Irrelevant But Awesome

Alexa:  Guys, this movie is such a mess, I don’t even know where to begin. The one compliment I will give “Toys” is it’s a delight to look at. Its sets and costumes are bold, fun and capture the playful spirit of childhood beautifully. It’s the sort of place the kid inside everyone would love to get lost, a world of imagination made real. I get the sense that this dynamic vision popped into director Barry Levinson’s mind first, and he built a flimsy story around it to bring it to life. Behind the extravagant spectacle of it all, “Toys” is lifeless. Its characters are devoid of personality. It lacks an emotional hook, so the stakes feel low even though the threat of war hangs in the balance. The sluggish pacing doesn’t help. Without any substance to support it, this visually engaging movie becomes just plain dull. And it’s frustrating because there are some good ideas here. It has the potential to be a captivating world, and its central themes about childhood innocence and the ...

Editor's Note: As some of you may have noticed, today's Summer of Netflix movie was suppose to be The Birdcage but, unbeknownst to us, that movie was scheduled to be no longer on Netflix before this week. You can understand my panic when I go to find that movie and come up with nothing on Netflix. That being said, we at IBA scrambled to find a good replacement and went with Hook. Go watch it if you haven't already and check out what our writers have to say about it below. Joel:  Yesterday was the one year anniversary of the loss of Robin Williams so it’s fitting that we had Good Will Hunting and Hook back to back like this. Hook was probably the first time I saw Robin Williams ( Aladdin may have been the actual first movie, but I really think it was Hook ) Every young child has a handful of movies that they watch over and over and over again, much to the chagrin of their parents. Hook was one of mine. And maybe that’s the reason I love this movie so much. After al...

Joel:   I think I had the disadvantage of not seeing this movie until it was already touted as a fantastic film. By the time I actually got around to seeing this movie, It had already won several awards and I was constantly told by everyone how good it is anytime the movie was brought up. It’s hard for any movie to live up to that and while I can see what made Good Will Hunting a good movie, it ended up being not all that enjoyable for me. I think that’s on me and not the movie. I feel like if I had gone into the movie not expecting it to be so great I would have enjoyed it a good deal. The script is tight with great characters. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Robin Williams, and the rest of the cast all do fantastic jobs with their characters. It’s emotional, warm and heartfelt, but I guess I just wasn’t feeling that at the time. (again, I feel like this is my problem, not the movie’s.) I feel bad saying I didn’t like that all that much without there being anything to dislike so ...

Joel:  It’s a good movie. It really is. It won’t be remembered as one of the best Robin Williams movies, but it does show Williams doing what he does best. Williams was just so good at rapid comedy. It doesn’t matter if he’s joyful, like he is in some things, or bitter and angry like he was here, his ability to cram so many words into such a small frame of time while still maintaining a coherent train of thought just works. Pretty much every time. I won’t pretend that Williams never made a bad movie, but this certainly isn’t one of them. It’s not one of his all time greats but it’s a chance to spend another eighty-seven minutes enjoying him fly through his dialogue in a way that only Robin Williams could. Chris:  In the early parts of the movie, I was a bit worried because in the scene where Robin Willaims’ character was arguing with the cab driver that just wrecked into him, it felt like it was a lot of faux anger. Like someone puts you on the spot and tells you...