Friday July 22, 2011

The Rocketeer- Joe Johnston directs this film in the same way he directed 'Jurassic Park 3'. With humor and a great sense of both pace and adventure. The meta aspects of the ending where 'the bond guy' (who plays an actor) fights the main dude and states that he "does all his stunts" gave me something to think about and Jennifer Connelly is great in her role as the love interest. She doesn't do much in terms of acting, but everything she does do makes me like the really boring lead way more (a solid Alan Arkin comedic bit helps as well). It seems to me that in our day and age, we misuse her, since I've seen her play the "wife who gets cheated on" character in at least 2 or 3 films in the last couple of years (I exaggerate, it's 2: 'Little Children' and 'He's Just Not That Into You', but 'The Dilemma' really ought to count for something). Rethink, Hollywood.



Captain America: The First Avenger- Without planning on seeing this film today (being pretty much dragged by friends to pay for it since the can't go to free movie tuesday this week), I realized I would be celebrating Johnston's career by watching 2 of his films in one day. Sweet. And honestly, it's kind of tough to decide which was better. They both take place in that lovable WWII era, so they both look great, but clearly where 'The Rocketeer' slows down (less action, but then again, it is an older film), 'America' kicks into gear and doesn't slow down. It has humor, action, drama, and plenty of tragedy, and overall may be my favorite of the individual Avengers films. That means I may be calling you out, 'Iron Man'. Though its arguable and I may just be speaking out of after viewing jitters (since it's not all that original of a film, but it's hella fun). Evans' performance may not be as good as Downey Jr.'s, but then again, Jr.'s reinvigorated his career, so it's not exactly fair. Still, Evans does a fine job portraying the heroic and noble type and makes use of sweet time for Romantic banter with the gorgeous Hayley Atwell. Also, Hugo Weaving does a fine job as well, only, it's no Agent Smith, and it's really nothing memorable. Tommy Lee Jones and Stanley Tucci get some good comic lines, and the action sequences are fast paced and beautiful to look at. Especially all the mud and debris exploding in craters from the ground due to grenades. Also, there is something about blue explosions of light that look a little bit cooler than normal red ones. I even enjoyed the somewhat unfulfilling ending, though it kind of just seemed like poor setup for The Avengers flick.

- Jeff Bassin