Archives for category: Review

Thoughts on Toy Story 3

June 24, 10 //
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LET ME SET THE SCENE: It is June 24th, the release date of Toy Story 3 here in Australia. At the IMAX theatre in Sydney, the largest screen in the world, with 3D glasses and a box of popcorn. I WAS THERE… and these are my thoughts…

Firstly, the popcorn was average. The box broke and popcorn fell out all over my girlfriend, but we sorted that situation out and got right back into watching the movie and eating more popcorn. I also had some water, and drank about half of the bottle before placing it in my bag and taking it out of the cinema with me afterwards. That’s about it, pretty great night.

WAIT, NO! Holy chickens! I SAW TOY STORY 3!

This isn’t really a review because I feel that I can’t properly review any Pixar film – my words would be too full of love and jizz that it could never be considered impartial. But I will say this: Lee Unkrich has excelled himself here and this film has brought to end what many would consider (including myself) to be the greatest trilogy of all time. I’m going to break this down into little dots.

  • Day & Night is the most beautiful short Pixar has created. I’ve written more about that below.
  • About ten minutes into the film I was getting a bit worried. The film starts off feeling a bit like a rehash of Toy Story 2, dripping in the same themes of abandonment and forgotten love as the toys come to face an uncertain future. THEN the film slaps you in the face (with a bunch of adorable, crazy daycare kids) and calls you a stupid, stupid human for even considering that they would even attempt to tell the same story again. Michael Arndt, who previously wrote Little Miss Sunshine, has done a great job with the story. His writing track record is two from two right now.
  • I am glad that I have not purchased a Lots ‘o’ Huggin bear as of yet as I don’t think I could sleep with one of them in my bedroom. The only thing I can compare him to is a drug den hidden inside a candy store. You’ll see.
  • Along with Lotso (voiced by Ned Beatty), the new characters bring a lot to the table. It’s sad to see some old favourites go (poor wheezy), but the new toys are definitely not half-assed creations. Ken and Mr Pricklepants steal every scene they are in, in a large part thanks to the great voice acting by Michael Keaton and Timothy Dalton.
  • Make sure you bring some tissues. There are moments in every Pixar film that will squeeze out those tears, but in Toy Story 3 they aren’t just at the beginning or the end… there are numerous moments of utter sadness, and others that are genuinely frightening. Sit right up the back if you don’t want to drown in the downpour.
  • One scene near the end of the film is so deeply moving that it has been the only thing playing over and over in my head ever since leaving the theatre. I can’t even say anything about it without spoiling it, but the direction and the music and the subtle animation all come together to create something that… I could never have thought that I could feel such a strong emotional connection to this set of characters.
  • The ending was perfect. It’s very difficult to finish off a trilogy of work in a way that feels right. Here, the audience doesn’t feel cheated, they don’t feel like there is anything left unresolved, but you still leave thinking about these characters and their future. If by this point there is a dry eye left in the theatre, they should be barred from being a person.
  • Watching the three Toy Story films in succession is one of the best ways to show Pixar’s development as a studio, technologically and also in their storytelling and animation. The characters and stories have always been there, but time has allowed the artists to take stories to a place that was never possible back in 1995 when Toy Story was released. In saying that, this film definitely feels extremely attached to the first two films and although it is more advanced in many ways, it never feels out of place amongst them.
  • Toy Story 3 is funny. Very funny. The animators have had a hilarious field day with some of their work. The animation of Ken and Barbie is spot on and the scenes featuring a tortilla and spanish dancing are inventive, funny and so perfectly drawn.
  • While it is sad that Jim Varney is no longer with us to voice Slinky Dog, the character was voiced in Toy Story 3 by Blake Clark, who played a character in the first season of Community as a gym teacher. I love Community.

I think that is all I can say right now. I obviously loved it, but I don’t feel safe in saying where it sits in the ladder of Pixar films just yet. Also, this is the last thing I’ll write about Pixar for… a month. I PROMISE! Maybe a week.

The video above is called ‘Groovin’ with Ken’ and is part of the advertising campaign for the film. It is an interview with Ken, played by the great Michael Keaton.

Iron Man 2 – All the same but a little bit different

May 2, 10 //
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I was finding it difficult to write about Iron Man 2. There doesn’t seem to be that much substance here. The new characters are interesting but flat, the fight scenes  predictable yet still exciting and the story is similar in structure to many other comic book film sequels, but none of this actually detracts from the experience. This is a high-budget popcorn movie and it doesn’t hide that fact. It’s completely self-aware, and delivers on most of its promise.

The film starts off with Tony Stark finding political pressure back home as the government (faced by a very funny Garry Shandling as a US Senator) believes that they should be in control of the Iron Man ‘weapon’. Stark makes some jokes, makes everyone smile and lets the peeps of the world know that no one could EVER get this technology in ten… TWENTY years. LITTLE DOES HE KNOW that a completely pissed off Russian, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) has a nice blue print of that EXACT SAME technology that makes Iron Man so iron-y and man-y. CUE MOVIE.

Jon Favreau’s direction is spot on, and he shows us once again that he can be quite the comic actor when he wishes. Apart from the perfect Robert Downey Jr filling the shoes of Tony Stark, Sam Rockwell might just be the best thing about the film. I wish this man could be in every film ever made, but I don’t think he has time to do that, which is a great loss for this world. He plays Justin Hammer, an arms dealer who finds an ally in Vanko. He reminded me a lot of and is every bit as good as Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight.

Unfortunately Rourke just doesn’t pull off the villain as well as he probably should have – the character is excellent, but by the end of the film it’s all just a bit flat. Unfortunately this can also be said for Scarlett Johansson and Sam Jackson, who don’t leave me with too much enthusiasm for future Avengers films. Although I’m glad that this quite obvious set-up for future releases wasn’t as in your face as I had expected.

But I’m not going to lie, the action is just as mesmerising as the first film, and while it all felt a bit of a re-hash, there aren’t that many moves you can pull when you are a man in a flying suit, being chased by other flying suits. Favreau and Downey Jr. have once again provided the world with two hours of pure fun – they aren’t out to push boundaries or make us sit there and think about the state of the world, and that’s just fine with me.

Three stars out of five.