The new Lion King film has received middling reviews, but I still wanted to see it, if for nothing else than to relive my childhood. The film is a straight redo of the original cartoon, in fact some scenes seem shot-for-shot the same. I’m sure you’ve all seen it before, so no re-hashing. The computer generated animals are indeed breathtakingly real, and I think that is the only detriment to the film. In this case, very real can be too real. Real lions don’t break out into huge grins or raise eyebrows in skepticism, so they don’t in this movie, and that takes away from some of the wonderment of it all. The songs are all there, the story is there, the humor is just as good (if not better in spots), but it doesn’t have the same kind of magic. Any maybe that’s just because I’m not a kid anymore. Certainly not a bad film, I enjoyed it and will watch it again sometime, but I think for my generation at least, it doesn’t match the original.
I wasn’t going to watch the new Toy Story 4, and only did because it was a double billing with Lion King at the local drive-in. But I’m glad I did. I still think the original trilogy is perfect as it sits, but this is a decent conclusion (assuming they don’t get even greedier and make another). This one picks up with the toys living with Bonnie now, who is going in to kindergarten. Woody is no longer the favorite, as Bonnie usually goes for the female toys like Jessie, but Woody seems fine with his new role. He had a good run with Andy and he is content. Bonnie struggles at school on her first day, but finds joy when she “builds” herself a new toy from a spork and some odds and ends out of the trash can. Forkie becomes her new favorite, but he just wants to return to the trash, which leads to a lot of humor. When Forkie makes a run for it during a family vacation, Woody goes to bring him back, and in doing so, runs in to Bo Peep. Bo was Woody’s love interest in the early Toy Story films, but she was given away years ago and Woody thought her lost. She’s been doing well as a solo toy all these years, without a kid. Woody enlists her help to get Forkie back to Bonnie, and it doing so, has to face a decision on what he wants for his own life. If you cried at the end of Toy Story 3, you probably will again at this one. I still stand by my initial statement, but if the first three films are a perfect story, then the new one is a proper epilogue.
The Upside stars Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart and is about a rich, older man confined to a wheel chair who hires an ex-con to be his live-in caregiver. Philip was left paralyzed from the neck down after an accident, and has just survived a suicide attempt, saved by his professional assistant despite a DNR order he had in place. She insists on a new caregiver to stay with Philip night and day, and despite her protests, Philip likes Dell. The film follows their unlikely relationship. There is some heart, and a whole lot of humor, but I can’t help but feel the film felt a bit “thin.” Cranston is a phenomenal actor and he is great here again, but it isn’t enough. The movie hits on all the right spots, and some really funny moments were laugh-out-loud good, but it is chuck full of clichés. It also felt too safe, and I feel like they could have taken some risks that would have made for a better picture. A pleasant enough comedy, but only good enough for a single viewing.
I’ve been waiting to see Ramen Shop for quite awhile; it’s been on my list since I first heard about it in 2017. I have to say the wait was worth it. A Japanese film, it is about a young man in Japan who works for his dad in a ramen shop, serving delicious food. His mother, originally from Singapore, is long dead. When his father also dies, Masato sets out to Singapore to find his mother’s estranged family. What follows is a beautiful film about healing past hurts and a family coming together after too long apart. There are still long-felt pains in Singapore from when the country was occupied by Japan, and Masato’s parents’ marriage was not accepted at the time. Masato finds his uncle first, who openly welcomes him in, but his grandmother is not so easy to win over. This is a deliberate film, moving at the pace of a slow preparation of a meal (and many meals are shown in the cooker’s themed movie!), but the end is extremely rewarding, as is the beautiful journey to the denouement.
Captive State has received some rough reviews, but honestly it isn’t all that bad. It starts in present day, showing how an alien race came and quickly overpowered the governments across the globe, until all bowed down and relinquished power. Jumping ahead 9 years, the aliens are called “the legislators” since they make all the rules, and they control the police force as well. Insurgents or dissenters are killed or rounded up and sent off world for labor. Of course like many alien invasion films, they are here for our resources, and have set up walled-off zones in most major cities around the world, and are digging down into the earth. The film follows a resistance movement, and the police force hunting them. The story of the underground insurgents is quite good and very gripping; their unseen ways of communicating with each other paints a stark picture of a people under constant surveillance, but the movie has plenty of shortcomings. The camerawork is really quite bad, there are some gaping plot holes here and there, and the direction seems amateurish too (though director Rupert Wyatt has some good films under his belt like Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Gambler). Not great, but definitely not as bad as the reviews would have you believe, and a solid diversion for fans of the genre.
Jons Movie Takes 