Movie - "Captain America: The First Avenger" (2011) - Not as blatantly, ridiculously dumb as "Thor," but -- from start-to-finish -- completely synthetic and artificial.
As a fan of "The Rocketeer" I was excited that "Cap" would have the same director, but Joe Johnson brings along absolutely none of the spontaneity, breakneck fun or lurking danger of the former film. "Cap" is "The Rocketeer" completely drained of its essence.
The structure is uncertain, the pacing sloppy, the adventures dull, the logic constantly questionable. This is a movie just going through the motions, but at the same time it feels like a four-hour film trimmed down to two.
Motivations are unclear, questions go unanswered, introductions are set up and then never made. For example: Why have The Howling Commandos appear at all if you're not going to identify them as a unit?
Probably the biggest missed opportunity is the handling of Steve Rogers, who -- thanks to a super-serum and some "Vita-Ray" exposure -- goes from 96 pound F-4 weakling to a strapping, totally cut uber-soldier. His "before" version is whiny, passive aggressive and seems a bit of a masochist (taking brutal beatings from bullies, diving onto runaway grenades); his "after" version never really seems the least bit disoriented, conflicted or even very excited by his transformation. And most importantly we never learn exactly why Rogers was so gung ho to fight in the first place, even though there are countless opportunities for a quick monologue that might explain his passion.
In an effort to seem important, "Captain America" clutters itself with World War II-era iconography, but its "chase-fight-chase-fight-repeat" train of thought comes from a cut-rate videogame.
TV - "Mad Men" - Season 2, Episode 6 - "Maidenform"
TV - "True Blood" - Season 4, Episode 1 - "She's Not There"
Friday, July 29
Podcast - "Doug Loves Movies" - Pat Francis, Gary Lucy and Matt Belknap
Thursday, July 28
TV - "Mad Men" - Season 2, Episode 5 - "The New Girl"
TV - "Louie" - Season 2, Episode 6 - "Subway/Pamela" - After last week's intentionally claustrophobic episode, the show comes back with two of the series' better shorts.
TV - "Mad Men" - Season 2, Episode 4 - "Three Sundays"
Podcast - "Who Charted?" - Bob Odenkirk
Wednesday, July 27
TV - "The Larry Sanders Show" - Season 3, Episodes 2 & 3 - "You're Having My Baby" and "Would You Do Me A Favor?"
Podcast - "How Did This Get Made?" - "The Back-Up Plan" - Standard comment: "In that water birth scene, too, while it was funny, I was disturbed by the fact that that woman at one point leaned over, as if to position her ass like a cannon, and shoot the baby out ... it looked like she was pooping out that baby."
Podcast - "WTF with Marc Maron" - "Rob Riggle" - The over-enthusiastic cop from "The Hangover"/junior executive from "Step Brothers" was in the Marines and helped clean up Ground Zero for a month after 9/11. Who knew?
Tuesday, July 26
Podcast - "WTF with Marc Maron" - "Demetri Martin"
Podcast - "The Smartest Man in the World" - "Domes"
Monday, July 25
Movie - "Step Up 3" (2010) - Seriously. Part old school musical (the chummy heroes are literally dancing to save their home) and part martial arts feud (the villains demand dance satisfaction). Also part lethally bad and part hysterically unintentionally funny. The dance segments, however, are eye-boggling and worth watching on their own. They really make me wish I'd covered my face and snuck off to see this on the big screen, in 3D. Seriously.
It's like the girl twin of "Drumline."
Sunday, July 24
TV - "Breaking Bad" - Season 4, Episode 2 - "Thirty-Eight Snub"
Movie - "The Harmony Game" (2010)
TV - "Curb Your Enthusiasm" - Season 8, Episode 3 - "Palestinian Chicken" - The first two were middling, but this episode -- in terms of hilarity -- is on the level of prime "Arrested Development."
0 comments:
Post a Comment