Movie Review-Toy Story 3 (2010)

I've done my best to try to see all the movies that have been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar this year, but I'm not going to make it. I have The Kids Are All Right DVD is sitting on the counter via my Netflix subscription and I might get a chance to watch it before tomorrow night's Oscar broadcast, but I did recently watch Toy Story 3, so a review is in order.

Andy has turned 18 and is headed off to college. The Toys are accidentally donated to a day care center as Andy is cleaning out his room as he prepares to leave home. Woody, Buzz and the gang run into a gang of rogue toys at the day care center led by Lotso, a stuffed bear who accidentally was lost by his former owner and is jaded by the experience.

Typical of the Toy Story franchise, #3 is has a great screenplay, with very smart dialog between the characters. For those of us who have seen all three of the Toy Story movies, the ending is bittersweet, but ultimately works well as is typical of a Disney/Pixar production.

My son Brian is 20 and grew up with the Toy Story movies. Anyone with a son in the 17-20 age group will find this movie to have real significance as they have watched their sons grow up.

Movie Review-Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010)

My son Brian turned me on to the street artist Banksy a couple of years ago. His work is amazing.

He is well known for satirical street art with a purpose (social and political commentary). His work has shown up all over the World.

A book highlighting his work was published in 2007. Aptly named Wall and Piece, it highlights Banksy's work over the years. As you can imagine, much of his work doesn't survive, either having been painted over or washed off within hours of it appearing.

Exit Through The Gift Shop is a documentary film released this past summer (2010) that was meant to be a look at the street art culture through the eyes of Thierry Guetta (aka Mr. Brainwash) a Frenchman living in Los Angeles. He befriends many of the World's most famous street artists including Shepard Fairey, Space Invader and Banksy himself. They let him follow them as they create their art. Most of the time these are covert operations done under cover of darkness.

Ultimately the tables get turned when Banksy realizes that Mr. Guetta has no idea how to take all the footage he has filmed and put it into a cohesive story.

I missed Exit Through The Gift Shop when it was released this past summer. The film wasn't shown in mainstream theaters, but luckily it is now streaming on Netflix.

One of my favorite Banksy works!

Exit Through The Gift Shop is very entertaining, not only for it's revealing look into the street art culture, but also for the story of Thierry Guetta and his ineptitude as a filmmaker. It has been nominated for an Oscar this year for Best Feature Documentary.

A closing thought. Banksy's actual identity is not known. It struck me as I was watching the film that it was a hoax, and that Thierry Guetta was actually Banksy himself. Quite a bit of speculation on this matter has been published on the Internet. Makes the film itself even more interesting!