Movie Marathon: Toy Story

1. Toy Story - First of all, I can't believe that this movie came out over 20 years ago?! How is that possible?! Second of all, I've watched all of these films before and have to admit - I'm not the biggest fan of them. They are good movies, for sure, but the way some people rave about them is mind-boggling to me. But, I decided to rewatch them all before I watch the one released this year (I will definitely wait for it to stream) because I only really remember a few scenes from each and they all kind of blend together. And maybe I'll have a change of heart on them?? But the answer to that is a solid NOPE. They are all 3 star movies (which means good!), but I did rate the 3rd one slightly higher with this rewatch (it's definitely the best one). My biggest problem is honestly that I just don't like the animation style - this is Pixar's first film and the first to use this CGI animation style and I hated it then and I still hate it. My second issue is that I find the whole idea of your toys coming to life a bit creepy and a bit depressing, and there's just no good outcome. Each film kind of does the same thing with the kid getting a new toy, or outgrowing a toy, or a toy accidentally being thrown away and even though each film "resolves" the issue - it's just going to keep happening because unless they are *actually* put through an incinerator they will live forever! It's all very dark. BUT, I do think overall it's a cute movie and there's some funny, clever dialogue that works for adults and children. I didn't actually realize that Joss Whedon was one of the writers of this first one (which makes sense as to why the dialogue is so good. It's a shame Whedon turned out to be so toxic - I do wish people spoke up sooner though. He could have been stopped so much earlier in his career). The voice casting is obviously really strong too. Also, the Randy  Newman song "You've Got a Friend in Me" is a very cute song, but it gets so grating. But the rest of the Randy Newman songs are all indistinguishable - they all sound the same and by the end of this marathon I never want to hear his voice EVER again. On a random sidenote - I find it HILARIOUS that Sid looks so much like Will Poulter - so much so that people have actually asked him if he was the inspiration for it (he was TWO when this was released! LOL). 

2. Toy Story 2 - This is the one that I remembered the least - I'm actually not positive that I watched it (but with a release of 1999, I most surely did - I saw EVERY movie during that time period. I went to the movie theater like 3 times a week and if I didn't see it at the theater I rented it at Blockbuster). I realize that it's definitely the one that I thought I would like the least - it's too Woody centric (and I think Woody is probably the worst character? He's so narcissistic and needy!), and they introduce Jessie, who is also extremely annoying (I heard she has a big role in the new one? Dear God, I hope not!). The whole plot is a bit stupid, but there are a few scenes that are EXCELLENT - and that's why I still rate it 3 stars. First, I love that Barbie gets more love in this. Second, OMG the Jurassic Park reference got me GOOD. I had to rewind it because it's so perfect. And the fake bloopers at the end is absolutely brilliant. Otherwise, this is really boring and repetitive. 

3. Toy Story 3 - I remember when this was released and everyone acted like it was the best movie they'd ever seen and that they cried and blah blah blah, and then I watched it and was so indifferent on it and I definitely didn't shed one tiny tear (I know, I know...I'm dead inside). But, I do like it more on this rewatch. I think the biggest mistake is that Andy is too old to be finally dealing with what to do with his toys. I just don't believe that a 17 year old kid still has a toy chest full of his childhood toys (17 year old boys have video games. And porn). And I think it relies a lot on a certain nostalgia factor for young adults remembering their childhood toys and I just never really had that at all (when my mom left my dad she told me I could take one toy with me and I picked my dog to which she said "no way", so then I picked a kitten we had recently rescued and she didn't have the heart to say no again. And that cat lived until he was 20 and was my best friend. I couldn't give a shit about toys. Although I did love my stuffed animals - I had a stuffed Belle (Snoopy's sister) and a stuffed Littlefoot (from The Land Before Time), but I have no idea what happened to them and I couldn't care less.). So I think if you didn't have this "typical" childhood, it's impossible to connect in a way that some seem to. But otherwise, it's definitely a more emotional movie, and has more laugh-out-loud moments than the others. And I think that the incinerator scene is extremely harrowing and intense and one of the best scenes of the entire franchise. 

4. Toy Story 4 - While this one is the worst one, it's still not a bad movie. Like I said - they are all good. Solid kids movies with great lessons, funny moments, and witty dialogue. But the plot is really, really bad. And you know what? The "woke" version of Little Bo Peep is actually one of the worst character switches in film history - it actually makes me livid and is extremely anti-feminist. It's designed to make people think that being "feminine" is a weakness, and so many people fall for it. And Forky??? No thank you! (and it should be Sporky...right??? That's most definitely a spork). And if my non-existent kid found a toy at a carnival, I would turn it in to lost & found??? If you're a mom you know how important specific toys are to children - I'm not a mom and I know that. I think the highlight is probably Keanu Reeves voicing Duke. And I think the villain in this one is the most sympathetic - if you don't feel bad for Gabby Gabby, there might be something wrong with you! 

Ranking: 

Toy Story 3 

Toy Story 

Toy Story 2

Toy Story 4

Emmy Nominations: The Good, The Bad, and The Snubbed

The Good: 

- The Pitt is still the best series on tv - it's weird that all of these supporting performances weren't nominated last year, but I'm glad they made up for it this year (my faves are Gerran Howell and Taylor Dearden). Also happy for last year's winners Noah Wyle, Shawn Hatosy and Katherine LaNasa (obvi). I actually didn't like this season as much as the first, but it's still incredible television. 

- Also ecstatic for Pluribus and hopeful that Rhea Seehorn is finally going to get an Emmy! 

- I love Slow Horses and Jack Lowden!! I honestly could not choose between him or Howell to win (it's actually a very tough category but I'm going to guess that Billy Crudup is going to win?). 

- Some other great but expected nominations - Hacks, Shrinking (SO happy for Harrison Ford and Michael J. Fox and Jessica Williams), and Abbott Elementary. 

- I love a good surprise and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II for Wonder Man is definitely a shock, but a welcomed one. Also, I literally just finished Bait this morning and Riz Ahmed is incredible. I was expecting a snub there, so it's great that he was recognized. 

The Bad: 

- While I'm happy to see that the main actor who played JFK Jr. was snubbed for Love Story (I don't feel like looking up his name), I'm disgusted that that fucking awful show got any nominations. I'm not necessarily shocked because it was heavily predicted, but God damn, it's so bad. 

- I wasn't a huge fan of the first season of Beef and I'm even less of a fan of the second. The plot didn't even make sense and the only performance worth mentioning is Cailee Spaeny - and she's the only one not nominated LOL. The writing was terrible, the acting was overdone, and overall it was just very boring. 

- There's some actively bad shows nominated - the aforementioned Love Story is the biggest one, but also All Her Fault is HORRIBLE (Sarah Snook was great so I'll allow that one, but I didn't even remember that Dakota Fanning was in it. LOL. But it's cute that both Fanning sisters are nominated for Emmys in the same year. They are ADORABLE.). Also, DTF St. Louis? 13 nominations??? WHY? It's so boring. 

- I think The Bear is unfortunately a victim of wearing out its welcome - it didn't decrease in quality, but people are sick of it. But my big problem is that they ignored the obviously deserved talent but somehow include the cringeworthy performance that Jamie Lee Curtis does??? Kill me. 

The Snubbed: 

- My personal snubs aren't going to match what entertainment journalists are reporting as snubs. I have two big personal gripes: the first one is Smoke with Taron Egerton was completely shut out. It's partly a problem with the release (released like a week into the 2026 race - automatically a long shot), but also Apple only promotes like 2 shows and they let the rest die. I think Egerton definitely deserved a nomination (surprise, surprise), but also Jurnee Smollett and Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine both deserved some recognition. 

- The second one is Black Rabbit - I'm happy that Bateman snuck in (he was the deserving performance and that's coming from someone who is a massive Jude Law fan). But I think the show should have been nominated (it's better than 4 of the Limited Series nominees. I haven't seen The Beast in Me). And Troy Kotsur is INCREDIBLE and TERRIFYING as a mob boss. 

- One of my favorite new series is I Love L.A. and I thought it would sneak in some awards for Comedy and for Rachel Sennott. 

- Nicole Beharie is always giving the best performance on The Morning Show - she's literally the only reason to still watch it. 

- Aside from Abbott Elementary, I don't think the Emmys appreciate traditional sitcom shows but it's sad that a show like St. Denis Medical is ignored. A genuinely funny, smart, and cute sitcom with great comedic performances from David Alan Grier, Mekki Leeper, and Allison Tolman. But instead we continuously get shows nominated that aren't even comedies! 

Thoughts on 5 Films

1. Hoppers - This whole post is going to be pretty short & sweet because I'm really behind on my posts (and movie watching in general), and I have too much going on in my personal life to put any effort into writing (although I rarely put effort into writing these dumb posts - CLEARLY!). This movie is really cute, and not what I was expecting at all. It's called Hoppers and it was released around Easter, so I assumed it was about bunnies and Easter themed LOL, and it is not about that at all. There's actually a very cute plot about an experimental procedure that involves transferring a human mind into an animal in order to communicate with them. It's an animated body-swap story, and I think it's a great story for kids because as a child that was definitely a dream of mine - to communicate with animals. It starts off kind of sad though (I guess most kids movies do?). First of all, the whole classroom animals thing was not a thing for me and THANK GOD because I would have released them all too! The problem is that I could not stop thinking about the poor sad turtle she releases the entire time! I was like "what happened to the sad turtle?!" for the WHOLE MOVIE. But anyway, it's a really cute story about nature vs technology and how we can reconcile the two and live peacefully while still advancing as a human race. There are some very funny parts too - the talk to text scene is hilarious, but my favorite part of the whole movie is the tiny dragonfly randomly flying by saying "hey" with a really deep unexpected voice. It made me laugh for like an hour. There's a really great voice cast - Jon Hamm, Dave Franco, Meryl Streep (!!), etc. It's really cute and funny, and that's all I ask for with a kids animated movie. 

2. We Bury the Dead - First of all, why are so many movies nowadays taking place in Australia??? I'm not doing it on purpose, I swear, but I feel like every movie I watch was either filmed in Australia or takes place there. So weird! Second, I really want to like Daisy Ridley but so far...she's so meh. She's been good in a few things (the Star Wars movies, Young Woman and the Sea), but mostly...meh. She's fine in this, but I didn't even realize she was supposed to be American until someone yelled "fucking Yank" at her. Hahaha!!! I was confused and looked it up to see what nationality she was supposed to be because she doesn't seem to hide her accent at all. Her nationality is also somewhat irrelevant so they could have just made her English? I'll never understand why movies do this. Anyway, I do really like the different take on the zombie movie - it's not really a zombie movie at all, but a drama that takes place during a zombie event (there was another movie like this that I think was a foreign film but it was about people grieving their loved ones who have turned into zombies). It's weird that they phrase it as the humans "coming back online" instead of "coming back to life" though?? It makes it seem like they weren't humans to begin with (I honestly thought it might be a twist or something - like the ones that come back to life are actually aliens or robots? NOW THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A MOVIE!). The film definitely goes to unexpected places, which I appreciate, but overall, I was a bit bored by it. And it feels extremely long - I paused it after 40 minutes thinking it was almost over. It's only 94 minutes long so the length isn't the problem; it's the pacing.  

3. Pose - This might be one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and that is not hyperbole, unfortunately. If you know me or read this blog, then you know how much I love James McAvoy, so this really, really pains me to say. BUT, I'll also say that McAvoy is obviously innocent. He's great in this, and I'm sure the script was better than whatever the Hell this turned into. I also think he's kind of in this experimental phase of his career which I don't mind (he did that Covid related one, and the movie that was mostly improv - both of which I liked but don't remember the names of....). I had not heard of this movie, which is weird because I usually make a note of all McAvoy's projects, but my husband pointed it out to me ("did you already watch that new James McAvoy movie that's on Prime?" I assumed it was an old movie, but it wasn't! It was this!). But now I completely understand why - it's just awful. I don't even want to look it up, but I'm pretty sure a lot of this was improvised too. The problem is that there is no real plot. Just a group of people staying in a house obsessed with wanting to take photographs. There's this hint of something really devious going on, but it never quite goes anywhere. There's a lot of weird film techniques that don't work. The sound sounds really muffled at some points (maybe on purpose?), and there is dialogue layered over a scene with two people talking to each other (but it's heard as a voice over for seemingly no purpose at all other than being weird). I rated it 1.5 stars for these 3 reasons: Plus 1 star for James McAvoy (he looks really good and it starts with him shirtless. Thank you very much). Plus 1 star for a James McAvoy sex scene (I feel like it's been a really long time?!). Minus 1/2 a star for including an orgy scene but FILMING IT WEIRDLY! But that 1.5 stars is very generous. It's literally a 0 star movie. 

4. Jack Ryan: Ghost War - (real title: Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan: Ghost War is DUMB) This is fine. I watched the Jack Ryan tv show, and I would also describe it as "fine". John Krasinski is charming in the title role, it's entertaining, sometimes suspenseful (but mostly predictable), and overall just "fine". Solid 3 stars. I watched all 4 seasons though, and ask me if I remember a single plot point??? NOPE. I also don't really remember what the plot of this was (I watched it a month ago), but that's mostly because I lost the plot while watching it. It's just not interesting enough to closely pay attention. But, I still adore Krasinski, and I LOVE Sienna Miller. I usually think I look okay for a 45 year old woman, and then I see someone my age who LOOKS LIKE Sienna Miller and I quickly change my mind. How is she that gorgeous still?? And it's insane that she just had a baby too (I would end it all if I got pregnant at 45. I'm not even joking. Fucking kill me - that's literally the worst thing I could think of at this point in my life). Anyway, there's a great chase scene that turns into a great gunfire shootout scene, and Wendell Pierce is always entertaining. But this is definitely a skippable movie (especially if you've never watched the series). 

5. They Will Kill You - I wish I liked this more - it has an original plot, some excellent fight scenes, and a terrific lead. But I lost interest very quickly. But the good stuff first: Zazie Beetz is A STAR. She's been terrific in everything I've seen her in (special shoutout to Atlanta and The Harder They Fall), and she is probably the only reason I would recommend this movie to anyone. There are a few great scenes (the eyeball one in particular), and some interesting action sequences. But that's really it. I *like* all of the supporting actors, but most aren't given enough to do - especially Myha'la. She's also A STAR, but unfortunately is completely sidelined in this (side note: I might start watching Industry soon? The cast has me intrigued...). And Heather Graham jump scare! It's just very random casting of the "weird" characters. The plot doesn't really make sense (but I also wasn't paying enough attention to it because it's BORING). She's saving her sister from an immortal satanic cult...I think? But I think the biggest mistake is that there is no character development at all (back story does not equal character development), so I don't really care at all what happens to anyone. OH WAIT...the biggest mistake is having Patricia Arquette do an Irish accent. MY GOD. It's horrific. 

Best Films of 2025 ***Updated***

It's that time of year again! An update to my Best of list from the previous year. I've seen everything that I wanted to see, and I still think 2025 was one of the worst years for film in recent history. BUT there's a few good ones! Here's my list: 

1. Die My Love

2. Bugonia

3. Thunderbolts*

4. No Other Choice

5. Sinners

6. Sentimental Value

7. It Was Just an Accident

8. One Battle After Another

9. Eddington

10. Novocain