Jason Ashmore – Google

Disappointing. It's a movie with multiple side plots that struggle to find a reason to exist. Characters are introduced, a story is set up, and then it's side lined for the entire movie over and over again. It takes an hour for anything really of note to happen and even then not much happens. Michael Keaton is good and carries the movie, and I suspect that is enough for a lot of people. But beyond that, this is a very sloppy bloated movie which was a struggle to get through. The film has no new ideas and doesn't do anything to expand the world. The afterlife is so boring in this movie. The entire movie is boring really. Soul Train part was the only creative new idea. Such a let down. I can't see this having much cultural impact.

It's a pretty good film. A lot of the negative reception is clearly fueled by bigotry honestly. I went into the film expecting an onslaught of gay messaging based on the backlash. But it's just... a gay character. His sexuality isn't even a focus of the film, it's barely in it. People are just seemingly upset gay people exist in a movie. It's like a Rorschach test of if you're homophobic or not. I understand the whole "woke" push. And yes, the film does obviously have messages behind it. It has an environmental message and a message of acceptance. Not exactly awful messages frankly, but it's on the nose and that can be off putting. I get it Now the film itself isn't actually amazing or anything. It's mostly very predictable. The sorta slogs in the middle and it's perhaps 20 minutes too long. They seem to be banking on the crazy environment to carry the film but in doing so, the entire film is basically two locals and gets visually repetitive. The characters are likeable. The story is decent. It's a pretty good film. I hate to just call people homophobic and I try to be reasonable but the outrage of this film really genuinely seems fueled by that. I say give it a chance personally.

It was ok. The story is fine, the twist is fine, if you're not a bigot, the 2 seconds of a gay marriage won't bother you. This film is not political or pushing an agenda. It's a blink and you'll miss it kind of thing. It is what it is, it shouldn't be the main factor when judging the movie. However, it's still not a great movie. The first twenty minutes or so are great, engaging, good premise and characters. But around...30 minutes when the rookie characters are introduced, it just nosedives. ALL the characters are irritating. Unlikeable, and most of the conflict and dilemmas are caused by them being incompetent. I suppose this serves a narrative purpose somewhat but, it's hard to watch these characters for the main bulk of the movie. They're so incompetent they basically almost kill Buzz...multiple times. They just go way too far with this. So you have a strong opening, an awful middle, and a passable final act. When this movie was announced, I thought the concept was bizarre and unnecessary, to the extent maybe Pixar had an amazing idea to warrant it existing. Unfortunately, they seemingly didn't. One of the weaker Pixar films for me.