It’s versus month at the movies! Many characters are going head
to head in several films, two of which feature super hero teams battling (which is more interesting than a 1 on 1 fight-
looking at you Batman and Superman) but none of that excites me as much as a
new film by Shane Black! Summer is here and I couldn’t be more excited.
Versus film #1:
Captain America and Iron Man are both born leaders. Trouble is,
when you’re a part of a crew like The Avengers it’s tough to have two people
with that attitude and eventually things are going to come to a head. That
brings us to Captain America: Civil War.
The reason this isn’t called Captain
America v. Iron Man: Dawn of Whatever is because that’s a stupid title and
it’s a lot more than just one hero fighting another hero, plus it’s
predominantly a Captain America story. In The
Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron,
our titular heroes caused a whole lot of damage saving the planet and in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the
subtitular (per Merriam-Webster, it’s a word) Winter Soldier was responsible
for destroying much of the D.C. area and the dismantling of S.H.I.E.L.D. Now a new
government oversight committee, using Iron Man as their muscle, is coming for Captain,
his crew and The Winter Soldier. Captain has a problem with that because he
doesn’t like the idea of an all-powerful government keeping an eye on anything,
let alone him and his crew. This was a main plot point to The Winter Soldier. So the battle begins and some heroes join
Captain while others join Iron Man, including Spider-Man, who is being rebooted
again!
Versus film #2:
Ever since I obtained a phone with the capability to do so I
have played a socially unacceptable amount of Angry Birds. I’ve played several versions and I’m on my 2nd
or 3rd go around on the main game. It’s addictive and I can tell you
that in all of my years of playing I have NO IDEA what the ‘plot’ to the game
is. You toss birds at pigs, that’s it. But it made a lot of money so someone
had to try and make a movie out of it because....well, because money, that’s
why. The film deals with a happy island
of birds that gets invaded by pigs. The outcast birds are the only ones who see
there’s a problem and start fighting back by slinging themselves at the pigs. I
imagine kids will love the birds v pigs action, plot or not, and I laughed
pretty uncontrollably at the trailer so I’ll have fun too.
Versus film #3:
Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne and Zac Efron made for an unlikely group
in the first Neighbors that pitted
new parents v. frat guys, but in the end they made a really funny and kind of
sweet film. In Neighbors 2: Sorority
Rising, Rogen and Byrne are planning to sell their house and are expecting
a 2nd child right as a sorority full of hard partiers moves in next
door. They need the sorority evicted if they are ever to sell their house and
move on with their lives. Chloe Graze Moretz plays the head of the sorority and
she’s just as tough as Efron was, so Rogen brings Efron back to help him out.
Most of the cast and jokes from the first one are returning and that’s a good
thing. The trailer is hilarious and I imagine the parents and ex-frat guy v.
sorority will make for a great R-rated summer time film.
Versus film #4:
We’ve come a long way with these X-Men films and then the most recent one did a whole time travel
thing that was seemingly created to erase the mess that was X-Men: The Last Stand, which came out 10
years, ago but some still remember it and it stinks - so we’re better off
without it. So for those not caught up with the series this will be the 6th
in the X-Men series, then there are 2
standalone Wolverine movies and a Deadpool movie that exist in the same world.
In the last film, X-Men: Days of Future
Past, the present is in rough shape so Wolverine gets sent to the 70’s,
makes amends (that’s a real over simplification of the plot), goes back to the
present and everything has changed for the better, but drastically, so he needs
to get caught up on what the heck happened in the 80’s. That brings us to X-Men: Apocalypse. In this new timeline,
the mutant Apocalypse has awoken from a 1000 year nap and doesn’t like the
world he sees. He was the world’s first mutant and when he reigned he was
worshipped and he wants to live in that world again, so he starts messing
things up, recruits some mutants, including Magneto, and goes to war with
Professor X and the X-Men. The Magneto v. Professor X has been done again and
again in these movies but this time there are A LOT more mutants involved so it
should prove to be exciting.
Many trailers these days give away the whole movie. It’s a marketing tactic that I hope will fade.
The trailer for High-Rise does the
exact opposite and gives nothing away and I am very interested. I know very
little about the film but what I do know is that it focuses on Tom Hiddleston
as a well off doctor living in a fancy high rise tower that supplies its
inhabitants with enough commodities, like its own school and supermarket, so
there is no reason to leave the high rise except to go to work. It’s a
wonderful place but not all is perfect. Power failures and class tension are
just a couple of the issues that lead to life in the luxurious towers to begin
to get out of control. I’ve seen one of the films the director made before this
and he knows how to make a very dark yet fascinating film so I’m real excited.
Heavy handed, topical films are
ones that I tend to ignore but with the star power behind Money Monster it’s hard to ignore it completely. Directed by Jodie
Foster, George Clooney is the star of a financial TV show and Julia Roberts is the
producer. Those are some pretty famous people, with 14 Oscar nominations
between them and 5 wins, so even if this isn’t an Oscar contender it will
probably have some decent acting and directing. Clooney plays a man on the top
of his game and his show is quite popular but his financial advice hasn’t
helped everyone and one man who feels like the system ruined his life has had
enough. That man is played by the almost famous Jack O’Connell (he’s been in
some critically appreciated films but he hasn’t quite made it yet) and he takes
it upon himself to expose the financial system for the corrupt monster that it
is. So he takes Clooney and a co-hostage
on live television and forces an investigation into the shady world of
financing.
Now we’re all familiar with Alice and the insanity that
ensued when she fell down a rabbit hole and was transported to Wonderland with
crazy people who drink tea and stuff. In the end she becomes a warrior, saves
Wonderland from the Red Queen and escapes. It did really well in theaters so
Disney felt there were more Alice stories
worth telling so we have Alice Through
the Looking Glass. In her second adventure she wakes up in a hospital and
the orderlies believe her to be mad. She escapes, walks into a mirror and,
instead of getting cut by shards of glass, finds that it’s another door to
Wonderland. She learns there is a new threat to Wonderland and wants to help
her old friends like the White Rabbit, Mad Hatter and Blue Caterpillar( voiced
by Alan Rickman in his final film role and the real reason I’ll see this). The
new threat is the evil Lord of Time, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, who wants to
mess with time and turn Wonderland into a wasteland. Will Cohen’s Time be able
to out crazy Johnny Depp’s Hatter? Time will tell. That’s the worst pun I could
come up with. I’m glad I went for it.
When nearly all reviews for a film contain the word ‘weird’
or ‘bizarre’ it’s hard for me to ignore it and the description for The Lobster sure fits the bill. Colin
Farrell stars as a man whose wife recently left him. To make matters worse he
lives in The City run by a society that sends you to The Hotel where you must
find a romantic partner within 45 days. And if you don’t’? Well, here’s where
things get really weird. If you are unsuccessful in finding a companion you get
turned into an animal and released into the forest. Fighting society’s rules,
he escapes and forms a friendship with members of The Loners, those like him
who could not find love or didn’t want to abide by the rules. This might be one
of those films that some find amazing while some just find it really strange,
but it’s also apparently charming, I’ll give it a shot.
I could go on about writer/director Shane Black for a long while
but I’ll try to condense it. He created Lethal
Weapon, he created some of the best Christmas time action films (but not Die Hard), he is creating a new Predator film and had a small role in
the original, he rebooted Robert Downey Jr’s career with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and rebooted his own career as director of Iron Man 3. He’s one my favorite people
of all time involved in movies and this month he has a new film called The Nice Guys. It’s a 70’s detective
story starring Russel Crowe and Ryan Gosling who are caught up in a dangerous
conspiracy that has them bickering while dodging the bad guys and it looks like
a whole lot of fun. Black knows how to write awesome characters, great dialogue
and create exciting action set pieces. This film looks to have it all.
What are you looking forward to this month?
