It is a rarity to see me go to the cinema to see an animated film unless its one that I want to see. The honest truth about today’s film that I selected is that I didn’t have the chance to see it in the theaters. So, I took the chance to see Minions when I saw that Netflix was streaming it. Minions is the prequel movie to the Despicable Me films, but much more in the sense of telling you how and where the minions came from. The Minions have always been in search of the biggest and baddest villain on the planet to serve, but something keeps messing up opportunities for them. After feeling like life was meaningless, three particular Minions in Kevin, Stuart, and Bob (all voiced by Pierre Coffin) will go on a mission to find a new boss and she goes by the name of Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock), but will things work out for them? The film also stars Jon Hamm (The Town) as Herb Overkill, Michael Keaton (Batman 1989) as Walter Nelson, Allison Janney (The Duff) as Madge Nelson, Steve Coogan (Despicable Me 2) as Professor Flux, Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous) as The Queen, Geoffrey Rush (Mystery Men) as the narrator, Katy Mixon (Drive Angry) as Tina, and the film was directed by Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda.
I loved the first two films in the Despicable Me series because they were new and different than anything we had before. The Minions were the comedic relief for Steve Carell and his character Gru. I have to say that while I enjoyed watching this one, I don’t think it’s the best in the series because it loses a little bit of the magic that it had in the other films. I bet that there are a crap ton of children out there that probably disagree with me on this one, but as a film fan it would rank third in the series. There were some scenes where a chuckle or a laugh will sneak out because they are the cutest characters ever, but there isn’t a lot of them. One of the best characters in the film and the cutest Minion is Bob with his teddy bear and eventual pet rat. He was actually the comedic relief for the rest of the minions characters in the film and he had that cute factor to him as well. I like how this film connects with the other films when everyone’s favorite villain Gru shows up to inspire the minions. The animation was as good as any of the other films and the voice work was good too. Again for the record, I will state that I liked the movie, but I didn’t love the movie like I did with the first two Despicable Me films. The film like I said is available to stream on Netflix, so check it out if you would like. I am going to give the film an B for a final grade.
For today’s challenge film, I wanted to watch a certain film from Emily Browning that I have been waiting to see for five years now. The name of the film is Sucker Punch which was directed by Zack Snyder (300, Man Of Steel) and it stars Emily Browning as the distraught and recently institutionalized Babydoll. Due to the fact that she bi-accidentally killed her little sister, her step father has her locked away in a mental institution where she is to get a lobotomy in five days. In order to cope with the fact that she is institutionalized, she creates a fantasy world that she can completely roam free in and do as she pleases, but she wants to escape. So, she enlists the help of four other girls at the institution in Sweat Pea (Abbie Cornish), Rocket (Jena Malone), Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), and Amber (Jamie Chung) as they try to collect some key items to help them escape. The film also stars Oscar Issac (X-Men: Apocalypse) as Blue, Carla Gugino (Watchmen) as Dr. Gorski, Jon Hamm (The Town) as High Roller/Doctor, Scott Glenn (Urban Cowboy) as wise man, Richard Cetrone (Iron Man) as CJ, Malcolm Scott (Man Of Steel) as the Cook, and A.C. Peterson (Narc) as The Mayor.
Even if you didn’t know that this was a Zack Snyder film, you would instantly recognize that it was his just by the style and look of the film. It has the look and feel of 300 as far as bad ass looking landscapes, imagery, and characters. One of my favorite segments of the film when Babydoll goes into dancing mode is her battle with the Samurai in the beginning of the film. While I don’t agree with some of their weapon choices, you can’t deny how amazing it looked on screen. It also helps that you ave five incredibly sexy women as your heroins in the film and that Snyder makes them just as bad ass as any character in any film he has ever made. I truly loved the story and how they bounced right from reality to fantasy to even more of a fantasy world and then back to the start. It was clever and very well done by the writers and everyone involved. One of the other things about this film that I enjoyed was the soundtrack to the film. The film features an incredible cover of Sweet Dreams by actress Emily Browning as well as some other cool tracks. When it came to the imagery and the fantasy scenes, Snyder talked about them saying, “On the other hand, though it’s fetishistic and personal, I like to think that my fetishes aren’t that obscure. Who doesn’t want to see girls running down the trenches of World War One wreaking havoc? I’d always had an interest in those worlds – comic books, fantasy art, animated films. I’d like to see this, that’s how I approach everything, and then keep pushing it from there.” I completely agree with him and thought it was awesome as well. A film any Snyder fan should check out if they haven’t yet. I am going to give the film an A- for a final grade.
365moviesin365dayschallenge 