Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Disney has always been at the forefront of imagination, especially when it comes to the animated genre. Pixar Studios also deserves major credit, but Zootopia (opening today) is not a Pixar film, but a straight Disney release. Usually we chuckle (or in some cases, marvel) at how they conceptualize whole universes working in the craziest of places: The under-the-sea utopia of The Little Mermaid, the circle-of-life societal structure of The Lion King, the intricate detail of A Bug's Life, what goes on when we're not around with The Toy Story movies, or even more recently, how video game characters live and interact in Wreck-It Ralph. But very rarely is Disney's imagination matched with an even deeper metaphoric - or dare I say, adult - meaning. Zootopia is one of the more insightful and sharp films to come out of Disney in a long time, and perhaps maybe their most daring social commentary ever.
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Rating: 5 out of 5 starsGenre: Animation, Comedy, Drama Run Time: 1 hours, 30 minutes, Rated R Starring (voices of): David Thewlis, Tom Noonan, Jennifer Jason Leigh Written by Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Synecdoche, New York) Co-Directed by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson Anyone familiar with the work of writer/director Charlie Kaufman would expect nothing less than Anomalisa (opening today). It's a quirky, mesmerizing exploration of a man trapped under the weight of his mundane life. This is clearly an adult-only film (no kids whatsoever, trust me), making its unique stop-motion animation style even more unnerving to watch. Stealing from its poster, Anomalisa is one of the most "human" films of the year, despite the fact that it stars only puppets. It requires a second-viewing to take the film in wholly, because just seeing it once may be a disservice to the complex issues it tackles. And while it didn't crack my Top 10 List of 2015, it was damn close. Rating: 5 out of 5 starsInside Out (opening today) is the 15th full-length animated film to come from the now legendary Pixar Animation Studios. It's been quite a while since the brand has lived up to the hype, created by its revolutionary first-film, Toy Story, back in 1995. While always a success at the box-office, Pixar's last three feature-length entries - Cars 2, Brave and Monsters University - were mostly thought of as "lesser" Pixar films...with 2012's Brave being its only original story. Before Brave, you'd have to go back to 2009's Up, a film directed by Pete Docter (and co-directed by Bob Peterson) to find the last original plot, so there has been rumor and panic in recent years that Pixar had lost it's magic touch over the years for ground-breaking original stories.
Rating: 1 out of 5 starsGenre: Animated
Run Time: 1 hour, 28 minutes, Rated PG Starring (voices of): Lea Michele, Martin Short, Dan Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, Kelsey Grammer, Bernadette Peters, Oliver Platt, Hugh Dancy Directed by Will Finn (The Road to El Dorado, Home on the Range) & Dan St. Pierre (Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey, Everyone's Hero) There used to be such a thing as a "straight-to-video" release and everybody usually knew what that meant: That the movie sucked, or was otherwise too lame for a theatrical release. In today's world, these B and C-caliber films are often made "On Demand," which is sort of an ironic moniker, since that label implies that there is someone out there who would actually want to watch it. With this lesson in mind comes Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return(opening today), a film so horrible that it defies proper categorization. It's the Citizen Kane of crap, a film that is somehow being released theatrically, despite the fact that it should have never even been made. Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Animated, Foreign, Comedy, Drama
Run Time: 2 hours, 22 minutes, Rated PG-13 Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHaan, Felicity Jones, Paul Giamatti, Sally Field, B.J. Novak, Embeth Davidtz, Colm Feore Directed by Marc Webb (The Amazing Spider-Man, (500) Days of Summer) The origin story is behind us and its time to kick some bad guy butt. Yes, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (opening today) is high-flying, silk-slinging fun, but it carries with it the same darkness and depth introduced to us by its predecessor. Caught up also in its web are one too many unfortunate comic book movie cliches that bog the movie down and distract from the central story. But as with the 2012 film, this one relies heavily on great performances by its stellar young cast, and they again don't disappoint. Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Animated, Foreign, Comedy, Drama
Run Time: 1 hours, 20 minutes, Rated PG Sub-titled version and dubbed version featuring voices of : Forest Whitaker, Lambert Wilson, Lauren Bacall, Mackenzie Foy, Pauline Brunner, Paul Giamatti, William H. Macy, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Jeffrey Wright Based on the book by Gabrielle Vincent Directed by Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Benjamin Renner Once you see Ernest and Celestine (opening today), you will understand why this French-Belgium animated beauty was nominated for Best Animated Feature at this year's Academy Awards. You may also wonder why it didn't win. A simple, clever, classic tale of friendship and tolerance, it just feels invigorating to experience a family-friendly work of animation not churned out by Disney or one of the other big Hollywood studios. Rating: 5 out of 5 starsGenre: Animation, Comedy, Action, Family
Run Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes, Rated PG Starring: Chris Pratt, Will Arnett, Elizabeth Banks, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Nick Offerman, Liam Neeson Co-Written and Co-Directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street) We live in a day and age where nothing is sacred. Many think Hollywood has run out of ideas, but the truth is that they have tons of them...it's just that not many of them are good. One such trend has been taking nostalgic toys from our past and making new, hopeful blockbusters out of them. It's been done with Transformers and G.I. Joe, so why not everyone's favorite building-block toy, Legos? Well, beginning today, we now have another nostalgic, sacred cow getting the big-screen treatment. Yes, The Lego Movie (in theaters now) has arrived. Rating: 4 out of 5 starsGenre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Run Time: 1 hour, 48 minutes, Rated PG Starring (voices of): Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, Alan Tudyk, Santino Fontana, Ciaran Hinds Directed by Chris Buck (Surf's Up, Tarzan) & Jennifer Lee (feature-film directorial debut) Frozen (opening today) is a mix of the old and the new, a modern fairy tale told using classic, tried-and-true trappings. It is the 53rd animated feature released by Disney, loosely based on "The Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen (the author and poet of other classics, such as "Thumbelina," "The Little Mermaid" and "The Emperor's New Clothes"). It isn't quite as charming and fresh as Disney's Tangled, but it's the best Disney has had to offer since then and easily the best animated film of this year. Rating: 1 out of 5 starsGenre: Animation, Adventure
Run Time: 1 hour, 32 minutes, Rated PG Starring (voices of): Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, John Cleese, Cedric the Entertainer, Carlos Alazraqui, Anthony Edwards, Val Kilmer Written by Jeffrey M. Howard (Tinker Bell) Directed by Klay Hall (Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure) It would be easy to assume that Planes (opening today) is the latest effort from the famed Pixar Animation Studios, given that its poster, concept and characters immediately invoke Pixar's 2006 film, Cars, and its 2011 follow-up, Cars 2. On the poster for Planes it even says, "From above the world of Cars," implying a connection Rating: 3 out of 5 starsGenre: Animation, Family
Run Time: 1 hour, 36 minutes, Rated PG Starring (voices of): Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Samuel L. Jackson, Luis Guzman, Bill Hader, Snoop Dogg, Maya Rudolph, Ben Schwartz, Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong, Michelle Rodriguez Directed by David Soren (feature-film debut) Conceptually speaking, Turbo (opening today) seems built for some serious box office speed. It features a traffic jam of A-list voice-talent like Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Samuel L. Jackson, Snoop Dogg and Bill Hader, it looks great in 3D and it barrels full-steam ahead at a breakneck pace sure to excite most adrenaline-junkies or NASCAR fans.. But not so fast: For all of Turbo's ferociousness, it travels upon roads that we've been down many times before, in better films, from A Bug's Life to Cars to countless others. |
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