The Man from xXx

This week I've had a chance to catch up on some movie watching. Monday evening I watched the Vin Diesel classic xXx, and today I caught the movie remake of the 60s TV show The Man from U.N.C.L.E. While Diesel's movie is an action ode to XTREME sports and TMfU is a retro-chic spy thriller, the two movies do have a couple of things in common. They both take viewers to exotic locals with mysterious and beautiful femme fatales, they both center around missiles being transported by water, and they are both far too long.

Holy Batmania, Dick Tracy!

Summer movie season is one of my favorites. I always buy Entertainment Weekly's summer movie preview (and then forget to read it). I go to the movie theater every chance I get. And I always spend a little time thinking about past summers. Even though my parents didn't take me to the movies very often, back in the late 80's through the 90's it was impossible not to be painfully aware of the next blockbuster... in a way those not old enough to remember can hardly understand.

Daredevil - World On Fire

I've got to be honest, this episode of Daredevil really bored me. The show is still a marvel (see what I did there?), with its flashes of humor in a grim world, masterful cinematography, multifaceted characters. But I want to see those characters do stuff in their grim world, and look good doing it. Going on dates, though, isn't quite what I had in mind.

Avengers: Age of Ultron - Review

Where to start with Joss Whedon's new epic? My hyper-aware little brain saw so much, it's having difficulty putting so many thoughts and observations into a cohesive whole. I will say that I left the theater depressed, not sure whether or not the entire movie universe that I've come to love was ruined for me. Still, my disappointment with tempered with the knowledge that this sometimes happens after seeing a movie I was really excited about: I'm so busy noticing stuff that I don't really enjoy it until the second time through. Maybe (hopefully?) that's what happened here.

The Last Witch Hunter Teaser

My movie collection isn't huge. I've got a little over 100 titles in my personal library. And Vin Diesel is in about 1/10 of them (because Saving Private Ryan totally counts). A few months after it hits theaters, I'll probably be able to add The Last Witch Hunter to my collection. Because I highly doubt that this is going to pull Furious 7 kind of numbers at the box office. The teaser (posted after the jump), however, has all the credibility I need, what with Sir Michael Cain narrating and Vin Dieseling...

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Trailer

If you haven't read Susanna Clarke's masterpiece, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, yet, you really should. Not only because it's a majestic work of alternate history, fantasy, folktale and fairy story, but because the BBC is giving a seven hour miniseries. But I expect that, as usual, the best way to experience the story is in its original form.

Daredevil - In the Blood

At this point I'm probably further behind on Daredevil than anyone. So rather than do in depth recaps, as I did for my last Daredevil post, I'm just going to assume that if you're reading this you've already seen the episode. Hopefully this will make the posts a little shorter, a little punchier, a little more fun to read/write.

Episode four, "In the Blood" opens with its only flashback. Russian mobsters Anatoly and Vladimir Ranskahov (Gideon Emery and Nikolai Nikolaeff, respectively) are in a prison in their motherland. While the older Anatoly has been taking a beating somewhere, Vladimir was tearing into a dead man's torso. Apparently snapped off ribs make good shivs. That pretty much sums up their characters. Anatoly tries to work within the system, no matter how nasty that system happens to be. Vladimir, however, does whatever he thinks is necessary, which tends to be even more brutal.