Last movie you watched......

Saw Captain America this weekend and it was fairly uninspired. Comic book movies have a high bar to reach after "The Dark Knight" and none of the films released this summer could even see the bar they were so far below it.

"Captain America" wasn't a bad movie, by any stretch, but it didn't give us anything we haven't seen before. How many times can we see the superhero doing the super jump and flailing their arms and legs as if they are running in midair? It started with "The Matrix" and seemingly every action movie since has some variation of this slow-mo shot. "Captain America" had about 10 of them.

Movies like "Spider Man," "Spider Man 2," "X-Men," "X2," "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" were all so far above the level of the recent comic book flicks. They cast excellent actors and had great directors helming them. The stories were well-written and explored themes a little deeper than punching a bad guy in the face.

"Captain America" wanted to do that — the idea of the weak man appreciating the power he is given — but failed.

 

They need to get away from the Superhero movies.

I want to see the Batman movies and that's about it. Spiderman 3 sucked and now they're rebooting it. I like the actors they hired, but I hope it fails miserably. I know it won't. The Superman reboot was terrible and now they're doing that again.

I've seen a couple of the X-Men movies. I thought they were OK. Captain America was better than I expected, but nothing great. Green Lantern wasn't as bad as the critics said, but not good by any stretch.

Hollywood needs to get an original fucking idea.

 

In general, though you're obviously headed in the same direction I've gone.

I'm going to see Rum Diary in a theatre . . . though I know it's not going to be what it should be, and I'm making a very rare exception, there.

Otherwise, I hate wasting time on shit, and I've felt that way for close to twenty years, now.

 

I like(d) Iron Man, but mostly because of Downey, who first proved he was a tremendous talent in Chaplin, and when he's on the straight-and-narrow, he's hilarious.

 

If I go to the movies these days, it's almost always to see a kid's film or a kid friendly film. Since everything else comes on demand so quickly, I see a lot that way and I have a friend who gets screeners that he sometimes sends my way.

I had one year where I saw over 100 movies in the theater. That was way before kids came along.

 

"Iron Man" was very well done and I should not have omitted it from my list.

My only problem with it, and I had the same problem with the Spider Man movies and Captain America, was the unnecessary removal of the superhero's mask during an important scene. I suppose it's because they wanted to show the actor emoting — Captain America trying to save his friend, Iron Man's suit malfunctioning so he had to remove the mask for the last part of his battle with Stane, etc. — but it's really annoying. Spider Man isn't Spider Man without the Mask, nor are Iron Man or Captain America. I mean, Spider Man taking off his mask in front of a subway car full of passengers? So much for secret identities.

The Batman movies never do this. When Batman fights crime, he does so as Batman, not as Bruce Wayne. It almost strikes me as the egos of the actors needing to have their face shown, more than anything else.

 

I simply can't afford to go to the movies anymore (for now). I don't have cable either. Netflix is my main conduit for movie-watching and a supply of dvds from the local library (for some reason, the city's libraries are stacked with Lee Marvin movies).

 

The Big Sleep. And about 45 minutes in, I feel asleep.

Had never seen Bogart in this one and was intrigued. However, the plot was so confusing, fatigue set in.

 

The novel is a classic though, Liut.

 

Great picture. Great cast. Great bits. The book (script OR hardcover text) . . . anything but precise. A cottage industry has grown around the proposition, "Who killed Geiger?"

 

Last thing I remember was Bogie going back to the house where he found a dead body and said body was then gone. I'll make sure I watch it again, with some coffee.