CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER is the last of the Marvel Comics soda can labels before next year when all the separate labels will be united into one all-star label called THE AVENGERS (the comics one, not the one with Sean Connery in the teddy bear costume). The IRON MANs, THOR and INCREDIBLE HULK were all on Dr. Pepper I believe, though, and this one’s on 7-UP. So it’s a whole new ball game. I think it dips a bit into the cheesy side visually and filmatism-wise, but it’s an enjoyable story that’s a little different from the other super hero guys and stands on its own better than THOR. In fact the way it leads up to this AVENGERS movie allows it to end on an odd emotional note that it wouldn’t have otherwise.
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Posts Tagged ‘Chris Evans’
Captain America: The First Avenger
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
Street Kings
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
Although welcomed into THE EXPENDABLES with open arms by action fans, Terry Crews is one of the cast members with the least experience in straight up action movies. He was brought in late in the game to replace 50 Cent shortly after 50 Cent was brought in late in the game to replace Forest Whitaker. (Or at least that’s how it was reported, but I thought Whitaker was supposed to be playing CIA agent Will Sands, and Crews ended up playing Expendables team member and excellent-name-haver Hale Caesar.) (more…)
Sunshine
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007With the release of this movie I’d say there’s now officially a subgenre of sci-fi movies about the angst of long distance space travel. Two of my favorite movies ever – 2001 and ALIEN – are in this category. There’s also DARK STAR, a predecessor to ALIEN and an inspiration to this movie (one of the characters is even named Pinback after Dan O’Bannon’s character in that movie). I also liked the remake of SOLARIS, but I still gotta see the original one. Rounding out the category now there’s Danny Boyle’s SUNSHINE.
This one takes place sometime in the future, but probaly not too long in the future. The main difference between then and now: the sun is dying. Pretty shitty. Humanity came up with a plan where they sent a spaceship called The Icarus which would set off a bomb that would reignite the sun. But that ship was a bunch of slackers or something so nobody heard from them again. This is the story of the Icarus II, where they decided to use up Earth’s resources to make the last possible bomb that they could use to try to relight that bitch.
This is not the usual action type of sci-fi. No robots or lasers. The characters are not super heroes, they’re astronauts. They’re a crew of experts. They’re hoping to not only save humanity but to make it back safely, but they know that’s not guaranteed. (If it was their ship would be called The Guy Who Was Like Icarus Except His Wings Didn’t Melt So He Made It Back Safely.)
For most of the movie the drama comes from the tough decisions they have to make. For example they discover the location of the Icarus I and although they all agree that reigniting the sun is more important than saving any possible surviving crew members, a convincing argument is made for why it might be smart to go check out the ship. So they have to follow protocol and a decision has to be made but not everyone agrees. So not only do you have to worry about whether it was the right decision, but about whether the tension between the people who disagree will cause new problems that will lead to other tough decisions. (more…)
