Media Junkie

Required Viewing: The Avengers

The Avengers
Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Pictures
PG-13
143 minutes
2012

Note: This review will contain minor spoilers and copious amounts of geeking out. 

As a young teenager, I looked forward to every Saturday morning.  Saturdays were guitar lessons, which had become something of a chore, but my failed attempts to learn the instrument were always followed by a trip to my favorite comic book and collectibles shop, Time Traveler's in Berkley, MI.  The store was so jam-packed with comics new and old, trading cards, used video games, action figures, and all other kinds of nerd paraphernalia that it was actually difficult to navigate the cramped aisles, but every Saturday my mother drove me there right after guitar lessons and I picked up the latest issues of Captain America, The Avengers, X-Men, The Amazing Spider-Man (and its many off-shoots), and whatever else caught my eye.  Does anyone remember Ravage 2099?  I had all of those. 

My passion for comics stemmed from my passion for video games.  In 1991, Data East released their superb four-player arcade beat 'em up, Captain America and the Avengers.  Plunking in a couple of quarters, you and three other friends or strangers could play as Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, or the Vision as you saved the world from the menace of the Red Skull and his cronies - Crossbones, the Mandarin, Ultron, The Grim Reaper, and a curiously small Juggernaut on loan from the X-Men.  The game's vivid colors, comic-book-style artwork (complete with "thwack!" and "bwam!" spelled out when hitting enemies), and hilarious broken English ("Why should it goes well?", "OK GO!") drew me in.  I spent an unthinkable amount of money on that cabinet, beating the game several times in arcades, and countless times more when I got the cartridge for my Genesis years later.  It was so good, it made me want to check out the comic books it was based on.

In May 1992, shortly after I'd first played the video game, I purchased my first comic book - Captain America #400, a giant double-sided issue and part of the Operation Galactic Storm story arc that would also spawn a lesser-known Avengers fighting game from Data East.  I had missed out on the previous issues of the crossover, but I didn't care.  The artwork, the characters, the drama - it was enough to capture a young man's imagination, and I began collecting in earnest.

Of all the books I collected, Captain America and the Avengers were always my favorites.  I even collected the West Coast Avengers spin-off, including the original limited series and its reboot as a running series.  I searched every comic book store in the area for issues I didn't have yet, snagging both the rebirth of The Vision in West Coast Avengers and his original appearance as a villain in Avengers #57 in excellent condition from a store that was just opening and still had all its stock in unsorted boxes. 

I used to dream about what an Avengers movie would be like.  Who would play all my favorite characters?  Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, the Black Knight, Henry Pym and his many aliases.  Would they even be in a film?  Who would be the villain?  The Red Skull?  Loki?  Even Dr. Doom was a feasible possibility.  Previous film attempts had been unsatisfying, to say the least, including a laughably bad Captain America film that reimagined the Red Skull as an Italian fascist.

When Marvel took ownership of its properties and released the wildly successful Iron Man in 2008, I knew it was the start of something big.  No longer were we subjected to low budget, direct-to-video affairs that didn't do justice to the iconic characters inhabiting their comics.  We had the late, great Stan Winston doing effects for Tony Stark's alter ego and A-list actors like Robert Downey, Jr., Jeff Bridges, and Gwyneth Paltrow in the cast!  Iron Man was a revelation, and remains one of my favorite films in Marvel's stable.

With each successive picture, the universe grew and finally they announced it - The Avengers would finally become a reality.  I watched with glee as they brought Jeremy Renner out at Comic Con to announce he would play my favorite team member, Clint Barton - better known as Hawkeye.  Samuel L. Jackson, the inspiration for the Ultimate Universe version of Nick Fury signed an unprecedented multi-picture deal.  Edward Norton was replaced by Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, dividing fans.  Now that it's here after all these years of waiting, it hardly seems real but The Avengers is a dream-come-true.

Required Viewing: Tyrannosaur

Tyrannosaur
Studio Canal
91 minutes
2011
R

Movies and music have many similarities.  The general public flocks to the big blockbusters, but if you dig deeper and begin exploring the independent scene, you'll find that a lot of the best stuff doesn't get the recognition it deserves.  
 
Tyrannosaur is just such a film - one that came out of nowhere and left me stunned at how good it was.  I'm no stranger to independent music or movies, but all I knew of the film was the trailer I watched on my iPhone.  As it happens, it's the feature film debut of writer/director Paddy Considine, and if the quality of this film is any indication, it is the start of a very promising career.
 
Tyrannosaur is an unrelentingly bleak picture of reality.  Not the false facade most people hide behind, but what you see when the walls come down - the ugliness, the bitterness, the hatred and anger, and the indescribable.  It's a tough picture to watch, filled with coarse language and acts of violence and brutality that will make even seasoned viewers cringe, but there seems to be a central message: violence breeds violence and anger begets anger.

Required Viewing: Take Shelter

Take Shelter
Sony Pictures Classics
121 minutes
2011
R

Oscar nominations are always controversial.  There are always films, directors, actors, and actresses that get snubbed.  It comes with the territory when there are so many films that come out in a given year.  There is, perhaps, no greater injustice at this year's Oscars than overlooking Michael Shannon for his performance in Take Shelter.  Probably best known for his work as Agent Nelson van Alden in HBO's Boardwalk Empire, Shannon gives a tour de force performance as psychologically troubled everyman, Curtis LaForche, in this gripping character drama.
 
Take Shelter is only the second feature film from director Jeff Nichols, but it has garnered much critical acclaim.  It's an odd film in many ways, being both incredibly slow but also incredibly interesting.  Not a moment passed where I found myself anything less than completely invested.  It defies many genre classifications.  It's most certainly a drama, but there are elements of horror and psychological thriller films.  There's a strong family element, and an apocalyptic theme.  I'll spare myself the trouble of identifying it by genre and simply call it spellbinding.

Required Viewing: We Need To Talk About Kevin

We Need To Talk About Kevin
Artifical Eye
112 minutes
2011 (Cannes Premiere)/2012 (Limited Release)
R

Upon concluding my first viewing of director Lynne Ramsay's We Need To Talk About Kevin, based on the book of the same name, there was only one thought in my head: What in the world is wrong with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences?!  How this film did not get nominated for Best Picture is beyond all logic and comprehension.  I understand that all art and entertainment is subjective, and I may not be a professional film critic - just a guy who has seen a lot of movies - but my knowledge of what it takes to make a good film is, I like to think, not inconsiderable.
 
How can it be that a picture with such amazingly haunting performances, incredible cinematography, and even brilliant use of licensed music went completely unnoticed?  I understand how the Academy works when it votes on Best Picture.  I know the logistics of how the nominees are chosen, but what I don't understand is how the hell this movie didn't make it on more members' lists.  Was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close that much better in the eyes of the people who vote, despite the fact it received a lukewarm response from professional critics?
 
What we have here is a travesty.  We Need To Talk About Kevin is one of the most disturbing, gut-wrenching films I've ever seen.  It's a horror film for people who don't like horror films - not loaded with blood and gore or supernatural entities, but a truly terrifying, cold-blooded monster with seemingly no remorse: a teenage boy.

Required Viewing: The Ides of March

The Ides of March
Columbia Pictures
R
101 minutes
2011

It's not uncommon for political thrillers to come out around election season.  With politics and a potential shift in leadership on the minds of the American people, it makes films like The Ides of March that much more relevant.

The Ides of March is a film about the dirty game that is politics, and what it requires to play.  It mainly follows the story of campaign managers working for prospective Presidential candidates and features an ensemble cast, comprised of some of the most supremely talented veterans in the business, any of whom are capable of carrying a picture on their own. 

Required Viewing: Drive

Drive
FilmDistrict
R
100 minutes
2011

Now that this year's Oscar nominations are out, the dissenting can begin.  The discussion over which films were snubbed is in full swing, and if there's one film that deserves to be on every list, it's Drive.
 
Originally imagined as a blockbuster, Drive is instead an indepedent, extremely stylish noir picture that borrows elements of classic heist films, car chase flicks, violent action movies, and character-driven dramas and melds them together into something completely unique.  Drive is a deceptively complex film with multi-layered characters, and a technical marvel in the hands of director Nicolas Winding Refn and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel.  An equal amount of credit must be doled out to screenwriter Hossein Amini, and of course, the cast who bring the characters to life.

Required Viewing: The Grey

The Grey
Open Road Films
R
117 Minutes
2012

The wonderful thing about art is that it speaks to everyone differently.  Songs, films, paintings, poems - what may be solely entertaining, or not at all, to some could be profound to someone else.  Such was the case when I saw The Grey.

The trailers make it seem like an edge-of-your-seat thriller about men trapped in the Alaskan wilderness, fighting to stay alive against deadly cold and even more deadly ravenous wolves, and it certainly is that at times.  However, The Grey is so much more than an action-adventure film.  In truth, it has more in common with horror films and character-based dramas that elevates it to something transcendant for me.

Blu-ray Review: The Secret of NIMH [Required Viewing]

The Secret of NIMH
MGM/United Artists/Aurora Productions/Don Bluth Productions
G
82 Minutes
1982

The history of The Secret of NIMH is interesting, to say the least.  After Disney balked at adapting Robert C. O'Brien's Newbery Medal winning children's book, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH on the basis that it was too dark, Don Bluth and several other animators defected from the company and formed his own with partner Gary Goldman.  Bluth then obtained the rights to make the film Disney wouldn't, focusing on strong character development instead of cute sing-alongs sung by lovable animal characters.

Alas, the film was a box office disaster.  Many deemed it too frightening for young children, and it was competing against a far more popular film - E.T. the Extra-Terrestial.  Nevertheless, The Secret of NIMH has become a cult-classic and remains a beloved tale from the golden days of animation.

Blu-Ray Review: The Social Network [Required Viewing]

The Social Network
Columbia TriStar/Relativity Media/Trigger Street Productions
PG-13
120 Minutes
2010

For all those who say that Hollywood is washed-up, out of good ideas, and that movies have been dumbed down to the point of being unwatchable, Director David Fincher and prolific screenwriter Aaron Sorkin would like to have a word with you.

Undoubtedly, there is plenty of garbage being churned out of the Hollywood cookie cutter, but as with any medium you often have to wade through the crap to find something truly worthwhile.  Filmmakers like Fincher, Christopher Nolan, Joel and Ethan Coen, and Darren Aronofsky are consistently making groundbreaking movies, be they massive blockbusters like Nolan's The Dark Knight or Inception or critical darlings like Aronofsky's Black Swan. 

Perhaps no film in the last ten years, however, has been as relevant as David Fincher's The Social Network.  It's a film perfectly attuned to the times, one that speaks to anyone living in this modern age of the internet, social networking, and digital lifestyles.  On the surface, it tells the story of the creation of the world's most popular social networking site, the monolithic Facebook, but at its core the film is so, so much more.  It's a tale of an intelligent, determined young man - a young man who is socially awkward himself; who strives to be somebody and make something out of himself, no matter who he has to step on or over; who strives for attention, be it positive or negative, and acceptance.  The Social Network is less about Mark Zuckerburg's multi-billion dollar creation than the creator himself.

Blu-Ray Review: Alice in Wonderland: 60th Anniversary Edition [Required Viewing]

Alice in Wonderland
Walt Disney Productions/RKO Radio Pictures
G
75 Minutes
1951

Being home sick has its advantages.  One such advantage is the ability to curl up on the couch and watch movies, a comfort I have enjoyed nearly every sick day I've ever had, be it from school or work.  Over the years I've built up a stable of movies that I return to time and again on days like this - a sort of film version of comfort food is the best analogy I can come up with - and there are few films more prominent than Disney's animated adaptation of Lewis Carroll's masterwork, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Of course, Disney's cartoon version is no match for the original book (or books, as it borrows from Through the Looking Glass in part as well), but nevertheless it is a fantastical journey through the distorted, whimsical, sometimes dark imagination of a young girl that has always held a special place in my heart.

With the release of the 60th Anniversary Edition on blu-ray, fans of Walt Disney's interpretation can rejoice and experience the magic like never before.  Disney's reputation for their exceptional blu-ray releases is upheld with this incredible remaster, and fans of American animation in general would do well to check it out.