Movie- Mr. Peabody and Sherman

tl;dr-  An awesome blast from the past. 100 %

Basics- Based on the smaller cartoons set during the Rocky and Bullwinkle show, Mr. Peabody and Sherman is a family movie covering several different themes from growing up, loving your family, and the relationship between a dog and his boy.  The movie starts with a short movie with a different alien race finding a home.  This short movie has nothing to do with the main movie.  The main feature starts with Mr. Peabody and Sherman going on a short adventure in revolutionary France, then the movie really kicks in gear with Sherman going to school and meeting a bully.  Sherman bits the bully in self-defense, but Mr. Peabody must prove that he’s a fit parent by meeting with a social worker and the bully parents.  Sherman has to make friends with the bully, but in doing so he shows her the time machine.  And, together they screw up time.  Sherman and Mr. Peabody have to fix all of time, fix their relationship, and find a way to prevent the evil social worker from separating them forever!

Plot-  I loved this movie!  A lot of movies based on classic cartoons all too often don’t reference the source material enough.  Mr. Peabody and Sherman’s first act starts with a section that could have come right out of the cartoon it was based on, bad puns and all!  From there the plot get better as nothing is out of place and it really does hit home a great message about family and growing up. 5/5

Acting- The characters felt like they should have.  I watched the cartoons when I was younger and these characters felt like they came from that show.  The new characters are interesting, but they feel like they belong in the world.  All the voice actors did great jobs bringing these characters to life. 5 /5

Visuals- This movie is completely computer generated.  If you don’t like that update from the classic hand drawn style, you won’t like this.  However, I liked the style and the characters did look like they should have.  The movie does take some visual cues from the Sherlock Holmes movies as Mr. Peabody goes into strange meditative state invovling lots of math blurring across the screen.  It’s a novel addition that I enjoyed.  I’d like to watch it in slow motion and see if the math adds up. 5/5

Summary- This is an excellent family movie.  Don’t expect an epic where characters have massive characters arcs like 12 Years a Slave, but for a movie aimed at kids, it covers a lot of ground and make you feel happy when you leave the theater.  If you made me choose, I’d still go with The Lego Movie as a better movie, but this one is an amazingly close second.  My one gripe has to be Odysseus.  He gets made out to be a moron!  But if you can look past one minor character, you will have an amazing ride!   100%

Movie- Total Recall

tl;dr-  We can remember it for you wholesale and not as well! 76.7%

Basics- This is a remake of the classic 90’s movie.  The main character Douglas Quaid has a dead end job that he hates, and to escape the boredom, he tried Total Recall, a mental vacation agency that make you remember awesome events without them actually happening.  Midway through the procedure he is attacked by government goons, and he finds out he’s the only man who can save the resistance with his memories having been previously removed.  He begins his quest to save the world, but along the way he constantly questions if any of this is real.

Plot- The plot isn’t bad, but its not as well done as the original.  The story moves pretty quick, but it’s not as engaging as you don’t really feel for the resistance or the poor like you did in the original. Also, the end bad guy has a somewhat questionable plan and for some reason has to oversee it personally.  That could be a factor that plays into the paranoia that plays through the movie, but that seems too smart for this movie.  3/5

Acting- The acting is ok.  Its not the worst I’ve seen, but I wouldn’t say its the best.  Some great moments, but overall the actors do a decent job more often than not.  No Oscars, but not Razzies. 3.5/5

Visuals-  The is a big budget movie, so the movie spent lots of money to make its self pretty.  However, while this one is good, I almost felt the original was better here too as you get awesome 90’s graphics AND mutants.  Here you get pretty CGI and robots.  5/5

Summary-This isn’t a bad movie, but when I show my brothers Total Recall, this won’t be the version I show them.  Both versions have a undercurrent of paranoia, but this one just didn’t make me feel for the lower class people.  I’m glad I saw this one, but I won’t have much to remember from it. 76.7%