Movie Weekend!

This Sunday was a busy day. I rushed out and bought the Shrek 2 DVD, and the family watched it in the morning. It's still as funny as I described a few months ago here.

Then I went to a photo shoot for www.soaringusa.com, then I bundled up the family and we all went out to see The Incredibles! This movie was very entertaining, but not as funny (IMHO) as previous films such as Toy Story or even Finding Nemo. I would give it 3.5 stars (out of 5 possible).

What did I like?
I LOVED the architecture in the movie. Styled very heavily on the "Doctor No" theme of earlier James Bond flicks, with a dash of the old Disney "Tommorowland" thrown in for good measure.

The voices were great! Craig T Nelson did the main character (remember the Coach tv series?), and Holly Hunter was the wife, whose character I really enjoyed. The voices were so good, that you never heard them as the actors (It's hard to not hear Tim Allen as Buzz or Tom Hanks as Woody for example), but right from the beginning, the voices in The Incredibles was simply the natural voices of mom and dad of this family.

And what a family. The film did an excellent job portraying the dynamics of modern family. I particularly enjoyed the dinner scene, and the brief moment of self discovery when the two children were on their own. Another unusual twist to this film, and perhaps a clear sign of Pixar's successful parting from Disney in the near future is that there are TWO PARENTS IN THIS MOVIE!

Why only 3.5 stars?
This movie is chock full of great moments, witty lines, fantastic creativity, and terrific action. However, it bows too far in the direction of modern video games and death. People die in this movie, lots of them. There is a whole scene featuring a detailed close up of a partially decayed body. And at the very end, one of the characters demonstrates some VERY disturbing characteristics. I could live with the death and decay, but this final scene really killed the whole movie for me. Marni felt the same way. Based on this character, we both stated as we walked out of the theater that we were NOT looking forward to the inevitable part 2.....