Ant-Man (2015)

Now we know its time for Captain America Civil War, its coming up this weekend and I’m stoked! Next up on the watch list is Ant-Man.  I’m not going to lie that I like Paul Rudd but I’ve never really seen anything that has wowed me yet. Ant-Man has a good enough trailer but nothing that screamed for me to go see it especially since it was released during Fantasia Festival time so I was busy going to see all those lovely indie films that I didn’t catch this one.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

Ant-Man (2015)

Director: Peyton Reed

Cast: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Abby Ryder Fortson, Michael Pena

Armed with a super-suit with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, cat burglar Scott Lang must embrace his inner hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.-IMDB

Ant-Man is an interesting addition to the Marvel universe.  For one, I had no idea what to expect since I don’t even know what Ant-Man’s story is to start with.  After watching Avengers: Age of Ultron and having movies for the bigger names in the universe like Ironman and Captain America and Thor, etc., its nice to see the little guys get their own movie.  I mean, Daredevil and Jessica Jones and that universe being created on Netflix series is fantastic for those characters because there is more story and character to build up.  Ant-Man doesn’t really have a lot of skills and I’m going to guess that its hard to make a lot more out of his character although I wouldn’t mind seeing more.  Ant-Man in general is a different experience where its pretty toned down.  There are pretty much two action scenes which makes for a more quiet movie focused on how Ant-Man came to be.  And that’s work well enough to slow things down and build on what the Pym Particle is and what this is all about: how Ant-Man’s suit and science works.  In the heart of Marvel’s style, there is still quite some good humor to keep things light-hearted.

 One of the best parts of Ant-Man that surprised me since I’m not a huge fan of most of the cast, not that they aren’t talented, is the characters.  Ant-Man grew on me in his fatherly ways.  I still felt like some parts didn’t make a whole lot of sense and then I think about how much they can go with Ant-Man as a character and I don’t feel like there’s a lot more to do with it other than building a supporting Avenger since the team seems to original team after Ultron seems to be busy with their own worlds and lives. Paul Rudd gives a charming performance of Ant-Man as is Michael Douglas as Dr. Pym and the even seemingly smaller role his daughter Hope has.  Although she seems to be in the background, I don’t remember a whole lot except being there to inevitably form a connection/relationship with Ant-Man in a love and hate fashion, I guess. Its been a while I’ve seen Michael Douglas in any movie and this is a decent one.

Most of the time the supporting characters in the background turn out to be expendable jokers can actually hurt the movie but in this case, the three guys that Paul Rudd brings in to help actually turn out to add to the humor of the story, keeping it light and fun.  I do like Marvel movies because of that a lot and these three, while still sometimes being a little stupid, wasn’t bothersome to watch.  It helped to set possibly the tone of what Ant-Man and further stories would be, especially since it has already announced a sequel, not that I have the slightest on how that is going to turn out. I’m not sure about T.I. yet but Michael Pena’s Luis and David Dastmalchian’s Kurt both delivered some chuckles for me.

Finally, we’re talking about the villain, YellowJacket/Darren Cross, whichever you prefer to choose. Darren Cross is a little crazy and obsessed over finding the serum/particle, whatever you call it, that can answer how to shrink a person and prove that he can do it also just like his mentor, Hank Pym. The hateful, crazy and obnoxious personality he has was done so good.  The moment he steps on screen, you know he’s the bad guy because you just want to punch him in the face.  Now that is some impressive acting.  There’s not a lot of build-up for his character and in fact, more screen time doesn’t always make him a great villain but I think in the spectrum of things, he embodies a villain better than other Marvel movies are because he’s human and really out of it. That point is reinforced when he’s not the YellowJacket for a long time in Ant-Man either.

Overall, Ant-Man is a nice addition to the Marvel universe.  Maybe not my favorite but it is full of quite charming individuals.  I’m not sure what to look forward to in its sequel but I’m down with Paul Rudd as Ant-Man and his character in its most clueless way, should being some more laughs just like this one has.  It felt light and fun which is weird because this is supposed to be a sci-fi thriller according to IMDB. As a superhero movie, it hits the points it needs to and that is what matters. It was definitely an unexpected turn of events for me because it did start off a little slow.

Have you seen Ant-Man? What do you think about it?

The Jewel of the Nile (1985)

After some debate, I decided that this is the first sequel recommendation to appear here mostly because a week or two ago, I reviewed Romancing the Stone (review HERE) and Smash from Smashing from Life told me that The Jewel of the Nile was a great sequel to check out 🙂 Smash is an awesome girl who lives in Toronto.  Honestly, I’m new to her blog but I love everything she posts up and she definitely should get some support to bring her smiles so head on over and show her some love.  I know she did an amazing job when she blogged about a potential location for my upcoming visit to Toronto  HERE 🙂

Director: Lewis Teague

Cast: Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, Spiros Focas, Avner Eisenberg, Paul David Magid

Picking up six months after the first one ends, Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) has sailed around the world with her boyfriend and adventurer Jack Colton (Michael Douglas).  All the romance starts being a bit too much and she wants to go back to New York and try to get her career back as she still can’t find the reality in her books now.  Because of that, she is also struggling to finish up her latest book.  Its at this time, Omar (Spiros Focas), a soon- to-be emperor of the Nile hopes to have her write his biography about how he unites the tribes in the Nile.  She agrees however Jack doesn’t and decides to sail the Mediterranean instead.  At this time, Tarak (Paul David Magid), a man from a tribe in Nile comes to him and asks him and coincidentally Ralph (Danny DeVito)  to get back the Jewel of the Nile.  He agrees and as Joan also sees through the plans of Omar, she finds a way to escape and eventually joins up and together they try to make everything right again in a whole new adventure.

The Jewel of the Nile was definitely a fun sequel.  For the most part, I actually enjoyed it more than the first one.  The only deal was that Michael Douglas was not as wild and adventurous in his jungle suit.  He was actually in a suit through most of it, but still I still found his performance quite awesome and with Kathleen Turner, they are quite a great on-screen couple.  This one was entertaining even though I found some scenes showing their age a lot more than the previous one.

I mentioned it a bit on the previous paragraph but the characters in this one actually had more room to shine. For one, Kathleen Turner’s Joan Wilder proved that even though she fell into the over thinking relationships in the beginning, she was still able to bring out that daring and taking chances abilities that she learned from Jack in the previous movie and take care of herself when in danger.  Michael Douglas’s  Jack also had the character development to getting into the whole commitment and facing the expressing his feelings that it seems he was scared of before (or is it settling down that he’s scared of). Still, the romance between them and little quarrels always makes it entertaining.In this one, we still have Danny DeVito with a bigger role this time around and he is definitely the additional comic relief.

The Jewel of the Nile was a fun adventure through the desert with lots of laughs.  There was a lot of action also with out of control planes, fist fights, chases through the desert and fires, shooting and explosions.  What else can I say? Its just crazy entertaining.  I really enjoyed it and its like I said, I might actually have liked it better than the first 🙂 Maybe you disagree but lets just agree to disagree.  I definitely recommend it, especially if you enjoyed the first one and happened to not have caught this one yet.

Romancing the Stone (1984)

Before I start, I’d like to tell you that I’m going to try to pick up the pace with the movie reviews.  I have a whole list to do and because of my eye infection, its causing me to be a bit slower. I know its really been not looking like I’m putting too much time on it but I am, it just takes time to go through the movies and find it all.  Most of the movies are not available on Netflix so I had to physically get a copy. Anyways, so expect more reviews 🙂 It might dip into the first week of September!  Lets get on with this one!

Next recommendation up was in response to my review of Coma (HERE) from Mikey at Screenkicker.  He told me to that I “couldn’t go wrong” with Romancing the Stone when I asked about Michael Douglas films! Check it out!

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Cast: Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito,

Romancing the Stone is an action-adventure-comedy focused around the life of adventure novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner).  Her success in writing does not reflect her personality.  However, when she receives a phone call from her sister Elaine telling her that she is kidnapped and that she needs her to bring to the kidnappers (Danny DeVito and Zack Norman) in Columbia a treasure map in order to be rescue her.  Reluctantly, she arrives in Columbia and after some mishaps, she is lost on her way to Cartagena and meets a jungle saavy Jack T. Colton (Michael Douglas) and requests for his help.  After some bargaining, he agrees but to find out that she is being chased by Captain Zolo (Manuel Ojeda), police authority of Columbia who is after the same treasure map and will do anything to make sure he gets it.

I love action adventure movies a lot! This one may have been made before a more recent but similar flick, Nim’s Island but the moment I saw the character of Joan Wilder on screen, my mind thought, Nim’s Island right away.  The story isn’t completely the same but it also features a scaredy-cat adventure novelist that has to conquer their fears and find their courage and protect someone else while being protected also.  Also, I thought to myself, this sure isn’t War of the Roses! That was the first movie I saw Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas on the same screen…but point is, I really found this movie fun.

The best part of this movie was Michael Douglas hands down! I’m still learning about the movies that Michael Douglas has done and no, I haven’t watched Wall Street yet.  I will soon enough.  I have it already.  BUT, somehow I like Michael Douglas in this role because its different from his always being rich and arrogant all the time. He’s still not totally a doe-eyed sweetheart but still, he’s not in a shirt and tie and he’s actually fighting to survive.  Plus, who can say that he doesn’t have great chemistry with Kathleen Turner? Because he does.  Even in War of the Roses, they did, even when they were hating each other’s guts.  They have a believable vibe that just works.

I actually enjoyed this more as a comedy than as an adventure because it wasn’t that adventurous when they weren’t being shot at. It was pretty funny.  Mostly Kathleen Turner’s character, the nervous author was just ridiculously silly sometimes.  Most of the other time, its the stupid kidnappers.  We always have those in these movies, right? This time we have Danny DeVito and he always cracks me up (even when he was doing the voice of The Lorax)  ;).  This guy is totally awesome!

Overall, Romancing the Stone definitely has a fun element to it.  You want to see an outstanding performance by Michael Douglass out of his norm, this one is definitely a great choice.  Its a keeper in my collection and I will watch it again.  Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of Michael Douglas but even I was impressed 🙂 So maybe, if you haven’t seen this, you should give it a shot.  If you have, tell me what you thought about it!

Coma (1978)

This is the last one that I saw on the 4 feature pack with Bad Moon and Body Snatchers.  However, I forgot the other feature and what it was about so I have to rewatch it or something.  Coma is the best one in the movie pack to me.

Director: Michael Crichton

Cast: Michael Douglas, Genevieve Bujold, Elizabeth Ashley, Rip Torn, Richard Widmark, Lois Chiles

Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) is a resident at the hospital and is in a strained relationship with a fellow resident Dr. Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas).  When her good friend Nancy (Lois Chiles) has to have a simple operation and comes back out in a coma, she starts investigating the charts to see what went wrong.  She starts tracking clues that leads to various suspicious cases of previously operated patients in OR 8 that came out in a coma.  As Mark starts trying to defend Susan and convince her to stop looking too deep, the male authorities such as Dr. Harris(Richard Widmark) prevent her to look further.  However, she continues seeking everywhere to find her answers and learns a bit too much; so much that it could cost her life.

Coma is definitely filled with mysterious turnouts.  Its not predictable and boring like the previous two.  This could be because it was directed and written by the brains behind Jurassic Park.  Plus, it was based on a novel (which I only learned about as I`m writing this from IMDB).  I`ll have to check it out.  The story is very well-written and carried out.  It leans into the sci-fi genre a bit, or maybe its a lot.  I’m really not an expert at where the lines of sci-fi are drawn, however it does have that sort of sci-fi feeling to it but more nearing the end.

I never heard of Genevive Bujold before but I knew right away that she was one of our own Montrealers from her little French-Canadian accent when she spoke.  She was quite enjoyable to watch.  Although, her character tackled a bit of the feminism and gender discrimination insinuation in the workplace and relationship, which sometimes was a bit annoying because it didn’t really pertain to the story or problem on hand.  Whether her boyfriend respected her or she felt that she was lesser at work or expecting her to cook didn’t mean that it was threatening or challenging her equality.  Aside from that little part in the beginning, she had a very intriguing character to follow and it was one that eventually would grow to want her to find out the whole deal relating to the comas.

The only actor I know a bit better is Michael Douglas.  After this one, I felt that he was taking on better roles when he was younger.  Even though, this probably wasn’t a huge production, it was quite solid.  His character was great on screen.  He did play a character which was a bit more predictable but he also did a great job in reacting to the situation at hand and interacting with Genevieve Bujold’s Susan.  Still, as much as I liked him a lot in Fatal Attraction, War of the Roses and Falling Down.  With the exception of Falling Down, this is probably my second favorite role that he’s done 🙂

A nice mystery sci-fi thriller that brings up a nice well thought out story that keeps the audience guessing throughout the investigation. It is a bit slow at parts, however, the main characters by Genevieve Bujold and Michael Douglas both do a fantastic job in their respective roles and help carry  the movie effectively. It may not be something to run out to see but you definitely won’t feel that it will be a waste of your time.  Surprisingly, it was quite a decent and enjoyable flick 🙂

What do you think of Michael Douglas and his career? Are there any movies that you like that he was involved in?