Rio 2

“Rio 2,” the 2014 sequel, finds Macaws Blu (Jesse Eisenberg) and Jewel (Anne Hathaway) happily raising their children together in the forest of party city Rio de Janeiro. However, when hearing that a flock of Blue Macaws may be living in the Amazon rainforest, the two decide to take a family trip (with a couple of friends) across South America to find out. Once they’re in the Amazon, Blu and the others discover that more of their breed do exist in the forest, with Jewel’s long-lost father, Eduaro, voiced by Andy Garcia, as their leader.

Blu then tries to prove himself to Jewel’s spectacle dad, unknown to the fact that his old enemy, Nigel the Cockatoo, voiced by Jemaine Clement, no longer able to fly, has followed him to the Amazon, looking for revenge. Meanwhile, a group of humans are running an illegal logging operation in the area serving a serious threat to every lifeforms in the rainforest.

Animation filmmaker Carlos Saldanha tries to go bigger with the sequel to his first “Rio” movie, similar to his method on second and third “Ice Age” movies. However, “Rio 2” greatly increases the number of subplots and characters features in the previous film, while also making the cartoon action and colorful forest on a larger portrait. Sandy Schaefer said in her review, “The final movie result is a passable kid-friendly adventure, even though it doesn't offer a lot more than shiny bells and whistles attached to a sitcom-esque emotional core.”

Saldanha was born and raised in Brazil, so he has a real appreciation for South America and its rich culture. Schaefer said, “That shines through in Rio 2, helping to infuse the film with just enough flavor to elevate it above the bar of being yet another perfunctory animated sequel targeted at the juice box crowd. Blue Sky's animators successfully combine a bright tropical color palate with animal character designs that blend exaggerated (read: cartoonish) features with photo-realistic qualities (see: the Blue Macaws' feathers).” In the end, is then mixed with enough stylistic additions, solid voice-acting from the entire cast, and catchy, if also periodic, songs to make the film easy to sit through (while still reflecting its director’s South American heritage).

However, there are problems with “Rio 2.” Schaefer said, “the aspects of the film that make it feel like homogenized Hollywood sequel fare.” Stylistically, the human characters – including Blu and Jewel’s former owners Linda (Leslie Mann) and Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) – are subpar in design. Schaefer said, “they're neither stylized caricatures with tangible details (a la Pixar's work), nor Expressive snapshots of real people like, say, the humans in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Similarly, the 3D visual elements aren't all that effective, as the film is neither structured to provide an immersive experience nor animated in a manner so that colors and/or objects really pop out in the third dimension.” However, the 3D doesn’t really distract from the viewing either, so it’s recommend that those wanting to see “Rio 2” just decide to put it on Disney+.

Saldanha co-wrote the screen story/script for “Rio 2” with Toni Brenner and the late Don Rhymer. Based on the writing staff’s credentials, it may not come has a surprise to hear that “Rio 2’s” main plot points – Blu proving that he can survive and care for his family without being dependent on human technology – covers very familiar territory, by giving respectable yet generic family-friendly movie lessons while ignoring the more serious ideas that are briefly mentioned, then passed over (like the pros of cross-cultural integration).

However, a number of subplots int eh film come down to giving the side characters something to do. That includes a narrative part with Rafael (George Lopez) and Nico (Jaime Foxx), who join with Blu’s family in order to find new talent for the Rio Carnival, along with Nigel wanting revenge – both that, when you look at it, could’ve been cut with little complaints. With the pros, having so many characters subplots does set up some nice musical numbers, performed by Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth as Gabi (a poison dart frog in love with Nigel) and hip-hop singer Bruno Mars as Roberto (Jewel’s childhood friend). Also, any film that starts with an original tune by Janelle Monáe must be doing something right.

Schaefer said, “Indeed, the enjoyable music and traces of authentic Brazilian spirit in Rio 2 tip the quality scale towards "good," providing enough decent material to compensate for the film's derivative qualities and storytelling flaws - if only barely so.” Viewers young and old might not remember much of what happened afterwards, but at least the film is decent fun while it runs.

This may not as good as the first, but I still think it wouldn’t hurt to see it. If you want to see it on Disney+, then by all means go for it. I don’t know how much adults will get into it, but if children who loved the first one see this, then they will probably get into it fine. This is probably one of those films you put on for your kids when you want to distract them so they don’t make too much noise.

Tomorrow I will be looking at another live-action film that I didn’t really get into in “Disney Month 2024.”

Sonic the Hedgehog 3

With the third entry in the franchise, “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” released today, has it’s foundation. Kevin Sampson said in his review, “It’s full camp. It’s a genre buffet that focuses more on its vignettes than answering plot hole questions.” It just might be the most fun you’ll have in theaters with your family this holiday season!

Picking up on what transpired in “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” the film finds the new Wachowski family with Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Knuckles (Idris Elba), and Tails (Colleen O’Shaugnessey), trying to be on vacation with Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter). After a hedgehog named Shadow, voiced by Keanu Reeves, breaks out from his fifty-year coma, that relaxation the family wants to get comes to an abrupt end. Team Sonic gets transported to Tokyo to try and bring Shadow under control, if at all possible.

The question is who released Shadow with what looks like Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey) tech? Sampson said, “It’s quickly revealed that Ivo has been enjoying telenovelas and getting the Thor post Infinity War treatment (big gut).” In comes Gerald Robotnik, also played by Carrey, Ivo’s long-lost grandfather. From there, everyone is racing to stop a machine that will destroy Earn and Jim Carrey is having so much fun on screen.

The film continues to build out the video game realm, showing character’s skills and power ups. It also noticeably changes in genre in its dialogue, cinematography, and pacing throughout the film. The opening scene is filled with action, it changes into a kid friendly horror moment, a musical dance number, comedy, and drama. This may appear disorganized at first, bit for anyone who played the game on Sega, who know that there were different levels with different styles of gameplay and music. These not-so-subtle change in cinematic genres confirms the film is self-aware. There is a joke about making a flash drive work after blowing on it, just like how everyone did with old school game cartridges.

Sampson noted, “Jim Carrey said that he came out of retirement for this film because he needed to pay bills. Hopefully he keeps overspending so we’ll see him future films because he’s so much fun to watch as both Ivo and Gerald Robotnik.” Each character is fully developed, but they work off of each other in comedic ways as only Carrey can do. Where the first two films were about making family, Keanu Reeves’ Shadow has anger to deal with when it comes to the family he lost. The franchise keeps revolving around family dynamics while adding more characters to this franchise.

Make sure you stick around for the mid and post credit scenes that show Robo Sonic and Amy. Sampson said, “This is by no means an Academy Award winning children’s film. It’s fun, nostalgic for those who played the game or watch/ed the shows.” This is a good time at the movies for all families.

Reeves killed it here. He was just awesome as Shadow. Also, Carrey is having the time of his life playing not one, but two Robotniks. If you want a film that will give you some laughs, enjoyability, and nostalgia reminiscing on the games, see this movie. There are a couple of musical motifs to Sonic Adventure and a couple of catchphrases. See this in the theaters, especially if you’re a Sonic fan. This needs to be seen by everyone.

Thank you for reading these reviews tonight. Stay tuned tomorrow for my review on the “Rio” sequel in “Disney Month 2024.”

Epic

A fairy tale with a forest crawling with fighting armies, brave knights, a compassionate queen – everyone is just 2 centimeters high.

They’re joined with normal height eccentric professor Bomba (Jason Sudeikis), his disappointed teenage daughter Mary Katherine (Amanda Seyfried), and a scene-stealing three-legged dog, which means the 2013 3D digitally animated “Epic” is filled at the seams, much like the luxurious forest where it takes place.

While “Epic,” with its amazingly unreasonable secrecy, may not live up to its title in the story area, this film from Blue Sky Studios is so visually pleasing it almost doesn’t matter.

Stephen Schaefer said in his review, “With a grab bag of references that range from “The Wizard of Oz,” “Alice in Wonderland,” Harry Potter and “The Hobbit” and a starry cast voicing­ its creatures large and small, “Epic” offers a magical wonderland of a forest that is so rich and inviting it seems only natural that it’s populated by tiny beings.”

They live under compassionate queen Tara (Beyonce Knowles) and are protected by the heroic army of green-dressed Leafmen, led by the square-jawed Ronin (Colin Farrell).

Bomba the scientist lives near the woods and believes, despite he’s never seen them, in the little people who fight with ridiculous Mandrake, voiced by Christoph Waltz, and his ugly residents of rot and decay called Boggans.

As “Epic” starts, Bomba’s daughter returns – “It’s now MK, Dad,” she tells him – following her mom’s dead to fix things with her dad and his three-legged dog.

Somehow MK no only discovers the Leafmen but is shrunk and finds a possible love interest in the rebellious free-spirited Nod, voiced by Josh Hutcherson.

Schaefer joked, “Before MK can click her heels three times — Nope! That’s another movie —” well, before the finale with Beyonce on the soundtrack, there’s a lot of flying, fighting, and comic relief with a talking slug (Aziz Ansari), snail (Chris O’Dowd), and a six-handed caterpillar Nim Galuu (Steven Tyler).

“Epic” is a journey that is both unpredictable and wonderfully familiar.

This is a good movie for the whole family to sit down and watch. In the very best sense, this is a family friendly film that also has an environmental message in it. Check it out on Hulu and enjoy the whimsical world of this animated enjoyment.

Today will be a double feature because this morning, my brother and I saw the new Sonic movie, so that review to come later.

The Lone Ranger

Heard on radios and seen in books since the 1930s, a masked lawman and his trusty Native American partner ride into people’s television with a famous 1950s show. Disney then got the team behind the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise with doing for cowboys what they managed with pirates. Now, the famous crime-fighting duo have been tied and dragged into the 21^st century for Gore Verbinski’s “The Lone Ranger,” released in 2013, with Johnny Depp continuing his loud eccentric façade as Tonto. Starring in a 1933 fairground, a boy meets an old Comanche who reminisces his fantastical story.

The story starts over sixty years earlier when upright lawyer John Reid (Armie Hammer) ruins Tonto’s attempt to kill the evil bandit Butch Cavendish (William Fitchner) in the prison car of a train headed to Colby, Texas. Ben Nicholson said in his review, “A subsequent assault on said train sees the varmit escape and flea into the wild with his gang. Mirroring the original story, a group of rangers – with John tagging along – set out to apprehend him but the posse is double-crossed and slaughtered in a canyon.” Tonto comes to help John, and the duo unite to hunt Cavendish down, with Reid in disguise behind the famous domino mask.

Nicholson said, “Sadly, what could easily have shaped-up as a gripping adventure yarn has a lot more in common with the bloated and dour At Worlds End (2007) than the swaggering Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). It commits the cardinal sin of any romp – that is to be laborious – with neither the action nor the comedy hitting the requisite marks. The spectacle is overblown and never excites, whilst the humour is largely reserved for Hammer’s fine, but never inspiring, Reid and Depp’s sub-par riff on his own most iconic creation.” Verbinksi’s “The Lone Ranger” also tries to navigate even more evil and serious areas – a bold and interesting decision for a film from Disney – but it never really works.

Nicholson said, “Cavendish, it transpires, is not just a gun-toting bandit but a maniac with a taste for human organs. To extenuate this re-write, Tonto’s story places huge attention on the slaughter of his people, but in such a hundred-mile-an-hour train ride of a movie, it’s never reflected on with anywhere near enough care to really hit the spot. Fervent fans of Depp’s gallery of grotesques may find the film enjoyable enough (though Tonto is no Captain Jack), and there’s plenty of action to numb the mind some, but this is hardly the kick in the keister the western genre has been crying out for.”

Sadly, Disney’s “The Long Ranger” quickly becomes very tiring. The overlong plot lacks any intelligence. The action (besides a train wreck) lacks enjoyment. Finally, the array of characters (including cameos from Helena Bonham Carter and Tom Wilkinson) lack the needed depth or enjoyment. Nicholson ended his review by saying, “At over two-and-half hours long, you may get a lot of bang for your buck, but Verbinski’s mask-adorned caper isn’t half as entertaining as it could have been.”

This has to be one of the most boring westerns out there. I never saw the show because it aired before I was born, but this film is really bad. There is nothing in this movie that people will enjoy. Just avoid seeing this film because you will not like it at all, I assure you that.

Alright, enough of these mediocre films. Tomorrow I will be looking at a very enjoyable film in “Disney Month 2024.”

John Carter

Roger Ebert began his review by admitting, “I don’t see any way to begin a review of “John Carter” without referring to “Through Time and Space With Ferdinand Feghoot.” That was a series of little stories that appeared in the magazine Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1956 to 1973 and had a great influence on my development as a critic. In one of the Feghoot adventures, the hero finds himself on Mars and engaged in bloody swordplay. He is sliced in the leg. Then in the other leg. Then an arm is hacked off. “To heck with this,” Feghoot exclaims, unholstering his ray gun and vaporizing his enemies.”

Ebert continued, ‘I may have one or two details wrong, but you understand the point: When superior technology is at hand, it seems absurd for heroes to limit themselves to swords. When airships the size of a city block can float above a battle, why handicap yourself with cavalry charges involving lumbering alien rhinos? When it is possible to teleport yourself from Earth to Mars, why are you considered extraordinary because you can jump really high?”

These questions are never asked in the realm of “John Carter,” released in 2012, and in the end, the movie feels more Western than science fiction. Even if we completely suspend our disbelief and accept the entire story, isn’t it underwhelming to spend so much time looking at fist fights when there are so many cool gadgets to use?

Ebert mentioned, “But I must not review a movie that wasn’t made. What we have here is a rousing boy’s adventure story, adapted from stories that Edgar Rice Burroughs cranked out for early pulp magazines. They lacked the visceral appeal of his Tarzan stories, which inspired an estimated 89 movies; amazingly, this is the first John Carter movie, but it is intended to foster a franchise and will probably succeed.”

Burroughs’ protagonist is a Civil War veteran who is located in Monument Valley, where he has an encounter that teleports him to Mars. Ebert noted, “This is not the Mars that NASA’s Rovers are poking into, but the Mars envisioned at the time Burroughs was writing, which the astronomer Percival Lowell claimed was criss-crossed by a system of canals.” Luckily for Carter, it has an atmosphere that he can breathe and surface temperatures allowing him to take his shirt off. In a nice scene early on, he finds that his Earth muscles allow him to jump high in the lower Martian gravity.

Ebert said, “This attracts the attention of the inhabitants of Mars, represented by two apparently human cities at war with each other, and a native race called the Tharks, who look like a vague humanoid blend of weird green aliens from old covers of Thrilling Wonder Stories. They have four arms, and it was a great disappointment to me that we never saw a Thark putting on a shirt.” John Carter feels a quick sympathy for the Tharks and also gets recruited into the war of the cities – choosing the side with an attractive person named Deja Thoris, played by Lynn Collins, who is the movie’s best character.

John Carter is played by Taylor Kitsch, who starred with Collins in “Wolverine.” Ebert said, “Yes, I agree Kitsch is a curious name for a star in action movies.” Still, that is his real name, you can think how many fans of “Wolverine,” for example, are familiar with the word or its meaning. As an actor, he is just fine as a sword-fighting, rhino-riding savior of planets.

The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, whose films include “A Bug’s Life,” “Finding Nemo,” and “WALL-E.” All three have great, well-made plots, and that’s what “John Carter” could use more. The action scenes are normally well-made enough. Ebert said, “Although I liked the scene where Carter was getting his Mars legs with his first low-gravity steps, the sight of him springing into the air like a jumping jack could inspire bad laughs.”

Ebert continued, “Does “John Carter” get the job done for the weekend action audience? Yes, I suppose it does. The massive city on legs that stomps across the landscape is well-done. The Tharks are ingenious, although I’m not sure why they need tusks. Lynn Collins makes a terrific heroine. And I enjoyed the story outside the story, about how Burroughs wrote a journal about what he saw and appears briefly as a character.” He may even appear in sequels because Burroughs wrote some.

Overall, I don’t really see myself watching this again, even though I do think it does its job fine. I don’t think it was really anything spectacular, seeing how the movie looks nice, but I didn’t really get into the story. If you want to see it, I don’t think it will hurt, but like I said, after seeing it once, I don’t think I will see it again because I didn’t get into it like others might. If you read the book, I heard this doesn’t follow it, but as a sci-fi film, it did have a nice atmosphere and gripping action. See it for yourself and judge it on your own thoughts.

Tomorrow I will look at another Western film that I will probably forget in “Disney Month 2024.”

Rio

“Rio” is as bright, fun, and dramatic as the Brazilian Carnivale where the final act occurs. The 2011 animated musical as a whole is one edge-of-your-seat race to give a bird back to his human friend, stop an evil gang of bird smugglers, and make sure that, eventually, love will prevail.

The bird is Blu, voiced by Jesse Eisenberg, a blue macaw stolen from his home in the rain forest before he learned how to fly. Ending up in a place no one would expect, Minnesota, he is adopted by Linda, voiced by Leslie Mann. Andrea Chase said in her review, “For fifteen years, they are inseparable and though Blu has never learned to fly, he has become handy around the house and learned to take the taunting of the local wild birds in stride.” Everything is fine until Tulio, voiced by Rodrigo Santoro, a clumsy ornithologist from Brazil arrives with a surprising announcement that Blu is the last male of his species, and Tulio needs him in Rio to meet the last female blue macaw, Jewel, voiced by Anne Hathaway, newly removed from the wild, in order to let nature do its work and save the species from extinction. Chase noted, “They arrive just in time for Carnivale, but, alas, the glitter and glamour do nothing to charm Jewel, who is more interested in escaping than mating.” On top of that, Blu has arrived just as an evil plan is made by Marcel, voiced by Carlos Ponce, to steal the residents in Tulios bird lab and sell them to the highest bidder.

Blu and Jewel find themselves chained together, grounding them both, as the thieves and their army, Nigel, voiced by Jermaine Clement, an unstable cockatoo with stagey tendencies and no mercy, are on their path, with Linda and Tulio close behind them.

Chase mentioned, “There is a nice attention to character detail, making the denizens who occupy this flick vivid, and driving it all with a real sense of the warmth between Blu and Linda. Macaws may not take to hot cocoa in real life, but Blu’s attachment to the perfect ration of mini-marshmallows in that beverage doesn’t seem a stretch in this context. Nor does his constant babbling of random facts gleaned from his years at Linda’s side in her bookshop.” The supporting roles have less depth, but the toucan (George Lopez) who helps Blu out has the right type of comic relief also found in Nico and Pedro (Jamie Foxx and rapper will.i.am), a pair of party birds who break into a catchy song when not thinking of the mystery of why Blu would rather stay in his cage than fly over Rio. Chase credited, “The animation takes full advantage of its South American setting, roseate spoonbills flutter over the Sugarloaf, marmosets swarm, and a determined visitor from Minnesota bashes through the favela of the titular city in search of her stolen macaw. It’s at its best, story- and animation-wise, with the romance, avian and human, which is sweet in a goofy rather than syrupy way. With little to work with in bird physiognomy, the animators have found a way to make the eyes startlingly expressive without violating an inordinate number of the many inherent restrictions. The voice component adds to it, with Eisenberg’s earnest if tentative mutter contrasting with Hathaway’s determined purr. Attempting to have them kiss, as inevitably they do, however, with such prodigious beaks was perhaps ill-advised.” Now with Nigel, animation has found one scary villain, and Nigel has found in Clement a voice that has the relaxing voice of the most dangerous criminal.

The adventure is fast-paced, with twists and turns as unexpected as they are quick. Pursuers and pursued race through the streets, over rooftops, and in the air using all type of transportations and the many ways of an adrenaline rush. Also, it takes time to make a few relevant points about effective conservation. The ending is never really in doubt, but how “Rio” gets there makes the most of its silly type of mayhem.

For a movie from Blue Sky Studios, the same one that brought us the “Ice Age” franchise, I was surprised at how well done this movie was. I’m also surprised that no one talks about this film because I think this film should be seen by everyone because I think they will love it. Check it out on Disney+ because you will enjoy this one a lot. Children will love this film a lot, I promise you.

Tomorrow I will look at a film that I found to be uninteresting in “Disney Month 2024.”

The Thirteenth Year

“The Thirteenth Year,” released in 1999, takes a very interesting idea – boy beings turning into a mermaid on his thirteenth birthday and tries to hide it from everyone. Every review I have seen said this is a metaphor for coming out as gay – and this is made boring.

The script doesn’t have a clear structure. Subplots get added and thrown away quickly. You feel as though the writer only decided on a main for the film while working on it and never got around to finishing the idea.

Dan Stalcup said in his review, “The movies is led by a charisma vacuum named Chez Starbuck playing a teenager named Cody — the ultimate 1999 name. If Starbuck’s performance was remotely as exciting as his name, I’d probably be bumping this up a rating. Alas, he has no idea what do in front of a camera and was probably cast because he could swim.”

The film’s main pro is that it builds the coming-out-of-the-closet metaphor as the film goes on. Stalcup described, “He has a confrontation with his girlfriend (Courtnee Draper) that is an astonishingly frank mirror to a teen girl realizing she’s a beard.” The movie’s climax is Cody reviving his secret best friend Jess, played by Justin Jon Ross, with a shock of love, like how Eve kissed Wall-E, to bring back his memories.

However, it doesn’t generate the smallest dramatic tension because of the bad pacing of exposition disclosure and inconsistent characters – like the adoptive parents, played by Lisa Stahl Sullivan and Joey Gladstone from “Full House,” impressionist Dave Coulier, whose personalities are different in every scene.

Stalcup described, “It’s still a Disney Channel movie with a light fantasy element, some time capsule fashion choices, and some corny zingers.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t feel anything when I was watching this movie. I felt as though no feeling was put into this whatsoever. If they did, then I probably would have been rooting for Cody the whole time, but the fact that it was combining Cody trying to find out who he is, and Jess’s dad (Brent Briscoe) trying to convince to everyone that the mermaid (Stephanie Chantel Durelli) he saw so many years ago is real, didn’t give this film a focus. If they had just focused on one central element, then maybe I would have felt different, but as it is, I can’t say I’m glad or not about seeing it. If you want to see it, be my guest, as you can see it on Disney+, but I think you can safely sail away from the deep waters this film sank in.

Alright, enough DCOMs for this month. Tomorrow I will be looking at an animated movie about birds in “Disney Month 2024.”