the fun is getting to Tomorrowland; once they get there, the plot gets heavy handed and drags a bit.   

4 One issue right from the start is having a brother and sister sharing a bedroom. The house was big enough, it made no sense. Also the fact that the kids’ bedroom has a door that leads to the outside for easy late night access seems like bad parenting.

5 The end of the film is a little schmaltzy but effective until the last shot which ruined all the grace I gave it. Too bad. Terrible last image.  

RECOMMENDATION: Fun to see in the theatre
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Men Finale

So this is it for Mad Men. It’s been a compelling ride. Sure, the pace is pretty slow but the character development is so rich. Matthew Weiner’s meticulous detail in setting, character and plot has served him well. Here are some final thoughts before the finale. 

FIVE THINGS I’LL MISS ABOUT MAD MEN

1 Utter disregard for health These advertising guys could not stop smoking or drinking. It became comical how often they would light up. And darn it if it didn’t look totally cool.
2 Pete getting screwed over I never liked Vincent Kartheiser when he was on Angel, so when he constantly loses in Mad Men, it makes me grin. He always wanted the life like Don Draper but could never achieve it. Thankfully he came to his senses.
3 Don’s pitches Say what you will about Don Draper’s flaws, he was an awesome ad man. The way he controlled a room with a pitch was mesmerizing. The Kodak carousel pitch and the end of season one still makes me a little misty.
4 Main title sequence Love the music and simplicity. I rarely fast forwarded over it.
5 Closing songs Matthew Weiner almost always picked the perfect song to take us to the end credits. Talk about leaving a lasting impression. I wonder what he’ll do for the finale.

FIVE FAVOURITE EPISODES (chronological)

1 Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (Season 1 Episode 1)

Don is nervous about making a pitch to Lucky Strike cigarettes; Peggy is hired and Pete has a bachelor party.
2 The Benefactor (Season 2 Episode 3)

Don has clean up Jimmy Barrett’s mess after he makes some rude comments about a client; Harry Crane tries to go for a promotion
3 Shut the Door, Have a Seat (Season 3 Episode 13)

Instead of getting absorbed by another company, Don, Roger, Bert and Lane create their own ad agency and need to poach as many clients and staff as they can.
4 A Little Kiss (Season 5 Episode 1&2)

Megan embarrasses Don at his surprise birthday party with a seductive song; Pete tries to get a better office and Joan returns to work.
5 The Other Woman (Season 5 Episode 11)

There is an indecent proposal when the firm asks Joan to sleep with a client to secure Jaguar business; Peggy decides to move on.

FIVE FAVOURITE SCENES
1 Picnic Scene [from The Gold Violin] The Drapers go on a picnic and instead of putting their trash in the garbage can, Don simply shakes the blanket full of litter onto the park grass and drives away. Makes me laugh just thinking about it.

2 The John Deere Incident  [from Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency] The new CEO gets his foot run over by a riding mower. Blood everywhere. Didn’t see that coming.
3 Don’s Staircase Revenge [from Red in the Face] Don gets back at Roger for hitting on Betty, by getting him to eat a lot of oysters and then fixes it so they have to run up many flights of stairs for a meeting. The new clients did not appreciate the resulting puke.
4 Peggy and Don yell [from The Suitcase] One of my favourite exchanges from the series.
Don: That’s the way it works, there are no credits on commercials.
Peggy: But you got the Cleo!
Don: It’s your job! I give you money. You give me ideas.
Peggy: But you never say thank you.
Don: That’s what the money is for!
5 Jimmy confronts Don [from The Gold Violin] Another one of my favourite lines as Jimmy Barrett puts Don in his place: “You don’t screw another man’s wife. You’re garbage. And you know it.”

WHAT I WON’T MISS
Those “tell us nothing” episode previews. Just a lot of looks and one word responses taken completely out of context. Why bother?

Enjoy the finale this Sunday. 

Film: Avengers:Age of Ultron

GENRE: Action/Adventure

RATING: PG-13 for violence
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 21 minutes

STARRING: Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes, The Judge)

Chris Evans (Captain America), James Spader (The Blacklist)

DIRECTOR: Joss Whedon (Avengers, Serenity)

WRITER: Joss Whedon (Avengers, Buffy, Firefly, Toy Story)

PLOT: Tony Stark inadvertently creates an all-powerful robot bent on destroying the world instead of saving it. Action ensues.   

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 Another Joss Whedon slamdunk. Not as fun as the first one but highly entertaining with its action/humour/pathos mix. It’s a pretty close second.

2 I was worried with the CG-ness of the first sequence but was mesmerized with the choreography of one of the last group fight sequences. Amazing.

3 I like how Whedon again gives every character times to shine and deliver the funny line. He is a truly gifted writer when it comes to character.  

4 I wasn’t a huge fan of the AI plot. It slowed the film down considerably in the third quarter. Luckily it ended strong.

5 There were some shocking surprises throughout. I won’t spoil them here. But just so you know, while there is something after the initial credits, there is nothing after the final credits; it just says that they will return  

RECOMMENDATION: See it in theatres now.
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Tomorrowland

Film: Insurgent

Sorry I have not written in a while. I honestly haven’t been to the movie theatre in a long time. There hasn’t been any good films to watch. I did watch this a couple of weeks ago and forgot to post it. Don't worry, the reviews will be coming a lot faster now.

GENRE: Action/Adventure

RATING: PG-13 for violence and brief language
RUNTIME: 1 hours and 59 minutes

STARRING: Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars, Descendants)

Theo James (Underworld: Awakening), Miles Teller (Whiplash)

DIRECTOR: Robert Schwentke (Red, Flightplan)

WRITERS: Akiva Goldsman (I Am Legend), Brian Duffield (newcomer)

Mark Bomback (Live Free or Die Hard)

PLOT: Tris and Four are on the run as she deals with the guilt of what happened during the events from the first movie.   

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 I read the book a couple weeks before seeing the movie. There were a lot of characters and plot elements missing from the film. I know the film can’t have everything but it looked like some key stuff was ignored.

2 The acting is pretty good. Woodley spends a lot of movie dealing with her personal demons, so it’s all angsty and stuff. There’s also some good action sequences.

3 Speaking of angst, the soundtrack makes the movie sound more like a teen show on the CW.  

4 I wanted to see more of Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) as Jack Kang. He’s cool.  

5 The ending of the book is dumb. The film’s ending is not much better. Wondering if I will bother with the last book/pair of films.

RECOMMENDATION: Fine for rental
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Film: Kingsman - The Secret Service

GENRE: Action/Adventure

RATING: R for strong violence & language
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 9 minutes

STARRING: Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, Love Actually)

Taron Egerton (newcomer), Samuel L Jackson (Pulp Fiction)

DIRECTOR: Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass; X-Men: First Class)

WRITERS: Jan Goldman & Vaughn (Stardust, Kick-Ass)

PLOT: A street kid is brought into a gentlemanly spy organization who is trying to take down a crazy tech genius.  

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 Vaughn know how to make a fun action flick. Lots of great stuff. Colin Firth rocks the wonderfully choreographed fight scenes. The time flew by.

2 There is a scene in a church that is a bit much. Not for the queasy.

3 I know that a good villain is supposed to be eccentric but the lisp is pretty annoying.

4 Love seeing Mark Hamill (Star Wars) getting some more regular work.  

5 The opening credits are laughable and not in a good way. Who ever made that should never work again. Bouncing bricks? Huh?

RECOMMENDATION: Fun on the big screen
UPCOMING REVIEWS: Focus; Insurgent

Parks and Recreation Finale

So this is it for Parks & Recreation. Shame on NBC for burning off the series quickly instead of giving it the same send-off it gave to shows like The Office. When it first debuted, Parks was written off as just another Office. While it had the same mockumentary feel, the situations and characters sometimes surpassed The Office’s antics. I will be sad to see the series go but understand that practically the entire cast has become movie stars. Thank you for nurturing these actors, Parks and Recreation, I’ll miss you.  

FIVE THINGS I’LL MISS ABOUT PARKS & RECREATION

1 Leslie Knope’s Tenacity Amy Poehler is amazing. I love that Leslie was awesome at her job and she was full of life and optimism. I like that almost all the characters accepted Leslie’s craziness and often rooted for her. She was a breath of fresh air.
2  Ron Swanson By far my favourite character. He was a man’s man and what a mustache! Whether it was his giddiness for ‘lil Sebastian or making wedding rings out a wall sconce, Ron always made me laugh.
3  Pawnee Residents I love that there was a large number of recurring characters. Love Perd, Brandi Maxxxx, Bobby Newport, Mona Lisa and of course Jean-Ralphio.
4  Picking on Garry/Jerry/Larry/Terry I love how everyone picked on this worker. Sometimes he deserved it with his clumsiness but sometimes it was completely unwarranted.
5  The Theme Song I never fast forwarded the opening credits. The music was so bouncy. It was short and sweet.

FIVE FAVOURITE EPISODES

1 Practice Date (Season 2 Episode 4)

Ann tries to help Leslie get over her amazingly bad first date jitters. The rest of the office try to dig up as much dirt as they can on their co-workers.
2 Sweetums (Season 2 Episode 15)

Tom tricks most of the staff to help him move out of his house. Ann and Leslie try to take down Sweetums and their dangerous candy.
3 Emergency Response/Leslie & Ben (Season 5 Episode 13 & 14)

Councilman Jam tries to stop a fundraising gala and a wedding but the staff pitches in to make both events memorable for Leslie and Ben.
4 Jerry’s Painting (Season 3 Episode 11)

Leslie goes to bat for Jerry and his painting that features a topless Leslie Knope-ish centaur. Ben moves in with Andy and April and is appalled by their living conditions.
5 Leslie and Ron (Season7 Episode 4)

Leslie and Ron are locked in the office together until they are able to resolve their three year long feud.

FIVE FAVOURITE RON SWANSON CODES
1 Intensity: Give 100%. 110% is impossible. Only idiots recommend that.

2 Friends: One to Three is sufficient.
3 Skim Milk: Avoid it.
4 Crying: Acceptable at funerals and the Grand Canyon.
5 Fishing: Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Don’t teach a man to fish. He’s a grown man. And fishing’s not that hard.

Enjoy the finale this Tuesday.

2015 Oscar Results

 So there’s no topping my awesome 21/24 score last year. I got 17 right this year, so not terrible or anything. The telecast was pretty good. I like Neil Patrick Harris as host but found that the audience didn’t warm up to him too much. It was a great opening number but the response was just so-so. Anyway, ‘Everything was Awesome’ was indeed awesome and there were some fun things happening during the show. I really liked the nomination packages this year; so classy and creative. I know I’m a nerd. Let’s just see who won:

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

THE PHONE CALL

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

FEAST (predicted)

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

CRISIS HOTLINE: VETERANS PRESS 1

SOUND EDITING

AMERICAN SNIPER (predicted)

SOUND MIXING

WHIPLASH

ORIGINAL SCORE

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

ORIGINAL SONG

GLORY [SELMA] (predicted)

VISUAL EFFECTS

INTERSTELLAR (predicted)

MAKE-UP

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (predicted)

COSTUME DESIGN

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (predicted)

PRODUCTION DESIGN

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (predicted)

FILM EDITING

WHIPLASH

CINEMATOGRAPHY

BIRDMAN (predicted)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

CITIZENFOUR (predicted)

ANIMATED FEATURE

BIG HERO 6

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

IDA (predicted)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

THE IMITATION GAME (predicted)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

BIRDMAN (predicted)

BEST DIRECTOR

ALEJANDRO GONZALEZ INARRITU [BIRDMAN]

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

PATRICIA ARQUETTE [BOYHOOD] (predicted)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

JK SIMMONS [WHIPLASH] (predicted)

BEST ACTRESS

JULIANNE MOORE [STILL ALICE] (predicted)

BEST ACTOR

EDDIE REDMAYNE [THEORY OF EVERYTHING] (predicted)

BEST PICTURE

BIRDMAN (predicted)

How did you do?