maztergamer

Man, the first movie is a CLASSIC. Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins give the performances of their careers in this groundbreaking oscar nominated film. But then the second one was just a bunch of cartoons playing basketball.

• I'm not too thrilled about the direction this franchise is headed in.

Luca is a new Pixar film which for some reason is being labeled as a Disney + original even though it's a Pixar film. This movie is pretty par for the course among Pixar films recently. It's going to make you laugh it's going to make you cry and you will have a decently enjoyable experience.

I actually didn't have very high expectations because I had kind of heard that it was kind of a mediocre Pixar film but I surprisingly liked it quite a bit. The animation is great (though saying a Pixar movie has good animation is like saying water is wet at this point) though I couldn't help but notice that the fish look less realistic in this then in Finding Nemo. I mean Finding Nemo came out almost 20 years ago why do the fish look less realistic.

This movie was actually pretty funny. Legitimately one of the funnier Pixar movies I have seen. Or maybe I just like that the cat is literally named Machiavelli. The story is good. It is obviously heartwarming and I enjoyed the story. I mean I was basically never surprised throughout the entire film it followed all of the story beats that you would expect. But it was still decently enjoyable. One thing that helps this story is that it is fairly high concept. Pixar is really good at doing high concept stories and I feel like they haven't done as much of that in recent years. So in that way this movie's story was refreshing.

While this movie is pretty predictable and isn't really anything special it is still a fun movie that will have you entertained throughout.

7.5/10.

In The Heights is a new movie adaptation of a musical from Lin-Manuel Miranda. About a year ago I decided to watch Hamilton on Disney +. Though I had heard the play was good from word of mouth, I was still skeptical. I probably underestimated what a rap musical about Alexander Hamilton could do. I was pleasantly surprised and knowing that In The Heights was also from a musical from Lin Manuel Miranda and that the movie starred someone in who was in Hamilton (Anthony Ramos) I was very excited. I was not disappointed.

The acting in this movie was good, really good even. There are no award worthy performances but everyone fills their role and no one stands out as not being good. The performance I probably liked the most was from Jimmy Smits who plays the father of one of the characters. The conflict about returning to Stanford with him and his daughter is interesting and adds more to the story.

Technically this film is also well made. There is well done cinematography and editing. Plus the music is good. I have seen musicals with better music but this music is still very good. Just like Hamilton there is a good mix of some rapping and some singing.

The core story revolves around a community in Washington Heights. In this community the streets are made of music unlike most communities where the streets are made of asphalt There is a blackout that could tear apart the community (not really a spoiler they show text on the screen saying "(insert amount of time) before blackout" pretty consistently). You have other side plotlines but this is really what the story is about. I don't want to spoil anything but the movie goes for a Wizard Of Oz type message. My only problem was that it could get a bit corny at points but that wasn't too often and it didn't bother me too much.

This movie is a satisfying watch that most people will probably enjoy.

8/10.