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.

Furious 7 - Cars DO Fly

Given that I was probably the last person on the planet who cares about this movie to see it, maybe I'm a little too late with the review. But I enjoyed Furious 7 quite a bit, and I'm not done thinking about it yet, so bear with me. While everyone goes to these movies for the absurd action sequences, they stay for the characters. No one watches them for the stories, because the plots are thinner than Vin Diesl's hair.

Daredevil - Rabbit in a Snowstorm

Daredevil is many things. Above all else, it's a crime show. But it's also a comic book show, an action thriller, and a legal drama. In the third episode we're introduced to that final element more than we have so far. We know that Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) can fight with his fists, and now we're finally getting a sense of how formidable his mind is as well.

Ant-Man Trailer Features Epic, Itty-Bitty Action

Not to be confused with Uncle-Woman, Marvel's latest addition to the cinematic universe is Ant-Man. He's a superhero who can... talk to ants. But hey, last summer's biggest hit featured a raccoon who could talk to trees, so this seems pretty normal in comparison. Not to say this movie looks boring. No sir/ma'am! Take a look at the new trailer.

Daredevil - Cut Man

Previously: Matt and Foggy have hired Karen as their secretary. The local mafia has things in motion but we're not sure what those plans are, or who is actually running the show. Daredevil rushes off into the night to rescue a kidnapped boy.

The second episode of Daredevil is all about the characters. Who is Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), and why has he chosen the life of a vigilante? Who are the people around him? It's a very talky episode, but it's nice to see the writers using the extra time given them in a series, rather than a movie, to really define just who these people are. While Cut Man doesn't really do anything for the plot, having more insight into our hero will strengthen the overall narrative.

Daredevil - Into the Ring

Let me start by saying that I never saw the reportedly terrible Ben Affleck movie based on the same character. But I thought that Evanescence was going to revolutionize rock music, which might reveal more about who I was in 2003 than anything else. All that to say, the entirety of my experience with Daredevil, which isn't much, comes from pages of comic books.

Community - Ladders

Previously: "We'll definitely be back next year. If not, it'll be because an asteroid has destroyed all of human civilization. And that's canon." 

Like the rest of the world, my relationship with Community has been unique. Some people don't get it. Some people watch the episodes obsessively, studying each frame for subtle Easter eggs. When I'm watching a new episode I tend to think it's one of the greatest sitcoms ever. But if I happen to grab a random episode, I start wondering what I found so appealing.

iZombie - Pilot

Whenever the creator of an iconic show moves on to another project, he or she can't help, for better or for worse, but carry some of the more successful elements into the new show. iZombie, from Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas, draws from his previous series in some significant ways that are distracting at first but fade as the series goes on and comes into its own. And it's very, very good.