Toy Story 4

Official Australian release date: 20/6/19. Viewed: 19/6/19.

Director: Josh Cooley

Actors: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale

Genre: Comedy / Fantasy

Rating: G

  

‘Toy Story 4’ is the sequel no-one asked for, but it is another excellent entry in the Pixar filmography – probably not quite as great as the original ‘Toy Story’, or the most recent ‘Toy Story 3’ (crazy that even it’s nine years ago!), but still a great film. We’re reintroduced to Woody (Hanks), Buzz (Allen), Bo Peep (Potts), Jessie (Cusak), Slinky (Clark), Rex (Shaw), Hamm (Ratzenberger) and the gang in a flashback, which sets up the film as a reunion story for Woody & Bo Peep.

Now that the toys are enjoying their second lease on life after Andy passed them on, Bonnie (McGraw) is “their kid”. When she goes to kindy, she creates a new toy – Forky (Hale), which is exactly what it sounds like. When Bonnie, her parents and the toys go on a roadtrip holiday, Forky gets lost and Woody embarks on a rescue mission. This search for Forky also parallels Woody’s search for relevance.

There’s plenty of adventure and toy-action, as well as plenty of great new characters – Duke Caboom (Reeves), Ducky & Bunny (Key & Peele), Gabby (Hendricks), Giggle (Maki) – but it’s hard to go past the originals (& “newer” additions of Trixie the triceratops [Schaal] and Buttercup the unicorn [Garlin]), including Mr Potato Head, pieced together by previous lines from the late Don Rickles. The friendship between Woody & Buzz is still key, but not at the forefront – it’s almost a “love” story between Woody & Bo and a father/son story between Woody & Forky. Needless to say, excellent CGI, great soundtrack and a fantastic ending.

Overall: Another excellent story about life and love.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix

Official Australian release date: 6/6/19. Viewed: 13/6/19.

Director: Simon Kinberg

Actors: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan

Genre: Action / Si-Fi

Rating: M

  

‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix’ is the seventh X-Men film and the fourth featuring McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence & Hoult as Xavier/Charles, Magneto/Erik, Mystique/Raven & Beast/Hank. It’s worth noting that this is the second film after some of the continuity-tweaking that occurred in “Days of Future Past’, meaning it’s also only the second X-Men film to not feature Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Herein lies some of the problem – he’s the spiritual heart of the X-Men films and they’re definitely on a downward trajectory.

Most of the problem is that since this is essentially the ‘new’ X-Men, we’ve had no time to get familiar with the new Cyclops/Scott (Sheridan), Phoenix/Jean (Turner), Storm/Ororo (Shipp), Nightcrawler/Kurt (Smit-McPhee) & Quicksilver/Peter (Peters). Their chemistry and repartee is lacking, and compared to the MCU films, it’s really noticeable. Nightcrawler should be there for some comic relief, but none is evident. They also act out-of-character at times – Beast & Nightcrawler seeking revenge and killing people/aliens would never happen in the comics. It’s odd, since the director is also the writer of this film and the previous two X-Men films, so should know the characters well enough.

While it’s essentially the same story as ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’ (also written by Kinberg), it’s at least a little different (and different from the comics too), with Jean never really being in control. The CGI is good, but the actual cosmic phoenix is barely seen. The 2^nd act is very slow, but there’s a but of action at the end, even if it’s rather predictable at times. Peters, Lawrence & Chastain are all wasted and there needed to be way more backstory to the D’Bari (why aren’t they the Shi’ar?) Some good moments, but the sooner Marvel bring Deadpool, Fantastic Four and the X-Men into the MCU, the better. 

Overall: Left me mostly with a feeling of emptiness.

Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars.