Fish and Cherries Productions

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a mixed bag of varying qualities. On the one hand, it continued the previous movie’s tradition of giving Spider-Man the humor that the previous film series was sorely lacking, some of the music (particularly Electro’s theme) is quite cool, and the stuff between Peter and Gwen really feels genuine at times. On the other hand, the script has a lot of shortcomings, there was a little too much going on to feel complete, the villains’ motivations (save for Harry Osborn) are really weak, and the reveal of Richard Parker’s secret that the trailers have hyped up so much was a real letdown. On top of that, the more I think about it, the more I realize that the movie doesn’t do a good job of portraying foreigners, as the Russian Rhino and the German Dr. Kafka turn in laughably cartoonish performances that would probably tick me off were I a native of any of those countries. If you were wondering if there was a stinger after the credits, there is… for the upcoming X-Men movie, which makes its placement here absolutely baffling. Despite some really good stuff here and there, I wouldn’t go see it again. The best adaptation of Spider-Man to date was Greg Weisman’s Spectacular Spider-Man and this movie doesn’t even come close to capturing its brilliance. It is worth noting, however, that the series was canceled before its time to allow this movie franchise to exist, so take some time to mull on that for a bit.

Saving Mr. Banks is a very moving piece that nearly brought me to tears. I have no doubt that several aspects of the story are romanticized as is expected of Disney’s films that are based on true stories, but that did not stop it from hitting a lot of the right notes. The cast is brilliant, especially Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers and Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, but I personally give credit to Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak as the Sherman brothers, which is a fun little cameo for anyone who knows enough Disney history. Whether the film is Oscar-worthy or not is up for debate, but any film that tugs at your heartstrings this much is definitely worth a recommendation.