Movie Review For June 19, 2015: INSIDE OUT and DOPE

INSIDE OUT
Rated: PG
Stars: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, and Mindy Kaling
Plot: The emotions of a young girl are thrown into chaos after she moves
Trailer

Clint Says: Drop everything and go see this movie now

This film is an instant classic. If you are looking for a DVD to finally replace FROZEN, you only need to wait about four more months. I put this movie on par with the likes of UP and TOY STORY.

The world building is spectacular and the animation is beautiful. The story is told well and is highly compelling. This movie will make you laugh to the point of shooting your drink out of your nose and it will make you ugly cry as well.

The writers did an excellent job on this screenplay by taking characters that are quite literally one-dimensional (they are emotions like joy and sadness and can only act in those ways), and made them interesting.

My only problems with the movie are that there are a couple of scenes that may be a little too intense for the 5 and under crowd, but it is a PG film so that's not really a big deal. The more pressing issue is that joy is characterized by a tall, skinny, pretty girl while sadness is short and fat. Is that really what we want our kids to believe?

Those issues aside this may well be the best animated film of the year when 2015 comes to a close. Grab the whole family and enjoy this Pixar masterpiece.




DOPE
Rated: R
Stars: Shameik Moore, Kiersey Clemons, Tony Revolori, Zoe Kravitz
Plot: Three misfit high school students, intent on making their lives better, end up forced to deal drugs or face the consequences
Trailer

Clint Says: Wait for the DVD and make someone else rent it

If I was giving a score for potential this film might be the winner. The concept is so unique and interesting, unfortunately the execution was horrible.

The film makes huge plot jumps that force the viewer to fill in major gaps in the action, there are scenes that don't make any sense to the plot at all and other scenes that give us way more information than we needed.

If the powers that be on this film got it into the hands of the right people this idea could have been turned into an Oscar contender. Instead, it will be completely forgotten by the masses before the Oscars even air.

As I walked out of the theater I looked at the time. I was shocked that this movie was only 90ish minutes long. If you had asked me to guess the length I would have legitimately thought it was somewhere between 2 1/2 and 3 hours long. I can't even begin to tell you how this movie drags on.

I also hate the use of racial slurs, this film drops the N word about 150 times. I get that it's a cultural thing, but you can make the point without putting in the actual word every other sentence.

It's really unfortunate that a film with such a great concept isn't worth your time or money.