Inside Out

Retrieved from Retreived From

Inside Out proves that Pixar just proves itself again at being a factory of making memorable movies that so many people love. Inside Out really takes the cake as far as animated movies go in the past several years. It contains all elements that make a movie, drama, comedy, action, and even adventure. It is relentless in making you keep your eyes on the screen and it dazzles you with creativity. The characters to the right are representations of human moods, and the main characters live inside the brain of a young girl named Riley (Kaitlyn Dias). It gives quite a theoretical version of the processes that your brain goes through and how it dictates how you act.

The main emotions that live inside of her mind are Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling). They all try to play their part of keeping her acting normal and sane while dealing with the rough emotional roller coaster of moving into a new neighborhood and house. As Joy tries to keep Riley from feeling sad she tries to keep Sadness away from any doing in the headquarters of her brain. This leads to Sadness feeling like she should do more and as events unfold it is Sadness and Joy by themselves in the "lost world" of her brain where such things as dead memories and make believe friends go. Sorry, don't want to give up too many spoilers due to this movie being so good.

All in all the film does relay a message of how even things we try to avoid, such as sadness, need to be in our lives by way of being able to learn from them. This movie is the definition of heartwarming, I was on the verge of tears at the very end but I was watching it with a girl I just started hanging out with so I decided to choke them down and wait to sob at a movie another time. The creativity and hilarity of this movie makes me watch again and again. The casting was flawless in terms of who played who. It was directed and written by Pete Doctor and I give Inside Out 8.5 out of 10 stars. One of the best films of 2015.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

 

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty takes steps towards fulfilling a classic adventure story while leaving its own stamp of uniqueness with its' use of imagery and motivational sayings used throughout the film. After watching this movie it seems like they got the whole dialogue off of a motivational poster

that hangs in someone's office wall. Even so The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty still seems to hit home with its unconventional storyline and some of the transitions that some of the movie goes through from scene to scene catch the eye. If anything, the movie is just flat out fun to watch and leaves you with a heartwarming ending that puts it under a family type movie while also being an adult like movie.

Ben Stiller as Walter Mitty. Retreived From Popsugar.com

 

 

This movie can be watched by anybody at any age and that is why I liked it so much. Walter Mitty who was casted as Ben Stiller seems to be the perfect fit between nice guy who finally climbs over the wall of fear in his mind and decides to finally leave his life to an extent that many people reach just by simply doing. What I really admire about this movie is how as the story line evolves the main character Walter Mitty evolves with it as well. In the beginning he is too nervous to even leave a wink on a dating site of an office crush and by the end he finally asks her out on a date to his sisters' play, (of course she says yes). The story line and Walter Mitty's life run parallel to each other and as Ben Stiller directed and starred in the movie, he allows you to become attached to Walter Mitty, who is in every scene of this movie.

 

The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty is an overall heartwarming movie but fails to keep the storyline as ambitious with the imagery used in the movie. It stars Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Sean Penn and Adam Scott and I give it 7 out of 10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Broken Flowers

Broken Flowers follows the life of Don Johnston (Bill Murray) who seems to lead a very bland life until he receives a letter in the mail from one of his ex-girlfriends that their 18 year old son has gone out to try and find out who his father is. The letter he received was anonymous so Don Johnston's neighbor Winston (Jeffrey Wright) is a man full of positive energy and has a true passion for crime novels. Winston takes this as an opportunity to take his knowledge of crime novels and try to solve one of his own. Once Winston gives him directions to ex girlfriends houses and phone numbers, Don hits the road.

The movie uses the search of his ex- girlfriends as a story filler for and give Bill Murrays character a little more of a background. Each girlfriend reveals just a little bit about Don Johnston but each one still leaves you with questioning how he ended up with her and at the same time it adds a little mystery to Dons character. He soon meets an ex-girlfriend Sherry (Julie Delpy), who calls him a prick after he asks if she has a son or not. This leads to her current boyfriend punching Don in the face which leads to a black eye and a trip back home with no answers. Once he finally gets home he buys a young man who was on an adventure to find something which Don takes as a clue that this was his kid. Don confesses that he is the kids father, and the homeless kid runs away from him calling him crazy which leaves Don standing in the middle of a road with a state of confusion. Roll credits.

Broken Flowers is not your typical Hollywood hit, but I do actually wish there were more movies like this one. Bill Murray is the human form of melancholy in this movie, and as the storyline seems a little bland compared to todays summer hit standards, what makes this movie is the casting of Bill Murray and the themes that come along with the film if you watch closely. That's what makes this movie better than others, it has certain themes of colors throughout and leaves you with something to talk about. You could watch this movie with a friend and talk about it for a week trying to put together the clues of the film while trying to fill in the unanswered questions. That is what this movie does that modern movies don't do now, Broken Flowers goes beyond just being a movie. Your allowed to fill in some of the story line for yourself cause there is no definite answer throughout the entire film. That is the artistic element comes in.

Broken Flowers was released in 2005, it was directed and written by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Bill Murray, Julie Deply, Sharon Stone, Jeffrey Wright and Jessica Lange. I give this film a 7 out of 10. Do yourself a favor and watch the movie more than once to appreciate it.

Hannibal

Hannibal is fun to watch just because of one actor, Anthony Hopkins. There are some roles that become pinnacle roles for actors throughout their career. Ray Liotta will always be remembered as Henry Hill in Goodfellas, Sean Connery will always be remembered as James Bond and many more examples. Anthony Hopkins will always be remembered as Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter. If anything you may just watch this movie specifically for his acting and how uncomfortable he makes you feel during the whole film. It is always fun to watch when you can actually be done watching a movie and you can actually have a part of his acting stick with you once the movie is already over, but that enough is not enough to make me really like the Ridley Scott's Hannibal.

http://geekandsundry.com/hannibal-lecter-franchises-books-movies-tv-thomas-harris/

Yes, Anthony Hopkins is the main star of the whole film but that is all it really boils down to. When you go and watch these types of movies, you want to see a big majority of Hannibal Lecter, that is what you pay your ticket for. Throughout the movie he doesn't make much of an appearance until later, we got a short catch up of some characters to get the exposition going but there's no Hannibal. Ridley Scott does a good job with using iconic camera shots when it introduces some characters in the movie that give you a general feel for what that character might be like. The dialogue almost seemed very corny at times with some of Hannibal Lecter's actually being about eating people, he makes it subtle in the movie but it almost seems like when he is talking to some people he just says, "Hey, if you listen really closely to my dialogue I actually eat people and throw a couple puns in from time to time." The camera work definitely adds to the movie, it uses a lot of shaky type camera shots during violent scenes to add a little more ominous feeling. Overall I give this movie a 5/10. It is directed by Ridley Scott and Stars Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Ray Liotta, and Gary Oldman.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Welp, with Halloween right around the corner I thought I could do a little theme of horror movie for one week, ya know, to make my blog seem topical and modern. So the movie I chose to review was The Rocky Horror Picture Show which is an musical that dabbles into the genre of horror movies. Rather, it makes fun of horror movies. Once the movie starts you are just pulled into its silliness and it takes you into its world of silliness and really doesnt let go. The movie introduces you to the cornyness (if that's a word) right in the beginning with the song between  Susan Surandons character, and Barry Bostwick. If you cringe at the thought of movies that are setup as musicals then you may not be a fan of this film. I actually found the numbers to be quite entertaining with the atmosphere that the movie brings to you.

Tim Curry on Rocky Horror Picture Show. Retrieved From

The movie is definitely led by the main character  Dr. Frank-N-Furter who is portrayed by Tim Curry. He plays a transsexual alien from the planet Transylvania who creates a human life form out of his experiment. As you can tell by the picture to the right the movie's theme is musical and horror but it also has its share of sexual innuendo throughout it. It is not a movie you watch with your whole family in the room, unless you want to fill the room with awkwardness. The movie doesnt shy away from from being what it really is, it doesnt start with a silly tone and then give up, this movie stays on pace with its uniqueness which I really admired.

Sometimes the movie did get a little long in terms of the singing, there were a couple parts where I thought "end it already," but other than that I remember this movie for sticking to its tone. About 98% of the movie is shot in the same house which adds to the creepiness. Overally, I did actually like this movie when I thought I was going to hate it. It is a cult classic now since it was released in 1975. The over dramtic acting seemed to be on puropse to add to the satire that the movie is to horror movies. It is daring and pushes the gas pedal throughout the whole movie. The Rocky Horror Picture show was directed by Jim Sharman and stars Tim Curry, Susan Surandon, Barry Bostwick and Patricia Quinn. I give this film a 6 out of 10.

 

 

References



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073629/

The Book of Life

As I continue on with movie reviews I decided to just make it a complete week with family friendly movies. This week I did The Book of Life, which was a very visually striking movie but that is about it. It takes place as a story told in a Mexican town where to young men are fighting over one women who is supposed to be the love of their life. The movie, to me, had some things that didn't make much sense. For instance, since the movie took place in Mexico, you would think that the two men who are fighting over their love would have a Spanish speaking accent. Nope, only one did. One of the characters were voiced by Diego Luna and the other was Channing Tatum! So we had one character who fit properly into the story while the other just talked with a normal American accent. The story style was very conventional and predictable with a couple jokes tossed in. If you love movies that are fun to watch in terms of the colors and setting this movie may be for you. For me, the visual element only lasted long, the story gets dragged on and is fairly simplistic.

 

The one thing I will say about the past two movies I have reviewed. (Lego Movie and Book of Life), both hold a common theme of having the main characters think for themselves. Which is something Lego Movie really hits home with making that almost the whole theme while Book of Life hints at it for about one minute of the movie. Many things get built up in the film that end up never really coming full circle. Book of Life stars Channing Tatum, Zoe Saldana, and Diego Luna. It is directed by Jorge Gutierrez and produced by Guillermo Del Toro. I give this movie a 5 out of 10.

 

 

Poster for The Book of Life

 







The Lego Movie

Picture Courtesy of Shadow binders.

For starters, I just want to say that it doesnt matter what age you are, you will enjoy this movie. I figured, "Oh, Lego Movie, this is probably meant for 7-10 year olds but I will give it a shot anyway." I ended up loving this movie. Mostly for the creativity because there is something happening the whole time the film is on screen. It is fast paced film with the right

amount of wit in it so you can actually still see what is going on. It is kind of relentless when it comes to things moving, but more importantly it is relentless when it comes to the jokes. I thought this movie was actually really funny. Real funny, not the actual type of funny where it is so stupid you begin to laugh but it has jokes in the dialogue that could actually be used in a stand up comedy set. For all the amount of moving parts and the creativeness of each character, this movie seemed like it should take twenty years to make.

Lego Movie is more than just a silly movie as well. It actually had a deeper meaning to it that could actually be adult like. The movie follow the character Emmit (Voiced by Chis Pratt), who just goes along with society like a sheep. He never really has an original thought of his own, and is basically the exact opposite of a unique human being. The movie is almost a metaphor for how to be unique and think for yourself. It kind of makes fun of society and how people just go with the flow instead of having there own point of views. Emmit finally meets Lucy (Voiced by Elizabeth Banks) who tells Emmit his the special one who can stop evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell) from basically destroying the city.

It is your typical adventure movie when it comes storytelling of a movie, but the graphics, dialogue and wit make this a great movie. It even has a twist at the ending that is definitely a surprise to most viewers. After all the jokes and silliness it actually has a heart warming ending thast gives the movie a great conclusions that sticks with you even after you walk out of the movie theater. Lego Movie stars, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman, Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson and Will Arnett as Batman. I give Lego Movie an 8 out of 10