For me, Intolerable Cruelty was an earth shattering film, and not in a good way. Up to that point, I believed the Coen brothers could truly do no wrong. Up to that point, their track record contained a series of films that were individually intelligent, unique and entertaining. Intolerable Cruelty was, in my opinion, a total misfire. And thus the Coen's winning streak has been broken. So, is there any other creative force out there in moviemaking who has been consistently brilliant? To that I say, thank the heavens for Pixar.
The Incredibles, Pixar's sixth full length feature film, tells the story of Bob Parr (aka Mr. Incredible). In a world with it's fair share of superheroes, he's the king of them all. However, due to lawsuits filed by disgruntled citizens whose lives they have saved, all the superheroes are forced to go into a government relocation program and forbidden to ever again use their powers in public. Bob is now married to Helen (aka Elastigirl) and has three children: Dash, Violet and baby Jack Jack. Though he loves his family, he is bored with his mundane insurance job and secretly yearns for the excitement of the good old days. When an opportunity comes along to covertly be a superhero again, he jumps at the chance. But his new employer has hidden motives that soon draw his family out of hiding and into action.
This film is absolutely perfect, and Pixar has once again achieved the Herculean task of topping themselves since their last time out. So much praise has been given to this film since the DVD was released last week, let me just hit some of what I considered the more striking points.
As you can see with the car chase/machine gun battle five minutes in, there is a reason that this is the first Pixar film to be rated PG. Whereas their previous films were mostly comedy with some action thrown in, this film can easily be said to be 50/50. An example of how intense the film can get can be seen when Helen, Dash and Violet are violently propelled from an exploding plane. There are a few seconds where the kids are in freefall and they scream in terror. This isn't a comic scream, this is a scream of two young characters falling at an amazing speed towards the ocean and, they think, their death. There are adult horror movies that are afraid to put child characters in such peril, so I tip my hat to the filmmakers for their boldness.
Article comments
1 - Matt Paprocki
Let me be the first to say that your reviews are outstanding, in-depth, and well written. Kudos.
Let me also be the first to say that I hated the Incredibles. My review is here on the site if you want it, but this movie did nothing for me. It worked far better as a family comedy, in the house. The need to turn it into an action movie was only there to sell action figures. And yes, I know I'm alone on this one.