Inside Out Review

Starring: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Bill Hader

Inside Out is the newest film from Pixar Animation Studios (presented by Disney). A girl going through a childhood crisis relies on her emotions to navigate her in her struggle. Her mind is run by five core emotions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear. Pixar in the past is known for having outstanding original ideas that garner critical applause, major awards, and universal success. Movies like Toy Story and its sequels, Up, WALL-E, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and Monsters Inc, all have above 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and opened at #1 at the box-office. Inside Out is no exception. With 99% critical approval, and a rare A+ CinemaScore from audiences, it has unanimously been called one of, if not the best movie of the year so far. Multiple critics are even calling it a lock for Best Picture. It's such a great concept that is executed so well, I'd have to agree. However, parents be cautioned. While it's whimsical and funny, it also deals with some pretty hefty ideas and is incredibly psychological and complex. Not your typical family fare.

The five core emotions are so incredibly well realized characters. Joy (Poehler) is an incredible character, and is the star of the show. She's the girl Riley's governing emotion. So what would happen if she and Sadness (Smith) clash over Riley's important core memories, and get transported to long term memory? Hilarity ensues as Fear (Hader) cowers in the corner as her mind is run by Anger (Black) and Disgust (Kaling), who try their best, but speed up the process of her mind falling apart. In a world where Riley desperately needs her emotions to help her figure it all out, she has neither Joy nor Sadness to express herself. The world building in the film is also excellent. For a movie entirely based on an abstract idea, its seamless. There are no plot holes, and everything is explained pretty clearly. Riley's mind is an amazing world. You have her imagination, a TV studio that makes her dreams, her personality operating from islands, a literal train of thought and so much more. It's so beautifully thought up, I was taken out of the film just because I was admiring how amazing it was.

My favorite emotion was Sadness. Sadness has an incredible character arc. In the beginning, she likes to touch the memories and feel like she's a part of something. Except when she does, it makes Riley sad. She can distort memories. So while Joy makes Riley happy, Anger keeps her in check, Fear keeps her from getting hurt or into trouble, and Disgust creates her self-image, Sadness is restricted to a circle where she can't touch anything. Because who wants their kid to be sad? It's in the third act, when Joy finally realizes that they all have to work together. Joy wants Riley to be happy all the time, and joy is an important emotion. A kid should be happy all of the time, and this movie could have easily made that the moral. But she realizes that she only enters the picture after Riley's been sad, mad, scared, or disgusted. Life doesn't just go up, and up, and up. It's a complex spiral and she can't be prominent all of the time. And they all finally recognize Sadness and her importance to the mind.

I was completely captivated by Inside Out. I'm a Pixar fan, but I was surprised at how deep this movie is. It's an amazing idea for a film, with perfect execution. It really strikes at the heart of its concept, and I guarantee it will leave you thinking. If you've ever felt like your emotions are wrestling with each other, this pretty much shows you what it looks like. Whenever you're scared, angry, disgusted, happy, or sad, there's a reason, as well as a solution. It might not be these little guys in your head working together, but Inside Out really reminds you that your emotions do not control you. However, they do shape your memories and your outlook on life, with both the highs and the lows. It's a great movie I'd recommend everybody see as soon as you can.

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Jurassic World Review

Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D'Onofrio, Irrfan Khan, Jake Johnson

Jurassic World just had the biggest opening weekend of all time. In just three days, it grossed $208 million, narrowly overtaking 2012's The Avengers' record of $207 million. It beat Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' record for biggest overseas gross, and became the first movie ever to make $500 million in one week. Yes, this movie is that big. And it blew anybody's predictions out of the water. Universal had it slated for $100 million for the weekend, and that was being very optimistic. The success of Jurassic World shouldn't be puzzling. It starts off 22 years after Jurassic Park, which was the biggest movie ever upon its release, and remains a cinematic landmark. I saw this movie on a Sunday night in a small theater, on a school night nonetheless, and it was completely packed. Much like the theme park in the film wanted to spice up the attractions, a genetically modified dinosaur seemed to spike up the attendance in more ways than one. But is it any good? That becomes a difficult question. This movie is epic in scope, and succeeds on many levels. But after seeing it, I can find faults that will limit its ability to become a milestone in movie history.

First, I'll talk about what I liked. The acting was very inconsistent. The one who was able to make the biggest impression was Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays the operations manager Claire. She has a really well written character arc. Her relationship with her nephews, is great, and her romance with Chris Pratt's character is believable. It's the way her attitude changes throughout the movie that makes you root for her. At first she's an ignorant corporate manager, but she changes as she begins to actually interact with the "attractions" she oversees. Speaking of attractions, the dinosaurs are as amazing as expected. The pteranodons (bird dinosaur) scene was incredible to see (Make sure to see it in 3D!), and legitimate terror was felt as they swooped in and picked attendees up. The Indominus Rex is also brilliantly done. The Indominus is a genetically modified dinosaur Claire ordered to spike attendance, only just like in the previous films, the animals they spliced its genes with end up giving it abilities no one intended. I'm going to keep those aspects a secret, because the twists with the Indominus Rex are so well executed that they all really surprised me. The movie succeeds with its plotline of the Indominus escaping, and Claire having to try and find it and protect the park from the monster they created. It's so epic I'd even call it awesome. There's a sense of awe in every dinosaur scene, down to the ending when the T-Rex comes out and...well, I'll let you see the movie in find out.

The fault is in the script. The story is so poorly executed in points, it's laughable when it shouldn't be. There are two storylines existing here, and it's obvious which one is at the forefront. There's Bryce Dallas Howard and the Indominus Rex, its escape, and the questions raised about genetic mutation and human interference. Then there is Chris Pratt's character Owen, and his Velociraptors, and Vincent D'Onofrio, who wants to use them as weapons in war. Eventually the stories combine when Claire asks Owen to help her track the Indominus, and the Velociraptors take their military field test attempting to track down and kill her. But it always feels like its unneeded, and I'd rather be watching the Indominus in action then a bunch of people arguing over the war-ethics of Velociraptors. I personally believed Chris Pratt was not good in this role. He didn't come off as organic, and his acting was very forced as was his humor. It felt as if he was trying too hard. Some of the movie's lines were so cheesy it was funny in the wrong way. Also, there was too much obvious product placement and nods to the original. I'm all for paying homage, but it was so inconsistent. I couldn't figure out if Universal wanted to create a carbon copy of Jurassic Park complete with merchandise, or create its own movie with nods to the original. They literally re-create the iconic T-Rex roaring scene from the first film with the Indominus, and it doesn't make as big an impact.

So Jurassic World is as grandiose as it promised, yet it suffers from problems in the sloppy writing. I urge everyone to see this movie. It's by no means a bad movie, but everyone should definitely form their own opinion. It just fails to capture any of the magic from the original. While some scenes had me on the edge of my seat, I know from seeing Jurassic Park in 3D a couple of years ago that NO scene from this movie even comes close to the terror and intensity of the T-Rex scene. I will say I had an awesome time seeing this movie, and if you go in with an open mind, you can too!

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