THE AVENGERS ““ Review ***SPOILER FREE***
In the western world, in the culture of Hollywood, we have made films the apex of a property’s existence. When any creative, artistic or entertaining endeavor reaches a certain level of popularity, respect, profits or prestige we turn it into a film, or possibly threaten to turn it into a film, if its isn’t already a film itself. So we’ve grown up salivating for certain things to come to fruition. Impossible things. For better or worse many of those things in my generation, due to new technology powered by James Cameron’s ego, have come into being as live action romps of varying degrees of success.
Well as far as “things” go, The Avengers is most certainly one of those “things” for me. The good news being that I went completely ape-“fecal matter” for the movie. I sang the praises of Sir Joss Whedon in my Cabin In The Woods review not long ago, and here I’m not even sure that singing is going to do him justice. The man is having a good year, so good in fact that his career is probably going to take a different path from now on. Avengers most certainly has the potential to skyrocket him into the big leagues of Hollywood Event Filmmakers like Michael Bay or Stephen Sommers, but the good news for us is that, unlike those guys, Whedon makes sure to take care of character and story first. However, once those are locked he will let loose on the action spectacle with the best of them. He has the potential to be, and I apologize for saying this, a “thinking man’s Michael Bay.” If you remove all the storied history of the characters involved with the Avengers that is what it boils down to: a Bay film where you actually care what happens amidst all the silliness and explosions. Joss Whedon: Man of Emotional Explosions.
Unlike Cabin though, Avengers is “A Joss Whedon Film,” written and directed in full. I’ve been yapping to everyone who would listen that my main satisfaction with this movie is that it truly feels like a comic book script, as in, a script written with the intention of being drawn, inked and printed for Marvel to distribute. It’s very comic-book-like. What exactly do I mean by that? Well, I don’t know really. I suppose if my hand is forced to explain I would say that is has that ever so sacred balance of comic book reality, physics, logic, and tone without ever delving into being stupid or silly. It’s not cynical of its own source material, this movie is proud to be sopping wet with comic book mythology and atmosphere. At no point does it shy away from the exaggerated world of comicdom. It’s as big, awesome, and faithful to the source art form as Joss Whedon is a fan of that art form himself.
The reason Avengers fires on all cylinders is balance. Whedon is no stranger to the group dynamic in his writing and it most certainly shows here. Thor, Banner, Cap, Stark, Hawkeye and Black Widow all share the screen with things only slightly tipping towards Iron Man. However, that isn’t a problem, this is Iron Man’s film and it makes perfect sense. Cap is still reeling from his 70 years under the ice, his rise to leadership is not cemented especially considering this is an “origin” story of a team. Not to mention, that as far as the public is concerned Tony Stark and John Favreau’s triumphant first Iron Man film is responsible for this whole gargantuan undertaking in the first place. It’s impossible to deny Downey’s presence as well, with a character as “large” as his version of Stark on screen it’s going to take at least two films for the cream, or in this case the Captain, to rise to the top.
It’s an impressive achievement on Whedon’s part as well that Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow not only have presence in the film but actually prove themselves useful and interesting in the face of being over shadowed by a super soldier, a demi-god, a genius billionaire, and the ultimate engine of destruction. Tom Hiddleston proves once again that he was perfectly cast as Loki, at every turn, even when he’s losing he is deep in character without flinching. Chris Evans gives a convincing take on a recently unfrozen and confused Captain America. Chris Hemsworth probably has the most unsung hardship of the entire group as he succeeds in playing Thor with an undercurrent of shame and disappointment in his adopted brother Loki and the horrors he is bringing about on earth. Fans might complain that Thor doesn’t get as much time to strut his powers this time around, but he is mentally focused on his brother and the plot unfolds as such. I think once we get a Loki-free Avengers flick we will truly see Thor cut loose. (Also, I still say that Hemsworth is quite possibly the best casted superhero role ever. The guy just exudes Thor at every turn. Just my opinion.)
Oh, and Sam Jackson knocks it out of the park playing Nick Fury as”¦well”¦Sam Jackson.
There were two huge standouts of the film for me. First is Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson. His screen time isn’t long but the little he gets he sells hard, going so far as to give his character a lot of heart and a lot of balls. Second is Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk. Now, I admit right here and now that I am a lifelong Hulk fan. The comics, the TV show, the movies, I love the Hulk in all his forms, always have. As a credit to Whedon and Ruffalo I would go as far as saying that with the exception of Bill Bixby, Rufalo might be might favorite live action Banner ever. This is the first time in this new era of cinema tech we get to see the green guy “smash” as a hero instead of a menace and it is incredible (sorry.) That is especially a compliment considering Ruffalo did all the motion capture himself. When Hulk is unleased in this film, especially in the last third of the movie, it takes the “awesome” to a whole new level of incredible (sorry again.) However it isn’t just the smashing that wins me over, it’s Ruffalo as Banner. Much like Bixby, Ruffalo is playing a Banner who was been to hell and back and has begun to live with the curse instead of trying to fight it, this movie particularly furthers that very narrative. Of course all the buzz Hulk is getting from audiences and critics for Avengers is due to the smashing, I’m just saying for the rest of us who love the character this movie has other things to offer as well. Hats off to the design team too, the green guy has NEVER looked more accurate, and just plain perfect, to the source material than he does here.
Thanks for reading and for the love of Thor: STAY AFTER THE CREDITS!!!
Color me surprised at how much I liked this film.
This is a great concert documentary.
I didn’t get a chance to see this in the theaters when it came out and I am looking forward to being able to do so when this comes out this Tuesday, June 21st. The film garnered a more than healthy score on Rotten Tomatoes but this was a film that seemed to come and go before anyone had a chance to really enjoy what it was selling, to follow-up on the number of people who said, “It’s really good.” People I knew who really responded to it talked about the questions it raised and the way the story played out. I’m glad I don’t have to wait much longer to see what the buzz was about and hopefully this film gets a second chance on the home video market.
Before I even get started, I already know the argument that will be placed before me from the emotionally charged set”“ if you think you can do any better, show us. Of course, that is not a requirement on my part. I’m the one going in, like everybody else, paying my hard earned money, hoping to be entertained. Did J.J., Spielberg and company do it? In a way yes, the talent achieved that task. Did they deliver an original piece of entertainment that will rock cinema history or remain in our minds for years to come? In a way no, at least not in the minds of the audience that has already been initiated to the wonders Spielberg thirty year ago.
Over the course of a couple of weeks I made it my mission to go through the entire Kids In The Hall series in this slimmer version of the series that was recently released a few years ago. It’s been a while since I sat down with the modern progenitors of sketch comedy. Yeah, Monty Python blah blah blah I’ve heard it before and I am in complete agreement.
In the battle for stories that deal with coming-of-age issues it’s hard to believe that a tale about a young man who is very tough to love would win out over a film that depends on tapping into the halcyon days of Gen X’ers would be the last man standing.
I am a reality television fiend when it comes to ICE ROAD TRUCKERS.
What an aural experience.
Let’s get this out of the way: yes, it’s a little like Twilight. Yeah, it’s also like many other super hero films out there.
I had my daughter watch this movie and report back what she thought. She, and I quote, thought this film was really fun and that every girl should watch it. Now, that said, dad checked it out too to assess that review and I can say that while it wholesale robs blind the Breakfast Club (blasphemy!) the people at Disney have done a bang up job in making a movie that I could enjoy with my girl. If you’re looking for a battle of the bands, of sorts, that deals with one five member ensemble looking to fight it out on life’s proverbial stage this movie hits the, ahem, right notes.
Let me start off by saying I liked the (not so) original “Pirates of the Caribbean,” even though at the time I was not happy that the powers that be had lifted some great material out of one of my all time favorite novels by Tim Powers, “On Stranger Tides”. The two pompous productions with their flimsy story lines that followed continued to take liberties with this great book. Then I came to find out that Powers, who wrote OST in 1987, had sold the rights to his wondrous novel to Disney. Lo and behold the churning and merging of one of their most popular rides with one of the best fantasy/adventure stories written was to become a franchise. Of course, after three big hits, Disney felt the well might be dry. But like the pirates they are, they continued to pillage and pick whatever meat was left on the bones of their property.
“The Lake Effect” is most notable for its sincerity and light humor at an awkward moment in several lives. Director/writer Tara Miele delivers a story with wit and wisdom and keeps a far distance from the too smart dialogue associated with another pregnant teen movie, “Juno”. There are bound to be comparisons and it can’t be helped in the beginning, but somewhere after the first twenty minutes we are caught up in the lives of these very real people.
“Wild Horse, Wild Ride” provides us with a rare look into 100 wild Mustangs who are given a chance to lead better lives through a contest, “The Extreme Mustang Makeover,” that challenges 100 trainers in 100 days. This is a film for anyone who loves animals and if you are not an animal lover, you may turn into one after this film. Directors, Alex Dawson & Greg Gricus have given us a wondrous ode to the magnificence of these wonderful creatures and their brief yet important relationship with the special people that have dedicated themselves to them for such a short period of time.
“The Dead Inside,” is a curiosity that will probably be cherished by the legion of fans that have given their undying love to films like “REPO: The Genetic Opera”. I sat amused, perplexed and sometimes unsettled while watching this bizarre little film that resembles its lead character with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder), if that is what she is suffering from. I was never quite sure. Travis Betz’s tour-de-force into the strange is an off-beat and original zombie story told by a writer with issues of terrible writer’s block that may be threatened with an exorcism and involved with a very sick ghost with all encompassing musical numbers. It’s a mixed bag that works at times (for me) and no matter what will keep you watching till the very end.
I had reservations about seeing this documentary on four thespian troupes that were followed to the largest high school theatre competition in the world. Was it possible to rekindle what I had experienced as a Thespian in high school? Could it honestly capture the real feelings of the other young men and women of today’s high school Thespian troupes? How could it get to the core of why a child chooses to take on such an emotional rollercoaster?
This is has been a good year for Donnie Yen. With IP MAN 2 establishing Donnie as the heir apparent to an absent Jet Li and a broken down, family movie making, Jackie Chan there is a sense of wonder at a man who can flow through a fight with grace and fury but who has not set his sights on a wider market. Be it an indifference to the wants and needs of a global film treasure trove that could await him should he just get his foot in the door stateside or just plain satisfaction in doing the kinds of films he’s happy enough doing overseas, the man is electrifying in this role.
A collection of a master’s work that displays its greatness as much by the caliber of material left off the set as the genius of the included short films, By Brakhage is a necessary and infinitely rewarding trove of experimental cinema. Criterion have always erred on the side of preservation of a film’s look over completely smoothing grain, but they’ve managed to upgrade the technical specs of Stan Brakhage’s work while doing nothing to compromise the original image. Grain is omnipresent, because Brakhage incorporated it into his visual freak-outs (some of the shorts left off the set were omitted because Brakhage designed them with the flicker of a proper film projector in mind). Complete with footage of Brakhage’s lectures and interviews and a massive booklet, By Brakhage is a masterpiece right down to the cover art. 
It’s understandable that the otherwise laudable Kino and Criterion would insist on region-coding now that UK’s Eureka! label have gotten in on the Blu-Ray game: their pledge to release region-free BDs could cause trouble when Americans get a full view of the quality of their products. To date, their finest offerings are two restorations of F.W. Murnau classics. City Girl may not be on the same level as Sunrise (one of the 10 best films ever made), but the restoration Eureka! did for it manages to outstrip even that of Sunrise. A film made In 1931 has no business looking this pristine, and the near-total lack of the heavy damage expected in films this old distracted me from how great the film itself is, and how much it influenced masters like Terrence Malick. As for Murnau’s masterpiece, it shows its age more but still looks fantastic, and the alternate version unearthed looks even nicer. It also comes with a documentary on 4 Devils, Muranu’s legendary lost film, making these two must-owns for any cinephile. 
Criterion’s work on Charles Laughton’s fairy tale/horror The Night of the Hunter leaps over the high bar the distributor has already set for itself, turns around, raise the bar higher, then jumps over it again. Certain flaws inherent in the print remain, but the grain is pleasantly balanced when it appears, and the film never suffers for its shifts between cleaner studio shots and hazier location shoots. As impressive is the home video debut of the 2002 documentary comprising a trove of outtake footage Laughton’s widow released after his death. The two-and-a-half-hour behind-the-scenes doc shows just how meticulously and forcefully the director planned each moment, even berating the child actors to make them convincing in their scenes of terror and despair (or maybe he just hated them; Robert Mitchum himself attested to the latter). The Night of the Hunter is one of the most lyrical, multifaceted movies ever made, and Criterion gave it the treatment it well deserved. 
Presented in its definitive packaging, the Full Disclosure Edition of Apocalypse Now contains so many extras that it’s almost easy to ignore the film itself. Then you watch it (and, just as importantly, listen to it), and the stuffed-to-the-gills set takes a back seat to the enduring audiovisual might of Coppola’s schizoid triumph. A sterling video transfer and flawless update of the pioneering surround sound track make Apocalypse Now not only a film that should be a go-to on its cinematic quality but as a means of showing off a home theater. They don’t make ’em like this anymore, and that’s probably a good thing for the mental and physical health of every director working today. 
Disney’s work with their films has been nothing less than exemplary, and I nearly flipped a coin to decide between this and their restoration of Walt Disney’s still-ahead-of-its-time, genre-annihilating Fantasia. But the Beast won out, not only for the slight edge it offers it audiovisual upgrade but for the host of extras it offers. Commentary tracks, a making-of twice as long as the actual film, remastered deleted scenes, a host of ported DVD extras and more add to the immaculate restoration of one of Disney’s finest films, making the complexities of the love story between Belle and a transformed prince all the more engaging. The best Disney movies have the ability to take your breath away, and however much of an imperial sub-power they’ve become, someone over there still recognizes that and has put all effort into ensuring the presentations of those films leave us breathless, too. 
Far and away the best audiovisual presentation of the year, and certainly a contender for one of the most impressive in home video history, Criterion’s Blu-Ray of The Thin Red Line took one of the most beautiful films ever made and somehow makes it look even better. Fans sent rumors into a whirlwind over the possibility of the original, five-hour workprint version being included, but the scant outtakes that are included are a joy, containing elongated shots of Terrence Malick’s sensual transcendentalism and even the faces of cut actors like Mickey Rourke. Yet the caliber of the extras only seems the cherry on top as I continue to marvel over the sheer perfection of the film’s high-definition mastering. The Thin Red Line is one of the great war films, one that manages to avoid glorifying war while still being enthralling, and the Blu-Ray perfectly captures its power. 
With Criterion’s own update on the way in February, I shall be interested to see if they can produce a finer transfer than the sterling one offered by Artificial Eye’s region-free disc. Containing most of the extras included in Criterion’s DVD release – the highlight of which are short films by Kieslowski – the Artificial Eye Blu-Ray proves its own mettle with a stunning transfer that restores, then bolsters, the original cinematography to its transfixing, green-yellow glory. Kieslowski was a sensualist poet, treading in metaphysics but only ever putting emotion on the screen in a way that only the finest modern directors – Malick, Kar-wai, Kiarostami – can manage. The Double Life of Veronique is possibly the best starting point for Kieslowski’s 
Steven Spielberg was an early supporter of Blu-Ray and refused to let his films appear on what he felt was the inferior HD-DVD, but since Paramount initially had HD-DVD exclusivity, we had to make do with the (excellent) Close Encounters of the Third Kind set until Spielberg could get to work on remastering his modern films for Blu-Ray release. The wait was worth it. All of Spielberg’s Dreamworks releases this year — Minority Report, War of the Worlds and Saving Private Ryan — Minority Report benefits the most from the upgrade (besides, it’s my favorite of the three listed). The sterile, hyper-white tones of deceptively utopian society are blinding, while the more chaotic look of the film’s dynamic scenes is immaculately preserved while still looking gritty. Spielberg avoids commentary tracks (a crying shame, since he’d probably be brilliant at them), but there are enough behind-the-scenes mini-documentaries to satisfy all your pressing questions. The bounty of extras pushes a superb offering over the top, and one of Spielberg’s finest films has never looked better. 
Rod Serling was a few decades ahead of his time when he took the budding television medium to an early zenith with The Twilight Zone. Dismissed in its own time by those who could not process the numerous commentaries on ’50s social and political life — a particularly risible interview at the time had Mike Wallace asking Serling, “For the time being and for the foreseeable future, you’ve given up on writing anything important for television, right?” — The Twilight Zone is today rightly heralded as a masterpiece of programming. Image Entertainment has set out to honor the show’s legacy, and they’ve succeeded beyond doubt with this set. The remastered A/V quality astounds for a 50-year-old series recorded on old T.V stock, but the extras, oh Lord, the extras. The only reason this is just in ninth place is because I haven’t yet had the time to go through them all. Commentaries of 19 of the season’s 36 episodes, the unaired pilot, the unaired unofficial pilot, interviews, radio dramas inspired by the series, lectures by Serling at Sherwood Oaks College. It is an absurdly bountiful package, and I assume the same is true of the recently released second season, which I have not yet bought. The show is a seminal piece of pop culture history, it now looks as if it had just been made, and the extras are voluminous and (at least of the ones I’ve gone through so far) highly rewarding. What more must you know? 
A personal choice, perhaps, but I continue to be struck by the perfection of Sony’s transfer of The White Ribbon, one of the most gorgeous films in years. Unlike the other choices on this list, all of which came out before I was born or when I was too young to go see them in a theater or at least retain the experience, I had the luxury of catching The White Ribbon in theaters. Take it from me: the Blu-Ray puts the film on the small-screen without error, completely capturing the texture of its old-school film. Extras may be on the slim side, but this is a film that should seep into your mind without the director standing five feet away informing you of the themes as soon as you finish. For all its beauty, this is not an easy film to watch, but Sony have made things as gentle on your eyes as possible, so give this haunting allegory for the rise of Nazism if you have the fortitude to stand it. 
Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy truly changed the face of film forever, exploding Italy’s nascent neorealist scene into international acclaim. Viewed today, the film that started it all (Rome, Open City) looks remarkably melodramatic, but its spiritual sequels — Paisan and Germany Year Zero are uncompromising and scathingly political in a country that would probably best be served by just keeping quiet and saying only “Thank you, sir, may I have another?” to anyone that paid them attention. Criterion gives these films strong transfers despite the limitations of the grainy, cheap stock used to record them, elegantly preserving some of the most important movies of all time. 
While Seinfeld may deservedly command reverence among comedy acolytes for its depiction of “a show about nothing,” for my money it will always live in the shadow of Garry Shandling, whose metacomedic It’s Garry Shandling’s Show subverted conventions far more than a lackadaisically plotted tour of Manhattan. But Shandling’s greatest achievement was a six-season sitcom on HBO that received copious praise but little in the way of commercial attention. Based on the fallout from the Tonight Show handover — with which Shandling, considered to take Letterman’s vacant spot at Late Night when Dave jumped to CBS — The Larry Sanders Show peeled back the veneer of late night, exposing the greasy sheen and phony interest that Johnny Carson could make genuine and inviting but everyone else could not contain. I had previously been acquainted with the show by its first season the only one released by Sony all the way back in 2002, and I was struck immediately by its pitch-black tone of voice, a relentless discomfort that would go on to influence most of the best comedy of the new millennium (Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant cited it as a major influence for The Office). Having just gotten it for Christmas, I’ve only just started to work through the other seasons, but taking that and the abysmal video quality of the low-budget show into account, I feel no qualms calling this essential. I’ve heard that the show maintained its quality throughout, but even a dip couldn’t kill the power of its early seasons. A buried classic is finally unearthed. 
Bruce Springsteen intended to give 30th anniversary reissues to his classic albums – which is a redundancy on my part, as they’re all classics – but he never made it to the second reissue without problems. Two years late, the anniversary edition of Darkness on the Edge of Town makes up for the setback by blowing the impressive Born to Run package out of the water. The box set offers a remastered album and a two-CD set of songs that were left off the meticulously planned final cut of Darkness — and these 21 songs are but a fraction of the nearly 70 Springsteen wrote during the legal duress that kept him from recording after Born to Run, some of which would make his release The River while others remain in the vaults or nothing more than notebook scribblings. But the three DVDs are the chief draw. One features a making-of documentary for the album with background info on the legal troubles and a self-critical eye toward the writing and recording of ten perfectly chosen songs. The second disc features the album played in its entirety last year, while the third unloads a previously unseen film of one of the Boss’ legendary Darkness tour shows in Houston. While I wish he’d remastered the Dec. 20 show in Seattle, a bootleg I hold so dear I would actually trade the memory of concerts I’ve attended just for high-quality audio of this performance, I think it’s admirable Springsteen would acknowledge the efforts of bootleggers to put out material from that tour and give them something new. Bruce Springsteen is simply the most dynamic white man to perform rock ‘n roll, and he never topped the energy and force of his ’78 tour. To have an official release finally documented it is a joy, and the other five discs included – to say nothing of the impressive packaging – are delightful extras compared to it. 
I knew Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World would be no less aesthetically daring when the opening credits warped the dimensions of the apartment where the titular protagonist and his band practice, suddenly playing hyperkinetic colors cascading over the screen, matching the sort of industrial indie grind belted out by the band, Sex Bob-omb. In a flash, Wright uses some of the first moments of the film to recall the great experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage, a man who took film form to new heights when he ceased filming and simply painted and scratched on film stock. What I noticed upon re-watching Scott Pilgrim was how much the seemingly random swirl of neon actually reveals about the characters, from the faint etching of “One! Two! Three! Four!” on Allison Pill’s credit or the straight edge exes for Brandon Routh’s. 
When a worried Francis Ford Coppola walked out of a rapturous reception of Apocalypse Now at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, his fears turned to confidence, and the press conference he gave summarized both the film’s troubled production and the hallucinatory, exhilarating and terrifying effect of the final product with a single sentence that no critic has ever topped.
Instead of piling on two reviews for Bill Plympton’s work last week I decided to split this one up, his latest short film, The Cow Who Wanted to be a Hamburger.
With all the praise heaped on Fincher and Sorkin’s “the social network,” coupled with one of the most emotionally charged trailers I have seen in years, the studio appeared to tout the film as an amazing experience. It suggested a representation of a timely and impactful moment that has made a tremendous change in so many lives. But that is not what the film is about. Instead it proves to be as detached (allegedly), as the lead character himself, Mark Zuckerberg co-founder of facebook. This is not to say that director, David Fincher and writer, Aaron Sorkin’s latest opus is anything less than an exercise in fine filmmaking. But they have missed a very important mark that the trailers merely touched upon”¦how facebook affected so many (and still does) of us in so little time. Yes, the trailer did tease us with, “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.” Interesting premise, but is there any cost if we don’t give a shit about that person?
But his antics do not go unrecognized. He is quickly approached by some fellow Harvard students (wonderfully underplayed by Armie Hammer) regarding an elitist type social network. Zuckerberg is aware that he is about to be used. After all, these guys come from a more affluent background and are not only juniors, but the lacrosse stars of the school. They have the germ of an idea, but no clue as to how to bring it in to fruition. Zuckerberg on the other hand sees the potential and seizes the day by getting a sixteen week head start and uses (literally) his best friend to finance the project with the upfront promise of an uneven partnership (70/30). He later enlists the aid of Napster founder, Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake in a very juicy role), to develop facebook with his own vision and everyone else be damned. And, they are, as the facebook social network grows with lightening fast speed catching the attention of f**kable groupies, big investors and A-hole lawyers.
How do you look at a blank canvas and create a world where you are held back by language but want to tell a story that anyone can understand?
I should not have liked this film simply based on its premise.
Saving Private Ryan so thoroughly influenced action filmmaking that it’s easy to forget that not only wasn’t it the only war film released in 1998, it wasn’t even the best one. With each year, Spielberg’s war opus looks more dated, encumbered by its legendarily bad framing device and its inability to reconcile the numerous attitudes toward war into one coherent view of it.
Tony Rayns on The World – Rayns contributes a beautiful essay to the Blu-Ray’s booklet written in the updated context of Jia’s full filmography to this point, and this 21-minute feature manages to rehash almost none of the details of the critic’s written contribution. Rayns’ taped segment gives a broad background of the director’s life as a government-educated filmmaker who got his start making unapproved, underground features and even saw the films that informed him via surreptitiously obtained bootlegs.
One of the things that struck me as I watched The Disappearance of Alice Creed, a ferocious first feature from writer/director J Blakeson, was that even though a lot of this was shot in a confined space it does not take away one iota from the thrill of what the movie aims to accomplish. What it aims for, you understand, is to have a story so good that it could all take place on a theater stage without nary a change in scenery.
I was seventeen-years-old in 1973 and going to as many “R” rated movies as possible. It was a thrill going without my parents and even a bigger one when I found something that went beyond the simple-minded T&A or Hershel Gordon Lewis gorehound reissue. I cannot remember what prompted me to take the RTD bus all the way to the El Portal Theater in the middle of a sweltering hot & humid San Fernando Valley summer day to see a limited run, PG rated movie about a cop and the motorcycle he hated. It could have been a combination of an ultra-cool poster, a kick-ass trailer and a few critics that were going gaga over this flipside of “Easy Rider”. Whatever it was, “Electra Glide in Blue” will forever be one of my favorite films that to this day surprises everyone I introduce it to.
I didn’t a chance to see this movie when it came out theatrically months ago but I couldn’t be more eager to see what Louis Leterrier concocted. I am an unabashed fan of both The Transporter and The Incredible Hulk so it’s only right to be at least interested in knowing how the man created a 450 million dollar box office juggernaut.
To review this film with the usual sets of criteria usually reserved for any other movie would be unfair.
You must, must check this film out. If you only make enough to buy 1 DVD, and Lord knows that is the least of your problems if you’re on that tight of a budget, make this one you get this month as this movie has still stayed with me months after seeing it. It’s available now from Oscilloscope Laboratories so do what you can to witness one of the brightest spots of the spring movie season.
Not that many of you would care but after 9 months of gestation I am utterly delighted and tickled to introduce my newest daughter Nina Elizabeth.
A television show that jettisons you back to an age when classroom instruction meant listening to an old coot ramble on about things that seemed antiquated to even the most basic of thinkers, Look Around You is a show that really isn’t for everyone.
The issue with Despicable Me isn’t so much that it’s a good, albeit mediocre, kids film but it is the film’s contentment with just being average that genuinely holds the movie back from being anything more than forgettable.