Reviews

This is one of those rare sequels that actually surpasses the original. Excellent writing! If the song when When She Loved Me doesn't make you cry, you have a very hard heart indeed. This is a classic children's story that adults can definitely relate to. In Toy Story 2, Woody must choose between staying in a museum forever, perfectly preserved as he is but never played with or to go back to his old life. It's a wonderful joyous message that says that toys are meant to be played with, life is meant to be lived. No one is meant to sit around and get stodgy and old in a museum. There are so many wonderful, funny moments in this film. The scene with the traffic cones is one of the funniest scenes of all time. This is a great, great movie.

This is perhaps one of the weaker of Pixar's efforts but even a weak effort by Pixar is better than ninety percent of the stories out there. A Bug's Life is a great example of what to do right in creating a story. They surround the main character, Flik, (voice provided by Dave Foley) with colorful characters much like in classic comedies. What a shame that Joe Ranft, the voice of Heimlich died. Such a lovable character. Then Pixar makes sure there's a good story to go with it. This story is about a colony of ants who are tormented by some bully grasshoppers who take what the ants work so hard for. Even though the story is animated, Pixar makes the world a metaphor for the real world. Another fine effort for the Pixar gang.

The problem with this movie is that it's parodying something that really can't be parodied or doesn't want to be parodied. To parody indie movies means that there's a style to an indie movie that every indie movie has. But that's not the case which is why this movie loses a lot of the humor that comes from a great comedy like Airplane. A disaster movie, a superhero movie or a similar genre has a structure that's similar across all movies of its genre. But an indie movie doesn't have a similar structure. A early Weinstein period piece is very different from a Tarantino flick which is very different from a mumblecore movie. To say that all Sundance movies are alike means that there's a formula for Sundance movies that you just have to follow and you can get into Sundance. Perhaps that is what the screenwriter is trying to say. There may be some truth to that but he hasn't found the right vehicle to satirize that.

If you just sit back and enjoy the movie as a fun, summer popcorn flick, it's not so bad. We've seen these CGI tricks before in the Matrix but they're still fun especially when people crash through the windows in slow motion. The only time I found the CGI really bothersome, was in really wide overhead shots like when they're running on top of the trains. This type of CGI didn't look real in Titanic back in the '90s and it seems they still haven't been able to improve much on it. It's nice to see Morgan Freeman playing a character who's not quite as saintly as the ones he's usually asked to do. Angelina Jolie is also good in this although the role doesn't ask her to do a lot other than watch the training sessions. James McAvoy is good as usual and the woman who plays his boss is hilarious. It's quite the scene stealing role.