Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

Today while exercising, I finished watching “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” released on Roku in 2022. I don’t think I told anyone this, but I am a fan of “Weird” Al Yankovic, as I think his parodies are some of the funniest. When I heard they were doing a biopic of him, I didn’t see it right away, so it took a little bit before I saw it. Now that I have, what are my thoughts?

Whether you’re a fan of the lyric-changing, polka-loving singer or not, it is hard not to enjoy this truly radical comedy.

James Croot said in his review, “A brilliantly subversive pastiche of the likes of Bohemian Rhapsody or Rocketman, you’re initially lulled into thinking you’re watching something similar to those movies here.”

Even though his parents consider it a disappointment, Alfi Yankovic, played as a child by Richard Aaron Anderson, wants to make songs. His father, played by Toby Huss, would prefer Al joined him at “the factory,” especially after hearing that Al’s plan is changing the words to well-known songs.

“What you’re doing is confusing – and evil,” he scolds. His mother, played by Julianne Nicholson, has a view that sounds like back up. “It would be best for all of us if you would just stop being who you are and doing the things you love.”

However, when a door-to-door salesman, played by Thomas Lennon, ignites a passion of wanting to be “arguably the most famous accordion player in an extremely specific genre of music,” she agrees to buy the instrument, if only Alfie is careful to practice in secret.

Unfortunately, his teenage years, played by David Bloom, have him with the temptations to break out “Satan’s squeeze-box.”

Forced to do the Chicken Dance at a polka party, the evening ends miserably when the cops stop the party and his dishonesty is revealed.

However, after his father destroys the accordion, the young man, now played by Daniel Radcliffe, isn’t discouraged, moving to Los Angeles right after high school graduation. However, success doesn’t come fast – not many bands have a lot for his very certain type of skills – but to does turn out to be nearly overnight.

A combination of The Knack and luncheon meat makes creativity with his roommates, played by Spencer Treat Clark, Jack Lancaster, and Tommy O’Brien, who encourage him to record the song in the nearby bus station bathroom. Croot said, “Mailing it to a local radio station, incredibly, it immediately becomes a high-rotation hit, emboldening Al to try and seek out a record deal.”

Croot continued, “But, after a less-than-successful meeting, he discovers he’ll have to make it the hard way – get the word out via playing live in some less-than-salubrious places – and come up with more music.” “Weird” Al Yankovic and Will Forte play the Scotti brothers that Yankovic meets with.

However, when his childhood icon Dr. Demento, played by Rainn Wilson, hears him, Dr. Demento decides to take “Weird” Al Yankovic as his protégé and help him to become “the future of music.”

Croot said,

What follows is a wild rise-and-fall-and-rise ride best summed by one character’s challenge to “name me one creative genius that doesn’t have a chequered past involving drugs, alcohol and a murderous rampage through the heart of the jungle”.

Yes, while many of Yankovic’s biggest real-life hits (I Love Rocky Road, Eat It, Amish Paradise) and their inspirations are detailed, like Sir Peter Jackson’s magnificent, yet controversial mockumentary Forgotten Silver, everyone will have a point at which they twig that something isn’t quite right.

For some, the opening narration by Diedrich Bader could be a clue (“Life is like a parody of your favorite song – just when you think you all the words…Surprise! You don’t know anything”), for others, it will be the offer to play with Queen at Live Aid, or his relationship with Madonna, played by a fabulous, scene-stealing Evan Rachel Wood.

Croot mentioned,

Key scenes more than just echo movies like Boogie Nights and The Doors, but while the scattershot approach to humour won’t appeal to everyone (just as Yankovic’s parodies sometimes polarise) many of the set pieces and “claims” are truly inspired.

As Al, Radcliffe is a revelation, throwing himself into the role and associated nuttiness with gusto, just as he always seems to do in his “quirkier” post-Potter roles (Swiss Army Man and Guns Akimbo two particular examples).

Around him is a cast of famous people we know. Along with Wood and Wilson, there are also great cameos from Jack Black, Patton Oswalt, Conan O’Brien, and Lin-Manual Miranda.

Croot noted, “Inspired by director and co-writer Eric Appel’s (Die Hart, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) 2010 Funny or Die short, Weird was a deserved winner of the Midnight Madness audience award at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival.”

While sadly not being released in theaters, where it could have obviously become a cult hit, this does seem to have found a devoted audience just as Yankovic’s last film – 1989’s The Vidito from UHF – did in video stores back then.

This is a funny spoof on biopics. “Weird” Al said in interviews that there are nuggets of truth that are sprinkled all throughout the film. He mentioned that Radcliffe was the top choice to star in the film. In actuality, his parents were supportive of his music career, he never had any substance abuse problems, he never had a relationship with Madonna and only spoke to her for about 45 seconds backstage in 1985, so their relationship with purely platonic, and Eat It came after Beat It, and not the other way around. The ending will also make you laugh, as you know that “Weird” Al is still around today, but he is the one artist that is famous, but doesn’t come around a lot, which is good for him, so he is one of the few artists who never went off the deep end. Check this film out if you’re a fan of Yankovic, as I think you will have a great time laughing throughout the film.

Thank you for joining in on this review. Stay tuned this Friday for the finale of “Animated Environmental Movie Month.”

Happy Feet

In the tribe of Emperor Penguins in Antarctica, community is very important. You have to know how to gather together against the cold, or march to the sea to catch fish for the family. During mating season, the male and female penguins are attracted to each other by their “Heartsongs.” Every penguin has a song that is his or her individual identity. It’s the “voice you hear inside” that makes you “who you truly are.”

When Norma Jean (Nicole Kidman) and Memphis (Hugh Jackman) meet, he is drawn to her shake and her soulful singing. She loves his self-confidence and Elvis-like serenading. When Norma Jean goes off to the sea with the other females, Memphis, unfortunately, has a small mistake with their egg. When it is time for their egg to hatch, he takes longer than the others to crack out. Baby Gloria, voiced by Alyssa Shafer, tries to help and is there to witness his strange behavior. The baby penguin, named Mumble, voiced by E.G. Daily, can’t keep his feet still. He jumps all over the icy area. Instead of being proud of his new son, Memphis is troubled by his “happy feet.” He says: “It just ain’t penguin.” Others see it too, and as the months pass, the entire community decides that Mumble is the eccentric penguin. What’s wrose is he can’t sing at all, and, as the saying goes, “a penguin without a Heartsong is not a penguin at all.”

Norma Jean and Memphis send him to a voice teacher, voiced by Magda Szubanski, but all she can get out of him is an ear-hurting screech. Off by himself, where he can let his happy feet tap dance across the ice, Mumble (Elijah Wood) meets Boss Skua (Anthony LaPaglia), head of a tribe of evil birds who want to make lunch of him. The penguin gets him to tell the story of being abducted by aliens who pokes and explored him and then put a yellow thing around his leg. Mumble escapes from them but keeps this strange incident to himself.

Soon it is time for the young penguins to go to the sea for their first catch. Mumble is actually the first one in the water, which ends up having some dangerous creatures and very little fish. He shows his love for Gloria, now voiced by Brittany Murphy, by catching a fish for her and fighting off some greedy birds to keep it. That night, under the stars, she sings a concert and he tries to sing along, much to the alarm of the others. Soon after, he goes off alone.

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat said in their review, “Wandering the icy wastelands, he meets the Adelie Amigos, a group of five happy-go-lucky Latino penguins who find his moves "so accidentally cool."” Ramon, voiced by the late Robin Williams, the most outspoke one, calls Mumble charismatic. The Emperor Penguin has finally found friends who respect him and his dancing feet. They come up with a plan to help him win Gloria’s heart. However back home, Noah, one of the elders, voiced by Hugo Weaving, sentences Mumble’s dancing and blames him for the loss of fish in the sea. He bans Mumble from the community. Mumble decides he’ll find out the real reason for the fish shortage.

The Adelies tell Mumble about a guru penguin called Lovelace, also voiced by Williams, who answers every question. Brussat said, “He asks him about alien abductions, but his response about mystic beings on a forbidden shore doesn't make much sense. This quirky character has a plastic six-pack ring around his neck that is slowly strangling him.” Deciding this strange thing may be a clue, Mumble, the Adelies, and Lovelace go to where he found it, a journey that will test their strength and friendship.

Brussat said, “George Miller, who co-wrote, produced and directed Happy Feet brings the same creativity, exuberance, and spiritual élan to this animated feature as he did to Babe. He has incorporated so many imaginative elements into the story that it boggles the mind. First, there is the exciting music, which includes rock, funk, opera, rap, liturgical, pop, gospel, and Latin.” The music is composed by John Powell, and the soundtrack also includes songs performed by Prince, Yolanda Adams, Fantasia Barrino, Gia Farrell, Chrissie Hynde, Pattie La Belle, k.d. lang, Jason Mraz, and Pink. Second, there is the great dancing by the penguins. Brussat noted, “These scenes have been choreographed by Warren Coleman who brings together many styles including Zulu, gumboot, Navajo, and Samoa slap dancing.”

Brussat said, “The music and the dance bring out the yearning we've all had to move the body in sync with the rhythms of the earth.” The final act of Mumble’s journey brings him into an encounter with the humans and a connection that justifies all his troubles to stay faithful to his real self. The ecological crisis shown in the story of the disappearing fish is finally told with an inspiring message that had to be told at the right time: We have so much more in common with the whole Creation than we know, and our survival – and theirs – depends upon our realizing that real truth.

I saw this in the theaters with some of the family and we enjoyed this a lot. I think that everyone should see this because they will like this a lot. Sure, it’s strange that George Miller directed this, but he did a good job. The whole family can see this, get into the singing and dancing, and actually learn a true environmental message that hopefully people will take to heart and not pass it along. Because this message is something that needs to spread around and make people aware so we can save the environment, which is the underlying message of the film. Check this out and enjoy.

Next week, I will be ending “Animated Environmental Movie Month” with the sequel to this film, which is still a good one.

Coyote vs. Acme

Tonight, my siblings and I went to see “Coyote vs. Acme,” which came out almost three weeks ago. This was one of my most anticipated movies to watch this year, seeing how I’m a huge Looney Tunes fan. Seeing how this has been getting rave reviews from critics, what was our opinion?

Family entertainment can have a habit of being dumbed down, like children are not meant to understand richer subtext. As we know, the point is that as a kid you’re entertained but then as an adult you understand the deeper meanings. “Coyote vs. Acme” begins with a brilliantly funny idea related to every gadget Looney Toon character, Willie E. Coyote, has ordered over the years out in the desert to try and catch the Road Runner. Alci Rengifo pointed out in his review, “As it gets wildly entertaining, the movie never loses its sharpness and even social commentary. Many viewers will first be intrigued by the backstory involving Warner Bros. initially shelving the movie back in 2023 for a tax write-off, then selling the rights to Ketchup Entertainment. We should be grateful someone stepped in to save this charming, witty experience.”

The film starts in 1992, when in a desolate laboratory, Dr. Peter Loore, voiced by pretty much all the major cartoon characters, Eric Bauza, a “toon,” is being chased by evil superiors trying to silence him. After he is forced to jump into one of the famous black holes that can be summoned in cartoons, we flash forward to present day where Willie E. Coyote is stuck in the same routine of chasing after the Road Runner, getting close, but failing miserably with the various Acme Corporation gadgets he keeps ordering. Sinking in depression, he sees a commercial from Albuquerque lawyer Kevin Avery, played by Will Forte, a human focusing in cases with cartoon violence. Willie E. Coyote sees the chance to sue Acme for the countless rockets and other items that have left him damaged from his attempts. Kevin would be fine just asking for his client to get $300 back for failed rocket skates, but Willie E. Coyote wants payment for everything we have seen him use over his time. This strikes a cord in Acme, which is run by the famous Foghorn Leghorn. His top human attorney, Buddy Crane, played by John Cena, who was once Kevin’s classmate at Harvard, is given coyote’s case to win it.

“Coyote vs. Acme” is one of those movies like “Space Jam” or “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” where it perfectly combines animation with live action, to the point where you stop differentiating the two. It tells you about the times we’re currently in where Warner almost made it disappear without a second thought. Rengifo said, “Director Dave Green works from a screenplay by Samy Burch, which is based on a 1990 New Yorker article by Ian Frazier, a delightful piece of satirical cheer. James Gunn is one of the producers, no doubt helping explain how this film finds a particular poignancy in Looney Toons characters. First the movie works as a funny form of self-commentary, pondering how Wile E. should logically have amassed football-size amounts of Acme gadgets. All this because of his obsessive drive to catch the Road Runner, apparently out of hunger, but maybe it’s just become a consuming passion the way other people thirst for power or explorers seek to climb great mountains.” Not like Willie E. Coyote couldn’t find anything else to eat.

A Looney Tunes movie needs to include fan favorites to show up like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and others. Rengifo said, “None of them are used as just filler and become part of a rather intense detective yarn. Bugs Bunny leaves cryptic phone messages for Kevin and arranges late night meetings out of a Bogart thriller. Daffy knows something but is consigned to a mental health institution. Desert moments of intrigue are framed as if in homage to “Breaking Bad.” The humans are also not reduced to mere gags and turn into walking embodiments of ruthless corporate America.  John Cena’s Buddy Crane is the classic suit just doing his job, which entails going to any length to please his client. He slimily offers Kevin a quick settlement the underdog lawyer is eager to accept, but Wile E. instantly refuses.” Now it becomes an all-out fight. When Kevin tries to get the Road Runner to appear as a witness in Coyote’s defense, Buddy and his lawyer team then try any way to stop that from happening. The ongoing jokes are just Looney Tunes fun, like the plot to catch the Road Runner with a huge mountain of bird feed surrounded by instant glue.

Rengifo said, “Yet, what makes “Coyote vs. Acme” successful and a genuine treat for younger viewers is how it treats the audience, both younger and older, with intelligence. There are more layers to the story than just the court battle. Kevin must assess if the coyote is being honest with him, or using this whole case as a ruse to finally lure the Road Runner into a space of total entrapment.” On top of that, after all this time chasing each other in the desert, maybe Willie E. Coyote and the Road Runner have become close friends than they know? Rengifo said, “The movie features quite the stacked cast which also includes an endearing Lana Condor as Kevin’s niece and assistant, who tries to keep him honest as a lawyer, and Luis Guzmán as Judge Troppogrosso, overseeing the case with farcical seriousness. Yet, above the gags, we’re also taken in by the story and the upfront jabs at corporate culture. Wile E. may have a twisted passion, but Acme is run by the kind of shady figures who would be more than welcomed at the current White House.” In the end, the real heroes are Ketchup Entertainment for saving this film. As awful as the times are, there is someone out there who always cares, which is also the end, needed message of this enjoyable good time.

I think everyone should go see this movie, as this is one of the most entertaining, funny films this year. Especially those who are Looney Tunes fans will enjoy this one a lot. Seeing how they have shaped a lot of our humor; everyone must go and watch this. You will be laughing the whole time and really love this. If Ketchup Entertainment keeps coming out with Looney Tunes films every now and then, I will give them my money to see them. Check this out and have a great time laughing from start to finish.

Thank you for joining in on this review tonight. Stay tuned this Friday for the continuation of “Animated Environmental Movie Month.”

Ferngully 2: The Magical Rescue

If a movie had to make a list of everything direct-to-video sequels always get wrong, “Ferngully 2: The Magical Rescue,” released in 1998, is probably that movie. MrEightThreeOne said in their review, “The animation quality is massively downgraded, which isn't a big surprise, but the bigger surprise is the massive art style shift -- the new animals for this movie look like every cheap kids' show animal I've ever seen, and they clash badly with the designs of the returning cast. Speaking of, not a single voice actor returns for this movie either, by far the most distracting example being Batty Koda who sounds nothing like Robin Williams at all, something I'd be more willing to cut slack on if Dan Castellanetta's Genie weren't a decent effort in the Aladdin sequel and TV show.” This movie essentially misses the entire point of the previous film and has nothing to do with environmental protection at all, instead going for a ridiculously basic search-and-rescue story that has been annoyingly done in so many kids’ movies. The story in this sequel is only going along because of how stupid everyone is, like how Pip, voiced by Digory Oaks, and everyone constantly ignore that their friends are in danger because they’re distracted by the carnival. MrEightThreeOne said, “The villains in this movie are generic beyond all belief, and pale in comparison to the fantastic villain Hexxus was in the prior movie. The pacing in this movie feels more at home with a 22-minute TV episode rather than a feature film, with special mention going to a wildfire scene that destroys a ton of their home yet it lasts all of maybe 20 seconds.” The music in this sequel does not match many scenes at all. Like in the climactic chase scene, the music is strangely quiet and would feel righter where the characters are sneaking around trying not to get caught.

MrEightThreeOne mentioned, “This movie is far from irredeemable. You could do much, much worse for bad kids' movies. There's nothing that's jaw-droppingly awful here and I can at least say despite the low animation budget, they did try their best.” However, at the same time, why go for this when there are so many better movies to watch, the first film included?

This film didn’t have much to go from but was just pointless. They don’t tell us any more about Ferngully or the characters. The characters get distracted by the attractions, but it’s not developed, and it just makes the characters look shallow. Overall, this is just forgettable, especially with none of the original voice actors return for this film, not even Robin Williams. He’s instead voiced by Matt K. Miller, who isn’t even funny, but just annoying. Don’t see this film, as it won’t keep anyone’s attention, especially with the characters having too much distraction and forgetting about the characters who are in danger and would be dead if they kept getting distracted. Avoid the sequel.

Now that we’ve gotten that superfluous sequel done with, stay tuned next week when we talk about a much better movie in “Animated Environmental Movie Month.” I apologize for the late posting. After work, I went to see my aunt, and I ended up being there longer than I thought I would be.

The Devil Wears Prada

Today, while exercising, I finished watching “The Devil Wears Prada 2” on Hulu. However, before talking about that one, I should give my thoughts on the first “The Devil Wears Prada” movie, which came out in 2006.

Dennis Schwartz started his review by saying, “This lightweight comedy directed by David Frankel (“Miami Rhapsody,” son of Max Frankel, a former executive editor of The New York Times), who has earned his wings mostly in television doing episodes for HBO’s “Entourage” and “Sex and the City”, is based on Lauren Weisberger’s best-selling roman à clef about a bright young aspiring journalist, Andrea “Andy” Sachs (Anne Hathaway), selling her soul to the Devil at a New York fashion magazine. Weisberger researched her book by working for a year as assistant for Vogue’s editor Anna Wintour. Though the characters are all familiar stereotypes, the dialogue is nothing to write home about, the moral arc of the story has little credibility and the story itself has nothing important to say, nevertheless the frosty acting by Meryl Streep is deliciously first-rate (reason alone for seeing the film) and it does give the viewer an insider’s look inside the bustling world of fashion journalism.”

Andy recently graduated from Northwestern and moved to New York from the Midwest to be a journalist, but when she can’t get a real journalism job, she suddenly gets hired as an assistant to head of business and career-crazed editor of the important fashion Runway magazine, Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep. This difficult boss is called “the dragon lady” and is considered the magnate in the fashion business. Schwartz said, “We are told it’s a job that most young women would kill for but for Andy, who cares nothing about fashion and dresses all wrong for the job, it’s supposedly only a good career move where she can become known to other magazine editors by mingling with the world shakers and movers and thereby move onto pursuing her journalism career in the near future.”

Schwartz continued, “The job itself is merely being a flunky to her imperious boss and her many irrational whims and taking further grief from the number one assistant Emily (Emily Blunt), a snooty and curt Brit who loves fashion and her job– and takes pleasure in insulting Andy about her unfashionable frumpy appearance. In this stifling and oppressive atmosphere our heroine is at the beck and call of her boss at all hours of the day or night (thanks to the cell phone), given only 15 minutes for lunch and assigned impossible tasks such as getting the new Harry Potter novel before it’s published and finding a flight out of Miami for the boss during a hurricane when all flights have been cancelled. At home Andy circulates with friends who act as a Greek chorus to sympathize with her plight and a grungy, always unshaven chef boyfriend Nate (Adrian Grenier), who is around as a plot device to remind Andy that she’s sold out her ideals and to point out to those viewers who might not have fully gotten it how far she has fallen and how hollow is the world of fashion and celebrity. Despite all the workplace hostility and losing contact with friends and live-in boyfriend, Andy hangs on for dear life and is eventually given a fashion makeover by the magazine’s resident swish Nigel (Stanley Tucci), Miranda’s art director, who becomes her protector and this allows her to get enough confidence to get over on the job.”

The narrow story predictably lets us know before the end that Andy has learned her lesson and gets back on the right track of chasing her real goals. We know that was going to emerge within 15 minutes of this film, so what we get from then on is a lustrous film that feels like reading a fashion magazine – nice to look at but not much knowledge for the person.

I remember seeing trailers for this movie when it was coming out. I thought it looked like a nice comedy, and when I saw it recently on Hulu, I enjoyed it. Sure, Andy wouldn’t get the job after seeing the way her interview went, but this is a comedy, so go with it. Also, I’m sure we all can relate to having a boss like Miranda, who Streep plays perfectly. Everyone must’ve had a boss who was difficult to work with and couldn’t please or satisfy, no matter how hard we tried, so that is very relatable. Check this movie out, as I think everyone will like it.

Surprisingly, we got a sequel this year, which came out theatrically in May but on Hulu at the end of July. It may appear strange that a cheerful comedy like “The Devil Wears Prada 2” – a continuation of the Anne Hathaway/Meryl Streep fashion magazine franchise started 20 years ago – would come out theatrically on the first movie weekend of May, typically the start of the summer movie season.

Sean P. Means asked in his review, “Isn’t the first weekend in May the time for action movies, science fiction and fantasy, you may ask. Then you look at what happens in “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and see that it’s very much a fantasy — of the wish-fulfillment variety.”

When we see Hathaway’s Any Sachs, she’s left behind Runway magazine, where she had a nightmare of an internship under the difficult Miranda Priestly 20 years earlier. We’re told Andy has had a successful career as a journalist, covering important stories all over the world, most recently for a New York newspaper.

Right when she’s about to receive a respected award, her phone notifies her – along with the phones of all her colleagues at the table, they’ve all been laid off, via text. Andy gives an acceptance speech that becomes a viral moment, as she grieves the status of American journalism.

Meanwhile, back at Runway, Miranda is dealing with a different journalistic problem. Means said, “A poorly vetted puff piece about a fast-fashion brand has blown up in her face, with the internet abuzz about the sweatshop conditions that Runway failed to report. Miranda, who has seen her extravagant budgets and print edition pages both slashed as she’s transitioned to digital content, has her back against the wall.”

The owner of the magazine corporation, Ira Ravitz, played by Tibor Feldman, decides to give Runway a credibility boost by hiring Andy as its new features editor. Irv does this without first telling Miranda just increases the tension when she meets Andy again. Andy tries to write some solid news stories, but finds getting online readers to click on the articles is a tougher challenge than she thought.

Meanwhile, Miranda has to make deals with advertisers, which is how Andy again meets up with Emily Charlton, Miranda’s former assistant and now an executive at Dior. Finishing the reunion, Andy also meets up with Runway’s long-suffering design director, Nigel Kipling, still feeling sore from Miranda’s lack of appreciation for his many talents.

Means notes, “It’s fascinating to watch director David Frankel and screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, both back from the first movie, use the real-life problems of today’s journalism — capricious ownership, corporate bean-counting, sacrificing credibility for clickbait — in a setting where ostentatious wealth and sequined glamour are the norm.” What’s even stranger to let audiences, who probably complained about the drive to the theaters, think about which billionaire to cheer for: Irv, Emily’s tech boyfriend (Justin Theroux) or his ex-wife (Lucy Liu).

Means pointed out, “There’s a fair amount of wit in the script, with Tucci’s Nigel again getting many of the best lines as he continues to school the surprisingly sunny Andy in both fashion and appeasing Miranda. (As a jaded old journalist, I question how enthusiastic and spunky Andy seems to be after two decades as a reporter.)”

Means continues, “But the real fun – aside from picking out the many cameo appearances and luxuriating in the playgrounds of the extremely rich — is watching Hathaway and Streep back together to spar again as the imperious Miranda and the optimistic Andy.” Hathaway appears to set the standards with Streep, and Streep seems to enjoy working to turn this impossibly difficult character into something human. Their chemistry gives “The Devil Wears Prada 2” the bubbly energy it needs.

For one of the surprising sequels that no one was expecting, this one is really good. If you loved the first one, then definitely check the sequel on Hulu. I think everyone will enjoy these movies a lot, so I give them a recommendation. You will get some laughs and see a relatable workplace, if you have worked in one. The characters are all great and I believe everyone has had a boss and/or colleagues like the ones portrayed in these films. See them to know what I mean.

Thank you for joining in on these review tonight. Stay tuned this Friday for the continuation of “Animated Environmental Movie Month.”

FernGully: The Last Rainforest

For this month, I will be looking at animated movies that focused on saving the environment. I know that I have reviewed some of the movies that focused on saving the environment, like “Atlantis: The Lost Empire,” “Pocahontas,” “Princess Mononoke,” and “Dances with Wolves.” Also, I know that those movies weren’t the first ones who had the message of saving the environment, as there are a plethora of those movies out there, but there are a few that I wanted to go over this month. Let’s get started with the 1992 animated musical, “FernGully: The Last Rainforest.”

“FernGully: The Last Rainforest” continues the fiction, so encouraging at times, that the evilest animal is Man. The story involves the rain forest being destroyed by the deforestation people, and its defense by the nymphs and fairies of the forest. Roger Ebert said in his review, “I am in favor of saving the rain forests and I am appalled by their wanton destruction, but is it not true that Man is the only animal to which it has ever occurred that murder is wrong?” Nature is the least romantic of creations. It is shown most accurately in old cartoons that show a school of fish, each one smaller than the next, lined up ready to happily eat one another. It is in the nature of every living thing to eat other living things, in one way or another, in order to survive. Ebert said, “A fern is as ruthless as my cat.”

This animated film was made by humans, not jungle plants and animals, and is thus more romantic about the flora and fauna then they would ever be about us. Ebert compared, “It takes place in the coastal rain forests of Australia, which are seen to be inhabited by little fairies like Crysta (Samantha Mathis), who looks like a Barbie doll, and Pips (Christian Slater), who looks like GI Joe.” Everyone is watched over by a wise old fairy godmother character, Magi Lune, voiced by Grace Zabriskie.

One day Crysta flies up above the trees and sees a threatening cloud of smoke on the distance (just like Pocahontas did). It soon is found out that men are cutting down the forest and carrying away the wood, and Crysta uses a spell to shrink one of the men, Zak, voiced by Jonathan Ward, to fairy size. He then falls in love with Crysta, and begins to understand why it is important to save the rain forest. The story is fleshed out with supporting characters, including a fruit bat named Batty Koda, voiced by the late Robin Williams, who has been so badly tested by human laboratories that he flies into trees all the time. There is also Hexxus, voiced by the late Tim Curry, a creature created from the smoke of the fires of destruction, who, as Ebert described, “looks like an animated surgeon general’s warning.”

The animators did a lot of their drawings on location in the rain forest, and the visuals are very pretty. The story tells an important lesson, the jungle creatures are amusing, and despite the movie not being a masterpiece, it’s nice to watch for its humor and likeability. Kids may like it. Ebert ended his review by admitting, “Every time I see a movie that sentimentalizes the rain forest as a pastoral Eden, however, I remember those fish.”

Currently, you can see this film on YouTube, Tubi, Pluto TV, Amazon Prime, Roku, CW, and PLEX, so you have your options. I first saw Nostalgia Critic and Nostalgia Chick’s joint review of this film, but it took a long time after that review to watch the film. I think this is a nice film and it does have the right message to children, but I don’t know how many people will like this. Sure, this isn’t a great animated movie, but I still think this is watchable and is fine enough. Check it out and see for yourself and judge it based on your own thoughts. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. If you don’t like it, I can understand why. This is still a nice kids film that has the right message that is still relevant today.

I was surprised to find out that this film had a sequel, which I will look at next week in “Animated Environmental Movie Month.”

The Punisher

Jonathan Hensleigh’s “The Punisher” was one of the enjoyable films of 2004. Chuck O’Leary mentioned in this review, “Based on the Marvel comic that was borne out of the mid-70s heyday of Bronson and violent revenge movies in general, this second big-screen version of The Punisher is not only an infinite improvement over the awful 1989 film adaptation starring Dolph Lundgren, but also one of the best films ever to be based on a comic book.”

O’Leary credited, “Unlike most modern-day movies with comic-book origins, co-writer and first-time director Hensleigh doesn't get carried away with CGI and incessant quick cutting, instead setting out to make a grittier, darker and tougher tale done in the more traditional and hard-edged style of action filmmakers like Sam Peckinpah, Don Siegel and Walter Hill.  Hensleigh definitely succeeds, and handles things with the sure hand of an old pro.”

The film was originally written to start with a prologue set in Kuwait City during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, but the scene was removed before filming began after told to be too expensive for a film with a $30 million budget, which is a very modest amount for an action film today. However, when an extended edition was made, Hensleigh went back with illustrators and stars Thomas Jane and Russell Andrews to create an animated version of the segment that sets up a subplot almost completely removed from the theatrical version.

When we first meet Frank Castle, played by Thomas Jane, he’s the heroic soldier of the Special Forces Unit during the ’91 Gulf War. After returning from the war, both Castle and his military friend, Jimmy Weeks, played by Russell Andrews, become FBI agents.

While working undercover as a South African arms dealer, Castle successfully fakes his own death during a sting operation so he can retire with his wife (Samantha Mathis) and his son (Marcus Johns). However, during that sting operations, the twin sons (James Carpinello) of a Tampa-area crime lord, Howard Saint (John Travolta), are killed. Along with his vengeful wife, played by Laura Harring, Saint immediately plans to find the man responsible for murdering his twins.

By misusing Weeks’ secret gambling addiction, Saint finds out Castle’s real identity as The Castle Family is vacationing in Puerto Rico. Soon Saint’s men crash the family reunion and kill almost everybody. O’Leary said, “The massacre wipes out Castle's entire family, and by entire I mean not just his wife, son, father (Roy Scheider) and mother, but aunts, uncles and cousins too.” However, Castle somehow survives even though he was shot three times and was blown out to sea, which shows no chance of surviving, but this is a comic book adaptation.

Castle then recovers over the course of several months with the help of a fisherman on a remote island, played by Veryl Jones. When he returns to where his family was massacred, he finds some guns and a T-Shirt with a skull on the front that his son gave him as a gift. The skull becomes the sign of Castle’s vigilante as he tracks those responsible for murdering his family and punish them.

O’Leary said, “That Castle seeks revenge is not surprising, but he goes about doing it in ways that are a lot more imaginative than usual in such a vengeance-is-mine movie.  This one also has a surprisingly sharp script with a lot of nice off-beat touches; one of my favorites involves a scene where a Johnny Cash-looking assassin named Harry Heck (real-life Country & Western singer Mark Collie) hired to eliminate Castle walks into a diner where Castle is eating and sings him a little ditty he wrote especially for the occasion.”

Another good part is the uncertain friendship that is made between Castle and three other outcasts living in the rundown building where Castle moves in to. Living down the hall is Joan (Rebecca Romijn), then there’s Dave (Ben Foster), who has so many facial piercings, and his obese sidekick, Bumpo (John Pinette). The friendship of these four outcasts is strangely liking and gives this intense revenge thriller some sudden heart.

Villains are always another important part to action films, and Travolta’s serious performance is way more effective than the way he played the villains in John Woo’s “Broken Arrow” and “Face/Off.” Will Patton plays Saint’s dangerous right-hand man and he steals every scene he’s in, again showing he’s skilled at evil understatement.

O’Leary credited, “The down-to-earth villainy of Travolta and Patton contrasts nicely with exaggerated characteristics of two secondary hit-men heavies, the aforementioned singing contract killer and a massive hulk called the Russian (pro wrestler Kevin Nash, formerly Diesel of the WWF), who has an over-the-top fight scene with Castle that plays like a great wrestling match.”

“The Punisher” is a grim, violent film about an anti-hero who doesn’t care whether he lives or dies because a large part of him was murdered. We the part where Frank Castle died spiritually. This is a well-planned, well-shot (cinematographer Conrad W. Hall), and intense film, and Hensleigh does a good job of balancing the serious action with dark humor, while still giving enough important character moments. O’Leary pointed out, “He also finds just the right exaggerated, yet not-too-exaggerated tone for the material.  And harking back to the likes of Death Wish and Dirty Harry, the film is refreshing in this age of cockamamie political correctness in the un-PC way it appeals to the righteousness of viewers who want to see innocence protected, evil defeated and the guilty to suffer.”

I didn’t get to see this movie in the theaters with my siblings, but my brother liked the ending of the film where Castle is on the cable-stayed bridge. I did hear my cousins praise this movie and it is good, which is why I don’t understand why critics thrashed it when it came out. Don’t listen to the critics, see the movie and judge for yourself.

There were talks of a sequel, which I would have loved, but instead we got the 2008 reboot, “Punisher: War Zone.”

You used to be able to depend on a bad film being poorly made, but not anymore. Roger Ebert credited in his review, ““The Punisher: War Zone” is one of the best-made bad movies I’ve seen. It looks great, it hurtles through its paces and is well-acted. The soundtrack is like elevator music if the elevator were in a death plunge. The special effects are state of the art.” The only problem is that it’s disgusting.

Ebert said, “There’s a big audience for disgusting, and I confidently predict the movie will “win the weekend,” if not very many hearts and minds.” Here you will see a man’s kidney ripped out and eaten, a chair leg pushed through a head by the eyeball, a roomful of men murdered by the Punisher revolving upside-down from a chandelier and firing machine-guns with both hands, and widow and her little girl threatened with chaos, heads decapitated, victims impaled and pierced, and the villain thrown into a machine that breaks glass bottles in the same way concrete is mixed.

Ebert admitted, “The glass-crushing machine caught my eye.” Billy (Dominic West) is thrown into it by the Punisher (Ray Stevenson) and revolves up to his neck in cutting edges while screaming a handful of four-letter words, which given the situation, are appropriate.

Ebert then said, “What confused me is that nearby in the same factory, there is a conveyor belt carrying large lumps of hamburger or something. I expected Billy to emerge as ground round, but then I thought, how much ground glass can you really add to ground round? It’s not often that you see meat processing and bottle crushing done in adjacent operations in the same factory. I was looking for the saltwater taffy mixer.”

Billy survives his situation and announces to his henchmen, “From now on, my name is Jigsaw.” This is after he has surgery, apparently only through minutes by the movie’s timeline, to fix his face with twine. Ebert described, “He now looks like the exhibit in the entrance lobby of the Texas Chainsaw Museum, and one eye looks painfully introspective.”

The movie is not heavy on plot. Ebert said, “By my Timex Indiglo, there was no meaningful exposition at all during the first 15 minutes, just men getting slaughtered.” Then things slow down enough to reveal that Frank Castle or the Punisher, who avenged the murder of his family in the previous film, has now killed FBI agent Nicky Donatelli (Romano Orzari), Angela’s (Julie Benz) husband and Grace’s (Stephanie Janusauskas) father, who will Never Be Able to Forgive Him for What He’s Done, which she shouldn’t, but she will.

The film was shot in Montreal, but is set in New York, which has a small population with only good and bad guys and not much of anybody else. Ebert admitted, “I’d get out, too. It’s the kind of violence the president should fly over in Air Force One and regard sadly through the window. It goes without saying that the bad guys are unable to shoot the Punisher with their machineguns. That’s consistent with the epidemic of malfunctioning machineguns in all recent super-violent films.” However, the Punisher kills a handful of henchmen with his machine guns, while spinning upside-down under the chandelier.

Ebert asked, “Now pause to think with me. Everyone around the table is heavily armed. More armed men bust in through the door. The revolving Punisher is suspended in the center of the room. Because of the logic of the laws of physical motion, most of the time, he is shooting away from any individual bad guy. How can they possibly miss hitting him? It’s so hard these days, getting good help.”

“Punisher: War Zone” is the third in the Punisher movies. It follows the 1989 “The Punisher” starring Dolph Lundgren (which I have never seen) and the 2004 film starring Jane and Travolta. Since those two films have the same title, it’s hard to tell them apart, but why would you want to? Ebert ended his review by saying, “My fellow critic Bill Stamets, settling down for the screening, shared with me that he watched the 2004 movie for his homework. I did my algebra.”

I don’t know if I can recommend this film, as I can’t recall if that left an impact on me that I could remember. I cannot remember exactly what happened, but maybe it was one of those forgettable films. However, since the Punisher came back with the Netflix series and the MCU, I think we should hopefully see the character again soon. Still, if you want to see these films, I can say watch the 2004 film, but I don’t know about “Punisher: War Zone.”

Thank you for joining in on “Wrestlers in Movies Month.” I hope everyone enjoyed and stay tuned next month to see what I have in store for everyone.