Manolo (Diego Luna) and Joaquin (Channing Tatum) are longtime friends both in love with the same girl, Maria (Zoe Saldana). They catch the attention of La Muerta and Xibalba, ex-lovers and rulers of separate worlds in the afterlife. Xibalba bets that Maria will marry Joaquin and if he wins he gets to rule La Muerta's world and if Manolo marries Maria, Xibalba has to stop interfering in human affairs, when it becomes clear that Maria has fallen for Manolo, Xibalba sends him into the afterlife where he must embark on a fantastical journey to win back the girl of his dreams.
My thoughts? The animation was phenomenal, the bright colours and accents were a wonder to see on the big screen. The voice-acting was well done but considering this was a completely Latino cast plus Channing Tatum, Tatum felt horribly out of place. This was simply a very happy movie despite the death that takes place since it's put to the back drop of The Day Of The Dead celebration in Mexico so we're meant to celebrate the dead. All that being said the themes of the film were incredibly obvious and a lot of the time I felt like I was being beaten by them which was an annoyance... We get it! Family is important... The ending was absolutely perfect however and we rarely see an entire cast of characters in a film be happy.
Final verdict: 3 (bordering on 4) double headed snakes out of 5
Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a former engineer and rocket pilot forced to work on a farm to provide for his kids. The earth is slowly dying and there is little food to be had which forces most citizens to become farmers so the world has corn to eat. After stumbling upon a hidden NASA base, Cooper gets an offer he can't refuse, go into space and try to find a planet that humans may continue to live on.
My thoughts? I don't claim to be a science expert, but some of the stuff just seemed to far out there to comprehend, and although that might as well be director Christopher Nolan's mantra, when the plot hinges on the audience's understanding of such matters it ends up hurting the overall product. The visuals of space were very much an ode to 2001 which I'm again not sure if that's a good thing. The acting was spot on and all the actors played their characters given perfectly, even the robotic TARS. But it just always felt like there was something missing, the runtime wasn't really an issue, despite pushing 3 hours it didn't feel like it as you genuinely cared for the characters and the story kept you intrigued all through.
Final verdict: 4 worm holes out of 5
Hiro is a brainy teenager with dreams of getting rich, his family implores him to use his brain for good but it's not until he's challenged at the San Fransokyo Robotics Institute to create something that will change the world, the night of his presentation a mysterious fire claims the life of his brother, after finding out that someone is using his invention he's determined to find out why and avenge his deceased brother with the help from his brother's robotic creation Baymax, Hiro and his friends transform into Big Hero 6 to save the world.
My thoughts? This was a shameless crowdpleaser, tons of action, tons of laugh and tons of heart. Big Hero 6 doesn't quite touch the upper echelon of Disney movies, but damn does it ever come close. Baymax is the centre of the movie and immediately becomes one of the most lovable characters in recent movie history. The film does suffer from some pacing issues early on but it successfully overcomes that thanks in part to excellent animation and direction. I think it's safe to say that Disney Animation Studios rebound is still going strong as their last 7 features, this included, have scored at least an 83% on Rottentomatoes.com. You have to go back to 2005's Chicken Little to find a movie that didn't hit at least 60% and 2004's Home On The Range to find a movie that didn't make it's budget back at the Box Office.
Final verdict: 4 fist bumps out of 5... buh luh luh luh luh
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