All age comic books, Kidlit, mglit, movies, entertainment and parenting
Category: Daddy Mojo at the Movies
Going out to the movies is a rare act for moms and dads. In this series we’ll go to the movies, so you can judge for yourself if it’s a good investment.
The theme song to The Addams Family is very catchy. The song is so endearing that our 8 year-old, despite having never seen any of the movies or the show was walking around the house humming the first couple of bars. Unfortunately for anyone over 11 years-old the Addams Family (2019) is a stiff, lifeless affair-and not in the way that it could’ve been for a children’s movie. At the end of the day, the biggest winner in The Addams Family (2019) is Snoop Dogg and not just because he has the least amount of time on screen; more on that in a moment.
In a parallel universe Joker is an indie film that was shot in the backwoods of Norway. The film is a serious approach to mental illness, gorgeously shot, with a bleak and powerful soundtrack that matches its visuals. It’s also masterfully acted and doesn’t pull any punches. The art house crowd loves every minute of the film and singing its praises. While the mainstream audience is appreciating the film, but it’s not breaking records. Joker is like that description, for the most part, except in reverse.
Joker is a drama for those 18 and up. It fully presents itself as a story in which we’re watching a mentally troubled character whose life is one step away from imploding. Arthur Fleck is bullied, beaten up, delusional and suffers from a form of Tourette Syndrome that causes him to laugh at inappropriate times. The film paints a world that we wouldn’t knowingly want to live in, yet also mirrors the one that we currently live in.
We have a child that absolutely goes mental over lovies. These are the stuffed animals that populate a child’s room, they can be an alligator, bear, character from a movie or a stuffed thing that he won from a claw machine, but they all have the same name: Lovey. If you’ve seen Men In Black: International there’s a cute scene where an alien hides amongst some lovies. That film is available on Blu-Ray DVD now and they’ve partnered with Budsies to remind people that anything in a child’s imagination can be a lovey.
The MCU film that I compared Spider-Man: Far From Home when
I left the theater was Iron Man 3-and not for good reasons. Elements of the
film have the same bait and switch trick that the later had and I wasn’t a fan.
However, since that film we’ve had almost two dozen entries into the MCU, a
mythos has been created, fandoms built and a series of movie juggernauts
launched. We’ve also had three really entertaining Spider-Man films in three
years and that’s a great thing.
By now the history of Spider-Man and his MCU lineage is established. The snap occurred, was undone, albeit with some casualties and life has pressed on. What Spider-Man: Far From Home gets 100% down correctly (in an entertaining fashion) is how the snap impacted everyone involved. Some of Peter Parker’s contemporaries return as young adults who were nerdy, but now are the prettiest ones at school. Tributes to Iron Man are all over town and the rumor mill is a buzz as to who will helm The Avengers.
Factor all of this on top of the fact that Peter Parker’s
class is taking a trip to Europe. He’s trying to be a friendly neighborhood
Spider-Man, has a crush on a girl, wants to hang out with his best friend and
isn’t sure about his status in the superhero world that’s suddenly gotten weird.
A weird superhero film that focuses on the human elements of
superhero lives calls for a heel that’s not typical; and here enters Mysterio,
AKA, Quentin Beck. The snap comes into play to an extent as alternate Earths
and their terrestrial based heroes are referenced. It tore a hole through
dimensions which caused other people’s bad guys to come over to ours. Don’t
think about things too hard in the film or you’ll see plot holes, but that’s
part of the fun about the film.
It gleefully pokes fun at aspects of the snap while
referencing other heroes that might seem more mature or well suited for this
adventure. The film also lets the secret identity spider out of the bottle on
more than one instance. Holy Michael Keaton Batman, suddenly MJ is Kim
Bassinger as Vicki Vale.
Spider-Man: Far From Home is almost as much of a teen
romance, as it is a superhero movie. There are some nice comedic elements and
two great credit sequences that fans of the MCU need to see. One of them clears
up a couple plot holes and the other one sees the MCU looking down the rabbit
hole.
There are periods in the film where it gets a bit too big
for its britches. One sequence with Mysterio is a bit long, the road trip
element could’ve used a haircut here and there also. 15 minutes shorter and the
film would’ve been a guilt-free summer popcorn flick. It’s longer than ideal
run time doesn’t spoil the film, it just feels padded at times.
Having said that, it’s a fun film that ages 9 and up will
clamor to see and will be the talk of the playground. It also cements
Spider-Man as the youngest superhero that is OK for younger fans. Granted
Spider-Man is high school, but some of the content might not be fine for most
elementary viewers. The length of the film, combined with some language and
mild adult situations will be too much or bore those kids 8 or younger.
Our 9 year-old loved the film and immediately asked when the
next one would come out. As a fan of most films in the MCU, we liked it too,
although not as much as Captain Marvel or some of the recent entries. It’s just
barely above average, and that’s OK for a nice summer romp.
If the pressure exerted upon Toy Story 4 could be reproduced and sold in the form of a mineral it would be the largest and most valuable diamond ever….until the next Toy Story in 2028.Rare is the movie franchise that can produce a string of highly enjoyable, commercially successful and critically successful film past the third one. Think of a franchise that’s had more than three films in a row that have knocked it out of the park. While the series has maintained or kept going on, like Harry Potter, a film within the MCU or James Bond, there have been peaks and valleys that mar any series. Toy Story 4 bucks the trend and is pure cinematic joy. It’s neither too sentimental, sappy or nostalgic; rather, it acknowledges the history that it brings to the screen gleefully embraces it and then runs in a new direction.
What is that?, was almost certainly the thought when you first
saw Forky. Toy Story 4 presents the home made toy that every kid has and
establishes itself in the pantheon of classic toys we’ve all had. I still have
a toy that I made as a child. It’s a crude block of clay with four stumps that
barely resemble legs, a slightly bigger clump that might be its head and an odd
twig of clay for a tail. This was no classic toy, but for a season of my
childhood it held rank over G.I. Joe and the simple box of red, white and blue
LEGO blocks that were in my closet.
What Toy Story 4 does so well is letting audiences think
that they know what the film will be about, but then faking them out with plot
shifts and pacing. Everything that you’ve seen in the trailer does happen, but
not in the logical order that your mind thinks that it will be.
Running in tandem to the excellent script is the addition of some key new characters that really add to the film. Duke Caboom, Bunny, Ducky and Forky add to the movie in such a way the we don’t really miss Buzz and Woody when they aren’t on screen. Then, when either of them does come back on screen they manage to propel the movie even more forward, not that it was ever at a standstill.
Toy Story 4 goes from great, to good, to excellent and
beyond. It’s filled with so much joy and happiness that audiences won’t want it
to end. Our 9 year-old has seen dozens, perhaps 100+ movies and I have never
heard him laugh as consistently as he did in Toy Story 4. There was one
particular sequence that stars Bunny and Ducky that will have the entire
theater howling with laughter.
The screening we attended of Toy Story was made up of about
65% adults and 35% children. This is one of those films where the older
attendees are ones who attended one of the previous Toy Story films as a child.
Like a child’s version of James Bond, this is a franchise that can exist for
generations. Similar to a child’s fascination of the refrigerator light and if
it stays on when the door is shut, they wonder and want to imagine a world
where their toys come to life.
From a marketing perspective Toy Story 4 is meta and easy to
buy into. There are Duke Caboom toys that look exactly like the Evil Kenevil
toys I had as a kid. There’s a Little Bo Peep cane that’s a much of an action
saber as a sheep wrangler. This is a story that has managed to make a cowboy
cool again and does it with charm. Moreover, it does it while maintaining a G
rating. This is a G rated film that anyone will love and audiences can only
hope that Disney takes another nine year of craft before another one comes out.
Then, our high school senior will probably see Toy Story 5 and enjoy it as much
as he did Toy Story 4.
Toy Story 4 is easily one of the most anticipated films of 2019. Forky is just the character that’s needed right now. It’s true to the way that kids play. Any parent or child will attest to the fact that there is always one homemade toy that manages to work its way into the inner circle of the toy coven. The sneak preview of Toy Story 4 is happening Tuesday, June 18. If you want to win a pair of passes to this movie event and be one of the first ones (outside of Disney brass or Hollywood) to see it, here’s what you need to do.
How to enter: Leave a comment in the blog post letting us know what your favorite toy was growing up. We have 15 pairs of tickets to give away to this sneak preview.
This sneak preview of Toy Story 4 is in Atlanta on Tuesday, June 18 at Atlantic Station. We’ll email the winners with complete details so that you’ll be able to plan accordingly. This giveaway will end on June 14 at 9PM. Important: this giveaway is for passes to the sneak preview. You’ll need to arrive early in order to secure your seat as everybody and their brother wants to see Toy Story 4. This showing will be 100% full.
In an alternate
universe Disney PIXAR hasn’t made it acceptable, nay, enviable for an animated
feature to be accepted as high entertainment for the entire family. Back then
times were simpler, toys were toys and not used as characters to make us ugly
cry in movie theaters in front of our children who aren’t sure why we’re crying
during a film about toys. In that
universe, The Secret Life of Pets 2 is high craft and the sort of entertainment
that kids and adults will equally enjoy. Alas, in this universe, The Secret Life of Pets 2 is the sort of kid-only
entertainment that those in elementary school will enjoy to ridiculous levels.
Were it not for the presence of Rooster, voiced by Harrison Ford, as the cranky, old time dog who lives on the farm the film would’ve felt like a direct-to-DVD release. It’s not that Ford is entirely the Dwayne Johnson of this film. It’s that the character he portrays is a needed counter balance to the rest of the characters.
The Secret Life of Pets 2 is a hodgepodge of a movie that
has three loosely connected plots that eventually come together. Older
audiences or those that saw the first one will recognize the format and outlay
of how the different ones are constructed and can already place how they’ll
come together. At times the film felt like a series of sketches, more akin to a
Saturday Night Live five-minute bit, than a feature length film and the three
story vignette set up doesn’t help this vibe.
There is the dog trying to learn to be a cat. The dogs that are
riding in the car. The humorous Captain Snowball kind of breaks free from this
mini-story feeling, but only for a minute.
It’s almost like they had the joke of something happening and then wrote
the story around each bit. Also, ‘feature
length film’, is a bit of a stretch for The Secret Life of Pets 2 as it only
clocks in at one hour and twenty six minutes. We have a rule of thumb that if a
movie can’t hang in there for 90 minutes and be entertaining then it’s not
worth being made. To that end, this film utterly fails our test.
As disappointed as we were with the film, our kids, aged 9
and 7 did like it. They liked Captain Snowball, enjoyed the action sequences
and laughed at the parts that they should’ve laughed at-that were all shown in
one of the trailers that have been released.
Parents: it’s OK. You don’t have to enjoy every film that your children like. My parents sure didn’t like The Apple Dumpling Gang, but I did and that’s OK. However, the later didn’t cost $80 million to produce. And, The Apple Dumpling Gang has earned $37 million since its 1975 release. Let’s presume that it had a $3 million production cost (which is impossibly high) and that film still has yielded an amazing amount of return. The Secret Life of Pets 2 will not see that amount of return as a percentage or in actual profits, in 35 years.
It’s also worth noting that producers couldn’t have kept Louis
C.K as the voice of Max due to the pressure that they would’ve faced. However,
Patton Oswalt has a needier, more dependent characteristic about his
performance that was immediately noticed by me and other adults. Louis C.K’s
version was smarmy and lovable, where as Oswalt’s was more apt to whine and be
annoying.
Some audience members will identify with the independence
and lessons that are taught in the film. We saw them, but they were all
encompassed by Rooster, who did so with fewer words and more humor. The Secret
Life of Pets 2 is great for kids, but those over 12 will want to wait until
they can stream it.
Cheese and entertainment can be kindred spirits. When
combined at the right percentages magical entertainment can be had. Summer has
the potential for high quality cheese, or popcorn fare that manage to entertain
audiences at some level for two hours. Godzilla: King of the Monsters manages
to achieve levels of varying entertainment in the latest incarnation of one of
Japan’s most famous exports.
What it gets right
It quickly establishes that these events happen after 2014’s
30th anniversary film, with a pair of scientists who are either vengeful
or concerned for humanities existence. They’ve developed a machine that might
have the ability to speak to the monsters, but do they really know what their
machine is telling them?
The two scientists are credible and not annoying, with the later being a major thing that some disaster/monster get wrong, much like the balance of cheese and entertainment.
If you want
monsters you got em
When you see a Godzilla film you expect monsters and
Godzilla: King of the Monsters gets the monster pacing down perfectly. After
the requisite establishment of why the scientists are doing what they’re doing
it’s all monsters all the time, until the humans get in the way.
We quickly get to see Rodan, Gidorah and the big lizard
himself very quickly. There are some nice monster battle sequences and the
audience that I saw the movie with responded in kind with cheers and claps when
Godzilla initially appeared on screen and when he came to rally the troops on
subsequent occasions.
The monsters, the cities that they demolish, swim through, set on fire or explode are well executed and make older Godzilla fans easily forget about the cheesy sets that became the hallmark of earlier films.
Bradley Whitford as Dr. Stanton, along with Thomas
Middeletch as Sam Coleman were standout actors in their roles. They had enough
depth to let us know why they were there, in addition to providing most of
film’s lighter or humorous moments.
What it gets wrong
At times the balance of cheese to entertainment is perfect, while at other times it way off balance. Unfortunately most of those times are with Millie Bobby Brown, who is the daughter of said aforementioned scientists. Her part in the movie is weakly flushed out, yet is so heavily depended on for most of the dramatic shift point that it all but stops the film when she enters the screen. It’s not her fault and she’s built up lots of audience good will due to Stranger Things, but this is not the feature film breakthrough that she’s looking for.
The mythos of Godzilla knows who it’s trying to win over and
what it’s trying to accomplish. Alas, in this new age of
comedy/monster/science-fiction/Universe building film it’s gotten confusing. Is
Godzilla an anti-hero of the nuclear age? A hero against people inadvertently
helping the bad kaiju? The film tries to throw a curve ball into the mix with
an ‘eco-terrorist’ who is set upon setting humanity back the blah, blah, shut
up and let the monster fight. That is exactly what you’ll be thinking.
If I hear one more
Skull Island reference…..
The first Skull Island (See also: King Kong) reference was
cool. The second one was over. By the time the end credits rolled and we see
cave images-and about 20 (no exaggeration here) more references to Kong, we get
it. There will be a sequel and more monster universe building.
The Bottom Line
It’s mildly entertaining, but we wanted more. If the film
had taken a chance and spent more time on the script then audiences would’ve
thanked it more. The film also would’ve gotten more cash, earned more goodwill
towards Godzilla vs. Kong and been able to push this universe forward. Instead,
you’ve got a lukewarm film that will please audiences, but will require much
more to push them towards this universe building scheme that they’ve planned.
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