|
Hello, fellow moviegoers! Leap! is directed by Eric Summer, and Eric Warin, and it features the voice talents of Elle Fanning, Dane DeHaan, Mel Brooks, and Kate McKinnon. It tells the story of two orphans from France. When they run away to Paris to chase their dreams, they quickly discover that chasing their dreams might be more difficult than they think. The film primarily follows the girl Felicie, and her journey to become a dancer at the Grand Opera house.  I went into this movie knowing almost nothing about it. I knew that it was an animated film that took place in the 1800s, but that’s it. I hadn’t even seen a trailer. I was pleasantly surprised by the film that I got. Leap! is a feel-good movie that will leave you in a really good mood after seeing it. Is it an amazing movie? No, but it is one that I think most people can really enjoy. The best word to describe the experience of seeing this film is “pleasant”. From start to finish, the film was a heartwarming tale of two kids chasing their dreams. You really get connected with these characters, and in turn, you are emotionally invested in the movie as a whole. When these characters are living their lives, your heart really connects to them. You are happy when they succeed, and you’re sad when they fail. Speaking of which, it was nice that not everything in this movie worked out exactly the way we hoped it would. We often see films, specifically animated films, where everything goes according to plan. There may be one or two bumps along the road, but overall, it was pretty smooth sailing. That was not the case in Leap!. This film was brave enough to have its characters fail. These characters really go through some rough patches, and it’s believable when they do. They seem like actual people living their life, which is quite a feat for an animated film such as this. This film does suffer from something that most kids movies do, and that’s poor dialogue. I’m not saying that all of the dialogue was bad, but on occasion, it became extremely predictable and cliché. That is probably tied along with a few of the characters being the typical animated movie caricatures. There was one point in the film where I literally had to resist the urge to laugh because the dialogue was so poorly written. The quality of the animation in this film was very good. The whole film was beautiful to look at. From the character models to the landscape of Paris, everything in this film was animated very well. It made the film even more interesting to watch. Visually, everything was a pleasure to look at, so watching the film became a much more pleasant experience than it already was. At the end of the day, Leap! was actually pretty good. It felt like a Pixar animated short, except it was an hour and a half long instead of fifteen minutes. The film features a lot of really good and positive messages for kids, though it also shows that sometimes things don’t work out how you want them to. The film was animated very well, and from the moment it starts it was interesting to look at. The dialogue can be pretty bad at times, although the pleasant quality of the story being told makes up for that. Leap! was a pleasant little film that I would certainly recommend. 7/10  So what did you think of Leap!? How would you compare it to other animated films like it? Let me know by commenting on this post! Also, if you enjoyed this review, share it on Facebook and Twitter. It really helps! Don’t forget, I post every Monday and Friday, so check back then for more movie reviews and other miscellaneous movie thoughts!
Thanks for stopping by! Hello, fellow moviegoers! The Emoji Movie is directed by Toney Leondis, and it features the voice talents of T.J. Miller, James Corden, Anna Faris, and Patrick Stewart. It tells the story of Gene. Gene is a “Meh” emoji, and his whole life he is expected to only show that one emotion. When Gene can’t help but have other emotions, he must go on an adventure with Hi-5 and Jailbreak in order to try and resolve his issue. The reaction to this film has mostly been...less than positive. It holds a mere 6% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. So is it really as bad as people say?  The Emoji Movie is not good. There’s no getting around that. There’s a lot in this movie that could and should’ve been done better, and the concept as a whole is pretty ridiculous and exactly what you’d expect from Hollywood. However, I will say that the film is not nearly as bad as people are saying it is. Many people out there are calling this film garbage and the worst film of the year, both of which are statements that I’d disagree with. While the film is never necessarily good, it’s not awful, and it’s certainly not the worst film of the year. While I am defending it a little bit (I know, I’m surprised too), there are a lot of things wrong with The Emoji Movie. The chief of which is that it’s lazy. The whole thing feels very lazily thought of and put together. The concept is one that is blatantly just trying to capitalize on social trends and make a quick buck. While that’s not a good thing, it’s also not out of the ordinary in Hollywood. What really clues in how lazily The Emoji Movie was written, was the humor. That’s because a vast majority of the jokes in this movie are puns. Don’t get me wrong, I actually can enjoy a good pun. But when 90% of the jokes in your movie are puns, they get old really fast. For about the first ten minutes I was actually enjoying this movie, but then it became evident what this movie was going to be, and that’s an hour and a half of lazy writing and puns about whatever they can think of. The film also doesn’t seem to know what message it wants to give, outside of the cliché “Express yourself and be who you want to be”. This film, as you’d expect, is very “Yeah! Emojis! Look how cool and expressive they are!” (That sentence pretty much sums up a majority of this film). However, sometimes they make jokes that seem to contradict the purpose of their entire film’s existence. By that I mean, they make a lot of jokes about how people are so attached to their phones, and they are becoming lazier because of it. Which, I understand the desire to have those jokes, they’re easy. However, when your movie is literally about emojis and takes place inside of a smartphone, they feel a little out of place. The entire film is extremely cliché. It’s nothing new. It seems like they tried to kind of be like Inside Out, but then they got lost somewhere early on. The plot is recycled, the characters are ironically unemotional, the humor is lazy, and this entire project feels like a cash grab. However, I’ll still say that it could’ve been a lot worse. It did actually cause me to chuckle a couple times, and every now and then I found myself thinking “That’s actually kind of clever”. Is it a good movie? No, but it’s not terrible, that’s what I’m saying. The Emoji Movie is exactly what you’d expect it to be from the trailers. Whatever experience you had with the trailers for the movie is pretty much exactly what you’ll get actually watching it. (Hey, at least they marketed it accurately) Personally, I didn’t hate the trailers as much as everyone else. In fact, I was caught off guard by the reaction to the first full trailer because I actually enjoyed it (*Gasp!*). I honestly do not understand all the hate that this movie is getting. Maybe this film was just an easy target because of the silly premise? I’m not sure. What I do know, is that I didn’t think The Emoji Movie was that bad. My reaction was exactly the emotion of the main character, meh. It had its moments, and I think kids will have fun with it, though it certainly has issues. At the end of the day, kids were the target audience, so they did that right. To anybody else, this is just another kids movie. 4/10  So what did you think of The Emoji Movie? Do you think it deserves a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes? Let me know by commenting on this post! Also, if you enjoyed this review, share it on Facebook and Twitter. It really helps! Don’t forget, I post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so check back then for more movie reviews and other miscellaneous movie thoughts!
Thanks for stopping by! Hello, fellow moviegoers! Despicable Me 3 is directed by Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin, and it features the voices of Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Trey Parker, and Miranda Cosgrove. When Gru discovers that he has a twin with whom he was separated from at birth, he travels to the island of Freedonia to meet his richer and more successful brother, Dru. This is the third film in the Despicable Me series, so does it fall more in line with those films or the Minions movie?  Despicable Me 3, while it isn't a bad movie, it's certainly not a very good one. As far as quality of the film is concerned, this film is more along the lines of Minions rather than the other two films in the series. There aren't a lot of real flaws I can think of in the movie, but it never really goes above and beyond. It never really feels like they were trying to make a good movie with Despicable Me 3. The premise of Gru meeting his twin brother is interesting enough, but it gets played out very quickly in the movie, then it just becomes repetitive and boring. What has made this franchise successful for the most part, in my opinion, is its originality. The first and second Despicable Me films were different from most kids movies, and that's why they were enjoyable. Despicable Me 3, however, just feels like your generic kids movie. It doesn't do anything new, and it never really tries to become anything more than the type of movie you put on to keep your kids entertained for a couple hours. The villain in the film was Balthazar Bratt, a former child TV star that seems to be stuck in the 80s. His backstory was interesting enough, and some of the gadgets he had were actually quite clever, though the character itself was literally a mustache-twirling villain. South Park's Trey Parker did the voice of the character, and he did a pretty good job. You could tell that he was having fun with it. The first five minutes of the film were actually pretty enjoyable. When I sat down, the movie started, and those first five minutes were happening, I was thinking to myself "Alright, this is pretty fun. I can do this". However, after those first five minutes, the film seems to just drop off a cliff. It becomes significantly less interesting. I'd go as far to say that it even became boring. Nothing in the movie really makes you want to watch it. As a result of that, this hour and a half long movie easily feels like its pushing two hours long. About half way through this movie I did something that I almost never do. I went to the bathroom. Here's the catch. I didn't actually have to go to the bathroom, I just wanted to get up and walk around before I was bored to death. While this isn't the Minions movie by any means, there are certainly a lot of minions in this film. So take that for what you will. Minions are a really love/hate thing for most people. So if you enjoy the minions, you'll probably enjoy this film. If you don't, you won't. Despicable Me 3 is pretty much exactly what you would expect from the third film in any generic animated kids franchise. It doesn't bring anything new to the table, though there are little things about it that are enjoyable. For the most part, the film never exceeds average. It wasn't a bad movie necessarily, just one that is extremely forgettable. Legitimately, when sitting down to write this review, at first I forgot what movie it was that I saw last night, and I feel like that pretty much sums it all up. 5/10  So what did you think of Despicable Me 3? Are you a fan of the minions? Let me know by commenting on this post! Also, if you enjoyed this review, share it on Facebook and Twitter! It really helps! Don't forget, I post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so check back then for more movie reviews and other miscellaneous movie thoughts!
Thanks for stopping by! Hello, fellow moviegoers! Cars 3 is directed by Brian Fee, and it features the voice talents of Owen Wilson, Armie Hammer, Cristela Alonzo, and Nathan Fillion. This latest addition to the merchandising behemoth that is the Cars franchise takes the story back to its roots. Instead of continuing with the British spies of the series's second installment, this film explores an aging Lightning McQueen struggling to compete with a new generation of younger, faster racers.  Cars 3 is pretty much exactly what you would expect it to be from watching the trailers. It's just another film in the Cars universe. Thankfully, they ditched the over-complexity of the previous installment and returned to the simplicity of the original. Though the film equals the quality of the first film at times, it never really exceeds it. The first Cars film was entertaining enough, but the second one was way too much. Cars 3 is a decently enjoyable movie that, at its core, is made for kids. It does occasionally have surprisingly heartfelt messages for the adults in the audience as well. First of all, it's important to note that this franchise is one that has been built for children. It's a little different from the rest of Pixar's films in that way. Most of Pixar's film are more kid-friendly instead of being kid-oriented (Up, Inside Out, Ratatouille, etc.). The Cars franchise is the exception to that. Cars 3 has the occasional glimmer of one of those great Pixar films, but as a whole, it's pretty good, not amazing. The best thing about this film is the quality of the animation. Pixar has always been the best in the business as far as animation goes. However, that hasn't stopped them from consistently improving. The animation in this film at times is along the lines of The Good Dinosaur. It legitimately looks real at times. There are many shots and scenes throughout this film where it looked like someone had actually gone out and filmed with a camera, then animated these cars on top of it. Oddly enough, that excellent animation turned into a bit of a double-edged sword. Since the background animation was so realistic at times, it became painfully obvious how cartoony the cars looked. It's a strange thing, to be consistently annoyed by animation in an animated film, but that happened in Cars 3. The contrast of these cartoon vehicles on top of the photorealistic backgrounds became distracting, and it really takes you out of the atmosphere whenever you notice it. The great animation in the scenery accidentally highlighted the not-so-great in the cars, and as a result one of the best things about the film became one of the worst. The voice work in the film was pretty well done. Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen worked as well as he has in the past, though this time it wasn't blatantly his voice (which is good). The new additions to the cast were very welcome ones. The most notable additions came in the form of Armie Hammer as Jackson Storm, McQueen's new rival, Cristela Alonzo as Cruz Ramirez, a physical trainer with dreams of being a racer, and Nathan Fillion as Sterling, McQueen's new manager. They each played their roles really well. On a bit of a side note, I'd like to point out that Armie Hammer has slowly been building up a very admirable career for himself. Having now been in The Social Network, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., voiced a character in a Pixar film, and reportedly joining the DC Extended Universe soon, he's definitely someone to keep your eye on. As a whole, Cars 3 is a decent addition to Pixar's catalog of films. It's definitely better than Cars 2, and it's on about the same level as the first. This film isn't made to be the best movie of the year, it's made to fund Pixar's future projects and give fans of the franchise a film they can enjoy. Cars 3 will definitely be a hit with followers of the series as it received a round of applause when the credits rolled in my theater. Pixar has by no means made an amazing film here, but it will undoubtedly be a fun movie for families to go see. 6.5/10  So what did you think of Cars 3? Do you want to see a Cars 4? Let me know by commenting on this post! Also, if you enjoyed this review, share it on Facebook and Twitter. It really helps! Don't forget, I post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so check back then for more movie reviews and other miscellaneous movie thoughts!
Thanks for stopping by! |
Kyle Kruse
Follow Me for Updates!Twitter: @kruze_reviews
Categories
All
Archives
May 2018
|
RSS Feed