INSIDE OUT 2
* * *
(Good Sequel For Tween Girls)
Disney/Pixar has followed up the cartoon feature “Inside Out” with a good sequel that has tween girls flocking to the Showcase.
Riley is back, and she’s off to hockey camp with her two best friends.
Along for the ride are her emotions: Sadness, Anger, Fear, Joy and Disgust.
Riley has reached puberty, so she must learn to live with some additional emotions: Anxiety, Envy and Embarrassment.
Riley meets a new group of girls at the camp and abandons her old friends, causing all of those new emotions to go berserk in her brain.
There are good lessons for adolescents to learn without being preached to, and the writers take full advantage of the colorful (sometimes irritating) creatures to do just that.
The animation is first rate and colorful. I found some of the voices irritating. Adults may be a bit bored by them all, but don’t let that stop you from sending the youngsters.
THELMA
* * * (Joyce) * * ½ (Don)
(Senior Citizen Comedy/Drama)
Senior actress June Squibb plays 94-year-old Thelma, a victim of the grandson scam, who sends $10,000 to the scammers when she gets that phone call.
She enlists the help of an old friend (Richard Roundtree) and the two go off tracking down the scammer.
Her daughter and son-in-law panic and set out looking for her, along with the grandson who is on a guilt trip for having lost his gramma.
Grandma and her friend have many adventures riding his scooter through town and eventually confronting the perpetrator (Malcolm McDowell).
While the movie raises many issues about how we treat our elderly—the reason for Joyce’s three stars—I found the story too contrived and, at times, a bit overboard. To me it played out like an amateur film festival production. Better writing would have helped.
FALLEN LEAVES
* *
(Love Story From Finland)
While we usually enjoy foreign and independent movies at the Avon, this one left us cold and depressed.
A short hour and a half film from Helsinki, “Fallen Leaves” was a hit at Cannes and was designated by one critic as “best movie of the year" (He must have been from Finland).
The woman is fired from her grocery store job for taking home outdated foods, even though they are thrown away.
The man loses job after job for drinking on the job.
These two lonely, down-and-out people are dragged to a karaoke bar by friends, where their sad eyes make contact.
They go about their miserable lives, bumping into each other, but not connecting, until he gains the courage to ask her to a movie. He loses her phone number, and she feels rejected that she hasn’t heard from him.
Meanwhile, the horrible news from Ukraine is constantly heard over the radio in the background.
The two never show emotion, even in one tragic event.
Do they finally connect?
At this point, we didn’t really care.
HIT MAN
* * * *
(Comedy/Adventure/Romance)
A mild-mannered college professor works part time as an analyst for the New Orleans Police Department in a special division designed to catch “hit men” and the people who hire them to do their dirty work.
Through a set of circumstances, he is called on one day to pose as the hit man, making an important bust. He reluctantly takes on another case, then another one and soon finds that he enjoys his alter-ego.
One problem—he falls in love with a woman who wants her abusive husband killed.
What follows are a bunch of twists and turns and one good movie that will keep you guessing.
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