The Lion king (2019) movie review - 400th Post.

The Lion King is my favorite film of Disney's Animation Classics. It's a jaw-dropping, absolutely beautiful movie, that combined the magical charm of Disney with the sweep of an epic Shakespearean story, to tell a simultaneously mature and whimsical tale of heritage lost and regained. It's a stunning showcase of hand-drawn animation, bringing the African savannah vividly to life, and features an amazing soundtrack. It was such a mammoth hit, it remained Disney's highest grossing film for 20 years until Frozen.

But Disney is in a busy period right now, where they've given some of their most popular animated films a live-action update, this year alone already giving us Dumbo and Aladdin. The quality has varied, but in the case of this new take on The Lion King, at least that had the guidance of director Jon Favreau, who already made high marks with 2016's The Jungle Book, a film that itself could stand independently of its inspiration. Maybe this could recapture the epic magic of that original film. Unfortunately, the second time out, the mighty Lion's roar feels very tired, feeling cheaply wheeled out like a run-down circus show.

Mid-Year capsule reviews.

With how often I've been seeing movies this year, and how busy I've been with other priorities, it's not always easy for me to find time to write my thoughts on a movie down. In fact, even for some movies I like, I'm not always compelled to give detailed thoughts (not everything is deserving of 1,000+ word write ups). But over the summer, I've seen a fair share of films. Some good, some bad, some great, and some horrible. And for those I haven't gotten around to until now, I'll go ahead and give some of them some token acknowledgement, with the mid-year return of capsule reviews. Enjoy!

Midsommar movie review.

The 2010's have seen a resurgence in the independent horror film, specifically auteur-driven horror, making for a refreshing deviation from the jump scare fodder that, until recently, had a chokehold on cinema showtimes. One of the companies to thank for this is A24, who in recent years have released several effective horror films, or at least if they weren't, they were at least more ambitious than the usual slasher thriller, with titles like The Witch and It Comes at Night.

But for my money, their biggest hit was newcomer Ari Aster's Hereditary, a deeply unsettling and terrifying movie that merged familial grief with psychological and supernatural dread, that I still attest is the decade's finest horror film. Now a year later, Aster is back with another unsettling horror, this time set amongst the summer solstice festivities of a Swedish village in Midsommar. This is definitely from the same man responsible for Hereditary, an even more ambitious, unsettling, heady, and at times surprisingly comical calling card, cementing him as a new master of the genre.

Toy Story 4 movie review.

The Toy Story films are some of Pixar's greatest entries. Since putting the studio on the map back in 1995, the classic original film was followed up by two strong sequels in 1999 and 2010, considered by many among the few sequels as good as, if not better than the first. As their audience has matured, and are likely raising their own children, these films have grown up right alongside them, lacing in progressively mature and thoughtful ideas and character depth, becoming a franchise that only seems to improve thanks to the existence of its sequels.

In fact, even though the franchise had seemingly reached a natural stopping point with Toy Story 3, I guess there was more potential to be mined from this franchise. At least, that's what Pixar believed, with the release of this summer's Toy Story 4, a movie that by all accounts shouldn't work. Strong though the Toy Story franchise is, 3 just felt like a perfect ending, and with the added stigma of being the fourth entry, it screamed easy cash grab. But by some miracle, Toy Story 4 utterly shatters the fourth entry curse, continuing to add onto the legacy and depth of its franchise, with another witty, clever, heartfelt, excellent sequel.

"To Infinity and Beyond!" A Toy Story Retrospective: #3.

Toy Story 3 had a tumultuous life before it saw the big screen. With their contract ready to expire, Disney's contingency plan was to take Pixar's IP, and create direct-to-video sequels under the Circle 7 Animation banner, 3 being among them. This just seemed wrong, as Pixar's characters were nothing without their home studio bringing them to life, but if Pixar were to find a new distributor, it would threaten to take away the independence they'd enjoyed under Disney.

Thankfully, that never happened, as once Bog Iger took over from Michael Eisner as Disney CEO, one of his first acts was to buy Pixar outright, making the Disney castle their home forever. As a result, Circle 7 was scrapped, and so were the sequels. But... Toy Story 3 still sounded very enticing, and with their original creators back in control, this could be a continuation worth exploring. Coming at the end of their four year run of perfection, it was precisely that, sending its beloved characters off on a rich, entertaining, and appropriately bittersweet final note... at least, at the time.

Dark Phoenix movie review.

Before the MCU became the global titan that it is, Fox's X-Men film series laid the template for the modern superhero film as we know it. Beginning in 2000 with Bryan Singer's film, the series went through a twisty road of highs and lows, including the ill-advised Origins that almost cratered them. But with the addition of the new prequel entries, soon the franchise found its footing again, hitting its peak with Days of Future Past.

X-Men has always been the most elusive of Marvel's comic properties, the one series so successful, that Marvel themselves couldn't buy them back to be part of the MCU. But as they do, Disney eventually acquired Fox as a studio, so they can finally be part of that universe. But Fox still has two more films from that original timeline left to release, with this June's Dark Phoenix being the one to close off the original X-Men team storyline. And it's unfortunate, because this film sends them off not with a bang, but with a pathetic whimper.

"To Infinity and Beyond!" A Toy Story Retrospective: #2.

Pixar has always been a studio driven to perfectionism, and there's no better evidence of that - for better or worse - than Toy Story 2. As the film moved through various stages of production, including its home video release being shifted to theatrical, when the studio screened a rough cut, they felt they couldn't release the film in the state it was in. Against Disney's insistence, they scrapped a majority of the film, and reworked everything they'd tossed out from scratch.

Just to put things into perspective, this was nine months before the film's intended release. A tired John Lasseter, just off A Bug's Life, and his team worked themselves to the bone, sometimes to psychological breaks, and developing repetitive strains during production. Regardless of the film's quality, I can't condone that kind of crunch, and I'm certain Pixar regrets it for the effect it had. But by some sort of miracle, what should have been a nightmare, did in fact create another outstanding work. Toy Story 2 is every bit the incredible film as its predecessor, and in some areas may actually surpass it.