The Party Of Choice
Connect with us on social media:
  • Home
  • Get To Know Us
    • What is Conservatism?
    • What Do We Believe?
    • Tyranny of the Majority
    • "Tough" Issues >
      • Abortion
      • Gay Marriage
      • Marijuana
    • Conservatism, Free Thinking, and a Central Vision
    • Invitation
  • The Eyes of One
  • Videos
    • Choice Words That Win Videos
    • The Refinery
    • Radio Interviews
  • Articles
    • Movie Reviews
  • Sponsor an Ad
  • Unite The Right
  • Events
  • Store
  • Resources
    • Talking Points from Grassroots Radio Colorado Show
    • Petition
    • spOILed The Movie - Time to Fill Up on Truth
    • Flyers
  • Contact Us

CHOICE Movie Reviews:  Inside Out   by Andy Peth

6/19/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
First, my score guide:

Quality:  This score indicates entertainment value.  
0 stars is horrible, while 5 stars is spectacular.

Political:  This score addresses political messaging.  
0 stars is aggressively anti-Conservative, while 5 stars is highly pro-Conservative.  3 stars is apolitical.

Moral/Religious (M/R):  This score addresses moral and religious messaging.  
0 stars is either intensely immoral or all-out, needless assault on Christianity.  5 stars is either great moral messaging or highly pro-Christian.  3 stars is inoffensive either way.


Inside Out
Quality – 3 stars, Political – 4 stars, M/R – 3 stars

I love Pixar.  Though not perfect (Wall-E, Cars 2), the famed animation studio almost always generates thrilling experiences—and usually, its films aren’t preachy (except for Wall-E and Cars 2).

Visually impressive and fairly funny, “Inside Out” drags some, due to endless metaphors and symbols.  Is it preachy?  No, not at all.  In fact, the message is sound.  Is it worth seeing?  Sure—if only for the performances of 11-year-old Riley’s five emotions, headlined by Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith).  Though Joy is the star, Sadness is clearly the key, as “Inside Out” teaches the value of letting kids experience sadness rather than suppress it.  The other three emotions (Anger-Lewis Black, Disgust-Mindy Kaling, Fear-Bill Hader) provide comedic background that works, if not hilariously.

This is the story of a young girl going through the hard transition of uprooting from one place (Minnesota) and moving with her parents to another (San Francisco).  The whole experience is conveyed through her five emotions, who must grapple with change while holding Riley together.  Naturally, since this is Pixar and most everything occurs in Riley’s mind, the cartoonistry is terrific; the action, fun.

Girls will connect easily with Riley’s emotions, while boys might struggle a bit.  We guys generally experience movies with all five of our emotions (Anger, Anger, Anger, Lust, Confusion), but this film only requires Confusion.  In fact, Confusion has himself a field day. 

The first and last quarters are brilliant, entertaining, and touching. The inner half, however, wanders badly with too much psychology, and it made dozens of kids around me shift with disinterest (as did I).  I kept tugging on my wife’s sleeve, saying, “I wanna go home.  I wanna get ice cream.  I wanna go pee-pee, then cry for hours without knowing waaahhhhyyy.”

One stint where Joy and Sadness endure an “Abstract Shortcut” resembles awful performance art in a community college courtyard.  Yikes.  The whole section feels like a pot-scented clown reciting ‘60’s beatnik poetry, saying, “Kids, this isn’t funny or interesting, but it’s trying to be!  And it’s artsy, too!  Do you want a hit off this?”

I listened to children talk with their parents as they left, and they sounded perplexed. I heard no “And then there was a train, and then the puppy made me laugh, and then…” 

Instead, they were saying, “I regret, Mother, the way I acted out earlier today—perhaps due to prenatal impressions visiting themselves upon present times.  Yes, that must be it, for I was projecting my own insecurities upon you.  I believe the word I’m searching for is ‘sorry’—yes, I am sorry I posted pictures of you and Daddy online.”

“Inside Out” will no doubt wow the critics, as it plays like a 2nd-Semester Psych course adapted in 3-D animation.  I expect phrases like “childhood exuberance conveyed through a thoughtful study, all with delightful sights and winning performances.”  Yes, the accolades will be many—and justified.  But while kids will like it enough, and some adults will discuss it for hours, I just didn’t find it that enjoyable.

Is “Inside Out” the next “Wall-E?”  No.  Is it the next “Cars 2?”  Goodness, no!  But if I combined “Finding Nemo” with an hour of looking at a painting and saying, “This really speaks to me”…

…I’d be watching “Inside Out” a second time.  Which I won’t.

1 Comment

CHOICE Movie Reviews:  Jurassic World   by Andy Peth

6/12/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
First, my score guide:

Quality:  This score indicates entertainment value.  
0 stars is horrible, while 5 stars is spectacular.

Political:  This score addresses political messaging.  
0 stars is aggressively anti-Conservative, while 5 stars is highly pro-Conservative.  3 stars is apolitical.

Moral/Religious (M/R):  This score addresses moral and religious messaging.  
0 stars is either intensely immoral or all-out, needless assault on Christianity.  5 stars is either great moral messaging or highly pro-Christian.  3 stars is inoffensive either way.


Jurassic World
Quality – 2.5 stars, Political – 1.5 star, M/R – 3 stars

I love Geico’s recent commercials panning slasher flicks, where one character in a group of teens says, “Let’s hide behind the chainsaws!”—after which they flee to a cemetery.  In “Jurassic World,” the entire movie is “hiding behind chainsaws,” as characters foolishly create, unleash, and get in the way of carnivorous reptiles.  I half-expected someone to get eaten while attempting to floss raptor teeth…
 
“Dental hygiene’s important, y’know.  Lemme see if I can reach that back row.”

“No!” yell people in the audience.  “Chainsaws!  Chainsaws!”

My point?  While the action races and the CGI dazzles, this movie’s plot and characters appear to have been drawn in crayon.

Take Vic, for instance (played by Vincent D’Onofrio).  As a rich, powerful dude who wants to sell raptors as military weapons, he’s Hollywood’s vision of every Republican.  So gee, waddya think happens to him?  Chainsaws!

Comedic super-hunk Chris Pratt plays Owen, a raptor trainer who tells Vic he’s crazy.  Nevertheless, Vic sends Owen to Jurassic World—the dinosaur island that is now an elaborate theme park (I assume “Jurassic Land” and “Six Jurassic Flags” were taken).  Owen is the classic example of “handsome expert with military training talking sense to the rich moron.”  So gee, think he’ll be the action hero?  You win again!   

Note to director Colin Trevorrow:  When we know exactly what will happen to character types we’ve seen a million times, it’s less fun watching them go through it.  

In another ultra-formulaic setup, lead female character Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is an uptight, corporate-style, park operations manager.  Claire’s two teen nephews are visiting, but while she’s supposed to show them around, she’s too business-absorbed and dispassionate to care about “bonding.”  So gee, waddya think happens when all their lives are in danger?  Might the uptight businesswoman find her inner nurturer?  Will this be “Baby Boom” with dinosaurs?  Will she also wind up with Owen?  Will all this occur while her uptight outfit becomes more revealing?  Yep, yep, yep, you betcha!

Note to Trevorrow:  When we know exactly how relational subplots will play out, it’s less fun watching them play out.   

The storyline itself is a picture of the Jurassic series:  Audiences tire of the same old dinosaurs, so Jurassic’s lab must concoct a more ferocious model--Indominus Rex.  And not only do they make Indominus bigger and meaner, but smarter as well.  So Indominus plans.  He communicates.  In his spare time, he enriches uranium.  This is one smart super-predator.  Oh, and lest we accuse Trevorrow of doing anything new with this plotline, it was all done with sharks in “Deep Blue Sea”—a better movie. 

Note to Trevorrow:  When we know exactly how a genetically enhanced dinosaur…aw, forget it. 

The moral of “Jurassic World” (outside of the usual, “Greed and military are bad!”) is no different from the moral of all Jurassic movies:  “Stop trying to control nature; it’s bigger than you.”  Maybe this is why these movies never really connect.  Sure, we like the action.  And sure, we love the special effects.  But how many of us are mad scientists trying to control nature, whose ambitions can only be curbed by preachy movies?  Ummm…virtually no one.  As much as I enjoy a good monster flick, it’s weird hearing a sermon that could never apply to me.

So there you have it.  Though good popcorn fun, “Jurassic World” has characters doing what you’d expect in a story going where you’d expect, all while teaching a lesson you’ll never use.  This movie is a rock skipping across the water while leaving no rings—but I enjoyed watching it skip.

Do you like that Geico commercial?  Then watch this movie.  Chainsaws!

0 Comments

    CHOICE Movie Reviews

    Our Conservative movie reviews provide Quality, Political, and Moral/Religious scores, complete with Andy's commentary.

    Archives

    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly