Planes: Fire and Rescue review

PLANES: FIRE AND RESCUE:

UNDENIABLY SUPERIOR THAN ITS PREDECESSOR, IT’S STILL ONLY APPEALING TO THE YOUNGER GENERATION AND THAT’S IT!

 By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** 1/2 out of 4

DISNEY

Dusty Crophopper is back in Disney’s Planes: Fire and Rescue

            Dusty Crophopper, the underdog crop duster from the 2013 Disney Cars spinoff movie, Planes is back in this questionable sequel, Planes: Fire and Rescue. Again, like its predecessor, I didn’t hate it, but I can say that it certainly isn’t a good movie…for adults that is.

            Of course, it will appeal to kids, with its colorful and family-friendly animation, goofy voice acting, and if they’d rather not see How to Train Your Dragon 2 again or rent The Lego Movie from Netflix.

            The main protagonists characters from Planes return in Planes: Fire and Rescue like Dusty (voiced once again by Comedy Central’s Dane Cook-Dan In Real Life), Dottie (voiced by Teri Hatcher-Coraline, Desperate Housewives, Spy Kids), Skipper (voiced by Stacy Keach-Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, American History X, The Bourne Legacy), Chug (voiced by Brad Garrett-Porco Rosso, 2 Stupid Dogs, Tangled), Sparky (voiced by Danny Mann), and a few others.

            To the first film’s credit, I may have found it mediocre; I did get a kick out of Roger Craig Smith’s voice as Dusty’s rival, Ripslinger, he was the one who made the movie for me.

            The voices for the new characters in Planes: Fire and Rescue aren’t too bad, and it’s definitely better than the cast from the first film, because back in Planes, I pretty much only enjoyed one character voice in the entire film. This time there are more talented voice actors in the sequel such as Ed Harris (Apollo 13, The Rock, The Truman Show) as veteran fire-and-rescue helicopter, Blade Ranger, The Smokejumpers voiced by Regina King (The Boondocks) as Dynamite, Corri English (Runaway Jury, NCIS, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast) as Pinecone, Bryan Callen (The Hangover, MADtv, About Last Night) as Avalanche, Danny Pardo as Blackout (Okay Transformers, sue something!), Matt Jones as Drip, Jerry Stiller (Seinfeld) as RV, Harvey, and even some characters voiced by iconic voice actors, Patrick Warburton and Kevin Michael Richardson, at least there are more likable voice actors behind this film than its predecessor.

            Some time after the events of Planes, we find Dusty Crophopper doing what he does best, racing in the World Grand Prix and winning trophies. That is until he realizes that his engine is damaged and may never be able to race again.

            So during his time before the next race, he shifts gears and flies into a world of wildfire air attack (Don’t we have Smokey Bear to teach us about that?). Soon Dusty meets a group of firefighting cars and planes led by veteran fire-and-rescue helicopter, Blade Ranger.

            Blade’s air attack team consists of spirited, talkative, and Dusty’s number one fan, Lil Dipper (voiced by Julie Bowen-Happy Gilmore, Multiplicity, Horrible Bosses), heavy-lift helicopter, Windlifter (voiced by Wes Studi-Dances with Wolves, Heat, Avatar), ex-military transport, Cabbie (voiced by Dale Dye-JFK, Under Siege, Starship Troopers), and the acrobatic, Smokejumpers.

            Dusty decides to assist them with firefighting and much like the first Planes and Cars movies, he has a lot to learn if he’s going to become a firefighter.

            Overall, Planes: Fire and Rescue is an improvement over Planes with its story and voice acting, but it’s still too juvenile and more targeted towards kids to be considered decent family entertainment, unlike How to Train Your Dragon 2, Frozen, and The Lego Movie, where they managed to appeal to both children and adults.

            But with that said, this isn’t a terrible movie, none of the Cars or Planes movies are bad enough for me to pull my hair out and go on an explosive rant, unlike other certain family films that I know of (Free Birds, The Smurfs, the Alvin and the Chipmunks Squeakquels). The animation is colorful and the scenery can be very beautiful at times (But there’s definitely no comparison between this and the animation from Frozen, Frozen is far superior).

            Surprisingly the story in this film is better than the plot from Planes, it didn’t feel like Cars in the air again, this times it’s Cars…in the air…and on fire. At least it’s not Secret Agent Planes, like the plot of the widely despised, Cars 2.

            And like I said before, the voice acting is decent as well with the new characters, and I may not be a fan of Dane Cook, but he did okay as Dusty in these films, nothing great but nothing bad either. Although if I had to pick one, I’d still have to say Owen Wilson is better than Dane as Lighting McQueen in the Cars movies.

            If you’re looking for a satisfying family night out at the movies, I would recommend skipping this, you’d be better off seeing How to Train Your Dragon 2 again, you’ll have more fun. But this movie isn't terrible and as far as entertainment for little kids go, it's mostly harmless and they might find some enjoyment in it, but there is very little in here for adults.
            Also if you want to see a clever, exciting, and funny animated feature from Disney, I’d recommend waiting until Big Hero 6 comes out in November.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes review

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES:

VISUALLY STUNNING, JOLTING ACTION, INCREDIBLY STRONG STORY, AND ANOTHER SUMMER SEQUEL THAT OUTSHINES ITS PREDECESSOR!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

20^TH CENTURY FOX

Caesar the Ape commanding his army of genetically altered apes in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

            Everyone’s favorite CG ape, Caesar is back in the highly anticipated sequel to the 2011 hit, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, reboot of the iconic Planet of the Apes franchise. In the director’s chair now is Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In), Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty, Public Enemies, White House Down) stars as the new human protagonist, Malcolm, and Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) reprises his Motion Capture role as the leader of the ape clan, Caesar, sadly there’s no James Franco this time around (Technically).

            A decade after the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, we find that Caesar and the rest of his ape companions have started a family together in the forest, away from those pesky humans. Almost like a District 9 scenario, the humans and apes are living separately, the apes live in the forest, while the humans try and survive in the wasteland that used to be San Francisco.
            It turns out a deadly virus has been unleashed, caused by people getting infected by the ALZ-113 (one of the drugs from the last movie) and the leader of the surviving humans, Dreyfus (Gary Oldman-The Dark Knight trilogy, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Bram Stoker’s Dracula) plans on preparing the survivors for war against the apes.

            That is until survivor; Malcolm (Jason Clarke) tries to settle the situation peacefully without resulting to war. So he searches for Caesar and the apes, with his second wife, Ellie (Keri Russell-Mission: Impossible III, August Rush, Austenland), and his teenage son, Alexander (Kodi Smit-McPhee-Let Me In, ParaNorman).

            Malcolm informs Caesar of what the humans are planning and tries to get the apes to help him put a stop to the war between humans and apes.

            Of course, since this is a Planet of the Apes film, what follows are several conflicts between humans, conflicts between apes, conflicts between both humans and apes, all leading up to a thrilling climax.

            Overall, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, I don’t think is just as great as its 2011 predecessor, but I think it’s even better. The story is well written, Matt Reeves’ brilliant direction (not saying Rupert Wyatt did a bad job directing the previous film, his directing was fine too), and very strong human and ape characters.

            The CG animation on the apes have kicked up a notch and they look more realistic than they did back in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, you can still tell they were CG by the way they were moving and talking, but the overall appearance of them is a major improvement. Along with the animation, the art and set designs are spectacular and definitely feels more like a Planet of the Apes movie, the destroyed ruins, the post apocalyptic world, almost doesn’t feel like the same Earth from Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

            Besides the special effects and set and art design, the 3D was very impressive, you really feel immersed into this apocalyptic world they created and it feels like you’re swinging around with these apes, it’s up there with Avatar, How to Train Your Dragon, and Gravity as one of the best 3D experiences you’ll have in the cinema.

            The film surprisingly has very strong emotion and character development, mainly from the apes. All they want to do is protect their home and the humans want to do the same thing, like the first film, there’s no real antagonist in the film, at least not until later, but even then, it’s all confusion and fear.

            I never thought I would end up feeling so emotional over computer-generated apes.

            This might currently be the best film of the summer so far, it elevates what its predecessor did and takes the series to a whole new level, evolution if you will.

            So, if you enjoyed Rise of the Planet of the Apes or the Planet of the Apes franchise altogether, you’ll most likely get a kick out of this new film, especially if you’re watching it in 3D. If you live nearby a movie theater that has a large film format like Regal RPX, Cinemark XD, or Cinerama and is playing the film in 3D, I would strongly recommend seeing it in the largest format available, you’ll feel like an ape swinging on vines in no time and will most likely be excited for the upcoming third film in this new franchise once the movie ends.                    

A Brony Tale review

A BRONY TALE:

A WELL-MADE DOCUMENTARY ABOUT ONE OF THE STRANGEST FAN-BASES OF OUR GENERATION!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

HODGEE FILMS

Applejack from My Little Pony goes on an incredible journey in A Brony Tale

            Last week, I saw and reviewed the Roger Ebert documentary, Life Itself, and I said it was one of the greatest documentary films I have ever seen. And what did I follow that film with? A documentary about My Little Pony!

            That’s right, I went to see the latest Brony documentary, A Brony Tale, directed by Brent Hodge and follows the journey of voice actress from Vancouver, Ashleigh Ball, who provided the voices of Applejack and Rainbow Dash on the cult hit cartoon series, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. What is a Brony, you may ask? Well, My Little Pony was originally intended for little girls, because of its cutesy and family friendly appearance and the main characters are all female ponies.

            It turns out it became a cult hit with men in high school, college, and beyond, you would expect men to be more interested in entertainment that is strong and loaded with action and explosions, not something cute and fluffy. But don’t worry there are female audiences out there who enjoy the show just as much as the males; their fan name is called Pegasisters.

            However this is not the first Brony documentary we’ve had, before A Brony Tale there was a 2012 documentary about the fandom titled, Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony, which I have not yet seen.

            Ashleigh invites us on an incredible journey to her very first convention dedicated to Bronies, known as BronyCon in New York City. Along the way she learns more and more about Bronies and how My Little Pony changed people’s lives, she even watches a Sparta Remix of Rainbow Dash.

            We also learn about Ashleigh’s past voice over work on cartoons like Care Bears and Warner Bros. Animation’s Coconut Fred’s Fruit Salad Island and her other passion besides voice acting; she has a deep passion in music (and she has a wonderful singing voice, by the way!).

            Besides Ashleigh’s experiences at BronyCon, there are also interviews with everyday people, who happen to be Bronies like a DJ who remixes My Little Pony songs for dances and parties, several patrons of BronyCon, even an entire charity dedicated to Bronies called Bronies for Good, and an encounter with the Manliest Brony in the World.

            The film also has brief appearances by voice actors, Andrea Libman, who provided Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy’s voices, and Nicole Oliver, who did the voice of Princess Celestia on the series, during a panel at BronyCon. Which brings me to another story occurring in the film.

            There is a young artist and fan of My Little Pony, named Bryan Mischke, a "Military Brony"who drew this wonderful picture of Princess Celestia to show Nicole Oliver at BronyCon, and what follows is an extremely uplifting and charming moment (Now I know what I should do next time at Seattle’s Emerald City ComiCon).

            Overall, I wouldn’t say A Brony Tale left as big of an impact on me as Life Itself, but from what I got, this is a well-made documentary film and it also helped me understand more about the Brony phenomenon.

            I had some personal experiences with Bronies in my life, I knew some people in high school and on Facebook who like the show and also a lot of Brony events at the Emerald City ComiCon in Seattle. Ever since the 2012 Emerald City ComiCon, people have been dressing up as their favorite ponies, lots of merchandise, and a couple of the voice actors from the show attended, Tara Strong (voice of Twilight Sparkle) and Andrea Libman.

            At first I thought Bronies was a very strange fan base because I came from a generation where boys liked action cartoons and the girls liked fluffy and cuddly cartoons. As a kid, I watched cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series, Dragonball Z, Pokémon, and a little bit of Transformers (Although I didn’t become a die-hard fan until the movie came out in 2007), but I also remembered watching shows like The Powerpuff Girls, Kim Possible, and a little bit of Totally Spies (Yeah, I did watch some episodes of this when I was a kid!).

            So, after remembering that I watched cartoons like The Powerpuff Girls, I started to understand the appeal of My Little Pony more. There is absolutely nothing wrong with boys and men liking a cartoon like this, you’re not creating a great tragedy or destroying media, you’re enjoying a cartoon and you’re showing how much you enjoy it with everyone.

            I’m not really a Brony, granted I have seen a few episodes of the series on a DVD, and from what I got it’s not a bad show, I like the animation and art direction, the voice acting is pretty good, and the concepts of these episodes can be very clever at times. I guess you can consider me a Rising Brony because I’m undecided whether or not to continue, right now I’m just galloping through what I like and sharing my opinions, but who knows maybe one day, I’ll sprout some wings and fly with the rest of the fellow Bronies, they’re people like you and me.

            And Ashleigh makes it perfectly clear that as long as My Little Pony is around, there will be Bronies. It’s quite a fascinating fan base and this is a wonderful film that depicts it, whether you’re a Brony or not, you may end up enjoying this film.
This blog just got 20% Cooler!

Life Itself review

LIFE ITSELF:

TWO THUMBS UP FOR EBERT TRIBUTE!

By Nico Beland (At the Blog!)

Movie Review: **** out of 4

MAGNOLIA PICTURES

Chicago Sun-Times film critic, Roger Ebert in Life Itself

            My first review of a documentary film, granted I don’t find documentaries boring and slow, there are plenty of films in this genre that I enjoyed such as 2007’s The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, 2012’s Searching for Sugar Man, and 1999’s Trekkies. Now, I think I may have discovered my favorite documentary of all time, Life Itself, based on the 2011 memoir of the same name, written by the late film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert.

            The film adaptation is incredibly well handled and is filled with detailed interviews and narrations by Ebert, his wife, Chaz Ebert, Marlene Iglitzen, the wife of Ebert’s late partner on television and Chicago Tribune critic, Gene Siskel, and even film director, Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Hugo, The Wolf of Wall Street).

            Many of the events that happened in Ebert’s life were shown in the film, like Ebert’s time as a newspaper writer, screenplay writer for 20^th Century Fox’s Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, his collaboration with Gene Siskel on the TV series, Opening Soon at a Theater Near You/At the Movies with Siskel & Ebert, and his long battle against thyroid cancer until his death in April 2013.

            There were various clips from Siskel and Ebert’s appearances on television in the film, most notably, some of the memorable moments from the Siskel & Ebert series reviews of films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Apocalypse Now, and Scarface.

            Overflowing with details, informative facts, and many things that I did not know about Roger Ebert or Gene Siskel before seeing this film, and we get to a very powerful and emotional ending of his life that would be impossible not to get teary eyed from.

            Overall, Life Itself may be the best film currently out in theaters, aside from all those summer blockbusters with explosions. It was a very important film for me to see, because Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were part of my inspiration to create the blog you are reading right now.

            I learned a lot about Siskel and Ebert’s lives from this film, along with some more helpful ideas for any of my future blog posts.

            If you have an “Unlimited Passion” of film, whether it’s filmmaking or film reviewing, this is a very important and gripping film for you all to see. I was truly moved by the film and would love to learn even more about Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel.

            However, this isn’t really an issue I had with the film, but I noticed that there weren’t any interviews by Ebert’s other companion on television, Richard Roeper, not even a mention. I’m sure he would have a lot to say about Ebert and the role he played in his life.

            But aside from that, this may be a perfect film that I’m certain that Siskel and Ebert would have loved if they were still here with us. It’s up there with The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters and Trekkies as one of my favorite documentaries of all time, if not my most.

            If you’re looking for a film to see over the summer and don’t want to destroy your brain with an explosion-filled summer blockbuster, give Life Itself a shot and enjoy a powerful tribute to Roger Ebert.

            First we had Roger Ebert’s tribute to Gene Siskel, after his death in 1999, then a wonderful tribute to both Siskel and Ebert by the Nostalgia Critic, along with a follow-up farewell to Ebert a few days after his death, and now we have this wonderful, informative, and entertaining film about one of the greatest men in the history of film.

            Hopefully this will lead to more documentary film reviews for my blog, perhaps a review of a particular documentary I will be seeing Tuesday night.

            See you at the movies!