Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what I’ve seen over the past week either in film or television. On the film side, if I have written a full length review already, I will post a link to that review. Otherwise, I’ll give a brief snippet of my thoughts on the film with a full review to follow at some point later. For television shows, seasons and what not, I’ll post individual comments here about each of them as I see fit.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Monsters University

Was there a need for a prequel to Monsters, Inc., a film I consider to be one of Pixar’s weakest efforts? Crass commercialism likely played a large role in the decision to greenlight the film, but Pixar does its absolute best to create something fresh and engaging for the audience.

Before they became one of the most successful scare teams in Monsters, Inc. history, Mike (Billy Crystal) and Sully (John Goodman) went to college. A rivalry to prove their worthiness for admission into the scare program leads them to try to turn the completely unfrightening fraternity Oozma Kappa (OK) into school champions in a Greek-wide scaring competition. Together, they learn to work together as a team in spite of their differences, struggling to let go of their personal animosity.

Crystal and Goodman fall nicely back into characters that have been etched into Pixar’s storied history, but it’s the new voiceover talents that really make the film soar. Sean Hayes, Dave Foley, Charlie Day, Joel Murray and Peter Sohn voice the three monsters (Hayes and Foley pair up as the two-headed monsters Terri and Terry) that comprise the OK fraternity. Their individuality adds spice to slight stereotypes that emerge as deeper characters as the film progresses. However, it’s Helen Mirren who steals the show as the venomous dean of the university, Mrs. Hardscrabble, a legendary scarer herself who can spot talent easily and rejects both Mike and Sully for their individual foibles. Mirren’s disturbing, yet passionate performance adds something that the original Monsters, Inc. lacked even with the terrific Steve Buscemi (who makes a prominent return here) working on that film.

The visuals are lush, though the crowd scenes feel a bit artificial. The individual monsters at play are rather intriguing and the frights are abundant, though the scary nature of the film might be too much for younger viewers. A worthy and more impressive follow-up to its predecessor, the necessity of the film’s existence is questionable, but the results are far more entertaining than the equally derivative descendant Cars 2.

Only Angels Have Wings

Howard Hawks, one of the most prominent directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age began his career several years before the advent of sound. During World War I, he was a flight instructor and was reportedly cited by his military supervisors to be one of the best students they had. That experience in aviation gave Only Angels Have Wings a fine touch of authenticity with its stirring flying sequences.

Set on the coast of South America, a group of pilots is attempting to deliver mail to a remote outpost. Doing so will net their benefactor with a sizable contract that will help fund new planes and better results. The dangerous tasks are put upon men of strong character led by the ace pilot Geoff Carter (Cary Grant) whose experience and dauntless courage have led to nearly two months of successful excursions even during risky weather through narrow passes in the mountains.

Hawks had been so impressed with Grant after working with him on Bringing Up Baby, that he cast him as the romantic lead without the screwball comedy. Grant’s performance was unimpressive considering the many others he performed. Jean Arthur is much better as the charming photographer who arrives in the small town and stays behind in spite of witnessing the unfortunate deaths of one of the pilots. Many other notable faces including Richard Barthlemess and Rita Hayworth make their way onto the screen, but legendary actor Thomas Mitchell steals the entire show as the aging pilot whose eyesight is failing him. Mitchell adds a layer of humanity that makes much of the rest of the film seem a tad superficial.

While Hawks tinkered with the script, screenwriter Jules Furthman still provided a solid foundation for his adjustments and together, the two created a competent, forthright film that narrowly avoids feeling like a generic romantic drama in an age where similar films struggled for originality. Watching this film, it struck me how infrequent unique storylines make it into recent films. The occasional quirk to increasingly tired themes makes us long for the early days of Hollywood when risks were frequently rewarded and sticking to the overly familiar wasn’t nearly as common as it is today.