Coco

Pixar is going back to their roots! Their last few films such as "Brave," "The Good Dinosaur" "Finding Dory", and "Cars 3" were all mediocre, or at least below the bar of what I've come to expect from Pixar. This gets back to what put Pixar on the map in the first place: Amazing stories with a heartfelt message. The visuals in this movie are amazing! They pop off the screen! I'm amazed how Pixar manages to outdo themselves with the animation every year. They really put a lot of time, care, and effort into making this film the best it could be. The story is fantastic, has some good twists and a bit of dark humor (which is surprising from Pixar), and an important, heartfelt message that will make you emotional. The songs in this movie were fun and catchy (although it is not a musical). This is one of the few times where I agree that Pixar should win all the Oscars, as opposed to more recent years where I said that they had monopolized and stolen the awards from films I thought were superior. As hard as I tried, I couldn't find anything to nitpick. Nothing that would dock this film from being a perfect score. It's not that I didn't want to like the film, but part of being a film critic is being critical. I tried to find something, anything, that could improve this film, but as hard as I tried, I just couldn't. It's a perfect film! This will definitely win the Oscar for Best Animated Film, and this time I agree that it deserves to instead of "It's Pixar. It wins by default."
Grade: A+  10/10 5/5 stars

Justice League

Once again, the critics are wrong. This. was. Awesome! You know you're in for a fun time when "Written by Joss Whedon" pops up on the screen! It's got almost everything a Justice League movie should have. Humor, action, witty dialogue....It's almost on par with Marvel. Almost. Really, my only negative critique is the villain was really dumb. It's a Justice League movie and they give us Steppenwolf?! Really?! Even when Steppenwolf shows up, he doesn't do anything. The battle is over as quickly as it begins. The 3rd act and/or villain really should have been changed. But, hey, this movie managed to make Aquaman awesome! He's like a cross between a heavy metal guitarist and a professional wrestler. Everything about him is awesome, including the self-awareness that for the past 76 years, he's been a joke. He's the character that doesn't take no for an answer, doesn't care what people think of him, and is just awesome! The only character cooler than him is Batman, and that's because he's Batman. I did have one more problem with the story. If you're a casual fan without any knowledge as to who Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg are you may be confused as their origin stories are only glanced over or completely ignored. If they had given it another hour to take time to explain the characters' backstories that would have been super helpful. Instead we need to rely on context clues through quick dialogue. Hopefully we get an extended cut on the Bluray. It has some problems, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. At the end of the day, I was entertained, and that;s all that matters. By the way, stay ALL  the way through the credits. There are 2 scenes.
Grade: A-   9/10   4/5 stars

Murder on the Orient Express

This has the potential to be nominated for some serious Oscars. Boasting a star-studded cast and an exciting plot, this promises to be one of the best films of 2017. It diverted some from the book at the beginning, but that was actually a better choice. In the book, I felt I was thrown in without any context, and had to figure out the settings and characters. The movie took its time getting there, in a good way, and it was all the better for it. It established the characters clearly and made it easy to suspect each one of them for different reasons. Although the acting was good, there were still a few moments that fell flat. Johnny Depp's "New York" accent in particular. It was so obviously fake. And there was one scene where two characters are having a conversation, but one's back is turned to the camera and blurry. I hate that. It distracts, and sometimes makes it hard to follow crucial bits of dialogue, especially when a character's accent is hard to understand. This movie did something I thought would never happen. It made me like Josh Gad. I've been ragging on him for years about how I find him loud and annoying, but here, that doesn't happen. Maybe it's because he's in a more serious role, as opposed to a comedic one. Maybe "comedy" is his weakness, hence why he feels the need to shout every line but when he's in a serious role such as this one, he's got some serious accting chops. I wasn't blown away by his performance, but I was at least impressed. I'll go into future roles of his with an open mind, because this proves he can be a good actor. There was also some witty dialogue and some of it very sharp and snarky. The book did not have this, and it's a welcome improvement. If you're looking for a movie to make you feel smart and sophisticated, go see this. It's mostly worth it.
Grade: A-  9/10   4/5 stars

Thor: Ragnarok

This more than makes up for the lackluster "Thor: The Dark World." Although, this still could have been better. I enjoyed it and thought it was fun, but the tone and style felt out of place for a Thor movie. I kept thinking "I'm watching Guardians of the Galaxy" with different characters. Everything from an '80s synthesizer soundtrack to bright unicorn-vomit visuals is here. While the film is fun, the plot was all over the place. It felt like watching 3 movies at once. I kept thinking "Just pick and stick with a plotline." It jumps from location to location and story arc to story arc very quickly, and at times it was very hard to keep up with. I had to keep backtracking at least 10 minutes in my mind to catch myself up. "Oh yeah, that happened." Jeff Goldblum had a lot to offer as the character "Grandmaster". He had some funny lines and made me laugh a few times. Cate Blanchett is chilling as the villain "Hela." If you thought Tom Hiddleston could be scary at times, just wait until you see her performance. There were a lot of fun Easter Eggs that foreshadow at things to come and it was overall, a very fun movie. Like I said, my only complaint is the all-over-the-place plot, but considering how boring "Dark World" was, I'm just glad we finally got a good Thor sequel, even if at times it still could have been better.

Grade: A-   9/10     4/5