Cowboy Pete’s Movie Round Up

So I’ve been doing some movie going and I figured I’d bring you up to speed on my film thoughts. These are pretty much spoiler free:

ANT-MAN: Ant-Man conclusively proves that Marvel can do a variety of films. After movies in which the stakes range from millions of lives to planetary destruction, Ant-Man is basically–at its core–a family film. Two dads, Scott Lang and Henry Pym, have other concerns certainly that stem from Pym’s work as a miniaturizing scientist, but ultimately it’s about two fathers trying to connect or reconnect with their daughters. Considering that the only other Marvel film with serious daddy issues features a dad who rules Asgard, Ant-Man is unique. I should also mention that it is unquestionably the first Marvel movie that truly benefits from 3-D. I don’t say that lightly and I have actively complained about previous 3-D efforts from Marvel, but this one knocks it out of the park.

TRAINWRECK: Amy Schumer writes a screenplay in which she plays a magazine writer named Amy (clever) who spends her romantic life aggressively pinballing from guy to guy while she remains determined never to form a connection with them. Her plan derails when her boss, who is apparently the boss from “The Devil Wears Prada,” assigns her to do an article about a sports physician played by Bill Hader. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. It’s honestly all rather formulaic, although Hader is a delight to watch as he tries to understand what is going through her mind at any given moment. I dunno, people are raving about this film like it’s the second coming of Tracy and Hepburn, and I thought it was okay but not great.

MR. HOLMES: An aged Sherlock Holmes, having retired to bee keeping, strives to remember the details of his last case while forming a fatherly relationship with the young son of his housekeeper. It’s not exactly a thrill ride, and there is a largely pointless side trip to Japan that could easily have been cut entirely and the film wouldn’t have lost a step. But the pace builds and developments in the last half hour will gut punch you. Plus fans with long memories will adore a sequence where Holmes goes to a movie based on the Watson-written version of his last case, and the film Holmes is portrayed by none other than Nicholas Rowe, the star of “Young Sherlock Holmes,” who has grown up into an exact version of the Sidney Paget illustrations.

INSIDE OUT: The best movie of the summer. Possibly the year. If you haven’t seen it, what the hell is wrong with you?

PIXELS: Why is everyone trashing this movie? I mean, the same people who complain when Adam Sandler overacts condemn him for underplaying his role this time. Is it the greatest movie ever made? God, no. It’s basically Ghostbusters light as Sandler and his team battle aliens who are, by any reasonable measure, monumentally stupid. I’m told that it’s a rip-off of an episode of Futurama. Then again, I’m also told that Inside Out is a rip-off of Herman’s Head, so I have no idea how much validity there is to that. All I know is this: It’s a harmless way to kill two hours, there are some funny jokes in there, and there is a dazzling array of 1980s cameos including Max Headroom (voiced by Matt Frewer) to make it worth your while. And it’s better than Ghostbusters 2.

PAD