Toy Story 3

The original Toy Story was a big part of my youth, and the sequel was thoroughly enjoyable, but I've long thought of them as slightly inferior to most of Pixar's work in the last decade, when they really figured out how to be all things to all people. I haven't actually seen the first two since that perceived step up in quality occurred, but I don't think I'm far off with those feelings. So when everyone gave the third film totally glowing reviews and talked up its emotional content, I was a bit surprised, but not disbelieving. I went into the film expecting something between a competent third chapter and the best movie of all time, and that's pretty much what I got.

Toy Story 3 is the perfect conclusion to the series, and possibly my favorite work to date by the studio. It was a stroke of genius to have Andy age along with the people who were children when the first two movies came out, and the story they chose to tell managed to stay true to the adventurous, humorous spirit they had before while still telling the most emotionally engaging and mature story of the three, without dipping into depressing or maudlin territory. I'll put it this way: Up made me a bit misty with a well constructed, beautifully tragic love story at the center of its old-guy-with-balloons movie, but I partly felt like they were trying to manipulate me into feeling sad when I just wanted to have a good time. Toy Story 3 delighted and thrilled me before making me cry with a perfect little scene that just seemed to capture all the emotions involved in growing up and life moving on without seeming to need to try to.

The core cast from the first two movies is back, whittled down to all the truly essential characters, and they really are a great bunch. Obviously Tom Hanks and Tim Allen take center stage as Woody and Buzz, but the whole group is just fun to throw together and do things with. There's also a veritable ton of new characters added, both the villainous overlords at the daycare center and the friendly bunch at another kid's house that Woody meets. Most don't quite have the time to develop full personalities like the old characters, but they're all interesting enough, with some great new voices by guys like Timothy Dalton and Michael Keaton, and Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear is probably the best real antagonist Pixar has had.

The movie also looks outstanding, not exactly because of the technical excellence of the computer effects (although that's definitely noticeable in places, like Lots-O's fur), but just because of the artistry and style of the animation. Woody's floppy run and all the little character touches look a lot more entertaining than I think the animators really knew how to do with computers only a few years ago. Moments like Mr. Potato Head with the tortilla are among what's simply the best stuff people have ever done with the medium in terms of creativity and movement that's amusing to look at. And of course Pixar maintains their ability to create action sequences that are more inventive and thrilling than what most violent blockbusters are able to pull off.

Licence to Kill

Licence (British spelling) to Kill was an attempt to cash in on Timothy Dalton's more serious take on the James Bond character, and it ended up flopping a bit. At first I thought people just might not have been ready in the 80s for such a style for the series, but in truth the film's execution just isn't as good as it could have been. First off, much like Quantum of Solace, the story is about Bond going rogue to finish a mission. Here he's mostly driven by revenge, but since they didn't actually have the balls to kill off the Felix Leiter character even though they don't use him again anyway until after the reboot, his quest is a little more flimsily built on another who we never even met until this movie. He does some swimming and some infiltrating and some backstabbing and some romancing, but it's never quite as interesting as it could be with such a good concept as turning Bond back into a hard ass.

Instead of some grand, world changing scheme, Dalton is again facing off against a villain with a more personal plan of just making a buck. I gotta say, while eccentric personalities with secret bases in unlikely locations with plots to completely change the planet and set off nuclear weapons get old after a while, a drug dealer like Sanchez selling drugs and killing people who try to stop him is kind of boring. And really, the cop who let him go for a couple million bucks is the one he should have been pissed at, what do you expect Sanchez to do once he's free and has his captor at his mercy? He didn't even kill him! Still, drugs are bad, and of course Sanchez is dead and his entire operation is destroyed by the end of the film. The girls are okay despite one being best known for starring in the Mortal Kombat movies and the other getting her hair cut too short after her "look, I'm super hot now" makeover. As the last film for the second M, second Moneypenny, and fourth different Bond, it's not bad, but not as good as it could have been or should have been with the idea.

James Bond stats
Theme song: "Licence to Kill" by Gladys Knight
Foreign locations: Bahamas, Florida, Latin America
Bond, James Bond: 1:08:40
Martini shaken, not stirred: 1:06:15
Ladies seduced: 2
Chases: 3
Kills: 10
Non-lethal takedowns: 10

The Living Daylights

Here we arrive at the fourth Bond, who brings with him only the second Moneypenny in the series. The movie is a bit of a mixed bag, because it was still originally written for Moore's joke-heavy style while Timothy Dalton plays the role pretty straight and gritty, which a lot of people didn't like at the time but got Daniel Craig accolades almost two decades later. The humor is still intact here and there with things like a chase down a snowy mountain in a cello case. The tone shifts really seemed to come fast and furious. After the opening, the story begins with Bond overseeing a Russian officer's defection to the west with the sniper rifle, and he's all business and super serious. Then he send him across the border in an oil pipeline. Wacky! Later, he helps sneak the female assassin out of town, who turns out to be the officer's lover. Serious. Then they escape some authorities in the most gadget-heavy chase sequence I've seen in the series. Wacky!

This back and forth continues throughout the film. It's not jarring or anything, it just felt a little unusual. The plot involves the fake reinstatement of a Russian initiative to kill spies, betrayals, drug trades, arms dealers, Afghan terrorists played as good guys, and fake assassinations. Despite all the bad crap going on around him, Dalton is surprisingly non-lethal in this film, racking up one of the smallest kill totals in the series. While others nearby are fighting his battles, he's doing his part to stop the villains without murdering all of them, although he does do a bit of that. The main Bond girl is a bit dim and doesn't wear the standard issue very-little, but for some reason I liked her. The chemistry between the two was good and believable for the first time in a while for the series, and her character just worked. John Rhys-Davies is likable as a Russian general Bond ends up working with, and this movie also marks the final appearance of General Gogol, who's been alternately an ally and an antagonist since the third Moore film. This was Dalton's only perceived success in the role, and a pretty solid Bond movie.

James Bond stats
Theme song: "The Living Daylights" by A-ha
Foreign locations: Gibraltar, Czechoslovakia, Vienna, Morocco, Afghanistan
Bond, James Bond: 7:25
Martini shaken, not stirred: 56:30, 1:18:25 (unspoken)
Ladies seduced: 2
Chases: 2
Kills: 2, plus explosion victims
Non-lethal takedowns: 10

Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz is the next genre comedy from the Shaun of the Dead guys that honors its subject matter as much as it satires it. Shaun was a great take on zombie movies. Not only was it very funny, it was actually more than competent as just an example of the style. Hot Fuzz purports to do the same with Hollywood action movies, except for the fact that more than half of it is a lot closer to a slasher/mystery movie. Simon Pegg is the hotshot, ultra-serious officer who was transferred to a small town for being too good, and Nick Frost essentially reprises his role as Pegg's dumb, yet sympathetic friend. The two bond over the course of the movie, and at times their togetherness seemed almost romantic. I later learned that there was originally a female love interest for the main character who was cut, and a lot of her lines were given to Frost without any changes, which is actually pretty funny.

Anyway, Sandford is in the running for England's nicest village again, but a mysterious hooded figure has been killing townspeople and disguising his work as accidents. Pegg is sure it's murder, but no one believes him. He has to piece together what's really happening before the killer strikes again. It really is more like Scream than any action movie I've seen. Even if it wasn't what I expected, it was still plenty entertaining, with lots of great lines and jokes and hilariously over-the-top death scenes. A little closer to the end than I would have liked, they finally make the transition to the action part of the movie. There's a lot of entertainment to be had in the short time he and his allies are having gun fights with barkeepers, old men, and supermarket workers. They poke a lot of fun at the ridiculousness of modern movies while having a good go at it themselves. There's a dramatic climax with one more sickly humorous moment before a contrived ending finishes the movie a bit weakly. I think Shaun of the Dead was a bit better focused and stronger as a film, but Hot Fuzz was still good fun.