Toy Story 3
(Voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty)
Love is all over Toy Story 3. Toys fall in love with each other, and we can tell the creators love their characters. Most three-quels make audiences wince, but TS3 is delightful and very emotionally engaging.
Toy owner Andy has finally grown up and is going to college. His belongings wonder what their fate will be: the garbage or the attic. Cowboy Woody (Hanks) asks his pals to stick to the plan—be there for whatever Andy needs. Buzz Lightyear (Allen) and the other toys aren’t so sure. When things go awry, they find themselves in a scary preschool under the leadership of a creepy teddy bear (Beatty).
Toy Story was the first film by Pixar, the studio famous for advancing technology while telling an involving story. In TS3, these plastic gadgets find a beautiful way to show how we humans deal with change—what we do when we feel obsolete, discarded, or rejected. Kids will eat this up, because the characters are hilarious and the action is intense. Adults will love it, too, because we understand nostalgia. But more importantly, we have all also faced the sadness and panic of impending change.
There’s so much love here. The toys love Andy; they also love being played with. Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head are still the smitten, bickering couple. Barbie finally meets her Ken (voiced by Michael Keaton). Romance even blooms in unexpected places. Simply put, TS3 is worth all the love it generates.
The A-Team
(Starring Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Jessica Biel, Patrick Wilson)
The 80s television series The A-Team always glommed together a plan from rusty garbage. The movie version almost achieves the same with its silly source material. It’s immature, loud and loony—a two-hour comic book explosion roughly worth the price of a matinee ticket.
Neeson is Hannibal, the Army Ranger captain brilliant at piecing together ridiculous schemes. His team: Cooper is the shirtless hottie Face, Jackson is the new incarnation of Mr. T’s Bad Attitude, and Sharlto Copley (District 9) is a wonderfully wacky Murdock. The film shows us how these expert Rangers meet, and then how they later fall on the wrong side of the law.
The story revolves around Cooper’s old flame (Biel), an Iraqi counterfeiting scheme, and a rogue CIA operative (Wilson). Everything is fast and loud and shallow in exactly the same formula that makes for summer blockbusters. There are twists and turns, impossible operations that defy physics, and ham-fisted acting—exactly what we’d want from an A-Team movie.
It is a little disconcerting to have a great actor like Neeson cashing in, but he doesn’t embarrass himself. It’s even weirder how the script tries to insert several insights about love, pacifism, patriotism, and loyalty. It’s like watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon where the characters cut off each other’s tails and then sermonize to the audience.
C’mon, A-Team, stick to the plan! Action, action, action!
Splice
(Starring Adrian Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chanéac)
Darn those bio-engineers and all their science-y stuff!
Splice is a creature feature ripped from current headlines about human cloning. The actors try seriousness, but the flick has some patently unbelievable elements. There are some very slimy, nerve-wracking scenes. However, the basic structure is not much different than those 1950s Vincent Price schlock-fests (like The Tingler.)
Brody and Polley (two extremely gifted actors) are rock-star biologists, mixing animal DNA to save the world. They quickly and easily convince each other that their next logical step is adding human DNA. In record time, they create a creature child (Chanéac)—somewhat humanoid in appearance, but possessing aspects of aliens, frogs, and winged Hell spawn.
Splice does a nifty job with special effects; we get to observe their science project grow from inception through adulthood. The gore is kept to a relative minimum; Instead the situation makes our skin crawl. What’s more shocking is how the film takes risks with its sexy beast-child.
Sadly, the science is fairly rudimentary, and so is the message. This flick could’ve used less pop psychology about egomaniacal scientists. A better story would’ve upped the stakes, letting us meet average people who’d benefit from such outlaw experimentation. Instead, the whole shebang devolves into a stereotypical chase scene.
However, the rock-solid commitment of the actors adds some weight to this sophomoric tragedy of scientific hubris. If you’re into this kind of monster mash, get ready for some seriously squirmy moments.
