Toy Story 3 (3D)

All us grown-up boys and girls wanted to see this one.

In the good old days when effects were done by stuntmen and cartoons were made by Disney, we would sometimes measure films by the number of lumps they would bring to your throat. A 3 lumper would have grown men weeping in the aisles; surprisingly I cannot recollect anything that strong. Of course, for film makers and TV creators, this was their goal - strong emotional content was their yard schtick, their reality.

More recently films are targeted at more sophisticated audiences where the quality of CGI wins or some other billion dollar spectacular effect grabs the headlines; not at all like the European minimalist offerings such as Lars von Trier's Dogville. Especially in the world of animation where grown ups and children must be satisfied both at once; when adult jokes can make parents guffaw while their children roll on the floor laughing. Admittedly quite a feat. Well this one had to be something special as the third in the series to earn the acclaim it was receiving and not be a pattern story sequel.

Quite happy to award this 4 stars: but it just goes to show that films are just as different from one another as are sheep and goats or apples, pears and oranges. Toy Story is no Rashomon is no Inception and films can be so wonderfully entertaining

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Rashomon

By way of celebrating Akira Kurasawa's birth in 1910 - more an excuse I guess: who needs an excuse to see/show these films - the QFT offered a short season of films; almost a "Best of" of his early work. The only one we were able to get to see was "Rashomon"

Even more than "Seven Samurai", this film provided so much fuel for subsequent Holywood Westerns it is very difficult to watch without being reminded of what came after. The film is littered with what we now think of as movie cliches; made so by the excessive use in Holywood films generally. Once you start to recognise these devices it can be a fun game counting them off as they appear and listing them after the show.

Even with these distractions, the film still stands up today: filmed in black & white, with Japanese subtitles, traditional Japanese music, no fancy martial arts, not even a hint of clever stunts and, of course, not a smell of CGI. Still a terrific action film.

When this was first released on an unsuspecting American public in 1951/2, hardly surprising it took the country by storm (check out Wikipedia). Everything magically works together: invention complementing the story-line, action sequences balanced by slow, interior sequences all the while building on the characterisation of main players.

Spectacular still and all the better seeing it on a big screen.

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