Toy Story 3 (Green)

This is what (Green) means.

Of course it’s (Green). It’s a Pixar movie. They are one of the most successful movie makes of all time. They have made only one bad movie: Cars (Red). But even that got them a bunch of money and moderate reviews.

Pixar has already shown us that they can do sequels. Toy Story 2 was awesome. Now we find out that they can also rock out the trilogies.

I don't want to find out if they can do a forth one.

Toy Story 3 was the end of the story for the toys. We don’t need to see anymore of their adventures. This movie reached a definite and irreversible ending. Andy has moved on. The toys have moved on. It ends the way it needed to end. Making another movie will just ruin the emotion of this movie.

And this movie was ripe with emotion.

Like I’ve said before I didn’t laugh as much at this movie as I did with Despicable Me but this felt more real. Yes that’s right. The movie about talking toys felt more real. While watching this movie you will be genuinely concerned for their well being. The whole movie is about them trying to escape the horrors of being a daycare toy and as you watch them get used and abused by the kids you really feel for them.

That’s the magic of Pixar. They make you care about things no one else could. Toys, bugs, Monsters, Rats, mute robots, and other things that you would never have thought you could feel something for (notice I did not say anything about cars).

The big question going into this movie is how do you end the story? Where will the toys end up? You can tell by the trailer that the daycare thing isn’t going to work out for them so… then what.

I honestly had no idea. As the movie played out I saw hints at a lot of different things. The attic, the garbage, or other places. But when we finally get to the ending, after some fantastic close calls and emotional oh-no-they-are-going-to-die moments you realize that the ending the writers came up with is the perfect ending.

I loved it.

It made me want to play with my Ninja Turtle toys again. Or at least made me wonder where they ended up.

I’ll just say my one complaint again even though I mentioned it in my mini review.

Pixar is way too awesome to be wasting time making sequels. They have a ton of creativity and I would have rather seen a new original movie then another Toy Story movie. But I’ll forgive them this one time because this movie is so good.

The next challenge for Pixar will be to make a good sequel for Cars (It’s already being made). If they can do that I will be very impressed.

Takers (Red)

(red) means don't watch it.

If I had known more about the plot I would have just gone to Scott Pilgrim again.

It’s almost a remake of The Italian Job.

There are a bunch of thieves who throw out all their own rules for one last job. This one last job is an Italian Job. They actually use those words. I couldn’t believe it.

An Italian Job is to blow up the street under an armored truck and then take the money and run away in mini’s.

The first half of this movie is very boring. Mostly because we’ve seen it all before, in that one movie with Mark Wahlberg. When they finally get around to doing the job it all goes sideways on them.

They should have watched the DVD a couple more times before trying to imitate it.

There was one action scene I found to be entertaining. The rest of it was uninspired and dragged on for too long. The friend sitting beside me left to go to the bathroom as Chris Brown’s character started running from the cops. She was able to get back before the chase scene was over. I swear he was running for at least a week, or at least that’s how long it felt.

After the job goes sideways the writers are stuck with finding ways for the characters to get out. They must have just watched The Departed cause they went with the kill-everyone solution.

The comic relief in this movie was the dialog. I wouldn’t be surprised if the script said, “say the most gangster thing you can think of.”

With a script like that it’s no wonder Paul Walker sounds like an idiot.

There are a couple sub-plots in this movie that don’t really make sense. The whole issue with Matt Dillon’s partner didn’t really lead to anything (but I did find it interesting) and the crack head sister was pointless. Why did they write her in the movie?

It bothered me how there were no good guys in this movie. The Center of Good kept flipping back and forth between the cops and the takers. When people started dying I wasn’t sure if it was good or bad. “Didn’t that guy just kill a cop? Why is the heavy handed violin music telling me to be sad he’s trying to be Butch Cassidy?”

T.I. Sounds like he’s trying to be Snoop Dog.

Snoop Dog is funny and so is T.I.

T.I. Just doesn’t realize he’s the joke.

Skip this movie.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (Green)

I laughed more at Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World than I did at The Other Guys. I did not see that coming.

A plot consisting of Michael Cera fighting off the seven evil exes of the girl he’s fallen for has so much against it that it’s a miracle it turned into one of the most entertaining movies of the summer.

There have been many attempts at making movies look like moving comic books but they have all come up short, (Sin City, 300, Watchmen, Speed Racer - I know Speed Racer isn’t based off a comic but it’s style is a lot like Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World that we’ll just pretend it’s based on a comic and not anime) or they just end up embarrassing themselves (Hulk)

This is the only movie that was able to pull off the comic book look. It did it the only way it could work, by making it part of the joke.

It works.

You can tell right from the beginning that this show is going to be awesome. They show us the Universal logo and we hear the Universal theme; they are both done in 8-bit. You can’t help but smile.

After ten minutes I had fallen in love with this world. I had no idea how they were going to keep my attention through 7 battles but they did.

Each battle was so unique that instead of dreading the next encounter you were eagerly anticipating it. It’s hard for me to pick my favorite one because each of them were so cool and so different they almost don’t fall under the same category.

But if I had to pick it would be the telepathic vegan. That’s straight up genius.

Vegan academy? Awesome.

I deem this movie the most underrated movie of the summer. How can it already be out of the box office top ten? It's so clever and so entertaining. If you like comics, laughing, video games, music videos, Toronto, or anime you should go see this movie immediately.

Who doesn’t fall into one of those categories?

Also, Michael Cera totally redeems himself for being in unwatchable movies ever since Arrested Development *sniff* was cancelled.

Movie Months

Good movies do not come out in September, October, or November. The best a movie can hope to be in these months is to be average. So I don’t watch as many movies in these months as I do in the summer time. The only exception are seasonal movies for Halloween and Christmas (which sometimes come out at the end of November for some reason). Paranormal Activity 2 is coming out this Halloween. I can’t wait. I need a good laugh.

August is supposed to be the dumping ground for the summer movies not good enough to be in the real summer months of May, June, and July. I was surprised by the quality of this years August movies. The Other Guys and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World are both awesome movies.

If you are like me and enjoy really horrible movies then the best time of year for this is January, February, and March. These months are so far away from awards season that the studios put out all the crap that doesn’t stand a chance.

Oscar bate comes out in December.

Please note that Oscar bate does not equal good movie. In fact, it’s usually the opposite.

The point of telling you all this is that now that summer movies are over I won’t be writing as many reviews.

That being said, (Your welcome SGSers) I am going to see Takers tonight. A movie with Paul Walker and Hayden Christensen so you know it’s going to be golden.