Brian's Thoughts on Movies

 "You are a good man with a good heart, and it is hard for a good man to be king"  King T'Chaka to King T'Challa in Black Panther. I have been writing about the Marvel films in groups though a couple of weeks ago I decided to do Black Panther as a solo entry film because I was so impressed with it that I felt it was worthy of a deeper look.   The tragic and unexpected passing of star Chadwick Boseman pushed me to finish it and get it out to all of you. I had an odd journey to this film.   When I first saw Civil War I was impressed by T’Challa’s debut and admired the journey the character went through from seeking revenge to showing empathy to his father’s killer.   However Black Panther was released a few months after Thor Ragnarok.  While I made an effort to see Ragnorak in the theatre feeling afterwards that I could have waited for that film to come to Redbox, which is what I had been doing for the most part since Civil War.   When the trailer for ...

 “Just what do you think you’re doing Dave?” As always, spoilers abound. I just showed Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey to my kids who lately have been into Star Wars and Marvel films.   I was curious how they would respond since they are growing up nowadays in which kids have shorter attention spans.   2001 was released in 1968 a time in which a film with slow scenes was more accepted (think Lawrence of Arabia, The Sound of Music, West Side Story).   Avengers Endgame is about half an hour longer than 2001 but is also quickly paced so the time is not felt.   2001 begins with a 20 minute sequence with apes to with no dialogue followed by a 10 minute space docking scene.   I’ve seen it twice before and recorded it a couple of years ago but it has sat on my DVR until I felt in the mood to try it out.   I was truly curious to see how the young generation would react to it. Finally I just put the film on in front of my kids and did not make them ...

Here is are my reviews for the third group of Marvel films.  Note there are third act spoilers here: Captain America: Civil War (2016) The third Captain America solo film is anything but.   The Avengers team up films generally offer the greatest spectacle with smaller arcs for the main characters.   The solo films usually focus on one hero’s exploits and any other players are within that hero’s group.   Winter Solider directors Anthony and Joe Russo return to tell a compelling story about Steve Rogers that tests his values but in a way that impacts nearly the entire Avengers unit.   Civil War retroactively makes Age of Ultron a better film by focusing on the aftermath of the damage of the third of that film.   Tony, already in an unhappy state due to a temporary separation from Pepper Potts (who has not been seen since Iron Man 3), perhaps in part due to the guilt from creating Ultron, is confronted by a mother of a young man who had been kill...

Spoilers for all three Godfather films below: Recently I expressed a strong love for Godfather Part II when I watched it at a Fathom Events screening.   The viewing caused me to have another look at its sequel.   Interestingly my first instinct after re-watching Part II was a curiosity as to why it was even made as Part II ties up the story.   The Corleone Family wins the war with Hyman Roth but largely at the expense of Michael Corleone’s family, and his soul, for committing fratricide.   The final shot of Michael all alone and looking empty is fitting.   Where could the story go from there? After re-watching the film I put it on with director Francis Ford Coppola’s commentary and had it on in snippets in the background over the course of a couple of days while doing other things.   Coppola is fascinating when providing his insights.   Two of them really stuck out at me. 1)       Coppola now considers the series to b...

           The quarantine has given me the opportunity to show the Star Trek movies to my kids.  Although I had seen most of the movies, it’s been over 20 years since I’ve seen anything but the most recent series.  Once you start watching Star Trek you become aware of how much content is out there with all the different series.  Of the shows, I have seen two or three episodes of the original series.  I have seen perhaps a dozen episodes of The Next Generation, including the Best of Both Worlds, which sets up Star Trek First Contact.  I have seen two episodes of Deep Space Nine and one or two of Voyager.    Spoilers below: Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) I had not seen this film and due to its dull reputation when starting the series with my kids I did not want to start with it since I knew they might not stay engaged. Therefore I started with Space Seed of the original series and then went straight to ...