Green Lantern Review

Green Lantern Review

If I were to rate superhero films on a spectrum that had the 1978 classic Superman: The Movie on one end, and the messy diaper that was 1997's Batman & Robin on the other, then the Green Lantern would fall somewhere smack dab in the middle.

The movie is a fantastic introduction to the character.  If you have never heard of the Green Lantern, or Hal Jordan you don't have to worry about being left out of the loop.  You will get to experience and learn all about who Hal is. You will get to learn all the demons of his past. You will learn the names of  who his supporting characters are, including the traits and personalities of the main members of the Green Lantern Corps. For those of us in the know, this is a bit painful, but those who are new to the world of Oa this will be a fascinating and wonderful peek into the vastness of the Green Lantern Corps. The less you know about the Green Lantern, and the story of Hal Jordan, the better off you are. However, because the movie spends so much time on this the movie drags in sections. 

I should also mention that I feel the movie could have used a bit more humor. The movie wants to be taken seriously, it wants to exist as a thoughtful action film, but thats not what we want from our spandex clad gods of summer. We want a witty remark, or a joke, or something that lightens the mood. The movie forces itself away from the typical light hearted super hero movie so desperately that it at times becomes too heavy, and bogged down by its own weight.

Visually speaking this movie is beautiful.  The toughest part of creating the world of the Green Lantern is making us believe in the interstellar universe and in Oa, the home planet of the Green Lantern Corps.  The film does an exceptional job with this, and you believe in the reality that they have created.  Many people have complained about the suit being a completely fabricated piece of CGI. I disagree. Personally I think that this was the only way to go when it comes to the Green Lantern. He is a hero who is only limited by his imagination, so why not allow that to flow organically from within the suit.

On the whole I was satisfied with the acting in the movie.  I was especially impressed with the performance of Ryan Reynolds.  Initially I thought he was too funny to play the part and too silly for the  intergalactic space cop role of Hal Jordan.  I was wrong.  Reynolds takes this part seriously, he knows this character, and you can tell he belongs in the part. Also perfectly cast was Mark Strong (most commonly known as Lord Blackwood in 2009's Sherlock Holmes). Besides being well cast based solely on his resume, Mark Strong does a brilliant job in his portrayal of the great general of Oa. The trickiest part for him is that he has to play Sinestro just right, with enough charm for us to like him and yet enough menace for us to believe that he can easily follow the path he is headed on.

The major theme in the movie is that the strength of will can overcome the power of fear. Hal Jordan is just a man, who has fears just like all men.  So the choice of villain for the origin story was very appropriate.  An enemy who embodies, and feeds off of the fear in others, is a worthy first opponent for a man who must conquer his own fear. Where Hal Jordan's strength lies is in his ability to face his fears, to present his courage to any villain that would use fear to manipulate those around them. I am sad to say that I am looking forward to the sequel not because of the greatness of this one, but because we can skip the origin story and get right to the betrayal of Sinestro.

Overall it is a good movie, not the great movie I am sure everyone was hoping it would be, but good.  I truly hope that it is does well enough financially to kick off the second wave of DC heroes.  I am excited to see feature films of the Flash, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman.  Weather or not we need a combined DC Universe team of heroes I don't know but it would be nice to see the second tier DC hero get a shot at being made into movies.

DVD Releases for Tuesday June 14, 2011

This is the part of the blog where I tell you what I am buying for the week on DVD. Most of you who know me also know that I like to collect and watch movies at home. Most weeks I buy 1-4 releases. This week I will be buying:

Hall Pass
It has been a long time since There's Something About Mary, and apparently this movie is another attempt by the Farrelly brothers to regain their former glory.  It will be interesting to see if they return to glory or continue their downhill slide.










Battle Los Angeles
This movie was essentially a rip off of Independence Day. Not only was it an unoriginal story but they compounded its stupidity by shooting it as if it were a Call of Duty game.  Every single scene is shot over the shoulder of a soldier.










Red Riding Hood
I like the idea of taking the story of little red riding hood and mixing in the werewolf mythos.  Whether or not this is a success or not I cannot say, but I am interested in seeing this incarnation of the story.










Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son
File this in the category of really? I mean I don't think we really needed a sequel to Big Momma's House. and I am positive we didn't need 2. Yet here it is Big Momma's House 3.

Mr. Popper's Penguins Review

Mr. Popper's Penguins Review
Mr. Popper's Penguins is a wonderful children's book. In the book Mr. Popper is a house painter in the 1930s and, like most house painters, only works Spring through Fall. in the wintertime he drowns himself in National Geographic and radio shows about world explorers. During one such show, he learns of Admiral Drake and his Antarctic adventures. He writes to him, and surprisingly Admiral Drake responds to Mr. Popper's letter with a live penguin. The adventures start with one and soon enough, the penguin family grows to nine. Mr. Popper, his wife, and their two kids take the penguins on the road as an act to earn money. The act eventually gets old and there's a run-in with the law only to be bailed out by Admiral Drake. Mr. Popper is then faced with a moral dilemma that questions the penguins' future.

Its hard to imagine messing up a movie version of this book, but somehow someway the filmmakers behind the movie version of Mr. Popper's Penguins found a way to bastardize and destroy every single ounce of charm out of this clever story. They have replaced the poor painter with the story of a workaholic divorcee, who spends most of his time as a slick corporate real estate mogul. Of course he is a absentee father because his father wasn't there for him, funny how movies recycle old cliches. For some reason they thought that telling the oft told story of a jaded modern business man who finds a heart and also wins back his family, would be far more entertaining than the clever idea of a family on the road with a penguin circus during the great depression.

I can see the development meeting in my head...

Studio Executive: Penguin's are up 40% in popularity this quarter, what should we do to get in on this market? 

"Creative" Mind: Animated penguins who sing and dance? 

Studio Executive: Wait Warner Bros. already did that with Happy Feet.

"Creative" Mind: Well We have this wonderful children's book we optioned about a man who lives in Stillwater and has a penguin circus to feed his family during the depression. We could do a live action/animation blend.

Studio Executive: I like it. But lets loose the circus angle and for that matter change everything else in the book. Also, this memo I got says we need to humanize Wall Street after the housing crash.Make him a rich and pompous New Yorker, so that when he learns something people can love real estate moguls again. and make sure he gets pooped on a lot. Oh and at the end can we have Ice Ice Baby play over the credits? I mean who doesn't love Vanilla Ice?

Of course I don't actually think anyone actually said these things, but something tells me that there was hefty market research done. And it is the business of art that makes lousy uninspired drivel like Mr. Popper's Penguins.

My biggest problem with the movie wasn't that they modernized the story, or that they decided to lose the circus, or even that they picked a recycled storyline. My biggest problem with the movie lies in the fact that it took a great children's book, and reduced it to penguin poop. Literally,  I counted no less than seven jokes about penguins pooping. Some of them were Jim Carrey getting pooped on, some of them were penguins pooping on each other, or in toilets, and most of them were not in the least bit funny. Its a sad comment on today's youth if this is what they consider high brow humor.

I can accept that this was a children's book. I can also accept that the producers wanted to attract a modern audience, and that they felt in order to attract that audience they felt obligated to change plot lines and characters. But are kids today that superficial that they cannot appreciate a period piece? Do we have to add a fart joke to a classic tale for it to be more relatable to kids today? This is the part of the review where I bring up the god awful Gulliver's Travels starring Jack Black, because it did the same thing to a good book. Taking a tale, modernizing it but also reducing it to nothing more than a collection of out dated hip hop montages laced with dick and fart jokes. I am sorry, maybe I am old and out of touch, but when you reduce a beloved children's tale to nothing more than poop jokes, then you are not just pooping on Jim Carrey, you are pooping on the people who love the literature in which it is based.

Do yourself a favor and spend the evening reading the book to your kids, or even to yourself.  The book is far more entertaining and thought provoking than this movie, and if you order it on amazon its only like three bucks.

Super 8 Review

Super 8 Review
What exactly is Super 8. Is it a monster movie?...Yes.  Is it about aliens?...Yes. Is it a coming of age story?...Yes. Is it a military thriller?...Yes.  Some how this movie is an amalgam of several different genres and styles. It is going to be one of those great summer movies because it mimics classic films in each of these genres perfectly.

If you love E.T. Jurassic Park, The Goonies, Jaws, and Close Encounters, you will love Super 8.  The film deliberately and unapologetically steals tone, tempo, and technique from all of these films. Despite being completely unoriginal the film works brilliantly as an homage to all of these past films.  You hold a special place in your heart for films like E.T. and The Goonies, for whatever reason they resonate with you, and because this film is so reminiscent of those classics you will love this movie.

Most impressive to me in the movie was the fact that for a movie about kids, I genuinely and sincerely feared for these kids safety. Today's kid friendly adventures are way too easy.  Like children of this generation they are soft, and squishy. There is no true danger, but Super 8 puts our children in real and frightening jeopardy.  The much publicized train wreck is so much more intense, and real than the trailers teased us with, and the violent nature of both the human characters and the alien menace are just as nerve-racking. I still struggle with what was more believable, the creature or the fact that the kids survived with not much more than dirty faces, and a scrapped knee.

The creature in this movie, just like the shark in Jaws, is most effective when you cannot see it.  Once the proverbial cat is out of the proverbial bag, and we get a real good look at the monster, the creature looses is fear factor, and becomes less frightening and more foolish. I realize that J.J. Abrams purposely allows this to happen because at that point in the film we are meant to understand the creature, to sympathize with it, and realize that its just misunderstood, and shouldn't be scary at all. Of course that is difficult for us as an audience to do, especially when we spend the better part of an hour and a half scared to death of the beast.

I loved Super 8. I loved it despite the horrible 1950's B-movie style monster. I loved it despite being a complete rip off of other influential movies of my past.  I really loved it because the real heart of the movie lies in the young actors that portray the cinephiles, the group that only wants to make a zombie movie, and finds themselves embroiled and intwined in a military conspiracy.  The story of these kids, dealing with the events around them, and growing up in the midst of all this chaos is where the movie shines.

If I was a kid today, and I had never experienced the 1980s classics that were dangerous, and scary and oh yeah involved kids, then Super 8 would be an awesome experience, full of thrills, jumps and jolts. And if I was a good parent to a kid today, after I we saw Super 8 I would turn to that kid and say, are you ready to be really blown away? Then I would proceed to show him all the classic and unforgettable films that influenced and built Super 8.

DVD Releases for Tuesday June 7, 2011

This is the part of the blog where I tell you what I am buying for the week on DVD. Most of you who know me also know that I like to collect and watch movies at home. Most weeks I buy 1-4 releases. This week I will be buying:

True Grit (2010)

One of the best movies of last year, this update of the John Wayne classic was directed by the Coen Brothers.  Jeff Bridges did a fantastic job playing the character of Rooster Cogburn and received a lot of praise. The real find of the movie is Hailee Steinfeld who plays Mattie Ross to perfection.









Just Go With It
If Grown Ups was Adam Sandler taking a 4th of July holiday with his buddies, Just Go With It is him going to Hawaii with his friends.  The movie has some very funny moments but they seemed to just give up with it in the end.  They don't even give the audience a proper conclusion. Its fun and you will laugh, but its not the best Adam Sandler comedy.








Another Year
Mike Leigh is a great director who loves character pieces. I haven't seen this yet but I am looking forward to seeing Jim Broadbent in this movie about four seasons in the life of a married couple.










The Company Men
Another movie I seemed to have missed.  The trailer for this movie looked promising, and with the release date I thought it would have gotten more awards noticed.  Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Coster, Ben Affleck and Chris Cooper star in this movie about the American working man.









Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology (1978 - 2006)
This movie collection has been on Blu-Ray before individually without Superman 3 or 4.  Honestly If I wasn't a Superman super nerd I probably wouldn't pick this set up.  But I am, and I can't wait to pick mine up.










Green Lantern: Emerald Knights
Just in time for the Green Lantern movie comes this direct to DVD animated feature. This movie will more than likely give anyone who sees it a nice knowledge base for all of the minor characters in the new movie. Nathan Fillion, Jason Isaacs, and Elisabeth Moss all provide voices for this movie. The animated DC universe movies have almost always been entertaining so hopefully this one is no exception.







Sanctum
This movie seemed like a fun ride.  Sure its not an original idea but the 3D certainly probably made up for it.  It will be interesting to see if the movie is any good without the novelty that 3D provides.

Midnight in Paris Review

Midnight in Paris Review

The thought of visiting your favorite time period, and visiting with the visionaries of the time is a concept that everyone considers at one time in their life. The new Woody Allen film, Midnight in Paris, is an insightful and charming look at this concept.

Owen Wilson plays Gil, a hack screenwriter who dreams of becoming a great novelist. He visits Paris with his Fiancee (Rachel McAdams) and her family.Visiting Paris feeds his dream of becoming a great writer in the most poetic city in the world.  He is in love with the notion of living in 1920s Paris, surrounded by the brilliance of expatriate writers and artists, and of course all this must be in the rain.

One evening after a wine tasting, a slightly inebriated and lost Gil finds himself alone on a Parisian street corner, as the clock strikes twelve.  As the bells chime, a 1920s Peugeot, pulls up and transports Gil to the 1920s.  When Gil realizes that he is actually visiting the past, experiencing his wildest fantasies, he becomes immediately entranced. He basks in the ambiance, and soaks in the wisdom of his idealistic golden age. Gil continues to visit the 1920s meeting and interacting with the contemporary visionaries of the time. The film is difficult to describe but it is lovely and the less you know the better. It is full of insight and quotable soundbites, and you will leave the theater with an appetite for life.

Woody Allen films are a genre in itself. He has made 41 films and all of them have familiar elements, from the credits to the characters you can find benchmarks and touchstones in all of them. His films are almost always personal to him in some way shape or form, and hit or miss, they provide us with some insight into his genius.  In this case, you have to believe that Woody Allen, has fallen in love with Paris, and this love has given inspiration to a beautifully insightful and philosophical film experiences in the last decade. Equal parts entertaining and literate, unlike so many movies today, so expect to be challenged and stimulated intellectually.

A major theme in the movie is that "nostalgia is denial of a painful present." The thought that even the best of times are only beautiful in hindsight. Of course there is also the notion that those who are nostalgic for the greatness of times past are short sighted in realizing that the time they live in will one day be nostalgia for some future romantic, who would love to live in our time, especially in the rain.

X-Men: First Class Review

X-Men: First Class Review

Two X-Men have movies have been extremely well made, two others have been extremely poorly made.  So it has to be said that this film could go one of two ways. It could be like X2: X-Men United, full of depth, action, and heart. It could also be like X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a deeply flawed movie, with very few bright spots.

X-Men: First Class is by far the best of the X-Men movies.  I was as skeptical as anyone going into this movie, and it literally blew me away. What blew me away wasn't the action, it wasn't the special effects, it wasn't even the groovy 1960s setting. What blew my mind, what really floored me was the unique, and engaging story.

The film is essentially an origin story for Charles Xavier (extremely well played by James McAvoy), and Erik Lensherr (brilliantly played by Michael Fassbender) the two men who are destined to soon become the leaders of Mutant-kind.

What was fascinating was the way in which these two parallel stories converge, and then eventually split.  These two friends become the men they were destined to become because of their individual histories, as well as the time they spend together.  Lensherr's story is one fueled by vengeance and anger, his sole purpose is to destroy the men he deems responsible for his experience in the concentration camp.  His rage is never more powerful then the Argentine scene, in which he brutalizes three exiled Nazis. Xavier's story is much more peaceful. His life as a scholar, and aristocrat giving birth to an enlightened and peaceful stance on Human-Mutant relations. While there are other well created, three dimensional and quality characters, make no mistake, this movie is about these two men, and how their lives were destined to become intertwined.

I am not a fan of the prequel. I feel that backstory, and prologue is just that, something that is there but need not be examined. This movie will set a new standard for what a prequel should be. It flowed and connected to the other films in the series, it didn't feel like a re-boot, in fact without the other films this one has no context.  The best part of this prequel is that despite knowing where the characters are headed you never feel like you know what is going to happen. I was on my the edge of my seat for the entire movie, and it is a rare feat when a movie can do that, especially when you know where the characters will be in the end. You do not need to have seen the previous films to appreciate this movie, but be aware that there are some inside jokes and moments of foreshadow, that can only really be appreciated when having seen the previous installments. After the movie ended and the credits rolled, I immediately wanted to watch all of the previous installments which is a wonderful sign for a prequel.

Also of note are fine, and subtle performances by Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw, Jennifer Lawrence as  the young Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as the Jekyll/Hyde incarnation of Beast. Their supporting roles both serve the story, as well as give subtext and depth to the film. You deeply care about these characters, despite knowing their future, because they are so well created, written and performed.

Bryan Singer returned to produce, as well as write the story for this film. His return in triumphant, and I am glad that he returned to this series. His choice of Matthew Vaughn as director was quite possibly his greatest addition to the series. Vaughn has established himself as a director who can adapt his style to any genre. X-Men: First Class is easily his best feature film, and shows tremendous talent as a filmmaker.

There isn't a stinger after the credits, so no need to stick around for that, however there is a brilliant cameo that I won't spoil here. I will say that it is was brilliant and perfect and the use of the F-bomb was beautifully poetic. I predict that it will go down in history as the best cameo in any superhero film ever. (Yes ever!)

I encourage you to see this movie, and it may be the first movie this year that I see more than once in the theater.