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Reviews
The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019)
A fun little flick!
I enjoyed seeing this film on a Thursday while going around the shopping centre on my own. I am a young adult and I don't have any kids so I'm not the target audience for this film. Anyway, I still wanted to see this movie as I was a fan of the first one and my passion lies in children's entertainment, and it looked decent enough from the trailers.
There were some very good aspects to this film, such as the way Rooster (Harrison Ford's first voice role) shows Max how to be brave when he so is over-protective towards Katie's new son Liam, and I thought it was great how there was a subplot that tried to raise awareness of cruelty to circus animals, and it is something children's films don't usually do.
Another part of the film is focusing on Gidget, with Cleo's help, attempting to retrieve Max's "busy bee" toy from an old cat lady's apartment in order to impress him. I found this to be quite silly and unoriginal, but still funny. The old lady, the cats and Gidget end up rescuing the rest of the gang in the end, and I don't think they ever actually did solve the whole busy bee situation, now that I think about it.
I liked the two new main characters, Rooster and Daisy, and Snowball is as obnoxious as he is in the first film, but at least he is a good guy now. His ending scene when his girl puts him in a princess dress and he raps to her new stuffed panda toy was silly and a little cringe-worthy, but the kids in the cinema still seemed to find it very funny. But I did really like the ending from Max's point of view, when Liam starts preschool and Max says that he will help him get through it and he will always be there, but he is still confident because he understands that Liam is ready for this time and he will grow up eventually.
If I needed to say something negative overall about the movie, it would be that it's over-the-top silly and unoriginal at times, but you shouldn't be too surprised because the first one was like that as well. It's clear to see that it does need to rely on lame toilet jokes at times. Some other things I feel I would need to cover is that there were a few plot holes that annoyed me a little bit at the start. Max, Duke and all the other pets didn't seem to age at all after the first film, despite the fact that Max and Duke's owner, Katie, has met a guy, dated him for maybe a year or two, got married, got pregnant, and now their son is a year or two old. This would mean that three years at the very least would have passed since the events of the first film, and I'm sure you would know that a domesticated dog's lifespan is far shorter than that of a human's, I mean, come on! Pops the Basset Hound was too elderly in the first movie to have survived another three years, let alone be as active as he was! But I guess I'm pushing it a little bit as that is quite a minor flaw and this is a kid's movie and the makers probably just kept it this way because of plot convenience and that sort of stuff.
I guess the important thing is that the kids in the cinema were very entertained and I didn't even hear many adults talking, either. I was mostly entertained by it, too. But this is definitely more designed to entertain kids, not necessarily families, I feel. It is great fun and a good laugh, and it was a decent way to kill a couple of hours, but to be completely honest, if you had to see just one, you're much better off taking the family to see Toy Story 4. But, if you can, the Secret Life of Pets 2 is still worth taking your kids to see.
7/10
Incredibles 2 (2018)
I thought it was Incredible 2!
Being a 16-year-old, the Incredibles was a movie I grew up with. I watched it countless times, and when I saw this movie with my parents on Saturday, I was amazed by how good it was! I figured I simply must review it.
Obviously, the Incredibles 2 is a sequel and I usually have my doubts about sequels because it is very rare that they manage to be as good as the first movie. But, this sequel was almost as good as the original movie, if not, just as good as! Or maybe, just maybe even better. Wow! I was mindblown.
There are only two good animated sequels I can think of besides this one that are just as good as, if not better than their original, and they are: How to Train your Dragon 2 and Toy Story 2.
As mentioned before, I grew up watching the Incredibles and I would've been thoroughly disappointed to see a weak sequel to this film, and I was worried that could potentially happen after watching weak sequels Cars 2 and Cars 3 which were honestly... the worst of Pixar.
Not only does this movie have you sitting on the edge of your seat in suspense, it is also charming as it has great family messages and is funny at all the right moments.
(WARNING: Big spoiler for this next part) I think that the new villain Evelyn Deavor/Screenslaver is very evil and mysterious, which is a good thing, of course. She has an interesting motive as well: trying to make sure supers stay illegal because the public reply too much on them, which is how her parents died. I personally loved that plot twist!
What I also found very cool and different was that Evelyn used her very advanced techno-skills to create Screenslaver and a hypnosis effect that can "enslave" anyone, including supers. The black and white strobing make these scenes extra intense to watch in the dark cinema (which I would not recommend to people with epilepsy and seizures).
It was something different to put Helen/Elastigirl in the spotlight for this movie, and it was cool to see it. The family moments in this movie were charming as well as funny. Violet is having relationship issues with her almost-boyfriend, Tony Rydenger, after Rick Dicker erased his memory of seeing her in her super suit out of fear that her and her family's cover was blown. While dealing with this, Bob also has to help Dash with his homework while Helen is, of course, out saving the world. On top of this, Bob discovers that Jack-Jack has powers, and several of them, too. That baby has plenty of screentime and he deserves it, too. The people in the cinema loved it.
Overall, Incredibles 2 is just as super and incredible as the original, maybe even more so! It's a little more dark, intense and mature than the first movie, but still charming and funny. I agree with the reviews: It was worth the 14-year-wait.
Pixar, you've done it again!
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
One of the best movies I have ever seen
I don't have the words. If you hate this movie, then I'm sorry, you have no heart. This movie tells the tale of a forbidden friendship between a teenage Viking and an extremely rare dragon whom no-one has ever killed. Berk is a land of kill or be killed, and Hiccup, a weak Viking boy and the clumsy son of the chief, wants to kill dragons like everyone else. But when he shoots down an ultra-rare Night Fury dragon, whom no-one knows anything about, its soul reflected his own. After befriending the dragon secretly and learning about the ways of dragons, he learns that everything Vikings ever assumed about them is wrong. Not only does it warm the heart, it is eye-opening with magnificent animation and blows you away with an amazing soundtrack. Every adult in the cinema did not even blink while watching this movie and there was even applause in the end. It deserves applause from families everywhere. A friendship between a weak young boy and a deadly dragon show the viewers about unlikely friendships being beautiful and peace becoming possible. The end also shows that peace can sometimes comes from the most unlikely of sources. In my opinion, this movie turned out perfect and I could not imagine it any other way. How To Train Your Dragon will amaze you, tug at the heartstrings and open your mind to things you've never seen!
Moondance Alexander (2007)
Great little horse movie, unfortunately underrated
I've got to say, this is one of my favorite horse movies out there. It shows the tale of a different and quirky girl meeting a different and quirky horse who just want to fit in a little more. It also shows that sometimes being different is the best way to fit in- something almost no other horse movie shows. The only things that I don't really like is that at first, Moondance clearly doesn't know much about horses but yet still knows how to ride and knows some of the terms (example: "forelock"). I also thought it was a bit of a cliché to make the very girls who bully her at school also her rivals in the horse world. But it's a beautiful movie, so it doesn't really matter. This cute little movie is unfortunately underrated and I can't figure out why. It shows that being different is okay and you can do your own thing and I love the way it shows the magical connection that there should be between a horse and rider. The fact that this movie is based on a true story is even more magical. It tugged at my heartstrings. All the actors also suited their characters very well and were great at playing them. I couldn't imagine this movie any other way. If you're looking for a horse movie that's something a bit different with a moral, look no further!