FILM
Monsters Inc.
Well I'm only 14 years late to this Pixar party; why did I not see this film upon its initial release? That I'm afraid I really can't answer, nor can I explain why it has taken me so bloody long to catch up with Monsters Inc. - I'm a big fan of animation and Pixar in particular, so the fact that I'm only just uncovering the joy that is Monsters Inc. right now on Netflix is really quite shameful. But coming in fresh after so many years some things do stand out a little more here; first being the advancement of the quality of animation work that Pixar are now producing, because at times Monsters Inc. does feel a little bit dated in the animation department, but that never really detracts from the overall experience on what for the most part is a fabulous tale of the hidden world of closet monsters; and the other thing that I noticed here was the script and the narrative development and scope of this Pixar film does seem more traditional and rather simplistic in its use of plot points and set ups, but again this in no way counts against the film, in fact I was quite a pleasant change up from the vast majority of animated films that I've watched in recent years and after recently seeing Pixar's latest Inside Out, this felt rather fresh to me and something completely different that really shows why I do appreciate the works of Pixar so much. This animation is a joy to watch from start to finish with so so many highlight comedy moments, with some truly magical interplay between the Mike, Sully and Boo. If for some reason you're like me and you have somehow managed to let Monsters Inc. slip you by for all this time, stop what you are doing right now and rectify this disastrous situation, your soul depends on it. Highly recommended.
(go to my Letterboxd page to see where Monsters Inc. ranks in my list of favourite Pixar movies.)
8/10
Pain & Gain
I always said to myself after being brutally punished at the cinema by the garbage dump that was the third Transformers movie, that I would add Michael Bay to my Blacklist of directors for which I won't even give their work the time of day anymore; but Netflix got me suckered back in to the chaotic world that is Bayism, but not alone, oh no that would just be too simple, no what we have here is my love for wrestling and the work of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson - yes that's right I do smell what the Rock is cooking and I'm always eager to give the Peoples Champ a chance in the cinematic universe. And to my shock Pain & Gain isn't quite the disaster that I was expecting; the idea of criminal bodybuilders; pumping iron and kidnapping the rich seems like a whole lot of fun, and to the films credit the 3 lead
actors of The Rock, Mark Wahlberg and Anthony Mackie, really do give it their all on the screen, and supply some truly great pieces of chemistry onscreen as well as deliver the over the top physical and back it up with the timing of their lines to get the most out of the situation and comedy highlights. But unfortunately Michael Bay ruins this all with some extremely shoddy camera work with chaotic cinematography and a direction in which the film feels cheapened by the constant voice over and jarring pacing issues that riddle the film that almost derails the whole experience, but the performances were enough to keep me on board, there's a good film in here somewhere, but Michael Bay refuses to let it out, and ultimately the film feels much like the Rock looks "Over Pumped and Bloated" - this could have been so much more fun had this been a film that Bay decided to parody himself or given to a director that could have left well enough alone all the garbage that this film gets bogged down in and let the talent on screen propel Pain & Gain into the action comedy hit it deserves to be.
4/10
TV
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 3 (Episodes 1-3)
Dumpster Babies, Football tryouts - that just a little bit reminds you much of that Thanksgiving episode of Friends; and Danny DeVito - yes this bunch of morons and their twisted moral compasses might be some of the hardest characters to connect with and begin to like, but the comedy timing and the writing of the show is very well executed that - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia does manage to do just that, I've been laughing at all the craziness that these first few episodes of season 3 has to offer and am keen to see what further madness this Irish group of assholes gets up to next. But as like a said last week, toning down the pace at which this is consumed to avoid overexposure and killing the effectiveness of the comedy.
Person of Interest Season 1 (Episodes 1-9)
A new show for me to jump on board with this week and it stars Michael Emerson (Ben from Lost) and Jim Caviezel - who I always found to be an actor that I could swear has been in far more Film/Tv than IMDB tells me; the show is kind of a mix up between a police procedural and 24; taken on the format of a crime a week with a large story that slowly unravels as the episodes pass on by; and after 9 episodes, I'm really starting to get pulled into the story here and find myself really liking the main 2 characters of the show and its always good to see Michael Emerson do something outside of Lost. Preventing crime in the manner that one would find very close to that of Minority Report, starting off with nothing more than a social security number; the direction of the narrative and the solving/preventing of murders is really compelling. My one worry is looking at the length of each season; 20 plus episodes does seem like an awful long season and hard to see that the current format of each episode will be strong enough to hold up over such a long period of time in order to maintain my initial interest levels, but we will have to wait and see if the show is able to adapt and develop into a show that is compelling enough to justify this length and have an over arching story that is entertaining and thrilling as the prospect of the work of Caviezel and Emerson. At this moment in time I would say that Person of Interest is certainly a show that is worth jumping into on Netflix and at least giving the first season a complete run through to see if this might be the crime thriller show for you.
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