COCO (2017)

Genre: Animated

Running Length: 1:49

Cast (Voice): Anthony Gonzalez, Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Renee Victor, Alanna Ubach

Director: Lee Unkrich

Screenplay: Adrian Molna, Matthew Aldrich

With COCO, I'm so glad Pixar still has got some originality in them. With their recent foray into more commercial movies such as the Car sequels and the unnecessary sequel to Finding Nemo and Monster Inc., I have to admit I walked into this one with a little trepidation. But I'm glad to report that although Coco is not high up there with Inside Out, Wall-E, Up, it's still a very good film. 

It takes its time to build its characters and introduces us to the laws of the afterlife. And the filmmakers do it so well that it packs a potent emotional punch in the last 10 minutes of the film. It brought not only tears to my eyes but almost every other adult in the cinema hall (perhaps that particular scene really got me as Mama Coco resembled my beloved grandma who passed away a month ago).   

What the filmmakers did right was also to create a true and true Mexican movie as they got everything right up the choice of food they offered to the dead. From what I have been reading online, many native Mexicans really appreciate the respect Pixar has given to their culture. Thus, it's not surprising to know that Coco is now the highest grossing animated movie ever in Mexico.

The subject of death and afterlife is not an easy topic to explain to kids but through this movie, Pixar manages to flesh it out in a light-hearted manner without diluting the seriousness of it. What I also love about Coco is its superior graphics and the details given to The Land of the Dead.   

That said, the songs are not so memorable (except 'Remember Me') and no matter how hard you try to disassociate this film with Book Of Life, there are still many resemblances of it eventhough their plots are different. AND, what was totally out of place was the animated short just before the movie. It's not really a short but a 20-min featurette of a character from Frozen - with singing and all. I should have just came in later to the cinema hall.     

RATING: 8.5/10

DOCTOR STRANGE (2016)

Genre: Action / Adventure

Running Length: 1:55

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen, Tilda Swinton, Scott Adkins, Benjamin Bratt

Director: Scott Derrickson

Screenplay: Jon Spaihts, Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill

I've read before film critics complaining that the recent Marvel movies are starting to feel the same. As for me, the fatigue has finally set in with DOCTOR STRANGE. Eventhough stylistically it looks different from the others, this film is still cut from the same cloth. Speaking of style, one thing I did enjoy are the trippy sequences and the Inception like building-bending fight scenes. But even so, it felt tiresome after a while. 

As for the plot, it follows more or less the same formula as any superhero origin story. Cumberbatch plays Dr Stephen Strange, a brilliant but cocky neurosurgeon who lost the precision of his hands from a horrible car accident. No longer can he practice as a surgeon, he desperately seeks healing from a mystical sect in Nepal led by the Ancient One (Swinton). 

Naturally, Strange ends up to be the "chosen" one in the sect and has to battle a band of mystical bad people (led by Mikkelsen) who are up to no good and is detroying New York and London...yet again. Thrown into the destruction this time is Hong Kong. 

From the very little I know about this comic hero, Benedict Cumberbatch definitely looks the part but I'm not sure if he nailed the character. He definitely has presence and his comic timing is good. However, the film's comedy element is bordering on silliness especially the anti-climatic finale. I felt like I was watching a gag reel. 

Marvel Studios is a well-oiled scalable moviemaking machine and they will continue to use the cookie-cutter approach to churn out its content. Doctor Strange is going to make heap loads of money in the box office anyway, so why fix it if it's not broken?

Rating: 5.5/10