Flix seen: Inside Out/Ant-Man

[Monk]

Inside Out
The funny thing about Pixar movies, for me at least, is that I'm almost never interested in any particular movie based on the trailers. I think the lone exception has been The Incredibles, which was the first one I saw in theaters (and it remains one of my favorite Pixar flicks). Yet, despite never being particularly excited for any of the films, generally I either really like or love them. Inside Out follows this theme - I wasn't particularly interested based on the trailers, but the overwhelmingly positive reviews and lady's strong interest in it convinced me to go see it. I must say that I'm glad I did - the film was overwhelmingly a great movie-going experience. A good mix of really clever jokes along with more slapstick-oriented humor. And, once again, Pixar manages to make me feel all the feels. Great animation, great characters, good story line - it just hits all the right notes. It's the best original Pixar (as in, non-sequel) since Wall-E, in my opinion.

Ant-Man

I was fairly disappointed with this film. It has some great humor in it (you can see some of the Edgar Wright humor throughout), but I found a lot of the jokes to be a bit forced and fell flat. Additionally, there was a lot of overwrought, overacted dramatic sequences and dialogue that was almost unbearable to watch at times, and felt entirely unnecessary and a bit jarring at times. Some good action scenes though, and I liked how these incorporated the shrinking/enlarging of Ant-Man during these sequences. There was one glaring inconsistency in the supposed science of the Ant-Man suit, though. The idea is that when something is shrunk, the overall mass remains the same but the space in between the atoms decreases dramatically. This what allows for Ant-Man to have such powerful punches despite his small size. But this would also mean that his weight would remain the same, right? Yet he manages to jump on top of people's arms/hands/backs etc without them noticing, when really they should be feeling the equivalent of 170-190 lb on top of them. I know it's a movie and I'm being nitpicky, but the lack of consistency bothered me. Overall, I would say this is a lower-tier Marvel flick. Above Incredible Hulk and Thor 2, and maybe around Iron Man 2 level quality.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

The funny thing about Ant-Man is that it's pretty much Iron Man, only with a better climax.

To me, it was a good break from these epic battles for the earth/universe the MCU got caught up in. Sure it was silly and often overacted, but I think that's what audiences liked most about it.

[Whitey]

I liked Ant Man. It was smaller scale(pun not intended), and I liked the humour a lot.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

I liked Ant Man. It was smaller scale(pun not intended), and I liked the humour a lot.

I know what you mean. I kept telling my friend what I liked about it and he thought I was trying to be punny.

[Whitey]

Clearly we're both naturally hilarious.


I just think it was a solid film, Paul Rudd is funny enough to carry off the character, the bad guy, while he was no Loki, was pretty good, I didn't mind that his motivation was him being an insane greedy bastard. They made good use of the whole ant sized thing(especially in the last 20 mins). There were bits that were seemingly ridiculous like the whole training and talking to the ants thing, but I think that was fine as we kinda got Paul Rudd basically being an audience surrogate in that regard as he thinks it's bizarre also.

[Monk]

I thought the movie was fine. Like Apollo said, it was basically a clone of the Iron Man plot, but I found it dragged a lot more in certain places and the dramatic sequences were incredibly forced (along with some atrocious dialogue). The main villain was terrible, IMO.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

And on Inside Out, I loved the movie too. Pixar really did well blending the fun & the feels. I loved the jokes. I missed some here and there the first time because they were delivered so naturally (facts & opinions).

[OpiateOfTheMasses]

I've been to seen Inside Out today and I thought it was one of the best films I've seen in a long time. It was clever, funny, underplayed in the right places and a good pace... Very impressed!

And I assume all the showings also have the same little unrelated short about the volcano at the beginning? That was lovely too.

[Dr_Liszt]

Am I the only person who thought Inside-out was a mediocre to good film? It was a 6/10 and very predictable.

[OpiateOfTheMasses]

Am I the only person who thought Inside-out was a mediocre to good film? It was a 6/10 and very predictable.

Yes.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

Am I the only person who thought Inside-out was a mediocre to good film? It was a 6/10 and very predictable.

May I ask what you didn't like about it?

I've been to seen Inside Out today and I thought it was one of the best films I've seen in a long time. It was clever, funny, underplayed in the right places and a good pace... Very impressed!

And I assume all the showings also have the same little unrelated short about the volcano at the beginning? That was lovely too.

Yes, the Lava short was nice too. I don't think it was the best, but it was cute. Not sure why so many are disliking it on IMDb and other places.

[Dr_Liszt]

The problem was they sold me this movie as being a really mature film that adults would identify with. But it wasn't that original and the jokes weren't that funny. A lot of the characters were one dimensional. It was just meh, I will forget I ever saw it in a couple of months.

6/10.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

The problem was they sold me this movie as being a really mature film that adults would identify with. But it wasn't that original and the jokes weren't that funny. A lot of the characters were one dimensional. It was just meh, I will forget I ever saw it in a couple of months.

6/10.

Are you sure it's just not the idea of privileged first worlders feeling sad?

[Dr_Liszt]

No.

It's also worilders.

[Derived Absurdity]

If I gave movies numbers I probably would give Inside Out a 5 or a 6. It was entertaining enough, but it was also extremely predictable and in some parts really boring and unimaginative. None of the jokes were funny at all, they were mostly "it's funny 'cause it's true" or "it's funny 'cause I got that" type. I doubt most of the kids would have even got them. The movie only sort of worked as an adventure story and it really didn't work at all as a coherent metaphor. But the biggest problem is that the entire thing felt self-consciously like one big moral lesson, like something a school guidance counselor would show you to open you up about your feelings. I felt like I was being lectured to. It felt to me like Pixar was trying way too hard to be poignant and sensitive. It felt unnatural and forced and it took me out of the story.

So it was ok.

[OpiateOfTheMasses]

The problem was they sold me this movie as being a really mature film that adults would identify with. But it wasn't that original and the jokes weren't that funny. A lot of the characters were one dimensional. It was just meh, I will forget I ever saw it in a couple of months.

6/10.

Compared to most of the crap they produced aimed at kids it was high art.

And to be fair to it - it was kind of the point that most of the characters were one dimensional... (Sadness was sad. Anger was angry. And so on...)

[Dr_Liszt]

Everyone was one dimensional. Which made the characters hard to attach with. Joy did have some depth since she was the one who showed more that one emotion, but it was still meh.

And yes, compared to most kids movies, this one was good. But it was still a 6/10. Frozen was better.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

Everyone was one dimensional. Which made the characters hard to attach with. Joy did have some depth since she was the one who showed more that one emotion, but it was still meh.

And yes, compared to most kids movies, this one was good. But it was still a 6/10. Frozen was better.

Or maybe you just can't relate to first world problems .

[Dr_Liszt]

If it wasn't for that movie, I wouldn't even know that the royal family had another parasit... baby.

[BruceSmith78]

But the biggest problem is that the entire thing felt self-consciously like one big moral lesson, like something a school guidance counselor would show you to open you up about your feelings. I felt like I was being lectured to. It felt to me like Pixar was trying way too hard to be poignant and sensitive. It felt unnatural and forced and it took me out of the story.

So it was ok.

This probably means it was really good, since this sounds like your review for Requiem for a Dream. I wanna see it now.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

Here's how I would rane the animated kids' movies I've seen this year:

Inside Out>Shaun the Sheep>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Minions>Strange Magic

One I'm growing more interested in is another Pixar movie called "The Good Dinosaur", which will be released in November.

[Derived Absurdity]

I don't remember reviewing Requiem for a Dream, but if I did, that sounds like something I would say about it.

[BruceSmith78]

Yeah, it's come up a few times and you say it feels preachy and like a bad after-school special from the Reagan administration's war on drugs campaign or something like that.

I think RFAD did a great job of making me feel empty and cold and depressed, which is what I think it set out to do, so for that reason I liked it. It's also why I only watched it once.

[Dr_Liszt]

I would consider Requiem overrated, but still quite good. Like a 7/10 but would have to watch it again, saw it a looooooooooong time ago.

[Derived Absurdity]

Yeah, it's come up a few times and you say it feels preachy and like a bad after-school special from the Reagan administration's war on drugs campaign or something like that.

I think RFAD did a great job of making me feel empty and cold and depressed, which is what I think it set out to do, so for that reason I liked it. It's also why I only watched it once.

Oh yeah, I remember now. Yeah, that pretty much about sums it up.

I don't think it made me feel anything except bored. The Sixth Sense did a pretty good job making me feel cold and depressed.

[BruceSmith78]

The 6th Sense was kinda lame. It made no impression on me at all.

[OpiateOfTheMasses]

Requiem For A Dream was no where near as good as Trainspotting.

Truefact.

[Derived Absurdity]

The 6th Sense was kinda lame. It made no impression on me at all.

I explained the big reasons why it made an impression one me on the end of that one thread where I reviewed it. It was mostly cause of the acting.