DESPICABLE ME 2

Universal Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 98 Minutes



Click below to watch the Despicable Me 2 movie trailer.



In Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me 2, Gru, Steve Carell, and the girls Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, and Elsie Fisher, return to save the world.

This sequel to Despicable Me is Illumination Entertainment's first sequel and it's longest film as of 2013. After his daughter's birthday party, Gru/Carell is dragged in to the Anti-Villain League by Kristen Wiig to find out who stole a secret laboratory and to stop the villain from using the secret monstrous mutagen the laboratory was developing to take over the world. Steve Carell, Russell Brand, and Miranda Cosgrove reprise their roles - while Kristen Wiig returns, this time portraying agent Lucy Wilde, as well as Ken Jeong returning portraying Floyd Eagle-san.

I like this film better than the original Despicable Me - probably because Gru/Carell is a real single father this time now, as well as being brought into the game to become a hero out to save the world by the Anti-Villain League with cool cars, gadgets, and weapons. Gru is much more lovable to me, despite his women problems with his neighbor Nasim Pedrad trying to fix him up. The girls obviously love and idolize Gru/Carell, although young Fisher also wants a mother. The opening shot if Illumination Entertainment's logo and the minion Pierre Coffin prepared me to be in the just the right silly mood for watching Despicable Me 2. This is an animated James Bond film - as opposed to Monster's University's animated Revenge of the Nerds and much more enjoyable to me, probably because the story is more of a Hero's Journey. I also liked Gru's/Carrell's over protectiveness of his daughter Cosgrove from a boy, Moises Arias and his father's Benjamin Bratt's zealousness at the local mall.

As much as I love the minions in both this film and the last Despicable Me, the minions would have been better if there were only three or four minions where you can actually get to know them, instead of an army of minions. When you see the two or three minions at once, you are not sure if these are the same minions that you had seen before or are completely different minions. While the hundreds of minions, or maybe thousands of minions, are a major plot point - I would have preferred three or four main leader minions and an entire sub race of other minions that look different from them that the main minions managed. I am not sure if I like the one-eyed minion or not, but I am looking forward to the new Minions movie.

There were lots of musical numbers in the movie - including music from the Village People's YMCA, as well as Pharrell Williams Happy.

During the end credits, the minions audition for new minions for the new Minions movie. I am sure this sequence would have looked great in 3D. Unfortunately I saw the movie in 2D, but the animation still looked great.

Rated PG for mild violence. Running time: 98 Minutes.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Despicable Me 2.



Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.
 Pancho's Movie Reviews

 

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

Walt Disney Pictures

Rated G

Running time: 104 Minutes



Click below to watch the movie trailer of Monsters University.



In Walt Disney Pictures Monsters University, before Mike - Billy Crystal - and Sulley - John Goodman - were Incorporated scarers, they had to go to school.

This film is the first prequel for Pixar. In this prequel to Monsters Inc. - a G Rated version of Revenge of the Nerds - before they were famous, Mike/Crystal and Sulley/Goodman are rival scare major students competing to be the best scarer during the Scare Games.

Several actors return to reprise their characters including Steve Buscemi, Bob Peterson, and John Ratzenberger.

I thought it was quite appropriate that the scariest monster to me in this academic setting was the Dean of the school, Helen Mirren. I thought the movie was cute - although I liked Monsters Inc. better, probably because of the relationship that Mike/Crystal and Sulley/Goodman were having with the human child Boo - Mary Gibbs - in the first movie. Mike/Crystal and Sulley's/Goodman's relationships with Oozma Kappa did not have the same emotional relationship to me, even with the big Sulley/Goodman going up against Oozma Kappa. Although I did like little Mike's/Crystal's tutoring of Oozma Kappa.

I was with my nieces, so we left when the credits started. As a result, I missed the fact that there is a scene during the end credits.

Monsters University also had the premier of the Pixar short film The Blue Umbrella which I thought was a really cute relationship film.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Monsters University.



Rated G with mild violence. Running time: 104 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

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PUSS IN BOOTS

Paramount Pictures/ DreamWorks Animation

Rated PG

Running time: 90 Minutes





















Click below to watch the Puss In Boots trailer.



In Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks Animation film Puss in Boots, orphan Puss in Boots Antonio Banderas tries to regain his honor and retrieve some magic beans with his fellow orphaned brother Humpty Dumpty Zach Galifianakis from the bad guys Jack and Jill Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris.

While this is supposedly a prequel to the movie Shrek, in that these are Puss in Boots adventures before he met Shrek, this movie definitely stands on it's own and you do not have to see the Shrek movies in order to enjoy this film. Just as in the Shrek movies, Mother Goose characters populate the land, so it is in the same world - but the film is in the style of the Zorro movies with an Hispanic Old California type of feeling. This was quite an appropriate style given Banderas background as Zorro. There is the sword slash of a P which I wish happened at least once in the movie itself instead of being done as a logo for the beginning of the film. The DreamWorks Animation logo also had the same style/feeling that was appropriate for the movie. This is a swashbuckling film with lots of action and story - so much action and story, that I was surprised the movie was only 90 minutes long.

When Puss in Boots's caper of acquiring magic beans, beans that he has been searching for all of his life, from bad guys Jack and Jill is horned in on by the equally mysterious roguish rival Kitty Softpaws Salma Hayek - the upset Puss soon falls for Kitty and eventually tells her his story to woo her. Going from a kitten orphan to a disgraced hero, Puss struggles to regain his honor - especially after meeting his estranged orphaned brother Humpty Dumpty. As a baby kitten, Puss was very cute. His eyes were very expressive - especially when he was pleading, making him irresistible. I saw the movie in 2-D - but even in 2-D, the movie looked like it was in 3-D, that is how advanced the computer graphics have become. The use of old-style filmic techniques like split-screen and film wipes give a nice contrast to the high-technology of the 3-D style computer graphics. My favorite scene is the Dance Fight, which has a strong Latin musical arrangement. The character of the Old Man in the dungeon reminds me very much of my old friend UFO Bob, that I almost thought it was him.

While there are Mother Goose characters in the movie, they have a superficial resemblance to the characters that we grew up with. I always thought of Jack and Jill as brother and sister - but in the movie they were husband and wife, with desires for making a little Jack and Jill of their own once the magic beans lead them to the legendary Golden Goose. Jack and Jill's underhanded schemes make them worthy opponents to the dashing Puss in Boots. And several of the orphanage characters were not as nice as their original Mother Goose rhymes made them out to be. Executive Produced by Guillermo del Toro, his Commandante is determined to get Puss for the Commandante's belief of Puss's betrayal of Puss's heroic ideals from his hometown. It is rather sad to see what leads up to Humpty's story on the bridge, that his story has became so famous, especially after what you see of Humpty's childhood plans and dreams.

This is a wonderful family movie and I am so glad it had a theatrical release instead of going direct to DVD as was originally intended. It is a much more interesting story than the typical direct to DVD release. From the initial box-office, Paramount Pictures made a wise decision in releasing it theatrically. I think Puss in Boots is a better movie than Shrek, and I loved Shrek, although Shrek was more into turning the traditional fairy tale story upside-down. Puss in Boots is more of a traditional fairy tale story = that turns the Mother Goose characters upside-down.

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 90 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

TRON: Legacy

Walt Disney Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 127 minutes































Click below to watch the Tron: Legacy trailer.



In Walt Disney Pictures TRON: LEGACY, Jeff Bridges troubled son Garrett Hedlund searches for his game designer father Bridges who has been missing for 20 years. In an old underground office at his father's old arcade business, Hedlund gets suddenly pulled into the digital grid world of Tron, where his father's old program Clu, Jeff Bridges, controls the grid and now wants to control Hedlund.

A sequel to the movie TRON, the movie TRON: LEGACY has several homages to the original movie, including the original Tron game which Hedlund tries to play, as well as having a song from Journey. However, I think that TRON: LEGACY has more action and characterization to me than in the original movie. The father-son relationship between Bridges and Hedlund supplies a relationship that I liked which was missing from the original movie - as well as having the relationship between Bridges program character Clu, and with Clu having a relationship with both Bridges and Hedlund. When Hedlund first meets Clu, I expected a "Luke, I am your father" type of scene. Bruce Boxleitner's program character of Tron from the original movie has very little screen time in this movie - since the movie is really about Hedlund's search for his father Bridges, rather than of Boxleitner's story. Olivia Wilde's character basically takes up Boxleitner's role in TRON: LEGACY. Wilde is very good in a fight and she also saves Hedlund a few times, even though Hedlund could also hold his own in a fight. At the beginning of the movie, there are scenes concerning Bridges company Encom and doing a product launch of a new operating system. You expect similar cut-throat business practices in the movie that the original TRON had, especially with the son of the bad guy from TRON as one of the company's designers - but once you enter the world of Tron, the movie does not return to the real world.

For those who watch the movie in 3-D - the real world in the beginning of the movie is shot in 2-D and it is only when you enter the world of Tron that the movie becomes 3-D. This is a similar technique that The Wizard of Oz used where the real world of The Wizard of Oz was in black and white and the land of Oz was in color. There are also several scenes of a fairly elegant home setting that reminds me of several scenes from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which also had an elegant hotel setting. The ending of the movie, although cute, does not exactly make sense to me scientifically given the context of the film - but if you were looking for scientific accuracy do not expect it from this movie.

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 127 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews