Been away for a while but the bride and wee ones are out of
town on vacation so Pops gets to catch up on the big bang movies that the wife
doesn’t usually go see. So here is a compilation
of some of the big movies of the “Summer”
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Unlike Transformers or Spiderman or
even Planet of the Apes for that matter the Marvel Comics universe of The
Avengers seems to have a limitless range of stories to tell before they start
getting old. The new Spiderman, #2 but really #5 if you consider the Toby
Macguire years, is flat. Even after retooling, Planet of the Apes is superb, but
one more film is about all that franchise has left. That is OK because the
story arc really works as a trilogy. By comparison, the Avenger’s world has had
8 or 9 films already and while they haven’t all been perfect they sure aren’t
stale and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the latest offering. If you
are an Avengers fan you should like this. If the Avengers isn’t your bag, you
know what, you should still like this.
Sharp writing, well-formed characters and some classic old-fashioned
heroism all with a WWII tie-in make it a perfect summer action film. Captain
America is ‘Hamburger and Apple Pie’ and that is what makes him great.
Did I mention Scarlett Johnssan? What I didn’t. Oh, well, let me take care of that.
SCARLETT JOHNSSAN! Wow, I may need a cigarette.
The Amazing Spiderman 2
Have you
seen the other 4 Spiderman movies since 2002? Then you’ve seen this movie as
well. It is pretty fun and rather entertaining just like the other 4. You won’t
be disappointed you watched it but you won't go change your life’s philosophy
over it either. My suggestion would be
to wait and see it at the discount theater.
By the way,
Emma Stone is a huge upgrade from Kirsten Dunst. The Green Goblin’s
make-up/outfit is a serious upgrade from the original but the new Goblin is a
no Willem DeFoe. Then again who is?
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Godzilla
Do you
remember all the old Godzilla sci-fi flicks from the 60’s and 70’s? Now imagine
if those movies had today’s computer graphics, a strong script with cool
references to the A-Bomb and Grade-A acting talent. Bingo!, you have the newest
incarnation of GODZILLA!
The movie isn’t a classic like Jurassic Park but it is a
quality update and superb homage to the throw back movies we used to watch on
the Saturday Matinee...on one of the 3 channels our antennae picked up. Oh and
Bryan Cranston is a superb actor. I know this isn’t news but just needs to be
said from time to time.
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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
While I
loved the original Planet of the Apes with Charleston Heston and Roddy McDowell,
I absolutely abhorred the Marky Mark version from 2001. So when I saw Rise of
the Planet of the Apes a couple of years ago I was shocked how much I liked
it. It surprised me how well it worked on an emotional level. Then my wife
watched it and liked it. How could this be? I knew the movie was not a fluke.
The 70’s films were the quirky, heavy handed, cinema
equivalent of a dozen, pretentious, college hippies passing around a joint
realizing the evils of humanity and feeling certain they were the first ones to
ever have such an original thought. Sort of like “The Legend of Billy Jack” but
with monkey costumes. The 2001 movie was just crap. But Rise of the Planet of the Apes accomplished something special. It humanized Caesar. It placed him and the
audience on a level, emotional playing field and it worked.
The new movie Dawn
of the Planet of the Apes continues this trend and expands it to the entire
monkey tribe. These are not, as Heston called them in the original, “damned
dirty apes”. These are fathers and mothers and children trying to survive.
Like any good sci-fi it builds a world with cinematic/literary
rules and sticks with them allowing the viewer to accept what they are seeing. The special effects are insane and like all excellent
special effects they enhance the story as opposed to distracting from it. But, what makes the movie work, like what
makes all good movies work, is the simple fact that we care what happens to the
characters. We laugh with them, cry with them and cheer for them. It just so
happens that here the “them” is a bunch of damned dirty apes.
Excellent film! It stands on its own but seeing “Rise of the
Planet of the Apes” would be a good idea.
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Transformers: Age of
Extinction
This film was billed as a “re-tooling” of the franchise. If by “re-tool”
you mean trading a really talented, petulant, young star with a really talented,
petulant middle-aged star and turning the ubiquitous, smoking-hot bombshell from
the love interest to the daughter then yes it was a “re-tooling”.
In actuality it is 1 hour and 45 minutes of awesome, blow-em-up,
By God, movie making, summer fun stretched out for nearly 3 hours.
Some people say Donald Trump would not wear his hair the way
he does if he had one good friend to tell him how bad it looks. Michael Bay
(director) must not have any friends. If he did they would have told him 1/3 of
his film was unnecessary going a long way to counteract much of what makes
these movies work to in the first place.
Any sequel to a big special effects film has to keep getting
bigger and bigger with each film or so they say. It doesn’t always make a
better film but it's conventional wisdom. Inherently any level of credulity
the movie makers developed with the audience to suspend disbelief gets so
strained that all believability is thrown out window and you remember that you
aren’t a part of this strange and awesome world. You are just some schmuck who paid $8 to sit in the dark with strangers waiting for the credits. At one point I got up just to stretch my legs. I knew I
wouldn’t miss anything.
Let me put it another way. Do you like bacon? Bacon on
pretty much any level is perfect. It has reached a level of perfection that is
unrivaled. Now, occasionally, we get a new twist on bacon. Sometimes it is
peppered. I’ve seen it deep fried. There is chocolate covered bacon or bacon
ice-cream. People try them and say 'Man that’s good'. And a lot of time they are
right. However, if we are honest with ourselves none of the combinations are
truly better than the actual bacon itself. The first Transformers was bacon
with some chocolate drizzle. It was new and tasty with a twist.. Transformers: Age of Extinction is Bacon
that has been married with a brownie, covered in chocolate, topped with ice
cream, lathered in caramel, spiced with red-hots, wrapped in dough, deep fried
and dusted with powdered sugar. The really good stuff is so covered in crap it isn't that good any more. What’s the use? If you eat it all you will be puking even before you get on the
Tilt-A-Whirl.
The movie has an above average cast that works well
together. Stanley Tucci is, as always, an absolute riot and owns every scene he
is in. I personally think the special effects took a step back. Not that they
are bad but I don’t think they are used in service of the story. The new “transformer’s”
transformations look more like magic instead of awe inspiring mechanical
miracles. It is a little thing but it’s just one more thing that covers up the
bacon.
I just want some bacon!
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