Tag Archives: Tom Hanks

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: Here

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This year marks the 30-year anniversary of one of the greatest movies ever made, “Forrest Gump,” released in the summer of 1994 and directed by Robert Zemeckis. The powerful and emotional ending of Forrest Gump had an impact as strong as “Terms of Endearment,” released in 1983, including audible sounds of sobbing within the audience I was in 30 years ago. Forrest Gump won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for Eric Roth, Best Director for Zemeckis, and won Tom Hanks his second best actor Oscar.

The main marketing for the new movie “Here” is the 30-year reunion of Forrest Gump with screenwriter, Eric Roth, who co-wrote “Here” with director Robert Zemeckis, Tom Hanks who plays the lead character Richard and Robin Wright who plays Margaret and who co-starred with Hanks in Forrest Gump.

Here is based on the book of the same name, written by Richard McGuire about a non-linear story told entirely within a single room over hundreds of thousands of years. There are random scenes about different lives and events, never told in any sequential order. There is no doubt that this might be a good idea for a book, but unfortunately trying to adapt this idea to a major movie was a bad idea. Possibly after purchasing the rights to the novel “Here”, and later realizing that this unusual concept was not going to work as a highly regarded movie, the idea of bringing back the writer, director, and actors for Forrest Gump for the 30-year anniversary was an attempt to save the box office. With low ratings of 40% on Rotten Tomatoes for this film, a profitable box office is highly unlikely.

Attempting to review “Here” is very difficult because this is not really a movie. This film is more like a a deck of 52 cards representing different scenes and each card is just thrown at the audience at random. We are in the present day, then back to prehistoric times, then we are in the Revolutionary War period, then the Civil War, back to 50 years ago, then revisiting the 1920s, 1950s, present day, and then back to the time of the American Indian. All of this is shown in front of a bay window inside an old house or looking out into a forest during prehistoric times. Making a film like this has never been attempted, but is something like this watchable or even mildly entertaining? The consensus is clear that this film based on a famous book, just does not work as a movie. “Here” is the second film within the last month when a great director missed the mark. The last one “Megalopolis” directed by Francis Ford Coppola was a complete disaster, one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 40% are accurate and only this high because of the acting of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. This one is a surprisingly big miss.

Movie Review: A Man Called Otto

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In the movie “Boomerang”, released in 1992 and starring Eddie Murphy I remember thinking at the time, that Halle Berry (in one of her early roles) was probably just about the most attractive woman to ever appear on the screen. Some four years later, Berry mentioned that her favorite sport was Baseball, referencing her current husband David Justice in the very good movie “Executive Decision”. About a year later, who would have guessed that Halle Berry was in her garage with her 2 dogs sitting in her car trying to commit suicide because the man she thought was the love of her life was divorcing her. It was only because of her two dogs that Berry decided against ending her life almost 26 years ago.

The new and very good movie “A Man Called Otto” is about grief and loss at the level that Halle Berry experienced in 1997 and the main character in this movie Otto, played very well by Tom Hanks, also tries and fails to kill himself several times in this film. The reason for this is that Otto also lost the love of his life and suicide was his own personal solution while failing to cope with the tremendous pain of losing the one person in this world who he thought was the only one for him. Probably the greatest pain in this world is the pain of the loss of a long-term life partner or the person that you think is definitely the love of your life. Some of us find ways to move on, others of us turn to alcoholism, and others turn to suicide like Otto and Halle Berry.

Otto’s unbearable grief manifests itself with episodes of extreme anger towards everyone who lives in the townhouse development he lives in. He wants everything to be perfect, for people in his neighborhood to follow the rules and even to be fairly treated in his job. Even though for all of us, working for other people in too many cases can be too much about injustice and never enough about fairness.

Over time, through a family that moves across the street in Otto’s development, Otto slowly learns that relationships with other people and a sense of purpose in helping others can for some of us, be one solution for unbearable grief. I thought the slow, long-term relationships that Otto maintains throughout this story are the best parts of this film, causing Otto to transition from the bitter and angry man he understandably is, into someone who actually cares about other people. It is his sense of purpose and friendship that helps Otto move forward from his extreme pain. Otto’s life story is told through flashbacks showing Otto’s relationship with his wife from when and how they met, and through all of the tragedies they lived through. All of this is very well performed, highly emotional and at times, hard to watch.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are a way too low and insane 68% and are once again, dead wrong. With this movie – because of its powerful message and storytelling is a solid 90% and a strong recommendation.