Category: Movies

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Spider-Man Comes Home!

We finally got our first Marvel Studios co-produced Spider-Man movie, and it was worth the wait.  Spider-Man: Homecoming is the best Spider-Man movie to date.  Just narrowly beating out Spider-Man 2.  My only complaint is that I feel they played the movie a bit safe.  The Marvel movie formula works, but I wish they would try and shake it up a bit.

Spider-Man: Homecoming starts out with a quick recap of the events of Captain America: Civil War from Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) perspective.  He then waits to hear from Tony Stark about his next mission while becoming the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man we have all come to know and love.  Along the way he gets in a fight with some guys with super weapons.  To protect his city he is going to have to track down and take out the maker of these very dangerous weapons.

Did you see something I didn’t mention in the plot above?  That’s right Peter never gets bitten by a radioactive spider, and there isn’t yet another Green Goblin.  Spider-Man: Homecoming is not an origin film in the classical sense.  Peter is still new to his powers, and not far along in his superhero career, but those looking forward to Uncle Been dying while saying something about power and responsibility will be disappointed.  It is very refreshing.

Tom Holland is the best Peter Parker we have had on screen.  Which is saying something.  Both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were pretty good Spider-Men.  Even if their movies weren’t.  All of the backup cast was great as well, and obviously Michael Keaton is going to be good no mater what movie he is in, so it is no surprise that he is fantastic as the blue-collar villain Vulture.  His performance keeps the character from becoming a one-note throw away villain.

Honestly, like I said above my only complaint is that Spider-Man: Homecoming can be a little too Marvel-y.  It fits in very well with the other Marvel movies, but that is because it is very much like the other Marvel movies.  It is a weak complaint I know, but after sixteen movies it would be nice to see something fresh and new from the studio.

For everyone that was excided to hear that Marvel Studios would be taking the reins for at least the next few Spider-Man movies, Spider-Man: Homecoming is the movie they hoped it would be.  It is funny and charming, and it brings in a lot of Marvel cameos and Easter-eggs to find and enjoy.  Just don’t expect something new and different.  It is like buying a Snickers at the grocery store, very good, but you know what you are getting.

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The Paladin searches for Okja

Okja by Bong Joon-ho, best known for Snowpiercer and The Host, is a Netflix film starring Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano, Steven Yeun, and Seo-Hyun Ahn as Mija the little girl who has spent her whole life with Okja on her grandfather’s farm in South Korea.

Okja is a genetically modified superpig, which Tilda Swinton’s Lucy Mirando hopes will rejuvenate the Mirando Corporation. As an aside, Tilda Swinton is fantastic. Twenty-six superpigs were given to regional farmers to raise traditionally over a ten year period with Okja eventually chosen as the best and brought to New York City for a big celebration. Mija of course doesn’t want to loose her friend and so begins the journey to save Okja.

Along the way we meet Jake Gyllenhaal’s Dr. Jonny Wilcox, who reminded me of Nigel Thornberry from the Nickelodeon’s The Wild Thornberrys, only a shell of his former famous self. You also meet Paul Dano’s Jay, the charismatic leader of the ALF cell trying to free Okja and Steven Yeun’s K, one of his followers. Along with the grandfather and Mirando employee Mundo Park (played wonderfully by Je-min Yun) all the characters are somewhat gray and no one is clearly black and white.

Over the course of Okja’s two hour run you go a lot of places and it moves fairly predictably, but the characters and the actors that bring them to life make the journey worthwhile. The computer generated Okja, while at time can look a little fake, also draws you in but not by being hookie, cartoony, or anthorpromoric, but by being a real animal. Bong Joon-ho obviously has a point to the story but he doesn’t force it on you or tie a bow around everything; instead you are left to digest and ponder what he showed you and perhaps decide for yourself.

Okja isn’t a classic, but it is still expertly crafted and preformed, so check it out if you have Netflix.

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Catch A Ride With Baby Driver!

Ever since Edgar Wright’s dramatic exit from Marvel’s Ant-Man, we have been waiting to see what was next from this unique director, and if Baby Driver is anything to go by, Wright has got a lot left in the tank.  Baby Driver is cool, fun and funny.  Even if it could have used just one more chase scene.

Since Edgar loves to play with movie genres it should be no surprise that Baby Driver features a lot of clichés and tropes for him to manipulate, make fun of and ultimately revel in.  It is about, get this, a tormented getaway driver, Baby (Ansel Elgort), that has to do just one more job to free himself from his scary crime boss, Doc (Kevin Spacey).  Baby just wants to skip town with his girl, Debora (Lily James), and leave his life of crime behind him.

Now Baby Driver isn’t the crazy comedy that makes up the bulk of Edgar Wright’s work: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End, but it still offers plenty of laughs.  This slightly more restrained version of Wright is no doubt what we would have seen from him if he would have been able to complete Ant-Man.  Which is a shame because Marvel could have stood to have its own studio turn its cinematic universe on its head.

The acting was all terrific.  Elgort was able to portray a kid who is gifted at his job but hates it, and Hamm, Foxx, and Gonzalez are all able to play varying shades of crazy gangster.  Spacey’s job was to deliver on the nose dialog without actually winking at the audience, and Spacey was in peak Spacey.  I am sure Wright’s direction for him was, “Can you be more Spacey in the next scene?”.

Baby Driver isn’t perfect.  It drags a little in the middle.  I think Edgar was worried that the audience may not like Baby, so he did some character building which I didn’t think was necessary, and for a movie about driving, it could have featured just a little more.  The reason I say this is because the driving that is in it, is excellent, but then it kind of tapers off as the movie progresses.

Baby Driver is a very good modern gangster film that knows and has fun with the fact it is a gangster film.  It is another great film to add to Wright’s portfolio.  Which already has a lot of great films in it.  It is a fun summer action movie to go check out if you are a little tired of them all featuring tights and capes these days.

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Did You Want A Little Tron With Your Breakfast Club? Jumanji Thinks So!

They have obviously changed up the Jumanji formula quite a bit.  Instead of the game coming to life in our world.  It now sucks you in to its world giving you 90’s style videogame avatars.  Complete with special powers.  Of course this time around the game sucks in four teenagers from different walks of life during detention, and they will have to overcome their differences to survive Jumanji’s jungle.  It looks funnier and like more fun than I thought it was going to be, but I am going to wait for reviews before I spend my hard earned cash to watch this flick.

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The New Star Wars Web Series Looks A Little Too Webby!

You remember when guys and gals were making web shorts in the late 90’s and early 2000’s?  That is what the new Star Wars: Forces of Destiny looks like.  It looks like somebody loaded up Adobe Animate and made some Flash films for their Star Wars fan fiction.  That doesn’t mean that I will not watch it.  I will.  It just looks like they could have put a little more effort in to this short series.  Especially if it is the launch for a bunch of new toys and dolls.  I believe it is going to be the Star Wars version of the very successful DC Super Heroes Girls, which sounds good, but it looks like they could have tired harder.