90s Movie Review - A Bug's Life

Director: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton
Genre: Animation/ Family/ Comedy/ Adventure
Runtime: 96 minutes
Year: 1998
Starring: Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Hayden Panettiere, Phyllis Diller, Richard Kind, David Hyde Pierce, Joe Ranft, Denis Leary, Jonathan Harris, Madeline Kahn, Bonnie Hunt, Michael McShane, John Ratzenberger, Brad Garrett, Roddy McDowall, Edie McClurg, Alex Rocco, David Ossman, David L. Lander

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2023 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 15: A MOVIE SET IN SPRING

Description: A misfit ant, looking for "warriors" to save his colony from greedy grasshoppers, recruits a group of bugs that turn out to be an inept circus troupe.

Review: After Disney Pixar brought us the first fully computer animated film “Toy Story” in 1995, everyone was waiting for the next project. In 1998 they came with “A Bug’s Life”, an animation about the insect world.

“A Bug’s Life” tells the story of an ant colony that is terrorized by a group of grasshoppers. Every year the ants have to give the grasshoppers a large amount of their food in exchange for protection. This year something goes wrong, because of ant Flik. He has to get help, but no one think’s he will succeed.

This clumsy ant, who thinks beyond the ‘ant tradition’, manages to find other insects to help them in their war against the grasshoppers. Flik thinks he is dealing with strong and brave insects, but they are actually a touring group of circus artists.

Like in “Toy Story” the audience is presented a colorful and diverse group of characters, with lots of quirks. The show is stolen by the macho ladybug, a fat caterpillar, a cynical praying mantis and a stick-insect. But also the ant queen. All get wise lessons: believe in yourself. This is brought to us the Pixar way, without any false sentiment.

Although the story is pretty predictable, the style is breathtaking. It has some great action scenes. And the story is filled with visual and textual jokes, that will make children and adults laugh.
“A Bug’s Life” is probably one of the lesser popular Pixar films, but to me a joy to watch and totally worth your time!

Rating: 3,5/ 5

TV Show Review - The Watcher (Mini Series)

Season: Mini Series
Genre: Thriller/ Horror/ Mystery
Number of episodes: 7
Year: 2022
Starring: Naomi Watts, Bobby Cannavale, Jennifer Coolidge, Christopher McDonald, Mia Farrow, Noma Dumezweni, Margo Martindale, Richard Kind, Luke David Blumm, Isabel Gravitt

Description: A married couple (Bobby Cannavale, Naomi Watts) moving into their dream home is being threatened by terrifying letters from a stalker, signed “The Watcher”.  

Review: Halloween is just around the corner and Netflix know damn well how to get you ready for that. Just in: “The Watcher”. A series, based on true events, about a married coupe and their two kids who buy their dream house.

Nora and Dean Brannock can’t believe how lucky they are, moving away from the big city, into to this beautiful house. Until they start receiving ominous letters, signed by someone killing themselves “The Watcher”. With that, the Brannocks’ neighbors are very strange and there seems to be a hidden history about the house.

The show started off super strong. The first two episode were really creepy, terrifying at times, where you just want to double check if you have locked every door and window in your house. The tension doesn’t stay consistent, but the mystery does.

Like the couple, you are constantly trying to figure out who is writing those letters and why this person keeps such close tabs on the Brannocks. It is loosely based on true events, which makes the thought of everything even scarier.

The ending might leave you a bit unsatisfied, but it makes sense, since that’s what really happened. A series easy to binge, perfect for Halloween.

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

100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 14: Argo

Director: Ben Affleck

Genre: Drama/ Thriller

Runtime: 120 minutes

Year: 2012

Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Victor Garber, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane, Christopher Denham, Kerry Bishé, Kyle Chandler, Chris Messina, Zeljko Ivanek, Titus Welliver, Keith Szarabajka, Bob Gunton, Richard Kind, Richard Dillane, Omid Abtaho, Page Leong, Farshad, Cea DuVall, Sheila Vand, Ryan Ahern, Bill Tangradi, Jamie McShane, Tate Donovan, Matthew Glave, Roberto Garcia Christopher Stanley

Description: Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent (Ben Affleck) launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1980.

Review: November 1979, Iranian students occupy the American embassy in Teheran, to enforce extradition of the Shah. Over fifty Americans were taking hostage and were released after fourteen days, after the Shah died. Six embassy staff members did manage to flee on that same day to the Canadian embassy. With a science fiction movie as a cover, they managed to escape after three months. In 1997, Bill Clinton released information about this mission, with a big role for CIA man Tony Mendez. This is a perfect story for a movie.

Director Ben Affleck choose Rodrigo Prieto as his cinematographer, who is known as the cameraman for Alejandro Gonzálex Iñárritu. This makes all the images authentic. This sets the film of to a good start and the thriller plot can develop. “Argo” looks perfect as a time period piece, with the characters constantly smoking, big glasses and televisions with buttons. In the second half of the film, the pace gets faster. This is a good thing. The movie is build slow and then picks up the pace.

“Argo” does have its weak points. Director Affleck is great, leading actor Affleck, who looks like Al Pacino in “Serpico”, doesn’t manage to convince you completely. As a CIA man he does, but the demons he has (drinking, failed fatherhood) don’t really reach the audience the way it should have. A strong opponent could have covered it up a bit, but the powerful performances are given by John Goodman and Alan Arkin, who have supporting roles.

I understand the success of “Argo”, it’s a true story about a heroic escape plan, and I liked it. The change of pace works well and Ben Affleck did a good job as a director. “Argo” is a good film.

Rating: 3,5/ 5