Big Hero 6 (8/10): Another Disney classic with memorable characters

“Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion.”

I can’t avoid going into a Walt Disney Animation Studio film with high expectations considering they very rarely get it wrong, especially when John Lasseter is involved in the production. Big Hero 6 is their latest animated film, and this time they teamed up with Marvel so there was much more to get excited about. Big Hero 6 delivers everything it promised in the trailers: fun characters, stunning visuals, entertaining action scenes, and a lot of heart. Let me begin with the aspect of the film I found most fun: the characters. This is basically an origin superhero story about characters I had not heard about. They really don’t have special powers, but they are science enthusiasts who come up with great inventions. The lead character, Hiro Hamada, is all about making easy money as he destroys his opponents in robot battles, but when he meets his brother’s friends who are all working on cool science experiments he wants in. His brother has created a personal healthcare companion that looks more like a giant marshmallow than an actual robot. Its name is Baymax, and is by far the most endearing character in the film. Since it takes everything literally most of the comedy comes from it misinterpreting things (Marvel always has some character who behaves in this way) and the sweet way in which it reacts to different moments. It is the heart and soul of this film and the chemistry between it and Hiro is what elevates this film and makes it more endearing. Pretty much every character in this film has some sort of distinct personality and they all have their comedic moments. Big Hero 6 has its emotional moments as well as we deal with the death of one of the characters. It is standard at times and even predictable in the direction its heading, but it never ceases to entertain with a fun action-packed and comedic pacing. You have the superhero element on one hand and the touching relationship between Baymax and Hiro on the other. So there are several reasons why you can find it pleasing. It’s hard to avoid comparison with The Incredibles and I think it does live up to the same level of enjoyment we got from those memorable characters as well. 

So on the one hand you get plenty of action scenes because this is a superhero animated film where they face a mysterious villain, while on the other it remains emotionally engaging and touching with the center core relationship between this personal healthcare companion and Hiro. The film balances these moments extremely well and thanks to the memorable characters Big Hero 6 will surely become another classic from Disney Studios. I’ve focused my review on the narrative structure of the film, but I can’t leave out how good the visuals are here. The city where the action takes place is San Fransokyo, a combination of San Francisco and Tokyo. The architecture from both cities is combined here and makes for a gorgeous to look at futuristic city. I loved the way in which they blended these two styles together and the film looks amazing and culturally diverse. Add that to the charismatic characters and you have an instant classic. 

My Review: Casa de Mi Padre (3/10)

"If you were smart you would know that you are dumb."

Directed by Matt Piedmont (known mostly for his work in Saturday Night Live and the Funny or Die videos) and written by Andrew Steele, Casa de Mi Padre, is a spoof on the Mexican tele novellas. It was a nice idea, but poorly executed considering there were very few funny moments and five minutes into the film the gags wore off. This could have worked much better as a 5 minute skit in SNL, but it doesn't have enough comedic moments to carry the film for 80 minutes. I'll give Casa De Mi Padre credit for being original and for trying something different, but the story just dragged during most of the film. Will Ferrell surprised me as he delivered all his lines in spanish by learning them phonetically; he may not have spoken perfect spanish but he did a decent job and I had no problem understanding him. Unfortunately despite having an interesting idea for the film, the execution was just too simple and the laughs were practically nonexistent. Casa De Mi Padre is a hollow film and there isn't much more to it.

Armando Alvarez (Will Ferrell) has been living in his father's ranch in Mexico all his life. He's not bright, but he's loyal to his father, Miguel (Pedro Armendariz Jr.). He spends most of his time with his buddies, Esteban (Efren Ramirez) and Manuel (Adrian Martinez) goofing around while he cares for his father's animals. His younger brother, Raul (Diego Luna), is an international businessman who has returned to save the ranch and introduce his new fiancé, Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez), to the family. However, Raul seems to be running an illegitimate business and Armando warns him he has brought trouble to the ranch. The town's drug lord, Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal), has declared war on Raul for interfering in his area, while Raul has also drawn the attention of DEA Agent Parker (Nick Offerman).

Will Ferrell is a funny guy and most of his films work for me, but Casa De Mi Padre is just too dull and uninspired. It's a shame because there is a talented cast, Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal are two of the best Mexican actors, Nick Offerman always delivers, and Genesis Rodriguez is a beautiful actress. I grew up in South America, so I'm familiar with the novellas they were trying to spoof, but after five minutes the jokes wore off. The trailers made me believe this was going to be hilarious, but it wasn't at all. There were some funny moments involving the production design and the animatronic white jaguar, but everything else was poorly executed.

My Review: Hours (5/10)

¨Every second counts.¨

Hours is Eric Heisserer's first feature film, but he is mostly known for his screenplays for The Thing (the 2010 version) and Final Destination 5. He takes a pretty interesting premise but fails in the delivery as the film has too many awkward moments with a lot of forced dialogues. Take the scene where Paul Walker's character is being given very bad news from a doctor concerning his wife. The scene felt entirely forced and never managed to draw the audience in. There are numerous scenes like that in Hours that just feel completely out of place. Paul Walker is on his own for the majority of the film and once the story began to drag it failed to engage me. There were few thrills and hardly any action scenes. For the most part it was just seeing Walker speaking out loud to his recently born infant, or to a rescue dog he encountered later on in the film. When he wasn't speaking to himself, the film gave us unnecessary flashbacks about how he and his wife met. Hours should've been a film full of tension, but Heisserer failed to deliver by adding so many unnecessary and forced scenes and not relying on Walker's physical performance alone.

The film takes place in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina as Nolan (Paul Walker) takes his pregnant wife, Abigail (Genesis Rodriguez), to a local hospital as she enters early labor. The Hurricane is about to hit the city hard while the doctors ask Nolan to stay in the waiting room while they treat Abigail. A few hours later Doctor Jeremy (TJ Hassan) comes bearing some bad news. Abigail had a complicated labor, the newborn baby has to stay on a ventilator for the next 48 hours until she learns how to breath on her own. The mother didn't make it. Making matters worse, the hospital is hit hard by the hurricane, forcing everyone to evacuate. Nolan is told to stay in the hospital with the baby until an ambulance can come back and take them to safer ground. Cut from the outside world, Nolan is on his own forced to make quick decisions in order to save his baby's life. 

If as the tagline suggests ¨Every second counts¨ than Eric Heisserer did a very lousy job because there are several seconds wasted on this film. It dragged during several moments making me feel like I was watching an over two hour film, when in reality it was just a 95 minute movie. Paul Walker isn't bad in this film, but he just isn't given the right material to carry a film on his own. The most exciting moments of the film came when a rescue dog showed up and it kind of brought life to an otherwise lifeless film. Hours is full of awkward and dull moments that bring down this film. Walker could have been given less dialogue and the flashbacks should've been cut out of the film. Some more external shots of the storm might have worked better because the wreckage scenes were pretty well shot. Overall it wasn't a terrible film, but it did fail to keep me entertained or invested in the story.

My Review: Identity Thief (2/10)

¨I just want to be upfront and say I visually enjoy you.¨

It will be very difficult to find another movie worse than Identity Thief at the theater this year. I have no idea how this film raised more than 100 million dollars at the box office considering how terrible it was. I remember a time in which road trip comedies used to be great, but after seeing this and Due Date I have to admit I´m disappointed at Hollywood´s latest efforts. Despite having very funny actors the film has no laughs whatsoever. It was a huge disappointment for me because I like Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy. They are extremely talented and funny actors, but this movie did the impossible and made them look so dull and boring. The screenplay for this film has to be one of the worst and in my opinion is an early contender for this year´s Razzies. I´m not hating on director Seth Gordon because I was one of the few people who actually enjoyed Horrible Bosses and am looking forward to the sequel. I do think that the screenplay by Craig Mazin and Jerry Eetin is probably the weakest thing about Identity Thief. This is as lazy as you can get with a movie. I think that having Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy say whatever they felt like in front of the camera would have been much funnier than having them play these stereotypical roles with very poor dialogues.

Sandy Patterson (Jason Bateman) has a lovely wife named Trish (Amanda Peet) and two beautiful daughters. He lives in Denver where he works as an account rep for an important company, but soon discovers that his identity has been stolen after seeing his credit cards being all maxed out. He discovers that a woman in Florida has been using his identity and has been spending all his money so he decides to travel to Florida and bring her back to Colorado for justice. Once he arrives at Florida he finds out that the woman´s name is Diana (Melissa McCarthy), or so she says, and that she is wanted by a lot of people. He somehow convinces her to come along with him to Colorado and fix things with his bosses so he doesn’t get in trouble at work. While they embark on their road trip they are followed by several other criminals and hit men who are looking for Diana as well. Among them there is Julian (T.I.) and Marisol (Genesis Rodriguez) who are working together for an important drug dealer, and then there is Skiptracer (Robert Patrick) who has also been asked to bring Diana back to Florida. What seemed like an easy road trip back to Denver will end up in a very dangerous pursuit with all sorts of things going wrong for Sandy and Diana.

Identity Thief is a lazy excuse for a comedy and one of the few films in that genre that never managed to make me laugh. I was really surprised the film was this bad considering how much I liked the actors here. I can’t think of one funny or stand out scene. This was a very disappointing film and I can´t say anything else about it.

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My Review: Man on a Ledge (6/10)

¨Today is the day when everything changes. One way or another. ¨

Man on a Ledge is the latest thriller starring Sam Worthington who has made a name for himself in several blockbuster action films like Terminator Salvation, Avatar, and Wrath of the Titans. These films have been box office hits, but he still hasn`t managed to make it among the A-list actors in my opinion. This was a lower budget film and it had its flaws, but it was still an interesting and entertaining thriller. Sam actually chose this role because he liked the script and wanted to face his fear of heights since most of the film takes place on the ledge of a 200 foot building. This is Asger Leth`s first feature film, since he previously had only directed a documentary, and Pablo Fenjves wrote this original script which is actually his first screenplay as well since his previous work had been for television movies. I was surprised these guys got so many talented actors on board for this film, but I guess Sam`s presence helped. The script is interesting and it has some good thrills, but there are several plot holes in the heist that takes place, and many elements seemed borrowed from other famous thrillers we`ve seen before. Man on a Ledge lacks some originality, but the film still manages to entertain for most part. There is an interesting secondary cast and Worthington does a decent job as the lead although he doesn’t have much space to work with. Be warned this film could give you some goose bumps if you`re afraid of heights.

The film opens with a man renting a Hotel room under a fake name and then writing a suicide note before he opens the window and climbs to the ledge of the 200 foot building in Manhattan. Someone spots him from the street and calls the police. Soon the police arrive, and so do the firefighters and SWAT team. There is a flashback where we see the same man in prison. His real name is Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) and he is talking to one of his visitors, his ex partner in the police force, Mike (Anthony Mackie) who is telling him that the case seems lost and he will have to spend 25 more years in prison. Nick claims to be innocent and escapes from prison when he is allowed to attend his father`s funeral. He has a discussion with his younger brother Joey (Jamie Bell) and when the police officers are distracted he escapes. This is what takes us to the present event, but now Nick is on the ledge of the building and asks for a high profile negotiator named Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks). As the movie goes on we begin to discover new things about Nick and his case. There is more to the simple suicide attempt than meets the eye; Nick is really trying to clear his name and prove his innocence while a heist is going on across another building.

Genesis Rodriguez, Edward Burns, Kyra Sedgwick, and Ed Harris are also among the talented cast. Rodriguez and Bell sort of have the funnier and lighter dialogues although I didn’t think it worked out really well. The film works thanks to a good performance from Worthington who always has you feeling like if you were on the ledge with him. Banks is also good in her role, while the rest of the cast really have no screen time. The heist scene is very interesting at first, but it begins to have too many plot holes and too many things have to go their way in order for it to really work. It wasn`t very believable, but it still was entertaining and had me at the edge of my seat at times. I really didn’t like how the end of the movie played out, but I can`t judge the film entirely based on the ending. I have to admit I had a good time during most of the movie so I can`t say this was a bad movie. If you are into thrillers then you will probably like this film. Man on a Ledge isn’t memorable or original, but it entertains and has some strong moments.

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