Tag: Tom Hanks

[31 Days of Horror Part VII: The New Blood] Day 8 – Leprechaun 4: In Space (1997)

Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith
Cast: Warwick Davis, Brent Jasmer, Jessica Collins, Tim Colceri, Miguel A. Nunez, Jr., Debbe Dunning, Gary Grossman, Rebekah Carlton, Rick Peters, Geoff Mead, Michael Cannizzo, Ladd York, Guy Siner
Screenplay: Dennis A. Pratt
95 mins. Rated R for language, horror violence, and some sexuality.

Taking a franchise to space has always been an odd choice. In most cases, it never really serves the story much. The only instances where I see it actually fitting the story is Critters 4 (the titular Critters being of space origin, so going there eventually made some sense), but it oftentimes feels like the idea machine running out of steam. One of these days, I’ll really have to rank horror franchises with one space sequel, but for now, we’ll just settle for talking about Leprechaun 4: In Space, one of the more peculiar of these films, specifically due to the franchise’s low budget. Let’s just find out if the Leprechaun franchise can breathe without oxygen.

The year is 2096, and a group of space marines has accidentally found themselves interfering with the villainous Leprechaun (Warwick Davis, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) as he tries to woo the alien Princess Zarina (Rebekah Carlton, A Match Made in Heaven, A Quiet Little Neighborhood, A Perfect Little Murder). When the Leprechaun gets aboard their ship, picking them off one at a time, it’s clear they’ll need more than a little luck to defeat him.

The idea for Leprechaun 4 came about when a head producer for TriStar saw a poster for Apollo 13 with the Leprechaun’s face instead of Tom Hanks. The poster was apparently just a joke, but he took it and ran with it, getting this fourth film quickly into production. Now, we currently live in a time period where random tweets are getting bought up and turned into movies (no joke), but seriously, who actually thought sending the Leprechaun to space was a good idea. It’s fair to inform you now that this is a horrible movie, perhaps the worst one of them all because it just doesn’t get anything right. It’s odd to think that a franchise with a magical Leprechaun murdering people took four movies to completely jump the shark, but Leprechaun 4 proves that to be the case.

There’s clearly an issue with the tone of this film. All of the Leprechaun films have been campy to this point, no doubt, but this one is by far the silliest, slap-stickiest, and least terrifying of them all. I get that there’s a horror/comedy element at play in this series, but the horror portion of that is nonexistent here. There’s nothing frightening about this film whatsoever, and the argument that it’s self-aware comedy doesn’t work because…how do I put it…What parts are the “funny” parts? I get that comedy is suggestive but I’m having trouble even figuring out what parts of the film are supposed to be comedic.

The narrative is riddled with problems that range from the improbably to the laughably foolish. The way these space marines are written makes them so stupid that I just can’t take their story seriously. They are bad soldiers that make bad mistakes, and not just fueled by the presence of a new enemy in the Leprechaun. They seem to not understand the simple actions that should lead to their safety. Then, there’s the whole issue of where these Leprechaun powers come from. It seems that, due to the lack of rules as the sequels piled up, we have a significant problem with an all-too-powerful villain. There’s no way the space marines would be able to stop the Leprechaun because he appears to have lost all the quirks that made the original film fun. In the first movie, the Leprechaun has to shine any shoes that he finds with abrasions or scuffs. He also can be kept at bay with certain clovers and a few other things. Taking him to space seems to remove any of these fun world-building aspects and we are left with powers that are too powerful to give our heroes a chance, and the ending proves that writer Dennis A. Pratt (Kickboxer 3: The Art of War, Deep Freeze) couldn’t come up with a viable way to defeat the Leprechaun.

That kind of boils down the biggest problem with the movie. There’s just no purpose to sending the Leprechaun to space. We’ve never really gotten clarification that Warwick Davis is playing the same Leprechaun in each film or a different one as the characters are all similar, they also drastically change in how he is dispatched and where we see him when the next film begins, but why is he in space anyway? The movie starts…and he’s in space. There’s no interesting hook to put him there, and the budget clearly cannot afford the sci-fi elements at play. The ship’s exterior is worse than most Windows 95 games. The original StarCraft (which I still play) cinematics look better by comparison.

Leprechaun 4: In Space is a tremendous failure in just about every way. It’s easily the worst film in the franchise up to this point, as the first three films have an element of charm to them that is sadly lacking here. The plot is foolish, the characters dumb, the tone wildly incorrect. It’s a horrible movie, but hey, at least it has Jackie Denardo in it, and that has to count for something, right?

1/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

For my review of Mark Jones’s Leprechaun, click here.
For my review of Rodman Flender’s Leprechaun 2, click here.
For my review of Brian Trenchard-Smith’s Leprechaun 3, click here.

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The Big Push: Sony Bumps Its Summer Releases Into 2021

Well, COVID-19 has caused another studio to push a lot of properties into 2021. To my knowledge, F9: The Fast Saga, the latest in the Fast & Furious franchise, is the only film that was pushed into 2021. Now, Sony has added several more films to that list.

Sony Pictures has adjusted the release dates for Morbius, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Uncharted, and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway into early 2021. The Kevin Hart film Fatherhood was moved from 2021 into October of this year in all the shuffle, and Greyhound, the Tom Hanks-scripted and starring film, was removed from its June date.

The only significant Sony film that didn’t adjust is Venom 2, the upcoming sequel to the very-successful Venom film from 2018. Let’s break this down…

Morbius, starring Jared Leto, was set to be the second film in Sony’s Spider-Man Character Universe. It was set to follow the first Venom film and it had a lot of questions surrounding it. The trailer featured posters of Spider-Man as well as a moment with Michael Keaton potentially playing Vulture again, which would be mind-blowing because many believed that Disney would not allow Sony to do that with the current deal in place. Many wondered if Morbius was firmly plant itself as MCU-adjacent, and the question therefore came to, “Will it connect to Venom as well?” Now that Morbius will come out after Venom 2, that seems to tell us that the films won’t crossover. If they did, Morbius would likely have taken Venom 2‘s spot and Venom 2 would have likely moved to 2021.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is something I’ve been very excited for, but this film has a lot to accomplish. I was really excited to see how this film would pick up the franchise and get it going again, but the biggest hurdle of this sequel isn’t Ghostbusters II. It’s 2016’s Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. I know, they aren’t related, but not everyone will connect that. What people will connect is how they didn’t like that film. Ghostbusters: Answer the Call was very mixed in its reactions. I really enjoyed the 2016 film myself, but I know there were a lot of people that didn’t love the film, and now we have this upcoming sequel to Ghostbusters II that has a new, potentially concerning release date. Release dates are an economic science, and choosing a date can make or break your release.

Uncharted, like The New Mutants, seems cursed. This movie just cannot catch a break. This most recent push just signals that the film may never happen.

As far as Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway goes, I couldn’t care less. The first wasn’t great but not horrible, but I don’t need to see another one.

So there you have it. A lot of changes, and a lot more waiting. You may be asking “Why? Why bump these movies so early?” It’s all for marketing. If you cannot guarantee the release date, you can’t spend millions marketing a movie.

So what do you think? Which of these adjustments hits you the hardest or do you not care about any of them? Let me know/Drop a comment down below!

 

-Kyle A. Goethe

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[#2020oscardeathrace] A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)

Director: Marielle Heller

Cast: Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Cooper

Screenplay: Noah Harpster, Micah Fitzerman-Blue

109 mins. Rated PG.

  • Academy Award Nominee: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role [Tom Hanks] [PENDING]

 

After the success of Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, it seemed certain that we would see a Mr. Rogers biopic. I became surprised that we hadn’t already gotten one in the years following his death, but I learned that his estate was primarily concerned with getting it as accurate as possible, and so when it was announced that Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Can You Ever Forgive Me?) would be directing the biopic with Tom Hanks (Cast Away, Toy Story 4) playing Mr. Rogers, it seemed to be perfect, but could Hanks pull it off?

In 1998, Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys, The Report, TV’s The Americans), a journalist for Esquire magazine, is tasked with profiling Fred Rogers, host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, for an issue on heroes. Lloyd’s at a place in his life where he’s known for his cynical and scathing pieces of journalism, and he’s not too keen on writing about Mr. Rogers, but he begrudgingly accepts. Over several meetings, Lloyd and Fred learn quite a lot about each other, and Fred is determined to understand his interviewer and help him come to terms with his past.

I cannot begin to discuss the merits of this film without giving a whole lot of credit to Tom Hanks and his performance as Mr. Rogers. There are a few different ways that Hanks could have approached playing the iconic personality. The worst of these ways would have been to attempt an impersonation of Fred Rogers. Hanks avoids this by purely studying the mannerisms, inflection, and tone of the character and apply it to his performance. No one can be Fred Rogers, and Hanks plays the spirit of who Mr. Rogers is.

The decision made by the screenwriters, Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, The Motel Life), to focus on a single story of friendship instead of a straight-up biopic was a great choice. I’m so sick of by-the-numbers checklist biopics. I want to see a story. That’s what we get here. It also works since most everyone who has an interest in the life story can watch Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and get all that. Using Lloyd Vogel as the lens through which we view Mr. Rogers creates an accessibility that really works for understanding Fred Rogers as a human being.

Another benefit of telling a singular story is that director Marielle Heller is able to experiment and really let her artistry shine. She constructs a dream-like quality by creating a framing device that also lets us see Lloyd through Fred’s eyes as well. She also expanded upon the diner scene in the film, and I don’t want to get into the details of it, but that sequence because I want you to experience it for yourself, but it’s the moment that elevates this film to another level.A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is another outstanding feature from Marielle Heller that contains another stunner of a performance from Tom Hanks. This unforgettable film experience is well worth your time, even if you think you know the whole story…so sing it with me:

“Won’t you please, won’t you please,
Please won’t you see this movie?”

 

4.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

 

 

For my review of Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me?, click here.

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Turner & Hooch Series Set at Disney+?

The folks over at Disney+ seem bent on resurrecting as many dead IPs as possible for their new streaming service, and now it seems that Turner & Hooch is the next on the docket.

The original 1989 film starred Tom Hanks as a detective solving crimes with his dog. Not much is currently known about the new series and how it will adapt the original film into the new series, but Matt Nix (TV’s The Gifted and Burn Notice) will write and executive produce.

Personally, I feel like Turner & Hooch has a potential. It’s been a bit since I last caught the film, but it lies in that realm of recognizable IP that isn’t a holier-than-thou classic film. People don’t hold the film as perfect and untouchable, and I think, if done right, a series could work. It’s just a question of whether or not Disney and Fox know what to do with it.

So what do you think? Can a Turner & Hooch survive over at Disney+? Let me know/Drop a comment down below!

 

-Kyle A. Goethe

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[Hanksgiving] Big (1988)

Director: Penny Marshall

Cast: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard

Screenplay: Gary Ross, Anne Spielberg

104 mins. Rated PG.

  • Academy Award Nominee: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Tom Hanks)
  • Academy Award Nominee: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

 

Happy Hanksgiving to all, and a glorious Hanksgiving especially to you. What’s Hanksgiving you ask? Well, it’s the tradition of celebrating America’s favorite actor and performer on the last Thursday of November. That’s right, Tom Hanks (Cast Away, Toy Story 4) No one else was using the day, so why not right? This Hanksgiving, let’s talk Big. It’s weird, so let’s jump right in.

Josh is a young man in desperate need of a confidence boost. He likes a girl, and he’s working up the strength to go talk to her, but he finds that he’s just not big enough to make an impression. So when he comes across an old carnival fortune teller machine called Zoltar, he wishes he were big…and the wish comes true. Josh wakes up the next morning with a thirty-year old body, having magically grown bigger overnight. His mother doesn’t recognize or believe him, and the only person he can go to is buddy Billy, who helps set him up with a job working for the MacMillan Toy Company and living in low cost lodging in New York City until they can figure out how to make him normal again. Soon enough, Josh’s childlike knowledge of toys rockets him up the MacMillan Toy Company ladder, attracting the eyes of the beautiful but joyless Susan (Elizabeth Perkins, Sharp Objects, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call) and angering the competitive and cruel Paul (John Heard, The Guardian, Home Alone), but is Josh ever going to get things back to normal, and if he can’t, how long can he keep the charade up?

We’ll start with the big things here. Tom Hanks plays adult Josh, and damn, he is phenomenal as a child living in a grown man’s body. He just gets it so perfectly, and Big is a tremendous showcase for Hanks’s comedic stylings. We all know Hanks now for his serious roles but we forget that he started as a comic actor in things like Bosom Buddies and Bachelor Party. We forget that Tom Hanks can literally do anything. For this film, I’ve read that scenes were performed by David Moscow, who plays younger Josh, first, and them mimicked by Hanks. It’s a brilliant idea that adds layers to a performance and it’s pretty damn easy to pull off.

The supporting cast is fine, from Perkins to Heard, and I should give special recognition to Robert Loggia (Independence Day, Scarface) as Mr. MacMillan, the head of the toy company that employs Josh. The way he connects with Josh on a personal level and sees him like a son is something truly special. We always look at Robert Loggia as a cranky old serious actor but he’s got some nice comedic timing, and it’s on display here.

Now, let’s cover the most batshit element of this movie: the script. Written by Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg, Big’s screenplay is very good but it’s the kind of screenplay that I’m flat-out surprised that it ever got made. I know there were several filmmakers attached to this film over time until Penny Marshall (Awakenings, A League of Their Own) came onboard, and there were several actors poised to play Josh, but the fact that this movie happened is a shock all its own. There’s some very controversial stuff happening in this movie, particularly with the conflict/connection between adult Josh and Susan. I like the risks that the film takes in pursuing the true character choices that would be made, but these are script choices that would never happen today. Who would’ve thought that a movie like Big could actually made some risqué choices?

Big is a fabulous movie that maybe runs a little long near the end of its third act, but it’s fascinatingly put together with a star-making performance from Tom Hanks as he continued to dominate the field as a performer. It’s a not-always-comfortable but very funny look at the absurd situation seen through the guise of relatable and likable characters. This is one that I was very happy to revisit, and I would recommend the same for you. Happy Hanksgiving, and Thanks T. Hanks.

 

4.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

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Toy Story 4 (2019)

Director: Josh Cooley

Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Madeleine McGraw, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Ally Maki, Jay Hernandez, Lori Alan, Joan Cusack

Screenplay: Andrew Stanton, Stephany Folsom

100 mins. Rated G.

IMDb Top 250: #132 (as of 7/9/2019)

 

We didn’t need a Toy Story 4. That’s what I kept saying. We just didn’t need it. Toy Story 3 was a great ending to a solid trilogy and we didn’t need to muddy the waters with another installment almost destined to be terrible. We trusted Pixar not to ruin this one, and our trust in them was worth it.

It’s been two years since Andy gave his toys over to Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw, American Sniper, Ant-Man and the Wasp) and departed for college, and the toys have been on a great many adventures since then. Andy’s favorite toy Sheriff Woody (Tom Hanks, Cast Away, The Post) is struggling, though, as he has been seemingly forgotten by Bonnie when playtime occurs, but he remains vigilant in his duties to protect her, so when she becomes nervous at kindergarten orientation and makes a new toy, Forky (Tony Hale, Batman Ninja, TV’s Arrested Development), out of some trash and crafting supplies, Woody takes it upon himself to teach Forky how to be the best toy he can be. During this time, Bonnie and her family are on a vacation in the RV, and at one of the stops, Woody spots a lamp at an antique store that he believes may belong to Bo Peep (Annie Potts, Ghostbusters, TV’s Young Sheldon), a toy that one belonged to Andy’s sister, one that he cared for very deeply. Woody and Forky also come across the menacing Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks, Ginger & Rosa, TV’s Good Girls), a defective antique toy who wants Woody’s voice box for her own. Now, Woody must return Forky to Bonnie without getting caught by Gabby Gabby, and he is also forced to confront his own wants in the process.

Let’s cover the purpose of Toy Story 4, because if there was one criticism in just about any fan’s mind as they enter the theater, it’s the question of WHY? Why Toy Story 4? Well, I will say this. I think Toy Story 4 is the second-best film in the series behind the third film. That being said, I think Toy Story 4’s ending is so much better than the third film. It leaves up in a very satisfying place and works very well in questioning everything that came before. It’s a film that looks at the toys we have and asks a lot of questions.

This is very much Woody’s story, and he goes on it mostly without the help of the other toys, encountering lots of new characters in the process. While Toy Story 3 is the ending of the story in relation to Andy, Toy Story 4 takes a good hard look at Woody, a toy that has always been in service of his human, but he is confronted with the very real idea that he may not be Bonnie’s favorite toy. His character arc, especially in relation to Forky’s existential crisis of self, is very well-layered and something I’ve always wanted more out of.

The new characters are so wonderful as well. Keegan-Michael Key (Keanu, TV’s Friends from College) and Jordan Peele (Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, TV’s The Twilight Zone) appear together as Ducky and Bunny, two sentient toys made sown-together at the hands, and they are an absolute delight. Key and Peele use the classic comedic timing and chemistry that they’ve been known for to make this the funniest of the Toy Story movies. They had me in stitches, never once ruining the scene by trying to hard.

Then, there’s Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves, The Matrix, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum), a Canadian daredevil toy with a motorcycle capable of performing incredible stunts, or at least, that’s what the commercials had said. I love all the character Reeves packed into such a limited screen time. He worked tirelessly on embodying his character with the director, and it shows in the work. His is a similar character to the one that Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen, El Camino Christmas, TV’s Home Improvement) was in the first film: a toy that is coming to terms with its limits. He is broken on the inside because he was never able to meet the expectations of his commercial.

The only real flaw I had with Toy Story 4 is that I believe that Gabby Gabby is probably the worst villain of the entire franchise. It sounds like I may be in the minority on this one, but I’m going to speak my reasons and let them stand. I never found Gabby Gabby as a villain to be very menacing. Yes, she’s a little creepy and her henchmen ventriloquist dummies are certainly frightening and strange enough, but I never really saw her as villainous in the way that I saw, say, Lotso from Toy Story 3. Maybe it’s just me, but I felt like she was antagonistic but never villainous.

Toy Story 4 also feels, at times, like a big game of I Spy. The antique store, where a good portion of the film is set, is chock full of Easter Eggs and references to other Pixar films, to Toy Story films, and to other pop culturally iconic movies, most notably The Shining, which has always had a somewhat odd connection to the Toy Story franchise. Then, there’s voice cameos galore, many of which I didn’t catch until someone told me about them after the film ended. It’s just a celebration of so much magic that Disney and Pixar can craft.

Toy Story 4 is the perfect true finale to the franchise, one I hope they actually keep to, and I absolutely adored this movie. It’s the ending that feels most earned, not just throughout this installment, but through the entire series. It’s a powerful finale that will drive many to tears, this writer included. I really enjoyed it.

 

4/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

5

[#2018oscardeathrace] The Post (2017)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, Matthew Rhys

Screenplay: Liz Hannah, Josh Singer

116 mins. Rated PG-13 for language and brief war violence.

  • Academy Award Nominee: Best Motion Picture of the Year [Pending]
  • Academy Award Nominee: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role [Meryl Streep] [Pending]

 

Only Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, The BFG) could accomplish The Post in the time that he did. The film went through Production, Post-Production, and Release just in the Post-Production of his Ready Player One, the other film he was working on. Not only that, but to have that film go on to be nominated for Best Picture is exemplary.

The Post is the story of Kay Graham (Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady, Florence Foster Jenkins), the owner and publisher of The Washington Post, and Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump, Toy Story 3), the editor-in-chief as they come to a decision on how to proceed with the publishing of sensitive materials pertaining to a cover-up spanning four U.S. Presidents. As the weight of the decision falls on Kay, she is met with arguments on both sides and mounting tensions that could send multiple colleagues to prison for treason or ruin The Post’s reputation permanently.

For the most part, The Post is exactly what it needs to be, and it works very well. I really like the usage of Nixon’s actual audio in his portrayal. I loved how it leads right up to the opening of All the President’s Men, which almost makes The Post an unofficial prequel.

But the best part of The Post is its performances. Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks are amazing, but its supporting players are equally strong. I would have loved to see Bob Odenkirk (Girlfriend’s Day, TV’s Better Call Saul) nab an Oscar nomination for his work as Ben Bagdikian. The same should be said of Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek, Batman: Gotham by Gaslight) as Robert McNamara.

The script is mostly strong and Spielberg has restrained and calm direction to give the floor to his performers which works. One sequence that doesn’t work is the opening. The film begins in Vietnam with an action sequence that feels very out of place. Perhaps it would work better somewhere else in the film as a flashback because it feels unneeded and very disconnected from the rest of the film.

Overall, The Post is a fine film and very important to the political landscape we are currently in. Is it a Best Picture? I’m not so sure. That being said, Spielberg’s film is very worthy of a lot of its credit. This is a need-to-see film.

 

4/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

 

 

For my review of Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, click here.

For my review of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, click here.

For my review of Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, click here.

 

For more Almighty Goatman,

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First Trailer for The Post Showcases Spielberg’s Incredible Leading Duo

So let’s talk The Post for a second. The Post is Steven Spielberg’s newest film, and it hits cinemas later this year with an Oscar-Contender release date. Well, a few months ago, this movie didn’t exist. Spielberg was in post-production for Ready Player One, and during that post-production, he took on a new project: The Post. The film was cast, shot, and edited during the post-production on Ready Player One and it is now poised to hit cinemas.

The first trailer just dropped.

The trailer doesn’t highlight a lot of plot details but instead focuses on its leading duo Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. We get small glimpses of the supporting players as well, and the fact that Spielberg and his production were able to throw together such an exemplary cast and crew so quickly is just another sign of his prowess in the film community.

And the trailer looks good. With flavor reminiscent of Spotlight from a couple years back and a visual aesthetic that reminded me of All the President’s Men, The Post feels like a 1970s political thriller, something Spielberg could do very well if everything falls into place like it should.

As it stands right now, The Post feels like a solid Oscar contender and a great newspaper drama, something we as film fans don’t see a lot of anymore.

So what do you think? Are you excited to see The Post? Or are you just screaming for Ready Player One? Let me know/drop a comment below!

 

-Kyle A. Goethe

 

 

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[31 Days of Horror: The Final Chapter] Day 9 – Toy Story of Terror (2013)

 

Director: Angus MacLane

Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Carl Weathers, Stephen Tobolowsky, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, Timothy Dalton, Kristen Schaal

Screenplay: Angus MacLane

22 mins. Rated TV-G.

 

I wanted to take time tonight to talk about the Halloween Special. It’s a classic element to any franchise, big screen or small. So in 2013, Disney and Pixar released Toy Story of Terror, and today, we’re going to talk about it.

The toys are on a road trip with Bonnie and her mother when they stop to spend a night at an eerie motel just off the road. When Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles, Zookeeper, The Wool Cap) suddenly goes missing, its up to Woody (Tom Hanks, The DaVinci Code, The Circle), Buzz (Tim Allen, Crazy on the Outside, TV’s Home Improvement), Jessie (Joan Cusack, Working Girl, Snatched) and their new friend Combat Carl (Carl Weathers, Predator, American Warships) to find Potato Head and escape while they still can!

Toy Story of Terror tends to follow a very similar story to all the other Toy Story films. Someone is missing or kidnapped, and the other toys go get them. There isn’t a lot to this and you have to wonder how this keeps happening, but Toy Story of Terror introduces a few fun new characters to keep things lively enough. I really like seeing some of the newer toys from the third installment who didn’t get much time to shine get further developed here, and I really enjoyed Combat Carl.

The flaws? As I said before, it isn’t anything you haven’t seen before. The hotel manager Ron (Stephen Tobolowsky, Memento, TV’s Californication) comes off perhaps a little too creepy as well, especially with how he plays into the story. A little too predictable as well.

Overall, this is only 22 minutes, so if you get roped into it by your little one, Toy Story of Terror isn’t a half-bad way to waste a half-hour. It was fun and nicely paced.

 

3/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

batmanvsupermandawnofjustice2016d

Director: Zack Snyder

Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Gal Gadot

Screenplay: Chris Terrio, David S. Goyer

151 mins. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action throughout, and some sensuality.

 

So, after countless years of waiting for DC to officially make a move at creating a cinematic universe, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has arrived. Now comes the real question: Can DC create a universe from some of the most popular characters in comic book history? And what exactly is this film?

Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck, Argo, Gone Girl) has been obsessed with one thing over the past eighteen months: Superman (Henry Cavill, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Cold Light of Day). After witnessing the damage done to the city of Metropolis due to Superman’s fight with General Zod, and seeing one of his own buildings filled with his employees come down in the battle, Bruce does not believe that Superman should be allowed to do as he pleases, and he’s not alone. Senator Finch (Holly Hunter, The Incredibles, Manglehorn) and billionaire playboy Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network, American Ultra) completely agree. Bruce’s caretaker Alfred (Jeremy Irons, The Lion King, Race) becomes increasingly more concerned about Wayne’s mental state as the obsession grows. Meanwhile, Clark Kent’s life is moving in the right direction: He is in love with Lois Lane (Amy Adams, American Hustle, Big Eyes), he has a great job at the Daily Planet, but there is a problem. He too has become worried about a masked vigilante frequently called The Bat, but Clark finds that the world seems to be more concerned with Superman’s doings than this Bat character. When Lex Luthor sees an opening, he begins planting the seeds to bring these two heroic titans to blows, and hopefully take them both down at once.

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Well, we have a lot to discuss, so let’s start at the beginning. The title of the film is very strange. The decision to excise the “vs” in favor of a “v” implies a court case, which confuses me as I don’t understand why you want a superhero movie to be a court case, but I’ve already started to digress.

This movie’s plot seems to want to go everywhere but doesn’t actually get anywhere. It seems like two screenplays jammed together: one is a Batman v Superman movie, the other a Dawn of Justice movie. The problem here is that the glue used to stick these movies together is weak and flimsy. The Batman stuff is great, particularly their dealing with the origin, which is fleshed over the opening credits like how The Incredible Hulk treated theirs. Since this is the second Batman of this decade and the third iteration of an origin, I’m glad they decided to go this route, citing that Batman Begins did it the best it could ever be done. And what a Batman they picked! Ben Affleck owned this role. I learned from my initial criticism of Heath Ledger’s casting for The Dark Knight when Ben Affleck was selected to don the cowl for the nest Batman. I pulled back and thought, let’s just wait and see. And I was right, folks! Affleck’s performance was real and yet unlike anything we’ve seen from the Caped Crusader.

How’s the Superman stuff? Eh, not all that great. Henry Cavill doesn’t have the acting chops to do much, and his character is wasted on a convoluted plotline anda misunderstanding of the Man of Steel. I read countless times that this isn’t so much of a Man of Steel sequel but rather a backdoor pilot for the Justice League, which isn’t true. This is in fact a direct sequel as it fits every plot point of the previous film into this one, even the finished plot threads, and the movie bloats because of it.

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Now onto the Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot, Fast & Furious 6, Criminal) of it all. Wonder Woman is great. With only 16 lines of dialogue, Gal Gadot does her best to leave a presence here, and she does. It’s a great introduction to this character and truly excited me for the next installment featuring her.

Among the film’s principal faults lie Jesse Eisenberg, who plays a very new and very different incarnation of Lex Luthor. He did one incredible feat in this film. He made me hate Lex Luthor, but not in a way that works. Eisenberg skewers every scene is in by playing some goofy and unhinged extremes. For a character who was apparently written with such realism, none of that comes to play here. I was arguing with someone who claimed to understand (but not like) Eisenberg’s portrayal of the greatest criminal mastermind of our time. He told me that I didn’t like the performance because I wanted Gene Hackman back. I answered back that I didn’t like the performance because it was a poor performance. There were multiple moments in the film that feature Luthor in public essentially having a mental break. I was sitting in the theater and wanted to see someone just look at him and think that this guy is absolutely insane. The worst of it was all this press that came out later and announced that Bryan Cranston had been looked at, as had Tom Hanks (based on his incredible work on the underrated Cloud Atlas), and yet Eisenberg had been selected in order to reinvent the character. WHAT?!?

Let’s talk some on the Dawn of Justice portion of the film, which does get us into some spoilery territory, so be warned. Batman v Superman is seen as almost a Justice League origin story in a lot of ways. It sets up Batman, Wonder Woman, and even introduces us to several other members of the team. A major problem here is that the audience is spoon-fed the Justice League. The references and setups are literally beaten over the heads of viewers. There are better ways about this. The introduction of the Justice League was terrible sans The Flash, who got a quick moment of reveal that actually worked for me. As for Aquaman and Cyborg…yuck. Cyborg even wasted the origin story on a poor expository flitter of a moment with no style whatsoever. Absolutely stupid. Now, the film does have some subtlety here when they dance around some of the dark past of Bruce Wayne, but it doesn’t do this enough. You could even have thrown some of this into a post-credits scene to get it out of the main narrative.

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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is, to me, a more enjoyable experience than Man of Steel, but as far as a cohesive story, it is not. This is a collection of some really cool moments squeezed into a movie that’s bursting at the seams. Ben Affleck gets great redemption from his previous Daredevil failure (in a world where Ryan Reynolds and Chris Evans are also getting second chances) and is easily the best part of this film (Scott Adkins blames the Oscars for why Ben Affleck was cast, but doesn’t understand that Scott Adkins was not cast because he was Scott Adkins). I’m excited to see where this franchise is going (Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman) but I’m nervous that the DCEU is not getting off to a great start and can’t really afford to fumble anymore. Overall, the film is divisive and has some great elements, but there is just too much that is found guilty in this court case.

 

2.5/5

-Kyle A. Goethe

 

For my review of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, click here.

For my review of Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, click here.

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