Archive for April, 2015

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Big Hero 6 (2014)

April 1, 2015

Starring: Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, Jamie Chung
Director: Don Hall (Winnie The Pooh), Chris Williams (Bolt)

“On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?”

Bottom Line: Big Hero 6 is solid animated entry from Disney that explores the world of San Fransokyo – a hybrid of the two obvious cities that is beautifully rendered here – and a group of young, genius-level student/inventors. At it’s core, it’s a film about the relationship between brothers Hiro and Tadashi, tragically cut short by a fire and explosion at a convention, but continued on through Tadashi’s invention Baymax – a loveable, inflatable robot programmed to serve as a walking, talking first aid kit and medical assistant. Watching Baymax and Hiro bond – similar to John Connor and the T-800 20 years ago – is the highlight of the film. When Hiro bands the group of inventors together to form a high-tech superhero team, things get a bit less focused and therefore less interesting. The film works better as a character study than as the superhero team origin story that it actually is. As is, I thought Big Hero 6 was a fun movie that lost a bit of steam in its climax.

Replay Value: Not the keeper I was expecting it to be.
Sequel Potential: Lots of potential for further adventures here.
Oscar Potential: Winner of the Best Animated Feature Oscar – but really not even as good as The Lego Movie, which wasn’t even nominated.

Grade: 6/10 (Recommended)

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Dumb And Dumber To (2014)

April 1, 2015

Starring: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Rob Riggle
Director: The Farrelly Brothers (Dumb And Dumber, There’s Something About Mary, Hall Pass)

“Wanna hear the second most annoying sound in the world?”

Bottom Line: I knew this was going to be bad because of the total lack of word of mouth and poor scores from critics and audiences alike, but, man, it was even worse than I was prepared for. I laughed out loud one time that I can remember and the rest of the “funny” parts were relegated to a courteous chuckle. It seems like over the past 20+ years this film has been simmering in the crock pot of the Farrelly Brothers’ collective imaginations that they could have found time to write some genuinely funny material, but it almost all falls flat. It doesn’t help that Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels feel like ghosts of their previously iconic characters; there is literally no soul in their performances. I was just looking at Carrey’s resume and he hasn’t made an above average comedy since Bruce Almighty all the way back in 2003, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that this movie was a bust. It’s a lot of the same gags from the original with very few of the laughs and none of the heart. Too little too late.

Note: I suspected I had maybe grown out of the humor that made Dumb And Dumber so special, but prior to this film’s theatrical release, I watched the original again and that movie is a true comedy classic. It’s 20 years old and I’m in my thirties now, but I was still laughing my ass off. So, yes, Dumb And Dumber To really does just suck.

Replay Value: I tuned out about two-thirds of the way through my first viewing.
Sequel Potential: The world would have loved a Dumb And Dumber sequel 20 years ago… but in 2014, it was a pretty bad idea. In 2015 and beyond, a third movie sounds even worse.
Oscar Potential: None – but Dumb And Dumber To is another movie that got an undeserving pass from The Razzies.

Grade: 2/10 (Horrible)

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