A racist, alcoholic prison guard finds himself falling in love with an African-American woman who just happens to be the widow of a man he helped to execute in this film from Marc Forster (Stranger than Fiction, Finding Neverland). Halle Berry is stunning in her Oscar-winning performance, but so is the rest of the cast, including Billy Bob Thornton as the prison guard, Heath Ledger as his disenfranchised son, Sean Combs as Berry’s husband on death row, and Peter Boyle as Thornton’s monstrous father.
A terrific script and loveable characters send Toy Story soaring. At the heart of the simple storyline are two toys with character arcs as compelling as any of their live-action counterparts. Woody (Tom Hanks) is a pull-string cowboy who’s afraid of being replaced as his owner’s favorite, and Buzz (Tim Allen) is the new, gadget-enhanced astronaut who doesn’t accept the fact that he’s a toy. The Oscar-nominated screenplay (co-written by Joss Whedon) deftly blends character, humor, and action. The climax, where Woody and Buzz chase after a moving truck to rejoin their fellow toys, is a particularly thrilling scene. The voice cast is also a triumph, including Wallace Shawn as a neurotic dinosaur, Don Rickles as a bitter Mr. Potato Head, and Jim Varney as a trusty Slinky Dog. Randy Newman’s score makes the plight of plastic playthings nothing less than epic, and his cozy songwriting fits the nature of the film to a tee. “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” is the film’s charming anthem, but it’s Newman’s performance of “I Will Go Sailing No More,” played over Buzz’s realization of his limitations, that works most powerfully.
