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ComicBook.com

Da Couch Tomato Podcast, Episode 19, discussing Jojo Rabbit, how heavy subjects work well with whimsical treatments, and how Sam Rockwell is this film's unsung hero.

Background music used is the Jojo Rabbit score by Michael Giacchino.

Hosts: Sting Lacson and Rachel

Rating: 8.8/10
8:56 AM
Netflix

Da Couch Tomato Podcast, Episode 17, discussing Netflix's Marriage Story, how the direction pays homage to theatre, and how nasty and expensive divorce proceedings are.

Background music used is the Marriage Story score by Randy Newman.

Hosts: Sting Lacson and Rachel

Rating: 7.3/10
11:37 AM
"Can we get porn on this thing?"

•The best part of Avengers: Endgame is not the fact that it's a superhero movie, nor is it the fact that it is the final film in possibly the first cinematic franchise of different films sharing an interconnected universe. The best thing about this flick is its genre, and that is time travel, my favourite movie genre ever. A time-heist, in the words of Scott Lang (the Ant-Man, played by Paul Rudd). It even ranks itself among other great time travel movies such as Back to the Future, The Terminator, Bill and Ted, Somewhere In Time, Hot Tub Time Machine, and Time Cop, among others. Then it differentiates itself from the rest by basically saying Back to the Future was bullshit.

•Captain America (Chris Evans) is worthy of Mjolnir. Although I was a Marvel fan as a kid, my Marvel knowledge was mostly limited to the X-Men and Spider-Man. Imagine my suprise when Cap is finally revealed to be worthy of lifting both Mjolnir and Stormbreaker (although this was already hinted at in Avengers: Age of Ultron). Weapon interchangeability is kind of new to me, see.

•When we see Cap at the end, when he hands over his shield to Falcon (Anthony Mackie), he is an old man. But if he returned all the stones to the moment they were taken, then that means the original timeline was preserved. But he married Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), so that means he created a new timeline where they grew old together. That's a plot hole right there, but apparently that can be explained by having him live out his new timeline and then travel back to the original timeline to give his shield away. That is if we work under the assumption that Pym particles can make you travel not just back and forth in one timeline, but across different alternate timelines as well. But that's a stretch, if you ask me.

•Captain America is a title. Just like Black Panther is a title. And Sorcerer Supreme. Captain America is not Steve Rogers, but rather Steve Rogers is Captain America. They are not interchangeable. When Steve Rogers dies, the mantle of Captain America can be passed on to another worthy person. In the same way, T'Chaka was the previous Black Panther before he died and his son T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) became the new Black Panther. Also like how the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) held the title of Sorcerer Supreme before it was passed on to Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch).

•Ant-Man time-travelled, but Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) was first. Although the whole time travel idea was Scott Lang's (as well as the term "time heist"), his previous experience wasn't time travel per se, but more of getting lost in the quantum realm and realising time had passed differently for him. The first proper time traveller who travelled to a specific time and space was Hawkeye. But following the rules of time travel, he shouldn't have taken that baseball glove with him. I hope they put it back to the point it was taken so as not to mess up any timelines.

•The girl power scene would have been great with Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson). Of course we all loved the girl power scene in Avengers: Infinity War, and we also adore the character that embodies girl power itself, Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). But even before the strong female characters in the MCU, Black Widow was already whooping supervillain ass. She was the first among Marvel's lovely lady warriors, and now she is gone. Not to worry, though. I hear she's getting a prequel spinoff. Yay.

•The new Hulk is kinda weird. And I am bothered by it. Maybe it's because he speaks straight now? I don't know. I must have gotten so used to "Hulk smash" that any complete sentence, no matter how short, will sound so out of character. Or maybe it's because he just looks so damn like Mark Ruffalo. I really don't know. I am still bothered by it.

•Marvel went for misdirection in the Captain Marvel film by teasing that Captain Marvel can whoop Thanos's ass. Actually, that's not entirely accurate. Captain Marvel can hold her own against Thanos, sure. But to say that she can whoop Thanos's ass implies Thanos hardly putting up a fight, which wasn't the case at all. No one single hero can beat Thanos in a one-on-one fight. It takes teamwork, strategy, strength, and a whole lot of luck.

•Regarding Captain Marvel's hair, my question is this: is she or is she not a lesbian? Yeah, I know, you can't judge a person by his or her haircut, but this is cinema, ladies and gentlemen, a visual medium. The most effective way to depict a tomboy is to show her with boy's clothes, or really short hair. It's that or showing her and her lover in the scissors position, so yeah.

•Good job, Marvel, for bringing back even the minor characters from the previous films. That's a big feat, considering Natalie Portman didn't want anything to do with it anymore. Well, Natalie Portman didn't return for Endgame; they used old footage from the Thor movies. But almost everyone came back, even Rene Russo as Thor's mom, Benedict Wong, Evangeline Lilly, and a lot more. A whole lot more.

Two of you are going to die in this film.



Avengers: Endgame. USA. 2019.



Original rating: 8.6/10
Shout-out to the great time travel movies: +0.1
Stan Lee cameo: +0.1
Ant-Man's comic book helmet: +0.1
Robert Downey, Jr.'s last Marvel film: -0.1
Final rating: 8.8/10
6:19 PM
You can almost see Bill Murray in that bear's face.

As I've said countless times before, reboots and remakes are the bane of Hollywood. And Disney seems to be on the warpath, hell-bent on remaking all their classic animated flicks into live-action adaptations for a younger audience.

True, they've done well with Maleficent and Sleeping Beauty. But how will they fare with a story involving talking animals and a single lone human character? Pretty well, it seems, according to box office returns. And here are five reasons you shouldn't miss The Jungle Book.

5. The closing credits
The animation in the closing credits is a joy to behold, first because of the lovely animation (a small-scale version of how awesome the animation in this entire movie is), and second because of its surrealism. A miniature gigantopithecus and humongous mice? And artwork from the original Rudyard Kipling novel? More, please.
3:09 PM
Hybrid Stars

At first, I thought Lucy was Luc Besson's first directorial gig in a long time. But IMDb has proven me wrong. He had one last year, in fact, and it was a Hollywood film, which means I should have at least heard of it. But I have not. This could only mean either 1) it wasn't really a Hollywood film but a French film with a Hollywood cast; or 2) it did so poorly at the US box office that they chose not to distribute it here.

It was, in fact, the second one. It scored 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is around the average score for a Luc Besson film. So does that mean he sucks? No. Maybe. I don't really care.

The Golden Rule of Moviegoing is this: Never let critics dictate your cinematic taste. That rhymes, so dibs.

Luc Besson is one of my favourite film directors. I don't care what others think. I watched this film because it was directed by Luc Besson, and not because of the promise of seeing a Scarlett Johansson butt close-up. Now let's use this time to discuss Luc Besson's directing style in relation to his latest film, Lucy.

Why would anyone cover his eyes with ScarJo right in front of him?
6:42 AM
Fansided

I said before that I am not really that keen on watching any more Marvel movies, with the exception of The Infinity Gauntlet. So I wasn't really excited about watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier, since Captain America wasn't really one of my favourite superheroes, anyway.

But boy, was I wrong.

"Not half as wrong as getting that rebond, eh Scarlett?"
1:35 PM
Fox Searchlight/Montecito/Cold Spring

If you don’t know who Alfred Hitchcock is, then I suggest you stop masquerading as a cinephile, because you are a liar.

Fox Searchlight/Montecito/Cold Spring
"Cinephile... is that like pedophile?"
8:15 AM
YouTube

Da Couch Tomato was given the privelege to interview the Avengers. Not the actual characters, of course, but the actors who played them. However, since we are a Third World blog, they granted us only one question for each actor. The nerve. Anyway, we made the most of it.

Robert Downey, Jr.1
Iron Man
"I should've registered "Genius, Billionaire,
Playboy, Philantrophist" as a trademark."

Who is the alpha male in the group?
Tony Stark, of course. An alpha male is someone who provides the pack their food, their shelter, their basic needs. I'm that guy. Also, I'm the only one with a kissing scene─with Gwyneth Paltrow. I mean, come on.

But on the other hand, if I were really the alpha male, I would've gotten a kissing scene with Scarlett Johansson as well. All right, that's going into the contract for the Avengers sequel.
11:58 AM

I want Terence Howard.

Not "want" in a sexual way. "Want" like I-think-Terence-Howard-would-be-better-than-Don-Cheadle way.

Not that I have anything against Don Cheadle. He's a great actor. But I just have problems with continuity. I really can't stand it when film franchises change actors midstream. I can only forgive actor changes when the cause of change was death. Like what they did with Professor Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, or the Oracle in The Matrix Revolutions.

Anyway, the story was...bleh. I was expecting something flashier. I mean, it's Iron Man, come on. He's like the coolest non-superpower super hero since Batman. And yet, this film seemed to be wanting in action sequences. Not a great way to start the Hollywood summer line-up.

So since I can't find anything to nitpick story-wise, I'll just pick on the actors.

Robert Downey, Jr.: In the words of the great Stan Lee, "'Nuff said." Robert Downey, Jr. equals Iron Man. Period.

Don Cheadle: Sorry, but I still want Terrence Howard.

Gwyneth Paltrow: I sincerely believe she genuinely enjoys playing Pepper Potts. Maybe she gets a real kick out of it. Who knows.

Scarlett Johansson: Yum. Okay, let me say that again. YUM.

Samuel L. Jackson: How many movies does he plan to make before he retires? Does he plan to surpass Christopher Lee's record? I hope not.

Sam Rockwell: I was genuinely entertained by Mr. Rockwell's performance. Bravo.

Mickey Rourke: I salute Mr. Rourke for the effort he put into this role. His Russian accent is more than an accent, as he has even captured the grammatical errors. Good job, Mr. Rourke.

Jon Favreau: I would've normally criticized him for having a small role in his own movie. But of course, directors are gods, and they can do whatever they want. And he was funny, by the way. So he is hereby forgiven.

So again, special effects are top-notch. But the story was so-so. But watch it, anyway, especially if you loved Iron Man, the first film.

And I still want Terrence Howard.


*some info from IMDb
pic from newsoftheworld.co.uk


Iron Man 2. USA. 2010.


Original Rating: Seven out of ten.
Using Don Cheadle instead of Terrence Howard: Two out of ten.
8:50 AM

The prestige. The turn. The pledge. Those are the parts of a magic trick---in reverse.

And that is how director Christopher Nolan tells this story. In reverse. Well, not exactly in reverse, but definitely not in a linear fashion. This is of course Nolan's style, from Memento to Batman Begins, and he has become very good at it.

Adapted from the novel by Christopher Priest, this film follows the struggle of two of the top magicians in Victorian England. You have two great actors pitted against one another, Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier against Christian Bale as Alfred Borden, and the characterization is so effective that sometimes you don't know who to root for. But I of course rooted for Mr. Bale all the way.

The supporting actors are equally important, with Michael Caine as the "ingenieur" (such a sexy-sounding French word), once again reunited with Bale and Nolan after Batman Begins. Incidentally, the film has the same dark look from Batman Begins because even the cinematographer is back on Nolan's team. Andy Serkis is as un-Gollum like as ever, while David Bowie as Tesla all but steals the show away.

Of course, the ladies do a good job as well, with Piper Perabo's short screen time as Angier's wife, and Scarlett Johansson as the assistant Olivia. But the best female performance for me came from Rebecca Hall, who played Mrs. Borden. Her transformation throughout the film is very effective, and is so realistic that the audience may take it for granted.

And finally, just like a great magic trick, Christopher Nolan pulls a fast one. The storytelling is in itself a magic trick. There's the plot twist, then the other plot twist, and you go, "Wow." I remember watching this film in the theater when it came out. At first I wanted to see it because of Christian Bale, but after leaving the theater, I felt---how do you put it---entertained. This is genuine entertainment, and worth every cent you paid for. Just like a real magic trick.


Rating: Five stars.

See also: The Acting Hall of Fame.
5:52 PM
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