Toy Story 4 is reliably fun and unexpectedly bizarre

Woody (Tom Hanks) and Bo (Annie Potts) in Toy Story 4. Image courtesy Disney.

You can see a bit of wear and tear on the Toy Story 4. The shine from the first three films has faded a little, the story finally feeling a little worn out after years for replay. The new toys can't fully reinvigorate a franchise that has been a rock for Pixar for nearly a quarter century. But even a rundown Toy Story is a joy to play with, still functioning at a remarkably high level. And in its old age, the franchise has embraced just how blooming weird its concept is.

Toy Story 4 brings back Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), Rex (Wallace Shawn), Hamm (John Ratzenberger), and the rest of Andy's old toys, showing them integrating into life with new owner Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw) and her toys Dolly (Bonnie Hunt), Trixie (Kristen Schaal), Buttercup (Jeff Garlin) and Mr. Pricklepants (Timothy Dalton). It doesn't take too long for Woody to go from favored toy to the back of the closet, replaced by new toy Forky (Tony Hale), who Bonnie create out of a spork and some garbage. An ensuing road trip results in Woody and Forky getting lost and stumbling into the seemingly nefarious Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks). Forky is captured, but Woody escapes and stumbles into his lost love Bo (Annie Potts) in the process. They are joined by a host of new toys like Giggle McDimples (Ally Maki), Ducky (Keegan-Michael Key), Bunny (Jordan Peele), and Canadian Evel Knievel knockoff Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves) in their attempts to rescue Forky and reunite with Bonnie.

If the last bit seems familiar, it's because this is effectively the same general plot the franchise has relied on for more than two decades. A toy/multiple toys get lost, stumble into an adventure and escape from folks with malicious intentions, and return to their owner before the owner relocates. At this point the toys are boomerangs, trying ever so hard to return home despite the odds being heavily against them doing so. This formula worked great for three films, but in Toy Story 4 it feels a little played out, perhaps done just one too many times to have the same zip as the earlier films. If the film falls short, its caused by this fatigue that creeps into the events. The narrative is a little shaggier, the voice acting for Andy's crew a little less excited. The problem is worth calling as the main reason why Toy Story 4 can't quite hit the highs of films one through three.

The highs of this franchise are brilliance though, so falling short of brilliance still results in a mighty fine movie. In fact, Toy Story 4 often soars thanks to an abundantly weird tone that is a logical step for the franchise. Forky is the nexus for this oddness, a character that spends the first act desperately trying to dispose of himself out of fear of his newfound self awareness. The horror of his situation is surprisingly poignant, but the film focuses more on Forky as an existential joke and as a means of bringing out the best of those around him. As a character, his naivete bounces off Woody's weariness, giving Woody a new friend and combatant. Forky's innocence is a fountain of comedy, and a sign the film is willing to look deep into its history and reveal the tragedy of its premise. 

 

Forky's presence is a recognition of just how disposable its characters truly are. They are beloved by their owners for seconds or days or years, but ultimately they become forgotten, lost to the closet or an antique store to watch the world pass them by. What Toy Story 4 tackles with is the question of what one does when one isn't needed anymore, what the meaning of life is when your purpose is ripped away from you. For Woody, who has staved off his death for years, the answer isn't quite a reboot, but a little soul searching to evaluate what he has to offer to his owner, his friends, and the world at large. It's thoughtful and contemplative and ingenious, handled with grace and a hearty sense of humor. There's always room for a joke even when one is lost in an existential drift.

I hope Toy Story 4 is the final film of this franchise. This might not be the ideal way to end things – the final moment of Toy Story 3 are nearly perfect – but it's an excellent end to Woody's story. He's rewarded for his inherent decency and growth from selfish diva to a leader of toys, and there might not be much more to want from his story than this. If this is the end, it would serve as a pretty excellent final chapter to a very excellent series.

Review: Four and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

 

Rating: G

Run time: 100 minutes

Genre: Animated

tl;dr

What Worked: Animation, Humor, Forky, Woody's Journey

What Fell Short: Redundant Plot

What To Watch as Well: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3

Fist Fight never lands a good punch

Ice Cube and Charlie Day in Fist Fight. Image courtesy Warner Bros.

I really don't understand what the filmmakers behind Fist Fight were going for with this movie. I mean, it is supposed to be a comedy and casts ringers like Charlie Day, Tracy Morgan, Jillian Bell and Kumail Nanjiani, along with complementary pieces Dean Norris and Christina Hendricks. But beyond the flailing attempts at comedy, the film lacks a clear message, relatable characters or anything worthy near a logical point. It seems like the movie might have something to say about education, but the folks behind the camera lack the talent and nuance to vocalize it thoroughly.

Fist Fight veers in several directions, bouncing from a story about a stressed out teacher (Charlie Day) trying to escape the titular match/assumed beating from a fellow educator played by Ice Cube to a movie about the sad state of public education to a last day of school flick that comes across as a discount Dazed and Confused knockoff. It tries to be all of these things and, fittingly enough, fails at all of them on some capacity, delivering a movie with a lackadaisical plot with an asinine conclusion. Even its criticisms of the education system are dinged by the savage and cruel actions of the protagonists (Day, Ice Cube and the rest of the staff), heavy hints at sexual abuse toward the students, and the hyper-reality the film lives in. The horrid actions of the students, whose shenanigans cover giving meth to a horse, lassoing teachers to said horse, and masturbating audibly in a public restroom, is either a typical lazy high school film or a parody of lazy high school film. The latter would be a more interesting concept if the film didn't try to ground itself with a story about teachers getting fired wantonly, using the students' outre actions as a sign for theoretically legitimate challenges and issues educators face. In other words, Fist Fight creates an exaggerated reality and uses that exaggerated reality as a root cause for real problems.

Perhaps a narrowly focused narrative – maybe one focused on, say, Day's slow acceptance of his doom at the fists of Ice Cube – would have resulted in better jokes from the writers.The film has many ideas for jokes, like the horse, the onanism and the bizarre behavior from the teachers, along with a hypothesis that swearing is funny in and of itself. Little of it works though because the filmmakers never take the time to develop any of the jokes. They just spit out a line or throw out an image with little context aside from the idea that what they have might be perceived as funny, but without taking the time to find a way to make it funny (let alone inventive or original). It's all wicked lazy and reflective of a general absence of curiosity over the craft they're attempting to master. Comedy is hard, but you have to at least put the effort in to make it work.

That extends to Fist Fight's cast as well, one that on paper is again more than qualified to at least bump this material up to tolerable. Nobody aside from Bell (who offers a peculiarly fascinating performance) appears to care that much about the material or making the junk in front of them work. Day, a person who is often very funny in a supporting role, is miscast as the film's lead, while the idea of Ice Cube being an intimidating on-screen presence went by the wayside after the release of Are We There Yet? That Norris, Nanjiani, Morgan and Hendricks are given so little to do that looking bored on screen is a viable option is a waste of their and the viewers' time.

What makes Fist Fight so frustratingly is it isn't a hopeless film. The pieces exist to build something adequate and at the least entertaining, something of value for people who schlep through a winter's worth of snow for a few laughs and maybe some pointed commentary. Yet the filmmakers seem unsure of how to use what they have to deliver something competent, or at least lack the motivation to do anything with it besides unleash 90 insipid minutes of cinema into the February malaise.

Review: One out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 96 minutes

Genre: Comedy

Ask Away

Target audience: People who like Charlie Day or consider Ice Cube to be an engaging comedic presence.

Take the whole family?: This film traffics in curses and obscene imagery, so perhaps keeping kids at home is for the best.

Theater or Netflix?: Neither is a good option.

What else is wrong about this film?: One of the main plot points is the school districts waiting for the end of the last day of school to inform the teachers if they'll be retained or not. Most states, including the one the film is set in, require districts to extend contracts for renewal well before the end of the school year (due in part to the need to get the budget prepared by the end of the fiscal year in June). In other words, even the process the film uses to fire teachers is malarkey.

Watch this instead?: There are many, many better comedies to watch than this, but I'm going to go outside the box a bit and recommend 24 Hours to Live from Hey Arnold! This episode also has a character waiting for a fist fight from a stronger opponent, albeit with a more interesting plot and a nifty resolution to the issue.