Movie Review - Inside Out 2

Director: Kelsey Mann
Genre: Family/ Animation/ Drama/ Comedy
Runtime: 96 minutes
Year: 2024
Starring: Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Phyllis Smith, Liza Lapira, Tony Hale, Lewis Black, Kensington Tallman, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan. Paul Walter Hauser, Yvette Nicole Brown, Ayo Edebiri,
 
Description: Riley is entering puberty and experience brand new, more complex emotions as a result. As Riley tries to adapt to her teenage years, her old emotions try to adapt to the possibility of being replaced.

Review: As a child, life is simple. A child’s emotions are still basic, but it’s a whole different story once puberty hits them. Snapping at parents, wanting to belong, getting bored and, above all, a lot more worries come along. So too for Riley, the happy-go-lucky girl who managed to embrace her sadness in the first film to become more balanced. Riley is now thirteen and that balance is in danger of disappearing completely to a host of new emotions affecting her life.

“Inside Out” was an outright hit where the various emotions of human beings were explained extremely well and in depth in a fun and colorful format. Nine years on, the second installment is released with an attempt to bring Disney out of its slump (they haven’t released the best films lately). In this, the emotions in Riley’s head succeed all too well. And again has much emotional depth.

Its greatest strength lies in the recognizability of the story and the accompanying emotions. Where we already dealt with Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, we are now introduced to Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui.

Amy Poehler is still as infectiously cheerful and determined as in the first film. She is the perfect Joy. But Maya Hawke as Anxiety is the big surprise in “Inside Out 2”. She perfectly manages to combine the hustle, anxiety, stress, panic and urge to control that fits the emotion. She delivers her dialogue with great energy and you can feel the emotion in every scene she is in.

All the emotions are incredibly well played. The interactions unfold with great humor and the jokes hit the mark. One of the other new emotions is Ennui (boredom), only with a small role, but makes to most of the scarce moments it is in.

With “Inside Out 2”, Disney seems to put its core values first again by creating a humanly relatable story in a warm and cheerful setting. The complicated emotions are perfectly laid out and made understandable. A great sequel.

Rating: 5/ 5

00s Movie Review - Unfaithful

Director: Adrian Lyne
Genre: Drama/ Thriller/ Romance
Runtime: 124 minutes
Year: 2002
Starring: Diane Lane, Richard Gere, Olivier Martinez, Michelle Monaghan, Chad Lowe

Description: A New York suburban couple’s (Richard Gere, Diane Lane) goes dangerously awry when the wife indulges in an adulterous fling.

Review: Edward Sumner and his wife Connie lead an exemplary life consisting of a good marriage, a beautiful house in one of the suburbs of New York and son Charlie.
When Connie bumps into a handsome Frenchman during a major windstorm while attempting to find a cab, her life changes abruptly. The man, Paul Martel, invites her to his apartment to treat her scraped knees after a fall. She becomes completely intrigued by Paul. At first she tries to resist the feelings but eventually she falls for the stranger. She invents all kinds of excuses to meet him. The inevitable happens: together they end up in a passionate affair. Eventually the deception takes its toll when Edward discovers what is going on, based on his feelings and little lies from Connie.
Director Adrian Lyne previously made high-profile films as “Fatal Attraction”, Indecent Proposal” and “9 ½ Weeks”. Despire the fact that these films may not the artistic masterpieces, they still managed to achieve reasonable commercial success. Partly due to the lack of innovation, this movie is not nearly as good as the aforementioned movies. The theme of the adulterous man or woman and the consequences for the environment does much less nowadays. The film never really wants to take on serious thriller-like forms and “Unfaithful” cannot be called excitingly erotic either. Therefore, the film, especially the first part of the film, ripples along a bit. The of the film eventually makes up for some of this.  
Richard Gere gives a reasonable performance as Edward, but Diane Lane is particularly convincing.  
“Unfaithful” is not a movie that I would rewatch, but it’s also not a terrible film. The length of the film doesn’t help here, it drags on a bit, especially at the start. But when the thriller elements enter the stage, the movie is a bit better and gets more exciting.

Rating: 3/ 5

10s Movie Review - Justice League

Director: Zack Snyder
Genre: Action.. Adventure/ Fantasy/ Science Fiction
Runtime: 121 minutes
Year: 2017
Starring: Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons, Connie Nielsen, Diane Lane, Amber Heard, Robin Wright, J.K. Simmons, Ciarán Hinds, Billy Crudup

Description: Fuled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s (Henry Cavill) selfless act, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) enlists the help of his new-found ally, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), to face an even greater enemy.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2020 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 45: A DC COMICS MOVIE

Review: I don’t like saying this, but “Justice League” reminds me a lot of “The Avengers”. Not only the tone and the humor, but also the story structure is similar: short introductions of all the team members, the search of a bad guy Steppenwolf, and even the way the team fights against itself. Or take the entrance of Steppenwolf teleports to Earth thanks to a magical cube, and tries to get his hands on it while soldiers try to stop him. It’s not necessarily copied, the so-called Motherboxes do come from the original stories, but they are clearly playing it safe with the intention of “Justice League”. He therefore misses the impact, innovation and own identity that “The Avengers” had.
It turns out to be a successful formula, which proides a significant improvement over the overambitious “Batman V Superman”. Whereas the dark predecessor threw all kinds of subplots, themes and comic strips into a blender and hoped for a form of coherence, Zack Snyder had a clear them for the sequel. The film opens with the meaning of Superman’s emblem, the symbol for hope. This time it’s not a nice one-liner, but the core of the film. Truly every character ans subplot revolves around hope: Flash’s relationship with his father, Cyborg’s resurrection, Batman and Wonder Woman’s struggle with their past and Aquaman’s cantankerous and lonely quest for more. The tone is therefore more consistent than ever in the DCEU.  
Steppenwolf is allowed to join the lon line of uninteresting bad guys. His background as the seconds of Darkseid and his role as a military leader of the Planet Apokolips are hardly explained. Moreover, there is not glimmer of charisma or personality. “Justice League” has more lack of construction. Cyborg, Flash and Aquaman haven’t been able to benefit from a solo film yet, and have to try to develop their characters within some scenes.
The best thin about “Justice League” is, especially for the fans, that the fifth DCEU movie finally has a grip on the source material. The interaction between all the heroes is convincing and strong. And especially The Flash is a pleasant and enjoyable presence.
Compared to the other superhero movies that came out in 2017, “Justice League” is too safe to compete with. “Justice League” feels more like a rectification, mainly due to the optimistic and heroic tone in the last few shots.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 90: Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice

Director: Zack Snyder
Genre: Action/ Adventure/ Fantasy/ Science Fiction
Runtime: 151 minutes
Year: 2016
Starring: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Jeremy Irons, Laurence Fishburne, Holly Hunter, Gal Gadot, Scoot McNairy, Lauren Cohan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kevin Costner

Description: Fearing that the actions of Superman (Henry Cavill) are left unchecked, Batman (Ben Affleck) takes on the Man of Steel, while the world wrestles with what kind of a hero it really needs.

Review: Let’s be honest: the DC comics is a little behind on Marvel when it comes to their movies. Marvel had their standalone films for Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor and Captain America and eventually teamed them up in “Avengers”. DC Comics is now bringing Superman and Batman together, two of the biggest superheroes ever.
Bruce Wayne saw his building for Wayne Enterprises fall and many people died because of it. This battle was fought by Superman and ever since then Bruce wants justice. Superman is still loved by people, but also hated by many others.
The character of Superman feels dynamic and human. Henry Cavill carries this role very well. Ben Affleck plays Batman for the first time. He is an excellent Bruce Wayne, but he didn’t completely convince me as Batman. And I don’t know if it’s just me, but his voice as Batman really annoyed me. We are introduced to Wonder Woman, who doesn’t really get a lot of screen time. But what we get is good. Jesse Eisenberg is a good villain.
“Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice” is the spectacle that we were promised. And it’s visual very stylish. This film has hardly any humor in it, it’s a very dark and serious film. But the movie feels a little but messy at some points. And the emotional climax is overshadowed by the promise of a Justice League film.

Rating: 3/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 89: Inside Out

Director: Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen

Genre: Animation/ Comedy/ Family/ Drama/ Fantasy

Runtime: 95 minutes

Year: 2015

Starring: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling, Lewis Black, Kaitlyn Dias, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan, John Ratzenberger, Frank Oz, Bobby Moynihan

Description: After young Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions - Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness - conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school.

Review: Ideas for an original film are often easier than you might think. The creative minds of Pixar used director Pete Docter’s childhood experiences for “Inside Out”. When he was a kid, his family moved to Denmark for work. Pete’s sister had no trouble adapting to the situation, but Pete himself didn’t feel at home right away. Years later Pete saw the same with his daughter, who was on the edge of puberty at the time. The idea for “Inside Out” was born and he started to fantasize about what went on in the human mind and how certain emotions happen.

Like in “Up”, Docter manages to grab the audience from the first moment, with emotion. We see a baby being born and we see her first emotions: Joy and Sadness. The girl is Riley and we see her grow up in Minnesota. Together with Joy and Sadness, there is also Fear, Disgust and Anger. They rule Riley’s emotions. When Riley is eleven, her family moves to San Fransisco. A new city, a new house, a new school; Riley and her emotions have a lot they struggle with.

Rats that can cook, roots falling in love, toys coming to life; where does ixar get all those original ideas? “Inside Out” fits this perfectly. The coming of age story has been done so many times before, but never this original.

“Inside Out” has a lot of funny moments, but also manages to touch us. Not only with the opening scene. In fact, you will feel every emotion while watching the film. As always, the movie looks fantastic. It takes you on an emotional rollercoaster.

Pixar did it again. It made an animation that doesn’t only entertain you, but also manages to touch you and it will stay in your memory. Great piece of cinema for the whole family.

Rating: 5/ 5