Looking At Movies - Assassin's Creed (2016)

This has been a rough summer at the Root house. We are normally dedicated to our weekly jaunt to the drive-in, but this summer has conspired to keep us at home. We have finally broken free of the viruses that have kept us prisoners in our own home, and we will be back out at the movies this weekend. For now, I finally got to see Assassin's Creed, and it is a movie I have wanted to see for some time.

Looking Back at the Watercooler's 2016

As 2016 comes to a close, we’re going to take a look back the the past year at Niagara’s Watercooler. Sure, we have not been around for the full year, but we have been around for most of it. And if you know us, you know that we have a lot to say...all the time. In fact, some people may say we talk too much. Well, in defiance of those people, and in support of all our wonderful readers, we’re going to go ahead a talk about our year anyway.

The Death of 2016 . . . or is it?

Many of us cannot wait for the violent and painful death of the year known as 2016. For some of us, this year will remain permanently etched in our psyche for one reason or another. For the world, this was the year that fate took our musical innovators and left us with a clown ready to assume the most important political office in the world. This was not a good year.

Look At Movies (First Run) - Ghostbusters (2016)

This movie did everything it could to lean on the popularity of the original from several gratuitous cameos to plot devices lifted directly from the script of the original film. But then it would do things like only hint at the popular theme song to try and, I don't know, put some distance between itself and the original. In the end, this movie proves to be a remake and not a reboot. I am not a praying man, but I found myself praying that there are no sequels to this uninspiring waste of time.

Looking at Movies (First Run) - The Boss (2016)

Last year I gave an Adam Sandler movie a rating of 1/8 out of 5, and then I gave another Adam Sandler movie a rating of 0 out of 5.

For The Boss, I had to check and make sure that Melissa McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone did this piece of trash by themselves. I checked and I am proud to announce that someone new has claimed the crown of "worst movie maker of all-time." Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone, you owe me one.

Rating: -1 out of 5

George N Root III is a drive-in fanatic who sometimes needs the drive-in experience to get through some of the movies being made these days. Follow him on Twitter @georgenroot3 or send him a message at georgenroot3@gmail.com.

Looking at Movies (New Release): Zootopia (2016)

It is not a big secret that my wife and I love animated movies. There is no shame in it because most animated features are made for an adult audience. But just in case anyone ever gets suspicious, we always bring our grandsons to the animated films now to stop the gawkers. But it is all good, movies to us are ageless, and that is the way it should be.

Every once in a while, Disney puts out an animated feature that raises the bar on what people expect from Disney movies. Disney films such as Cinderella, Toy Story, and Fantasia established new heights of quality that the creative minds at Disney had to strive for. In 2015, Disney released Inside Out and raised the bar again. Now fans want comprehensive animated movies that account for every detail, and tell an interesting story. While Zootopia does not exceed the expectations set by Inside Out, it definitely lives up to them.

The story is very funny, and the comedy works for adults as well as children. There are plenty of sight gags that work well, and some of the more subtle innuendos can give the adults a giggle while the kids laugh at the funny characters. The animation is, as always, amazing with a tremendous amount of detail. People don't realize that even these animated features take years to finish, and the company is usually work on the film weeks (or even days) before it is released.

The thing that connects Zootopia to Inside Out is the incredible depth of the story and the comprehensive attention to detail. Instead of just throwing a bunch of animals together into a big city, there are sections of the city designed to accommodate different types of animals. The polar bears live in an arctic zone, the camels live in a desert setting...you get the idea. It is obvious that Disney has finally realized that with a more detailed outline comes the potential for better comedy and a better story. All of that works with Zootopia, and works extremely well.

Disney has also started to give more depth to its characters in these animated features, and that just makes the movies more interesting. Instead of being two-dimensional at best, the characters in Zootopia have many levels and some are even downright complex. Parents with ulterior motives and good girls falling for the bad boys is nothing new, but a rabbit wrestling with an inferiority complex that goes back generations for all of the rabbit race is something pretty deep.

Zootopia picks up where Inside Out left off in terms of the quality of everything in the movie, but it doesn't do anything to raise that bar again. Still, it is a fun movie with plenty of stuff for every member of the family, and something I would definitely recommend.

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5

George N Root III loves the drive-in and movies in general. You can follow him on Twitter @georgenroot3 or send him a message at georgenroot3@gmail.com.