Quentin Tarantino has built an enviable reputation over the years as a filmmaker to the point where every time he creates a new feature, it becomes a hotly anticipated event.  In recent years, he’s been on a particularly strong roll, with both Inglorious Bastards (2009) and Django Unchained (2012) becoming huge box office successes as well as picking up awards by years end.  What’s even more remarkable about Tarantino’s success at the same time is that he’s done all this without ever compromising his distinctive style.  I don’t know whether he’s managed to do it by just being lucky or by the sheer goodwill he’s earned in the industry, but Tarantino has manged to get away with more in his movies than most other filmmakers are able to.  And as long as his movies stay successful, then he’ll continue to keep pushing that envelope with every film.  Known for delving into multiple types of genres throughout his career, we’ve seen from Mr. Tarantino a wide variety of different stories, and yet, each one still feels connected thanks to his unique cinematic voice.  After Django Unchained, Tarantino made the unprecedented move of staying within the same genre with his next feature.  That film would become The Hateful Eight.  Though Django featured many elements that you normally would associate with the Western genre, it’s setting in the deep South helped to set it apart.  Hateful Eight on the other hand is set in the American Western frontier, so it is much closer to genre than what Tarantino has done before.  And truly, this is very much a love letter to the Westerns that Tarantino has idolized since youth.  The movie is clearly intended to invoke the memory of those old classic and Spaghetti westerns of the past.

But, this was a movie that at one point could’ve been shelved forever.  Late in 2013, Quentin Tarantino fell victim to breach in privacy when his first draft of The Hateful Eight was leaked online.  This was such a betrayal of trust for the director that he soon announced that he would not be making the film at all; canceling the project because he felt exposed by the breach and that he felt the film could never materialize out of that cloud of mistrust.  Thankfully for Tarantino, few actually saw the leaked script before it was removed, and after a few rewrites and a successful table read with Tarantino’s choice of actors in the roles, the project was back on board and bound once again for it’s 2015 release.  But, Tarantino wasn’t just interested in making any old movie this time around.  A long time champion of filming on celluloid as opposed to digital photography, Quentin wanted to use this opportunity to film with more than just the usual film stock.  For The Hateful Eight, he was interested in filming the movie using the Ultra Panavision 70 process, which hasn’t been in use since the late 1960’s.  Ultra Panavision is a 70 mm process developed back in the 50’s that became the widest format ever used in Hollywood.  While a normal widescreen film is shot in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio, Ultra Panavision is able to produce an image at nearly 2.78:1 in width, making it a truly epic sized image.  Few films were produced in this wide process, such as Ben-Hur (1959), and this is the scale on which Tarantino wanted to tell this story.  Couple this with a revival of some other common features from old school Hollywood spectacles, like the Overture and Intermission, and you can see that Tarantino was intending this to be a loving throwback to a  classic film-making, all the while giving it that typical Tarantino flourish.  Was it an experiment that paid off in the end, or was it too indulgent for it’s own good?

The Hateful Eight of course is about exactly what the title describes.  In the remote wilderness of the Wyoming Rockies, eight strangers are forced into shelter to escape the bitter cold of an approaching blizzard, all with their own baggage and ill intent towards one another.  Among them are two renowned bounty hunters, Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson) and John Ruth (Kurt Russell).  Ruth is on his way to the town of Red Rock, and cuffed to his arm is his still alive bounty, Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh).  John Ruth prides himself on bringing in his prisoners alive so that they can be hung by an executioner properly, which has earned him the nickname “The Hangman.”  Daisy has continued to make his long road to town as miserable as possible and it’s also caused John Ruth to be suspicious of other characters around trying to steal his prize prisoner away from him, including the quick witted Warren.  While on the road, Ruth and Warren pick up another passenger, the future Red Rock sheriff Mannix (Walton Goggins) who doesn’t take long before antagonizing the others due to his sympathies with the Confederate cause in the only recently ended Civil War.  The four make it to their place of refuge called Minnie’s Haberdashery, where they find four others seeking shelter.  One is an English fellow named Oswaldo Mobray (Tim Roth), another is soft spoken thug named Joe Gage (Michael Madsen), another is a groundskeeper simply known as Mexican Bob (Demian Bichir) and finally the last guest is a grizzled retired Confederate general named Sandy Smithers (Bruce Dern).  The eight strangers make themselves comfortable before the night grows darker and colder and the tension grows higher as some of the group soon learn that the ones they share company with are not entirely being truthful about who they really are.

It doesn’t sound like too much happens based on that premise, but that’s only because I don’t want to spoil the surprises that happen throughout the film.  Unfortunately, the film’s narrative becomes the biggest issue that I have with the movie overall.  While Tarantino does play around with his usual flair for mischief and indulgence, here it can sometimes be a hindrance to the momentum of plot.  At over 3 hours in length, at least in the Roadshow version that I saw, the movie is a long one to sit through, with lengthy patches that deliberately take their time to get going.  I’m fine with long movies as long as they do keep the viewer engaged and on the edge of their seats.  In fact, Tarantino did do just that with his nearly 3 hour long Django Unchained, a movie that never lagged once despite it’s length.  Here, I felt that there were one too many moments early on that took too much screen time without ever having a reason to be so lengthy.  It’s a case where I think Tarantino’s proclivity for indulgence may have backfired this time.  And believe me, I still love it when Tarantino indulges himself with his movies; just as long as I can still stay engaged.  The pub scene from Inglorious Bastards in particular is a perfect example of indulgence done right from the director.  In this movie, there is a lengthy passage that takes place within a stagecoach as the characters talk about their past experiences.  This scene is nice, and features some of Tarantino’s trademark oddball dialogue, but I could feel my attention drift during these early scenes in a way that I never felt from a Tarantino movie before.  That unfortunately hurts the movie in the long run, but overall, it doesn’t make this a terrible film by any means.  There’s still plenty to like.  It just doesn’t have the same kind of control over the story that Tarantino has shown in the past.

And part of that may come from expectations that I may have had about where the story might go.  Overall, the entirety of The Hateful Eight is about subverting the expectations of the viewer.  Tarantino chose to film in an ultra-wide film process that’s commonly associated with grand scale epics, but he uses it here in a story that’s all about isolation and claustrophobic tension.  For most of the three hours of the movie, our characters occupy a small log cabin set; quite different than the grand vistas that you would expect from an Ultra Panavision feature.  But, Tarantino does make that work for him on a visual level, as opposed to the narrative one.  There are plenty of well composed shots that allows Tarantino to tell the story the way he wants and still have it feel as bombastic as his other features.  In many ways, his visual flourish does make up for some of the narrative faults, and it is fun watching the director both work within these constraints as well as play around with them.  But, what the movie lacks in the long run is the tension that usually invigorates the plots of most of Tarantino’s films.  As some of the characters begin dropping dead in the cabin and suspicions arise between them, the film stops being a typical Western and turns into more of an Agatha Christie who-done-it style mystery, which again is kind of interesting to watch seen through Tarantino’s style.  But, Quentin also has worked in this field before, with his first feature Reservoir Dogs (1992).  That film has a lot in common with Hateful Eight, including the confined singular setting and the rising suspicions between the characters.  But that movie ran at a nice compact and tense 100 minutes.  Hateful Eight takes too many detours that, while fun, kind of diminish the final result by the end.

Where the movie does triumph, however, is with the cast of characters.  I’ll say this about Tarantino; he has not lost the ability to write amazing characters in his films.  Every person in The Hateful Eight is as fascinating as any other character that Tarantino has created over the years, and like many of his features before, the highlights are always the ones where these characters interact.  Another trademark aspect of Tarantino’s films is his remarkable ability to cast his roles perfectly, and sometimes with unexpected choices.  The Hateful Eight features what you could probably call the Tarantino All-Stars, because each one has worked with the director before in the past, but mostly never on-screen together.  This includes Samuel L. Jackson (a staple of most Tarantino films), Kurt Russell (Stuntman Mike from Death Proof), Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill) and Walton Goggins and Bruce Dern (both from Django Unchained).  All that’s missing is Christoph Waltz, who I’m sure would have participated had he not already committed to playing a Bond villain in Spectre.  Each of the all-stars here are uniformly excellent and manage to deliver solid performances all around.  New to the cast though is Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is probably the one who shines the most.  Leigh plays a truly despicable character in Daisy Domergue and her performance is an absolute knockout.  You can see the absolute evil in this character just in the way she smiles with her rotten grin, but Leigh does a lot more brilliant work to help you see the humanity behind the gruffness as well.  Considering the talent involved in the cast, it’s a treat to see her stand out as well as she does and she’s placed strongly among some of Tarantino’s many other famous villains like Victor Vega, Ordell Robbie, Bill, Hans Landa, and Calvin Candie.  So, once again it’s Tarantino’s ability to create standout characters that becomes the highlight of his movie, and we get eight amazing ones to witness here too.

I should also state how special the Roadshow presentation for The Hateful Eight is as well.  It may not be something that moviegoers are familiar with today, but the Roadshow was a common practice for epic spectacles back in the early years of cinema.  Epic films back then were treated as more than just an event back in the day; they were treated more like special engagements at the local cinemas across the country, much like how we treat the opera or a Broadway show as special.  Every guest to a Roadshow presentation was treated to more than just a movie.  The film would have a fully orchestrated Overture that preceded it, along with an Intermission halfway through to allow the audience to take a bathroom or snack break before the second half would begin.  Not only that, but in select theaters you would receive a printed out program detailing the film and it’s production as a special treat.  That same presentation is lovingly recreated in this presentation by Tarantino.  With The Hateful Eight Quentin Tarantino is hoping to revive this long out of use practice in the hope that it will catch on and make movies feel like Special Engagements again.  I was fortunate to be near a theater that played this Roadshow version, and it was neat to not only see a new film that felt like a loving throwback to old Hollywood, but one that makes good use out of the tools given to it.  For one thing, it is great seeing the long out of use Ultra Panavision process return.  It’s disorienting at first seeing the very wide image on a regular cinema screen, but as the movie rolls along, you can clearly see why Tarantino chose to film it this way.  I for one want to see 70 mm film make a comeback because few other formats are able to capture as much detail in an image as this does.  The cinematography by Robert Richardson is spectacular and he proves to be remarkably adept at using this process that’s been out of usage for nearly 50 years.  Also providing a nice throwback to classic cinema, Tarantino called upon legendary composer Ennio Morricone (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) to write the original score for this feature, and of course the grand maestro delivered a great score that feels both uniquely new and nostalgic at the same time.  If you do see this movie, try to watch this Roadshow version if it’s available in your area.  It’ll be worth it.

So, in the end, despite some problems with the pacing of the narrative, Quentin Tarantino delivers yet another solid effort.  Overall, I would say that this film is worth seeing more for the actual presentation itself rather than it’s story.  I for one admire Tarantino’s effort to keep classic Hollywood film-making techniques alive in this digital era that we live in now , while at the same time keeping true to his frequently indulgent cinematic tastes.  By not letting us forget that movies were once filmed this way, he helps us to remember just how special the tools of the trade can be.  I certainly never thought that I’d see a new film made in the Ultra Panavision 70 process in my lifetime, so I thank Tarantino for doing just that.  Hopefully, the movie will do well and that it will inspire other filmmakers to want to make their movies in 70 mm and other long out of use widescreen formats too.  At this point, only Tarantino and Christopher Nolan seem to be championing large format film-making in this digital age, albeit in different forms (Nolan being a fan of the IMAX process).  As long as they continue to make their movies a showcase for these processes, there may be hope that some day they might be in fashion once again.  Unfortunately, despite loving the presentation, I can’t quite say that The Hateful Eight is Tarantino at his best.  The sluggish first half did lose my attention at times, which past Tarantino films have not done before.  A tighter edit might have helped the film in the long run, but what is presented here is still worth seeing.  You’ll still get the trademark Tarantino experience, even if it feels a bit too indulgent.  Just go in knowing that this will be a long sit through, but one that will reward you by the end.  The great dialogue and characters are still there and the Roadshow presentation is worth every penny if you can manage to see it that way.  It’s big and bloated, but every bit what you would expect from Quentin Tarantino and it shows that the rebel director is not losing his touch one bit.

Rating: 8/10

You’ll find few other movies that have left an impact on cinema as much as the first Star Wars (1977).  It is a benchmark film; one that changed the ways we watch the movies, changed the way we make the movies, and also changed which kinds of stories could also be told on the big screen.  Up until Star Wars, science fiction and fantasy were dismissed in Hollywood as B-movie nonsense, but after director George Lucas’s grand vision took the world by storm, Hollywood started to take notice.  And since it’s release, you can see the imprint of Star Wars in just about everything in pop culture, as well as in the broader culture at large.  No other movie ever made has been as widely seen or has touched as many lives as this one.  And it’s amazing that it all came from a desire on George Lucas’ part to pay homage to the old sci-fi serials of the past.  What started as a bold exercise of for an ambitious young filmmaker making  what is essentially a fan film quickly turned into a new mythology for the 21st century; something that I’m sure even the forward thinking Lucas probably never imagined.  Of course, when one of your projects hits the world as hard as that one did, it becomes near impossible to follow it up.  Remarkably, Star Wars has maintained relevance for nearly 40 years now, and as recent developments have indicated, it will only get stronger from here.  Star Wars became more than just a standalone wonder, turning instead into a great modern saga; albeit far from a perfect one.  As the prequels have shown, even the mighty Star Wars wasn’t spared from a downfall.

But, what the hatred towards Lucas’ prequel trilogy also proved is just how much this universe means to people, and that you can’t just lean on the fans sense of nostalgia alone.  For many years, the Star Wars franchise was leaning too heavily on the past at a time when it needed to grow.  And with the acquisition of George Lucas’ company Lucasfilm into the ever growing Disney empire, it was finally became that time.  Many feared that Disney’s purchase of the Star Wars brand was just going to be a cynical venture for the media giant to cash in on what was already there.  But thankfully, Disney didn’t intend on being custodians of the past.  They were ready to set Star Wars free.  Within days of the merger, Disney announced that they were planning on building a bold cinematic universe around Star Wars, much in the same vein of the hugely successful one that they’ve built within the Marvel brand.  And to start this off, they were going to continue the main story, picking up after the end of the original trilogy in Return of the Jedi (1983).  For the first time in over 30 years, we are now seeing the story advance and Star Wars finally looking into the future, rather than the past.  And best of all, it’s with the input of those who were there at the beginning (sans Lucas).  Screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (who wrote the brilliant Empire Strikes Back script) was brought on board to draft this continuing adventure and cast members Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford all returned to bring life back to their iconic characters.  To top it all off, directorial duties were given over to J.J. Abrams, who also successfully relaunched that other iconic sci-fi series, Star Trek (2009) only recently.  It appeared that all the pieces were in place to make something special, and now we finally have the results of their work.  Is it everything we were hoping it would be, and a great launching off point for this new era in the Star Wars legacy?  Having finally seen it now after all that waiting, I can safely say that the Force is strong with this one.

So, what’s it about?  Without spoiling too much for those who haven’t seen it (if there’s any of you left), this film picks up many years after the events of Return of the Jedi.  The empire has fallen, but a zealous branch determined to squash the rebellion by any means has risen from it’s ashes.  They call themselves the First Order, and they’re on the hunt for the leaders of the rebellion, led by the maniacal General Hux (Domnhall Gleeson) and the mysterious Sith Lord Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), all in service to their Supreme Leader Snoke (voiced by Andy Serkis).  The First Order’s main target is the master Jedi Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) who has gone into hiding after a personal tragedy forced him to retreat.  On a desert planet called Jakku, an ace Rebellion star fighter pilot named Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) manages to secure a map to Luke’s location, but is captured by Kylo Ren and his Stormtrooper army.  Before his capture, Poe entrusts the map to his droid co-pilot BB-8, who narrowly escapes.  In the barren wasteland of Jakku, BB-8 soon runs into a nomadic scavenger named Rey (Daisy Ridley) who vows to keep it safe.  Also on Jakku is a Stormtrooper named Finn (John Boyega) a name short for his Trooper designation of FN-2817 who went AWOL after he began to doubt the ethics of his mission.  He runs into Rey, and recognizes the BB-8 droid and it’s significance.  Pretending to be a rebellion spy, Finn convinces Rey that they need to leave the planet and join the Rebellion itself, led now by General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher).  They manage to escape capture from the First Order but are intercepted by a smuggler ship, piloted by none other than Han Solo (Harrison Ford).  And, with the help of Han and his trusted friend Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), Finn and Rey begin their adventure across the galaxies.

Attempting to bring Star Wars back to it’s basics was no small task for J.J. Abrams and crew.  But, at the same time the movie has the benefit of following in the footsteps of the prequel trilogy, which already set the bar low.  All that The Force Awakens had to do was be good enough and fans would be satisfied.  Thankfully, this movie is more than just good enough; it’s actually fantastic, though not entirely perfect.  Any other franchise and this would be considered a masterpiece, but of course this is Star Wars we’re talking about.  I do believe that for what this movie is, it is the best we could have hoped for.  It is light years better than the prequels (that’s a given) and it brings the Star Wars series up to date perfectly.  It is undoubtedly the best film in the franchise since The Empire Strikes Back, though it doesn’t quite reach that lofty, sublime level.  There were points in the story where I felt that the momentum lagged and there were holes in the plot that left a lot of questions hanging afterwards.  Though not as problematic as the story problems within the prequels, these issues still cause the movie to feel uneven at times.  Plus, The Force Awakens does have the added challenge of trying to carry the weight of everything that has come before it.  It’s a daunting challenge considering that we’re seeing the story continue for the first time in 30 years, and the movie does on occasion buckle under the weight of that pressure.  Buckle, but not break.  This movie does thankfully hold itself together overall, and many of the structural and story issues do end up being forgivable in the long run.  It’s not a series best (running a distance behind the original and Empire Strikes Back) but it absolutely tries harder to reach those heights than anything else we’ve seen from the Star Wars universe in recent years.

What ultimately makes this movie work as well as it does are the characters, both old and new.   First of all, I would like to say that it is so refreshing to see characters worth caring about again in the series.  After watching the bland characterizations in the prequel trilogy, namely the dull as rocks main couple of Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala, these new, interesting characters are a god send.  I especially liked the fact that the entire first act of the movie focuses entirely on the new cast, allowing the audience to grow comfortable with their story before the old guard comes along.  I loved that they don’t start off the movie as especially crucial either.  When we first meet Finn and Rey, they are outsiders, un-connected to anything that has happened before.  Finn is a lowly Stormtrooper who has never seen combat before and Rey has lived in isolation fending for herself her entire life.  Only Poe and Kylo Ren have an already established history, and thankfully the movie devotes enough time to these new characters to make them feel both essential to this world and also distinctive on their own.  At the same time, the legendary characters are also well used here.  Han Solo is given the most amount of screen time of the classic characters, along with Chewie, and their banter is one of the film’s many delights.  It’s also great to see humor in a Star Wars movie that isn’t forced, and comes naturally out of the characters’ circumstances and personalities.  I also loved the sweet moments between Han and Leia in the film, which both helps to enrich their characters and also give the movie an added sense of nostalgia.  It’s moments like those that show exactly why it was so crucial bringing Lawrence Kasdan on board to help write the script, because he knows these characters’ minds better than anyone else, other than Lucas of course.  The characters are by far the movie’s biggest strength, which has always been the case with the series during it’s best times.

And with great characterizations like these, you need performers who can pull them off perfectly, and again the casting for the movie becomes another strength.  Special credit should be given to John Boyega and Daisy Ridley who play Finn and Rey respectively because so much of the movie rests on their shoulders.  I love their ability to bring out the personalities of the characters without making them too archetypal.  Rey is fiercely independent, but still willing to open her heart when the moment is right.  And Finn is a lost boy trying to find a better way in the universe, and his journey helps to lead him towards acting in service of a good cause.  Oscar Isaac also adds great support as Poe Dameron, making him a charismatic hero worth rooting for.  And of course, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher fall back into their iconic roles like no time has passed and their chemistry is just as strong as ever.  As for Mark Hamill’s return as Luke Skywalker, well you just have to watch the movie to see what he does here.  But, I think the best performance in the movie belongs to Adam Driver as Kylo Ren.  He makes for one of the more interesting villains we’ve ever seen in this series, and that’s saying a lot.  Whether behind his imposing mask or without it, Driver delivers a performance of remarkable subtlety that really builds a lot of fascination around the character.  There are secrets revealed about him that will shock many people in the audience, but Driver handles them perfectly and makes the character one of the best in the series by the end.  I should also mention the astounding puppeteer work done on BB-8.  It’s amazing how much personality they get out of this little robot, and he stands strongly among his peers C-3PO and R2-D2, both of whom also appear briefly in the movie.  With great characterizations and endearing performances, these two elements make this a great experience overall.

Also worth praise is the work of the director J.J. Abrams.  To say that he had a lot of pressure on his back is an understatement.  Still, it’s not like J.J. hasn’t been here before.  Abrams managed to resurrect the beloved Star Trek franchise as well, mainly by borrowing a few ideas that worked so well for Star Wars in the past.  So, it seemed like a natural step for him to cross over into this universe instead.  Overall, he handled the pressure very well and managed to make something that honored the legacy of the original, but still works well enough to take the franchise into another phase.  And it has to be said, nobody does fan service better than J.J. Abrams; at least when it’s done right.  There are several references to the past in this movie, and while some ideas aren’t quite as ingenious as they should be (seriously, you think the Empire would have learned it’s lesson before they built an even bigger Death Star) there are still a lot of elements in this movie that will make fans very happy.  I especially love the way things are introduced here that are instantly recognizable to serious fans, like the great reveal of the Millennium Falcon.  Abrams also proves his skill at staging action set pieces once again, with many of the battle scenes proving to be invigorating as well as distinctively Star Wars.  In addition, Abrams insistence on doing these action scenes in real locations with real elements as opposed to CGI green screen manipulation is a welcome return to what made Star Wars so memorable in the first place.  Overall, Abrams made a movie that feels throughout like a genuine Star Wars film.  You can honestly watch this movie in succession after viewing Return of the Jedi, and it wouldn’t feel out of place.  It’s proof that the series is back to where it belongs and it will hopefully continue to build in the years ahead.  The John Williams score helps to reinforce that as well, giving the movie that extra bit of nostalgic oomph.  In the end, you’ll be grateful that J.J. Abrams crossed galaxies to make this happen.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens may not have delivered the greatest story ever told in this series to date, but it still managed to right the course of this beloved franchise for the better, and that’s it’s greatest triumph.  Finally, we now have a Star Wars film for the 21st Century that we can honestly say is worthy of the title.  What’s especially great about it is the fact that we are no longer looking at what Star Wars was in the past, but what it can be in the years ahead.  Disney plans on not just continuing the main saga of Luke Skywalker and all his comrades alone; they want to expand the universe and tell all sorts of stories in this world too.  Already, they have standalone features that they call “Star Wars Stories” in the works that will tell the adventures of other characters that exist in this universe but are only slightly connected to the main story, starting off with next year’s Rogue One, which tells the tale of the rebel spies who stole the original plans of the Death Star, before the events of the original film.  After seeing the results of The Force Awakens, I can’t wait to see all the expanded universe adventures that are coming our way.  Finally, we are seeing the world of Star Wars unleashed and no longer tied down by the weight of it’s own legacy.  Truth be told, it is sad that for this to happen, control of the franchise needed to be taken away from it’s original creator, George Lucas, but at the same time he himself has stated that he enjoyed the new film too, even if it deviated from his original intention.  A lot of praise will be justly given out to J.J. Abrams and the stellar cast for pulling this off, and I’m sure that whatever I say in this review won’t matter in the end.  Most of you are going to see it anyway, because it’s Star Wars reborn and brought back to the light side.  I’ll leave by just saying that despite some minor story flaws, this will be one of the best movie experiences that you’ll have this year at the movies and it only makes me anxious to see what comes up in the next episode.  May the Force be strong with Star Wars for many years to come.

Rating: 8.5/10

A Thanksgiving release has long been a tradition for animation; at least it has been as long as I’ve known.  Dating back to the mid-November release of The Little Mermaid in 1989, animation studios (most often Disney) have staked a claim on the weekend and have usually dominated it year after year.  This also became a tradition for Disney’s prized computer animation partner Pixar, who has also benefitted from a holiday release schedule dating all the way back to the Thanksgiving opening of their first feature, Toy Story.  Needless to say, this is a prime weekend for family audiences that enjoy good animation, and both Disney and Pixar have consistently delivered at this time of year.  Most of the Pixar films have followed the same release patterns over time; either opening on this weekend, or coming in the middle of the summer.  And so far, positioning themselves in a prime release pattern has provided them with near consistent success.  Sure, some Pixar films have done better than others, but we’ve gotten to a point where any time the studio releases a film, it becomes an event, and those dates carry that weight with them.  This year however, Pixar has taken the unprecedented action of releasing two films on both of their claimed time slots. While it doesn’t put the films in direct contention with one another for box office, this closer than usual release does put them in contention for people’s attention, and as a result both movies are going to be more highly scrutinized than they normally would.  This summer, we got one of Pixar’s all time best with Inside Out (which I reviewed here), and that success unfortunately raises the stakes higher for it’s follow-up, The Good Dinosaur.

The Good Dinosaur comes to theaters after a long and tumultuous development.  The movie suffered many story problems early on and it eventually led to the removal of it’s original writer/director Bob Peterson (Up), a Pixar veteran, from the project.  A move like this usually means that a film is in deep trouble, but it’s not a first for a studio like Pixar, which holds it’s movies up to a very high standard.  Pixar has long held the belief that a movie is not worth making unless the story is sound and sturdy.  Throughout their history, they have long put their story development through the highest scrutiny in order to keep the quality of their brand strong.  This has worked for them in the past; a shake-up in the directors chair for Ratatouille (2007) saw the removal of original director Jan Pinkava in favor of a complete overhaul done by Brad Bird, who then went on to win an Oscar for his work.  Even Toy Story went through an overhaul in it’s development, which reworked the character dynamic between it’s principal characters, Woody and Buzz Lightyear.  Needless to say, Pixar has shown that it can be done.  However, they’ve also shown that some projects are too troubled to be saved and their high standard can’t always ressurect a project that’s doomed from the beginning.  Case in point, Brave (2012), which saw an overhaul and removal of it’s original director Brenda Chapman, but it resulted in a film that felt unoriginal and stale.  Because of the less than successful results of Brave, those same worries are again present with a similarly troubled production like The Good Dinosaur, which also has to deal with the extra pressure of following up the near perfect Inside Out.  Thankfully, The Good Dinosaur shows very little of the scars of it’s troubled production, but at the same time, it also shows that it’s hard to follow-up perfection, even when you’re Pixar.

The Good Dinosaur takes place in a “what if” scenario that presents an alternate reality where the dinosaurs were not wiped out by an asteroid hitting the earth and have instead lived on and evolved to the present day.  This is the setting of the film, which tells the story of Arlo (voiced by Raymond Ochoa) the third born child of a pair of Apatosauruses simply named Poppa (Jeffrey Wright) and Momma (Frances McDormand).  As he gets older, Arlo tries to overcome his crippling fear of everything in life, made especially difficult by his overachieving siblings, Buck and Libby.  Poppa tries his best to instill confidence in Arlo, which includes teaching him how to trap critters.  One day, a critter finds it’s way into the family’s crops, which turns out to be a human child named Spot (Jack Bright).  Poppa leads Arlo after Spot in order to help him get over his fear, but when they venture too far from home, they get caught in a storm and Arlo loses Poppa in a flash flood.  Alone, Arlo must find his way home, but to do so, he must rely on the instincts of the little critter Spot, whom Arlo believes is responsible for getting his father killed.  Though they start off on their journey begrudgingly out of necessity, they quickly develop a shared kinship as they bond over their shared tragic pasts.  Over time, Arlo helps to civilize the wild Spot and show him the importance of family, while Spot helps to embolden the timid Arlo, and together they take a harrowing trip that has them battling a pack of bloodthirsty Pterodactyls and rustling cattle with a family of T-Rexes.  And soon, one time enemies become the closest of friends.

The Good Dinosaur overall is a very easy film to like, maybe even love.  While I did enjoy my time watching it, I can’t say that it moved me as much some of Pixar’s best films.  There are some flaws that do affect it.  But, surprisingly, the story itself is not one of them.  Yes, the thing that actually gave the Pixar story team the most amount of headaches throughout production is actually this movie’s greatest strength.  I think this is largely the result of an assured directing job from first-timer Pete Sohn.  Sohn came onto this project late in the process and I think that he deserves a great amount of credit for righting the ship.  First of all, this is a tough premise to make workable from the beginning, putting the idea across of this alternate reality.  Thankfully the movie makes it work by not dwelling too heavily in presenting it.  The movie starts with a prologue that shows the fateful asteroid heading on it’s way to Earth.  Instead of striking the planet like it’s supposed to, we see the giant rock skim the top, leaving all the dinosaurs unharmed.  It’s simple, but effective, which allows the rest of the film to flow more smoothly, without having to reinforce it’s premise over and over again.  Secondly, I love the way they put a twist on the whole “boy and his dog” scenario, by making the “dog” in this case the “boy.”  Arlo and Spot’s relationship easily carries this film in a big way and it’s a heartwarming friendship.  Pete Sohn also deftly handles the tonal changes of the movie, making the comical moments work hand-in-hand with the heavier oNed.  There’s a surprising amount of tear-jerking scenes here, whether it’s Poppa’s death early on, or the bonding moments with Arlo and Spot.  If you’re not moved by a scene towards the end that leaves the friendship at a crossroads, then you my friend are made of stone.  Naturally, this is the kind of thing Pixar excels at, so it’s not surprising that they nail the emotional stuff here too.

It’s good to see that Pixar’s high standard of story did work out in the end for this feature.  Unfortunately, while well told, is not particularly groundbreaking either.  This is where the inevitable comparison with it’s predecessor begins to hurt it.  Inside Out was such a standout for the company, both in concept and in execution.  What Pixar has done so well over time is reinforce the belief that they are capable of making things you’ve never seen before over and over again, and Inside Out was proof of that.  It’s the kind of movie that reminds you that it could only come from a place like Pixar.  The Good Dinosaur on the other hand feels like it could have come from someplace other than Pixar.  Now if that were true, it would be considered a masterpiece from that company, but the fact that Pixar made this one makes it feel a little out of place in it’s catalogue of hits.  We’ve seen stories like this before from Disney and from Don Bluth, with films like The Lion King (1994), Bambi (1942), and An American Tail (1986) all showing their characters learning life lessons in the wild after suffering a tragedy.  An even more apt comparison would be Don Bluth’s A Land Before Time (1988), which is very similar in story and tone to this movie.  The Good Dinosaur is not covering new ground here, which in turn makes it less successful as a movie than Inside Out.  That doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just could’ve been more.  My other problem with the movie is the inconsistent animation style.  The fill overall is beautiful to look at, but there was a glaring issues with the character designs here.  I felt that the overly cartoonish look of the characters clashed too heavily with the photo-realistic imagery of the environments.  Though the characters are still animated with wonderful personality, the clashed way too much with the backgrounds, and it did take me out of the film occasionally.  I wish this had been an instance where Pixar showed some restraint and made their characters feel more like they belonged as a part of this world.

But, that being said, I do want to praise the work that the animators did on the environments themselves.  There is so much detail put into even the tiniest of elements, whether it be the terrain that the characters tread across or the plants that grow around them.  Even the raindrops feel authentic.  The filmmakers took inspiration for the setting from many points in the American West, including picturesque places like the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon to the prairie lands of Nebraska, to even the jagged peaks of the Rocky Mountains.  Every environment is lovingly recreated here, and having grown up myself in the Pacific Northwest, I can tell you that much of the setting here feels absolutely authentic.  You can almost smell the pine trees as if they were right there in front of you.  And although the characters do clash with this environmental design in a distracting way, I still have to applaud the animators for giving the characters a lot of personality.  Spot, in particular, is the character that feels most in place here.  I’m sure that audiences are going to love this character the most, mainly because of his unpredictable and wild personality.  But at the same time, Spot’s animation shows a lot of signs of subtlety, which comes out perfectly in some of the film’s more dramatic moments.  Arlo’s cartoonish design may feel out of place at first, but he grows on you too, and his innocence is perfectly conveyed in the animation.  You also see the progression of the character as he becomes emboldened over time.  One of the movie’s best plot strengths is getting across the compelling arcs of Arlo and Spot’s stories, and it’s made all the more poignant with character animation that perfectly presents their growing personalities.

The film is not just limited to them alone, however.  There is a whole cast of characters help to flesh out this world as well.  While watching this movie, I was often reminded of one of Pixar’s most beloved features, Finding Nemo (2003), and in a good way.  In that film, we were presented with another journey taken for the characters that took them to many new places and helped to introduce them to a diverse group of new faces.  That sort of progression through different experiences instead of telling a traditional good vs. evil narrative is present here too and it works just as well as it did for Nemo.  Just like that movie had it’s heroes meet a band of reformed sharks, survive a school of jellyfish, and cross the ocean on the backs of sea turtles, this one has Arlo and Spot meeting many interesting friends and foes along the way.  I particularly enjoyed the encounter they have with a family of cattle rustling Tyranosauruses named Butch (Sam Elliott), Ramsey (Anna Paquin) and Nash (A. J. Buckley).  These characters were entertaining enough to support a movie of their own, and their brief presence in the film is very welcome.  I especially liked Sam Elliott’s gruff voice coming out of the ferocious looking Butch.  There’s menace in his performance, but also a lot of heart, and the character actually does serve a purpose in the movie by teaching Arlo that fear is not something to be ashamed of, but something to help motivate him.  The voice cast is universally excellent, especially the two young stars behind Arlo and Spot, and like Finding Nemo before it, the movie is made all the better by a colorful and diverse cast.

So, overall, The Good Dinosaur may not reach a level of greatness when stacked up against it’s more groundbreaking brethren, but still, it’s a very enjoyable and pleasing film that will win over audiences.  I’m sure that most people won’t know or care about the hard road that this movie had to take towards it’s release (it was actually supposed to come out last year, but had to be delayed to fix it’s problems, with Big Hero 6 taking it’s previously announced spot).  But, because I’ve been aware of the troubles that this movie faced, I would definitely call this film a minor triumph.  It doesn’t fall into the same pitfalls as Brave which is very welcome.  But, unfortunatly, because of the delay, it had to share a release year with an instant classic, and sadly that comparison reflects onto it negatively.  Had The Good Dinosaur been released any other year, say having to follow-up a lesser Pixar movie like it was origninally going to, then this might have been viewed a bit more favorably.  Unfortunately, I can’t overlook some of the flaws that this movie has, which did affect my experience watching it.  That being said, it is still a beautifully animated and touching film for the most part.  When your family has finished carving up that turkey and downing that plate of stuffing and mashed potatoes, this will be an ideal holiday film to watch for everyone.  Overall, it’s high mid-range as a Pixar movie, not quite reaching the upper-tier.  But, it does show that it’s worth the extra effort to get the story right, which will hopefully continue to be the standard of practice for the legendary animation studio.

Rating: 7.5/10

There are few if any characters that have had as much of an impact in cinematic history as 007 himself, James Bond.  From the very moment that Sean Connery ordered his first vodka martini as the secret agent in Dr. No (1962), the entire world knew they had found a new cinematic icon.  A large part of it had to do with the charisma of Connery, of course, but as we’ve seen over the years, Ian Fleming’s Bond can live far beyond just one single actor.  George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnon have all donned Bond’s neatly tailored threads over the years, sometimes in spectacular fashion and at other times in some rather mediocre ways.  For a long running series like James Bond’s, it’s sometimes difficult to keep up the high quality from film to film, which has kept the Bond franchise consistently inconsistent.  Each new actor does bring in fresh blood, but rarely do all of their movies become all time classics.  Going over every Bond film, you can pick out at least one from each star that’s a classic, and for some of the more prolific like Connery and Moore, they may have two or more classics among them.  George Lazenby lucked out with having his one and only outing as the character being the great and underrated On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).  Basically, what I’ve seen from  the Bond franchise is a very roller coaster like flow to it’s level of quality and that the longer an actor commits to the role, the more they leave themselves open to having a shakier record as the super spy.

Which leads me to where the series is at now, as we reach the latter part and possible end of the Daniel Craig era.  Daniel Craig’s turn as Bond has been one of the most praised across the board, and it’s easy to see why.  The Bond franchise had declined heavily towards the end of Pierce Brosnan’s reign.  Brosnan started off strong with the classic Goldeneye (1995), but his three follow-ups got progressively worse, ending with the laughable Die Another Day (2002), the movie where Bond surfs on a tsunami and drives an invisible car.  When it came time to choose a new actor for the role, parent company EON Productions wanted someone who could bring the series back to it’s roots, and the perfect man for the job ended up being Daniel Craig.  Though not a household name at the time, Craig has since left his mark on the character, making Bond tougher and grittier, while at the same time not betraying the suave roots of Fleming’s original.  Craig became the Bond of the 21st century and modernized him in a way that greatly appealed to audiences.  Since being cast, Craig has appeared in four films total (contracted for five) and he holds the distinction of having one of the best batting averages of all the Bond actors.  Of his movies, you can definitely consider two of them all time classics, his debut Casino Royale (2006) and the record breaking Skyfall (2012).  Quantum of Solace (2008), while not bad by any means, does fall short of the other two, showing that even Craig is not immune to a dip in quality during his time.  And after Skyfall, which could arguably be the best Bond movie ever made, it’s put a lot of pressure on what follows it after.  So, this week, we finally see how Daniel Craig’s James Bond fares in his fourth outing; the hotly anticipated Spectre (2015).

The interesting thing about Daniel Craig’s Bond movies is that unlike all the others, they share the same story arc, each one connected to the other.  Spectre picks up right where Skyfall left off, with James following a lead left to him by his recently deceased former boss M (Judi Dench), which leads him to take on rogue missions much to the chagrin of the new M in charge (Ralph Fiennes).  With the assistance of hi-tech quartermaster Q (Ben Whishaw) and reliable desk operative Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Bond is able to go undercover and infiltrate a shadow organization that he believes is responsible for terrorist attacks all over the world, called simply SPECTRE.  Once he makes it inside, he soon learns that one man is in charge of the whole operation going by the name Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), and that he is more aware of Bond’s presence than he realized.  After escaping in a chase through the streets of Rome, pursued by Oberhauser’s henchman Hinx (Dave Bautista), Bond seeks out an old enemy, Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), who can give him more information about SPECTRE, which the old man does with the promise from James that he will protect White’s daughter Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux).  All the while this is happening, M, Q, and Moneypenny are having to deal with the shutdown of the 00 program in favor of a computer driven surveillance system developed by a tech wizard code-named C (Andrew Scott), leaving Bond all on his own.

Spectre does something unique in the Bond franchise in that it ties up all the loose threads of each previous film, even the more standalone Skyfall.  As a result, this movie has an interesting sense of closure for Daniel Craig’s version of the character, which would be fitting if this is indeed his final outing.  But, the question is, does this movie live up to what has come before and become a third classic for the actor; or does it disappoint and only prove that it’s time for a change.  Well, truth be told, when it comes to making all time great Bond movies, it seems you only live twice.  But, that’s not a sign that this movie is bad.  Spectre really is everything a Bond movie should be.  It’s got great action set pieces, including a spectacular opening in Mexico City that I would consider one of the best in the series, and a great fight sequence between Craig and Bautista on a train.  It’s also got the series’ trademark sense of humor that helps to keep the movie from ever becoming too heavy and self-important.  Really, any other time this would be considered an all time great in the series, and as a standalone film, it’s easy to recommend to everyone.  The unfortunate thing for it is that it’s coming right off the the heels of Skyfall, which is not only a franchise best, but arguably one of the best spy thrillers ever made.  Because Skyfall is so close in my memory, it only made me think of what this film was missing, which might be a little unfair of me, but I would be lying at the same time if I said that I didn’t have a nagging couple issues with this movie either.

I’d say that my biggest fault with the film is that it suffers from a very underwhelming third act.  Much of the film’s best scenes play out early on and the movie leads up to a very satisfying confrontation with Bond and the villain, including some revelations that will please die hard fans of the franchise as well as the Fleming novels.  Unfortunately, the film goes on for another twenty minutes or so after it should’ve ended, with a pointless game of cat and mouse through the streets of London, adding nothing more to the movie other than another action sequence.  Skyfall on the other hand built up to it’s climax in a perfect way, giving it the weight and tension that it needed.  That’s what’s missing here.  Spectre also suffers from periodic lulls in pacing.  While the movie does come alive whenever there is an action sequence, it would slow down thereafter and lose my interest in some of the more dialogue heavy sequences.  Not that the’re bad scenes, but I would at times start to loose attention to what was going on.  And at 2 1/2 hours, Spectre is the longest Bond movie to date, which makes these down moments all the more problematic.  But at the same time, the movie doesn’t fully suffer for it.  There is still a great deal to enjoy about this movie.  It may be flawed, but at the same time, you can say that about 80% of all the Bond films.  Only a select handful have ever achieved masterpiece status.  I would put Spectre on the high end of the “almost masterpieces”, which would include movies like Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Octopussy (1983), Live and Let Die (1973), and From Russia With Love (1963).

What I did love, however, was James Bond himself in this film.  Daniel Craig once again proves why he is one of the greatest actors to ever play the role.  Only Connery could be considered better, given that he originated the character, and even that might be up for debate at some point.  Craig has never been letdown in this series, even with the story faults here in Spectre and more so in Quantum of Solace.  He’s believably tough whenever he gets into a fight, but also dashing enough to be charmingly suave.  He also nails the sense of humor of the character perfectly as well.  There’s a hilarious moment when Bond is staying in a seedy hotel in Morocco and he’s awoken to a mouse crawling across the floor in front of him.  In a great bit of subtle humor, Bond quietly pulls out his gun, points it at the mouse, and jokingly starts to interrogate it.  It’s one of the best character moments in the movie and it helped to make up for some of the movie’s other shortcomings.  In addition, Christoph Waltz is ideal casting as the villain, and it makes perfect sense that he was cast once we learn more about him towards the end.  I only wish that the movie had utilized more screen time for Waltz, because he doesn’t become a factor in the story until very late.  But, once he’s present, he doesn’t waste anytime leaving an impact, which is exactly why you get an actor of his quality on board for something like this.  I also liked the fact that Team Bond is more involved in this story.  Q and Moneypenny are not wasted on the sidelines and are given much more to do in this movie than in most of the previous Bond films, which is refreshing.  Even the new M helps out more, getting in a few well deserved fight scenes of his own.  Spectre is definitely bolstered by it’s capable cast, and I’m happy to see that no role was wasted overall.

The movie also benefits from well constructed set pieces and edge of your seat action scenes.  From what I’ve read, this is the most expensive Bond movie made to date, and you can see every penny put to use on screen.  The eye-opening Mexico City prologue is indeed one of the standouts and you can tell that director Sam Mendes wanted to set the movie’s bombastic tone in a big way.   The scale is perfectly conveyed immediately, especially given the nearly five minute tracking shot they used to open the movie.  I’d say that the only thing that’s missing is the beautiful, painterly styled cinematography from Roger Deakins that we saw in Skyfall.  Here the cinematography was done instead by Interstellar (2014) photographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, who goes for a grittier, more realistic style.  But, that helps to give this movie it’s own unique visual imprint to set it apart, so it’s not a negative by any means.  I also like the fact that this movie doesn’t overdo it with the visual effects.  That’s what plagued many of the later Brosnon Bonds, which overused CGI to the point where Die Another Day felt like a cartoon at times.  Here, the CGI supports the action rather than overwhelms it, which is what all the Craig Bonds have done exceptionally well.  Though they have the capabilities now to have James Bond do anything possible on the big screen, it’s a good sign that the filmmakers are restraining themselves to keep their super spy earthbound.  And this movie does an overall great job of retaining the tried and true feel of a Bond movie.  The famous title sequences are brilliant works of pop art in their own right and this one adds yet another stunning entry, although the title song by Sam Smith does unfortunately sound like a karaoke version of a Bond theme, and doesn’t quite reach the heights of Adele’s Oscar-winning ballad from Skyfall.

Overall, it’s hard to be truly fair to a movie like Spectre.  On it’s own, it is a very acceptable and downright enjoyable action thriller.  Unfortunately, the movie must also carry the weight of the franchise that it represents, made even more complicated by the fact that it’s following in the footsteps of a masterpiece.  But, at the same time, I do have to point out the flaws that are inherent, which do affect the overall quality of the movie.  It was a smart move on EON Production’s part to retain the creative team from Skyfall, which included director Mendes and screenwriter John Logan.  Unfortunately, success is a hard thing to repeat, so I do have to give them credit for doing as well as they did.  If only they had stuck the landing in the third act.  From what I’ve heard, this was one of the more troublesome productions for the series, leading star Daniel Craig to want to call it quits afterwards.  He still has one more film on his contract, but it remains to be seen if they decide to part ways and move on despite this.  The ending of this movie opens the door for both possibilities; it brings closure to Bond’s arc throughout all the Daniel Craig films, but at the same time, it also leaves room for further adventures.  Only time will tell which avenue they choose.  Regardless, as the end credits state, Bond will return and the franchise will continue to go on.  If this is the end for Daniel Craig as 007, then it’s a fine farewell.  He’s had one of the best runs ever as the character and though Casino Royale and Skyfall rank as solid 9’s, Spectre comes in as a respectable 8, with Quantum of Solace falling down to a 7.  It’s an almost classic that will certainly be worth watching no matter what.  And that’s all you need in the end from Bond, James Bond.

Rating: 8/10