Last Movie you Watched?

I didn't really think that last line was meant to be a joke. At least not with that poignant music playing over it.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

I didn't really think that last line was meant to be a joke. At least not with that poignant music playing over it.

Still, the question of "What happened to Peggy" looms over the whole ending to me.

Just realized there's shit after the credits. Lemme go pop the Blu back in. I wanna see the end title again anyway. SUPERB STUFF that.

I'm back. Damn Marvel.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

A simpler plot in the second half would really help his movie. I can't see a sequel being set within the movie. That just wouldn't work at all..

That's apparently the plan after THE AVENGERS, but it will hard to sell when you know throughout the movie that "everything will be alright, he has to get frozen later anyway" looming.

I see the "I had a date" line as something more bittersweet. Apparently that ending in 2010s New York was just gonna be another Marvel post-credit scene, so before the credits it would have originally ended with everyone thinking he's dead, "he was a hero", and the shot of the kids playing Captain America on the street (kind of like THE ROCKETEER showing kids play the title hero).

Yeah, MARVEL screwed this one up. I really can't see how you could fit another movie in here. Is Red Skull coming back? But he's just gonna be doing the same plan, but he's not realy to blow up the whole world yet?

Good Lord.

While Marvel's plan is ambitious and in some ways impressive, due to the nature of the thing there are effectively no stakes in any of these films, which will likely apply to The Avengers as well.

It's entirely possible for them to do Captain America "mid-quels", but knowing what happens to him later on might deaden the experience. I mean, you pretty much know that Indiana Jones or James Bond aren't going to die when you watch one of those films, but there isn't necessarily that knowledge that "Oh, well, he'll be OK because this happens afterwards," so you wind up convincing yourself that the danger is real.

In terms of danger, I think that's one thing they pretty successfully brought back in both CR and QOS.

But the thought of a "midquel" (Oh great, another kind of quel) set within CA is absurd to me.

Hey, MARVEL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQbpx5Be5rI#t=1m25s

Well, we should probably be thankful that we got a WWII film at all. There's always the possibility they could have treated the war as a flashback or some such, and just made a modern-day CA film straight from the get-go.

Despite the flaws I enjoy CA a lot. It has enough good to outweigh the weak aspects. Will THE AVENGERS address Steve Rogers' difficulty coping with waking up 70 years later? Probably, but I worry it might be understated. The guy lost the life he knew, it's a pretty big deal.

42nd Street (1933) A great musical with Busby Berkely and Ruby Keeler, don't miss the role of Anytime Annie by Ginger Rogers.

Wife vs Secretary (1936) Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and Myrna Loy, anyting with Miss Loy in it is well worth the effort.

A Yank at Eton (1942) Mickey Rooney, an all American goes to Eton with all the problems that brings him. The movie has it moments.

Jason Statham - Blitz

Well I enjoyed it. Even if I did spend all the film saying, "Where have I seen him before???" (psycho - Shanghai Knights; gay cop - Hot Fuzz). It's sort of Dirty Harry meets Hot Fuzz and Tango and Cash. Sort of.

None of the big fight scenes I'd expect from Statham, as per Transporter films. A nice few homages to Dirty Harry (running through a brothel), and the 'parkour' is just down and dirty chase on foot through everything :D The end was predictable; there were some plot holes you could drive a double decker through, but - meh - it was fun.

The Adventures of Tintin (2011) By STeven Spielberg and it was an excellent movie, well worth my time. It is fairly truthfull to the character and brougth in an excellent movie, the 3D was good too. The one critical note would be, the movie was over way too fast.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

The first act is mostly very good, but the whole plot with Red Skull wanting to bomb the whole world just doesn't dominate like I think it maybe should have.

I liked CAP. AMERICA a lot more than you did, but yeah, Red Skull and his plot is certainly the weak point of the film. Well, that and the lame action sequences. But I'll take it over practically every Marvel-brand superhero flick to date, with the exception of X2 (which is the only Marvel flick to have a decent script).

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Third thing is that the film is a slave (at least to a point) to a film that will porbably be a pile of shit: THE AVENGERS.

I've heard this criticism before, but I don't really think THE AVENGERS dominates the film all that much. The ending sets up THE AVENGERS, but the whole film isn't designed to point in that direction. And I dug the ending, largely because of how it played off of the "Chimes of Big Ben" episode of THE PRISONER.

Re: Marvel flicks. Ang Lee's HULK is pretty damn good, in my book. Powerful score too from Danny Elfman (better than his BATMAN and SPIDERMAN stuff IMHO).

Yeah, Tux, I want to know why you're so negative about AVENGERS -- it's Whedon writing and directing after all, and he's a big AVENGERS fan anyways (wrote the introduction to the hardcover collection of the comics back in like 2004 or something).

"Man out of Time" has been Captain America's predominate character trait since the 1960s. Him in WWII fighting Nazis was only the status quo when WWII was actually on.

I think Marvel's plan is to either do modern day Cap movies as sequels, or to do stories set essentially during that montage sequence in the first film where it was implied Cap and the Commandos went around doing crazy missions for a bunch of years.

As for Red Skull, with the Cosmic Cube being an Asgardian relic (see: Thor) and the way his "death" was depicted, I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't transported to Asgard and ends up teaming up with Loki (villain from Thor) in some way in AVENGERS.

There's a really touching scene from one of the comics where after being unfrozen Cap goes to see his WWII era sweetheart and she's become very old and is dying, and as I know that storyline is one of Whedon's favourites I'm hoping a similar moment is included.

Joss Whedon's the problem, and has always been the problem. He turns cinema into third rate television.

Yes, but Tux generally LIKES Whedon, so I'm wondering why he's convinced of AVENGERS shityness.

I know YOU'LL hate it Sharky, because it's an American movie post 1976.

Didn't I just praise HULK?

RE: HULK, I'm not sure that HULK is actually good, per se, but it is fascinating in ways that none of the other Marvel superhero flicks manage to be. A noble failure, perhaps?

RE: THE AVENGERS, I'm not holding my breath. But, like Sharky, I don't like Whedon.

The Expendables
like most Stallone vehicles it's a bit half baked and there is as much bad as good, but overall I'll give it a pass
there's no back story as such, these guys just exist, you've seen this all this before, so they don't feel any need to explain the details of this variation
they are mostly derivative of the A team in their cartoonish nature and commando-ish missions
Stallone's face looks old and lumpy, but the body still seems in decent shape and beard helps
Arnie and Bruce make a nice uncredited cameo appearance, but Jason Statham is the real number two guy in the Expendable pecking order
Jet Li is number 3, being the other "still on the big screen" star, and then we have straight to DVD Dolf, followed by a gaggle of ex professional wrestlers like Stone Cold, with the rejuvenated Mickey Rourke taking the cool tail gunner spot on the credits
the story is wafer thin, but Eric Roberts makes a serviceable villain with Stone Cold as his enforcer, although he doesn't have much to do, however for me the whole Generalissimo character is problematic
politically the film seems to want to blame everything on Roberts rogue American agent and El Supremo is somehow meant to arouse our sympathy as having been led astray by the evil gringos (yeah right)
basically there is no room for such subtle distinctions in this genre, he should be bad to the bone just like Roberts and Stone Cold
either that or get a much better script
also how Dolf gets forgiven after he changes sides and leads an all out assault to try and kill Stallone and Li is beyond any logic
misogynists will find plenty to cheer about here, as Stallone expounds his "you can only trust your mates and women are only good for one thing", which is reinforced by the unfaithful behaviour of Stathams girlfriend (childlike inconstant things, they just can't help themselves) and his own slight distain as he declines to kiss the Generals daughter at the end
as for the action itself, it's a bit of a frustrating mix, much of it is incoherent and more reminiscent of late 90s post 2000 action movies than the golden age 80s to which it is supposed to be a throwback
but then suddenly there will be a brief sequence that is spot on
and there is some ham fisted humorous banter which makes it more fun than Rambo 4 anyways

I eat Browncoats for breakfast.

Sharky wrote:

Didn't I just praise HULK?

Chinese director. ;)

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Sharky wrote:

Didn't I just praise HULK?

Chinese director. ;)

THE CHINAMAN IS NOT THE ISSUE!

It's was produced by UNIVERSAL.