Avast me Hulkies!
I am busily engaged in trying to catch up on the summer movies. Until this week I hadn’t seen anything since I finally broke down and went to see Matrix Reloaded. But now I’ve seen the Hulk and Pirates of the Caribbean.
First, the Hulk. Pretty cool flick, not at all what anyone was expecting I think. I am kind of amazed they managed to make a movie out of the Hulk at all. I mean, I never saw the point of the comic. A great big green or grey dude running around smashing things up? And with villians like the Leader – how stupid was he – there just never seemed to be a point. In fact, the only issue of the Hulk I own is the one with Rocky Raccoon. Still, the flick was worth seeing. Much more on the level of Daredevil than Spider-man. Lots of what purported to be deep philosophical stuff but turned out just to be daddy/son pap.
But, you did get to see “Hulk smash!” a fair bit and that makes it all worthwhile.
Saw Pirates last night. Damn fine flick if you ask me, but I’m a sucker for anything with Johnny Depp. That dude is hands down the most incredible actor working today. Tom Hanks, Denzel, Val Kilmer, etc are all fun to watch but they’re always the same guy with the same vocal characteristics and the same mannerisms/expressions. Johnny Depp is an entirely different person every time he’s on screen. Better than Brad Pitt even, and I dig Brad when he’s doing his nutty Tyler/Jeffrey persona.
Lots of explosions, lots of cool skeleton effects, lots of laughing at Depp, lots of swanky sword fights, decent kit on most of the characters.
Definitely the best summer movie I’ve seen so far and from what I’ve read of the other biggies this year it’s in the running to be the best period. Check it out, whether you have time or not.
Next week, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – loved the comic but Tom Sawyer, the car and the machine guns offend me – Terminator 3, Charlie’s Angels and if there’s time to spare I still want to check out the fish movie.
July 10th, 2003 at 2:53 PM
I agree with you on the Hulk thing. Always seemed a pointless comic (and this from a die hard Marvel fan-boy). He had that boring Superman thing where he was basically all-powerful and unable to be defeated. That s just dumb. The fact that he was a mindless beast made him more interesting than the Man of Steel but only nominally.
I thought the movie had promise untill it degraded into sheer idiocy at the end. If they wanted to make a dumb Hulk Smash movie, why didn t they make one from start to finish and skip the philosophical first hour?
I am jazzed about Pirates, as I agree that Depp is an amazing actor and easily my favorite next to Brad (how dare you decry the master). We re planning on doing a Pirates/LXG double feature this weekend… anything with Alan Moore s name attached to it must be revered as blessings from above (although I agree the Tom Sawyer thing is weak). I m comfident it ll still be good though… From Hell bares nearly no resemblance at all to the graphic novel but still turned out to be a damn fine movie.
Save your money on the fish movie. Even the children grew bored and restless in the theatre I saw it in… dull and uninspired.
-b
July 10th, 2003 at 3:52 PM
Yeah, but the fish movie has such pretty colors.
I’m a sucker for pretty colors, it’s most of the reason I count the Fifth Element among my all-time faves.
-bp
July 11th, 2003 at 10:21 AM
Y Know, the colors aren t even that pretty. Pixar was going for that realism thing, with like accurately rendered floating plankton and visible currents, which really only served to mute the colors. I was wholy unimpressed.
Fifth Element is pretty colors and cool!
“Give me the cashhhh!”
-b
July 11th, 2003 at 4:47 PM
Man, that’s a favorite line. Followed by another great one, “I really like your hat.”
Quality.
-bp