Pacific Rim

Welcome to another episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is Pacific Rim.

Directed by Guillermo Del Toro.

Written by Travis Beacham & Guillermo Del Toro.

Screen Story by Travis Beachham.

Review #223

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence throughout, and brief language.

Run Time: 132 min

Hulk Spoils Hollywood Podcast Page

Cast

Charlie Hunnam...Raleigh Becket

Diego Klattenhoff...Yancy Becket

Idris Elba...Stacker Pentecost

Rinko Kikuchi...Mako Mori

Charlie Day...Dr. Newton Geiszler

Burn Gorman...Gottlieb

Max Martini...Herc Hansen

Robert Kazinsky...Chuck Hansen

Clifton Collins Jr....Ops Tendo Choi

Ron Perlman...Hannibal Chau

Mana Ashida...Young Mako


Guillermo Del Toro is the geek of all geeks in Hollywood. The man makes films that become passion projects based on his never ending love for comics, sci fi, cartoons and horror. This sounds like a good thing right? Well it depends on who you ask. I am of the belief that a geek director will give said film the proper attention and respect it deserves because he or she is fully aware of the fan support and passion for the subject matter. Why do you think big time directors go to Comi-Con every year?
The drawback is that same passion the geek director has can occasionally blind them to the point blank reality that their film just doesn't work out. Did this happen to Pacific Rim? I can't with good conscience say no but that doesn't mean it was a bad film. Before I dig in I am setting the record straight. I liked Pacific Rim. It had everything I was looking for.

The problem was they gave me something I wasn't.
Plot

As a war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot and a trainee are paired up to drive a seemingly obsolete special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world from the apocalypse. 

You guys have read my endless complaints that films of this nature and genre suffer from the S.O.S method. I have always argued that movies like Pacific Rim can have a balance between story and spectacle. For the first time in the history of ever. I am going to complain that this film should NOT have created that balance.
The film's opening monologue breaks down exactly what you're going to see for the next 2 plus hours. Giant monsters enter our world through a portal under the sea and to ensure the survival of the planet massive robots are created to defend us. Plain and simple. Short and sweet. So let's get ready to rumble. I could care less about anything else plot wise. Pacific Rim tries way too hard and fails at injecting some life and heart into this story. They give us character development which I normally applaud but here's the thing.

I NEVER cared about these people or their motivations.
The main cast contained some really good actors but their back stories were so uninteresting and cliche that you yearned for more Jaeger/Kaiju battles. I'm not sure why I felt this way and I don't have a solution to the problem. All I know is that it's there and the film's wallet is taking a hit as a result. At this moment as I write this review. Pacific Rim has taken in $49,168,221. That is a pitiful number when you factor in the $190 MILLION dollar budget and the countless amount of money Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures spent over promoting this film.
That in my opinion was a HUGE factor explaining the under performance of this film at the box office. It was clear that the powers that be wanted to go after Man of Steel and take over as the summer's best film. So they followed behind Superman's cape and promoted this movie with an obscene amount of trailers, TV spots, posters, billboards and cast and crew panels. It created the buzz they wanted but the film had to deliver. Man of Steel obviously accomplished that but that movie had a serious advantage.

IT'S SUPERMAN!

Pacific Rim though big in budget was a small movie that missed a golden opportunity to stay under the radar and surprise people. Thus becoming a runaway summer hit. Instead they swung for the fences and when the inadequacies of this film roared louder than any Kaij stomping through cities, you can sum up their folly with one word.

OOPS.

Swing and miss aside. Pacific Rim has no excuse for the poor character construction and presentation. This film is littered with annoying people that fall right in line with the recycled dummies of past action/sci-fi films. My gripes fall with four people.

The first is Chuck Hansen.

He was one of Stryker Eureka's pilot's he's pictured on the left.
This guy spent the majority of the film being a word class a$$ho!e. He strutted around the base with this insufferable cockiness that rubs you the wrong way right after he utters his first syllable. His character is a walking cliche. The tough guy who doesn't believe anyone can help him or be considered close to his perceived greatness. It made sense for a movie like this to have a character with this personality but this guy plays Chuck like his personality is on steroids. It too over the top to be taken seriously and more importantly it's just plain dumb. This guy is one of the few remaining people alive that can operate these Jaegers. His job is to in not so many words save the world and instead of banding together to accomplish the mission....he picks a fight.

The next two are the scientists. Geiszler and Gottlieb.

These guys were annoying. Just like Chuck, instead of combining resources and working together to devise a strategy to defeat the Kaiju, they spend the WHOLE movie arguing with each other. Disputing their theories. How they won't work. Why they won't work. It was so silly and once again nonsensical. This film takes place in a world where they are CONSTANTLY under attack. Who has time to argue? There was a moment that I really enjoyed. Marshal Pentecost is talking with Geiszler about a new discovery he found about the Kaiju and because Gottlieb doesn't agree he starts to argue with Geiszler. They get in a shouting match when Pentecost tells Gottlieb to shut up. It was such a rewarding moment because that was EXACTLY how I was feeling when I watched these two idiots piss and moan like babies.

Finally, the last guy is Hannibal Chau.
This character was completely useless. He's played by Ron Perlman who Del Toro loves. He puts him in as many of his films he can. He should have left him off the cast for this one. Chau is a Kaiju black market dealer. He harvests organs, bones, teeth, anything he can find and sells them. Who in the world would want a souvenir from a creature that just tried to kill them and who in their right mind would want to harvest the body of a creature that just tried to kill them. His character made no sense and it made the story worse.
OK. Enough about the bad. Let's talk about the good and the good is simple. The Jaegers and Kaiju were AWESOME! Everything from their designs, movements, roars, sound design and fighting. Just top notch. This is where Pacific Rim and Guillermo Del Toro shines. Like I wrote up top, the man is king of the geeks. This subject matter of monsters and robots is right up his alley being a fan of the Japanese monster movies and Manga. You can clearly see the influences all of those films and cartoons had on him and the designs of the Jaegers and Kaiju.

Del Toro also gives you an impressive amount of scale with these creatures and robots.
In this picture you can see three Jaegers. Cherno Alpha from Russia in the middle. Crimson Typhoon from China to the right and Stryker Eureka from Australia all the way in the back on the left. The all represent different countries but the one thing they have in common is their MASSIVE size. They are standing in the Pacific Ocean and their dry from the waist up.
Another cool example is here in this picture. Marshal Stacker Pentecost is standing on the thumb of Gipsy Danger, the American Jaeger. He's on the THUMB! if that doesn't send chills down your spine, nothing will.

Now that every one's sized up let's FIGHT!
If you thought the chaos and destruction in Man of Steel was something. You haven't seen anything yet. In the world this film takes place in, the Kaiju can attack at anytime so right after a battle and all of the dust settles, the cities rebuild only to have everything destroyed again. It's a twisted back and forth but you really get the sense of carnage and devastation. There is NOTHING left after a Kaiju/Jaeger fight. Those fights were so much fun to watch and they were realistic if you could call anything in this movie realistic. When the Jaeger and Kaiju fight both participants are damaged. The movie doesn't make the Jaegers invincible. They can be and are severely damaged. Even in their victories. It's as accurate a portrayal of a fight between a giant robot and monster could be.
Unfortunately, those amazing fights were not enough to save the glaring holes and un entertaining moments this film was rife with. It's too bad because I am a HUGE fan of Del Toro and his work and though this film is not one of his greatest, I placed more faith in his ability to treat us to an experience and instead it was a paint by numbers flick. I'm not going to completely put the blame on him because he didn't write the script but he came in and did a polish on it so he's not entirely off the hook.

I really liked Pacific Rim. The problem was I wanted to love it.

On the 5 star scale. Pacific Rim gets 2.5 stars with a "Go See It!" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"

Despicable Me 2

Welcome to another episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is Despicable Me 2.

Directed by Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud.

Written by Ken Daurio & Cinco Paul.

Review #223

MPAA Rating: Rated PG for rude humor and mild action.

Run Time: 98 min

Hulk Spoils Hollywood Podcast Page

Cast

Steve Carell...Gru (voice)

Kristen Wiig...Lucy (voice)

Benjamin Bratt...Eduardo / El Macho (voice)

Miranda Cosgrove...Margo (voice)

Russell Brand...Dr. Nefario (voice)

Ken Jeong...Floyd (voice)

Steve Coogan...Silas (voice)

Elsie Kate Fisher...Agnes (voice) (as Elsie Fisher)

Dana Gaier...Edith (voice)

Moises Arias...Antonio (voice)

Nasim Pedrad...Jillian (voice)

Kristen Schaal...Shannon (voice)

Pierre Coffin...Kevin the Minion / Bob the Minion / Stuart the Minion / Additional Minions / Evil Minions (voice)

Chris Renaud...Additional Minions / Evil Minions / Italian Waiter (voice) 


Despicable Me was a surprise hit. I mean that with regards to how good the film actually was. It was funny, light and had memorable characters. I mean let's be real about this. How could you not love those minions.
With all that in mind, a sequel seemed like a tough task.

Especially considering how the first ended with Gru changing his ways and living on the side of right. So of course they went that way and used the main character's twist to the film's advantage. It was a good idea and for the most part this movie does a good job but in my opinion, it falls short of the magic the first one gave us.

Plot

Gru is recruited by the Anti-Villain League to help deal with a powerful new super criminal. 

DM2 picks up pretty much after the events of the first film. The girls are living with Gru and are about the same age when we left them. Gru is no longer interested in living the life of crime and is very content being a daddy. Then we get the introduction of a new subplot. Gru gets a love interest. The film spends time establishing Gru's desire to complete the family tree even though he denies it publicly. This love interest comes in the form of his new "partner" Lucy.

Played nicely by Kristen Wiig.
If there is anyone that can play across Steve Carell it's her. She has the right amount of craziness to level off her character. Lucy is light and airy which plays well off of Gru's stoney presence. Her performance also had a nice balance between simple and straight up loony toons. It was nice to see someone else share the screen with Gru.
The film does a great job balancing the new characters with the old ones. Everyone gets their just due. The girls aren't filler in between jokes or scenes with the minions. They served a purpose to the story just like everyone else. DM2 gave the girls some more life too. Margo, Agnes and Edith get expanded. Margo enters puberty, Edith becomes more dare devilish and Agnes just gets cuter. And then of course you have those hysterical little yellow dudes.
Unlike the first film, the plot involves the minions a bit more directly. This in turn gives them a bit more screen time which is ALWAYS a good thing. These guys are hysterical. From the way they talk to how they sound to their individual designs, the minions can easily carry a film. One only hopes that these guys will wise up and spin them off into their own film or maybe a TV series on Cartoon Network. They are too funny and deserve to be seen as often as humanly possible.
Once the final plot is revealed the film goes through the same motions that the first one did. The funny thing is that it doesn't feel repetitive. I can't put my finger on it but the scenes feel exactly the same from film to film but it worked really well. The minions play a bigger role in the end and it gives the climax a funnier finish. The final scene at the end was just hilarious when the minions parody a song that we all know.

Just brilliant.
All told, Despicable Me 2 is a good film, a funny film and an adequate sequel to a franchise that I didn't think was franchise-able. Who knows where Gru and company will go from here. As long as the minions are around I'm in.

On the 5 star scale. Despicable Me 2 gets 3 stars with a "Go See It!" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"

The Heat

Welcome to another episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is The Heat.

Directed by Paul Feig.

Written by Katie Dippold.

Review #222

MPAA Rating: Rated R for pervasive language, strong crude content and some violence.

Run Time: 117 min

Hulk Spoils Hollywood Podcast Page

Cast

Sandra Bullock...Ashburn

Melissa McCarthy...Mullins

Demián Bichir...Hale (as Demian Bichir)

Marlon Wayans...Levy

Michael Rapaport...Jason Mullins

Jane Curtin...Mrs. Mullins

Spoken Reasons...Rojas

Dan Bakkedahl...Craig

Taran Killam...Adam

Michael McDonald...Julian

Thomas F. Wilson...Captain Woods (as Tom Wilson)

Bridesmaids proved two things that a misogynistic Hollywood refuses to admit.

1) Females can carry a film.

2) Female comedians can carry a film.

With this in mind, a small movement of female dominated comedies have been making their way to our screens. Some decent and some not so decent. The Heat is the closest attempt to recapture the balls out raunchy comedy that Bridesmaids provided audiences. The effort was clearly there.

The final verdict however will not match it.


Plot

An uptight FBI Special Agent is paired with a foul mouthed Boston cop to take down a ruthless drug lord.

The first thing that sticks out in this film is neither Sandra Bullock or Melissa McCarthy effectively pull off their characters. In no way do you believe that Bullock is a top notch FBI agent and you believe even less that McCarthy is one of the best detectives in the Boston P.D.And you know what? That never mattered. They were so good together that suspension of disbelief isn't required. It's one of the saving graces of the film. The plot is also secondary to the overall big picture. If you're going to see this movie, you're going for 2 reasons.

Bullock & McCarthy.

As expected the relationship between the leads starts off very rocky to put it mildly. The conflicting attitudes and personalities are clearly meant to set up their buddy buddyness later on. Early on though Bullock really makes you hate her. She comes off so cocky and smug that I was surprised that the rest of the FBI didn't express more hatred towards her. On the other side you have McCarthy who plays her tough as nails cop with just enough of humor to be like able and relate able. The little jokes and insults she fires at her perps, Bullock and her superior were funny enough to get the laughs though not rip roaring funny. Then there were moments when the script tried to hard to get the big time yucks from the audience.
 
A perfect example is the scene depicted in the picture above.

It's in all the trailers where the ladies are holding a guy by his legs and then drop him onto the hood of his truck. That joke has been done a million times and much better in other films but to get a cheap laugh they put it in. The problem with this scene is that it's not that funny and they did a piss poor job framing and editing the scene. At one point the scene cuts to an overhead angle where you can clearly see the guy is dangling but the truck is not directly underneath him. If they dropped him he would land on the street but when they cut to them letting him go he's magically positioned under the truck and lands on the hood. Very poor shot construction, presentation and editing but it was designed to get a laugh so the audience looked past it.

I didn't.

It was moments like that that brought the film down a couple of notches. Again, this film isn't playing as a  straight cop film at any point so why should the comedic moments be straight either. The trick though is to balance the absurdity with the reality. The Heat misses the mark a bit.The subplots in the story drag the movie down at times then when the predictable twist comes in all films of this nature, it just doesn't feel right. This was surprising to me because the writer Katie Dippold writes for the show Parks and Recreation. It's one of the funniest shows on TV and she has written some of the funniest episodes in the past few seasons. I looked her up on IMDB and shocking development.

This was her first feature film screenplay.
It all made sense after that. A common trend in Tinseltown is when writers who predominantly write for TV, especially comedies, don't effectively translate their work when they write a feature film. It's not easy to write 90 to 120 pages when normally they churn out 15-20 per episode. It's a completely different ballgame so the final product suffers as a result. So then the responsibility of making adjustments to the project falls on the director.

Paul Feig.
He needed to step up and reign in some of the scattered elements the script had. Another surprising development because like Dippold he is a TV veteran but unlike Dippold he nailed his directorial debut with Bridesmaids. It's a but confounding why he couldn't recapture the same structure Bridesmaids had with this one. Maybe it's because his first film was a dramedy and this one is an action comedy. Who knows. At this point, The Heat was an on the fence movie for me and their last second promotional frenzy convinced me to check it out. Was it great? Not even close. Was it good? Close enough. Was it funny? At times. Could it have been better? Obviously. Should it have been better? Sadly yes.

On the 5 star scale. The Heat gets 2 stars with a "Netflix It!" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"

White House Dumb

Welcome to another episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is White House Dumb.

Directed by Roland Emmerich.

Written by James Vanderbilt.

Review #221

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for prolonged sequences of action and violence including intense gunfire and explosions, some language and a brief sexual image.

Run Time: 131 min

Hulk Spoils Hollywood Podcast Page

Cast

Channing Tatum...Cale

Jamie Foxx...President Sawyer

Maggie Gyllenhaal...Finnerty

Jason Clarke...Stenz

Richard Jenkins...Raphelson

Joey King...Emily

James Woods...Walker

Nicolas Wright...Donnie the Guide

Jimmi Simpson...Tyler

Michael Murphy...Vice President Hammond

Rachelle Lefevre...Melanie


Lance Reddick...General Caulfield

Before I begin. You are not misreading the title of this film. I titled this review on purpose for the simple reason that this was one of the DUMBEST action films I have seen in a long time. Of course I wasn't surprised because Roland Emmerich has directed the following films.


Independence Day
Godzilla (thank you for ruining my favorite movie monster by the way)
The Day After Tomorrow
2012

What do all of these films have in common? They all made pretty good money. In fact Independence Day was a smash hit. And they ALL were STUPID movies. Stupid in every way. Story, characters, cast and their performances. Emmerich is a poor man's Michael Bay in the sense that he doesn't know how to properly direct or present action but is just as incompetent as Bay is in every other aspect of film making.

White House Dumb is his latest and by far greatest example of how bad a movie can be when it's littered with of dumb subplots and even dumber characters to carry out said subplots.

Plot

While on a tour of the White House with his young daughter, a Capitol policeman springs into action to save his child and protect the president from a heavily armed group of paramilitary invaders. 


Good grief did this movie SUCK! So let's get into why.

1) The kid in this movie is an annoying brat.
Now I know what you're going to say because my cousin mentioned this to me. I'm a kid hater. I realize that's how I come off because in recent reviews and some past ones as well I have spit a lot of venom towards kids in films. To set the record straight once and for all. I DO NOT hate kids in movies. What I hate is their characters and how they are portrayed via their performances. it seems in films like White House Dumb the hero has a kid who's only job is to be pissed at him the whole film. This kid gives Cale nothing but snot nose attitude until the very end. What's worse is that Cale let's her disrespect him. This makes you root against saving her life when she becomes one of the hostages. You have to give these characters a redeeming quality. Just being related to the hero is not enough.

Then to add to the stupidity. This girl is a politics freak and has a You Tube channel devoted to government and policy. While hiding from the terrorists, she's able to record video of them and upload it to her site which then gets picked up by the media which in effect exposes the identity of the bad guys.

PLEASE!!!!! The video upload is a nice segue to my next example of this film's lack if cinema I.Q.

Throughout this film we are given bits of information through exposition via the media broadcast of the White House takeover. This is common but if you pay close attention to what's being said during these broadcasts, the press are making astounding assumptions about the situation at hand. Not a major stretch considering we are talking about the media which is of course their specialty. The problem is that their assumptions are 100% accurate with what's going on. How in the world is that possible? These people are no where near the White House and no one from the press has any inside information. Yet they are reporting information that they couldn't possibly know. This is one of the MANY flaws this joke of a script has. Let's move on to quite possibly the dumbest character in this film.

The White House tour guide. He's the dummy on the left.

This guy is there for comic relief only and that's it. OK. Expect a film like this SHOULDN'T HAVE COMIC RELIEF! At least not from someone as insignificant as this guy. Here's an example of how insanely stupid this man was in the film. The terrorists have taken control of the place and have sequestered everyone in the same room. One of the bad guys sits down and puts his feet up on a table. This prompts the guide to warn him to not treat the furniture with such disrespect. So the bad guy smashes the vase that was right next to his foot on the table. The guide gets mad and points out the priceless value of the vase he just broke. In any other film this guy's bravado would have been met with a bullet to the brain. Instead he's allowed to keep breathing.

Shoot me instead!
My final one before I end this review is the best one of all. With great regret, the president orders an air strike on The White House. This is to avoid a much larger catastrophe. Very similar to The Rock when the Air Force is ordered to bomb Alcatraz to save San Francisco. The planes are just about to fire when out of nowhere the kid runs out to the lawn and starts waving a flag. Presumably to call off the attack. The pilots don't know this. Their orders are to bomb The White House until a crisis of conscience hits the Air Force commander and he arbitrarily aborts the mission without any authorization from his commander in chief.

WHAT!

If the leader of the free world tells you to shoot a puppy. YOU SHOOT THE PUPPY! Nobody told this guy to abort the attack but because he said "I change my mind" the destruction of The White House was averted. If I didn't write this blog I would have walked out of this movie LONG before this scene. Since this was the end I figured they would just wrap it up and we'd all be done with this crap.

NOPE!

They decided to give us the final sub plot that unraveled the mystery man behind the takeover of The White House. At this point I didn't care but I played along and let them explain it to me. This 2 minute scene was so complicated that it would have taken three films to rummage through all of the garbage spat at us.

That's it. I'm done!

On the 5 star scale. White House Dumb gets the goose egg. 0 stars with a "For The Love of God Stay Home!" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"

Monsters University

Welcome to another episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is Monsters University.

Directed by Dan Scanlon.

Written by Dan Scanlon, Daniel Gerson & Robert L. Baird.

Screen Story written by Daniel Gerson, Robert L. Baird & Dan Scanlon.

Review #220

MPAA Rating: Rated G All Audience Admitted.

Run Time: 104 min

Hulk Spoils Hollywood Podcast Page

Cast

Billy Crystal...Mike (voice)

John Goodman...Sullivan (voice)

Steve Buscemi...Randy (voice)

Helen Mirren...Dean Hardscrabble (voice)

Peter Sohn...Squishy (voice)

Joel Murray...Don (voice)

Sean Hayes...Terri (voice)

Dave Foley...Terry (voice)

Charlie Day...Art (voice)

Alfred Molina...Professor Knight (voice)

Tyler Labine...Greek Council VP (voice)

Nathan Fillion...Johnny Worthington (voice)

Aubrey Plaza...Claire Wheeler (voice)

Bobby Moynihan...Chet (voice)

Noah Johnston...Young Mike (voice)


In the eyes of many. Pixar studios can do no wrong. I am in the minority of that opinion but overall Pixar has been and continues to be the powerhouse animated film studio. Despite it's never ending cycle of hits, Pixar has begun to cheat a bit with their library. After the AMAZING Up. Pixar decided to go the sequel route. Cars 2, Toy Story 3 were next. Then came Brave which wasn't a sequel but felt like one because of the similar message the film carried.

Then came the announcement of Finding Nemo 2 now titled Finding Dory. This came on the heels of the soon to be released Monsters University. So instead of making more original content, Pixar has gone back to the classics and retread them. Monsters University is technically a prequel which if they had to do a second film was the only way to go. Before the lights went out I was concerned how it would play out.

I should have known better because this film ROCKED!



Plot

A look at the relationship between Mike and Sulley during their days at Monsters University when they weren't necessarily the best of friends. 

Since Monsters Inc. ended pretty definitively, the options for a sequel were null and void. The only way the franchise could continue was go the prequel route. A risky move because you're asking the audience to forget what they know about these characters and see them through much younger eyes. With that being said, if anyone could do it.

Pixar can.

And how did they pull this off? By going way back to the beginning.

Monsters University introduced us to baby Mike Wazowski which gave you the impression that the film will revolve around him. Which it does. This was a no pun intended smart move. The last film though a Sully/Mike team up focused more on Sully and his bond with Boo. This time around we get a full Wazowski centered plot with Sully thrown in for effect and introduction. It's really hard for me to review Pixar films because they are so deep and I can't get into why. So instead I'll talk about what they got right.

And they got A LOT right.

First off, Monsters University brings back everyone that was of importance in the first film. Mike, Sully, Randall, Roz even the Yeti. This was nice to see. The writers did their homework and realized what made the first film so good and gave us more of that. Just on a much younger scale. Then to complement the old characters, the film introduces us to some really nice new ones. Dean Hardscrabble, Terry, Terri, Don, Squishy and Art are all fantastic here. They all give the film the necessary mojo to move the story along while keeping Sully and Mike close enough that we don't forget about them.

Next, the film does a GREAT job of keeping up with the little jokes that the first film had. Since this is a film set in a world populated by monsters there are some subtle and not so subtle references to the world and it's inhabitants and how they live. There are three examples I remember that illustrate my point. The first is a quick joke when the bell rings for class and a slug tries to race to the building so he's not late. He's huffing and puffing with all his might and going nowhere. It was hysterical to watch that poor slug kill himself and make no progress. This joke had more effect thanks to the editor knowing exactly the right amount of time to hold the shot. It lags just long enough that it's not overkill and still maintains it's comedic intent.

The second joke is another quick one. You're watching a monsters football game and you see a bunch of monsters running on the field getting ready to score when out of nowhere a giant thing runs over everyone including the ball carrier and runs in for a TD.

The final one is when the guys are trying to sneak into the Monsters Inc. factory and Squishy's mom waits for them in the van. She tells them she's gonna listen to her music while they are away. The window goes up and she turns on the radio and out comes this ear blasting heavy metal music that would rattle your brain. It's such a subtle joke but relevant to the world this film is in.

Brilliant.

Finally and most importantly. Monsters University delivers a message that fits adults as well as kids. This is a hallmark of Pixar films so why should this one be any different. The message in this film seems familiar because it has been presented to us in previous films but they found a way to freshen it up. Combine this with the insane amount of comedy and you have yourself another Pixar MASTERPIECE!

On the 5 star scale. Monsters University gets 4.5 stars with a "Worth Every Penny!" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today.

Until Next Episode...."I'll Save You A Seat!"

"D"