Inside Out (2015)

         Plot: Inside the mind of a young girl named Riley, five personifications, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger, live inside her mind and influence her actions and memories with a control console. Everything is grand until Riley's family moves to L.A. where things are gloomy compared to her old life and she begins to break down when her important memories, a.k.a. Core Memories are touched by Sadness, causing then to turn sad instead of happy. Joy tries to fix it, but in the process she, along with Sadness and the Core Memories are sucked out of their headquarters and into Riley's long term memory. So they must find a way to get back to their headquarters and place the memories back into their central hub.

         Okay so at this point, you all have likely heard that this is the film that indicates Pixar is back. And do I completely agree? Well...I think I'll save that answer until after The Good Dinosaur, but otherwise, yeah it looks like they are finally back. This movie was creative, it was funny, it was smart, it had memorable characters, it's Pixar as we've known them to be for so long. Sure the idea has been done before, but they were so inventive with it that when you see Riley's mind and/or the minds of other people throughout the film, you start to think about what the people in the inside of your mind would be like. And there were some moments where they were really funny about it too. The best case would be the Triple Dent Gum commercial song that gets into people's head. They timed that really well and used it just to the right amount. 

         The characters, like I said are very memorable. They were very smart in picking the right actors for the emotions, i.e. Amy Poehler as Joy and Phyllis Smith as Sadness. According to one of my brothers, they originally had a couple dozen emotions planned to be in the film. It's good that they brought it down to only five emotions, so that the ones that made it got more focus and thus became better developed characters. If there's one character I didn't really like, at least during the beginning of the film, it would be Sadness. I sure I sound a little like a jerk, but I can't help it, she was a little obnoxious with how she kept wanting to touch the memories even though she knew darn well what would happen.

         But without what Sadness does, we wouldn't have the message from the film. And that leads to probably the strongest element of the film; the deep, powerful and moving scenes during the second half. I won't dare give anything away, but let's just say I pity the kid that was crying when I saw the movie in theaters with my family. And some respects, adults will understand this movie more than kids will, because the film gives such a touching and mature message about life and growing up that adults will understand it more than kids- not all the time, but some. And I think that's where you can really feel that Pixar is back. It succeeds where the more recent films have not in being a film that is enjoyable for both kids and adults in a straight out brilliant way.


And that's my review for Inside Out. It's fun, it's funny, it's inventive, it's moving, it's just a ton of Pixar being the way we love them for the first time since Toy Story 3. Now like I said, whether or not they are officially back or just conjured up a good one before more 'just okay' films come out from them all depends on how The Good Dinosaur turns out.

Until then, just remember; this review H.A.K. review is brought to you by *singing* Triple Dent Gum, will make you smile! Triple Dent Gum, it lasts a while! Triple Dent Gum, will h- *audience fires machine guns over H.A.K.'s head* OKAY, OKAY, I'M SORRY! IT'S JUST A JOKE!!!

Rating: 85%

Broken Blossoms (1919)

So I am taking a film class that goes over the history of film up to the year  1937.  And I started thinking that now would be a good time to review some of the full length films that we have been watching in class. So to start of let's take a look at D.W. Griffith's Broken Blossoms.

Plot: Cheng  Huan is a Buddhist who leaves his homeland to spread the gentle message of Buddha. But his journey brings him to the brutal and gritty world of London's inner city. But then he comes across Lucy Burrows, a beautiful young woman who is abused and  unwanted  by her alcoholic father. So Cheng decides that his mission is to devote to himself to this woman, this broken blossom.

This is a very good but sad movie. A lot of it reflects on how, as the professor of the class wants us to make darn sure we know, Griffith is a great melodramist; meaning he really captures the concept of something innocent going through suffering, to give us a moral opinion.  And it really delivers on that. Lucy is played by Lilian Gish, who the professor says is the first great actress. And she does an excellent job in helping us feel for this tormented helpless person. It is terrible to see her get beaten by her father, which leads you to be all the more happy whenever Chang is there to practically worship her with the gifts and comfort he gives her. The film also leaves it to your own interpretation as to if Chang is romantically in love with Lucy. On one hand he attempts to kiss her, but on the other hanf he is usually stops himself from going through with it as if he views her as a sort of beauty that is to be seen and worshiped to rather than someone to be romantically in love with. The colors of the film are also well placed, from the blue frames when the characters are outside to express the hard coldness of the inner city to the pink frames when the characters are in Chang's room expressing how it is a peaceful safe haven for the two protagonists.

And that's my review for Broken Blossoms. Really guys, I don't know what more there is to say. It's a good, sad film with great acting, interesting use of color with the film, and a moving story. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it.

Rating: 95%

Ferngully: The Last Rainforest (1992)

         Okay so I've been thinking that maybe I should break down my body paragraph into separate paragraphs given how my reviews have are usually structured. So let's give that a try with Ferngully: The Last Rainforest


         Plot: Crysta is a fairy who lives in a rainforest called Ferngully where other fairies and animals live together. Magi, the fairy who is teaching Crystal how to use her magic, tells her the story of how humans and fairies lived together until a spirit named Hexxus drove the humans away before Magi imprisoned him. And ever since then, Crysta has had a curiosity to actually meet humans someday. She comes across a bat named Batty who tells her about how he and other animals have been experimented on by humans. But she doesn't believe him until she encounters lumberjacks cutting down trees. One of them named Zak is almost killed by a falling tree until Crysta shrinks him and saves him from getting chopped up. As she begins to befriend him however, the other lumberjacks cut down the tree that Hexxus was imprisoned in, giving him the chance to use their cutting machine to destroy Ferngully.

           As likely many of you know, this movie is so direct in its message about the environment that it's really annoying. And that has become so commonly known that when people talk about the story lines from films that Avatar is similar to, Ferngully is probably the number one film that people think of the most - either that or Dances With Wolves or Pocahontas. All of which are comparisons that I myself am guilty of making when I wrote my own review for that movie far back when I barely started writing reviews. But as a kid, I never really got the feel that it was preachy at all. I mean granted, I was only a kid and I only saw it a couple of times growing up. But back then, I liked the film, mainly because of its fantasy elements, the fact that Robin Williams was voicing one of the characters. And watching it grown up, I stick by...some parts of those two elements.

          Watching this movie grown up, I didn't find all the magical stuff with the fairies to be all that interesting, especially with how aware I am of its annoying environmental message. There are some little parts that are still a little interesting in their own way I guess, but it's just not the same. In fact, there is at least one moment where something magical happens that I thought was cool and deep, but as an adult I realize it doesn't make sense. In this said scene, the fairies are getting ready for when Hexxus comes, and somehow part of what they are doing involves one of them dying. It seems like the character is sacrificing herself for the magic to work or something, but given what happens step by step, there's no clear explanation as to how or why. But the fantasy element that does hold out the most was Hexxus. They gave gave him pretty cool designs as he goes from being a blob of sludge, to a giant polluted cloud, to a giant skeleton that I think is a made of a mixture of sludge and...just magic. Though as cool as most of the design for when he's a cloud is, even as a kid I thought we was less intimidating in that form. His other two forms are more genuinely menacing to me because you have a blob with a mouth and no eyes in one form and in the other, he's a giant skeleton. And while his cloud form is a good design in the long run, there's just something about his face and voice that just kills it for me.

         Now with Robin Williams as Batty, I am in a bit of a mix. On the one hand, he still is fun to watch...though maybe just for the sake of the fact that it's Robin Williams, especially given his death last year. And I admit that even thought I'm older, I still kind of like his "Batty Rap" early on in the film. As for the character himself, he was a little all over the place. I think the best way I could put it is that Batty is sort of a prologue for Williams' performance as The Genie (especially given that this movie came out a few months before Aladdin), but with a performance with his usual voices and jokes that only half work - or even make sense. But either way, he was the most entertaining about the protagonists, as there isn't much that completely stands out about Zach or Crysta...except how completely revealing Crysta's outfit. I mean I agree with the Nostalgia Chick when she described Crysta has "Tinkerbell's slutty sister," but watching the movie again, I couldn't help but be a little critical of how there are so many moments where that thing should not have covered as much as it did.   

        One really pretentious yet odd factor in the film is the music. It's honestly up to you if they are considered good or not, but whether it's through the whole track or just parts of it, these songs are either forcing in their environmental message or...singing about how sexual the thing they are talking about is. Like there's this iguana who sings about eating Zach as if the entire process of doing so turns him on. Then you have a song about the magic of the rainforest, which is self explanatory. And finally Hexxus' song that has both; the main chorus is about his 'toxic love' and in the middle of the song, he talks about his main goal and adds that humans and their greed are a large help to his plan.

      And that's my review for Ferngully: The Last Rainforest. I think a part of me will always like how much I enjoyed the film as a kid, but now that I'm grown up, I see it as the over kill of an environmental message it is, with its disturbing adult content and not that interesting of a main character. Unless you want to see it just for the sake that you have seen this kind of film, I would skip it.

Rating: 35%

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Yeah, I know this review is late. But because of scheduling and stuff, my dad, my brothers and I haven't been able to see this movie together. But we just finished fixing that about half an hour ago, so here's my take on Mad Max: Fury Road.

Plot: The film begins with Mad Max getting captured by the War Boys, who are lead by Immortam Joe. They use him as a blood donor for a sick warrior named Nux. But when Immortam Joe's imperator, Furiosa uses an armored truck to drive away from him and taking his five wives with her, he sends the War Boys to go after her, including Nux who takes max with him.

This was a very crazy but epic movie. It's filled with wild stunts, cool  looking costumes, great acting and of course, lots of awesome, suspenseful car chases. And the nice thing about the basic plot is that it is simple in terms of what is happening, in how everyone is basically going from point A to point B, and eventually turn around the other way. Granted,  I know that in the case of at least my dad, he did find the story a little confusing, and based on what is implied on the Honest Trailer for the movie, some people might feel the same. And I guess I can kind of see that on account of the specific story that goes with the plot. But not enough that I think it really hurts the movie in any way.

One of the things I especially enjoyed about this movie is the look of the film. Holy crap, we're they creative. I remember during the first half hour or so of the film, I would consistently be wowed by all of these different cars and costumes from Immortal Joe and his group. And of course, this includes the most famous part of the movie: the guy with the electric guitar with a flame thrower attached to it. That guy made me laugh every time he is on screen. But this is a good kind of funny in that it helps the film to be very dramatic, but doesn't entirely need to be taken seriously. After all, this film contains some pretty  deep stuff with one character having a dark past and the wives really wanting to get away from Immortal Joe, so something like a guy with an electric guitar with a flame thrower attached to it has to balance it out.

The acting was very well executed. My personal favorite among the wives was the one played by Rosie Huntington-Whitely not only was she good, but I was just really glad that she is now in another movie besides Transformers: Dark of the Moon. I may as well be the only person that feels this way, but for someone who is a Victoria's Secret model, she is an okay actor and I would like to see her to continue to go further in an acting career. Charlize Theron was the real focus of the film. She had the most depth, she was the most bad a among the characters, she was just enjoyable. But with that said, the one thing that I had a problem with the film is how we had almost none of Mad Max. We had a lot of attention on him early on, but after that, the focus was on everyone else. One of my brothers said that it fits to the franchise because Mad Max is meant to be a drifter; he isn't really on anyone's side, he just happens to be around and helps people out for is own means. (bear with me with that statement because I am paraphrasing.) So that kind of cancels it out. And even then, that is really a nitpick, because all of the other characters are so much more interesting and are meant to be the real focus of the story.

Another huge thing about the film is that action is I almost always are done with real stunts. Not all the time, after all some of the film includes things like people going through a  huge sand storm. But a lot of the jumps, cars crashing and exploding, Immortal Joe minion riding on these wobbly large poles on these cars, apparently are all real. And that is something to really appreciate about the film; we don't really get a lot of action film that don't  put all of their faith in CGI. And it really pays off.


And that's my review for Mad Max: Fury Road. It's Epic, it's dramatic, it's occasionally silly, it's just a ton of fun. If you haven't seen it yet, I do recommend it.

Rating: 90%

Daredevil (2003)

I am only a little ways away from finally taking a look at the Daredevil TV series (yeah, yeah, I know. What the heck took me so long?), but before that, I would like to get this review that I've been holding off for months out of the way.

Plot: Matt Murdock is a lawyer from Hell's Kitchen who was blinded as a boy by a toxic waste spill that also enhanced his other senses giving him the ability to "see" through sonic vibrations. When his father is murdered by a mobster, he decides to use his abilities to become a crime-fighter called Daredevil.

Now before I go any further, I want you to keep in mind that I have not seen the director's cut. I've heard that it's a little better, and if it is, swell. But I'm unable to find a way to see it, so I'm just going to go off of the original cut. Anyways, the first time I saw this movie, I wasn't completely sure how to feel about it. I mean I thought it was bad, but I was taken aback to how some of the choices that they made were just...odd. My basic feeling was that it gave the very general gist of who Daredevil is, what his origin, who his allies and enemies are and the all around mood of the hero. But the deliverance was just bad in a really weird kind of way. And today, I think I still kind of feel that way in some respects. For one thing, Daredevil's sense of serving justice is mixed up. On one hand, he just beats up bad guys like any other hero, and yet in his first fight in the movie as Daredevil, he kills a criminal and then attempts to kill one of the antagonists during the third act. I'm not going to pretend that I have read Daredevil comics as devotedly as I have with Spider-Man comics. But I'm almost positive that he's as non-lethal as most superheroes. In fact, there's a part of the story that goes over whether or not he's a bad guy. Now that's not a bad idea for a story line, but there's so little focus to it that I think they only brought it up twice in the movie. And in both cases, all they establish is just him saying "I'm not the bad guy." So they could've spent more time in Daredevil realizing his errors and slowly learning to never kill. Instead, we have a so-called superhero who beats up most criminals but kills the main targets. Not the best way to represent Daredevil on a moral ground to say the least. Another example of how odd the film is, is its choice of music. I think the Nostalgia Critic review for this movie implied that the music is different in the director's cut. And again, if that's the case, swell. But with this version, *sigh* there are some songs that do not match with what is happening in the film. And we're talking The Transformers: The Movie kind of not match. The main examples are the introduction to Kingpin and when Elektra is training herself. We first see Kingpin with this pop or rap song playing in the beginning of his first scene. None of that fits with Kingpin, who is this very heavyset and socially high class kind of villain. But even that somehow made more sense then Elektra's training scene. Basically she's using sandbags to practice her assassin skills in a big, dark and empty room, planning to kill Daredevil. And what music do they decide to play for this moment? Wake me up by Evanescence. Just...why? That is probably one of the most ridiculous choices you could make in a really serious scene like that. But with all of that said, the action is alright in some cases, and the costumes look a little cool with the exception of Bullseye. And again, in a way, it does sort of capture the dark and brooding tone of the comics (though I say that out of what little amount of the comic that I've read.)

And that's my review for Daredevil. Like the first Fantastic Four movie, it does okay in giving us (to some small degree) the general gist of the superhero, his friends and enemies, and the all around tone for the world he lives in. But he also changes from beating up bad guys to killing, has a potential storyline about his moral that is wasted, and has a soundtrack that poorly sets the mood with some of its scenes. If you ever want to find out how far this hero has come from before the Netflix series, I guess you can give it a look, but otherwise this is a definite skip.

Rating: 35%   

He's Just Not That Into You (2009)

Plot: The film revolves around nine people with four separate story lines. At the center of it all, a woman named Gigi, constantly misinterprets the behaviors of her possible romantic partners. Eventually, she meets a guy named Alex who tells her the strategies men use to avoid women. While that's going on, her friend and co-worker, Janine tries to work things out with her marriage with her husband, Ben. But while he somewhat wants to work things out too, he also befriends a yoga instructor named Anna with whom he starts a flirtatious friendship. Meanwhile, Gigi's other co-worker, Beth wants to get married after living with her boyfriend for seven years. But he doesn't believe in marriage, so she breaks up with him. And a real estate agent named Conor is romantically interested in Anna, while also having these conversations via phone with Anna's friend Mary.

So this movie was recommended to me by my friend Lindsay - the same one who recommended The Notebook. She loves this movie, because she finds it to be right on the money when it comes to the concept about whether or not guys are into a woman. And in some respects, I agree. I will grant that there's some strategies for guys that are told in the film that you might already know about and therefore may come off as Rom-Com cheese. But they still bring out some good points - some of which I for one might want to keep in mind for if and when I'm out in the dating world myself. Though learning these things is mostly only the focus during the scenes with Beth and Alex. The rest of the film goes over the happenings of these other relationships. And for the most part, they balance most of them out pretty well. Unlike a romantic comedy like Love Actually, there's some small connections to these stories through the characters and their relationships with each other. Beth and Janine are Gigi's friends and co-workers, Gigi befriended Alex, Alex knows Conor, Conor is interested in Anna while having these conversations with Mary, and so on and so forth. However, the reason I say only most of these stories are balanced pretty well, is because some are looked at more then others. Which doesn't stop it from being entertaining, but there are some plot lines you may completely forget about until they are brought up again a long way further into the movie later. But that doesn't necessarily hurt the movie, it just might confuse you during the first viewing. Even the best of films that handle various story lines like Love Actually or Cloud Atlas, will have some story lines and/or scenes that you might feel are not be needed. But I still enjoy them. Heck, if anything, I wanted to see a little more of the stuff that had the least attention. I particularly wanted to see more of Drew Barrymore's character, Mary. She was a cute character, and had this really deep monologue about how guys now have several different technologies to reject a women. It was a good point, and she performed it really well and I just wanted to see more than was barely seen of her after that. In fact, the whole cast makes some really good performances. Gennifer Goodwin, Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, they're just enjoyable to watch. Though I really have to say, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Aniston as a couple in a movie...never thought I'd see that. I mean they pull it off well but... it's the guy who was Daredevil, directed and starred in Argo and is the new Batman, getting together with Rachel from F.r.i.e.n.d.s. Tell me that very idea doesn't sound a little weird. But I digress. Some of the jokes I thought were a little funny. Without giving away too much information, there's this scene with a dog at a wedding that was cute.

And that's my review for He's Just Not That Into You. It's a nice film with an enjoyable cast, fun performances, and a generally balanced, narrative. It does have some cheesy romcom, moments, but even with that said, how you feel about the film will likely come down to what your thougbhts about what they're saying. Lindsay thinks this movie is right on, and so loves it, I think it has some good points, so I like it. And if you don't find anything and think it's bad, well Lindsay for one would tell you "You're entitled to your wrong opinion." ...That's her statement, not mine. I wouldn't say something like that. ...Please don't stop following me.

Rating: 70%

Fantastic Four (2015)

Plot: Reed Richards has spend his childhood working on building a teleporter with his best friend Ben Grimm. Eventually he gets noticed by Franklin Storm who recruits him to build a Quantum Gate at the Baxter Foundation with his children Sue and Johnny Storm and his protege, Victor Von Doom. They eventually get it to work, but when the facility's supervisor decides to send astronauts to go through the teleporter, Reed, Ben, Johnny and Victor decide to secretly us it to go to a parallel dimension. But during their venture, Victor accidentally causes the structure of the planet to erupt with green lava-like substance. Victor falls into the collapsing landscape while Ben, Reed and Johnny escape. But one the journey back, the machine explodes and alters Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben on a molecular-genetic level and gives them super powers.

Okay already I've seen videos of people giving this movie a ginormous amount of hate. And looking back at what I saw in this movie, I have to agree. But at the same time, I don't hate as much as everyone else, because as bad as it is - and it is bad, there are some little aspects that I appreciate. For example, I like how in the beginning, we see a little bit of Reed and Ben's childhood, even if some things were out of place in some areas like Ben's relationship with his brother. I also really like how part of this movie has to do with going to different dimensions. Granted, it's just one place that they go to and there isn't much out there. But I still can't really overlook the fact that we get any of the FF going to different places at all - like they do in the comics, as opposed to what they do with the other two films from Fox. And I'm glad that we get more of Doctor Doom's powers. True, it's really just telekinetic abilities, force field generation (arguably) and playing Earthbender from Avatar: The Last Airbender. But truth be told, I'm content with that. Yeah the Earthbending is ridiculous and he still isn't a sorcerer or flies or anything like that. But A) I never expected us to be that lucky when it comes to his powers in this film anyway, and B) I prefer this over practically being a prelude to Electro in Amazing Spider-Man 2 regardless. In fact, as little as it is to say, I honestly find that aspect to be my personal favorite part of the film. We may be no closer to getting the real Doctor Doom than before, but frankly, I'm okay with the minor improvements we have. Now with all the positive stuff is out of the way, let's talk about the bad. First off is the characters. I mentioned in my review for the first Fantastic Four movie, that they didn't do a half bad job in giving us a more or less accurate representation of the characters and their relationships with one another. And that's more than I can say for the FF team in this film. Other than making it obvious that Reed and Ben are BFFs (yes I know that's a term for girls, but you get the idea), you get none of the real personalities of the characters and their relationships. There's little to no interactions with Ben and Johnny, the 'friendship' between Victor Von Doom and the team is not believable, and *Spoiler alert in case you actually care* There is straight out no romance between Reed and Sue. In fact most of the development of their relationships between any of them are done through a montage while they are building the machine. Also there's no humor in this movie. There's a light charm in this team in the comics and the other films, and yet this film makes them all dark and moody. It's like they're taking from Man of Steel, except in that movie, it had (in my opinion) at least one little joke in the end that made me chuckle. Here, aside from one moment with Johnny that's seen in the trailers, I don't think there was any real attempt for any humor at all. And amazingly, as a character, Doctor Doom (or just Doom in this case) is worse than the Doctor Doom in the other films. There is little to no real motivation for him to be the villain. Thinking back about the movie, I have to agree with other reviewers who say that his desire to be evil is forced. They had so little to do with him in this movie that they actually made the Doom in the first FF film look really good. I actually thought I was going to get at least a slightly deeper version of this super-villain in this film, and they actually made the Doom from the '05 film look good. Wow. Fail. Also, Reed Richard was rather out of place during the middle of the movie. I won't give anything away (not that most of you would care if I did), but he does something that is almost completely out of character. And this matter goes on for quite a while, which makes it worse. In fact that's one of the biggest problems with this film; it's a drag worse than - you guessed it, the first FF film. There is genuinely no action until the final act, and even then, the fight is really rushed and unimaginative. Also, the editing is really bad. I remember that there's some parts in the film where - being someone who is hoping for a career in film editing, I kept thinking that there had to be more specific cuts inserted to these sequences instead of dragging on some shots. The worst of it is when the team looks at a crater and there's this happy music playing. Uh...sure, like that make sense sarcastically speaking.   


And that's my review for Fantastic Four. I'll give it credit with some of the little thing about the movie, but in the end, we have a film with no real chemistry between the characters, a worse adaption of Doctor Doom, almost no action until the very end - which even when there is, it's really boring, and some really bad editing. This is a definite skip. And let's hope this leads to Fox giving back to Marvel at least one of the movie rights to one of their superhero teams back.

Rating: 15%