Frozen II

Somebody super jaundiced might dismiss this film as mostly a collection of music videos of varying quality. Not me though—I learned my lesson from the first outing: there’s more here than meets the eye, at least at first glance. I’m not sure the plot makes a lot of sense, beyond its service as a means to creating its ultimate end, which affirms what has been hinted at all along: that one sister is the real ruler of things, while the other one is more of a symbol, or a figurehead, or perhaps just a metaphor for powers greater than the human world. That’s not really what tends to drive movies for kids, so we get the story we get here. Mostly, it’s entertaining, occasionally touching, every once in a while awkward (and maybe even a bit cringeworthy), and it’s packed with musical numbers that are, if not quite a match for the now classic songs of the first flick, at least good enough to hold their own here. (The Lopezes certainly do have a way with the music and lyrics.) It definitely feels like this should be the saga's second and last part, even with the announced plans for a third installment. After all, it would be a singular irony if it turns out that these, of all people, can’t find the wisdom to let it go.

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Expansion is sometimes a good thing, sometimes not. This movie here is a case in point. Overall, the story is a bit too ambitious; when the characters achieve their originally stated goal, it seems like a good place to wrap up the proceedings and call it game over. But then things move in an altogether new direction, and not always successfully. The additional plot and resolution does not really add anything onto the story that needed to be there, beyond making an animated movie feel more cinematic by virtue of its being what is generally regarded as feature length. But that’s not to say that all of the story’s twists and turns are unwelcome. There’s good stuff in this flick, especially when the thing turns kind of twisted and starts sending up its own studio’s sacred cows, which leads to many of the movie’s laugh-out-loud moments. On the downside, one thing that looms over the entire tale is its vision of the internet, which includes a slew of major names (almost certainly paid product placements) and is hard to view without considering, from today’s standpoint, how much of all that has proven to be problematic, if not outright malevolent. That drops a bit of a buzzkill onto the presentation. Still, there’s enough satisfying entertainment here to get this flick just over the threshold for a PURR rather than a MEOW. One might accept another sequel with this cast, if someone comes up with a truly fresh idea—there were certainly possible story developments left on the table in this outing—and if the filmmakers can get everyone (including the studio) on board for the ride. If not, this would probably be a fine time for this crew to check themselves before they wreck themselves.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

You know what this movie gets wrong? The opening credits. They’re sometimes difficult to read, and not particularly a good fit for the rest of the movie, stylistically or creatively. That’s it. The rest is perfect, a masterpiece of the cinematic art of action and adventure. Beyond that, there is little more to say; the thing speaks for itself. No wonder this is a Best of All inductee and ranks No. 2 on this author's all-time Top Ten list. If you are one of the few people on earth who has not yet seen this flick, then set aside a couple of hours and watch one of the finest works in all of filmdom.

Spider-man: No Way Home

I honestly don't know what to say about this movie. I've never been as hyped up about the Tom Holland iteration of the Spidey story, so I suppose I should have appreciation for this flick's special-guest-star gimmick--and it is good to see the previous actors showing their version of the character, particularly Maguire's version, which really laid much of the groundwork for today's hero-film landscape (and doesn't get nearly as much credit as is deserved these days). So it goes. As for this particular work, again, it's mostly a matter of fan service, though it does benefit from the presence of some really good actors reprising their previous roles. On the other hand, the relationship between Holland and Cumberbatch never quite hits the right note. Guess it's a good thing that the latter disappears for about half the running time. That's the sort of thing we have here--an odd melange of good and bad, weird and decent and exasperating all at the same time. Sure, you can have fun with this movie, but the original film, twenty-some years ago, proved this story can be fun and high-quality at the same time. Who knows if this goes any further--it's the third lead outing for Holland, so likely done for him now--though the best bet would be to just let this thing leave off here and come back with a new iteration in about 15 years or so. Will that happen? No--the MCU is a stickier web than anything this kid can shoot. I guess it's just a matter of shrug the shoulders and accept it as it is. Oh well...

Monsters University

I watched this flick with little enthusiasm at first--I have an established bias against these later Pixar movies, for various reasons--but gradually I warmed up to this one. The story hit every college movie cliche imaginable, but the movie eventually comes out on top despite its deficiencies, mostly because of plenty of good gags and jokes, and one fairly unexpected twist towards the end that redeems a lot of the triteness.

Rango

Yeah, OK, I can see it. I mean, there’s nothing super profound here, but you do get an entertaining animated movie that has some good laughs, fine visuals (including some nicely clever visual references), and a relatively standard though still compelling Western style story line. I’ve seen worse stuff tossed out there under the cynical, “you’ll watch anything animated” philosophy; this film rises above that. Worth a look.

Spider-man 2

Yes, I think it is better than the first. A world of credit goes to the cast for an entire collection of wonderful performances, all deep and emotionally resonant. And it helps that the script is more interested in questions about personal identity and responsibility than in blowing things up. I'd go along with a third in the series, if they're willing to keep up the quality.

Chocolat

Cute, mostly. It gets devalued some for indecision about what it wants to be (specifically, some awkward transitions from comedy to drama), but I don't want to fall into the trap of damning due to high expectations. This is, succinctly, a good movie, and that should be enough. But not worthy of a Best Picture nominee; it must have been a slow year. (NOTE: this is the Juliette Binoche/Johnny Depp/Judi Dench movie; there's another Chocolat out there, some movie about a chick returning to Africa. That other Chocolat is boring as hell. Don't be hoodwinked.)