Movie Review: The Secret Life of Pets

Things change in life, and if you don't fight the change, you could find happiness. A good friend of mine, Quade, talks about this at times and I find it is true. It is also the theme for this weeks movie review, The Secret Life of Pets.

The movie starts with Max (voiced by Louis C.K.) taking us through the story of how he met his owner and best friend, Katie (voiced by Ellie Kemper). It starts out with him as a puppy in a box with a sign that says "FREE" on it, when Katie comes along and picks him up. He says how they were both looking for a roommate, so they stayed together, and from then on they were inseparable from each other. As we watch the years pass by, he tells us how most people would see them as soulmates, meant to just be them forever. There is only one thing that makes him sad, and those are the times she has to leave him at home. When she does this, he just sits at the door, waiting for her to come home.

We move on to meet the other animals in the area, starting with Gidget (voiced by Jenny Slate), who lives in the apartment building next to Max's. Then we start seeing other owners leave their pets at home, with the next pet being a cat named Chloe (voiced by Lake Bell). We continue on to meet a pug named Mel (voiced by Bobby Moynihan), a little bird named Sweet Pea (voiced by Tara Strong), and a dachshund named Buddy (voiced by Hannibal Buress). We have fun seeing what they do when their humans leave, and this can all be seen in the trailer below. 

The story plot has followed the same theme as Toy Story by Pixar, in which we have a human with a favorite thing, in this case a dog, and this favorite is introduced to a new one, and jealousy comes between the two of them. Then an adventure happens that causes these two opposing forces to become friends and work together. Not a ground breaking theme, but a good way to reintroduce it to the next generation of kids. It is consistently funny, which makes it enjoyable for adults to watch, but it really is geared for the youngest of the crowd.

The voice acting was full of talent which creates a lot of chemistry on the screen. They matched the stereotype of the animals well, including Kevin Hart as the cute but evil bunny Snowball. My only complaint there is again, nothing stood out as groundbreaking. The actors did a great job, but I missed that standout performance that creates the buzz the next day.

Overall, the movie is a great family movie to watch especially for families with younger kids. It has a great theme that Illumination knew would hit well, but not something new like when it was first put out there. However, the characters were fun to watch, and for these reasons I would rate this movie 7.8/10.

Movie Review: The BFG

This week’s movie is based on a children’s book by Roald Dahl called the BFG. I will be honest, I didn't recognize his name until I googled him. He wrote many great and slightly dark stories that I loved. Supposedly, I would watch the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory so much as a young kid that I apparently wore through a VHS tape and two DVD's. Anyways, I hope you enjoy my review on The BFG.

The movie starts with a lady walking down some stairs towards the front door where a pile of mail is waiting. She goes to lock the door, but instead picks up magazines to read, then leaves to her room. On the stairs, under a blanket is Sophie (played by Ruby Barnhill) who goes down and locks the door and takes the rest of the mail with her upstairs. You then hear narration of Sophie talking about the “witching hour” while she puts mail into a holder, then shouts out the window at four drunk men do quiet down, as there are children sleeping. She then takes her blanket to her bed where she turns on her flashlight and begins to read her book. Shortly after she begins, she hears a sound from down the hallway and immediately turns off her flashlight and acts as if she were asleep. The orphanage owner lady opens the door and looks for anyone who would be awake, but doesn’t see anyone and leaves.

Sophie turns the flashlight back on to read, but hears something outside, and turns it off again to check on it. Sophie recites the three rules of the witching hour “Don’t get out of bed”, “Don’t go to the window” and “Don’t draw back the curtains”, doing each of them in order. After drawing back the curtains, she sees three cats had knocked over a garbage can. Just before she can head inside, she sees a giant hand reach out from around the corner and pick up the garbage can. Sophie gets scared when she sees the giants head come around, and she runs back inside and hides under blanket. The giants hand reaches in and grabs Sophie, and from here the adventure gets more fun and crazy.

The acting was really enjoyable in all aspects. The animated giants were actually done through live action animation, which brought me back to my first movie review ever, The Adventures of Tintin. I was an instant fan then, but this movie took it to a whole new level. To have the interaction between the live actors and the animated ones in the way they did was brilliant. Mark Rylance as the BFG was a perfect choice, then how the animators caught the lightest movements in his facial features were amazing. The added bright spot was young actress Ruby Barnhill. She was fresh and energetic, which made for some great on screen magic when she interacted with everything.

The story plot was filled with so many things to bring you in. Not only was it a story about two misfits finding each other, but there was standing up against bullying, believing in yourself, and so much more. It really is a story with something for everyone. There are a few parts that the very youngest of audience members might find scary, however, it really is a movie for everyone to enjoy. There was one part where the movie dragged on for a little, but it does not last long.

Overall, I recommend this movie to anyone, and you will not regret watching it. The one part that they lingered on a little too long is the only reason I would rate this move 9.3/10.

Movie Review: Independence Day: Resurgence

Some of you reading this may have been waiting a long time for this movie to come out. And for those of you who don't know, this weeks movie is a sequel of one that came out 20 years ago. Though I haven't seen the first, I heard that it's a good movie and may watch it. But anyways, I hope you enjoy my review on Independence Day: Resurgence.

The movie starts 20 years after the battle for Earth, and we find ourselves following a young pilot going through the Corridors of the White House. He then stops to look upon a painting of the heroic Steven Hiller, from the first movie. As the view pans around we find that the pilot is Dylan Hiller (played by Jessie T. Usher). We see President Lanford practicing her speech for the independence day celebration about to take place, then turns to face Patricia Whitmore (played by Maika Monroe), who congratulates her on a well written speech. They then acknowledge that Dylan is there and get ready to leave.

It then moves to their moon base where construction of an alien tech laser cannon for extra defense is going slowly. In one of the construction ships, Jake Morrison (played by Liam Hemsworth) is complaining about how slow that the construction is going, and him wanting action instead. After putting the laser up, the locking mechanism begins, only to stop as the laser begins falling. When everyone else takes off for safety, Jake stays to save the station below. Through some crazy ideas, he gets the laser back up to lock in.

The acting was not too bad, but there were some areas I feel were over done. Brett Spiner, who plays Dr. Brakish Okun, definitely had an eccentric character, and I am told that he was just as crazy in the first movie. I enjoyed his character, but there were parts I think he went overboard, or the script had him doing more unrealistic things. However, for the most part everyone else did a great job and brought the story more to life in a good way.

The story plot went really smoothly through the movie, but it made the movie seem longer than it did. The main reason I say it seemed like it lasted forever was how many times the aliens seemed to be defeated, only to find they were still alive. Probably could have taken that down by one and added some more character content. But even with the movie seeming like it took forever, the plot flowed through nicely, but slowly.

Overall,the acting was mostly good, and the story plot flowed nicely, but it felt long throughout the movie. So for these reasons, I would rate this movie 7.9/10.