Best of the MCU - Part 2

 After the monster that was The Avengers raking in over 1.5 billion dollars, Phase 2 was kicked off advancing the characters and moving them towards the next team up flick of Avengers 2.

Each of the main 3 got a new film in their trilogies and then the universe got bigger with the Guardians being introduced.  Then to round out the trilogy Ant-Man was brought into the MCU.

Iron Man 3

Thor : The Dark World

Captain America : The Winter Soldier

Guardians of the Galaxy

Avengers : Age of Ultron 

Ant-Man

Best Movie

Arguably the best movie of them all 18 MCU films, Captain America : The Winter Soldier is the best of these 6 films.  Take away the super heroes and its a great spy thriller.  Sebastian Shaw as Winter Soldier is a great antagonist for Capt.  Add in the Hydra angle, and Robert Redford, this film is re-watchable many times and could even stand on its on.  

Best Hero

As fun as Chris Pratt's Star Lord is in Guardians, the other Chris takes the cake in Phase 2.  Chris Evans IS and will always be Captain America as RDJ is Iron Man and Heath Ledger is The Joker.  He just embodies what is it that makes Capt, Capt.  And it comes out more in his struggles with fighting Bucky at the climax of the Winter Soldier.  Add in Ultron, he takes on the leadership role of the Avengers more so.  Also this is the best Capt costume he's had in any flick.

Best Villain 

Sticking with the theme of Phase 2, the Winter Soldier / Bucky Barnes is the best villain.  He takes out Nick Fury and helps Alexander Pierce to take out SHIELD form the inside.  He pushes Capt to diff level too though Capt doesn't wanna fight him.  In the end you get to see him turn though.  

Best Moment

Before we get started....does anyone want to get out?  The elevator fight scene at the Triskelion with Capt and a bunch of SHIELD/Hydra Agents.

Worst Movie

This Phase has some flicks that could have used some more work, IMO.  Thor : The Dark World feels like a need to push the Jane Foster relationship more.  It also has the worst villain in the arguably the MCU in Malekith.  It also feels like in this phase a lot of the films are forced to also include infinity stones to build up toward Thanos and this is one of them too.  As a positive, this does give us the introduction to the Collector.

Worst Hero

You could argue Thor again as his film is probably more memorable for Loki, again.  And again his appearance in Age of Ultron is kind of ugh too outside of the Party scene in the first 20 minutes.  Also there is War Machine/Iron Patriot in Iron Man 3. But I think the worst hero though is Hulk.  I didn't care for the whole relationship with Black Widow at all, again it feels forced.  And what about Betty Ross?  Is that forgotten now?  His fight with the Hulkbuster is his best part of Hulk's phase 2.  

Worst Villain

This Phase struggles with a lot of bad villains.  Iron Man 3 messed up the the Mandarin, Ultron I was disappointed it, the Yellow Jacket is another of the hinge guy in a suit (see Iron Man and Iron Man 2) and what is Ronan without the Power Stone?  But the worst is Malekith in Thor the Dark World.  Along with GotG this is forced to introduce another infinity stone that Malekith is going after.  He just seems bland and nothing to write home about. 

2016 Summer Movie Awards

Movies Seen : Batman v Superman ; Captain America Civil War ; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Out of the Shadows ; X-Men Apocalypse ; Now You See Me 2 ; Finding Dory ; Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates ; Ghostbusters ; Star Trek Beyond ; Jason Bourne ; Suicide Squad

Best Flick : Captain America : Civil War – This movie is AMAZING.  I really enjoyed Winter Soldier and the Russo’s made a great flick here too.  This put the dudness I had with Age of Ultron away and puts DC in the corner with their Batman and Superman flick. 

Best Dude :  Robert Downey Jr – Tony Stark – Captain America Civil War : Going to just rename this the RDJ award.  Is there a better role for a better actor ever?  (Minus Harrison Ford Indy & Solo)

Best Dudette : Aubrey Plaza – Tatiana – Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates : Playing on the other side of Anna Kendrick, and then vs Adam Devine and Zack Efron, I thought she nailed a lot of this movie and was up there with the guys as just as funny.

Best Scene : Tony Stark in Queens, NY talking to Peter Parker  and the awkwardness of a teenage SpiderMan and cockiness of Tony Stark.  Also add in the Aunt May – Tony Stark conversation and RDJ-Tomei effect.  - Captain America Civil War

                       : Charles and Erik talking at the end of X-Men Apocalypse, stating their same lines from the very first XMen in 2000 : X-Men Apocalypse

Magneto: Does it ever wake you in the middle of the night? The feeling that one day they will come for you? And your children?

Prof. Charles Xavier: It does, indeed.

Magneto: What do you do, when you wake up to that?

Prof. Charles Xavier: I feel a great swell of pity for the poor soul who comes to that school... looking for trouble.

Best Fight : #TeamIronMan vs #TeamCaptAmerica : Captain America Civil War – It was like Hogan vs the Warrior at WrestleMania.  Huge fight scene with all these characters we were given in origin stories.  Spidey is the best since Spider-Man 2 in the film, the Black Panther is awesome, Ant-Man and Iron Man and the rest are all great too.  Marvel seriously is rolling.

                    : IronMan vs Captain America & Winter Soldier : Captain America Civil War – As good as the fight was with all the heroes, this fight is INTENSE!  2 vs 1 and the blows that are landed and hit are amazing. 

Biggest Dud : Batman v Superman – To preface this, I’m not a Superman fan, wasn’t blown away with Man of Steel, and Batman and this world has A LOT to live up to with the world that Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale built.  I don’t mind Batfleck and think he did a decent job, a lot better than George Clooney, but this movie just didn’t seem to hit that Dark Knight – Dark Knight Rises DC worldish.  That being said, I think that Suicide Squad will be a redeemer for the DC World.

Anticipated Sequel : Spiderman Homecoming, Avengers Infinity War, Black Panther, Ant-Man & Wasp and Iron Man 4.

Summer Movies Not Seen Yet :

Neighbors 2
Independence Day : Resurgence
The Jungle Book

2014 Summer Movie Awards

Movies seen this summer – Captain America:The Winter Soldier; Transcendence; The Other Woman; The Amazing Spider-Man 2; Neighbors; X-Men Days of Future Past ; How to Train Your Dragon 2

Best Movie – Captain America:The Winter Soldier

Best Dude – James McAvoy/Michael Fassbender : Professor X/Magento : X-Men Days of Future Past


Best Dudette – Emma Stone : Gwen Stacy : The Amazing Spider-Man 2


Best Scene – Logan waking up at the end of XMen Days of Future Past and walking through the Mansion. 

Best Fight – Captain/Falcon vs the Winter Soldier on the Hellicarriers - Captain American:The Winter Soldier
--Honorable Mention - Zac Efron vs Seth Rogan - Neighbors

Best Fight – Captain/Falcon vs the Winter Soldier on the Hellicarriers - Captain American:The Winter Soldier


Biggest Dud – Transcendence - I liked the idea of the movie, but it was just slow.  Johnny Depp’s monotone voice didn’t help it out.  The supporting cast was the best part of the movie.


Anticipated Sequel – Avengers 2 : Age of Ultron – Tying in Capt 2, Thor 2, Gaurdians and Iron Man 3….again all together. It’s gonna be awesome.


Summer movie not seen that I want too – Draft Day ; Chef  ; Maleficent  ; Transformers 4 ; Tammy ; Planes 2 ; Guardians of the Galaxy ; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ; Expendables 3

2014 Summer Movies

The BIG popcorn movies seem to stretch a little earlier to avoid each other for weekend box offices, so I’m gonna have to adjust the Summer Movie Awards to reach to spring months.

The list of this year of potential movies I'll see in theater (I won't get to all of them) - Captain America : The Winter Soldier ; Rio 2 ; Draft Day ; Transcendence ; The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ; Neighbors ; Chef ; X-Men Days of Future Past ; Maleficent ; How to Train Your Dragon 2 ; Transformers 4 ; Tammy ; Planes 2 ; Guardians of the Galaxy ; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ; Expendables 3.

I’m a little more excited since my kids are getting older, they are getting more into the non-cartoon movies and I get to share a few of the movies with them. My boy’s most excited for the Ninja Turtles. I will say I’m kinda curious as to how that will come out too. I’m not that big on what Michael Bay does to some of these franchises and well Megan Fox. But if it focuses on the Turtles it’s all good!  Addyson is excited about Maleficent though I wonder if it will scare her any.
X-Men and Captain America 2 are my most anticipated ones.

The Avengers

Friday afternoon I took a half day and went to go see the Avengers!  I've been pumped for this movie since Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America came out.  How they would tie them all in and their worlds together.  Iron Man was created in more of a real world...Captain America kind of but with a little stretch of a fantasy and then Thor is mythical and being tied into all of this.  Then add in Loki, Hawkeye, the Black Widow and Nick Fury, on and the HULK.

The whole thing was amazing from start to finish, and past the credits.  It was fun watching the 4 main characters grow a little bit more and also try to grow as a team and the pains that came with it.  In my opinion Robert Downey Jr and the Hulk stole the show.  Not saying that the Chris's weren't great because they were but I think Downey Jr's Iron Man is more established and the Hulk also needed to be reintroduced.  There was also the addition of Hawkeye in here and Black Widow and more Nick Fury.  Tom Hiddleston was great too as Loki.  

The credits scene sets up an Avengers 2.  I can't wait for that, and Thor 2, Iron Man 3 and Captain America 2 and may end up going to see this one again in the theaters!  That'd be a first in a long time seeing a movie twice in the theater.  Right now its a clear leader in the club house too for my 2012 Summer Movie Awards and Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man have a big hill to climb.

4.5 / 5 Stars

2011 Summer Movie Awards

It's that time of year again, football is starting along with school and my time at the theater is going to be declining.....and also time for my 3rd Annual Summer Movie Awards.  I was able to 7 summer movies this year.  In order they are Thor, Bridesmaids, KungFu Panda 2, XMen First Class, Transformers 3, Cars 2 and Captain America.  This Summer definitely has a SUPER HERO feel to it with the 3 Marvel movies and the Green Lantern too.  With out further ado here are the 2011 Awards.

Best Movie 

XMen First Class

Best Dude

James McAvoy : Charles Xavier : XMEN First Class

Best Dudette

Melissa McCarthy : Megan : Bridesmaids

Best Scene

Magneto as a young boy with Sebastian Shaw in Poland Nazi Concentration Camp  - You really see what builds Erik’s 

personality. : XMEN First Class

-Honorable Mention - Charles and Erik recruiting mutants and the cameo by one Wolverine. : XMEN First Class

-Honorable Mention - Sam watching the execution of Bumblebee…the connection between the two is seen there. : Transformers 3

Best Fight

Optimus Prime vs Sentinel Prime vs Megatron…could have been longer with all 3…something the WWE would have been jealous of. : Transformers 3
-Honorable Mention - Captain America vs Red Skull in the Valkyrie : Captain America The First Avenger

Biggest Dud

Cars 2 - Cars was such a great movie, this one just fell flat, a miss by Pixar

Anticipated Sequel

XMen - I want to see this expand and tell more stories.  There are so many more XMen stories to tell..Wolverine 2 needs to be its own story arc…keep the XMen Story line characters and Wolverine characters separate.

Summer movie not seen that I want too

Fast Five

Weekend Movies

Saturday Night we rented Limitless with Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro.  It's about a little pill you take that helps you utilize the rest of your brain that as humans we don't normally utilize....if you stay hooked on it you also get to experience some side effects.

Cooper's character in all this does good and also causes his own issues with the antagonists in the film.

His main goal ultimately is to get off the drug but in the end you're left to wonder.

Thought it was a really good film.  Like the story, Cooper played a great character that is different from the Hangover and the A-Team.  DeNiro was good too.  Also....where can I get one of these pills?

3/5 Stars

Sunday afternoon Jason and I had a bro-date and went to see Captain America:The First Avenger.  The movie started out and tied to Thor talking about Odin's treasure.  This is the source the power that the Red Skull wants.

I kinda liked how Thor, Iron Man and the Avenger's are all here in aspect.  It kind of helps tie it all together.  Tommy Lee Jones and Hugo Weaving I thought were great, Chris Evans good.  I wish in the first few fight scenes we saw more action but that came in the final fight with Red Skull.  In the end I'm guessing we are tying it all in to the Avengers and next year we'll see it tied together.

Really good summer popcorn flick.  Giving it 3.5 stars out of 5.

Grab your popcorn...

The snow has melted….well for some of us, the NCAA tournament is over and the Sun is coming out.  Also with that trailers are starting to hit the airways.  So I took a quick gander at the calendar and what movies will be rolling out this summer that I’m going to be marking on my calendar that I want to go see.

It all starts out on May 6^th with THOR.  One of Marvel’s singular films that helps set up the super hero montage that is The Avengers.  I think this movie will be decent, but the one question I have is how are they going to tie a mythical character like Thor into the real world that is already set up with Iron Man and kind of The Hulk?

Next is the 4^th installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean on May 20^th.  A cash cow for Disney, I hope this one is more like the first pirates than the 2^nd or 3^rd.  They were a disappointment for me, but the first one was amazing.  Please be more like the first. 

May 27^th is a double feature weekend or sequels.  Kung Fu Panda 2 (which apparently is 2 of 6 Panda films to be made?) is going to probably steal the box office with all the kids wanting to see this.  I loved the first one, hope this one continues it.  I’m sure it will.  Then the Hangover 2 comes this weekend also.  Really can you get better than the first?  I think they are taking a big risk at damaging the first with the second.  If it flops, I think it hurts the first one.  Hope they know what they are doing.  That being said, still hope I laugh my ass off at this one.

A week later, X-Men:The First Class.  Jump back about 30 years from when X-Men came out when Charles Xavier and Magneto are buddies and just building the X-Mansion and school.  As an X-Men fan I’m going to question this one a bit.  The first X-Men were Cyclops, Beast, Jean Grey and IceMan.  That changed a bit with a young IceMan in the first 3 movies.  Then apparently Emma Frost is in this movie and older than when she was in Wolverine?  How’s that fly?  Also they have 2 sequels possibly green lit after this movie too? 

June 10^th comes Super 8.  JJ Abrams (Star Trek) teams up with Steven Speilberg for a movie I really know nothing about.  The trailers don’t show much but I like that, don’t show us the whole movie in a trailer.  Will be interesting to see what this one is all about.

Another week, another movie..here comes Green Lantern.  DC Comics gets away from Superman and Batman and puts another star on the big screen.  Ryan Reynolds (also plays Marvel’s Deadpool) dons the green ring in from what I’ve seen from trailers, looks like a fun movie, I’m going to say kind of like the first Fantastic Four movie.

June 24^th I’m sad to say has what I’m going to target as looking to be the most disappointing movie of the summer that I’ll be seeing…Cars 2.  Mater and Lightning travel the world and racing but then become spys?  I’m not sure how this one is going to fly.  But since my boy loves Cars, we will be seeing it.

Transformers 3 Dark Side of the Moon comes out on July 1^st.  This one has to be better than T2 mostly because it can’t be any worse.  The first Transformers was a huge hit, 2+ hours of awesomeness.  The second film I didn’t really care for, the story sucked, some of the jokes were bad….it was like the Megan Fox show off show and to many robots that didn’t get enough air time to get more in depth into the story.

The final movie I’m looking forward to this summer (as of right now) I have the highest hopes for.  It was screened and got rave reviews apparently.  Another Marvel film that is to lead up to the super hero montage, the Avengers….Captain America.  Chris Evans takes the role of Cap and Hugo Weaving the Red Skull.  Tied into this movie is bits from Iron Man and the Hulk.  Which makes me confused as to how Thor is going to tie into it.

Again at the end of summer (around the middle of August) I’ll again be doing my Summer Movie Awards so hopefully I’ll get to all these 10, and maybe a few more. 

2010 Summer Movie lineup

·         Thor – May 6

·         Pirates – May 20

·         Hangover 2 – May 26

·         Kung fu panda 2 – May 27

·         X-Men first class – June 3

·         Super 8 – June 10

·         Cars 2 – June 24

·         Green lantern – June 17

·         T3 – July 1

·         Capt America – July 22

Red, Secretariat and some more....

The last 2 movies I've seen from Redbox have been really good ones, and both star John Malkovich.  First one I saw was the action comedy RED and then next Secretariat.  First with RED, I kind of knew what I was getting, an action comedy with Bruce Willis.  Willis with a gun, it had to be decent right?  And it was.  But John Malkovich's crazy character stole the show for me.  Helen Mirren, ehh, could have done with out her, her with a gun didn't just seem right.  Maybe Betty White?  Even so it was a good fun movie to watch, and Malkovich's character alone is worth the watch.

Tonight was Secretariat, movie of the greatest race horse in the history of horse racing. Like with SeaBiscuit, it gave a story on the owners and trainer along with the horse.  And it was pretty good, even if it was "Hollywood"  What they don't mention in the movie is that Lucien, Ronnie and the stable had the 1972 Kentucky Derby and 1972 Belmont winner Riva Ridge in their barn.  But what fun would that be and where would the drama be?  Still it was a great movie.  Again John Malkovich was great.  Really liked the Eddie character and Diane Lane was great too.

Some other movie notes
-I posted on the casting of Anne Hathway and Tom Hardy in the final Nolan Batman film, Dark Knight Rises, and mentioned I'd like to see a 4th with Joseph Gorden-Levitt as the Riddler....well I may get my wish!

-Some Captian America talk here

-Hugh Jackman to be a stockier Wolverine in 'The Wolverine'