Peanuts

My husband and I went to see the Peanuts movie tonight. He has a lot of nostalgia about it, but I really don't. I watched one of the movies as a kid, but not the regular cartoon, and I wasn't really into it. The Peanuts movie had stuff for both of us, and was really good. 

For me, I saw a lot of myself in the Charlie Brown character - always trying to do good things and always having them turned on their heads. And no, I can't fly a kite. I found the movie touching and funny in about the right combinations. Lucy reminded me of many of the kids I grew up with, except that I was fortunate enough that by high school most of them had forgotten about me. She gives Charlie perfect advice, and then tells him he'll never be good enough to follow it, insulting him the whole time. 

My husband complained that the movie was a little too long. It came in at only 88 minutes, so I'm not sure how much shorter they could have made it and still called it a full length movie. I admit that it did feel like more than 88 minutes to me, too. I estimated 100 minutes after looking at my watch, but that must have included the time for the new Ice Age short at the beginning. 

Speaking of the Ice Age short, can I tell you how fed up I am with Ice Age shorts? How much attention can people give to a rat that wants an acorn? It's old and tired. I hated it the first time I saw it and nothing has changed that opinion. It also put me into a bad mood as the movie I actually wanted to see began and almost ruined the whole thing. Fortunately the first of many scenes that reminded me of my life (Charlie Brown knocking over a fence when everyone is trying to see the new girl) came quickly and I was able to refocus on the present movie. 

For a 50 year old cartoon, these characters really pinpoint childhood still. I guess the more things change the more they stay the same. Nothing seemed out of place either for life growing up or for the show. 

Overall I give it a B+

Pan

Pan was one of those movies. You know the ones? The ones that are so bad they are almost good? Yeah, that was Pan. Unfortunately, I don't see it becoming a cult classic like so many other movies that fit in that category. Still, I got at least some enjoyment out of the movie, and great enjoyment out of mocking it later. 

Several things combine to make this a bad movie. First, the actor playing Hook (Garrett Hedlund) was terrible. He screamed all his lines, and completely over-acted the entire thing. He had some terrible lines, such as his introduction in the movie, "I don't care about you and I don't have your back." But even when the writing is not to blame, he just can't act naturally. I felt like I was watching a middle school performance or something. 

Also, Captain James Hook is supposed to be the very essence of a pirate. Exactly what you think of when you think "pirate." So why did this movie disguise him as a cowboy? 

Then there was the fact that the whole story made no sense. I mean, there's a prophesy that a flying kid is going to come and lead the rebellion against Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman), so when Blackbeard has a flying kid unconscious in a territory he rules with an iron fist, instead of putting a bullet to his brain, he nourishes him back to health, and then tells him the prophesy, setting in motion the rebellion. 

This continues from beginning to end, when Peter (Levi Miller) rescues all the lost boys and returns them to an orphanage, and then re-kidnaps them in the middle of the night. Why return them to the orphanage at all? Why not just take them to Lost Boy land straight from the mines? 

Where they really lost me, however, was when the ship landed in neverland. The movie takes place in the 1940s in war-torn England. However, when they get to Neverland, everyone sings Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit in a kind of dirgey voice. The newly arrived boys from 1945 know the words and are able to sing along. I don't mind some slight anachronisms, but this was just too much for me. 

All told, this movie was bad. It was terrible. It was so bad it was almost good, but it fell short of that, too. C-. 

Justice League: Doom

I watched this movie with my husband, who is determined to get me to like DC characters and stories. For some reason he seems determined that because I like Marvel comic books and comic book characters I should like DC comic book characters. However, I feel that DC overpowers their characters, and doesn't make them likable. I mean, come on, they have a character that the way to kill her is to make her think she's still in a fight she can't give up? It's stupid.

This movie is about a supervillain who collects a group of people who hate the Justice League and then pays them to follow Batman's plan to neutralize his friends. Although Batman made the plans to neutralize the Justice League, he also had plans to neutralize his own plans. Thus there really wasn't any stress to the movie. Once Batman managed to punch his way out of his parents' grave, he had the plan to fix everyone else's problem.

The movie expected you to already know who everyone was. The closest to an introduction you got to the bad guys was that they all wanted an individual Justice Leaguer dead. I guess it would have been too much for a short movie to explain, but it did seem like it required a little more explanation of who the characters were and what their super powers are.

Overall, I alternated between bored and confused. What was this chemical the Martian character was sweating out? Why did he or I care? Why are they all afraid of solar flares? Don't we get those every day and find them harmless? Yet the bad guy's plan is to cause them? Why did Green Lantern just put down his ring and cry?

I have to give it an F.

Minions

I really enjoyed Despicable Me (2010). Part of the reason I liked that movie was the Minions who bumble around and help Gru. So when I heard that they were coming out with a Minions movie, I was excited. I expected it to be cute and funny, and I was not disappointed.

I was a little hesitant because Minions do not speak English. I think they may in part speak Spanish, but I haven't worked out the rest of their language yet. Sometimes the Spanish made sense. However, there was a voiceover that gave commentary on what was happening and the minions made themselves understood.

The movie was funny, such as when one of the minions mistakes a yellow fire hydrant for another minion. Another funny scene was when they made dust out of a vampire in the dark ages trying to celebrate his birthday.

One thing I wish is that there had been any female minions. I felt that the movie was playing out for the boys, but giving the girls nothing. The only real female character is Scarlett, the big bad guy. There's no reason for there not to be female minions, so this felt like a major omission. However, I'd still say the movie is worth seeing.

Overall I give it an A-.

All-Star Superman

My husband wanted me to watch this movie because I have been really getting into Marvel comic book movies but haven't enjoyed DC as much. He thought this would be perfect because it makes fun of the exact aspect of Superman that I always hate, namely that he is so over powered it becomes laughable. This movie plays off of that by having every stupidly super powered thing that happens to him over a few years of comics happen all at once in about 2 hours. My husband also thought I needed a better appreciation for Lex Luthor in order to understand comic books.

This movie follows the last days of Superman as he dies following too much solar radiation. He gives Lois Lane super powers for 24 hours, and then Lex Luthor gets arrested, escapes from prison by taking the same serum that made Lois Lane into Super Woman, has an epiphany thanks to seeing the world as Superman does, and on death row, comes to terms with Superman. Superman, meanwhile, becomes converted into pure energy at exactly the same time as the sun is dying and needs to be relit, so he goes on to become the sun.

While I understand that the movie was kind of making fun of this phenomenon, all it really did was annoy me because all of the things that happened in this movie did happen in the comics at one time or another. It just highlighted how overpowered Superman is, and how much I don't like him.

Maybe you needed more background information to appreciate it. I know that the opening scene would have confused me completely if I hadn't seen the newest Superman movie in the theaters. It provided no information and just expected you to understand what they were talking about with vague scenes related to the death of Krypton. Then, he tells Lois Lane that he's Superman, and she doesn't believe him. I guess there's background here, because it's vaguely referenced, but it just seemed random.

This movie is really for the fans. It's not meant to bring anyone else into the Superman fandom. It expects you to know Superman. Since I don't know Superman, it left me frustrated, and feeling like it was just a movie about an overpowered super hero I couldn't relate to.

Overall, I give it a B-.

Earth To Echo

Earth to Echo is something resembling a coming of age story with a sci-fi background. These kids, who have always been nobodies help an alien to assemble a spaceship and take off. Along the way they run into the usual assortment of characters that make their lives more difficult. Stereotypically, all the adults are bad guys who want to stop the alien from leaving Earth. These adults chase down the kids, and want to use their rapport with the alien to make it trust them before they can shut it down. Having all the adults be negative characters really rubbed me the wrong way, and I couldn't enjoy the movie.

The worst thing about this movie is that it was shot Blair Witch style with video cameras being a part of the scene, and when the characters run, the video cameras run and bounce all over the place. It really left me feeling nauseous. My stomach and eyes are still upset.  One of the characters is obsessed with getting a video that will go youtube-viral, and the others comment on this obsession and the presence of video cameras a few times.

Another major problem is that I was bored. The characters seemed to be saying things that kids say. Nothing seemed particularly out of character, but a lot of the dialog was just boring. For instance, as shown in the clip at the top of this review, one of the characters scares another by jumping on his shoulders. The boy responds by jumping and saying, "you'll give me a heart attack one day," which strikes me as the most stereotypical response you could possibly have at that moment and seems wasted in a film.

I think they tried to put suspense into the film by having the adult character try to stop them from building a spaceship but it didn't really work. At no point in the film did I wonder whether this spaceship was going to be built. Clearly they just had to get there through a lot of banter and boring writing.

Overall I give it a C-. At least it tried.

Inside Out

Circumstances behind seeing this movie
I was very excited to see the latest Pixar film, because I generally love everything they've done. My husband and I went to see it together at Studio Movie Grill, where we watched our movie with macaroni and cheese, brownies, and pretzel bites at 2 for $25. I find the food somewhat distracting when we don't get to finish it during the previews, but it's also good to have a dinner and movie experience.
The movie
The movie starts being narrated by one of the characters inside Riley's head, Joy. Joy has her work cut out for her because all of the other emotions in the head are negative: Anger, Disgust, Fear, and Sadness. We learn throughout the movie that other characters aren't run by Joy. The mother's central emotion is Sadness, and the father's is Anger. To begin, Joy dominates in Riley's brain, but she's 11 years old, and that means puberty is coming. To simulate this, Joy and Sadness get lost in Riley's long term memory, and have an adventure trying to get back to Headquarters before it is too late.
Overall, I thought this movie was really cute. It serves as a coming of age story that is not over done, and can help children understand what is happening to them when everything goes from happy to mixed emotions. We can see, for example, that hockey goes from being just a pleasant experience to one Anger helps control in order to get aggressive with the puck. We also come to understand the usefulness of some of the unpleasant emotions. Sadness gets Riley help when she needs it. Fear keeps her safe. Anger gives her aggression. Disgust also keeps her safe, and helps her to find friends.
I admit I teared up a few times during the movie, especially at the death of the imaginary friend. This came from really caring about Riley, and all of the characters inside her head. I knew that something had to happen to the imaginary friend as soon as they found him, because 11 years old is too old for an imaginary friend and Joy promised to make Riley remember him when they got back to Headquarters. I was still surprised how much I cared.
My favorite scene was the one where they sent a song to get stuck in Riley's head. Anger's reaction to seeing this memory for the 3rd time was hilarious, and they kept playing with it for the remainder of the movie, including the end credits scene, which was also funny for its explanation of cats.
I give the movie an A-.