Film Review: DESPICABLE ME 2

We finally got around to watching this Dreamworks film a couple nights ago.  It was a fun film.  I wasn't terribly impressed with the animation, but as seems to be the case with Dreamworks films, it had plenty of funny jokes, some of which went over my kids' heads but were all the funnier to me because of it.  Can I cite a specific example?  No, I can't.  I just remember a few laugh-out-loud moments where my kids asked what I found funny. 

I thought the story was a little thin.  It had its moments, but in general there wasn't much there.  Gru is now a "dad" and has to think about his girls.  So his evil scientist goes to work for someone else, and Gru finds himself recruited by an organization dedicated to stopping supercriminals (like Gru was) from destroying the world.  There's a plot afoot, and it centers on the mall where Gru has a bakery called "Bake My Day".  Gru is asked to look for the formula in the mall, and to find out who is the bad guy. 

Of course, things don't go well.  If I spill more of the plot, it will spoil it, I think.  So I'll stop there, and say that while it wrapped up neatly and there were times that it was exciting, overall, I didn't like it as much as the first DESPICABLE ME movie. 

My review:  Not bad, maybe worth seeing, but far from Dreamworks' best effort...

*****

If you want to read a book about one family's strategies when vacationing for a week at Disney World, feel free to check out my title , Doing Disney: How To Spend A Week At Disney's Florida Resort   It's available on Amazon for $2.99.  I tried to write it for families who get to spend a week in the World every year or two and want to maximize their time in the parks and in the area.  It doesn't try to be comprehensive, but I think you might find a few helpful tidbits within its electronic pages...

Thanks!

Disney Film: OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL

I didn't get to see this movie in the theater, like I'd hoped to do.  But I caught some of it on a flight, and it looked pretty good.  Waiting at home was the DVD (which I had purchased when it came out), and it took until now to finally watch it.

And my initial impression was correct.  This was a really fun movie.  It told a pretty decent, if a little thin, story, describing just how the Wizard of Oz gets to be the Wizard.  It filled in the backstory of the witches.  It paid homage to the original film in several places.  And it was a beautifully filmed movie, with plenty of colorful effects and solid animation.  Performances were good, and I liked all of the actors in their roles.

More importantly, it held my boys' interest better than a lot of movies do when I show them on DVD.  And now they want to see the original film, which prior to now, they've always demurred when offered the opportunity.  So we'll be popping that one in soon.

My sons are REALLY looking forward to seeing PERCY JACKSON:  SEA OF MONSTERS in the theater, maybe even this weekend.

*****

Disney Film - JOHN CARTER

A long time ago (it seems) I wrote a couple posts (edit:  it was only one post, located here) on the theatrical release of John Carter, the big budget Disney SF fantasy adapted from the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel A Princess of Mars.  In the first, if I recall correctly, I commented that it wasn't a movie I had much interest in seeing, nor did my boys.  Our initial reaction was due to the television advertising for the movie.  It just didn't look that good.  It didn't make me want to see it.

In another post (actually, in edits to that first and only post) I suggested that maybe that initial impression was mistaken, since I had read numerous commentaries on blogs stating that it was in fact quite good.  And those reviews were enough to inspire me to buy the Blu-Ray/DVD release when it came out.

But then we never watched it.  Until last Friday night.

We had a rare "boy's night" with me and my sons having the evening to ourselves, and I decided that *I* was going to pick out a movie to watch.  Going through the stack of unviewed movies, I came across John Carter and thought, What better time to watch this one?  It is not one my wife would want to see AT ALL, so it was a perfect time to pop it in and watch.

So the verdict is in.  We all liked it quite a bit!  Was it great?  No, maybe not great.  But it was very good and told a good story (albeit a story that's been covered before) and had very good effects and settings and the acting was decent.  (I noted that the director was Andrew Stanton, I believe...)  I wouldn't mind seeing it again sometime, and I would be interested in seeing a sequel.

I know, because it didn't do well at the box office, that a sequel is very unlikely.  Too bad Disney flubbed the marketing of this movie.  Because they had something pretty good and didn't get the promotion right.

*****

Disney DVD - The 6 Pack

Not really about the content about the DVD's themselves, but today I found myself disappointed.

I paid the 28 bucks plus to get them through Amazon, and I still haven't watched all of them. But I wandered into Sam's Club today in search of supplies for the office, and when I do that, I always have to see if they have any deals on DVDs. No deals on stuff I don't have, but...

The DVD 6 pack of the Disney Parks programs was there, and had a price tag of something just over 18 dollars on it.

It always bums me out when I spend more than I need to spend for something. And when it's 10 dollars, well, that's a lot of money!

If you are looking for this collection, and you have a Sam's Club nearby, check it out before you buy at Amazon.

*****

Disney Video - 1/3 of the Six Pack

I finally got the opportunity to watch a couple of the videos from the Disney Parks collection that I got about a month ago. The two I watched were (and I don't have them in front of me so I'm doing the titles from memory) Walt Disney World Behind The Scenes and Undiscovered Parks.

I must admit I sort of had a different idea about the second of these two titles; for some reason I was thinking that this one might be more about parks not in the United States that we aren't able to discover. When I was thinking about it, I was thinking that "Unbuilt Parks" might be an interesting subject as well, a documentary on stuff like WestCot and Port Disney, and Disney's America. (I think there is a DVD program there; history, concept art and interviews with Imagineers. People like me would buy it, I believe.)

Anyway, the real subject of this DVD was the lesser known activities available at the American resorts. It discussed things like the "Richard Petty Driving Experience", parasailing on Lake Buena Vista, the "dream suites" at both resorts, and some of the tours that are available, like the "Walk in Walt's Footsteps" tour at Disneyland. It was an interesting DVD to watch, showing some overlooked details and giving a heads-up, sort of, on some things offered by the resorts.

The other DVD was a behind-the-scenes look at the attractions and offerings at the four parks in Disney as well as the water parks. It had some beautiful videography, but there was nothing earth-shattering in the subject matter. They discussed the remaking of attractions like "Test Track" and "The Seas With Nemo" among other things. There were some interesting interviews and some neat shots of the parks being built.

I have four more of these DVD's to watch. They are more like advertisements for a Disney vacation, but as I said, the images are at times stunning, and the picture quality, even in DVD (not BluRay), is excellent. If the other four are more or less like these two, I will feel I've gotten more than my money's worth for this 6 DVD collection at a price tag of under $30.00

*****

Disney Video - The 6 Pack Is Here!

I'm happy to report that the Disney Parks DVD 6 pack has arrived from Amazon today!

I won't have time to watch anything from this collection for a while, since I work late tonight and tomorrow and then we're off for a bit. But I'll be looking forward to viewing and enjoying the programs.

I'll report on them as I watch them, as there is very little chance I will be able to watch more than one or maybe two at a time.

*****

Stuff I got today...

Today started off with a quick trip to the library. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, but came across a bio of Walt Disney called Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince by Marc Eliot.

I've heard of this book, read stuff about it in various forums and discussions, and have heard it is a hatchet job, poorly written and with an agenda to paint Walt in the worst possible light. If that's true, I doubt I'll finish the book. But I think it's always good to get other perspectives. For example, I have a friend, works as a market researcher for a big company, who, when I mentioned that I had been reading a lot on Disney (both the man and the company), commented that Walt was a Nazi and a real jerk. That goes against everything I've read about him in Barrier and Gabler and other sources. I suspect a lot of that comes from a book like this. So, I'm going to see what this other side is.

My other purchase was the Blu-ray edition of The Princess And The Frog. It is only my second Blu-ray disc purchase since getting one at the beginning of the year. My wife didn't get to see it in the theater, so maybe we can make a family thing out of it and all watch together.

Now it's off to do something besides write blog entries...

*****

Pixar's PRESTO

We were going to watch our newly acquired DVD of Wall*E last night, but we got involved in doing Christmas decorating of the inside of the house (I got the outside done on Friday the 28th, and the tree was set up and decorated on the 29th). And today was a school day, so the boys had to go to bed earlier than they had over the last week or so.

But there was time to watch some of the extras from the DVD. And one was this Pixar short that we also saw in the theater. In the theater, I think the boys were overstimulated by the refreshments they were just starting to dig into, and by all the previews they had just finished showing, so I don't believe they paid as much attention to the short as they did in this more dedicated viewing session. They didn't seem to remember the subject very well, and I certainly don't recall them laughing at it uproariously as they did when we were watching it on our own TV.

Because laugh uproariously is pretty much what they did for the duration of this short film. The rabbit certainly got the better of the magician. I have to admit, I don't remember laughing as much at it in the theater as I did at home, either.

I can't wait to see the short entitled Burn*E. Maybe tonight.