Movie Review: Cars 3

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B-

A good movie and one that fixes some of the problems with previous Cars films, but still a movie with problems of its own.

One of the reasons the Cars movies have not been my favorite Pixar movies is that the characters never felt real to me in the same way that the characters of Toy Story, The Incredibles, Inside Out or Up felt. They felt like rather clichéd movie stereotypes instead of real characters. I never hated these characters, they just didn't grab me like other Pixar characters did. Here for the first time though Lighting McQueen feels real and relatable to me. Like Woody did in Toy Story 2, Lighting is essentially dealing with his own mortality here and his realization that nothing can last forever. While this is mostly due to getting older, any one who has gone through any change in their life can relate. Adding to this is the new character, Cruz who is also a really relatable and fun character, who again goes through an arc that feels real. Unfortunately all the other characters don't feel real here. They are simply again clichéd movie stereotypes.

The best thing about this movie though is a few scenes where the characters talk about Doc Hudson. As many of you may know in the previous movies Doc was voiced by Paul Newman, who has passed away recently. While it is never actually stated that the character has died as well it is easy to know that is what happened. These scenes are treated with the upmost dignity and respect. These scenes are just beautifully touching tributes to Paul Newman, and are easily the most moving scenes in the series.

Probably the worst problem with this movie is pretty obvious foreshadowing. All this foreshadowing kind of makes it hard for you to not know how the movie will end. This wouldn't be as big of a problem though, if the characters weren't so oblivious to it. While it makes sense for these characters to act this way (after all, they don't know they are in a movie), it can get annoying for the audience. You just kind of want them to wake up and realize what is so obvious to you, nd it makes the movie feel longer and each time they don't realize it kind of annoying. Also hurting this movie is the humor, it completely falls flat. Not a single joke actually works and I don't think I really ever laughed watching this.

Despite this the movie has good character development and some quite touching scenes and this makes it well worth watching.

But don't go away I have a short film to review.

Lou

Michael's Movie Grade: A

Review: If the feature was too predictable, this short film was anything but. I personally try to avoid anything talking about the shorts before Pixar movies, because I like seeing a film without knowing what it is going to be about and it is impossible to do this with a Pixar feature. So everything that happened came as a complete surprise to me and it was well worth it. Likewise I am going to not give much away here and do a really short review so you can have the same experience. This film was fun, clever and all together very charming. It is told in pantomime and dialogue is never missed because this pantomime does nothing but add to the charm of this film. Honestly if you don't want to see Cars 3 and are certain you will not like that movie, I still will tell you should go, this short is easily worth the price of admission.

Movie Review: Spider-Man: Homecoming

 Michael's Movie Grade: B

 Quite enjoyable movie and definitely a huge step up from the last three Spider-Man movies.

What interestingly works best about this movie is the high school stuff. None of it is exactly original, but it is done so well that who cares? Three of these kid characters feel especially real. Luckily one of these is Peter Parker himself. Also two characters that could have easily been too cliché are also very real. The best friend and the love interest are much more than that and actually really likable characters. As well as this Peter's troubles in school are done very well and are much better done here than any other Spider-Man movie. You really feel for the kid and anyone who has been through High School will easily relate. On the down side the other kids are not as well fleshed out. In the case of a certain character named Michelle, kind of annoying and pointless. The school scenes are also really tied well into the superhero story, especially in a delightful scene where Spider-Man talks to Karen (those who seen the movie will know what that means). On top of all this the movie contains probably the best cameos Captain America will ever have (the gym teacher's comments after one of these cameos easily my favorite line in the whole film), and a fantastic musical score (by Michael Giacchino) that just makes the whole movie so much better. On especially great use of the score is how in one scene that gets intense, it goes from very present and upbeat, to very sparse and downbeat. I will also give this movie credit for not always doing the obvious thing (not giving away how, no spoilers here).

On the downside is certainly the villain. I get what they were trying to do with this guy, and appreciate that, but he is rather boring. There is just simply little interesting about this guy. Michael Keaton does a very good job playing this character, but is just given too little to work with. On top of this the action scenes go on much too long at times, and are kind of bland compared to the more character driven scenes in the movie.

Overall a quite enjoyable movie and well worth a watch for Marvel fans.

Silent Film of the Month: The Farmer's Wife (1928)

 Run Time: 129 minutes. Studio: British International Pictures. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Writer: Eliot Stannard. Based on a play by Eden Phillpotts. Main Cast: Jameson Thomas, Lillian Hall-Davis, Gordon Harker. Cinematographer: Jack E. Cox. 

Good Evening. I feel it is safe to assume that at least some of the people who read my blogs are fans of Turner Classic Movies. I certainty am. In fact TCM makes up a huge portion of my TV watching time, and why not, it is a channel that shows movies with the pure respect they deserve, it gives you insight into the history of the movie, and the whole channel feels very welcoming. One thing this channel is doing this month is something I am very excited for. Every Wednesday and Friday of July TCM will be showing many Alfred Hicthcock movies and there will even be an online class accompanying it.

Like many film buffs I am a huge fan of Hitch. He has directed many movies that are highly deserving of the classic status they have received. Movies like Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Birds and North By Northwest are certainty great examples of the cinematic art form and no one loves these movies more than I do. However I also have a huge fondness for Hitch's early British movies too. Despite these not receiving the same amount of attention many of these are fantastic movies in their own right and my silent film of the month is no exception.

The Farmer's Wife is a very different movie for Alfred Hicthcock. In fact if you were to miss the opening credits, it would be very hard to tell that Hitch had anything to do with it. This movie is a nice sweet little romantic film, and a fairly straightforward adaption of Eden Phillpotts' play. With Alfred Hitchcock directing there are some brilliant little cinematic touches but nothing specifically Hitchcockian. At this time Alfred Hicthcock was not yet known as a suspense director. Even though Hitch had already directed a fantastic suspense movie with The Lodger, he was at this time directing a huge variety of different styles of movies. However looking at many of these films, shows that Hitch was not only a brilliant suspense director, but a great director of any type of movie.

Farmer Sweetland's (played by Jameson Thomas) wife has past away leaving him very lonely. He is looking for a new wife, but his attempts don't go very well. Helping him find a new wife is his housekeeper Minta (played by Lillian Hall-Davis), who has strong feelings for Sweetland that she keeps secret

This is a delightful movie. The characters are very well defined, likeable and relatable. Before becoming much of the all out comedy this movie will become as it goes along, this film gives you time to know each of these characters. This makes the comedy all the more effective and the movie feel all the more real. Speaking of the comedy, it is really good. Many of Sweetland's failed attempts to find a wife are very funny. Also helping to make this movie delightful is the visual filmmaking. One image that continuously is shown is that of an empty chair. Sometimes when Farmer Sweetland gets lonely he looks at the chair his wife used to sit in and sees it completely empty. This image tells us more than any words ever could. It makes us fully understand what the farmer is going through and puts us in his shoes. When he is looking for a new wife he sometimes imagines one of the women he wants to marry in the chair. However that image quickly fades away and all we see is the chair. Again these simple images show us more than we could ever be told in words and truly show the power of film as an art form. In fact when interviewed by François Truffaut years later Hitch said that this movie inspired him to make what he called "purely cinematic pictures" that would mostly center around visual story telling. Though Hitch did feel this movie still had too many intertitles.

One may notice the name of  Louie Pounds in the credits. This is in fact the only film she appeared in, though she was a huge star on stage and was especially popular in Gilbert and Sullivan musicals. She plays a delightful performance here as Widow Windeatt.

This movie plays on TCM on July 5th at 8:15 pm western time and 11:15pm eastern time.

Resources Used

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?id=650695%7C651448
The Alfred Hitchcock Encyclopedia by Stephen Whitty.
Truffaut-Hitchcock by François Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock

Movie Review: Inside Out

 

Review By Michael J. Ruhland

Michael's Movie Grade:A+

Review: One of Pixar's best. Easily on par with the Toy Story movies and The Incredibles. Also probably one of the best animated movies of recent years (or even movies as a whole). About as good as it gets.

Pete Doctor as the director of UP, obviously knows how to play with your emotions (Pun very intended), and here as director again he does it masterfully. The opening of the film has the same magic and wonder of the storybook opening at the beginning of Snow White. This film also has some definite tear-jerkers, that are very effective. Not too much detail on those as to not spoil the movie for anyone. 

Despite the characters being based off emotions, they are quite complex. They are like all emotions pieces of one personality, but they still distinctly stand out, and are defined by much more than the emotions that are their namesakes. 

One of the most important things when it comes to animation is character design. The designs of these characters are very appealing, and automatically give a likability to these characters.

Overall this movie is a masterpiece, that you have no excuse for not seeing.   But we aren't done here we have a short to review...

Michael's Movie Grade: C+

Review: Cute, enjoyable short, but not much more. This film is far from Pixar's best short, but it has it's own charm. The song is the best part of the short and probably was what the short was based around (especially since the song was written and performed by James Ford Murphy, who also directed the short).

Overall a good song and a decent cartoon built around it. Enjoyable but not much more.

Movie Review: Captian Underpants: The First Epic Movie

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

Excellent film is just simply a lot of fun.

This film is a great mixture of clever humor, childish bathroom humor, fantastic animation and just pure fun. What really makes the movie work though is the main characters Harold and George. These characters maintain all of the likability they had in the books. You fully understand their love of pranks. They are not doing it because they are mean, but rather because their school is so boring they need to find someway to entertain themselves. This is something I can easily relate to. While for the most part I liked school, there was on the other hand science classes, which I found so boring it drove me crazy to just sit there. Because of this my mind would wander easily and I could simply entertain myself with my own imagination through these classes. Because of this what Harold and George do makes perfect sense to me and feels so relatable. On top of this most of the humor hits very well. While there are times when it can miss such as an extend sequence where the kids tell Captain Underpants to impersonate a principal that goes on too long, most of the humor is quite funny. Again these jokes range from childish potty humor to very clever humor, and some how the two mix perfectly here. These jokes are perfectly complemented by the animation. The animation is very cartoony, energetic and just plain fun. Many of the jokes are timed so well, that they hit perfectly. Also helping make the movie so fun is the use of various animation styles. This is not a gimmick as it is utilized perfectly to complement the story. These scenes include a great look into the boys' brains, the use of child like drawings for the comic books and most importantly a flip-o-rama action scene (which is very funny).

Just a fun movie.

Movie Review: Wonder Woman

 Michael's Movie Grade: B-

A good movie, even if it isn't a great one. However despite any faults after Batman VS. Superman and Suicide Squad this movie being good is a very pleasant surprise.

The best things about this film are the characters of Diana and Steve as well as the world of Themyscira. After the unpleasant look to many of DC's most recent live action films, the world of  Themyscira is a revelation. It is in fact beautiful to look at. When this place was first shown I couldn't believe my eyes, here was something in a live action DC movie that was pleasant to look at. However the goodness doesn't end there. This world is very well set up and ends up feeling very real to us. The two main characters are also delightful. They feel very well fleshed out and really grow on the audience. Over the course of the movie you really get to care about these two and just enjoy seeing them.

However despite the good points this film has its share of faults. While the two main characters are interesting they are the only ones. Every other character is undeveloped and even boring. This especially goes for the villains. Most of these villains are just plain boring and with very little interesting about them. Two of them especially feel like the time dedicated to them is just wasted. These two feel like they are simply there to pad the length of the movie*. A surprise villain (not giving away who it is) would be interesting if he hadn't been done so many times before in other recent superhero movies. While there are more faults in the movie, none of them are as big as this fault is. Despite any other, faults boring characters (again not including the main two who are very likable) is easily the worst of them. There is also the problem that the movie is longer than it needs to be and can sometimes feel padded out. The humor is very hit and miss, however even when it hits it gets more of a chuckle than a real laugh.

While this movie has its faults (including one huge one), it is still a good movie. And hopefully this means that the DC live action films will continue to get better, and we will never see more DC films of the poor quality of Batman VS. Superman and Suicide Squad again. Justice League is coming let us keep our fingers crossed. Wonder Woman is a good sign things could be getting better. Just don't bring back the Batman VS. Superman version of Lex Luther ever, please Warner Brothers.  

Silent Film of the Month: Snow White (1916)

 

Run Time: 63 minutes. Studio: Famous Players/Paramount. Director: J. Searle Dawley. Writer: Winthrop Ames. Based on a play by Winthrop Ames. and a book by The Brothers Grimm. Producer: H. Lyman Broening. Main Cast: Marguerite Clark, Dorothy G. Cumming, Creighton Hale, Lionel Braham, Alice Washburn. Cinematographer: H. Lyman Broening.

Anyone who reads my blogs knows that I am a huge Disney fan. Because of this often times when a classic fairy tale is brought up it is the Disney version that first comes to my mind. However these stories existed long before Walt touched them and they even had film adaptions before then. Some of these film adaptions even were huge influences on the Disney movies. One of the most clear example of this is the 1916 silent version of Snow White. Now some of my fellow Disney buffs may have heard of this movie. Walt Disney had in fact seen it as a teenager and legend goes that it inspired him to make his own film version of the classic fairy tale. Still this movie has more than that great story behind it. It is also a delightful film in its own right.

Though this film was obviously inspired by the Brothers Grimm's classic story, it had an even more direct and recent piece of source material. This was a 1912 play based off of the story. That play was written by Winthrop Ames, and starred Marguerite Clark, who also were the writer and star of this film adaption. So in many ways the point of this movie was simply to bring that stage play to the screen. Considering the differences between the stage and the silent cinema there naturally needed to be some changes made. The most obvious of these was to eliminate song numbers and very dialogue heavy scenes. However interestingly more scenes were added starring the Huntsman. These scenes revolved around him being locked in the tower as a prisoner. Also in adapting it for film, director J. Searle Dawley employed some more cinematic techniques. For instance in this version of the story the Witch (a separate character from the Queen) wants Snow White's heart to help with a potion to get herself her. When she is given a pig's heart instead her head grows pig's tails instead of hair. On stage the actress simply ducked off stage real quick and put on a head cap. Here the pig's tails appear to slowly fade in on her head, accomplished by a dissolve shot (Searle Dawley later remembered doing this on a set with crowded extras in 1916 made this a very difficult technical challenge).

The film interestingly begins with a brief prologue involving Santa Claus leaving a bunch of dolls at a little girl's house. These dolls become real people and then our story really begins. A Queen wants a beautiful child and gets one in Snow White (played by Marguerite Clark). However when this Queen passes away, the king remarries. The new Queen (played by Dorothy Cummings) is an evil and jealous woman who hates Snow White. When the King dies there is no one to protect Snow White from this evil woman. Snow White now has to work in rags as a maid, but this isn't all that is planned for her. The jealous Queen conspires with a witch (played by Alice Washburn) to get rid of Snow White. In return for helping the Queen, the Witch wants Snow White's heart. The Queen hires the huntsman (played by Lionel Braham) to take care of Snow White. However the huntsman can't do it and gives the queen the heart of a pig instead. Snow White hides out at a house of dwarfs, who promise to help her, however they can. The Queen learning that the huntsman has failed her, decides to kill Snow White herself.

What really makes this film work is Marguerite Clark's performance as Snow White. In this era of such stars as Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish, it was common for grown women to play the part of little girls. Though Clark turned 33, the year this film was released, she plays the part so well you completely believe she is about 10 or 12. There is just a great sense of innocence to this performance. This is best shown in the scene with the huntsman. She clings to the huntsman and is simply so excited to be with him. She acts like the two are going to play games with each other. When the huntsman says what they are really out there for she easily assumes that he is joking. In a lesser actress' hands this could have felt very forced but here it comes out naturally. Later when she goes into the dwarfs cottage she not wanting to impose knows that if she only takes small bites from each plate, they can't possibly be mad at her. Clark does that so delicately that it gives that small moment extra charm to it.

However if there is something this film is lacking in, it is a real sense of danger. While the Disney film wasn't intended just for kids (in fact in Britain, it got an adults only rating because of how scary the witch is), the play this movie was based on and even to a certain extant this movie itself was aimed primarily at children. Because of this the villains don't feel as threating as the Queen in the Disney version (being aimed mostly at adults) could. While this silent film is quite good, this does result in the Disney movie being even better.      

While Walt Disney's film is easily the superior version, this little movie has such a sweet and simple charm to it will still delight today's modern audiences.

Resources Used
http://www.jbkaufman.com/movie-of-the-month/snow-white-1916
The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney by Michael Barrier