Django Unchained (2012)

When I checked this one out, the librarian said to me that with 100 gallons less blood this would have won the Oscar for best movie. I was skeptical to say the least as I normally find Tarantino's films entertaining but a bit heavy handed. I certainly did expect there to be too much blood. But, to my pleasant surprise, this was a really good film. Too much blood, true, but maybe only 50 gallons too much.
There's a fair bit of humor offered in this film, much of it the slightly blue humor that we've come to expect from Quentin Tarantino, but I don't think that it was off-base. This film's storytelling style is really reminiscent of the Kill Bill films, but with fewer and shorter scenes of extended violence.
To be completely honest, the gore didn't bother me a bit, and while I concur with the librarian that there was too much of it to be an Oscar winner, I don't think there was too much of it to tell the story. There was only one thing that bothered me, and that is when Laura gets shot by Django - one shot from his Colt 45 and she flies back, which would not be too improbable if she didn't fly off at about a 60 degree angle to the vector that the bullet was taking. I'm guessing few people noticed this.
Jamie Foxx was great. I had never noticed how big his hands are before, but I fixated on that a little bit, as I watched him totally own the role of Django. On par with Foxx's performance, and of no surprise was Leonardo DiCaprio as Mr. Candy. He nailed that character, the rich slaver who has far too much money and time on his hands. Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz do excellently in the supporting roles. My only critique really is a costuming one - Jackson with that white donut hair-do didn't look right, but otherwise both characters were spot on.

Django Unchained on IMDb

The Avengers (2012)

All bow before the mighty mightiness that is Joss Whedon!
How long have I been waiting to watch this film? 10? 15 years? When did the first X-Men film come out? I've been waiting since then. I think I've secretly been wanting one since I saw that 80s-something Captain America movie and the David Hasslehoff film (made for television film maybe?) where he plays Nick Fury. I say secretly because both of those movies totally sucked, though I will admit here to the world that I've seen the Captain America movie twice. I didn't want an Avengers movie that sucked. So, we get that X-Men movie and it was pretty good, and I really liked the first Spiderman, so then I was all like, ya, now we can have an Avengers film.
Of course, I would have cast the Avengers differently - I don't mean the actors whom I am pretty much okay with - well let's say on balance I'm okay with them. I guess I really mean the line-up. Where's Dr. Pym? Where's his lady love, Janet VanDyne? It seems kind of weird to have an Avengers without Antman/Giantman/Goliath and the Wasp. At least they got Iron Man, Thor and Captain America, all of whom are essential. I'm okay with Hawkeye and Black Widow. I guess. Hulk? Not so much. I understand this venture is as much about a movie franchise as about anything else, so I understand why they want to tie their lines together. And I'm a big fan of the Iron Man movies - and I liked both Captain America and Thor. Heck, I even liked the Hulk movie. Both of them. The Hulk is not a franchise I'm terribly interested in, especially hearing that the next Hulk film will reboot him once again. But, you know what would really rock? A movie about Vision and the Scarlet Witch. You could bring Pym in through that, and that's how you beef up the ranks of the Avengers without the Hulk.
You know what I really liked about the Avengers comic books? You're really bring together already established heroes, so when they're together they have a whole bunch of baddies that allow for match-ups you would never see in the individual books. Plus, back in the day, it was not uncommon for the Avengers to cross paths with both the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. Throw Spiderman into the mix and you've got all the big names of the Marvel Universe. I know this leaves the Hulk out, but every once in a while you can use him as a foil for The Thing or for Thor. And lest you think I forgot about Daredevil, he can guest star in one of the Spiderman movies, and maybe even get a spin-off, but only after we've spun off several mutant teams.
Which reminds me, why the hell is there even one Ghost Rider movie? Now two of them! That is a crime against nature. There are so many worthwhile comics that can be made into film...like instead of giving me these crap Ghost Rider and Blade movies, give me something Alpha Flight flavored, please. Notice, I'm not hating on the Punisher movies. The Dolph Lundgren outing aside, they're actually pretty good, I just don't happen to really like the Punisher.
Okay time to actually get to the casting of the Avengers. Scarlett Johansson - really? She didn't suck as Black Widow, but the casting was a move not unlike casting Jennifer Garner as Elektra. They're both decent enough actresses, but so not the best choice for those roles. Or you know what while I'm on this subject, Halle Berry as Storm. Berry is competent and cute and everything, but so not Storm. Everyone knows that Angela Bassett should have been cast as Storm. She would have kicked ass! I guess now I've got to supply answers to the obvious questions of who I would have cast as Black Widow and Elektra. Elektra is easy - I would have cast Angelina Jolie. She's a little old now, but when Daredevil and Elektra came out, she would have been perfect. Then maybe Ben Afleck would have gotten together with her and Brad Pitt would have stayed with Jennifer Aniston. Oh the world would be a different place. For Black Widow, I wanted someone sulkier and silkier - I mean she is the ultimate femme fatale, not the dangerous school girl. Now that I think about it, I wouldn't even have used Black Widow, I would have stayed more true to the Hawkeye angle and use Mockingbird. I'm not trying to sneak out of answering this - I would have gone with Kate Beckinsale as BW.
The other actor I'm not fully on board with is Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. Don't get me wrong, I like Ruffalo and he does a good enough job, but he just doesn't look like Dr. Bruce Banner. You know who would have been an inspired choice? Joseph Gordon Levitt. I'm not just saying that for my librarian, I really think he would be good.
I really liked this film. Except for the bit about Phil. Phil! What will we do now?

The Avengers at IMDb

Die Hard with a Vengeance: Die Hard 3 (1995)

It's now several years later, and for the first time it's not the Christmas season. Which is too bad, that was quite a nice motif they had going, but it doesn't make sense to the big movie companies when switching from the Christmas release schedule to the Summer Blockbuster release schedule to put out a summer-time movie that takes place at Christmas, because apparently, we audience members are too dumb to imagine a winter movie in the summer. Or something.
Theoretically, this movie is a sequel to Die Hard and Die Hard 2: Die Harder. Bruce Willis is in it, that is certainly the same. He plays a policeman named John McClane, which is also the same. And that's just about it. This McClane never was an L.A. cop, and is estranged from his wife and kids who live in L.A. In fact, there is no reference to the second movie, though there are numerous references to the first, even a brief flashback of the main baddie dying at the end of the film. I'd like to think of this as the alternate universe sequel to Die Hard - the one where McClane has gone from being a good cop with the occasional disagreement with his immediate superiors, to a rogue cop, alcoholic who cares more about his own pride than he does about his wife or children.
I missed this movie when it came out and had to verify the date on IMDb. This film turns out to be nothing like the first two really. It's not about a man doing whatever it takes to save his wife. This is a buddy cop movie, well a buddy movie where the main buddy is a cop and the other buddy is Zeus, a bad-ass shopkeeper who gets tangled up with McClane.
McClane has reached true bad-assness in this third film. It's the first time that we see him go all Super Saiyan. Nothing can stop him, not bullets, not exploding subways, not flooding aqueducts, not falling 50 feet and landing flat on his back. In fact the only thing that even gives him more than a second's pause is calling his wife, whom we learn that he hasn't spoken to in over a year. There's nothing that a little bandage, an aspirin or a cigarette can't heal. McGoku is beyond the human reality of toughness.
The baddie in this installment is a combination of the first two - a German robber and a military man. This time the baddie pretends to be a psycho out to get McClane, which is of course a diversion, but towards the end, Simon pretends to be a terrorist to insure that the authorities are looking in the wrong direction. The group of baddies includes a woman for the first time, who is like some type of East German trained Assassin Savant using her wickedly curved knife, but it's not enough to save the film. Maybe if they had her fight McClane or Zeus at some point, but they don't and the movie was lamer because of it.
This film brings Samuel L. Jackson on as Zeus, and Jeremy Irons as the villain Simon. But Jackson and Irons cannot save this film. Maybe if Jackson had been allowed to bring his light sabre and if Irons or his knife-wielding babe had actually gotten into a physical altercation with McClane. But they didn't.
Oh, one last thing, the tossing in of "Yippie-kai-yea mother fucker" has taken the phase from being a witty if irreverant offhand response to a mantra repeated when you take out the first of the main bad guys.

Die Hard with a Vengeance at IMDB