Avengers: Infinity War - Movie Review

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Tom Hiddleston, Karen Gillan, Don Cheadle, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Benecio Del Toro, Danai Gurira, Idris Elba, Peter Dinklage, Benedict Wong, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, Letitia Wright, William Hurt, Carrie Coon, Ross Marquand and Winston Duke.
Written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely.
Directed by Anthony & Joe Russo.

★★★

This 2-hour 38-minute epic showdown is what all 18 previous movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been leading up to, and this movie is leading to the next Avengers movie opening in May 2019. This movie ends on a cliffhanger. It is definitely part 1. And it needs every minute it takes to get there.

I like how this just assumes you're up to speed and you've seen most of the Marvel movies leading up to this one. The action starts immediately, with Thanos (Josh Brolin) attacking Asgard looking for one of the infinity stones. The infinity stones have been around in previous movies. We know the tesseract that Loki used is one. That the stone in Vision's forehead is another. Dr. Strange's amulet is another. There are six total, and with Thanos's gauntlet, he will have ultimate power over the universe if he's able to attach the six stones to it.

There are so many superheroes in this movie that they use one line to explain why Hawkeye and Ant-Man aren't here (but they'll surely be in the next one). We get to see characters meet and interact in fun, unexpected ways, like the arrogant Tony Stark and the equally arrogant Dr. Strange. Chris Hemsworth gets to continue showing his comic chops he displayed in Thor Ragnarok by bouncing off the Guardians of the Galaxy. And so on.

This movie is really about Thanos, who's lurked in the shadows but takes center stage here. He wants ultimate power because he believes his cause is ultimately for the greater good.

I've seen a lot of references to people crying at certain deaths in this movie. I didn't. It's pretty obvious that many of the characters who die in the final battle are going to be brought back to life in the next one. And I for one am excited to see Hawkeye, Ant-Man, and (after-credits spoiler hero) team up with the survivors in the next one to take on Thanos.

Spider-Man: Homecoming - Movie Review

Starring Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Bokeem Woodbine, Martin Starr, Martin Chernus, Abraham Attah, Michael Mando, Donald Glover, Tyne Daly, Logan Marshall-Green, Tony Revolori, Garcelle Beauvais, Chris Evans and the voice of Jennifer Connelly.
Written by Jonathan Goldstein, John Francis Daley, Jon Watts, Christopher Ford, Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers.
Directed by Jon Watts.

★★★½

Tom Holland is the third actor in less than ten years to play Spider-Man. He's also the youngest, and that's a good thing. This felt like a high school movie that happened to be a superhero movie too. There's a breezy fun to everything going on.

Fortunately since we've already met this Peter Parker during Captain America: Civil War, we don't have to go through his origin story again. I don't need to see Uncle Ben get killed anymore than I need to see Batman's parents gunned down again.

Director Jon Watts (Cop Car) does a good job of weaving together all of the character relationships, and while there isn't too much action compared to most other superhero movies, the giant set pieces he does have, he handles well. The ferry splitting in half scene in particular.

Michael Keaton's blue-collar Vulture has an understandable POV, as he and his crew go from legitimate demolition workers to underground traffickers of alien technology to get ahead. The arrogance of billionaire Tony Stark lingers over everything, and Stark's in this movie almost as much as he was in Captain America: Civil War.

My favorite scene is one in the car. You've seen the clip in the trailer of Keaton in the driver's seat looking back at Holland, but the way that whole scene plays just crackles. Keaton doesn't go for scenery-chewing; he goes for much more subtle menace. And hey, he has a family, so he can be reasoned with.

Hoping somewhere down the road we can get a Spider-Man/Ant-Man buddy movie.

P.S. Favorite Easter egg is Jennifer Connelly voicing an A.I., following in the footsteps of her husband Paul Bettany who voiced Jarvis for a few movies before he became Vision.

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Also saw in 2017:

THE LOST CITY OF Z (★★½)
Starring Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland, Angus Macfayden and Ian McDiarmid.
Written & directed by James Gray.

This old-fashioned "By Jove!" colonial travelogue of a movie tells the true story of Percy Fawcett, a man commissioned to help map the Amazon River in South America before and after World War I and came across what he believed was evidence of a lost city, an ancient civilized city. I liked some of the supporting work from Robert Pattinson (Twilight) and Angus Macfayden (Braveheart), but it ultimately got too repetitive.

IT COMES AT NIGHT (★★½)
Starring Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Christopher Abbott and Riley Keough.
Written & Directed by Trey Stults.

This post-apocalyptic domestic thriller was marketed as a horror movie, and while it does have some horrifying things, it doesn't go in predictable directions. It raises more questions than it has answers for, and ultimately I felt hollow when it was over. It does a good job playing off of paranoia and suspicion, but it's also a cautionary tale on just how tribal people can still be.

Random Entertainment News - 5/7/13

- The Avengers 2 is slated for May 2015, but not all of the actors are pinned down, most notably Robert Downey Jr.  Downey made $50 million on the first Avengers and could wind up in the $70 million range for the sequel.  Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk) and others also haven't agreed, and Marvel may replace some of them if they can't settle salary disputes.

- Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) is in talks to join Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Michael Caine in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar.  Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight) wrote the script, and it's set to open November 7, 2014.

- Johnny Depp (The Baker) and Meryl Streep (The Witch) are in talks to star in a big-screen version of Into the Woods for director Rob Marshall (Chicago).

- Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are teaming up for a remake of Guys & Dolls.  The original film version starred Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra.

- Meanwhile, Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill will return for 21 Jump Street 2, set to open June 6, 2014.

- Megan Fox will play April in a new live-action/CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Will Arnett co-stars.

- Jason Statham will star in a remake of Heat, not the 1995 classic with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, but the 1987 drama that starred Burt Reynolds.  It's about a gambler who takes on the mob after his friend is brutally beaten.  Sofia Vergara, Stanley Tucci. Jason Alexander, Anne Heche and Michael Angarano co-star.

- NBC has renewed five dramas for this fall - Grimm, Law & Order: SVU, Revolution, Parenthood and Chicago Fire.

- Angus T. Jones will not return as a regular on CBS's Two and a Half Men this fall.  Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer have signed new one-year deals to continue with Season 11.

The Avengers - Movie Review

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johnasson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgard, Clark Gregg, Colbie Smulders, Powers Boothe and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Directed by Joss Whedon.

★★★½

Sometimes I marvel (waka-waka) at what build-up this movie had. It's had Iron Man 1 & 2, Captain America, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk, and those movies have all, in a way, served as prequels for this movie. This is supposed to be the awesomest superhero gathering ever. There is no way this movie could live up to the hype and build-up.

Well, sure it could.

This movie takes the best qualities of all those flawed heroes and meshes them together nicely. We have egotistical billionaire Tony Stark, the WWII-era noble-hearted Steve Rogers, the cautious genius Bruce Banner, the demi-god Thor, the super-spy Natasha Romanoff, and the super-sniper Clint Barton, all under the watch of the one-eyed S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury. How will they ever mesh?

In fittingly prickly fashion, turns out.

I heap praise upon the script by Whedon & Zak Penn. Everyone gets their moments to shine, their one-liners for laughs, and no one feels short-changed. After all, if they can't do justice to bringing them together, why bring them together?

Heroes need a villain to fight, and Thor's brother Loki, also a demi-god, does just fine, taking the Tessaract (seen in Captain America), an ultimate power source, to fuel a portal that'll bring an alien army down on Earth so he can rule it.

Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow is actually a better part here than it was in Iron Man 2. Robert Downey Jr. is his usual quippy self, but I really liked Mark Ruffalo's take on Bruce Banner. And Thor has one of the best laugh lines in the movie. And Captain America has a couple too.

And there's more, and more...

I'm one of the last people in the country to see this movie, so I'm just reinforcing what you already know. The Avengers was a blast, and I'm really glad with what Joss Whedon was able to do.

Random Movie Stuff - 4/25/12

- Some updates regarding Disney & Pixar. James Bobin will be back to direct a sequel to The Muppets. Pixar has three new titles on its slate. The Good Dinosaur is set to be released May 30, 2014, and it features a modern story set in a world where the cataclysmic asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs never actually hit the Earth. Inside the Mind is set for June 19, 2015, and it takes place inside the human mind. Dia De Los Muertos doesn't have a release date but it will center on the Mexican holiday. Pixar's Brave opens in June.

- Jessica Chastain (The Help, The Debt) is in talks to join Iron Man 3. She'd play a sexy scientist whose brain rivals Tony Stark's. She'd be joining Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce.

- Ben Kingsley will also star in the indie film Cut Bank. It's about two men trying to escape a town frozen in time. Armie Hammer (Mirror Mirror), John Malkovich, Michael Sheen and Teresa Palmer co-star.

- Gina Carano (Haywire) is in talks to join Fast & Furious 6, starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Dwayne Johnson. She'd play a member of Johnson's team, seeking to take the car thieves down.

- Owen Wilson will star in the thriller The Coup, about a family visiting southeast Asia who get caught in the middle of a violent military coup of the government.

- Mel Gibson will be joining the cast of Machete Kills. The sequel will star Danny Trejo and be directed by Robert Rodriguez.

Random Movie Stuff - 1/10/12

- Robert Downey Jr. is Tim Burton's top choice to play Geppetto in his new version of Pinocchio, a semi-sequel (like his Alice in Wonderland) where Geppetto is on a quest to reunite with his missing wooden son.

- Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) and Jordi Malla (Knight & Day) are in talks to join Riddick, the third movie starring Vin Diesel as the sight-enhanced fugitive, following Pitch Black and The Chrnonicles of Riddick.

- Garrett Hedlund (Tron Legacy) is in talks to join the cast of Inside Llewelyn Davis, the next movie from Joel & Ethan Coen.  It's about folk music in the 1960's and stars Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Oscar Isaac and John Goodman.

- Robert Rodat (Saving Private Ryan) has been hired to rewrite Thor 2, which reunites Chris Hemsowrth, Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins, and will be directed by Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones).

Old Movie I Saw:

SKIDOO (1968) - Check out this cast: Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Groucho Marx, Frank Gorshin, Burgess Meredith, Frankie Avalon, Cesar Romero, John Phillip Law, Michael Constantine, Austin Pendleton, Peter Lawford, Mickey Rooney, George Raft, Slim Pickens, Robert Donner, Richard Kiel, Arnold Stang. That movie has to be seen, right?

This is in the same boat as Casino Royale, in that it's a cultural oddity. Otto Preminger doesn't embrace the anarchic sloppiness of Casino. He's a meticulous director, and he just can't do comedy well. This movie was dated the moment it was released. It's very much the movie of an old guy in 1968 trying to be cool with "the hippies." How can you have Groucho Marx and not unleash him?

So yeah, I sat through the whole thing, but I would advise, if anyone wants to seek it out at this point, if you watch 20 minutes of it - any 20 minutes - you will have gotten the idea. Gleason plays a long-retired gangster dragged back into action for one last job by the big boss. The boss's name is God, and he's played by Marx. This movie has the Joker (Cesar Romero), the Penguin (Burgess Meredith) and the Riddler (Frank Gorshin), but none of them are really allowed to go wild, except when Meredith and Gorshin have to pretend they're on an acid trip.

Random Movie News 10/7/11

- Robert Downey Jr. will produce and star in the big-screen adaptation of Perry Mason. The 1950's TV courtroom drama starring Raymond Burr was based on a series of books, and the movie is going back to those source materials for the characters.

- Johnny Depp will star in a biopic about Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel).

- Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) has joined the cast of Paradise Lost. Directed by Alex Proyas, it's based on John Milton's classic about the battle between Michael (Benjamin Walker) and Lucifer (Bradley Cooper). Casey Affleck, Djimon Hounsou, Camilla Belle and Callan McAuliffe co-star.

- New Regency, in its deal with Fox, has picked up distribution rights to Broken City, starring Russell Crowe as a mayor who secretly hires a P.I. (Mark Wahlberg) to see if his wife's being unfaithful, but then she turns up dead.

Due Date - DVD Review

ll1/2

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Zack Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan, Jamie Foxx, Juliette Lewis and Danny McBride. Directed by Todd Phillips.

First of all, Planes Trains & Automobiles is a better, funnier movie, and these two movies share the same plot. But that doesn't mean this one doesn't have its share of laughs.

One thing I liked is that Downey's character has a mean streak to him. He's not a particularly nice guy, and so for him to be stuck with the man-child of Galifianakis, it's karmic retribution. Of course, as the journey continues, he begins to melt to this idiot.

I can't say I believed some of the emotional transitions. Part of that is that Galifianakis is playing a very similar fool to the one he played in The Hangover. Part of it is I can't help but go back to PT&A where their emotional climax was better earned.

So for what it is, it's fine. It was actually a little better than I thought it would be.