438: IF / Imaginary Friends

[00:00:00] 145, let's get to IF or Imaginary Friends which is written and directed by John Krasinski and you can get it on digital purchase and rental now. It stars Kaylee Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fiona Shaw, Steve

[00:00:20] Carell, Louis Gossett Jr., and a few others. And the synopsis is a young girl who goes through a difficult experience, begins to see everyone's imaginary friends who have been left behind as their real-life friends have grown up.

[00:00:36] So I didn't realize this one I think was even coming out until maybe a few months ago and I know that A Quiet Place Day 1 had been directed by somebody else I think that was because John Krasinski had wanted to do this movie in one way

[00:00:50] or the other. I don't know all the details there but I think that was the case because he did write this and I was curious about it. I really really like A Quiet Place 1 and 2. I liked some of Krasinski's other movies that he had

[00:01:04] directed in the past but Quiet Place was definitely his rise to fame in that way. My main detractor with this movie was Ryan Reynolds. I'm just so tired of the Ryan Reynolds shtick as I've talked about a lot on the show over the years

[00:01:20] especially as of late. I still do like this kind of movie though. The kind of family-friendly, inventive, magical realism kind of story. It has a mix between I don't know Monsters Inc and Alice in Wonderland something like that

[00:01:38] and when I finally got around to seeing it I thought it was okay at best. It had some moments for sure and I think it ended on a pretty decent note. I thought the third act was probably the best part of the whole movie which is rare

[00:01:52] and I can appreciate even though this movie is definitely not a masterpiece not best of the year at all I can appreciate that this is to a certain extent an original story. Krasinski wrote it, it's not based on some huge IP, it's

[00:02:08] not part of a cinematic universe, nothing like that. It's not even based on a novel. Obviously it's drawing from a lot of things but it is just an original script that's pretty cool and you don't really get that very often.

[00:02:19] And I know financially this movie has not done very well which that's not a surprise considering what I was just saying but and that is too bad I wish it had even though it's not great movie I wish it had done well so we could open

[00:02:33] up the door for more original movies. All the creature designs or monster designs I think all that is for the most part it's alright. I think Steve Carell's big purple fluffy character I like that design I like the look of Phoebe Waller

[00:02:48] Bridges character the doll like character and I thought that the main actress was very very good throughout the whole thing and John Krasinski who plays this father who's getting an operation and he's super super childlike and optimistic

[00:03:05] and it's almost tiresomely so for the characters but I think he pulled that off pretty well and I like John Krasinski in general as an actor not just a director but some of the main flaws I don't want to sound too mean

[00:03:17] because there's nothing offensively wrong with it but I think one of the main flaws is the whole world itself feels a little half-baked if that makes sense it there's a lot of characters a lot of cool creature designs and monster

[00:03:31] designs thrown in that you see kind of in passing a little bits of the world of the magical world and all that's interesting but I saw about a week ago and I feel like it's mostly already out of my brain it feels very almost like a

[00:03:46] fluff piece at times where you never really get much of chance to get your claws into any of it or to really take your time and think about what they're saying it's very these cute silly dance numbers and action sequences where

[00:04:02] they're running through these different colorful weird locations and saying hi to these different creatures and it you know it's all fun but by the time that we got to the third act I just felt like I had forgotten most of what I had just

[00:04:16] seen and again the third act with those emotional beats it actually does hit fairly well more than I thought it would I think everything with not to spoil it because it's a new movie everything with the imaginary friends and their

[00:04:31] creators let's call them their friends they're in the real world I think all that was actually very good and I really appreciated how they did that and I thought those performances and the writing were all strong so I had no

[00:04:45] issues with that whatsoever but it takes a while to get going and you never really learn that much about these characters and Ryan Reynolds I don't want to rag on the guy too much because nothing against him as a person he seems

[00:05:00] like a good guy and he's clearly very very successful and all that he's doing so kudos to him but as I've talked about with some of his other films and I don't want to beat a dead horse here in case you've listened to those other

[00:05:16] reviews but just in case to me Ryan Reynolds his career was both saved and destroyed by Deadpool I think he's good as Deadpool no problem with him as Deadpool I think he just inhabits that character very well and his pre-existing

[00:05:33] personality just works for that character and he has to me a very good grasp as to why that character is funny and what crazy things they can do with each movie and jokes and all that that he just has a good handle on that for sure

[00:05:49] but since the first one it feels like now every character he plays and even when he appears in person he has to be Deadpool and before that I feel like there was more variety in his performances where I saw many different

[00:06:06] sides to him and he is being in different kinds of movies besides Deadpool but I feel like he now is so clearly successful as Deadpool he doesn't want to or maybe the studio his producers his agent doesn't want him to

[00:06:20] do anything else but that to show off that super quippy snarky kind of lead and it really is tiresome I think there is no real I mean he has little emotional moments every so often in this or in other things that are okay but I feel

[00:06:37] like since the first Deadpool there had been almost no surprises in his performances it doesn't matter the genre it just feels like Deadpool is his winner so I'm gonna put all my energy into that and then I'm gonna get you

[00:06:51] know 20 million dollar payouts for my other movies and so I can finance my other businesses and stuff which hey whatever you're doing something right clearly but performance wise as an audience member I find him to be so

[00:07:04] boring 99% of the time I feel like whenever I go see a Ryan Reynolds movie I'm getting exactly what I'm expecting and I'm pretty much always right and you know there are worse actors out there there are worse defenses to have so I'm

[00:07:17] not trying to be too mean to the guy but I feel like I really used to enjoy to a certain extent Ryan Reynolds and his variety some of his styles of performances but now it feels like there's no effort there's just no change

[00:07:32] there's no ups and downs it's just I'm Deadpool so not a fan of him I wish he I know he helped Krasinski develop this movie so clearly he was gonna have some sort of play in the movie itself which is you know I get it but would have

[00:07:51] much rather spent this movie with someone else sorry maybe I'm in the minority there I don't know but besides that all the voice performances you know Phoebe Waller-Bridge I love Steve Carell a legend love him I think

[00:08:04] everybody's solid so no real issues the score by Michael Giacchino very solid I'm a little tired as I said my letterboxd review little tired of seeing his name pop up so much with big movies but for the most part I think he does

[00:08:19] add quite a bit of variety and emotion no matter what he's doing no matter if it's a superhero film or whatever it might be so I think it's a good score and John Krasinski does have a good eye to me I think some shots especially the

[00:08:35] lighting look really really good the silhouettes the colors mixed with the very natural wooden golden look to this movie overall color palette I think it looks quite good and it's surprisingly well shot for a film like this when it

[00:08:50] doesn't really need to be because you already have such big showy effects so you could do a whole lot worse it's definitely not worst of the year but it's definitely not best of the year like I said definitely one of Krasinski's

[00:09:03] lesser directed efforts I wish he would just go back and do a quiet place part three which I am pretty sure he's doing but I wish he would go and get on that because that seemed to be his bread and butter

[00:09:16] so if you need a warm inviting feel-good kind of movie this is a good one to try out so that one is a heavy three out of five