Black Panther

Way back in July 2017 (before anybody outside of the studio execs saw more than the teaser trailer) I said that I expect Black Panther to be "effing dope!"  I may have been wrong.  It was better than that. It was SOFA.KING.DOPE it's not even fair.  It's been a long time coming... Black Panther is the first comic book movie/superhero film that actually means something AND it is absolutely top notch in terms of its quality.  It isn't "good... for a black movie" or "good, but it should have been better if they had blah blah blah..." It is legit better than best Iron Man (I) movie, better than the best Avengers (I) movie, better than the best Captain America (Civil War) better than Wonder Woman (which was the best DC movie in recent decades), and it kicks Deadpool in the nuts - and these are all movies I like!

Black Panther was stellar from the dead on perfect casting to the action and comedic writing.  The only thing that gave me pause prior to seeing it was whether the script would hold up to the expectations from Captain America: Civil War.

Shout out to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for creating a black superhero like this back in the 1960s.  I wont dig too deep into their motivation for creating Black Panther, I'll just say... good call.  #WAKANDAFOREVER  Fast forward and we find Ta Nehisi Coates (a journalist and one of the most influential black authors of our time) has a graphic novel version of the re-imagined Black Panther that I suggest real fans pick up - it's a good read.  It was a little bit of concern to me that the names attached to this movie were relative newcomers to the big screen.  Ryan Coogler, the director, who had done Creed and Fruitvale Station; both exceptional films, but nothing on this scale. It was also written by Coogler and another newbie to this type of film, Joe Robert Cole.  Nothing they did was this kind of action and they were super dramatic.  Not to mention...  they're both BLACK!  Say whuh?  Yup.  A predominantly black cast, black writers, black director, and it wasn't a movie about sports, civil rights, or big mama... and there's nobody in the major credits whose name rhymes with Pyler Terry?  Already sounding awesome to me.

Damn near every performance is a breakout performance.  I would go so far even as to say that this should be nominated for multiple Oscars next year.  As much as I think the Oscars ain't all they're cracked up to be (otherwise Denzel would have won for Roman J. Israel and Malcolm X) - hence the birth of the Shammi Awards.

VITALS

Ryan Coogler (Creed, Fruitvale Station) - Director
Ryan Coogler (Creed, Fruitvale Station) and Joe Robert Cole (American Crime Story) - Writers
Chadwick Boseman (42, Marshall) - T'Challa/Black Panther
Michael B Jordan (Creed, Fruitvale Station) - Killmonger
Lupita Nyongo (12 Years a Slave, ) - Nakia
Danai Gurira (The Walking Dead, ) - General Okoye
Letitia Wright (The Commuter, and Black Mirror) - Shuri
Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, ) - W'Kabi
Sterling K. Brown (This is Us, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Marshall) - N'Jobu
Matin Freeman (The Hobbit, TV's Sherlock) - Agent Ross
Angela Bassett (Notorious, This Means War) - Queen Ramonda
Winston Davis (Person of Interest, Modern Family)- M'Baku
Florence Kasumba (Captain America: Civil War, Wonder Woman) - Ayo
Cast also includes Forrest Whittaker, John Kani, and Andi Serkis

WARNING: THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN A SPOILER OR TWO  - READING FURTHER MAY NOT SUIT SOME

IF YOU MUST KNOW

King T'Chaka is dead and Prince T'Challa (Boseman) must return home to be crowned king of Wakanda, a nation believed to be a "third-world" country made up of farmers and tribes of little significance.  What should be an easy ascension to the throne becomes complicated by rivals in the time of political uncertainty - sounding familiar... if not, don't worry, you'll get there.  First, the prince is challenged by the leader of another tribe who believes T'Challa to be weak and unworthy of the mantle of Black Panther.  By way of brief background, the Black Panther is the protector and leader of Wakanda.  This title is not one that is merely bestowed based upon lineage, but there is an opportunity for worthy warriors to challenge the putative king for his spot and the Black Panther mantle - kind of like what Diddy tried to do with his show The Four. 

T'Challa has the powers of the Black Panther (heightened strength, reflexes, healing power, stamina - you know... Black people stuff) stripped away to from him to face this warrior-challenger on equal footing.  Of course he wins, but then he receives advice that all good leaders should adhere to - surround yourself with good people that you trust. So, he does precisely that.  He has the faithful General Okoye (Gurira) of the Dora Milaje, the warrior women sworn to protect the throne that make the Amazons in Wonder Woman look like Girl Scouts, mom dukes (Bassett), and bae - Nakia (Nyongo).  Interestingly, he didn't really surround himself with a bunch of dudes.  Bruh... neither would I, but we'll have to delve into that at another time.  ASIDE: The sheer number of beautiful black women in this one film does make you think, how come you don't get more of them in movies that aren't written and directed by black/brown folks?  I mean, com'on son.  These women looked good with MY haircut.  They gotta be poppin.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT - READING FURTHER MAY NOT SUIT SOME

No sooner than he handles his first test does the next adversary step up; this one is much more unexpected than the first and it hits a lot closer to home.  This test of his leadership also comes as he also has to face internal questions of his own worthiness.

In every hero film, there's the all is lost moment.  Of course, the stakes have to be really high - not just a loss of a title, or his powers; there has to be more at risk.  If T'Challa loses this second challenge to his position, it means that he conceded or he's dead.  And either way, it means he doesn't get to do this with fam anymore:  

Anybody with a special handshake and salute will tell you that if anybody messes with that, that person is really violating and should expect trouble.  But no, that's not the only thing at risk here if T'Challa loses.  If his new nemesis, Killmonger (Jordan) happens to be successful, the once reclusive nation of Wakanda will change forever.  Change is good if you're talking Obama, but not so good if you're talking Orange grown man babies from Queens - ya dig?  Killmonger will move Wakanda into age of war and interventionism (taking their knowledge, resources, and technology to the outside world for the first time) the likes of which they have never seen before.

Ordinarily, there's enough about a movie that tickles my sardonic compulsion to clown it or belittle pieces of it.  Black Panther had a couple of moments that could have pushed it right into that realm if they lingered just a hair too long or appeared more frequently.  Fortunately, that did not happen.  Although a couple of my Blue and White Brothers had a couple of solid jokes about Keenan Ivory Wayans popping up in the movies shouting "Message!"
Truth - this movie could not be better timed or executed.  The kingdom of Wakanda is the most technologically advanced nation in the world and richer than the outside world knows.  The creators of the comic and the writers of the movie could not have anticipated comments that would be made by 45 about "s-hole" countries in Africa, Latin America, or the Caribbean when they were writing the script.  

There's more to Black Panther than just a bunch of fights and special effects - everything from the barking Jabari tribe giving CIA Agent Ross (Freeman) the business when he tries to speak in their presence, to Killmonger's "hey, Auntie," to Shuri referring to Agent Ross as a "colonizer" in the way brown women can say things playfully whilst cutting your throat (gotta love that), to the Dora Milaje busting that a$$.


Killmonger is an excellent villain.  He's a madman with a vision and a hell of a vendetta. More importantly, his mission is something that kind of makes sense and even resonates with people like me.  He wasn't trying to watch the world burn like most of those ridiculous Bond villains.  He was trying to give a forgotten people a fighting chance to flip the tables on a world that has oppressed them for hundreds of years.  You can almost cosign him.  Villains that have twisted good intentions just enough to be sinister and if they happen to match up well against the hero... that's a great villain.  Black Panther vs. Killmonger made for exceptional dramatic interplay against the backdrop of all of the socio-political issues that this movie addressed at times with a little tongue and cheek approach.  The end result is that there's really nothing to pick apart with this movie.  I'm doing my best not to give away the story and the meanings behind some of the more important lines in the movie that had this woman next to me say "Yassss" every ten seconds. Aside: Yes, she was stereotypical, but the white girl in the row behind me wasn't much better.  I could have used the Dora Milaje at iPic.  

So what the Wakandan accents were all over the place for a couple of folks; there's a bunch of tribes that make up the kingdom, maybe it's like having a Brooklyn accent vs a Jersey accent.  So what there were clear messages being dropped in this flick; more movies need to do the same.  In fact, all hero movies should be about that something important.  So what they tokenized the white dudes; it's about damned time.  This movie is culturally relevant without being a strictly FUBU.  It is pro-feminism (see Shuri, the General Okoye, and Nakia).  It's anti-empirical.  On top of all of that, it was a hell of a lot of fun to watch.  I'm looking forward to seeing it again... and then at least one more time after that.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN A SPOILER OR TWO  - READING FURTHER MAY NOT SUIT SOME

There were two post-credit scenes.  

The first post-credit scene was very much a throwback to the movie that launched this whole MCU takeover, Iron Man.  It was so obvious it had to be an homage.   Now King T'Challa has a Tony Stark moment of his own.  

The second post-credit scene was not really worth staying for unless you are a real fan or movie nerd, like me.  The second post-credit scene just lets you see that one of the pivotal characters from Captain America: Civil War ended up in Wakanda.  No biggie... yet.

Black Panther comics have been around since the 60s which makes pictures like this all the more poignant - 

IMTHATDUDE gives Black Panther: 5 

RATING SYSTEM:

5 = You should be about halfway to the theatre by now… Well… GET!

4 = Definitely worth the bread. Niiice.

3 = I won’t cuss anybody out and demand my paper back.

2 = Somewhere SOUTH of under-whelmed./I know it has a pulse, but…

1 = Not a good look. They played me AND I played myself.

Thor: Ragnarok

I was out doing a little book shopping in the Chelsea area and decided to catch Thor: Ragnarok sooner rather than wait.  I'm glad I did.  Best thing about Thor: Ragnarok is that it is by far the most entertaining Marvel movie since they broke ground with Iron Man (I).  Also, one of the trailers before Ragnarok had an obligatory nod to another upcoming Marvel flick - the one most anticipated by every brown person I know in Nerdom - Black Panther! Coincidentally, Black Panther promises to be THE coolest Marvel flick of all time... I'm calling it now.

WARNING - THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS, SO... Skip everything after the vitals if you have a problem with reading spoilers.

You know how you see a movie trailer and there's a really funny or cool looking part of the movie in the trailer and when you finish watching the movie you realize that you got suckered into paying for some sh# you've already seen the only highlights worth seeing when you watched the trailer... fortunately, this ain't one of those movies. Thor: Ragnarok is everything its trailers advertised and then some - a straight up superhero action comedy.

VITALS

Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) - Director

Newbies Eric Pearson and Craig Kyle - Writers

Chris Hemsworth (Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, Blackhat) - Thor 

Tessa Thompson (Dear White People, Creed) - Valkyrie

Tom Hiddleston (Midnight in Paris, Thor: The Dark World) - Loki

Cate Blanchett (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Blue Jasmine) - Hela

Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs, Hitchcock) - Odin

Idris Elba (Star Trek: Beyond, The Dark Tower) - Heimdall

Jeff Goldblum (Independence Day, The Switch) - Grandmaster 

Mark Ruffalo (Avengers, Now You See Me) - Hulk/David Banner

The cast also includes appearances by Karl Urban (Star Trek, Dredd) as Skurge and Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Imitation Game) as Doctor Strange

IF YOU MUST KNOW

Thor picks up about two years after Avengers: Age of Ultron.  Thor has been back on Asgard, fighting the visions/nightmares of the destruction of Asgard and the coming of Ragnarok.

SPOILER ALERT

Ragnarok is coming for Asgard and the conveniently named Hela (Blanchett), goddess of death, is coming with it.  She is more powerful than Thor, Odin's son and shows it when they first meet.  Mjolnir, Thor's hammer, doesn't last 2 minutes in her presence (I know how that sounds, but it's literally true in this movie).  Even Odin bugs out and leaves this battle to Thor and Loki (Hiddleston) to figure it out how to deal on some F* this Sh# I'm Out type business.

Thor gathers up some very reluctant compatriots and is forced to battle with Hela and try to stop what is the foretold destruction of Asgard and it's people.  He accidentally crosses paths with his fellow  Avenger, Hulk/David Banner (Ruffalo).  He enlists the help of Valkyrie (Thompson), an off-world Asgardian warrior.  He even gets Loki to get involved... for a minute, before Loki goes all Loki.  Of course, since this is a hero's journey, it hits all the major story elements of the classic hero's tale.

Hero tale or not, Asgard gets it's a$$ kicked but good.  In fact, just before he bounces, Odin warns Thor and Loki that the only thing Holding Hela back is Odin - the Allfather has some horrible parental habits.  When Hela gets to Asgard her power reaches its height and Thor and his crew do not have enough fire power to stop the goddess of death from laying waste to the entire world.  So... Hela destroys legions of Asgardians and slaps up the god of thunder, but the story really is in what Thor learns about Mjolnir, his family, and especially himself.  No, there was nothing esoteric, but he did discover some things previously unknown to him and tapped into his the depths of his power as the god of thunder.  Summoning all of his power and some pretty cool allies, Thor's crew still can't defeat Hela, so what do they do... well, that I will leave for you to see in the movie.

Hemsworth is funnier than you might expect, but still very much the Thor we all like in the MCU.  Cate Blanchett is always brilliant - don't recall anything she has done when she wasn't stellar.  She was delightfully wicked and amusing (like all of my favorite ex-girlfriends).  Tessa Thompson needs to be in every movie in the MCU - she's fun to watch from the second she shows up in this movie.  Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster was so freaking weird that you had to like him. Nobody played the comedic "straight man" - everybody did something or said something silly or funny.  I can only imagine what this set must have been like for the months they took to film it.  Well, Idris Elba and Anthony Hopkins weren't in it long enough to joke or jape.

The fight choreography could have been better, but it was comic book-y; so, it was fine for what it was.  There's no reason to see this in 3D, but whatever they converted that wasn't shot in 3D still looked good in 3D.  

ASIDE: Interestingly, with all the silliness, there's one thing that has always bothered me about Thor.  There's little to no thunder to be heard.  Lightning... yes, but thunder... too much to ask, I guess. Theoretically, the thunder would follow just one of the lightning bolts flying around this film. You have everything from Thor's sparkly hands to giant bolts of lightning - one would think they could throw some thunderclaps in the movie at some point, but that's just me.  I mean, at least throw a Asgardian Yardie in the background somewhere and let them do a proper thunderclap.  Give me something, boss.

As much as I wanted to give the writers credit for a funny movie that makes you laugh and even makes grown folk giggle throughout, the stars have been talking up how much of the movie was improv or ad-libbed - if that is indeed the case, the writers only deserve credit as far as they crafted the story line and framework for this flick.  Waititi, the director, deserves plaudits for piecing together an entertaining and cohesive film that had a crap-ton of action (the good kind, not the Transformers BS that drags on and on) and was tongue and cheek without being lame.

It's definitely worth seeing.  It's a good date movie  (I hope the one I was going to see this with doesn't realize and read this until long after its on cable - she never does read my stuff, so I should be good money) - assuming your date likes to laugh and isn't one of those posh, I only watch Indie film, I roll my own cigarettes after hot yoga, skinny jean & fedora wearing folks - not that there's anything wrong with that.

Note: Stay for the mid-credit scene, but don't bother staying for the post-credit scene.

IMTHATDUDE gives Thor: Ragnarok: 4

RATING SYSTEM:

5 = You should be about halfway to the theatre by now… Well… GET!

4 = Definitely worth the bread. Niiice.
3 = I won’t cuss anybody out and demand my paper back.
2 = Somewhere SOUTH of under-whelmed./I know it has a pulse, but…
1 = Not a good look. They played me AND I played myself.

Captain America: Civil War

I didn't expect the movie to be what it was and that's a good thing.  It turned out to be more than watching Marvel mastur... well, let's call it self -gratify (after all, this is a public site) onscreen.  It was surprisingly poignant and even a little - very little, but still - thought provoking.  It stood clearly in contrast to the X-Men franchise where evil was very clear and had a clear face, it flies in the face of Superman v Batman in only as much as it appeared to accomplish the mission whereto it was sent out into the theaters.

The spoiler alerts will start in a quick second, so... there's the obligatory warning.

VITALS

Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Chronicles of Narnia, Pain & Gain, Thor: The Dark World) - Writers
Anthony & Joe Russo (You, Me & Dupree, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) - Directors

Chris Evans - Captain America/Steve Rogers
Robert Downey, Jr. - Iron Man/Tony Stark
Scarlett Johansson - Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff
Chadwick Boseman - Black Panther/Prince T'Chala
Don Cheadle- War Machine/Lt. James Rhodes
Paul Rudd - Ant Man/Scott Lang
Martin Freeman - some government dude
Tom Holland - Spiderman/Peter Parker
Anthony Mackie - Falcon/Sam Wilson
Paul Bettany - Vision
Jeremy Renner - Hawkeye/Clint Baron

IF YOU MUST KNOW


Captain America: Civil War starts with an event that is basically nobody's fault, but due to the actions of these "enhanced" humans like like Captain America and Scarlet Witch, there is collateral damage in the form of human casualties.  Several of the victims happen to be Wakandan citizens.  (Wakanda, of course, is the fictional nation in Africa known for it's technological prowess and for being basically the only place on Earth where enterprising thieves and thieving nations would go to steal... Vibranium.  But you all knew that.) Remember, Shield has fallen - which is important because it means I finally get to see a movie without Samuel L. Jackson in it... You can't tell me God doesn't answer prayer. Can I get an Amen!?  

Anyway, Wakanda aint happy about the Avengers running around the world with zero supervision and little oversight - neither is the rest of the world.  After Thor's appearance, and Ultron, and the Avengers involvement in an incident where a whole city dropped out of the sky, and the New York invasion thing, Thor's appearance, etc., the world has had enough of Capt. America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor, and the Hulk jacking crap up. Much like Batman's fake beef with Superman in their movie, the United Nations have a problem with extremely powerful people not being held accountable for the damage wrought on their respective citizenry.  But Civil War is significantly better than Dawn of Justice. It is not quite as clever as Iron Man (I) or Avengers (I), and it's not remotely as funny as Deadpool (although, that would be a really tall order).  


The world backs the Stankonia Accords (I think the actual name is Sokovia, but I prefer Stankonia).  Iron Man then tries to sway his friends to sign the Accords which would subject them to the authority of the United Nations.  All of these enhanced individuals would only go where they were sent and would be held accountable for their actions.  Those who continued to conduct unsanctioned activities would be subject to arrest and branded criminals.  The dividing line is between Iron Man and his new found willingness to cooperate with the world's leaders, believing that they failure to do so makes the Avengers no better than the bad guys they fight, and Captain America who thinks that decision making coming from a governmental body like the U.N. doesn't mean the decision will be the right one.  Cap thinks it would be better for the Avengers to manage themselves.  Fair points all around, easy to find agreement with either Tony or Cap, hence... the Civil War.  

Captain America enlists Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, the Winter Soldier, and a few others, whilst Tony brings heavy hitters like Vision, War Machine, Black Widow and Black Panther.

BY FAR, the highlight of this movie is the newly anticipated stand alone Black Panther film. Chadwick Boseman (who has played Jackie Robinson in 42, James Brown in Get On Up, and Thurgood Marshall in the upcoming biopic Marshall) was excellent as Black Panther. From what I remember about the Black Panther character, he was a real bad ass.  He had toys like Tony Stark and the finances to match, he had skills like Captain America, but he wasn't genetically enhanced; he's just naturally superior.  (Can you tell I'm raising a black fist in the air right now?)  As far as I'm concerned, you can call this movie.. Captain America: Introducing Black Panther.  They downplayed his badassery, so as not to upstage the others, but they managed to give him his due.


So, long story, slightly shorter... They fight... A LOT.  Most of it is cool.  Not the long fight sequence in the beginning.  Some of those moves were the chopped and sped-up to the point of ridiculousness (yes, I am aware of the irony of calling something ridiculous in a movie that has a paramilitary sniper guy who only fires arrows, a witch, a kid bitten by a radioactive spider and capable of catching cars, two men flying around at supersonic speeds in metal personal suits and lights on their hands, feet, and chests, and a woman who looks like Scarlett Johansson and does what she does exists - all bananas, I know).  Unfortunately, as much fun as a good fight scene is, I know I have mentioned it before, I like a good villain in my action movies.  The villain in this movie was not up to par for the level of damage he helped usher along.  He was junior varsity at best and somehow managed to baffle major league players like Tony Stark (with all his security and tech).  Good actor.  Actually, all the acting was laudable.  It's the story that was a bit difficult to accept.  You get the explanation of the opposing sides, but you don't really walk away caring or disliking the position of either of them.  I would have preferred them to go-in, but it felt like the characters and writers were all pulling their punches up until the very end of the movie - and then when they could have really done something dramatic, they pulled the final punch instead of letting them swing like Gennady Golovkin.  They incorporated a fair amount of superheroes in this including Spider Man and Ant Man, but there were a few that were noticeably excluded.  I can only assume that the budget for the including big, angry green guy would have broken the bank.  There were no X-Men, Hulks of any gender, Punisher, Fantastic 4 or really anyone significant in the Marvel Universe aside from Spidey.  It would probably have been tough to give them all something to do.  But what they did do was mostly fun to watch.  

This was a decently crafted story with some real emotional gravitas that you don't expect. In no particular order, the best things about this movie were 1) there was NO Sam Jackson; 2) Spiderman was a fresh set up for a relaunch that even had Marissa Tomei as Aunt Mae; and 3) T'Challa/Black Panther got busy in this flick!  It's good enough to see in IMax.  Hell, it's good enough for you to pay for at least one additional 3D IMax ticket.  It's not perfect, but it's a nice way to start the summer blockbuster season (looking forward to Z-Men: Apocalypse, Star Trek: Beyond, Now You See Me 2, and even The Final Master). 

IMTHATDUDE gives Captain America: Civil War: 4

RATING SYSTEM:

5 = You should be about halfway to the theatre by now… Well… GET!

4 = Definitely worth the bread. Niiice.

3 = I won’t cuss anybody out and demand my paper back.

2 = Somewhere SOUTH of under-whelmed./I know it has a pulse, but…

1 = Not a good look. They played me AND I played myself.

Miles Ahead

Don Cheadle's big screen directorial debut... Miles Ahead. Truth is, I love Miles Davis's music but I know precious little about the man himself.  I own copies of Kind of Blue, Birth of Cool, You're Under Arrest, and Bitches Brew.  I don't have the album they refer to most in this movie, so I'm going to have to cop Sketches of Spain.

VITALS
Steven Baigelman (Get on Up) - Co-Writer
Don Cheadle (Talk to Me, Avengers, Devil in a Blue Dress) - Miles Davis
***Cheadle also Co-Writes, Directs, and Produces Miles Ahead

Emayatzi Cornealdi (Addicted, Middle of Nowhere, The Invitation) - Frances Taylor
Ewan MacGregor (Moulin Rouge, Big Fish, Mortdecai) - Dave Brill
Keith Stanfield (Dope, Straight Outta Compton) - 
Michael Stuhlbarg (Steve Jobs, Blue Jasmine) - Harper Hamilton


IF YOU MUST KNOW

This was a movie about Miles Davis, but seems to have avoided being a biopic.  It was more like watching Don Cheadle brilliantly portray someone who has largely been a famous but mysterious musical legend.  Miles Ahead is a snapshot of a glance of the music icon's life.  The good news is that you want to learn more about Miles after watching this movie, but the bad news is you almost need to do it.  You don't get much more than what we already know.  He was as talented as he was brilliant and he was brilliantly flawed.  He walked that fine line between genius and insanity and may have crossed back and forth a few times.  He loved a woman (and then some more of them).  

Cheadle does an incredible job of portraying the enigmatic jazz virtuoso/iconoclast, but as a writer and director, he tells us next to nothing.  In fact, the movie was a little weird.  There were multiple fights, a gun fight or two, and even a car chase with a gun fight - none of which were things that I heard about Miles when my Pops forced me to listen to Jazz 88's Rhythm Revue way back when I was travelling back and forth to the barbershop or during those Saturday early mornings or late evenings for Prep for Prep - I was forced to listen to the Rhythm Revue and eventually developed a love for "old-timey" music.  The drugs, I knew about, but nobody ever mentioned him in a reckless car chase through the city.  I feel like I would have remembered that.  

Like many male driven movies, the highlight is often the female lead.  Sometimes what is supposed to be window dressing can really save a movie (see my comments about Wonder Woman in the Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice).  So, she may have appeared in one of my previous posts... then again, maybe not.  In any event, she would have been my choice for the Nina Simone movie they did with my ex, Zoe Saldana.  


As much as Cornealdi (Taylor) is talented and incredibly beautiful (I would totally karaoke Prince's "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" to her if she were in the vacinity - hell, I'd do it a cappella), she doesn't elevate this movie in the way Gadot/Wonder Woman elevated Dawn of Justice.  She is, obviously easy on the eyes and remarkably talented - every bit Cheadles acting match, but she didn't have a hell of a lot to work with here.  



Nevertheless, this is still a fairly good directorial debut.  The odd matching cuts that Cheadle has throughout the film give it a certain feel - I think he was going for something jazz-y - forced.  I thought it was a pretty good film, but not a good biopic.  There are many facets to Miles that clearly were not explored, but the overall movie came off as a bit of a short story that left you wondering why they picked this particular period in his life rather than do something that was more encompassing and generally more engrossing.  It's Miles FREAKING Davis.  An audience interested enough to see a movie that no one expects to have car chases could totally have sat through a 150-180 minutes of his life story.  

This movie was just not aggressive enough in its breadth or depth for me to recommend going out to see it.  It is worth watching, just not something you need to spend 12-15 bucks on. 

Should be on Amazon or Netflix pretty soon, so feel free to save your dough.  Or, if you're a real Miles aficionado... save your bread.  You'll get nothing out of this flick.  Movie lovers can enjoy the acting talents of Cornealdi and Cheadle (they should totally team up again... they have an interesting on-screen chemistry that should be explored further), but do not expect to feel enlightened or fulfilled on any level when the end credits roll.

IMTHATDUDE gives Miles Ahead: 3, by a hair

RATING SYSTEM:
5 = You should be about halfway to the theatre by now… Well… GET!
4 = Definitely worth the bread. Niiice.
3 = I won’t cuss anybody out and demand my paper back.
2 = Somewhere SOUTH of under-whelmed./I know it has a pulse, but…
1 = Not a good look. They played me AND I played myself.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

All bias aside... you probably should not read anyone else's review but UR's.  Seriously. Everyone else will probably spoil the good stuff about this movie and make it an expensive and underwhelming night unless you’re a real die-hard fan boy/girl.  (And this comes from someone who saw this movie the Thursday night it was released.)  That said, Avengers 2 ain't exactly ground earth-shattering, but it is still pretty good.  In the ever-growing and increasingly tiresome field of superhero movies, Avengers: Age of Ultron is a pretty solid flick.  No, it doesn't live up to its predecessor (Avengers), but it stands on its own merit as a good movie with nicely proportioned components of humor, action and seriousness.

VITALS

Joss Whedon (Avengers, Serenity, same guy who created, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse) - Writer/Director

Robert Downey, Jr. (The Judge, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) - Iron Man/Tony Stark

James Spader (Blacklist - a TV must watch) - Voice of Ultron

Chris Hemsworth (Blackhat, Rush) - Thor/Son of Odin
Mark Ruffalo (Shutter Island, Now You See Me) - The Hulk/David Banner
Chris Evans (Snowpiercer, Scott Pilgrim vs the World) - Capt. America/Steve Rogers
Scarlett Johansson (Lucy, Under the Skin) - Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff
Jeremy Renner (The Bourne Legacy, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) -Hawkeye/Clint Barton Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass, Savages) - Quicksilver

Elizabeth Olsen (Oldboy, Godzilla) - Scarlet Witch

Other Avengers movie affiliates made decent appearances as well including Don Cheadle, Colbie Smulders, Sam Jackson, Stellan Skarsgard, Idris Elba, Hayley Atwell, and Anthony Mackie.

IF YOU MUST KNOW:

Tony Stark and David Banner's furtive incursion into the field of peacekeeping artificial-intelligence goes completely awry.  Hmmm... that's about all you need to actually know.  If I started telling you the other details it would kind of kill what there is to like about the movie.  What I can tell you is that Avengers was fun, it was entertaining, they introduced a bunch of new people and other stuff into the Marvel movie world and managed to be engaging and cohesive enough that you don't realize how much you're being set up for the next flurry of Marvel pictures on their busy and aggressive release schedule.  Yet... Age of Ultron misses the high standard that Avengers set for itself back in 2012.

Do you remember the last Iron Man movie with poor Sir Ben Kingsley as the ridiculous Mandarin?  If you don't, bless your heart.  You're better off for it.  If you do, then you may see a similar misstep in Avengers 2.  Joss Whedon uses James Spader's effortlessly snarky voice to create what sounds like a truly ominous villain - and I always say, if you want a good superhero movie, you MUST have a really good super villain. That's where the misstep occurs.  The sound of Ultron is awesome... right up until he starts making too many jokes and going a little bit goofy. I expect my villains to be funny consistently in a twisted sort of way, but not to actually crack jokes.  That cheapens their sinister-ness.  Plus, Scarlet Witch (the most talented Olsen girl) and Quicksilver team up with the comically maniacal Ultron to form a dynamic "Big 3" to go up against Earth's mightiest heroes; they give Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor and the other Avengers the most dangerous imminent threat humanity has faced yet.

The speciocidal (if that is a word) Ultron and his enlisted 'enhanced humans' test the Avengers physically and put as much relationship strain as you can put into a Marvel movie.  Of course, everyone knows it all has to work out in the heroes' favor, but they give us some cool looking fight scenes along the way (when the CGI was managed well and the green screen wasn't obvious) to try and fool us like they might not make it AND they incorporate Jarvis (Stark's AI butler) into the movie as a more integral part than he has ever been before.  It's safe to say, Jarvis was always one of the coolest things about Tony Stark. 

The high points of the movie included the candid moments between the Avengers and the action sequences and the mention of the kingdom of Wakanda (the fictional location of where "vibranium" - the stuff that makes Capt. America's shield - comes from) - if you mention Wakanda that means:  Black Panther!  Word.  Unfortunately, there was no actual Black Panther siting, but still... I'm looking forward to a non-sidekick black superhero (not played by Halle Berry).

Overall, Avengers 2 brought enough to the table that I have to admit is was enjoyable (and I heart Scarlett Johansson, so watching her flip and fight in that outfit is always fun), but  even the stellar Scarlett did not make Age of Ultron 

as good as Avengers 1, Iron Man 1, Thor 2, or Capt. America 2, or Guardians of the Galaxy. It was at least as good as all the other movies in that series.  Word of advice for you - SKIP IMAX AND SKIP 3-D FORMATS (definitely skip IMAX 3-D; it aint worth paying 25 ducats) the movie seems to have been filmed more in 2-D and converted to 3-D, which makes it not worth paying for in 3-D.

Note: Don't forget that there is only one post credit scene.  So after you see the 3 second teaser for the next Avengers, you do not need to stay a second longer - like my dumba$$ did.  Just bounce.

IMTHATDUDE gives Age of Ultron (Avengers 2): 4

RATING SYSTEM:

5 = You should be about halfway to the theatre by now… Well… GET!

4 = Definitely worth the bread. Niiice.

3 = I won’t cuss anybody out and demand my paper back.

2 = Somewhere SOUTH of under-whelmed./I know it has a pulse, but…

1 = Not a good look. They played me AND I played myself.