Beyond origin
TIME-TRAVEL WITH TOY STORY’S FAVOURITE SPACE RANGER TO WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
LIGHTYEAR (PG)
Director: Angus MacLane (feature debut)
Starring: The voices of Chris Evans, Taika Waititi, Keke Palmer, James Brolin
Rating: ★★★☆☆
A disposable day trip back to the future
To get the most fun you can from Lightyear, only one requirement needs to be met: don’t expect anything extending the Toy Story universe “to infinity … and beyond!”.
The connection here to all things Toy Story is, at best, loose and casual.
A set of title cards that open the movie quickly explains what kind of an entertainment mission this Pixar Animation production is launching.
It all starts with Andy, the little kid from the original Toy Story all the way back in 1995. As you may recall, one of the child’s prized playthings was his Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear action figure.
It was a piece of mass-produced merch for a Buzz Lightyear movie that left a deep impression on all kids from that era.
So the Lightyear movie we are seeing now in 2022 is actually the movie Andy and his pals would have watched a generation ago.
So if you find Lightyear to be a bit corny, over-the-top and uncharacteristically cartoony for a Pixar flick, well, it was meant to be that way. Movies like this were huge in the ’80s and ’90s.
The action takes place in a future where Earth’s exploratory capabilities now extend to millions of light-years away from home base.
While on a marathon patrol well outside our solar system, a mega-vessel holding over 1000 crew aboard detects possible life on a nearby planet, and elects to land and investigate.
The craft’s most accomplished Space Ranger, Buzz Lightyear (now voiced by Chris Captain America Evans, replacing Tim Allen), is the first one with boots on the ground. It is not a location hospitable to humans. Python-like vines can sprout from the ground in an instant and drag anyone away at high velocity.
All of a sudden, it is too late for the Earthlings to beat a hasty retreat from this hostile territory. They are stuck there. Possibly forever. Unless the great Buzz Lightyear can save the day in his own inimitable way.
What follows is a consistently good (though admittedly, never once truly great) sci-fi-for-kiddies yarn. As is always the case with Pixar works, the visuals are uniformly stunning, with some lighting and scaling touches that set new benchmarks for animation as a whole (next year’s Animation Oscar is already a certainty).
Otherwise, Lightyear is all about how the laws of time travel (Buzz embarks on a journey in which the rest of his team ages decades in his absence), fuel consumption (Buzz must find a source that will power a spaceship for the full trip home) and artificial intelligence (Buzz becomes best friends with a scene-stealing robot cat named Sox), will be pleasingly bent out of shape for our entertainment pleasure.
Lightyear is in cinemas now
HUSTLE (M) Rating: ★★★1/2☆ Now streaming on Netflix
A fine sports movie doesn’t just completely love the game it is covering. It knows that game inside-out. A basketball flick blending genuine heart with refreshing courtside
(and backroom) authenticity, Hustle grows in stature across its running time to indeed become a fine sports movie. You can’t say it goes about it the easy way. For starters, it is an Adam Sandler movie. And most of the supporting actors are either active or past stars of the NBA. However, if you think you’re gonna be getting a corny-crass Sandler comedy or a cruisy collection of cameos, well, you’re going to be in for a big and welcome surprise. Courtesy of an intelligent, yet crowd-pleasing script, Hustle pitches Sandler as
Stanley, a tired, past-it basketball scout for the Philly 76ers who finds a once-in-a-lifetime star recruit in a Spanish slum. A literal diamond in the rough, fleet-footed manmountain Bo Cruz (well played by real-life Utah Jazz power forward Juancho Hernangomez) is hauled over to the States by Stanley for a longshot, last-minute inclusion in the NBA Draft. While the pacing and tone of the movie is disarmingly gentle, the access-allareas privileges afforded to the filmmakers (LeBron James is a producer) will rock the world of NBA tragics.
THE KITCHEN BRIGADE (M) Rating: ★★★☆☆ Selected cinemas
While this modestly mounted French feel-good dish will be of particular appeal to foodies, there is definitely a universal flavour to its tale that will go down well with viewers of all appetites. Cathy (nice, no-nonsense work from Audrey Lamy) is an accomplished sous chef ready to strike out on her own after many testing years in top eateries. However, poor timing and a testing financial climate forces Cathy to accept a general cook’s job in a hostel for young African migrants. It looks like an arrangement that won’t be lasting long until Cathy forges an unlikely, yet powerful connection with the hostel’s residents. As her kitchen is seriously under-resourced, Cathy starts training up her clientele to learn the ins and outs of fine food prep. Turns out that her charismatic band of young volunteers also have a thing or two to teach their mentor. Though there is a predictable formula in play here, there is a humble, openhearted vibe to proceedings that never outstays its welcome.