Category: Theaters

We know that Hugh Jackman is a long time song and dance man, and that he will usually jump at the chance to be in a big budget musical, so it is no surprise that he excels in The Greatest Showman.  What is a surprise is that while the music was fabulous almost no effort was put in to making the story around the music coherent.

The Greatest Showman is a tale about how P.T. Barnum rose from rags to riches selling tickets to see his ‘wonders’.  Almost all of which were either exaggerations at best, or out and out lies at worst, but of course it was all in the name of entertainment, so it was okay.

The Greatest Showman is a mostly a feel good film about empowerment, and how Barnum gave a stage to people who would have otherwise been cast to the shadows.  Of course it leaves out the part were he leased slaves, he couldn’t buy them since his show was based in New York, a free state, or that he barely paid or mistreated the rest.  Not the you should ever go to biopic looking for historical accuracy, but The Greatest Showman doesn’t even try.  All this movie wants to be is an uplifting film with great music, and the music is what you are coming for.

Every time someone opens their mouth a catchy tune comes out, and the dance numbers are all magical.  They got such good performers to be in the movie, that even though no time is wasted on character development, you feel emotional every time a song is getting to its peak.  There are no major misses on The Greatest Showman’s soundtrack.

If you are wondering if The Greatest Showman is for you, just ask yourself, “Do I like musicals?”  If the answer is ‘yes’, you will probably love it.  If the answer is ‘no’, than there is nothing in The Greatest Showman to change your mind.  It is a movie filled with wonderful musical numbers and little else, but based off what I saw in the theater, it knows its audience well, and they were thrilled by it.  Even I was swept up by its charms, but much like P.T. Barnum, charm is all there is.

You have a week off with your kid, and it is cold outside, so what do you do? You go see a movie of course.  This was true for me and the Missus as well.  We had already seen the great Coco, so all that was left for our young daughter was Ferdinand.  I wasn’t sure about Blue Sky’s latest release.  Their movies have been hit and miss, but Ferdinand was very well done.  Not a classic by any means, but good family entertainment.

Ferdinand is about the titular bull, voiced by John Cena, who doesn’t want to grow up and fight in the ring with a matador.  He would rather grow and smell flowers then lock horns with his pals.  The other bulls can’t understand this and make fun of him, so he runs away in search of a new life.

There is not a lot of story in Ferdinand, and the path the simplistic tale takes will not surprise anyone, but it has a good amount of heart, and John Cena does a real good job of making Ferdinand believable and sympathetic.  If his goal is to follow Dwayne Johnson out of the ring, he may be well on his way.  They also cover up their lack of material with a lot of silly sequences.  Which may go on a little long for adults, but I can tell you Lil’ Shmee loved them.

The rest of the voice cast is pretty good too, but I will say there are some hedgehogs with some of the best talent, on paper, in the movie that are completely wasted.  I don’t think I, or anyone else in the theater, laughed once at their gags.  Thankfully they are not in it a lot.

Ferdinand will not be an animated movie that adults will love.  They will probably enjoy it, but they will not remember it long.  Kids on the other hand seemed to be delighted by the on screen antics of Ferdinand the Bull and his friends.  Which means the movie did its job.  If you need to see movie with your family, and you have already seen Coco, Ferdinand is more than up to the task.

It used to be that every Pixar movie was a sure thing.  Then Cars came along, and after three mediocre Cars movies, a Bad Dinosaur, and an okay princess, people are wondering if Pixar can still deliver the goods.  Coco is here to prove that they can.  It is fun, heartwarming and it will make you cry like the finest films Pixar has ever produced, so please spend some time with Coco’s family both living and dead.

Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) wants to play guitar like his idol Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), but due to some unfortunate family history, music is not allowed in his household.  However, there is a big talent show on Dia los Muertos, but instead of playing in the show like he plans, he takes a detour to the Land of the Dead.

I have to admit the setup for the movie is its weakest link.  Banning a kid from playing guitar over something that happened generations ago is far fetched at best, and down right mean at worst.  However, once Miguel gets to the underworld this movie really takes off story wise.  Having Miguel deal with his issues while dealing with his dead family’s issues just works, and ended up being some of Pixar’s best work.

Speaking of Pixar’s best work, Coco is visually arresting.  It has to be one of Pixar’s best looking films, and it is one of the prettiest animated movies in existence.  The rich colorful world they created will be hard to forget, and I am sure that it will ignite the imaginations of children young and old for years to come.

Honestly the only real complaint I have about this movie is the twenty minute Frozen ‘short’ that is shown before the movie.  With Coco being so good, it is a shame that it is weighed down with one of Disney’s least inspired Christmas specials, and that is saying something.  At twenty minutes, the Frozen mini-movie is at least ten minutes too long.  Though it does get somewhat better as it goes along.

Another issue that some people may have is for those worried about Dia los Muertos’ pagan roots, and I don’t have a lot reassure you.  It depicts a pretty straight up version of the holiday, so you can decide if that is right for you and your family or not.  All that being said, I loved this movie, and the people at Pixar and Disney should be proud of this film.  I hope Coco is a return to form for Pixar as a studio because I am really looking forward to Incredibles 2!