Since it was our 5th episode (every five episodes we do something different and special), we had a guest reviewer, David Rasmussen, join us on the show. And in addition to recommending a book on magic, Stephen actually performed a magic trick (he read David R.’s mind) plus I told bonus jokes, a total of nine!
Highlights from the show:
#1 – SC: “Early in the movie there’s a lot of drama but not very much action.” LE: “They had to devise a pretty complex plan (to retrieve the Infinity Stones) so there is a lot of intellectual stuff going on so it’s gonna be slower paced…But it sets up what happens in the 2nd half of the movie, which is almost non-stop action.”
#2 – SC: “I wrote down in my
notes that was more than a movie. It was an experience.” DR: “Yeah,
the experience of a lifetime.” LE: “It was like Marvel Comics
created a VR ride and it sucked you into their universe.”
#3 – LE: “It definitely
didn’t feel like a three-hour movie. I thought the pacing was
great. For the finale of a huge franchise like this is you needed all
the time to do things right.” DR: “I would love to go back and
watch this movie again to see what I missed…because that movie was
huge.”
#4 – After looking up
Metacritic rating (77): SC: “You know what guys, I’m gonna say
this: You guys are wrong!”
#5 – After all three reviewers finished hugging, Lee said, “Reviewers assemble!”
Avengers: Endgame Poster
And now, drum roll, please, highlights from Lee’s Jokes of the Week:
How does the Incredible Hulk earn money on the side? Answer: He flips houses.
If Dr. Banner always cites his sources, does he become the Credible Hulk?
What do you call Iron Man without his costume? Answer: Stark Naked
What did Cptn. America say to the Avengers after they entered an Ikea store? Answer: “Avengers, assemble!”
Lastly, Stephen and I both gave it 10 kernels while David scored it 9.5 (he thoughjt it should have been a wee bit shorter). And that’s all for this post for our review of the finale of the Avengers epic run of movies.
It is a mostly lifeless, less fun, less energetic and less- fun-musically recreation of an original that was fantastic and didn’t need to be remade. There’s less music, which detracts from the energy level, and much less humor. The CGI-rendering and less energetic voices and depleted soundtrack leave the audience feeling like they’re watching a nature documentary that’s been staged. We get what amounts to vampires: on the outside they appear like normal animals but on the inside, they’re dead.
The only deviations from the original plot made the film worse, not better:
1) Butchering “Circle of Life”, “I Can’t Wait to be King” and “Be Prepared” songs
2) Excluding Scar’s response to Simba’s question, “What does that make you?”
3) Replacing Jeremy Irons as the voice of Scar with another British (but much less accomplished) actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor
4) Omitting Timon from scene in which the hyena sentries are distracted by prospect of dining on a warthog so Simba and Nala can sneak into the Pridelands to confront Scar
Shame on you, Disney, for taking the easy way out (again) and instead of giving us new story lines, fresh characters and new plots, you take the path of least resistance and slap new technology on the same story and give less energetic and less visually interesting film. The result: audiences are uninspired and at times even bored (at least Stephen Craig, my co-host on “The Movie Review Show” on YouTube, ere). It’s very shameful indeed. I’m not paying another cent to watch anymore of Disney’s CGI remakes and I don’t think anyone should either. Moviegoers deserve better than that. It’s time to boycott Disney CGI-remakes of classic Disney films. Thank you for your time and attention.
Stephen started off the show with a rant about how superhero movie franchises shouldn’t kill off characters in one movie and then have them somehow be alive in later movies and how you only need to do origin stories once, plus two more gripes. So I thought he and I would be on the same page about how bad this movie was. Boy was I wrong! He gave it 7.5 kernels/10 while I gave it 3.5.
Stephen Craig: “I liked the opening scene. It was suspenseful and set up the rest of the movie.” My reply: “Yeah, first scene was fine but it’s all downhill after that.”
Stephen Craig: “I liked Patrick Stewart much better as Professor Xavier. He had a lot more charisma and style than James McAvoy”
” My reply: “Oh yeah, for sure. Just like the movie as a whole. It lacked style and charisma.”
Stephen pointed out the problem with Magneto’s age and how he should have been much older given that the character was born during WWII. And I’ve seen that criticism on other movie site as well. https://youtu.be/J3yqo2175Po
Episode #8 of THE MOVIE REVIEW SHOW — “Dark Phoenix” & “Brightburn”
To me, it was a disappointing finale for a movie franchise that has lasted for nearly two decades. “Dark Phoenix” was more character driven and complex than your typical superhero fare so I applaud director Simon Kinberg for taking a chance and making the titular character more nuanced and gritty than most superheroes but on the whole, he went overboard. Kinberg sacrificed too much action, energy and excitement for psychological development and emotional issues. There’s no Wolverine, the X-Men’s most interesting and likable character. And that wouldn’t been a such a huge deal had there been either a really cool mutant and/or memorable, stylish villain to fill the void. But that didn’t happen.
Consider the villains in this flick: the D’bari. I called them perhaps the lamest villains in the history of cinema. As one reviewer joked, the D’bari also run an Italian sandwich shop franchise as well. I mean they lack style and are so forgettable.
Jennifer Chastain as Vuk, Leader of the D’bariLeader of the alien race, the D’bari, who want to use Jean Grey’s Dark Phoenix power to take over Earth
One of the issues is that as originally done, they were just like the Skrulls from “Captain Marvel”. So many re-shoots and editing was required to make them different from that alien race. Ultimately although powerful, they lack style and requisite panache`that is required for an X-Men villain in the final movie of an epic saga.
I do applaud Sophie Turner’s portrayal of Jean Grey. It was nuanced, complex and showed that the star of “GoT” can handle a starring role. The problem was there wasn’t enough action, memorable good-guy mutants and a stylish opponent to play off of.
Sophie Turner with Joe Jonas; she plays Jean Grey in X-Men finale
To conclude, Stephen gave it 7.5 kernels and I gave it 3.5 kernels. While Stephen liked some of the F/X and the intricate plotting, I felt for a superhero movie it lacked action, cool F/X and a stylish villain.
And now onto “Brightburn”:.
Brightburn, the Anti -Superman Tale
We both loved the premise. It’s definitely a high-concept script. It takes the Superman saga and turns it on its head. It explores what might happen if Superman were evil instead of good. And while Stephen loved it, he gave the movie 8.5 kernels, I didn’t like the movie. I gave it 3.0 because, as I say in the episode, “As the leader of the firing squad likes to say, execution is everything.” And to me, the execution in “Brightburn” was lacking. My biggest gripes: 1) The victims were neither particularly interesting nor memorable; 2) Brandon’s parents were too slow to realize the extent of their adopted son’s evil nature; 3) The sheriff was too slow in going after Brandon; and 4) I thought it would have been more interesting if Brandon had struggled with whether to use his power for evil (like Jean Grey struggled in “Dark Phoenix” instead of him being purely evil and having no qualms about killing people. But on the last objection, Stephen made a good point about him being the anti-Superman. If you’re going to go down that road, then you should go all the way, so to speak, and have there be no middle ground. He’s pure evil and that’s that.
STEPHEN’S RECOMMENDATION
Frank’s RedHot is a hot sauce that is, as Stephen and the company claim, a perfect combination of flavor and hotness. Frank’s Redhot is well-known for their edgy slogan: I put that s___ on everything!
LEE’S JOKES OF THE WEEK
I had five total. Here are a couple of them:
1 ) Why did Levi’s hire Nightcrawler? Answer: He looks good in blue genes.
2) How many writers of an X Man movie does it take to screw in a light bulb? Answer: The # varies but no matter how many do it X Man fans will complain (bitch) about how they’re doing it.
And that’s it, people. That’s the end of this blog. Look for the next blog post to appear by next Tuesday or Wednesday. Thanks for reading and be sure to check out our show and if you like what you see, you know the drill: Subscribe and share with your online tribe. And remember, we’ll be watching (movies) for you!
We hit double digits with this bad boy! That’s right, “The Movie Review Show” turned ten with this show. We’d originally planned to have a special guest on the show like we did when David Rasumussen was on episode #5 when we reviewed the epic “Avengers: Endgame” https://youtu.be/4wVuueh3Vfk but after we discovered the person couldn’t make it, we decided to change the format of the show. Instead of Stephen’s Recommendation and my Jokes of the Week, Stephen and I each revealed our favorite movie of all time, regardless of genre.
We both really, really liked this film. I gave it almost a perfect score and Stephen wasn’t far behind. I mean, what’s not to like? The F/X, like you’d expect from Marvel Studios, is exquisite. The cinematography is awe-inspiring as we hit Venice, Austrian Alps, Prague, London, and New York City. The cast is excellent. From titular Spider-Man/Peter Parker played by Tom Holland and Nick Fury played by Samuel L. Jackson to Mysterio by Jake Gyllenhaal and a fine supporting cast led by Zendaya, Jacob Batalon and Jon Favreau as Peter Parker’s love interest, Peter Parker’s best friend and Peter Parker’s assistant, respectively, the acting is topnotch. For details, watch our show on YouTube. The plot, like “Avengers: Endgame” begins slowly as it sets up the story lines and action that follow, but once the first elemental creature appears on screen, look out. It’s action and eye candy galore!
Water Elemental Creature
Our only issue with the plot is the thinly-disguised “Night Monkey” costume he uses in Europe. Other than the darker color, he still looks like Spider-Man and he acts (i.e. – shoots webs, swings around, etc.) like the arachnid-inspired superhero so that came off as kind of lame. Not a huge deal but still, it was a mark against the movie.
“Night Monkey” Disguise
Now onto our favorite movies of all time! First Stephen Craig chose “Joe Versus the Volcano” https://youtu.be/cmQDIne3CLo.
Joe Versus the Volcano – 1990 Movie Poster
It received mixed reviews from the critics. Among the film’s fans was Roger Ebert, who officially gave it 3.5/4.0 but later on publicly wondered why he didn’t give it a perfect 4.0. Stephen loved it so much because of the fabulous love story and the way the story worked on multiple levels. The main character symbolizes the average Joe, and hence his name Joe. In one scene the Tom Hanks-portrayed character has a defect in one of his shoes and declares “I’m trying to save my sole”, which also could apply to him trying to save his soul. There are metaphors for heaven as well.
Quotes from the movie that Stephen read:
#1: Patricia: My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know. Everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement.
#2: Joe Banks to Angelica Graynamore: Listen to me. If you have a choice between killing yourself and doing something you’re scared of doing, why not take the leap and do the thing you’re scared of doing?
Correction: In the show I said the movie won two Oscars but it actually won five Oscars.
American Beauty – After telling wife the vintage Firebird in their driveway is his, Lester declares, “I rule!”
Lester Burnham Fantasizing About Daughter’s Friend Angela
Again Roger Ebert surfaces in our movie-review world. He gave the film a 100 while writing for the Chicago Sun-Tribune as did two other major movie reviewers. It got an 86 on Metacritic. Perhaps the thing I like most about the movie is that it makes you think about really big, important, and interesting topics: 1) Nature of God; 2) Human beings’ connection to God; 3) Existence and nature of life after death; 4) Disparity between our outer and inner realities; 5) Truth: how can we find and remember it.
Kevin Spacey plays an unhappy, dysfunctional, 42-year-old man whose personal relationships and career leave him dead inside. At the beginning of the movie, he declares he will die within six months and that he doesn’t, at this point, know that, but in some ways he’s dead already. The movie is about showing not only how Lester ends up dying but also how he truly discovers how to be alive right up until he’s murdered.
My two quotes were:
1) Lester: You know those posters that say ‘today is the first day of the rest of your life’? Well that’s true for every day except one. The day you die.
2) Lester (right before he’s shot in the back of the head by the secretly gay next-door neighbor nicknamed The Colonel): I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn’t a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time… For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars… And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined our street… Or my grandmother’s hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper… And the first time I saw my cousin Tony’s brand new Firebird… And Janie… And Janie… And… Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me… but it’s hard to stay mad, when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst… And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life… You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry… you will someday.
In both movies there’s an undercurrent of magic running through the main character. In both films the director is straining to show the audience just what a truly amazing, astounding and awe-inspiring world we live in. The key is the individual must be be like the mythic hero figure and leave their old, boring, and unfulfilling life behind and be brave enough to embark on a dangerous but exciting journey into another world.
Bill Moyers interviews author, editor and teacher Joseph Campbell on the PBS series, The Power of Myth.
“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” Joseph Campbell
The Movie Review Show starring Stephen Craig and Lee Eide 