Category Archives: Drama

Movie Review: Toy Story 5

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In November 1995, the groundbreaking Toy Story was released by Pixar, and it was the first ever 100% computer animated movie of all time. As the next 3 movies were released in 1999, 2010, and 2019, I have always been very impressed that the production team behind these great movies all realized that no amount of genius computer animation is going to be enough to cover up a bad screenplay. It makes no sense to spend many millions of dollars on top-notch computer animation for a bad story, so the quality of all the Toy Story movies has always been near the top of all animation films ever released.

For the 5th installment of this movie franchise, “Toy Story 5”, the central part of this story is a great one: “kids are no longer playing with toys, they are all on their cell phones or IPADs”. The main character in this story, Bonnie, a 7-year-old child, is having trouble making real friends, mainly due to kids spending too much time in front of screens. Then the gang of original toys, Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and Jessie(Joan Cusack) come to the rescue. The problem with this very solid story idea that started out so well is that what follows is a way too convoluted, overly complicated series of about five parallel stories that no young child is ever going to be able to follow, much less any adult.

This movie looked like another one of those screenplays with too many screenwriters and not enough collaboration to meld all the ideas into a coherent, sequential story. I saw no reason to have so many stories running at once, with so many scenes switching back and forth for the entire two hours. After 31 years, unfortunately, this 5th installment in this important film series is mostly a miss, entirely due to a screenplay that should have been rewritten about ten more times.

One of the better reviews I have read about this film, written by Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian: “Meanwhile, Jessie, through a hugely convoluted plot complication that needs a rogue platoon of upgraded Buzzes to sort out, comes across a great kid called Blaze (Mykal-Michelle Harris), a real horse lover and toy enthusiast who lives on a farm and could make a great best friend for Bonnie.”

I was also surprised that the Jessie character, played by Joan Cusack, dominated this entire movie at about 80%. Woody and Buzz Lightyear do appear in this movie, but far too little, which is another mistake that will disappoint many fans of these original great characters. Once again, we are all reminded of how difficult the art of screenwriting is, even with a film franchise that has created some of the best stories we have ever seen in movie history.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings of 95% are way too high, with my rating at 80% and a recommendation for the most die-hard Toy Story fans and another recommendation to see any one of the first four movies instead.

Movie Review: Disclosure Day

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Every time we see the arrival of a new Steven Spielberg movie, we go in thinking we will see another great movie, like “ET”, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977), “Jaws”(1975), and his best ever, “Saving Private Ryan” (1998). The only exception is the movie “1941”, released in 1979, which was universally agreed to be a bad film.

The new movie “Disclosure Day” is another Spielberg film about aliens and whether they have ever visited Earth or have existed on Earth for many years. Unfortunately, Disclosure Day plays like a below average movie of the week chase drama that was convoluted, uneven, overly complex, unexplained, and boring. I was stunned at how bad this movie was, given that it was directed and co-written by Spielberg.

The star of this movie is Emily Blunt, who plays a meteorologist (Margaret Fairchild) for a Kansas City news show. We find out over these (too long) two hours and twenty-five minutes that Margaret had an encounter with an alien as a child. Then, after a sudden encounter with a red robin bird, Margaret can suddenly read minds and speak in several languages, and can talk an alien language that sounds like clicking. What follows are several chase scenes and another central character, Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), who is some kind of an independent insider who is the only one who knows what is going on with Margaret and another man who was also abducted by aliens, Dr. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor). Collin Firth plays Noah Scanlon, who is the head of a security agency that has for decades been trying to conceal proof of alien life.

The huge problem with this entire screenplay is that nothing is explained. Who is this character? Why is this happening? A better movie than this one would be a documentary explaining how someone like Steven Spielberg could make a movie this bad. Like the other recent bad movie, “Ella McCay”, written by James L. Brooks, this film once again demonstrates how difficult it is to write a great screenplay.

The IMDB movie ratings for this movie are a bad 6.9, with the concensus opinion: “Interesting concept, but poor execution—confusing plot, weak payoff, and too much spectacle without emotional weight.” The Rotten Tomatoes critics reviews are a way too high 82%, with my rating 60% and a recommendation to see ET, or Close Encounters of the Third Kind and run from this surprisingly bad, waste of over 2 hours.

Movie Review: Obsession

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The problem with horror movies like “Obsession” is that it rides a thin line between horror and disturbing screaming, whining, and insane violence, making this more of a crazy movie about a woman (Nikki) possessed by something called a “one wish willow”, which makes her obsessed with her boyfriend (Bear). For me, this story does not meet the definition of a horror film.

The standout actor in this hard-to-watch two hours is Inde Navarrette, who probably has more time on screen than anyone else, constantly yelling and screaming, in movie history. These are not ordinary screams; these are over-the-top, hard-to-watch, pathetic screams from someone who should be in an institution. Within 30 minutes of this level of insanity, for me, it was time to go home, enough already. The worst scene was when Nikki stood in the living room for an entire day, waiting for Bear to come home from work, all the while urinating on herself and never moving from one spot. This is not a scene of horror; this is a scene of sadness, pathetic, and disgusting.

This movie starts with a relatively normal boyfriend/girlfriend story with Nikki, a very attractive woman, who just wants to be friends with an average-looking, mostly depressed Bear (Michael Johnston). On a trip to a novelty store, Bear buys this “one wish willow” stick, which, when broken in half, grants you any wish. Bear wishes that Nikki would be totally in love with him, never realizing that it would actually work, and work dangerously well.

What follows is not enough of a horror story but much more of a psychological nightmare of two hours, that includes one scene of murder, where a woman has her head rammed against a steering wheel, for yet another one of those overkill death scenes. We get it, she is dead already. Stop the head slamming. This is making me sick.

The strangest thing about this crazy film is that it is the first movie since ET, released in 1982, with the biggest box-office increase matching a rare weekend-to-weekend growth pattern. Even more insane is the mass rush of people who want to sit at the booth in “Little Tony’s Restaurant” in North Hollywood, California, for one of the scenes in this movie (see video below), where Nikki goes on one of her insane rants.

Considering how difficult this film is to sit through, I am very surprised by the very high 95% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, with my rating only 25%, with advice to run from this pathetic, sad, depressing, and too often disgusting film.