Valentine’s Marathon: Before We Go (2014)

If you missed the announcement on My Weekly Adventures, I’ve decided to extend the Valentine’s Marathon throughout this month. For one, Twilight being the feature is already going to be watched throughout this month. With the blogathon overlapping Valentine’s Marathon, its slowing down my normal posts so to highlight all the fantastic entries we’ve gotten. I’ve honestly been slacking on watching romances and rom-coms in general so I do have a lot of stacked up to be watched so its a good time to work on that.

With that said, the next movie is one I’ve been looking forward to for quite a while and Chris Evans’ directorial debut called Before We Go. Its had pretty mixed reviews but I remain hopeful based on a few elements that I know about.

Let’s check out Before We Go!

Before We Go (2014)

Director: Chris Evans

Cast: Chris Evans, Alice Eve, Emma Fitzgerald, John Cullum, Mark Kassen

Two strangers stuck in Manhattan for the night grow into each other’s most trusted confidants when an evening of unexpected adventure forces them to confront their fears and take control of their lives. – IMDB

As I was looking through how other people felt about Before We Go, I don’t quite understand why it has such low ratings, particularly on Rotten Tomatoes (which isn’t surprising since I rarely feel that similar to what they think, I’m odd that way, I suppose). With that said, Before We Go has a lot of great elements going for it but it does stumble a little on everything. It does have a decent run time on its side and the mesmerizing New York landscape along with a one night run through town. It is nowhere near the fun and joy that Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist has since it is a more mature type of story and some might even wonder whether it would be considered a romance as its not exactly a romance between these two strangers so much as they are working through their feelings about a little bit of everything. I’m a sucker for one night, chance meetings sort of stories. I love the spontaneity and the discovery and the character development elements and it feels like a journey to learn about someone else as you see the two characters grow. I also love movies with a small cast so that it really gets a chance to zoom into the people element. So, Before We Go had a lot of elements that I liked before I even started watching it. It may not have entirely delivered as I would have liked however, it still has its charm.

Before We Go is quite a small film. It is set in one location, over one night and focuses on two people. Usually, these movies depend highly on the characters and how the actors take on the roles. In this case, I have a bit of pros and cons. For one, Chris Evans is fantastic as Nick. He is very enlightening as he works through his feelings and faces destiny and how his connection with Brooke (played by Alice Eve) grows throughout this spontaneous meeting as they hunt down her purse and he tries to at least be her hero in what he feels is a somewhat unsuccessful life. There is a ton to love about the character of Nick, both in the way he thinks and the way he acts. His script is really charming to watch and mixes in some lighter dialogue which truly does help a lot with making him a really great character to love. Playing opposite him is Alice Eve, who plays Brooke. I have to be honest that I wasn’t a huge fan of Brooke to begin with. She packed on these personality traits that didn’t quite click with me and it was what make the start of the movie feel a little bit contrived. I understand that the entire situation here is set to be contrived however, it felt much  more deliberate especially for her character. Over the course of Before We Go, Brooke does get quite the character development and turns out to be much more tolerable. In fact, she might seem lost and confused in where she stands in her love life and the decision she has to make at the beginning but in the end, Brooke seems to learn a little more. Perhaps, the better way is that, maybe this is where the realistic elements are where they do meet each other and there is some skepticism and some simple good deeds element but as the night goes on, their chemistry also builds up as their connection strengthens as they learn more about each other and talk to each other about their own little dilemmas that they need to resolve. And that really does work out here.

The one night adventure journey also has a decent pacing. On one hand, it all starts with trying to chase down Brooke’s stolen purse with Nick’s New Yorker schemes and knowledge. Then it turns into the hunt for a way to get her home. They end up with quite a few dicey situations: both bad and good calls from both the characters. They meet some friends and strangers who also end up lending them a hand here and there to better understand their own situation. The pacing here is nice because the script slices in these dilemma heavier moments to some funnier moments when they do have their many situations that occur. Perhaps one of the best parts of the film are when they sit down or walk around just the two of them as they talk. We learn about these characters just as they do and surprisingly, they feel fairly realistic. I mean, in a real life situation, probably  we won’t start spilling our relationship problems to a stranger completely, but as a movie, somehow it still manages to keep it real because they don’t just spill everything in the first scene and it takes time for their trust to set in.

There’s not a whole lot to talk about for Before We Go. Its a very simple movie, set in one night, one city, two people and a few supporting characters. There are adventures and situations and heart to heart chats. The movie relies heavily on its two main characters. Chris Evans, probably because he is also the director, grasps his role incredibly well. Alice Eve, on the other hand, left a little to desire in the beginning but does truly see the character grow throughout. There are some odd dialogue and some things that don’t quite feel right in the beginning but once you get past that part, the story and Nick and Brooke’s city adventure is thoughtful and fun. It might not be as deep or even thinking harder about it, work completely, but for myself, its a nice simple movie thats fun. I’m a sucker for these sorts of movies with these kinds of premise so maybe that is why I found it intriguing in its own way. Let me just say that the ending though..not sure how I feel about it. Before We Go definitely isn’t for everybody but if you are like me and like movies with this kind of premise (Already  Tomorrow in Hong Kong is another example), then you might want to check this one out.

Opinion Battles Round 12 – Favourite Chris Evans Role

Its time for Round 12 of Opinion Battles! We’re choosing our favorite Chris Evans role. While Captain America is quite iconic, I fell in love with Chris Evans and his charismatic and fun character in What’s Your Number!
Head over to Movie Reviews 101 and drop your vote! 🙂

Movie Reviews 101

Opinion Battles Round 12

Favourite Chris Evans Role

Chris Evans is your current Captain America, he has been involved in 7 comic book adaptations in his career to date but between these roles he has also taken his chances at a range of different genres. Today we will be picking our favourite roles but which one do you think it the best?

If you want to take part in later rounds on Opinion Battles the next round will be ALIEN BASED FILM so any film with an alien in a major involvement in the story. the entries will be needed by 26^th June 2016 and email your choices to moviereviews101@yahoo.co.uk.

Darren – Movie Reviews 101

Mace – Sunshine

Mace is on the crew of the Icarus II with the last of Earth resources to reignite the dying sun. Mace is the engineer who brings his military side opinions…

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Captain America: Civil War (2016)

In the last two weeks, I geeked out a little over catching up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies that I missed in 2015. Although, I don’t quite care for superhero movies much since its just everywhere, I did mention that Captain America’s franchise has been great.  I love the movies and the characters and the story.  It has great villains and it ties well into the Avengers universe that its worked so hard to build. With that said, I planned for an opening weekend viewing.  It was just my luck that one of my awesome friends messaged me to go see it.  Friday evening, great company and an anticipated movie: I’d say this sounds pretty sweet! 🙂 Oh yeah, and I think we disappointed the kids around us because we were Team Captain America…all the way!

Let’s check it out!

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Director: Anthony Russo & Joe Russo

Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Sebastian Stan, Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Tom Holland, Daniel Bruhl, William Hurt

Political interference in the Avengers’ activities causes a rift between former allies Captain America and Iron Man.-IMDB

 Its always important for me to talk about my lack of knowledge of the source material of the actual comics.  Its great that my friend actually is very knowledgeable about it and she fills me in quite a bit. Its probably also why she can criticize it a little more.  However, on the car ride over, she filled me in on the Civil War comics and a few things she was worried about happen.  For the record, most of it did happen but it turned out to be a pretty funny moment.  On that note, Captain America: Civil War was really great.  I had a lot of fun watching it.  There were some plot holes here and there but still, as far as superhero movies, Captain America has been three out of three and that’s pretty awesome!

Captain America: Civil War was absolutely entertaining.  There was some serious story but they interjected a good bit of effective humor.  The crew is definitely getting bigger and a lot of the Avengers are part of it, especially the crew from the end of Age of Ultron. We get Ant-Man and then of course, the secret weapon of the trailer, our new Spiderman. They both are kind of the fan boys of the whole deal and they are definitely there for comic relief more than anything.  It also turns the full fight in the trailer into possibly one of the most hilarious action scenes I’ve watched.  I’m going to say that right now. It was so funny that I laughed almost non-stop.  Its supposed to be serious, I guess? But Ant-Man and Spiderman and all the dialogue was great. I mean, on top of that, there was Captain America showing off his muscles reeling in a helicopter which made me laugh because it was a little cheesy but in a lovable way (I guess?) Let’s not forget that what took me by surprise was the completely unexpected new character, Black Panther or whatever you called that superhero.

I always like to address the villain for a second.  To be honest, this villain isn’t really a superhero or non-human or alien or whatever. What makes him effective is that he puts into question the role of The Avengers and just whether they are serving the purpose they are meant to: protecting the people and society, even if they kind of are what attracts the danger also.  But, this is what sets off the Accord and in many ways, its also what causes the break in the “bromance” (that existed in a vague way) between Iron Man and Captain America.  But our villain is a regular guy (kind of!) who has an agenda to cause the Avengers to self-destroy by turning on each other.  He’s kind of shady and looks normal but he also is smart and pretty much a schemer because he manages to manipulate many situations to his favor and that is what makes him a little scary to deal with.  In that way, he is probably  more effective than the other villains in many of the Marvel movies so far.

While Captain America: Civil War is just pure awesome fun and I really loved it and it made me laugh a lot and feel for the characters and if anything, the story of Captain America and Winter Soldier and all that stuff makes the most sense out of all of these Marvel superheroes and done in a good way and its credit goes to the directors.  There were some rather cringe-worthy parts and some random parts that felt a bit weird.  I mean, the whole recruitment bit of Spiderman was entertaining for its means but everyone had a consequence but Spiderman just kind of vanished? I think the new Spiderman is alright, there’s not enough to define whether he is a fitting cast yet but we had this discussion about how Peter Parker acquires his Spiderman skills seemingly younger and younger and his Aunt also is cast younger and younger. You know, little technical details, right? Nothing that is an issue, just a weird observation.  On top of that, I heard that Vision and Scarlet Witch is a thing in Civil War (in the drive to the theatres from my friend and what she didn’t want to happen so yeah…its a thing.  Guess this is spoiler-alert), and their scenes are super awkward.  Maybe a little cringe-worthy? I can’t figure how I feel about it yet.

Overall, Captain America: Civil War was an awesome addition to the Marvel franchise.  Its actually a refreshing and unexpected feeling.  While I’m a huge fan of the direction Captain America franchise has gone, there’s a point when a franchise loses their steam and a lot of times its when it hits the third movie but luckily, that didn’t happen in this case.  I had a lot of fun.  I liked the story and the villain was good.  There were some wildly entertaining action scenes along with some pretty intense ones as well.  The relationships between the characters and building it up was pretty good as well.  There’s still some questions about little details but the point of a superhero movie is to have fun in its blockbuster glory and Captain America: Civil War did exactly that and even managed to surpass my expectations.

Have you seen Captain America: Civil War? What are your thoughts?

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Captain America: Civil War is just around the corner, having its theatrical release on May 6. In the whole Marvel universe, Captain America’s movies has got me intrigued the most.  Its not saying I don’t enjoy the others also but you know, less so. I’m on the record since its one of my earlier reviews to have really liked The Avengers as many people are, but the one thing I didn’t agree on was Loki was a good villain. Even though I still had a lot of fun, somehow it is not enough that I’ve had the desire to see it again, oddly, now that I think about it.  Agree to disagree, right? You can read the review HERE, if you’d like.  Regardless, in preparation for Civil War, I decided to catch up with both the Marvel movies, I missed last year.  I’m guessing it’ll open up or set the stage of this movie and I think in the trailer I spot Antman, so I’m going to give that one a go soon also.

Let’s check this out! 🙂

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Director: Joss Whedon

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, James Spader, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elisabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle

When Tony Stark and Bruce Banner try to jump-start a dormant peacekeeping program called Ultron, things go horribly wrong and it’s up to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to stop the villainous Ultron from enacting his terrible plans.-IMDB

The market is completely saturated with superhero movies nowadays.  Its why I didn’t care enough to go see Avengers: Age of Ultron in theatres.  And why I didn’t see all those other ones including TV series.   Thinking about it, I took a nice one year break (most of 2015) from it.  Maybe there was like one or two older ones but I skipped most of the new stuff and its helped to maybe feel more into the mood of seeing it.  Plus, The Avengers did so well that I wasn’t sure how Age of Ultron would do. It turns out Avengers: Age of Ultron is better in some ways than The Avengers. Thinking back and reading the review I wrote for it, its missing a lot of components that I felt was lacking in the first one the more I thought about the movie and Age of Ultron remedied it quite a bit. I won’t go into talking about the story components quite so much because to me, superhero movies are pretty formulaic and simple.  They are entertainingly predictable and that’s okay because we want our superheroes to come out on top.  We’re there to watch them struggle in taking down those pesky villains who just keep on coming around and causing destruction, but no matter what, they usually manage to take it down even if it comes with a few consequences.

 

One of the first issues I had with The Avengers was that they were a six person team, except Black Widow and Hawkeye always got cast in the background a lot seeing as they never got their own movies like the other four.  Of course, Black Widow also did get a little more attention and she was then in Captain America: Winter Soldier so it made up for her lack of importance, in a way.  But Hawkeye almost always was neglected and to me, I liked his character the best. Its nice to see that in Age of Ultron his lack of importance is remarked on and remedied.  In Age of Ultron, he turns into something of a glue to the team and he knows that.  It elevates the loyalty and trust he has to this team that he literally fights life and death on any mission. We got to see the two sides of him: Hawkeye and Clint Barton.

What Marvel does do best is to create a superhero that is not only an action film with spectacular CGI effects and all those crazy larger than life action scenes focusing on Avengers as a team and fighting those villains and getting out of trouble.  The team dynamic is still there even under all their bantering and different views.  Age of Ultron also managed to give a better balance in the importance of the character and really show their weakness and the fears they have turning them maybe more human but also giving them their own stories.  Much to my expectation, the difference between what Tony Stark and Captain America start diverging and with Thor, who floats in and out of scenes links us to what the next Avengers will probably about and what all this means in that mid-credits cut scene.  However, despite the heavy bits of the movie when the plot of flowing and danger is surrounding them and all those action scenes, there are still lots of moments tucked in between to give the audience a little laugh.  That is the heart of Marvel: knowing when to let the audience just remember that this is a superhero movie and a fun one with a little humor.

Since we’re talking about the cast, its hard to not lead into the involvement of the new Avengers in the twin siblings that are known as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.  I personally like Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen quite a bit.  I think they both have the acting needed to do this and their careers will do well.  But then, I kind of like Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kick-Ass and its hard to be like, “oh, but he’s also Quicksilver? Now you’re confusing me.” But, I like them and these two characters a lot and well…let’s keep this spoiler-free even if the majority of you have seen it. On that note, I can’t wait to see Scarlet Witch in Civil War.

The last bit I want to touch on is the villain.  I’ve always had an issue with villains in superhero movies, except The Dark Knight trilogy. Like that dude in Thor: The Dark World comes to mind.  I can’t even remember his name because he was so non-existent.  I didn’t think Loki was a good villain even if some of you might think he was in The Avengers.  Now, we come to Ultron.  I mean, he’s AI, a robot and can pretty much infect the grid by implanting himself, at least thats what I understood.  I want to say Ultron was successful and I don’t know, villainous.  He is villainous but was he ever a villain that made you fear for the superheroes life even if you knew they would come out on top, even just slightly? He didn’t.  Ultron is entertaining and even a little goofy and c’mon, not even the character design was scary after he found that robot to fit himself into.  I mean, the first broken version in the trailers was a little bit more effective but this one, not one little bit. He reminded me of the villain in Robots, a fantastic animated film that you should see if you haven’t. But then, he wasn’t scary but I guess the excitement is in the vibranium making the planet fly and then the superheroes swooping in to save yet another nearly impossible day, right?

Before I enter into more spoiler territory, I’m going to end this write-up.  Overall, Avengers: Age of Ultron was fun and entertaining. That’s what I’d expect. The action and humor was good.  The story was cool.  The characters, old and new Avengers and the sequence of events were nicely developed.  Its nothing groundbreaking but I think I liked this one more just for Hawkeye having a bigger part and the addition of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. We spend a little more time learning about the characters that didn’t get their own movies pretty much and that is great. I liked it quite a bit. 🙂

Have you seen Avengers: Age of Ultron? What did you think of it?

Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014)

I just seemed to realize that ever since The Avengers, I haven’t missed one Marvel movie in theatres.  I’m pretty impressed with myself.  On Saturday night, on a pretty spontaneous conversation, after a chat about the hotness of Captain America and Thor, one of my girl friends and I decided to go see the late showing of Captain America: The Winter Soldier 🙂 Of course, I have no objections because I was meaning to see it and seeing as we’ve been so busy with the house, my boyfriend would have been too tired to go with me anyways.  Plus, my friend was awesome enough to share her coupon with me so I got to see it for free.  I really have to make it up to her some time. But you are all here to hear about Captain America 2 so lets check that out 🙂

Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo

Cast: Chris Evans, Anthony Mackie, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Redford, Sebastian Stan

Captain America Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is adapting to the modern day living while saving the world here and there.  On a mission to rescue hostages lead by the big bad Batroc (George St-Pierre), Captain America catches Natasha aka Black Widow (Scatlett Johansson) doing a secret mission for Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). He learns that there are secrets and secrets that may not have such pure intentions.  When Nick Fury is attacked and Senator Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) seems to be hatching another plan, he has to figure not only who to trust but how to save the world, especially when the new villain is the long time Soviet agent: The Winter Soldier.

When I finally caught up with the first round of movies leading up to The Avengers after I had seen The Avengers, I had them in a certain order.  Captain America always was the hero I was a bit skeptical about, but I also admire patriotic characters.  I’m not American and still, I appreciate seeing anywhere.  That makes Captain American an admirable character. Before I went to this movie, I watched one trailer and it was that elevator fight scene and thats all.  So, I didn’t know the story, I have no knowledge of the comics, so it was a clean slate.  My sole purpose was to enjoy a Marvel movie with no comparison of its source material.  Keep that in mind as you read my write-up on it 🙂

I’m just going straight out to say that I like Captain America: The Winter Solider a lot! I don’t know what people expect from Marvel movies but I’d say that they are hitting the target every time.  Sure, there are few snags here and there but nothing enough for me to even remember right now.  Chris Evans is just perfect as Captain America.  He has that classic look that just works because he is a man from the past.  His ways and his honor are pretty spot on.  The story hits a few levels of politics as it should and his interaction with everyone is just awesome! I’m starting to really like Captain America. Plus, this movie is packed with great performances by everyone.  I personally love Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.  There’s so many secrets about her and I always wanted Marvel to give her a movie but then, in this one, we start touching a bit more of her life here and there.  Plus, Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson have great chemistry together.

 

Now, we all know about the epicness of Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury and he keeps that up.  No one will ever replace him at doing a better job at it 🙂 And as for Alexander Pierce played by Robert Redford, I really don’t have much to say.  I was never a huge fan of Redford to begin with.  He did a decent job and it all worked well for me.  As for the main person I want to talk about is our new good guy, Anthony Mackie as The Falcon.  I like Anthony Mackie. I may not have been as big of a fan for Pain & Gain as some of you are but I did love Anthony Mackie in that. I haven’t seen him in much else other than that but although he isn’t really hot, he has this charm that just makes him so likeable.  As The Falcon, he has this energy that totally makes me root for him and connect  with his character.

We can never go through a Marvel movie or any action/comic book sort of movie without looking at its villain.  In this case, we kind of have a double villain.  I’m sure I wasn’t the only one to figure out who The Winter Soldier was before his face was revealed.  The Winter Soldier may be the bad guy but he’s kind of in the gray area.  His killing machine instincts and fast reflexes made him a worthy opponent to Captain America.  Plus, it brings out a bit of his past to surface just a little.  We’re all learning a little bit more about The Avengers as they all get their second movie and I really like where its all going.  Honestly, I liked the villain in this one.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier had not only a great cast with some outstanding performances but it was matched with a very impressive action thriller storyline that packed in a lot of fun and energy. It was nice to look at, the effects were great, the fight sequence was awesome.  A funny part was that Batroc up there, played by George St-Pierre (UFC Champion from Quebec), started talking in French and the theatre literally started laughing.  I just felt like I had to insert it somewhere.  Actually, the movie itself had some funny dialogue here and there to loosen up the mood a tad and it worked effectively. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the real deal and worthy of a visit to the theatre to get in all the visuals and action in full force 🙂 I think I might have enjoyed this one even more than the original.

Oh right, and if you haven’t seen this yet, do you need me to tell you to stay through all the credits? I wanted to punch the people who almost all got up to leave at the end of the movie.  I don’t get it.  I mean, its already late and they probably weren’t going to catch a bus or anything, whats another 5 minutes, right? Either way, it was still past midnight.  Plus, its a Marvel movie.  I got fooled once for The Avengers and I never do it again.  I gather all my patience, keep my butt glued to the seat and if I don’t want to read the credits, I turn around and talk to my friend until the scene happens 🙂

 

Have you seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier? What did you think? Will you be seeing it in the theatres?

 

What’s Your Number? (2011)

I needed a light-hearted rom-com to kick start the weekend.  What’s Your Number? was what I happened to pull off my shelf.  All my movies that I haven’t seen happen to be dramas or action and I just wasn’t in the mood for it.

Director: Mark Mylod

Cast: Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Ari Graynor, Chris Pratt

One day, Ally Darling (Anna Faris) reads an article that the national average for the number of men that women sleep with is 10.5.  Seeing that she has neared almost twice the national average with her number being 19 (and this means she has a possibility of never getting married), she proclaims that she will not sleep with any other men until she finds the right one to fill in the slot of 20.  With her sister, Daisy’s (Ari Graynor) wedding in the planning stages and discussions with some friends, she comes up with the idea that she should go back and take another look at her exes to see if she can spark something with them, as to not raise her number.  At the same time, she asks for the help of her neighbor, Colin (Chris Evans), who not only has tracking skills, but is not serious about romantic relationships.  The search for her exes, with Colin’s help, turns out to be a lot more than she expected.

This is a movie that falls in the enjoyable level for me.  Its somewhat of a guilty pleasure not only because its a romantic comedy (and an R-rated one at that) but because Chris Evans is amazing eye candy.  He is 90% naked or in his boxer briefs almost in all the shots.  And when he isn’t naked, he is extremely dreamy and charming to look at.  I’m going to admit right away that he makes this chick flick better than it actually is. He gives some nice little moments and some funny ones and sometimes, when they capture his charming looks on screen it just sweeps me  away.

Searching for the exes

On the other hand, I’m not a huge fan of Anna Faris.  From what I’ve heard, she got popular from the Scary Movie franchise.   I have watched none of them and do not intend to ever do it.  Feel free to tell me if thats true.  However, I have seen her in House Bunny.  She seems to like to engage herself in roles where she gets mildly revealing and/or naked.  I think in an interview, they called her daring.  She has some cute moments here and there in this flick however, she doesn’t engage me into the movie mostly because of the way she talks.  I think its just her voice bothers me and sometimes, she has forced smiles and expressions.  I guess its just her acting isn’t very natural to me.  Not exactly sure how to describe it, but then at the same time, she has an awkwardness that can sometimes be cute and humorous.

Cute chemistry 🙂

As far as chemistry goes between Anna Faris’s Ally and Chris Evans’s Colin, there was some here and there.  One of my favorite scenes was this basketball faceoff scene.  That part was awesome.  Well, and I can’t decide if its Chris Evans or the chemistry that they had but they had some hot moments when they were on-screen together. Like the one above this paragraph…

Another reason for guys to watch this, if you want to see her naked…

I’ve never sat around and compared my “number” with anyone nor have I ever wanted to share that even to start with.  It seems a private matter, so I’m not exactly sure if that’s such an impact on a relationship, but if you do think it important, then I’m sure this flick could have some appeal.  It does have some silly and comedic moments.  I had a few laughs and its mostly mocking the flashbacks of her past boyfriends.  Its cheap humor though, nothing witty about what they do with it and sometimes, it was plain strange.

What’s Your Number? is an enjoyable romantic comedy.  Some cute moments, some humor and lots of sexy Chris Evans with his beautiful eyes to look at.  That’s enough for me and fitted into my Friday movie night mood.  Sometimes, its all about fulfilling my guilty pleasures 🙂

Captain America:The First Avenger (2011)

A lot of you probably were not following when I posted up the Avengers review (like HERE), I went to that movie with practically no knowledge of anyone or anything except for the movie posters.  I didn’t even watch any trailers of the 5 movies that built up to it, but the effort was there when I bought Ironman 1 & 2 and Thor.  But, it was my busy phase (when am I not?) so I never actually watched them.  The Avengers was awesome enough that I spent the next 2 days watching these movies to catch up.  Unfortunately Captain America was still in the super expensive (in my budget) zone so for Boxing Day I finally snatched it up and after 2 months finally managed to watch it.

Director: Joe Johnston

Cast: Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Stanley Tucci, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones

Back in the war days, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a small weak man who is patriotic and wants to join the army to protect his country.  However, because of his long list of diseases and small size, he was rejected over and over again. His friend, Bucky (Sebastian Stan) had gotten into the 107th brigade and was about to go off to war.  In the midst of partying before Bucky leaves, he sees another recruitment sign and he tries again with another fake name and city.  This time he gets recruited by Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who had other intentions for him and he in turn volunteers to be part of his experimental program.  At training in the camp, he meets Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), who one doubts Erskine’s choice and the other remains hopeful for using him as the subject  to turn him into a superhuman (super soldier?).  After Rogers turns into the superhuman successfully, he becomes Captain America.  At first, he loses his initial goals but eventually, with a little help he turns into the patriotic selfless superhero who with the help of Bucky, Peggy and a crew of good men go off to stop Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), also called Red Skull, who leads the Hydra organization.

I’ve said it once with Avengers and again with Amazing Spiderman review (HERE), that I’m really not very familiar with any of the comic book superheroes, be it Marvel or DC.  Nothing, nada! You give me Tintin (HERE), I’ll know a bit more because thats just how my childhood was.  So I won’t go and comment on the similarities but rather as a movie itself, the entertainment I got out of it.  Captain America was really gripping at some moments but also embedded some funny and/or lighter  moments from Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan and a few other supporting actors. It was just so fun to watch with the action and the whole setup and scenes.

The concept of making the straight out good guy and turning him into a superhuman to fulfill his goals in life and protecting his country is not new but for Captain America, I was convinced by Chris Evans that he genuinely wanted the world to be at peace and for good to happen for everyone.  The best example would be when he was recruited, Stanley Tucci’s character, Dr. Erskine asked him a question if he wanted to kill Nazis and his answer shows his simple and kind heart when he says “I don’t want to kill anyone. I don’t like bullies.  I don’t care where they’re from.” I think thats one of the most important parts of a super hero movie is to be convinced that this guy defending everyone is really out there some way or another to help and has that good heart exposed or hidden, whichever works for him (or her). Chris Evans is an awesome Captain America. Another quote that was said by Erskine about his choice says it all: “That is why you were chosen.  Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, may lose respect for that power.  But a weak man, knows the value of strength and knows compassion.”

So to match a great good guy, we need to have an evil villain, and who can beat Hugo Weaving at it. Okay, maybe you will have a few on your mind but lets just follow my flow here.  Hugo Weaving pretty much can be declared an expert in being a bad guy.  As Red Skull, he is just so horribly mean and has no compassion at all.  He’s like a robot that just wants to kill and take over the world with his minions.  This guy just sends off all the bad vibes a villain could possibly have.  I was convinced and he actually made me feel a sense of danger with the action sequences and the schemes. Although his face wasn’t that menacing but lets say it wasn’t very pretty either so it worked enough to convince me that he was indeed evil villain.

 

They have a great cast here. I love Dominic Cooper who is an inventor or scientist called Stark who aids Erskine with his experimental program.  Tommy Lee Jones was awesome and I’m not very familiar with Sebastian Stan (I think I saw him in another movie) and he was pretty awesome as well.  In general, I really enjoyed the supporting cast. The group of men they chose to be Captain America’s team to invade Red Skull’s plants was so fun, comedic and brave.

All in all, Captain America is one of the better of the 5 movies to Avengers.  I think Ironman still rates a bit higher than this one.  However, now that I know who Captain America is.  He is one hell of a superhero.  I can’t wait to see some more of him and Chris Evans! 🙂

What is your favorite of the 5 movies that lead up to The Avengers?

The Avengers (2012)

Last Saturday I went to go see The Avengers with a group of friends.  I don’t know much about superheroes other than by names.  I have no idea what their individual stories were and I even planned to watch a few superhero movies such as Ironman 1&2 and Thor (since I own it but hadn’t found time to watch it yet).  As usual, I ended up not having the time to do so but still I went, a bit of worry that I’d be lost.  Fortunately that did not happen and I found it amazing.

There has already been many reviews on The Avengers and many people probably already have a general idea of the plot.  I think that is part of the appeal of superhero productions.  The plot is always very simple but with some twists here and there.  There is a villain (or a group of them), some scheme goes down and the superhero(s) come in and save the day.  Straight forward!  There is a lot of fighting, a lot of explosions and a enjoyable adventure to watch.

With all the rapid developments in technology, the films that use a great amount of computer graphics are the steal a lot of our attention and this is especially applicable to superhero movies. The last few days, I’ve been watching Ironman 1&2 as a complement to The Avengers hype going on and just looking at the development of Ironman gear.  Not only in the gear, the costumes, the weapons, but especially Loki’s army was just so…WOW! (as lack of a better word).  I found the movie compelling at parts where we felt like we were in it and we wanted to do something, we felt like we were part of it.  I think that feature was worth a whole lot of applause (which the audience in my theatre gave at certain parts: cheering and clapping at certain parts).

Aside from that, they used really good actors.  The actors each had already been seen before in their current roles (except for one, The Hulk) and had already gained general acceptance of their portrayal. Ironman (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johannson), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) all brought their A-game to this production.  In the aftermath, I watched both the Ironman and Thor to gain better perspective on what led up to this and why some characters did or said certain things.  My issue at the end of the movie was not with the Avengers themselves but rather with the villain, Loki (Tom Hiddleston).  I felt that he was not convincing as a villain and that some of his actions wasn’t justified, maybe it was also because to me, he did not feel “evil” enough.  I have changed perspective on that though.  I watched Thor shortly after and realized that his character was built to act the way he did and many of his actions did make sense afterwards.  The cast was booming as usual, with the Avengers led by the character, Nick Fury (Samual L Jackson).  I can never expect a bad movie from Samuel L. Jackson (even Snakes on a Plane didn’t suck because of him).

So to wrap this blog up (since its taken me a few days already), cast was fantastic, technology (computer graphics, etc) was innovative.  The movie itself was compelling.  It definitely was an amazing adventure to go take part in: I laughed at parts, I was startled, I cheered and clapped.

It was a great way to start off the summer blockbusters! Lets hope that the rest of the summer will be as awesome!