Showing posts with label Iron Man. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iron Man. Show all posts

Monday, May 9, 2016

Weekend Box Office: Captain America: Civil War – A PC Mess, But Still Better Than The Rest

Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/ reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post about some of the movies from last week and THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed! This all follows this post about guidelines to choosing good movies to watch yourself!


Weekend Box Office: Captain America: Civil War – A PC Mess, But Still Better Than The Rest

By Debbie Schlussel
captainamericacivilwar







The only new movie opening this weekend is “Captain America: Civil War.” Despite being a 2.5-hour-long mess which glorifies the United Nations, studios know this will dominate the box office take this weekend, and they didn’t want to compete.
I have a theory about bad directors: they’re almost always the ones who make movies that clock in at more than two hours. Movies that are WAY. TOO. LONG. And this is one of those movies, so count Anthony and Joe Russo on my list of bad filmmakers. Any director who thinks his lack of editing skills (despite a gaggle of editors on a multi-milion-dollar pic) and conceit qualifies as art is a guy who doesn’t deserve or get my respect. In this case, there are two of ’em.
And despite the many, many, many special effects, lots of action, and a smorgasboard of fights and feuds, the movie was kind of a bore. It’s overstuffed with far too many cast members, too, as pretty much every Marvel Comics superhero is in this. There’s a lot to keep track of. And I felt it was kind of a repeat of the DC Comics failed idea to have superheroes fight each other. We already saw it very recently in the long bore, “Batman v. Superman” (read my review). This time it’s Iron Man versus Captain America, and each of their Taylor-Swift-style “girl squads” of superheroes also taking up the fight.
The fight between superheroes is probably the only cool scene in the movie. It’s fun to watch the various superheroes try to take each other out with their various powers. Kind of like an endless “Rock Paper Scissors” game. And endless it is . . . because it goes on a little long. The most interesting players in the fight are Spiderman and Antman, who seem to be able to outwit the others.
So, why are they fighting? Well, there are actually two fight scenes. The first is over a United Nations treaty to force the superheroes to go under U.N. hegemony. I really hated this aspect of the movie. The United Nations is presented as some respect-worthy, morally-superior organization when in reality it is neither. We are told that something like 117 nations have voted for the treaty, so therefore, it must be good. What they don’t tell you is that most of these countries at the U.N are banana republics, Islamic extremists, and other assorted lowlife, backward, totalitarian dictatorships who hate America and the West and consistently support the most outrageous things at worst and the most idiotic policies at best.
Instead, in this movie, not only does the U.N have the moral high ground of sorts, but it is headed by a very decent, high-minded, moral leader who looks and sounds exactly like lowlife corruptocrat crook Kofi Annan and his equally crooked son, Kojo Annan. They took bribes and engaged in extortion, as well as helping direct funds to Saddam Hussein and Iran in violation of U.N. and other international embargoes in place at the time. (By the way, Nick Annan, who claims to be Kofi Annan’s nephew, was recently appointed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent in Charge of Georgie and the Carolinas, despite being responsible for an illegal undercover operation in which the main information was murdered by Mexican drug cartel operatives.)
Tony Stark/Iron Man supports the U.N. Treaty to take control of the superheroes. Captain America doesn’t. And so, the two of them and their superhero minions fight the big fight mentioned herein. But then, there is yet another fight between Iron Man and “Cap” (he is called “Cap” throughout the movie because you aren’t allowed to call anything good by the name “America” anymore–at least in the world according to Hollywood, and, apparently, Disney). And that other fight is so much inside baseball that you need a refresher or tutorial from the previous Captain America movies to figure out what is going on and what it’s about. You can still see this movie on its own, but there are a lot of references that will be confusing to you if you haven’t seen or can’t remember the previous “Cap” installments.
In any event, there is so much going on here, and barely anything villainous. The few villains are brief co-stars: a German criminal posing as a government psychiatrist and the “winter soldier,” Cap’s friend, Bucky. Their missions and roles in this movie are confusing. And this movie is so overstuffed and has so much going on, that I just didn’t care.
A few other things of note:
* This movie has a new Spiderman, played by Tom Holland. And his Aunt May is now played by Marisa Tomei, who keeps looking younger and younger, thanks to artificial means I’m sure. She is the best-looking Aunt May yet, as she looks 41, not her actual 51. Aunt May is supposed to be an old, naive, dowdy lady, or so I thought.
* My jaw dropped when a character says Captain America is “off the reservation.” It’s funny how both Hillary Clinton and Hollywood liberals can get away with using this politically-incorrect phrase that makes American Indians cringe, but if Donald Trump had said it, all hell would break loose.
* I could’ve done without Anthony Mackie as “The Falcon,” accusing someone of trying to frame him and describing the person as “getting all Mark Fuhrman on my ass.” Um, Mark Fuhrman, a detective and witness at the O.J. Simpson trial, never planted evidence or framed anyone. He didn’t plant Simpson’s blood on the gloves that were found at the scene, nor did he plant the gloves themselves, despite what race-card player Johnny Cochran implied at the trial. But, sadly, the moronic masses who see this movie will believe that with this latest reference claiming there was some sort of frame-up of O.J. Simpson. Did we really need this “Black Lives Matter” BS in the movie? Nope.
* At one point, Cap says that the superheroes who were not born in America are not U.S. citizens so they will be deported. Newsflash: we aren’t deporting anyone. And here’s another tip: the illegal aliens in this country are for the most part, neither super nor heroes. They are criminals and lawbreakers, job-stealers, and welfare-and-entitlements parasites. Some are terrorists. Others are drunk drivers, rapists, and murderers. I have yet to see an illegal alien with a single superpower. Sorry.
* As a Russian speaker, I can tell you the Russian in this movie is a joke. Ditto for the in-and-out Eastern European accent of Elizabeth Olsen as “The Scarlet Witch.”
Like I said, this movie is kind of a mess, too long, and with too many characters and silly reasons for their contrived fights. That said, it’s better than the previous “Captain America” movie, “The Winter Soldier” (read my review). And the major superhero-versus-superhero civil war fight scene is entertaining if a little drawn out and contrived.
This isn’t a great movie. Not even close. It barely has a plot. And it’s not something I’d pay ten-bucks-plus to see. But at least “Cap” (again, very annoying that he’s not referred to as Captain AMERICA!) has the good sense to see what a joke the United Nations and its treaties are.
HALF A REAGAN
halfreagan
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Friday, May 24, 2013

Robert Downey Jr.: Short superstar shattering stereotypes

Here is an interesting article from http://isteve.blogspot.com about Hollywood men and their taller women costars. This follows this post  http://nicholasstixuncensored.blogspot.com  about the Knoxville Horor. In the meantime, you can read two very interesting books HERE.

Robert Downey Jr.: Short superstar shattering stereotypes


Robert Downey Jr. is currently the biggest box office star in the world, but he's definitely not the tallest. The good obsessives at CelebHeights peg him at 5'8". That sounds about right. Back when Downey was out of prison and out of work about a dozen years ago, I used to see him at our sons' baseball and soccer games at the local park, and he's not tall at all.*



These days, Hollywood casts short leading men with leading ladies who are taller than them (e.g., Gwyneth Paltrow with Downey, Nicole Kidman with Tom Cruise).





In general, leading men are not as disproportionately tall as during Golden Age Hollywood (John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper, and Cary Grant were all close to a half foot taller than the average American man of their time). Overall, I'd say that the decline in bias in Hollywood toward tall role models is a good thing.





Height used to be a pretty good marker of having enjoyed good nurture (e.g, had plenty to eat as a child). The Tory cabinet of prime minister Lord Salisbury in 1895 averaged six feet at a time when that was about a half foot taller than the average British man. From a female husband-hunting perspective, evidence that a man's family provided well for him when he was a child is evidence of a lot of good things. There's no downside to growing up so that you attain close to your genetic maximum of height.





Over time though, the systematic nutritional and health deficits that prevent a youth from a lower class background of attaining the full height of which his genes are capable have diminished. The NBA is full of guys who grew up on welfare. (Although in Downey's case, the kind of heavy drug use from very early age might have knocked an inch off his height.)





So, height is increasingly a measure less of nurture and more of nature. And, as somebody who is 6'4", the genetic advantages and disadvantages of being unusually tall seem like a mixed bag. If people weren't somewhat subjectively biased in favor of tall men like myself, I'd probably say the objective tradeoffs (clumsiness, head-banging, etc.) aren't really worth it. The human body isn't optimized for my height.





So, the continuing prejudice in favor of the tall seems increasingly pointless because it's now mostly a nature difference masquerading as a nurture difference, and there's no terribly good reason to want genes for additional height to be favored. Thus, the fact that Hollywood role models currently come in all heights seems, on the whole, like a good thing.





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* By the way, don't get the impression from this that Downey is some kind of regular guy. I said hello to him and he said hello back, very friendly, but the Charisma Gap was astounding. In a social setting that was blase about minor levels of celebrity -- e.g., the baseball team mom was an Emmy-nominated character actress -- Downey, in disgrace, was the cynosure of all eyes of team parents. Just lounging on the grass watching his kid take infield practice, he's magnetic.





You know those scenes in Iron Man where Tony Stark wakes up from a horrible dream? I suspect Downey's Method Acting technique for this is to tell himself: "Just imagine I had a nightmare that I had to move back to the Valley!"

Monday, May 6, 2013

Weekend Box Office: Iron Man 3, Arthur Newman

Here is an interesting article from http://www.debbieschlussel.com/ reviewing some of the movies that came out over the past weekend. This follows this post about some of the movies from last week and THIS POST about some movies that have been released over the past few years that you might have missed! This all follows this post about guidelines to chosing good movies to watch yourself!

Weekend Box Office: Iron Man 3, Arthur Newman


By Debbie Schlussel



Nothing all that great and new at the movies, this weekend:



* “Iron Man 3“: I did not like this movie and found it incredibly boring, especially for something with so much action and such a big budget. The movie was blah and didn’t have a tight script. A lot of it didn’t even make sense (such as how they can remove Tony Stark’s power source in this movie, when in the other “Iron Man” movies it was deemed impossible). It was a yawner with zero plot or story to speak of.



But if you can call it a plot, it’s the fantasy of every Ron Paulistinian/Muslim/9/11 Truther/anti-American conspiracy theorist. . . and it’s absolutely ridiculous. To wit, an evil defense contractor (played by Guy Pearce) wants to get lots of government defense contracts (and take revenge on Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.)). So, he invents a fake terrorist and pays an actor to play “The Mandarin,” who is a Bin Laden-esque character (and is played by Ben Kingsley) and pretend that he is behind the terrorist attacks and explosions around the world that the evil defense contractor is actually perpetrating. The Mandarin makes Bin-Laden-style videos threatening America and Iron Man. Tony Stark has to stop him and then finds out who is really behind the plot. Uh-huh, just like they say on the Arab Street: Bin Laden didn’t do 9/11. It was the evil CIA, Mossad, and defense contractors seeking to gin up biz. By the way, I understand from real comic book fans that The Mandarin is nothing like this and is a real villain in the comic books.



Also, there’s a woman from Tony’s past who is working for the defense contractor. Oh, and the “Not Even Most Beautiful Women in the Room,” Gwyneth Paltrow, makes her annoying re-entrance as Tony Stark’s girlfriend. Who cares? I didn’t.



The movie is long, boring, and a waste of time. Since it’s the first big blockbuster of the summer movie-going season, it doesn’t portend well for the future movie offerings in the next few months. This movie was crap. But I’m sure it’ll make gazillions anyway. There’s no accounting for bad taste in America.



Also, if you’re gonna make a movie about superheroes, which you know will be attended by lots of kids, why put in dirty dialogue, like, “I need to wet my bead [or beet? I couldn't tell], if ya know what I mean”? That’s uttered by Tony Stark to another character to tell him he’s about to have sex. Uggh. In a superhero movie? Really?



One last thing: Don’t bother wasting your time sitting through the ending credits, which are longer than ever, and seem to include the names of every single person living in India and every single Asian animator and special effects dude. The “stinger” at the end of the movie isn’t that great and not worth it. Just sayin’.



I didn’t like “Iron Man 2″ (read my review), but this makes that look like the epitome of awesomeness. The general rule lives on: sequels suck. The first “Iron Man” movie (read my review) is still the best one by far. This movie is standard “Suckerville 101 for the Masses.” Skip it, and you miss nothing.



I love superhero movies. But not this. Let the Iron Man fanboy hate mail begin.



TWO MARXES



* “Arthur Newman“: This indiefilm is showing mostly at arthouse theaters and wasn’t screened for Detroit-area movie critics. After seeing it on my own, I know why. It was long, slow, boring, and pointless. A recently-fired divorced father (Colin Firth) of a teen son fakes his own death, assumes a new identity, and escapes for a new life as a golf pro in Indiana. On his way there, he meets a homeless, drunken hooker (Emily Blunt) and tries to save her from herself. Soon, she joins him on his trip, and they break into other people’s houses for the purposes of putting on their clothes and having sex.



What’s the point of abandoning your son who needs you for the fantasy life you want but won’t end up having anyway? And breaking into people’s houses to have sex? Really? I hate how movies glorify this bad behavior as “finding yourself.” It ain’t. And I really didn’t like either of these characters. This flick was a time bandit kinda movie. It robbed me of ten bucks and nearly two hours of my life I’ll never get back. My life would be just as fine had I not wasted part of it on this movie.



I was intrigued by the description of this movie: faking your death to escape to a new life. I thought it would be a suspenseful thriller. But, sadly, this wasn’t that movie. Not even close.



TWO MARXES