Toy Story 4: They’ve still got a friend in me.

Well, they’ve done it again. Against all the odds I walked out of that cinema pretty contend. Although ... straight off the bat I would have preferred if they ended it with the last one, it’s a better ending, and we’re been told Toy Story 4 is definitely the last one (we’ve been stung before) but I didn’t begrudge Disney making this movie as much as I thought I would. 

The story progresses on from the last film with Woody and the gang ingratiating themselves with their new kid, sweet little Bonnie, who is adorable in this film. 

In order for Bonnie to feel more comforted at her first day in kindergarten Tom Hanks stowaways in her rucksack and plays her guardian angel, protecting her, and helping her with an art project. Bonnie makes herself a little toy made from a spork, pipe cleaners, and goggly eyes. This character is then brought to life in the same way the other toys are when not being observed by humans. The new toy “Forky”, voiced by the brilliant Tony Hale, has an existential crisis in realising his own existence and makes a bid for the trash as that’s where he believes he belongs. Queue fun montage of Forky making various bids for freedom whilst the family go on a road trip, until finally he escapes Woody’s clutches who’s made it his new mission to make Bonnie happy. This stems from Woody’s need to replace the empty hole he has in his life when Andy left for college. He tries to convince Forky to stay to keep Bonnie happy who is besotted with Forky. Woody goes after him alone which sets up the rest of the movie. 

From then on there’s a lot of adventure, suspense, much humour and some mild horror with some very creepy dummies. 

There are also some wonderful cameo voices which include, Keanu Reeves as a daredevil Canadian Evil Knievil type Toy, Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael Key who play a funny double act cuddly toy due that made me laugh out loud a fair few times. We are also, SPOILERS, reunited with Bo Peep who plays a female empowered super hero role and we see Woody wrestle with his affection for Bo Peep and his loyalty to “his Kid” Bonnie. 

There’s a large over tone of ownership and belonging within this 

film and a message of accepting who you are but also braving new worlds and new paths that can lead you to better things. Also accepting the inevitable end of chapters in your life and moving forwards. All of this being wildly ironic for Disney who could have left the franchise in the perfect, and in my opinion more heartfelt and emotional, end with Toy Story 3. 

However I did really enjoy this film and overall I would give this film A RATING OF 8.1/10 as a firm recommendation to everybody, old and young, families and friends, and even if you’re a saddo like me and just want to see it on your own. 

I’ve been Christopher Whitmore, thanks for reading. 

Rocketman: BURNING OUT HIS FUSE UP HERE ALONE!! (Because you just can’t help but sing along to this film!) 

So my very first review on this blog was for Bohemian Rhapsody and it’s safe to say I was less than impressed. So much so I almost condemned this film (Rocketman) before it had even come out saying “Bohemian Rhapsody has made me dread the forthcoming release of Rocketman which I fear will be in a very similar vein.” 

I am delighted to say that my fears were very very wrong!! 

First of all I didn’t realise this film was going to be a musical. The story was structured around Elton’s wonderfully expansive catalogue of music with other characters singing his songs as well as Elton (Taron Egerton) himself. This was a nice surprise as it made the film more abstract, sensational and overall vastly more fun and exciting to watch than Bohemian Rhapsody. 

Everybody in this film acted their bloody socks off and sung their hearts out. Some stand out performances where; Jamie Bell as Bernie Taupin, the long suffering song writer and very good friend of Elton, who brought a beautiful warmth and kindness to the character. Bryce Dallas Howard and Steven Mackentosh played Elton’s cold, callous, and unloving parents to a T which was wonderfully offset by Gemma Jones playing Elton’s Grandmother who was adorably supportive and affectionate. Richard Madden was spellbindingly monstrous in his portrait of John Ried, Elton’s lover and second manager. I was genuinely surprised at how well he played the villain. A key moment in the film is where he slaps Elton hard across the face and I felt the whole audience gasp. Truly horrific character bordering on sociopathic, I would like to see Richard play more of these types of roles. Stephen Graham who played Dick James, Elton’s original manager, very almost stole the show in this minor role. He was brilliantly funny and crass with many laugh out loud moments, bringing much levity and hilarity to the first half of this film. 

Now I say almost stole the show because I have saved the best till last. This film would have been nothing without the incredible performance delivered by Taron Egerton as Elton John. I am amongst the good majority of fans who had their reservations about Taron taking on this task when we first heard about the biopic. Not only (as far as I'm aware) is he not homosexual himself but there was little record of his singing accomplishments and his back catalogue of acting didn’t show a whole lot a range from Kingsman barring perhaps Eddie the Eagle. 

Again my reservations were redundant and his performance was nothing short of legendary. He took us through an impressive range of gorgeous scenes like when Elton and Bernie wrote “Your Song” together at his family home, or the dizzy highs of an electric first performance at the Troubadour where the audience were literally lifted off their feet, or the devastating lows of a man struggling with several addictions, an abusive partner in an abusive industry. This culminated in Elton attempting to take his own life which lead to a surreal sequence underwater with him singing Rocket Man to his younger self at the bottom of the pool. 

The final character I want to talk about is the musical itself. Dexter Fletcher (Director) and Matthew Margenson (Composer) did a phenomenal job of remastering the songs and adding Taron’s very impressive voice to the mix. Every song within the first few bars gave me goosebumps in a way that the Queen soundtrack for BR barely did. 

My only issue with the film is the release date. If this had been released before Bohemian Goddamn Rhapsody then it would have won a few Oscars and BR would have been seen as the mediocre film that it is. Unfortunately for Rocketman it was released after BR and after the Oscars so might have missed the boat for awards next year because the momentum of the thing would have been lost. This is a real shame because it deserves a fair few. 

I would give this film A RATING OF 8.5 and big recommendation to all film fans and music lovers alike! 

I've been Christopher Whitmore, thanks for reading!