Change Your Image
titushowlett
Reviews
Planet 51 (2009)
Very Generic and Stupid, But I Enjoyed It!
I'll say it right away, in terms of plot and characters, this movie is not very good. So if you are going into this movie and want to watch a movie with a tightly written story, this isn't the movie.
It isn't a bad story though. Just nothing special.
I went into it with really low expectations, and I couldn't help but enjoy it. I love all of the voice actors and it just seems like they are having a blast. And there are TONS of genuinely hilarious jokes. Gary Oldman, Justin Long, and Dwayne Johnson didn't need to go as hard as they did, but no! They put their hearts into this movie. And they were easily the funniest characters in the movie.
I was on the floor during the scene with the elaborate measures the aliens had planned if the human were to "take over their minds." 😂
The animation is surprisingly good too. Nothing jaw dropping, but really nothing uncanny or unpolished.
There is definitely some creativity too! The vehicles, the houses, the weather, etc.
Overall, this movie is definitely worth your time. It's a very enjoyable flick, and it is child friendly too!
Ron's Gone Wrong (2021)
A Mediocre, but Shockingly Cute Film
While this movie isn't amazing and some thing are wrong with it, I couldn't help but like it. The voice cast is extremely good.
While structurally this film is lacking, I enjoyed it. It's a very light film. The things I like about it I absolutely LOVE. Despite this plot being nothing new, I found the dynamic between our main characters charming.
On an animation standpoint it's nothing special, but under the realization this is a debut film, I thought this was a very good first step.
I'm excited to see what they make next!
7/10.
Trollhunters (2016)
A TV Show That You Just Can't Beat
Never have I ever seen a show at the level of originality, hilarity, emotion, and interest while enjoyed it more and more with every passing rewatch.
I don't even have the words on how much this show worked for me.
The narrative of this show is constantly intriguing. With each and every character arc and introduction being spectacular.
The characters bounce off each other better than a Newtons Cradle. Each relationship is just masterful. Jim and Barbara, Jim and Toby, Jim and Blinky, Jim and Steve, Jim and Claire, Toby and Arrrgh, Steve and Eli, list goes on. Not a single one fails to feel unnatural or uninteresting.
The best part about this show is that as much as on the surface it look like it's for kids, shockingly, it's very relatable to adults and teenagers. This is the show that made me turn completely around on judging a show by its cover. From that moment I had that realization, no matter how weird the show/movie may look, I will not judge it until I've watched it.
The voice acting work is spotless. You simply can't beat Anton Yelchin as Jim. Or Kelsey Grammer as Blinky. Or Steven Yuen as Steve. Just wonderful!
I don't feel like this show ever dropped in quality at any point. It is consistently funny, interesting, gripping, dramatic, intense, etc.
The biggest word of advice as my final thoughts:
NEVER
EVER
Judge a show by its animation/cover/style
10/10.
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans (2021)
The Adventures Weren't for Nothing!
This is just my opinion. This movie isn't perfect by any means. I will respect yours if you respect mine.
While the ending isn't perfect, I feel like Toby had an arc in here. While it isn't consistent with the show, for the movie I thought it was done well.
Spoilers ahead so keep in mind.
Toby near the beginning of the movie, leaves some subtle complaint on how he's a sidekick and wants to be the hero.
He thinks quick at the very end, showing his heroism. Dying in the process.
In this separate timeline, Toby becomes the Trollhunter. This could make for more Tales of Arcadia content.
He reversed the time to better all of the death and pain. I don't know about you, but I would prefer everyone alive with Jim there to remember it all and make better choices.
Overall I enjoyed it. Feel a bit of the dissatisfaction of the end wiping the past 5 years of adventures clean, but who knows? Don't judge too soon. The adventures are still there.
9/10.
Luca (2021)
A Flawed but Beautiful Movie
Let's start off with the cons.
(Spoiler Warning!)
Some plot devices feel a bit misused/something that amounted to nothing. Such as the race. While it did do well for development, it felt a bit misused periodically.
It felt quite a bit predictable.
Some characters feel a bit cliché such as the parents (being overprotective and quirky) which isn't inherently bad, just seemed a bit generic. Or the cliché annoying jerk. While he is entertaining and kinda goofy, he didn't feel all that "special"
Now onto the Pros.
Once again. The animation is the most professional pleasure for the eyes. All the colors, shading, subsurface scattering, water, hair, sand, scales simulations look amazing.
The expressions are especially well done too.
This one did make me tear up. I thought it's ending was really good. Alberto developing and selling the Vespa out of love for Luca was just so tear jerking and heart warming. Makes me recall just how much I love members of my own family and friends I have that have done things for me because they love me.
It made me feel like a kid again. In a magnificent way. Trying new things. The urge to learn. Taking risks and being silly. Learning about our surroundings more. Such as the Universe. I'm almost an adult so just that made me tear up.
This is certainly not the best movie in terms of plot, but god is it enjoyable.
It starts off a little slow but once things are kicked off, it's excellent. It doesn't feel like it's going too fast or slow. Impressive considering it's 1 hour and 30 minute duration.
The 3 main characters are just oozing with charm. By some top-notch voice work. For voice actors in their teens/tweens. They are INCREDIBLE.
This movie tackles how our dreams can change in a magnificent manner with such high levels of respect. I can relate a lot considering I'm having my own crisis with what career I want to dive into. By the first 3rd, Luca and Alberto want to get a Vespa and explore the world. But eventually Luca slowly changes and wants to go to school with the excellent member of the Trio, Giulia. To learn more about the universe and humanity.
Some side characters are great and entertaining. Such as the nice and massive father of Giulia. He is portrayed as this hard boiled fish killer. But we eventually come to see he is rich in wisdom and ideologies. I wish we saw a bit more of him, but I'm satisfied on what we got.
The conflict/emotional scenes felt tense and organic. Also very natural.
In summary, an eyegasm to behold with some noticeable flaws. While it may not be groundbreaking, or super new and amazing, it's a great movie that tackles a genre very well. In comparison to other Pixar movies, it certainly is up there on the list.
I give a huge credit and special props to the people that made this movie. Especially the director and writers. For being on the lower experience level side of the film spectrum, job well done. I salute you all.
I highly recommend this film. It will definitely be a good family watch.
9/10.
Loki: The Variant (2021)
This is UNREAL!!!
This has got to be one, if not my absolute favorite thing to come out of Marvel EVER. The music is on POINT. The action scenes are creative, and AWESOME. Each scene feels like it has weight with every piece of dialogue feeling important. The atmosphere and sense of intense unpredictability just captivates you in an everlasting mystery. Putting you on the edge of your seat like never before, absolutely makes you want to DIE in order to see the next episode. This is a magnificent and completely unexpected masterfully crafted experience that feels so fresh and organic for being released around such worse content lately. This is starting to rival other Marvel masterpieces such as Endgame and Infinity War. I have a great feeling about the rest of this show. You won't regret watching this magnificent episode ONE BIT.
The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021)
The Absolute Perfect, Splendid Piece of Heartfelt Comedy!
Lord and Miller REALLY have the formula down.
This film is like the Croods and Emoji Movie combined. Except better in every way of course. This film not only LOOKS AMAZING, it is also so much more HILARIOUS than I expected, the story is straightforward and sticks to it really well.
In film, it's incredibly hard to make heartfelt and comedic work equally well and have neither ruin the other. Both aspects in this movie compliment each other spectacularly.
I saw the trailer and was afraid because a lot of what I took in could've gone SO wrong. I then looked up who the people behind the movie and my expectations went higher.
Despite there being cliché relationship tropes, each character is just so well voiced and charismatic. They are all done excellently. I can relate a lot to relationship issues and seeing them fixed just fills my heart with joy.
The thing that I love about this film is that it takes so many clichés and uses them to their absolute best. Proving that good movies can still be made even if there are more modern jokes and popular characteristics.
Overall a movie that exceeded my expectations VERY highly. The perfect, splendid blend of Heartfelt and Comedy. I recommend this film to all and give as much love and support to you genius, hard working folks behind this film! I would be more surprised than ever if a better animated movie is released this year.
10/10.
Soul (2020)
A Breath of Fresh Air
Disney and Pixar have lately come out with movies either mediocre or abysmally terrible. What a way to close out this awful year, and to show us that good films can still be made. The two most amazing things Pixar nails every time is their creativity, and stunning animation. Very prevalent in this film. The pacing is a little slow but not in a bad way by any means. Jokes don't feel forced or poorly placed in the movie. The themes and characters are really interesting and are well voice acted. Not my favorite Pixar film but certainly in the top 10. Also side note, this film has the most swear words count in their 23 (as of December 25, 2020) film lineup xD. Although hell is uttered 13 times they are referring to the place. Overall a really simple but sweet movie with some great jokes and characters. I recommend it!
9/10
Power Rangers Samurai (2011)
As a kid, yes. As a teen, no.
This.. was surprisingly the kinda stuff I watched and enjoyed as a kid. But as a teen, not at all. The acting is painfully bad, and the plot is a recycled piece of crap. They start out every episode happy, then oh no! A bad guy is causing trouble in the city. They fight him once but fail. They focus on one power ranger at a time for every episode to overcome that struggle, one to 3 dozen cheesy motivational lines later, they encounter their foe again. They beat him with what they learned, the foe grows bigger. They defeat him/her every time and turn to pose in their incredibly kiddish and poorly made CGI samurai mech as their enemy explodes. A very boring and predictable formula that makes very few variations between episodes. They change things up occasionally but there's no point cause you always know they're going to win. Not that every super hero eel movie/show doesn't do that but there are no twists, no good character developments, nothing. A very harmless show that is fine for kids but not great for teens/adults. But you'd be better off putting you and/or your kids in front of something like Avatar the Last Airbender, or Gravity Falls, or Star vs The Forces Of Evil.
Overall not the worst I've ever seen but far from the best.
5/10
Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe (2020)
Certainly not at their finest but still tons of fun!
The Negatives: A bit disappointing in terms of the plot as it is a bit basic and underwhelming. Quite a bit of wasted potential as it is a very natural segway from where the show left off. The animation is still really good but some shots felt a bit uncanny at times. The ending was sweet but extremely surface level and kinda forced.
The Positives: The voice actors are still amazing and timeless as ever. The songs are hilarious, charming, and memorable. Most of the jokes land pretty well with the expense of very few that go on too long or aren't timed well. The development of the characters seem very natural and well written. Expanding their universe to other planets is not only pretty solid for world building, but also makes sense. Dr. Doofenschmirtz is easily the best character in here. He joins up with Phineas and the gang to rescue Vanessa and Candace upon an accident with some mystery creation that Candace assumed Phineas and Ferb built. The character interactions and jokes are hilarious and fairly unseen.
Overall a pretty flawed but fun movie that's certainly worth watching
6/10
Moana (2016)
Really isn't great. Disney isn't getting any better.
Who knew how ridiculously stupid and lazy Disney can get. Characters are practically the same as Finding Nemos', just think about it. Protagonist wishes to go beyond that which is forbidden, overprotective dad that lost someone they loved that caused them anxiety for their other loved ones, etc. The animation is of course really good. But that's really the best it gets. The characters and their motivations are dumb and predictable. The emotional scenes feel meaningless and forced. Some scenes don't make sense or have any reason to be there. The comedy is forced, poorly timed, horrid dialogue and illogical. The ending scene where Moana is trying to keep the heart of Te Fiti from falling into the water was so incredibly stupid. Throughout the entirety of this, what we'll loosely call a plot here, the ocean is an entity that constantly throws the stone back when it is thrown into the water. So the forced intensity of this scene just made me super angry. The humor in this movie sounds like it was made up by 7 year olds. The jokes aren't funny, they don't follow the logic of what has happened, and are unoriginal! Unoriginal!! How was this piece of crap movie ever released?!
Not that this comes as a surprise, but this movie has so many clichés in it too! Namely, "loved one dies in the most forced and lazy way possible that is said to be too weak to speak only to completely contradict that and barrage an entire load of forced predictable exposition" cliché. First ever Disney movie to break the 4th wall in a stupid and unfunny manner to think it's being clever when it really isn't. "Protagonists stir up conflict for stupid forced reasons just before the climax" cliché. "During what is supposed to be an emotional scene the protagonists' loved one that died early in the movie comes back for a couple minutes to motivate the protagonist to close up the plot" cliché. The list goes on.
My thoughts about the songs, juuuuuust no. Disney has this pattern that is getting old. That one song in the whole movie known as the "money maker" or "the big one". That of which is ALWAYS by a female character. The songs themselves are most of the time, pretty good. But for promotional purposes they want to force the same song on you by adding a Pop cover for the end credits. Really doesn't make the song any better other than letting you know exactly what song they're trying to make the most money off of. And it WORKS! So dumb!
Overall this is a stupid, unfunny, forgettable, forced, cliché, rip-off of a superior movie. To prove my point of it not being funny, I remember nobody laughing throughout the whole movie. I would never watch this again or recommend this to ANYONE.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Peter Jackson did the impossible
If you didn't enjoy this, as a matter of fact there is something very wrong with you. Not only did the first one hit hard, but also the sequel AND the best by far, Return of the king. What an emotional, meaningful, action-packed conclusion! Every plot line makes sense and is so interesting, it leaves you on the edge of your seat just dying to find out what happens next. The battle of Minas Tireth was so well shot, ridiculously intense, and full of emotions from some great actors and actresses. Gandalf gives us some nice heartwarming quotes and really helps give relief during all the intense sections of this unbelievably outstanding movie. The climax was so well done. Each emotion from everyone's faces are so well acted and realistic as we say goodbye to all these loved characters. The impact is so strong as every character is so genuinely likable only increasing how sad it is to see them leave. The movie and trilogy is nothing like I've ever seen before, and I recommend this to everyone. You'll not be disappointed.
10/10
Minions (2015)
Sigh..
This is what started illuminations laziness and blandness. "As long as this film will make money and it certainly will let's forget to work hard on a story like we used to". I could imagine this movie being good but it just wasn't. It's got some funny parts but it's hard to tell a good story with generic main characters you can't understand. That's this films big issue, dialogue is bare. This entire movie in a nutshell: Stupidity followed by laughter, over and over, and over again. It's like if Seinfeld did an entire episode where Kramer just kept manically entering rooms. Where do you go when you need relief from the comic relief?
4/10
Despicable Me 3 (2017)
Basically a cash grab
At this point I've lost hope with illumination studios. Boring and generic new characters, story is bland but the animation is good. Like Frozen 2! This movie kind of feels forced and really should've ended strong with the 2nd one. But nope, most movie companies are starting to get lazier and are only in for the money. Sure they made a huge profit from this movie, but not in an audience satisfactory way. Certainly missing the charm of the first 2 which is really sad.
5/10
Despicable Me (2010)
Ahh.. I miss the good old days when Illumination made exceptional films.
This movie I just re-watched and I loved it. I also loved it so much when I was a kid. So I can conclude that this film accomplished something that is insanely hard to do, be entertaining for both adults and kids. It's got some outstanding cartoon storytelling that is both relatable and original, and is so adorable. They brought back some nostalgic feels to this movie, all the hilarious cartoon physics just really topped it off. Shrink rays, stealing a pyramid, I mean how is this possible? It always gives me a laugh to see it is super unrealistic but not in a bad way. I highly recommend this to rewatch, it's now on Netflix as of April 18th so go watch it!
9/10
Onward (2020)
Another excellent Pixar film! What's with the sub-par reviews though?
I loved this movie. Stunning animation as always and a great story to tell! My favorite part was when Ian came to the realization that his brother was there for him after constantly thinking only about his dad. Makes those who've lost their loved ones try to look for who was there to love them through the rough times. Barley is an excellent character as well, not being jealous of Ian being the one to have all the power was a great choice. He is fearless and such a joyous, kind, and dorky guy. I don't quite understand the reason behind the dropping reviews as this gives an important and original lesson. You can still find joy when times are tough, be more adventurous, be yourself and have no regrets! Fantastic film that was quite enjoyable and will definitely rewatch it.
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Best Trilogy I've Ever Seen Period
How?! I know so many sequels and trilogies that fail and yet this one breaks the chain to prove them all wrong. This movie is just pure art. Excellent comedy as always and a great villain. Lotso has relatable motives and such spot on character development. Every scene just seems so well thought out and so well made. Only thing quite unrealistic is Andy at the age 17 still attached to his toys he's had for years. Still, beautifully made movie with some great humor that will keep you entertained without a doubt. 9/10
Toy Story 2 (1999)
Why was this sequel considered better than the first when the ratings are a bit lower?
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this movie. Just not as much as the first. It's a good sequel for what it is. It covers good topics like Jesse's kid experience. Stinky Pete has a good and relatable argument of being completely looked over in the stores. Good film but far from perfect. Just like all movies. 8/10
Up (2009)
Disney's Golden Era
First 10 minutes were so perfect. Revealing every aspect of life in such a realistic and emotional way. And the unique part is, not one word was spoken. The rest of the movie was just amazing. Great humor and fitting voice actors. Carl becoming more of a friend/father to Russell is just so satisfying as they both find happiness despite all the rough times in their lives they've experienced. The scrapbook scene near the end made me cry. And I never cry! Seeing the twist that Carl felt guilty of not keeping his promise of taking Ellie to the falls with him and realizing that their adventure was just spending life with Carl. Then lightening his house by getting rid of all the sentimental things thus changing his mind to go after Russell was powerful. Anyways, outstanding film that is worth rewatching over and over and over again. 10/10
Toy Story (1995)
If you can rewatch a movie over and over again and still laugh, that's a win in my book.
Beautifully written movie. Great humor, amazing plot, and remarkable wit. Every time I watch this it never gets old and always makes me laugh. Every movie should be like this. Having the capability to rewatch a movie and still enjoy it with everything flawlessly put in between. 10/10
Frozen II (2019)
Boring and cliche story, with the exception of the visuals.
The first frozen movie I didn't particularly enjoy until I got a bit older and watched this movie a trash story but outstanding animation. Watching this makes me appreciate the first one more and realized how great it was. Some of the songs were weird. Very predictable and unsatisfying story. Just like most sequels, this one didn't deliver. 1/10
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
It was good watching it the first time, but then not for another year.
I had a good impression on watching this the first time, then the second time it felt annoying and boring. Not personally a huge fan of this one anymore. My only complaint is that it isn't fun rewatching.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Worth the wait and time!
I've heard and seen tons of people complain about why the movie is "too long" and had added "unnecessary scenes" I think it couldn't have got any better than that because those three hours fly right by because of it's incomprehensible level of top notch writing and entertainment. This by far is my favorite marvel movie of all time. It's got all the characters coming together for the spine chilling final battle. I'm considering buying the 4K version of this movie to maximize the entertainment as it is well worth it! I recommend this movie to anyone and everyone. 10/10
Captain Marvel (2019)
Don't get your hopes up when things change
This is the first ever marvel movie with a woman as the lead hero. As soon as I heard about it I wasn't too excited but it was a marvel movie so I had good expectations for it. I watched it in the theaters and was let down in almost every way possible. The plot sucked, it was incredibly boring, the hero was lifeless, the cast was bad except for Samuel L Jackson because he's excellent. If you like marvel movies or don't I encourage for you not to watch this movie. It's the only marvel movie that has let me down and don't want to watch again. Watch something worth your time like Spider-Man or Avengers because those are the real gems.
The Hunger Games (2012)
I thought it was good
Alright so right off the bat I haven't read the books. I've heard a lot of people complain like little kids on how bad it was but me, a viewer, without having read the books, enjoyed it quite a bit. I thought the idea was straightforward and not confusing at the slightest. The cast was fitting and I thought turned out nicely. I'd recommend watching it! :)