Big Hero 6 (2014)

4/5

Big Hero 6 is a wonderfully enjoyable animated film by Disney. Much of the film centers around the relationship between Hiro (Potter), a young technophile and "bot fighter," and his older brother Tadachi (Henney), an engineering student at a futuristic tech institute. Tadachi has created a health-focused robot called Baymax (Adsit), but Hiro is less than impressed at the huggable marshmallow of a machine. After a catastrophe at the institute's tech fair, Hiro must join up with a band of misfit superheroes to protect the city from a nefarious villain.

The same production company behind Frozen makes essentially its action-oriented counterpart, focusing on brotherly love in the context of a superhero world instead of a princess fairytale. It features similar themes and predictable plot points, but the repetition surprisingly does nothing to take away from the overall experience. Disney films are never really about shocking audiences with plot twists but about wowing them with stellar storytelling and magical details. Big Hero 6 delights--it's adorable, exciting, and fun--and is another big win for Disney.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2245084/

Man on a Ledge (2012)

4/5

Man on a Ledge is a thoroughly preposterous yet eminently entertaining edge-of-your-seat thriller. The man on the ledge is Nick Cassidy (Worthington), an NYPD officer who was framed for stealing a $40mil diamond from David Englander (Harris). Intent on proving his innocence, he walks out on the ledge to draw attention away from Englander's vault, where the supposedly stolen diamond remains. He requests a specific negotiator, Lydia Mercer (Banks), as his brother Joey (Bell) and Joey's girlfriend (Rodriguez) begin to break in to the vault so that they can reveal the truth.

As I said, preposterous. But easily one of the most suspenseful and engaging movies I've seen in a while. This is most likely entirely due to tight editing, which keeps the intensity high and maintains focus on propelling the story forward. Surprisingly, Bell and Rodriguez were the most humorous and human part of the film, and also the most exciting. Their banter kept the relatively hackneyed plot fresh and lively. Worthington and Banks, on the other hand, were fairly bland (despite obvious attempts to suggest complexity and deeper motivations). Everything is well-shot and well-acted, but the script, while clever initially, feels quite contrived. It just doesn't hold water, from simplistic dismantling of security systems to instantaneous assumptions of innocence. While it may be realistic, it simply doesn't ring true to a moviegoer's ear. To make matters worse, everything somehow ties up too neatly in the end while simultaneously being messy in the most unsatisfying way. All in all, however, this is an enjoyable way to spend an evening; just don't think too hard about it.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568338/