Captain Marvel - Movie Review

Starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law, Annette Bening, Djimon Hounsou, Clark Gregg, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan and Rune Temte.
Written by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck & Geneva Robertson-Dworet.
Directed by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck.

★★★

The 21st entry into the MCU is really a prequel episode if you want to take the timeline in chronological order. We not only meet Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) in 1995, but also we get our first looks at Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) 13 years before they would have met Iron Man.

We first meet Captain Marvel as "Vers", a Kree warrior who's part of the fight against the Skrulls. You don't really need to know much more about the blue-tinted Kree v. the shapeshifting Skrulls, as it doesn't take long for the battle to spill to Planet C-53, aka Earth, where Vers finds herself having memories as though she used to be human. A young Agent Fury wants to investigate this lady who supposed fell from the sky to put a hole through the roof of the local Blockbuster video store, and we're off!

Larson and Jackson have natural chemistry together, and it's fun to see Jackson let his hair down, so to speak, as a younger more optimistic Fury, who has yet to deal with Loki and Hydra and everything else he's going to face. I really liked the way Vers was written, but I can't say I'm always a fan of the way Larson portrays her. I thought her coldness in the previews was going to be due to her being an alien, but there's definite humor and playfulness written in the character that Larson doesn't always pull off.

I really liked that it was set in the 1990's and all of the fun they had with that. (The music cues, the slow internet speeds...)

I thought Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One, Ready Player One, Robin Hood) was going to be playing his umpteenth cardboard villain as Telos, Skrull leader, but the character had a lot more depth than I expected and that to me is when Mendelsohn is most interesting.

This is one of the few Marvel movies where it's best to avoid spoilers, as the story did take a turn I wasn't expecting. And yes, stay for all of the credits.

Carol will be back in Avengers: Endgame, which is only a few weeks away, and I'm looking forward to seeing her interact with other Marvel characters, especially Thor and Ant-Man. (Everyone should meet Ant-Man!) Besides, Larson will be more comfortable in the role by then.

Annabelle 2 is #1

For the weekend of August 11-13, 2017, Annabelle: Creation was the big winner. Horror has been underperforming all summer, but when a good one finally came along (RottenTomatoes at 69%), it was rewarded. It's the fourth movie in the Conjuring universe, and it's another profitable chapter. The fifth one comes out next summer and will center on the Nun character from Conjuring 2.

The Nut Job 2 was probably the least anticipated animated sequel since Hoodwinked 2, and it should disappear quickly.

The Glass Castle never could find a way to capitalize it being based on a best-seller and starring recent Oscar winner Brie Larson.

Opens August 18
THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD with Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson and Gary Oldman.
LOGAN LUCKY with Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig and Hilary Swank.
(exp) WIND RIVER with Jeremy Renner, Elisabeth Olsen and Martin Sensmeier.

Free Fire - Movie Review

Starring Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Armie Hammer, Sharlto Copley, Jack Reynor, Sam Riley, Noah Taylor, Babou Ceesay, Michael Smiley and Patrick Bergin.
Written by Amy Jump & Ben Wheatley.
Directed by Ben Wheatley.

★★½

This is a fun little gangster flick, probably more worthy to be watched on Netflix or Amazon Prime when it shows up in a few months.

The plot is very simple. In the 1970's, some IRA members are meeting some arms dealers in an abandoned warehouse to buy some guns. Room full of antsy people with guns and money? Eventually someone's trigger-happy finger sets things in motion.

Picture the Mexican standoff in Reservoir Dogs. Now picture there's about ten of them, and it's in a much bigger warehouse with more places to hide and take cover. And you have 45 minutes of movie to go. Now this does lead to a lot of scenes of shot people crawling on their elbows to get from this place of cover to that, but the dialogue and exchanges remain funny.

Wheatley said he was aiming to write a standoff movie realistically, and I can see that. In real life, these guys would miss most of their shots, and most of the ones that hit wouldn't be fatal.

Kong: Skull Island - Movie Review

Starring Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John Goodman, John C. Reilly, Tian Jing, Corey Hawkins, John Ortiz, Jason Mitchell, Toby Kebbell, Thomas Mann, Shea Whigham, Eugene Cordero, Marc Evan Jackson, Terry Notary and Richard Jenkins.
Written by Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein & Derek Connolly.
Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts.

★★★

This is like a Jurassic World sequel in a good way. Assemble the crew, get them to the island, and then let the monster-movie hijinks ensue!

It's 1973. Vietnam is winding down. John Goodman gets things rolling as the man who's seen satellite photos of the mysterious Skull Island and wants to lead the expedition. He gets funding from a skeptical senator (Richard Jenkins). He finds some experts and a military escort to go with him. This movie actually borrows a lot from Vietnam movies in their looks, sound, and feel. Particularly Apocalypse Now. They have to helicopter through a severe storm just to get to the island.

They don't know what they'll find, but they're greeted by King Kong. Kong is the star of the show. He knocks their helicopters down and the survivors are forced to scramble and make their way to a rendezvous point on the other side of the island in three days. Along the way they meet a lot of other fantastical creatures. (I'm okay with a giant spider, but why was there only one giant spider?) They also meet a WWII pilot (John C. Reilly) who's been stranded there for 27 years.

Oscar-winner Brie Larson plays a photojournalist, Tom Hiddleston is top-billed as a survivalist/tracker, Samuel L. Jackson is the colonel who turns into Ahab after Kong kills so many of his men. It's a true ensemble effort. Straight Outta Compton's Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell are here, as two very different characters.

Bring on Kong v. Godzilla!