Trailer

WARNING: The following review may or may not contain spoilers from the film. If you haven’t seen the movie and you don’t want it ruined, I suggest watching the movie before continuing.

Remember back in the late 1930s when people were frightened by the Orson Welles radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds? That was basically how I felt watching Independence Day for the first time. I mean, I was just intimidated when these gigantic flying saucers started hovering over the world’s major cities and eventually used their lasers to destroy the major landmarks: the Bank Tower in L.A., the Empire State Building, and even the White House! At the same time, however, I am extremely pleased that Independence Day is not all serious, edgy destruction, but a fun popcorn flick that has great humor, likable characters, good acting, great music, a decent plot, awesome music, and spectacular CGI. It is like riding a dark, space-themed roller coaster ride while listening to War of the Worlds and waving the Star-Spangled Banner itself. I love how the film follows its three-act structure clearly and coherently as the film begins on July 2, 1996, where we have an average and typical everyday morning. After a photo reminder on the exact day that Neil Armstrong and crew landed on the moon and the suspense of the alien mothership approaching our world, we introduce our ensemble cast of characters. First, we have David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), a cable repairman who is extremely intelligent and a nerd (basically, Jeff Goldblum playing himself), his father Julius (Judd Hirsch), and his hilarious boss Marty Gilbert (Harvey Fierstein). Next, we have the President of the United States Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman), his wife Marilyn (Mary McDonnell), their daughter (a very young Mae Whitman), and the people under his command, consisting of General Grey of Space Command (Robert Loggia), Secretary of Defense Nimzicki (James Rebhorn), and the White House Communications Director Constance Spano (Margaret Colin), who happens to be Levinson’s ex-wife. Russell Casse (Randy Quaid) is a drunken crop duster who lives with his three older children and claims to have been abducted by aliens. And then, we have Captain Steve Hiller (Will Smith), a fighter pilot who may never get into NASA if he marries his girlfriend, a stripper named Jasmine Dubrow (Vivica A. Fox). I don’t think any of these characters were prepared (I know I wouldn’t be) for the impending invasion and attack from these aliens in their gigantic saucers. So, as I mentioned earlier, the ships hover over our cities and mankind does not know what is to come. Levinson, however, being practically the same character Jeff Goldblum portrayed in Jurassic Park, is quick to deduce the aliens as a threat, and he and his father alert the White House staff to retreat as soon as possible. Soon enough, the aliens use their ships to activate lasers and disintegrate our beloved landmarks and killing millions of people, including Gilbert. And that section of the story is what activates the plot, moving on to July 3. The aliens launch a surprise attack on us all, and although the fighter pilots, including Hiller and his ill-fated best friend (Harry Connick, Jr.), try to counterattack, it is no use because the ships have a protective force-field. Luckily, our main characters round up together to discover Area 51, a top secret governmental facility investigating aliens since Roswell in 1947, where we also meet crazy scientist Brackish Okun (Brent Spiner in one of two science fiction films released in 1996). Eventually, it all ties together when July 4 hits, and mankind must team up and honor our patriotism to finally subdue the deadly aliens and save the world. Easily, the best thing about Independence Day is the visual effects. My God is CGI used wisely and realistically in this movie. As I said, the visuals are so impressive that I was intimidated when the alien ships showed up and blew up all those buildings. However, I also love the movie for many other reasons as well. Independence Day is not a retread of the 1950s alien invasion genre. It pays respect to the genre in a way that also feels more modern and more fresh. The characters are very enjoyable, even though they are a tad stereotypical. I think my favorites are the badass Hiller, the hilarious Russell, the strong-minded President Whitmore, and the geekily likable Levinson. I also love the patriotic message that the film conveys as well. However, the main reason I love the film is because it’s not all edgy and serious. It can be fun and there is lots of great humor. The best scenes include Gilbert’s reaction to Levinson’s theory, the explosions of the buildings, Will Smith’s remarks when he is beating an alien unconscious (Welcome to Earth/That’s what I call a close encounter), President Whitmore’s inspirational speech, and actually, the scene where Russell Casse gets killed. Yes, I know it’s sad when character dies, but here he’s not only sacrificing himself to save the world. He is also getting payback for abducting him in the past. It is just an awesome scene. The music score by David Arnold also helps contribute to the fun tone of the film. Overall, I think Independence Day is a milestone for the popcorn blockbuster genre that is also a fun homage to the 1950s alien invasion genre with astounding visuals, a decent plot, and enjoyable characters. I can easily watch this again every Fourth of July.

10/10

Trailer

WARNING: The following review may or may not contain spoilers from the film. If you haven’t seen the movie and you don’t want it ruined, I suggest watching the movie before continuing.

There is no question that Toy Story changed the animation industry and the film industry as a whole. Just like in 1937 when Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs broke many records including first feature-length animated film, Toy Story broke just as many records in 1995 including first feature-length computer-animated film. It is also very unique that during a time when CGI was mainly used for realistic visual effects in action and sci-fi films like Terminator 2: Judgement Day or Jurassic Park, the first movie that is entirely CGI is a family film. Boy, did it succeed on so many levels, which is why Toy Story (along with its two sequels that I’ll review later) is one of my favorite films of all time. Set in a world where toys come to life whenever people are not around, the “toy” story is about the toy collection of a young boy named Andy (John Morris). His toys include a Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles), a Slinky Dog (Jim Varney), a toy T-Rex named, well, Rex (Wallace Shawn), a Bo Peep doll (Annie Potts), and a piggy bank named Hamm (John Ratzenberger in the debut film of many more Pixar films he would voice in). However, his favorite toy is a pull string cowboy doll named Sheriff Woody (Tom Hanks), also the leader of the group of toys. Andy is scheduled to move from his house, and so his birthday party has been moved to today. One of the presents that Andy received is a astronaut action figure named Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), who is not aware that he is a toy and believes that he is the real deal. Buzz starts to steal Woody’s thunder as Andy’s favorite toy, so Woody gets jealous and inadvertently knocks Buzz out the window. While rescuing Buzz, they are separated from Andy and get captured by a troublesome next-door tween named Sid (Erik Von Detten), who tortures and destroys toys for his own amusement. Woody and Buzz must learn to get along and ultimately escape Sid’s clutches and reunite with Andy before he moves. So, why did Toy Story achieve such critical and popular acclaim? Well, people like it for the same reasons I like it. Since it is the first computer-animated film ever, I’ll talk about the animation first. Disney has been discovering the computer-generated techniques since the mid-’80s and used it for many famous sequences that were very complicated to achieve in a hand-drawn fashion. Examples include the flight scenes in The Rescuers Down Under, the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast, the magic carpet scene in Aladdin, and the wildebeest stampede in The Lion King. However, they really made a big, time-consuming decision to make every single frame by computers, and successfully. While the animation may be a tad dated in comparison to the more recent Pixar films, I still appreciate how grand it was back in 1995, so it still holds up to me. Plus, the movie is three-dimensional both visually and figuratively. This movie had perhaps the most well-developed and most human characters in a Disney movie at the time. And on top of that, all of them are so extremely likable. Woody and Buzz Lightyear are two of my favorite characters ever. They both stand out as characters whether individually or whenever they are together. Woody starts off being the leader of the toys as well as Andy’s favorite toy, and, well, best friend, who gets jealous that this new updated spaceman toy that every child wants might take away his relationship with his owner, as well as his friends. Ultimately, he eventually accepts Buzz as his best friend, realizing how awesome he is in comparison to himself, and even willing to sacrifice himself to an exploding rocket for Buzz after realizing how dated he is. Buzz starts off as a delusional character who believes he is the genuine article instead of a toy, but once he finds out he is a toy, he is extremely disappointed in himself until Woody makes him realize how cool of a toy he is. That scene alone, as Woody and Buzz are held hostage in Sid’s house, is one of my favorite movie moments ever because those characters really learn from each other and have some development. Plus, the fact that Woody is an outdated cowboy doll and Buzz is a up-to-date spaceman action figure, and yet, they realize that they are not so different after all and manage to become best friends, proves that opposites are one of the best forms of friendship. On top of that, I can’t think of anyone else other than the legendary Tom Hanks and the always comical Tim Allen to voice the “Dynamic Duo of Animation” as I like to call them. Speaking of Sid, he’s a great villain. Even though he is an “evil” kid, he’s still just a kid having lots of fun with toys. And you have to admit, some of you knew or even were that kid at some point in your lifetime. Besides, it’s not like he knew that toys can come to life (well, at least not until the very end). So, calling him a villain is a little bit harsh. The other characters from the Brooklyn talking Potato Head to the pitiful Rex to the flirtatious Bo Peep are fantastic and memorable side characters as well. The voice acting is so impressive, particularly from Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, that I can see characters, not a bunch computer images. However, the strongest thing about Toy Story (aside from the animation, that’s definitely the strongest) is its story and its heart. Aside from just accurately and intelligently portraying life from a toy’s perspective, the main theme of the movie is childhood and friendship. As the fantastic main theme song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” by composer Randy Newman implies, during a person’s childhood, a toy was a child’s best friend, as shown by Andy and Woody’s relationship in the opening scene. And even though Woody becomes kind of a jerk when Buzz steps into his life, the audience can still sympathize with him because we all feel sad and jealous when someone supposedly superior than others stands in the any of friendship. The other type of friendship is the relationship between Woody and Buzz, which I had explained earlier, so I won’t go into too much detail. Plus, the movie is just a perfect balance of hilarious comedy to heartwarming drama. Overall, I think Toy Story is one of the greatest and most important landmarks in motion picture history with fantastic animation, lovable characters, a great story, and a ton of heart, and it is beyond a fresh start for the eventual legend of a studio that is Pixar. This movie is literally so good and so groundbreaking that I would call it the Star Wars and Wizard of Oz of animated films.

10/10

Trailer

WARNING: The following review may or may not contain spoilers from the film. If you haven’t seen the movie and you don’t want it ruined, I suggest watching the movie before continuing.

I don’t want to dislike Thunderball. I really don’t. For three reasons, I was anticipating this film: 1) I am a huge James Bond fan, 2) I go to Staniel Cay a lot and I especially go to the beautiful Thunderball Grotto, and 3) it has a great reputation as one of the best Bond films. However, after seeing this film during my James Bond-a-thon, I was extremely underwhelmed. I’m sorry everyone, but I think this Bond is overrated. After a cool pre-credit sequence where Bond dispatches a rogue cross-dressing SPECTRE agent though to be dead and escapes with a jetpack, we cut to the main plot as usual. So, prepare for me to sum up the extremely short plot in under half a minute. SPECTRE plots to hold the world ransom by stealing two atomic weapons from NATO and threatening to fire the weapons on Miami and London. So, MI6 sends Bond (played for the 4th time by Sean Connery) and the other 00 agents on a mission codenamed “Thunderball” to stop SPECTRE No. 2 Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) and fellow SPECTRE femme-fatale Fiona Volpe (Luciano Paluzzi) from firing these weapons, with help from Largo’s mistress Domino Derval (Claudine Auger) and of course Felix Leiter (played this time by Rik Van Nutter). And, that is one of my main problems with Thunderball. The plot is so dull and so clichéd that I can’t sum it up for more than half a minute. Also, almost all of the supporting characters are weak and forgettable, especially Largo and Domino. However, my biggest with the film is that the pacing is extremely slow and the movie has way too many underwater sequences. Now, I don’t mind underwater sequences. In fact, the underwater scenery is extremely beautiful to look at. But, my God, they show the underwater world way too often. I mean, HALF of the climax takes place underwater! It’s just not very engaging! I also extremely hate the fact that because of the legal issues surrounding the film rights of the original Ian Fleming novel that the movie was based on, Kevin McClory receives complete producing credit for a movie that is obviously done by Saltzman and Broccoli. However, there are a few good things about it. I think Sean Connery is still awesome as James Bond, the Tom Jones theme song is good, Fiona Volpe is a memorable femme-fatale, the cinematography is amazing due to the aspect ratio change, and the locations are still exotic and beautiful to look at (particularly Thunderball Grotto, which I mentioned earlier). However, I think Thunderball tries way too hard to be the “biggest Bond of all” and the result is a film that has an extremely predictable plot, boring and weak characters, slow pacing, and too many underwater sequences. I can see why other people like Thunderball (I mean, it looked amazing in 1965), but it just jumped the sharks in the tank for me.

6/10

 Trailer

WARNING: The following review may or may not contain spoilers from the film. If you haven’t seen the movie and you don’t want it ruined, I suggest watching the movie before continuing.

When I was younger, Cars was my favorite film ever, and believe it or not, it still is my favorite because it still holds a special place in my heart. I remember seeing it for the first time with my Mom at Carmike Cinemas when I had graduated the first grade and loving my collection of die-cast figures, and it inspired me to consider an animation career. People have always thought of Cars and its 2011 sequel to be among the weakest of all the Pixar films, and I don’t get it. I guess it’s because we already had an awesome superhero film in 2004, followed up by a supposedly “lazy” film in a world where everyone is a car, as well as being “a ripoff of Doc Hollywood”, but I just do not find it as weak as other people do. In a world where every individual is a vehicle of any sort, a rookie race-car named Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson), who only cares about winning, is scheduled to compete in a tie-breaker race between his opponents, the “King” (played fittingly by Richard Petty) and Chick Hicks (Michael Keaton); the latter does not play fair. En route to California, however, a group of delinquents inadvertently cause McQueen to get separated from his hauler Mack (John Ratzenberger) and race dead-end into the small town of Radiator Springs, among Route 66. Having damaged the town road, McQueen is sentenced to community service by paving the road back. There, he befriends the many cars in town, most notably the lovable and hilarious tow truck Tow Mater (Larry the Cable Guy). McQueen is also mentored in his racing skills by the town judge/doctor Doc Hudson (the late Paul Newman in his last role), who is later revealed to be an ex-race car himself. He also finds love with the beautiful Porsche Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt), the town attorney who proposed the idea of his community service in the first place. It may be this experience that McQueen learns about the importance of friendship over fame. So, why do I like this movie very much, other than just “I grew up with it”? First of all, I believe that the concept of talking vehicles in media has been taken to a new high with this movie. While shows like Thomas the Tank Engine and Jay Jay the Jet Plane are really just for kids, Cars is a movie starring talking vehicles that can appeal to both kids and adults. There’s lots of innuendo in the movie that the kids might not get, but the adults will understand. For example, the groupie Mazda Miatas Mia and Tia show their headlights to McQueen; in other words, they flash him (no pun intended). Another scene has McQueen’s sponsors, the Rust-Eze brothers, jokingly responding to McQueen’s belief that race cars do not need headlights due to the track being lit: “So’s my brother, but he still needs headlights!” And I think it is just really impresses me that Pixar could make a concept that seems as juvenile as talking cars into a fast-paced and down-to-earth family film with enjoyable characters, heartwarming and hilarious moments, beautiful animation, good music, and a sweet and sometimes poignant story. Sure, the world where everyone and everything’s a car doesn’t make as much sense as my aforementioned kids show examples, but it shows that it’s a great family film that appeals to people of all ages. McQueen is very likable as a main character: one who thinks he is on top of the world, but realizes what else he is missing. Mater is one of the best comic reliefs in film. The energy that he has, the optimism, the humor, and the voice of Larry the Cable Guy just make him a great comic relief. Doc Hudson is great as a mentor character, and the dynamic between him and McQueen is very reminiscent of, say, Woody and Buzz. Plus, as Paul Newman’s last role two years before his passing, he is great. Chick Hicks is also one of my personal favorite Pixar villains and a pretty realistic antagonist. The fact that he does not play fair and ultimately causes a racing legend that is the King to crash just makes me loathe him. Unsurprisingly, the animation is fantastic, considering this is from Pixar, but this time, a new technique of adding reflection lighting to all the cars makes the animation even more believable. Plus, the locations, especially Radiator Springs, are just beautiful to look at. The pop-culture references in this film are used wisely because of each of its appropriateness, i.e. Volkswagen Bugs as the insects. However, the main reason I like Cars very much is because of how simple, charming, and down-to-earth it is, having almost the same atmosphere as the Toy Story trilogy. To this day, after seeing this film, I feel ashamed that people miss out on the old roads that they used to travel on due to the increase in modernism for our society. I also love the unpredictable ending, which I won’t get into too much detail, but let’s say that it doesn’t just end with McQueen crossing the finish line and earning his Dinoco sponsorship. Plus, I love the country music in the movie by Randy Newman. Overall, Cars is an extremely entertaining addition to Pixar that has always been part of my childhood, and inspired me to go into animation. It’s probably not my number one anymore, but it’s simple, it’s funny, it’s heartwarming, it’s colorful, it’s admirable, it’s poignant at times, and continues to be my all-time favorite.

10/10