Toy Story 4

I was as skeptical as anyone when this movie was announced. "Really? A 4th one? After the 3rd one ended so perfectly? What a cashgrab! Why is Disney forcing them to make this?"   But this movie actually had a lot of heart and effort into this. If "Toy Story 3" made you cry, oh boy. This will make you cry maybe even harder. They didn't need to put as much effort into this movie as this movie as they did, but they did. They did that for us. This is one of the great Pixar movies! I noticed that the Pixar movies hardly anybody remembers such as "Brave", "The Good Dinosaur", "Monsters University" and "Finding Dory" (just to name a few) are the ones that have little to no emotion put into them, but the great ones such as "Inside Out", "Coco", and others are the ones that make you feel something. They raise hard questions, they make you evaluate your life. They can be kid-friendly, but also mature. And this is one of those. As soon as the opening credits started, I started tearing up, and the film just didn't let up from there. This has themes of letting go, accepting you can't have what you want in life, finding your life's purpose. It's some pretty mature stuff for the audience of 5 year olds. But there is so much heart and effort put into this movie. Pixar has done it again. If they put even half the effort into "Incredibles 2" as they put into this, that could have been one of the great Pixar films. Despite my skepticism, this was a thoroughly emotional film, with lots of heart, and lots of laughs.
Grade: A-    9/10    4/5 stars

Men in Black: International

I said in my "Ghostbusters" (2016) review that Chris Hemsworth was the best part of the film because of his hamminess. The same is true of his performance in this film. He's not as ditsy in this as he was in that, but more from the comedic side. He's like a fusion of his character from "Ghostbusters" and Thor in "Thor: Ragnarok." He is so fun in this movie! Liam Neeson's performance is also standout, but I won't dare tell you who he is, because it's a huge spoiler. This plot was the most engaging of all the "Men in Black" films. As classic as the 1997 movie is, it's very dated. This had a fresher plot, and it managed to still mix some familiarity of the old ones into this one, though for the first 3rd, it's a little too familiar, and feels like a retread of the first one. The character of Pawny is one of the funniest characters in this film. He plays the role that the pug Frank did in the other films, but unlike Frank, he's actually funny. This is the most entertaining film in the franchise. The action is better, the plot is the best of all of them, and the performances are standout.

Grade: B    8/10    4/5 stars

Dark Phoenix

This movie was delayed at least twice, due to script issues and needed reshoots, and it really shows. It's not "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" bad, but the script definitely needed more re-writes. I think after Disney bought Fox and announced this as the last X-Men movie, Fox just gave up and decided to put the bare minimum of effort into this movie. I'm glad I went on $5 Tuesday, because if I had paid full price, I would have been furious! The film's issues are mainly due to the writing. Charles Xavier goes from being the kindly mentor that he was in the other films, to a pompous jerk who can't admit his mistakes, and they make him extremely unlikable. There are also a ton of continuity errors in the grand scheme of things, and some really bad dialogue. It's a watchable movie, but I feel like they could have done more with this. The action scenes are pretty good, the Dark Phoenix storyline is at least handled with slightly more respect and dignity this time around, but given that this is the last X-Men movie for the Fox/non-MCU universe, it didn't go as far as it could with the level of intensity. It's just kind of "meh." Rent this one. 

Grade: C    7/10    3.5/5 stars

Secret Life of Pets 2

This is one of the rare times a sequel to an animated film is better than the original. This is what I was thinking the first movie was going to be. It's not really a plot driven movie, it's more like 3 different, separate storylines that feel like a TV show pilot, but that's not a bad thing, because in this movie it works. Kevin Hart is still one of the best parts of this movie, and the addition of Harrison Ford adds a bit of dry humor, and I wish they had used him more. At its core, this is a very sweet movie about pets and their humans, and it has a lot of heart put into it. The plot does have some issues towards the end with just how off-the-wall unbelievable it gets, and it didn't really need to go the direction it did, because at that point it was hard to suspend my disbelief, even for a movie like this. The story for the first 2 acts is fairly straightforward and simple, but then the 3rd act feels like a completely different movie. I laughed a couple of times, but this movie is definitely more for kids. Adults may enjoy some of it, but really, this is made just to shut your kids up for 90 minutes. It's enjoyable, and I recommend it, but don't expect much story. 

Grade: B    8/10    4/5 stars