Brian's Thoughts on Movies

Spoilers for the series and films discussed below. Spider Man: Far From Home (2019) The second Spider Man film in my opinion was released a year too soon.  Spider Man was blipped in Avengers: Infinity War and brought back in Avengers: Endgame, the latter of which was only released two months before Far From Home.  Therefore the first trailer was out long before Endgame, showing that Spider Man somehow has come back and notably did not feature Tony Stark, which hinted at his fate in  Endgame.  Marvel tried to cover this a little by having Tom Holland introduce a second trailer but insisting that audiences see Endgame first.   The other issue is Far From Home is set several months after Endgame in which the characters (most of whom were blipped) have begun to process it but seeing it so soon afterwards feels awkward.  It would play a little better with some distance between it and Endgame.  None of this is the fault of the film, which is very well m...

 By now it should no longer be noteworthy when a big title from the 1980s is revived with some of the current cast.  Star Wars, Rocky, Rambo, Indiana Jones and Ghostbusters are all active again.  The notable thing with Top Gun is there was only one.  Star Tom Cruise resisted big paychecks to make Top Gun sequels because he wanted to play a lot of different roles.  Over the years every now and then I would hear rumors of another Top Gun film.  After Mission Impossible : Ghost Protocol was released and revived Cruise's career word came out that a Top Gun was being developed until the original director Tony Scott committed suicide.   I was saddened by Scott's death as the circumstances were obviously extremely painful for Scott's friends and family.  As a film fan Scott had become a very reliable director of entertaining films with a visual flourish.  Except for Crimon Tide Scott's films were nowhere near as artistically inclined as his bro...

 I still am somewhat amazed that the creators of Cobra Kai Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg have taken the Karate Kid property, which overstayed its welcome by two films, and  reinvented the franchise title by turning it into a half hour TV action comedy series.  The films had some humor but would never have been placed on the comedy shelf at a video store.  Even more impressive is that this comic tone is done without using Pat Morita's Mr. Myagi who passed away in 2005.  Myagi was both the soul of the films and the funniest character.  The choice to make the bully Johnny Lawrence both more poignant and more comic transposed against Daniel's attempt to live up Myagi's legacy becomes the gift that keeps on giving. Spoilers below: The tone is a little reminiscent of the show Desperate Housewives which would often take a serious moment and stick a comic punch at the end of it.  An example would be an early episode of Season 4 in which Danie...

 In previous entries I have done in depth reviews of Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice .  Since then I have seen some, though not all of the subsequent DCEU films but want to present some quick thoughts here.  If the MCU did not exist, these films might have a different tone but since the MCU is out there and each film has its own voice but feels part of a connected universe the DCEU can't help but be influenced by it even if it is to move away from it.  DC has some very rich and while overall I do not agree with Zach Snyder's dark interpretation of them, particularly Superman, he has made some good casting choices.  Note, I have not seen all of the films but here I offer some brief remarks on the ones I have.  Also, while I saw Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman in the cinema of the ones below I have only Wonder Woman 1984 on the big screen. Spoilers below: Suicide Squad (2016) Full disclosure, I watched a half hour of this film on a p...

Sir Ridley Scott is, as of this writing, 84 years old, and he released two big productions within about six weeks of each other in 2021, The Last Duel and House of Gucci.  A few years ago I wrote about how Scott recast J.R. Getty about a month before the release of All The Money in the World and reshot all the scenes that were originally filmed with Kevin Spacey with his replacement, Christopher Plummer.  In this case The Last Duel was filmed partially before the pandemic and then picked up later in 2020.  House of Gucci was made entirely in 2021 but it still is impressive to make big budget period films back to back and be able to release them so close together. I think part of Scott's proficiency is that like, his fellow elderly directors like Steven Spielberg and Client Eastwood, Scott continually works with a lot of the same crew so he saves time on hiring and has developed a shorthand.  Both Last Duel and House of Gucci were photographed by Darius Wolski, had th...

  The Rocky movies are one of the longest lasting series in movie history and possibly the longest franchise with a sports theme at its center.  The basic concept, that any person who is struggling can get an opportunity to make the most of themselves, resonates with audiences and their investment in the character and his loved ones has kept the franchise going. Sylvester Stallone has had three other franchise characters by my count (Rambo, Escape Plan, and Expendables) but in the U.S. at least Rocky is the one people truly embrace as he embodies the best of us.  Rocky is a streetwise character with a good heart who is nice to everyone.  As Rocky Stallone goes sometimes goes to depths as an actor that he often stays away from in other roles.  As the writer on the series Stallone has used Rocky to comment on life and as a way to relate his experiences.  I've enjoyed Rocky so much that I often refuse to dump on Stallone when one of his other films do not work...

 In 2009 Paramount relaunched the Star Trek movie series with director JJ Abrams at the helm.  Abrams had created a terrific Mission Impossible film for Paramount in 2006 and been a showrunner on Lost and Alias which had loyal viewers.  Abrams agreed with the condition that he could use the characters from the original series.  The opening sequence of the first film has an event that changes the timeline from the date of James Kirk's birth which freed Abrams and his writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman to reference situations from the old TV show and movies without being beholden to them.   Abrams also has the job of recasting the iconic characters.  He wisely avoided trying to replicate the look of the original cast and instead selected mostly unknown performers who could give their own interpretations of the characters.  Chris Pine looks more like a young Harrison Ford than William Shatner but this allows us to see Kirk without picturing Shatn...