Boss Baby

Sadly, this wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be. It was still pretty good, just not the laugh riot I was expecting. It's still clever, but it's...a Dreamworks movie. You get what you expect when you hear Dreamworks. It was by no means a bad film. I actually quite enjoyed it, it just could have had a bit more effort thrown in to it. The plot is pretty clever (although some of it doesn't really make sense, but hey, it's a kids movie. It's supposed to be silly), the voice acting is pretty good (Especially from Alec Baldwin and Jimmy Kimmel), but overall I don't think most people will remember it in 5 years. It will probably be the same case that it was with "Over the Hedge" or "Shark Tale" where when you mention it people will say "Oh yeah...that came out..." Still a pretty good, cute, harmless kids movie (kids will definetely enjoy it) but overall, not very memorable. The film has some really cute moments, and there were some jokes that I laughed at, but it wasn't as good as the trailers made it seem. 

Grade: B   8/10   3.5/5 stars

Beauty and the Beast (2017)

I was extremely skeptical about this movie. I actually thoght the people who saw it opening weekend were suckers. Why would I see a movie that I already own, just with a different cast? Why should I support this extremely blatant cashgrab? But after literally almost everyone I know raving about how amazing and marvelous it was, I finally decided "Well, I haven't really heard anything bad about it. I'll give it a chance.", and I'm glad I did. This was amazing! Everything from the sets, to the costumes, to the CGI, to the acting was marvelous. I dare say that in some ways it was even better than the original. I try to keep my reviews spoiler free, but unfortunately mild spoilers are needed in this review so I can give specific reasons why I thonk this is superior to the animated one, so if you don't want spoilers stop reading now.

Some complaints that most people had with the animated version were:

"Why does the witch curse the beast when he was a child and was only following stranger danger rules?"

"Why did all the servants get cursed too? They were innocent!"

"Why does everyone turn their nose up at Belle for reading of all things?"

Here's what happened. This version makes more sense and that is why I think this one is superior.

It begins with the Beast (as a human) as a young adult and he is at a ball with potential suitors one of whom will be his wife. Big age difference. The line in "Be Our Guest" changes from "For 10 years we have been rusting," to "For so long we have been rusting."

The servants were cursed because after the Beast's mom the queen died, his father became cruel and abusive, and the servants got cursed because they just stood by and watched. (Which doesn't make much sense either, but it's better than the "Because they just happened to be there" reason in the original)

Everyone is a jerk to Belle because they are illilterate, so it doesn't make sense for her to read.

The songs were awesome! I had no idea Emma Watson had such an amazing voice. Ewan McGregor still can't do accents, but his singing is still pretty good. Dan Stevens (The Beast) should be on Broadway, because he has some impressive singing chops. Luke Evans (Gaston) doesn't sound brutish enough, which is one aspect where the animated is slightly better, but they made up for that by making him a creepy stalker, so it balances out. Josh Gad....oh boy....well,....he does his typical schtick. I don't like it, but I know what I'm getting. He has one character. He's not good, but I knew what I was getting going in to it.  As much as I hate to say it, I'm actually quite excited for the next Disney live action remakes. Are they unneccesary? Yes. Will they be good? Who knows, but if they do what they did here, I think they will be. 

Grade: A-    9/10     4/5 stars

Kong: Skull Island

Man, oh man, was this movie fun! While I liked Peter Jackson's version, this definetly blows it out of the water! It's totally epic! I'm surprised this wasn't released in the summer, because it's definely got that summer blockbuster feel. One criticism people had with 2014's "Godzilla" was that it moved too slowly and took forever for Godzilla to actually show up, and I agree. This fixes that mistake by showing Kong in the opening scene to tide us over, and then doing the buildup. The tone and feel of this movie reminded me of "Indiana Jones." It's a fun island survival movie. In my opinion, one thing "Godzilla" suffered from was the human characters just weren't that interesting. That was not the case here. The characters are written very well, with clear goals and conflicts. The scale of Kong and the island as a whole are impressively huge. Do not watch this movie on your phone. Watch it on the biggest screen possible with an epic sound system for full immersion. Keep in mind the movie, in my opinion, really pushes the PG-13 rating. Some of the violence and deaths can get really brutal. Yet it still manages to balance it out with humor. (Particularly from John C. Reilly's character.) Godzilla had a very dark, bleak, and overall depressing and hopeless tone. (Although those monster fight sequences were awesome!!!!!) This has an action movie tone and is extremely intense at times. Some of the creatures they came up with for the island are really cool, and definetely not stuff I felt I had seen before. It's impressive that a movie that's been remade and redone again and again and again since the 30's still manages to bring something new to the table, while also retaining that classic feel. 

Grade: A-  9/10  4/5 stars

Masterminds

It's a shame this didn't do so well with critics or box office. I thought this was a great movie! I've been a fan of Jared Hess' work since "Napoleon Dynamite", and "Nacho Libre". He has yet to let me down and this film did not disappoint. I wasn't really sure what to expect considering this was delayed twice and was only in my local movie theaters for 2 weeks at most. My expectations weren't super low, but I was cautious. I figured at most it would be "meh." The fact that it did not do well has nothing to do with the quality of the film. I have a feeling in about 20 years or so, it will be a cult classic comedy. I was laughing so hard throughout most of this movie. There were times where I was missing dialougue and trying to pay attention, because I was still laughing at a joke from 2 minutes ago. I can only imagine the conversation the director had to have with the real people of this film, since it is based on a true story. "I'm going to turn your life story into a comedy, ok?" That was either incredibly embarassing, or they were cool with it. The film builds up pretty quickly and just gets crazier and crazier, and even more hilarious as it goes on. I wouldn't consider this a "smart" comedy, but if you're looking for a way to kill 90 minutes or you're into turn-off-your-brain screwball comedies, you'll probably enjoy this. It's a hidden gem worth searching for.
Grade: A-   9/10  4/5 stars