Last movie you watched......

Melissa McCarthy has been cast as Ursula in the live action version of Little Mermaid.

 

Saw Annabelle Comes Home. Not terrible but not stellar. They kept things simple. Except for some setup and wrapup, everything happens over the course of one day/over night which kept things manageable. They tried for some emotional arcs that weren't earned.

Overall, good popcorn horror flick. My biggest complaint has to be the teen couple who were getting it on in the row I was sitting.

 

How many are there? I have seen 2 and would not want to miss any if there are more.

 

Toy Story 4

The franchise rolls on.

It still blows my mind that Toy Story was almost shut down and never released. That would mean no Toy Story... no Up... no Incredibles... no Nemo. no Ratatouille... no Inside Out

 

Did something happen within Pixar that required them to launch another Toy Story? I realize Lassiter left three years ago, but I figured they tied this series off with a bow after the third one and only went ahead with a fourth because another project slated for this summer blew up.
Disney is having a hell of year regardless with Avengers, Aladdin, Toy Story 4 and Lion King, Frozen 2 and another Star Wars movie tk. I doubt any studio will have a year like this one again....unless its Disney. Last year more than a quarter of all movie tickets were for Disney films - will probably be a third this year, if not more.

 

It's a crowd pleaser and guaranteed cash cow.

 

I know it is still in the Marvel category, but don't forget Spider-Man: Far From Home. So far the advance buzz is very good. It opens this week. I'm going Friday.

 

Just saw "Yesterday." Haven't smiled that much during a movie in a while.

 

My son lives dinosaurs. He’s 3. This weekend he discovered something called “We’re Back,” an animated box office bomb from 1994. I have only vague memories of this movie from when it came out. After sitting through four viewings with him since Friday night, I am quasi convinced this has to be a spoof of children’s cartoon movies. It was produced by Spielberg, stars John Goldman, Warren Cronkite, Martin Short and Yeardly Smith and the score was done by James Horner of Titanic fame. Yet, it is so horrible that it has to be a satire. It features such cinematic cliches as:
— a cute alien
— anthromorphic dinosaurs
— a ragamuffin boy wearing old timely clothes and missing a tooth who wants to join the circus.
— a high society girl who parents don’t spend time with and the she falls for said boy.
— a musical number in the middle of a parade.
—time travel.
— a bookend story about a tiny bird who is bullied by other birds.
— a clown who can’t make people laugh until it is needed to save the day.
— a flying sequence.
— a befuddled professor who just wanders around the movie putting up posters.

It feels like the writing process was one where each person got five minutes and then it goes to the next person to take over.

 

The premise is interesting. Does it hold up? I can see several ways how it could be a flop.

 

I think it does. YMMV.

 

“Yesterday” made a great date-night movie. Mrs. jlee and I only full-on laughed a few times, but it was charming throughout. Himesh Patel has a really great stage presence, and while only the Beatles can do the Beatles justice, I fell back in love with songs I hadn’t heard in the better part of a decade.