cult film freak: chris evans

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Written by James M. Tate / 5/05/2016 / No comments / action , chris evans , franchise , robert downey jr. , sequel , superhero

REVIEW OF CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

action, chris evans, franchise, robert downey jr., sequel, superhero

REVIEW OF CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

CAPTAIN AMERICA needs a push for a third movie and it's Tony Stark's Iron Man to the rescue Year: 2016 Will try to keep this sho...

MARVEL PRESENTS CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid0gPUIop-6ZAriN3XwEzS-1t-nBWm3u7JoE2VdyPmZgCrXlyWreagUM-Tei3BIymu9sNK9EO8h3SuJBhWTo71GP3Q8BaJnB8zWin6obAT1MXUfboAG8rucltErNsEGEHKE4ctK8bdryE/s1600/2aaaea27-f3d2-40fe-b2fa-a62f535d6fe9_zps8dda70f8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid0gPUIop-6ZAriN3XwEzS-1t-nBWm3u7JoE2VdyPmZgCrXlyWreagUM-Tei3BIymu9sNK9EO8h3SuJBhWTo71GP3Q8BaJnB8zWin6obAT1MXUfboAG8rucltErNsEGEHKE4ctK8bdryE/s320/2aaaea27-f3d2-40fe-b2fa-a62f535d6fe9_zps8dda70f8.jpg" width="223" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2014 rating: *1/2</td></tr>
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“Lotta things you don’t know about me,” Nick Fury tells Captain America… And he could also be talking to the theater audience since so far, through several films, the monotone, monologue-spouting S.H.I.E.L.D chief has been kept on the peripheral…<br />
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And now he, along with former Russian agent Natasha, can step into the co-lead spotlight, which sadly winds up casting an extremely dull glow on everyone…<br />
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Especially our hero, Steve Rogers, who literally starts out in a brisk, humorous pace and then has a bland pop culture conversation with fellow soldier Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie, a forced sidekick eventually donning his winged-costume befitting a bad cartoon...<br />
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Perfectly suited for other Marvel ventures, the new character Falcon awkwardly contrasts to the gloomy plot that's part James Bond, part political thriller: The latter where Robert Redford, as a stiff-suited wolf in sheep's clothing... setting up giant drone flying machines to "protect" the country... fits like a dreary glove.   <br />
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Between spurts of bombastic action are lofty conversations about American defense, questionable freedom and glimpses into the first movie including a pointless visit to Steve's old stomping grounds… This occurs after Sam Jackson’s Fury has his very own car chase leading to the introduction of a stealthy, long-haired assassin with limitless fighting skills, equal to Captain America, and whose real identity adds to the melodrama. (Tony Stark, where are you? These people take themselves way too seriously!) <br />
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The only good parts that seem worthy of – or that were already wasted and/or spoiled on – theatrical trailers happen much too fast while the<i> </i>head villain’s wag-the-dog goal is not only cliché, but for a  world derived from comic book origins, and following up the cinematic spectacle that is THE AVENGERS, this uneven, uninspired SOLDIER is no fun at all...

2014, chris evans, comic book, marvel, robert redford, samuel l. jackson, scarlett johansson

MARVEL PRESENTS CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

year: 2014 rating: *1/2 “Lotta things you don’t know about me,” Nick Fury tells Captain America… And he could also be talking to the the...

Written by James M. Tate / 5/22/2013 / 2 Comments / 2013 , biopic , chris evans , crime , michael shannon , neo noir , ray liotta , wionna ryder

MICHAEL SHANNON IS THE ICEMAN

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsFH2vjsnkSP1u-pM3itdCgCGPAtWOYG2-wVDdNxeZ5DYoD-5qBPnyQa99j4C5K_kzEEcr-bn4NmWGFEGizYrnI9mwYWZ9bQrAQwg_o4B__02TTOluFAN3rpt3PESZiVO36_kICFfHUdg/s1600/icceman.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsFH2vjsnkSP1u-pM3itdCgCGPAtWOYG2-wVDdNxeZ5DYoD-5qBPnyQa99j4C5K_kzEEcr-bn4NmWGFEGizYrnI9mwYWZ9bQrAQwg_o4B__02TTOluFAN3rpt3PESZiVO36_kICFfHUdg/s1600/icceman.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2013 cast: Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Ray Liotta, Wionna Ryder rating: **</td></tr>
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This true life crime melodrama is a very… mellow… drama about a hit man known as The Iceman played by Michael Shannon who, looking a cross between Jack Lord and Richard Kiel had they both morphed into Frankenstein’s monster, was a real tough cookie: Beginning as a sound editor in the pornography business, and then working for temperamental mob boss Roy Demeo, our central character Richard Kuklinski never had a prayer to do anything else for a living. Immensely cold and stealthily calculating, he has what it takes to be a hit man, something Demeo (Ray Liotta) sees in him right away. The first couple hits are pretty intense but not very suspenseful. With somber music orchestrating each scene – the mechanics of a lost soul given its own melancholy dirge – and sporadic ultra violent montages, we never get too up close and personal into the bloody reality of Kuklinski’s profession, at least not right away.<br />
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The twist here is that Kuklinski has a family while working as a hit man. Enter Wionna Ryder as his soft-spoken passive wife, Deborah, supposedly oblivious to her husband's occupation. With two beautiful daughters, the Kuklinski clan seems like a Norman Rockwell painting. But the family scenes spend too much time wallowing in a contrived sense of irony, never standing out on their own merit. Until the mobsters hit too close to home, and Kuklinski begins showing his dark side in front of the wife and kids, allowing Michael Shannon to emote past an otherwise limited steely countenance. One particular scene, after Kuklinski lets a seventeen-year-old girl witness go unharmed, and then attempts to protect her from a fellow hit man named Mr. Freezy (played by Chris Evans, who would introduce him to the art of freezing victims to thwart the cop’s timetable), shows us a vulnerable side missing in the segments with family and friends. This also provides a Film Noir aspect of a killer with a kind heart beating, somewhere. But like some of the duller Noirs, there’s more style than substance going on.<br />
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Kuklinski’s gig wasn’t a short one. The searing biopic zooms from the sixties to the eighties through music and distinguishing hairstyles and mustaches all sizes, yet there’s never a sense of importance in any decade. That is, we never stick in one place long enough for anything to really matter.

2013, biopic, chris evans, crime, michael shannon, neo noir, ray liotta, wionna ryder

MICHAEL SHANNON IS THE ICEMAN

year: 2013 cast: Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, Ray Liotta, Wionna Ryder rating: ** This true life crime melodrama is a very… mellow… dra...

Written by James M. Tate / 5/05/2012 / No comments / 2012 , action , blockbuster , chris evans , chris hemsworth , marvel comics , robert downey jr. , science-fiction , superhero

THE AVENGERS

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzkgIQqt6LFxUIFWfIQpGNaKoAeSU2yBvzhBPhHdEmOXp8c-Aw9hM08u35s5m2ktLC4AfdlU8CHgtPPTFuwaRASrraAcb5qFOxuBkMTVqZUxCy5DRT3fCdrAzTEfZlX5WtUyw7wMKpCkr/s1600/The-Avengers.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilzkgIQqt6LFxUIFWfIQpGNaKoAeSU2yBvzhBPhHdEmOXp8c-Aw9hM08u35s5m2ktLC4AfdlU8CHgtPPTFuwaRASrraAcb5qFOxuBkMTVqZUxCy5DRT3fCdrAzTEfZlX5WtUyw7wMKpCkr/s320/The-Avengers.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 2012</td></tr>
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With only two days in theaters, this is already regarded as the best superhero blockbuster ever made – yet it takes a while to resemble any such thing.<br />
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After a long brooding buildup where each individual… Tony Stark’s Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Dr. Bruce Banner… bicker like students in detention class, we realize why no one’s getting along. Our derisive cerebral antagonist villain, Loki, the skinny conceited brother of Thor, wants to rule the world – and is counting on the Avengers to fight amongst themselves, after which formidable aliens will wreak havoc on New York City. When this attack occurs, an epic showdown… the entire third act… has terrific moments, most having to do with Banner’s alter ego The Hulk who, throughout the film, provides the most suspense – each character (and the audience) anticipates the inevitable transformation. Forget about the plot device: a box emulating power that will, in the hands of Loki, cause bad things to happen. Because after the aliens,  liken to a gang of hopped-up <i>Predator </i>clones, fly into the city riding giant slug creatures, nothing else matters. It’s all about destroying impenetrable foes with tons of strength and, of course, teamwork: which comes a little too late to make this a worthy superhero collective.<br />
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Other than a neat fight between Iron Man and a reluctant Thor, it’s all about that finale. As for being one of the best superhero movies ever: with the time and energy of the characters not getting along and over-explaining the reasons why, in years to come even the biggest fans might have their thumbs pressed on the fast-forward button. Yet the stuff that pays off does so in silver dollars. But with all the hype and potential, this reviewer expected gold.<br />
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RATING: ***1/2

2012, action, blockbuster, chris evans, chris hemsworth, marvel comics, robert downey jr., science-fiction, superhero

THE AVENGERS

year: 2012 With only two days in theaters, this is already regarded as the best superhero blockbuster ever made – yet it takes a while t...

Written by James M. Tate / 7/25/2011 / No comments / action , blockbuster , chris evans , comic book , tens

CAPTAIN AMERICA

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggGQsLKGHIhHX2sIN4KvG52tIhYqfi6NspWOL3xeYpvCVDCL56BlDsvLSgsztVBKrRLxFudl_6Nw2okzbh1YB-rXL-ynrB2HgoToqIK50xiY0n8_dfyQ2sx71fbHd4ePH1TIEnL58I91is/s1600/poster_Captain_America_Teaser_by_buckyj.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633350806592552642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggGQsLKGHIhHX2sIN4KvG52tIhYqfi6NspWOL3xeYpvCVDCL56BlDsvLSgsztVBKrRLxFudl_6Nw2okzbh1YB-rXL-ynrB2HgoToqIK50xiY0n8_dfyQ2sx71fbHd4ePH1TIEnL58I91is/s200/poster_Captain_America_Teaser_by_buckyj.jpg" style="float: right; height: 200px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; width: 169px;" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">title:</span> CAPTAIN AMERICA<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">year:</span> 2011<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">cast: </span>Chris Evans<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">rating:</span> **<br />
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This Marvel Comic adaptation, taking place during World War II, wields amazing special effects by turning muscular lead actor Chris Evans into a super skinny “Steve Rogers,” who desperately wants to fight against the Nazis. But his size, asthma, and other health issues keep him from passing muster.<br />
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Our protagonist’s underdog plight... as Rogers, when not attempting to trick the army, hangs out with his uniformed best friend... isn’t as involving as it should be. These characters don’t seem real enough to care for. And when a friendly scientist gives him an opportunity to join a special task force, the boot camp scenes involving Tommy Lee Jones as the barking Colonel, and love-interest “Peggy Carter” as a drill instructor, are a rushed montage: leading to the big experiment that turns the emaciated Rogers into a beefy macho man who can run really fast, but overall his powers aren’t very… super.<br />
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The writers, to counterbalance the corny costume of the original Marvel character, has the Army turn Rogers into a purposely cheesy performer in propaganda films, given the name of “Captain America,” shield and all… So when he becomes the real deal, traipsing around the battlefield with a troop of soldiers and a more mainstreamed uniform… it seems a legit, and less silly, alternative.<br />
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But the dominating main villain, Red Skull, with a red painted face brighter than a fire truck and a cliché desire to rule the world, just doesn’t wash. While Rogers, whose powers seem peripheral by the time we have a climactic action-packed aerial chase (and not enough action beforehand), is like any other fictional hero, making this a second rate war-time thriller rather than escapist fantasy: what most comic book films (should) provide.

action, blockbuster, chris evans, comic book, tens