The Man With X-Ray Eyes

Not as existential as I thought it would be but still pretty good.

This was one of Roger's more ambitious films with a budget around $300,000 dollars with a large emphasis on optical effects and experimental cinematography, following the experiment of a Dr. Xavier who develops a drug to enhance the human eye. Of course nobody would test it but himself as we watch his spiral downwards from skilled doctor, to carnival attraction, to card shark with an appropriately eerie ending. For a film at about 80 minutes long it doesn't take long for the experiment to occur and it certainly kept me guessing until the absolute end where it would go, and I feel in my bones this is a plot that could be expanded upon in a much more existential and horrific way but the touches we do get while understated are still unsettling. Imagine never having the respite of closing your eyes, imagine light being unbearably painful, imagine seeking peace when none will come to escape the far reaching gaze that pierces cloud, shadow, earth, and flesh. That's a different kind of horror, not quite body horror, not quite cosmic horror, but something people would not want to experience. The movie is carried exceptionally well on the back of Ray Milland as James Xavier, it's almost a performance based on his voice alone which is fantastic by the by, because it's hard to express the scope of such an unnatural power in the eye of the beholder but you can hear the pain and desperation he has. The experimental liquid is akin to a narcotic with him taking more and more culminating in a broken and dazed monologue at the end. I heard he wasn't keen on this movie but he performs very admirably! Diana Van der Vlis plays Diane another doctor brought in to explore the validity of the experiment and I have to give credit that no romance was written in, she's a colleague and a friend to this doomed man who tries to talk reason into him, though not a prominent part she plays it nicely. A surprise appearance by the great comedian and ball buster extraordinaire Don Rickles appears as the carnival manager Crane and my God is he great at playing this money grubbing scoundrel, again not around for very long but adds a unique element to the story and I gotta admit was great to see. The early 60s production gives a nice flair from time to time with set design, costuming, and dance moves but the beauty of the story is it really could be set during any time but the time capsule element is cool. The special effects are really damn interesting, seen entirely from the point of view of James with muddled colors, cross dissolves to see the interior working of man and machine, the choice of contact lenses for Ray, it comes together very dang well for my money. And for a person who has a substantial fear of unearthly eyes I'm happy it didn't freak me out too much but that doesn't mean eyes can't be a fair bit scary still. It's pretty impressive what Roger and the crew accomplished with such a budget during shooting and in post production, but Roger was a wild card in the deck of filmmakers that really did stuff his own way and was cost effective at doing so. It's not one of his most well known movies but it's a neat story that people can enjoy. 3 stars, 7.5/10 from me, and we got one more directorial effort from the great man himself before the week is out so stay tuned.

Toy Story 3

What we thought was the end.

Toy Story 3 is a good movie, I like the way the series has progressed but I have a few nitpicks if you can even call some of them that. It's a beautifully animated movie with just as much heart and care put into it as the last two movies, I got invested into it, I enjoy it, but there's some off things I need to bring up. Okay so we flash forward after a great opening by about 6 or 7 years, Andy is now 17 and headed to college (guess he was really good in school), and his poor toys have not been played with in years. Through a series of events our lovable lot get whisked away to a daycare center, and all seems well. You know, until it's revealed as a prison that would make Alcatraz look like a pleasant vacation spot, forcing our friends to try to find a way back home. I have no issue with this scenario, it brings up a lot of truths in this world for these characters, and the daycare setting is a brilliant idea for the toys to travel to. We meet a few new characters, Barbie finally meets a Ken whose even voiced by Michael Keaton (Yaaaay!), a few toys who might as well be a street tough gang from an 80s movie, and our "warden" of the daycare Lotso. I....ooh, I really don't like this bear. I hate him with a fiery vengeance the world has not seen for millenia, which is odd because villains have always been my favorite since the beginning but this fffffflip flappin bear is a massive prick. And his story tries soooo hard to elicit sympathy but garnered nothing but contempt from me, basically he was a happy go lucky bear yet somehow was left accidentally and instead of this kid's parents going back to get him they replace him, and he goes from Care Bear to controlling psycho in the span of oh about 5 seconds. He really does run the daycare like a combination of the warden from Shawshank and Jackie Treehorn from Road House. I swear if they sold legit toys of him I may have to take the Shaq-Fu angle and dedicate my life to destroying every one of them. The hate was so real, it damaged my love of the movie. I really don't want to watch this movie again and all because of a jerk bear. I guess that's a good villain if they can pull that sort of reaction out of a person but God, I need to take a woodchipper and a tank of gasoline to that bear for me to feel better. But I dig the whole prison escape feel the movie has for a good majority of it's length, and sweet Jesus does it get dark at that climax. I mean. Whoa. I'm not saying it's too dark or it's going to severely screw your kid up but even I was shocked to see it get that bleak. But if Don Bluth has taught us anything as long as the movie has a happy ending you can do whatever the hell you want with kid's emotions. Speaking of endings, this ending...sort of perplexes me. The fact that Andy was fully ready to take Woody to college with him seems well, stupid. I had favorite toys I held onto even to this day, but I didn't need to take them to COLLEGE with me. And when he introduces all the toys to a little girl, who I swear is the most pwecious thing in human existence, and has one final playtime I just, ugh. I'm not saying it's forced or contrived or even bad. But seriously, what is this ending? Even on my first viewing of this movie which I will freely admit I did not see opening day, nor did I not see it when it hit video, hell I didn't even see it until about 3 years after it came out when I was in highschool, the ending didn't do much for me. Oh sure, it's a touching and very bittersweet ending but if Andy came by, told the little girl about them and then left with a bittersweet but ultimately happy expression on his face, I'd pretty much call it perfect. Maybe it's too sweet that I practically got 5 different types of diabeetus from it, and maybe I'm an old cynical bastard that doesn't like anything anymore, but I still enjoyed it. But I mainly blame it on the bear. I should have seen stuffing shoot out in 80 different directions when he went through those cutting blades. Why am I so angry?? I don't know! Toy Story 3 is a good movie, I still recommend it, I give it a solid 3 stars, it just had elements that, shall we say diminsihed my enjoyment factor. Other than one character, and one ending, I very much liked the movie, maybe not loved but certainly not hated. All that's left to say is, this is not over bears!!

But how will Toy Story 4 impact the series? It ended the best way it could, so is the fourth movie going to be a completely unnecessary sequel and a quick cash grab, or is it going to be a welcome and fine addition to the series? Tune in tomorrow to find out.

Toy Story 2

It's better than I remember.

I love Toy Story, it is an excellent film and still so enjoyable to this day. I watched both Toy Story 1 and 2 when I was a kid on VHS, a lot. And yet now as I'm older I love it so much more. I'm not even sure what it is, the humor is great with some moments that made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe, the story takes new ideas and gives a bit more of an emotional tale, the animation is amazing, Toy Story 2 is without a doubt a superior film and another rare awesome sequel that you come across now and then. I love how the story goes, the fact that Woody gets damaged and then is stolen is a great way to hold interest for the whole movie and a handful of our favorite toys set out to rescue him. But in the meantime Woody comes to discover he's actually a rare toy and meets toys from the same line as him, a cowgirl named Jessie who almost singlehandedly makes the movie surpass the first, a fun horse Bullseye, and the astronaut prejudiced Prospector. Now these 3 characters alone bring so much to the table it's crazy. Bullseye is just a fun character and come on, what's a cowboy without a horse? The Prospector brings up a lot of important things to be seen in the next movie, and actually brings up the point to Woody that Andy won't be a kid forever. Ugh, those are such great moments! Which takes us to Jessie, and she is incredibly active with a bubbly personality but she has major emotional baggage that the movie isn't afraid to shy away from. It's her flashback sequence alone that really does push this movie from really good to great, it's a kind of powerful scene that can be understood by kids possibly more than adults. Kids grow up and change a lot, it may not seem like it but they really do, I had tons of toys as a kid and there were some that I lost, some that were replaced by new favorites, and some that got damaged, and this happened while I was still a kid. Though the humor is in my opinion better than ever, there's always something more to notice as time goes by. Some of it's little things like the abundance of Star Wars sound effects in the opening, or that surprisingly soothing and hypnotic repair of Woody's arm to more big things like how Woody is actually a family toy meaning he was passed down probably from his dad or uncle because he was around in the late 50s right before the big space race boom, or a certain fan theory that seems much too credible to dismiss but we will cover that next time. And I gotta say the animation for this movie looks outstanding, for a movie that's 20 years old some of this stuff looks like today's Pixar animation, I was thoroughly impressed by the colors and expressions of characters. Like jeez, I can't even imagine how I'll take Toy Story 3 because I have my own history with it but again, another thing for another time. Toy Story 2 is that perfect continuation of a great series, I wouldn't be surprised at all if some people said it was The Empire Strikes Back of the series, though for less obvious reasons. It really does improve and continue to innovate this world that Pixar banked everything on and it payed off. For only the 3rd film in their library, they hit their stride quick and is still making movies today. Yet another 4 stars, 10/10, could not recommend it enough! Definitely go back and check it out if it's been a few years, it might stir up some old memories for you too.

Toy Story

Yeah. You knew it was coming.

See the thing with Toy Story and more importantly future movies in the series is the fact that it came out the year I was born. I did not know a world without Toy Story, I've been watching this movie for over 20 years and it still holds up. I want you to think about that for a second. 20 years and the animation, story, and characters have stood the test of time and is still being shown to kids today. That is absolutely incredible. Everyone has seen Toy Story at one point or another, so really this isn't much of a review but more a love letter to the series. It's a classic and no one can argue that, watch it again if you haven't recently. The cast does such good work and every person who worked on the movie wanted it to be the best movie ever, cause they take everything seriously and put their best foot forward in every department. The characters are great and I love them all but Slinky and the little aliens get a lot of love from me in particular, and I can say that the dynamic between Woody and Buzz is really perfect especially because they become friends through bleak and desperate times much like people do. They make for fun enemies but make even better friends and the best part is we get to see them change and grow over time. It's really something special in terms of kids movies cause it just doesn't happen that much, can you name one movie series made for kids where each film is excellent and isn't a slap in the face or down grade from the first movie? I can't besides like Harry Potter, but that's for adults too but whatever. And it's made such a huge impact on kids older than me and younger than me, and I think it's because any kid can really get this movie. Andy loses his two favorite toys in the world, every kid has felt that, every kid wants to go to Pizza Planet, every kid knew at least one Sid in their life, every kid has gotten a super awesome toy for their birthday. It really does go beyond just a fun kids movie about toys coming to life. The dialogue in particular is fun, inventive, and quotable, it even takes advantage of toy jokes but it's not painful puns or gags it just tells funny jokes concerning toys. I was really impressed how so little of the film looks "bad", it's all good but admittedly some effects are not as good as others, the environments both indoors and outdoors look pretty damn good and some objects look really real. There's a timelessness quality to the whole film, if you showed this to a kid they would probably say it was made now or awhile back, cause it doesn't really look, sound, or feel 90s so it further makes the film better. It's just a great movie for everybody, you love it, I certainly love it, and it's high time you watch it again if it's been awhile. 4 stars, 10/10, cannot recommend it enough! Tomorrow we look at the sequel, so stay tuned.