Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
DIRECTOR: Joe Johnston
CAST:
Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Dominic Cooper, Sebastian Stan, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke
REVIEW:
Captain America is an adequate, serviceable comic book superhero origin movie that doesn’t merit any scorn but also doesn’t generate overwhelming enthusiasm. Tying in with Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and Thor, it’s the last of the Marvel comics movies introducing each of the individual Avengers who will be united onscreen in 2012’s The Avengers, and it’s debatable whether the Cap’n would have seen the screen otherwise. Despite his long-running existence in the comics (since 1941), Captain America is no longer considered among the top tier of comic book superheroes. Part of the problem is probably also that audiences and reviewers are suffering comic book superhero fatigue; with so many superhero origin stories hitting the screens, it’s hard to make them all stand out, and the fact that they all inevitably follow the same basic formula makes it start to seem generic after so many times. I enjoyed the film, but was mildly underwhelmed. The self-consciously titled The First Avenger isn’t a terrible movie, but it lacks the certain spark that set Iron Man above the pack. Continue reading
The Client (1994)
DIRECTOR: Joel Schumacher
CAST:
Brad Renfro, Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, Mary-Louise Parker, Anthony LaPaglia, Ossie Davis, J.T. Walsh, Bradley Whitford, Anthony Heald, William Sanderson, Kim Coates, Will Patton, Anthony Edwards, Micole Mercurio, William H. Macy, Ron Dean, Walter Olkewicz, David Speck
REVIEW:
The Client is a slickly-crafted thriller that is almost- but not quite- saved from its own accelerating plot unlikelihoods by a competent production and capable performances. Continue reading
Nate & Hayes (1983)
DIRECTOR: Ferdinand Fairfax
CAST: Tommy Lee Jones, Michael O’Keefe, Jenny Seagrove, Max Phipps
REVIEW:
Before the immensely lucrative Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, pirate movies were considered non-starters at the box office. 1983’s Nate & Hayes was a rare attempt at shoving one out into theaters, but sank like a stone to general critical scorn and a lackluster financial performance. While the fairly obscure film has a small but loyal cult following that regards it as an underrated swashbuckler from the days long before Captain Jack Sparrow, it’s actually exactly what the critics at the time regarded it as….a sloppy, slapdash rather feeble effort that tries and fails to muster up some good old-fashioned swashbuckling derring-do. Continue reading