Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

This afternoon my family joined the rest of North America (apparently) and checked out the newest Marvel film Guardians of the Galaxy.

Directed by James Gunn (director of one of my favourite horror-comedies, Slither), Guardians of the Galaxy (GotG) was something I wasn't really expecting from Marvel these days, a stand-alone feature.

I mean sure, it has a few cameos from the other Marvel films (characters, plot points, and props), but as much as I loved The Avengers (and I really did), it really worked best if you had viewed all of the films leading up to it, while GotG could be watched by pretty much anyone, whether they had seen the other Marvel Cinematic Universe films or not.

The action was fun, the story was sweet, and considering the film had five leads, you got to spend enough time with each of them to care about them as characters, which was a pretty nice treat.  Yes, there are a lot of extra treats for Marvel fans in the film, but seriously, this may be one of the better Marvel films to start someone on, showing them the types of stories that the film Studio can tell.

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 21

Scream Queens

Part of the Saw franchise I've been most looking forward to all month is the VH1 Reality Television series Scream Queens.

The premise is pretty simple - ten young actresses compete in horror movie-themed competitions to win a role in Saw VI.

Having just watched Saw VI (more on this in my next post), I'm not sure how much of a reward that was - but what the heck, exposure is exposure and all three of the top contestants ended up getting roles in film and TV based partly on their exposure on Scream Queens.

The show has the ten contestants living in a house in California and working with judges Shawnee Smith (actress in Saw I, II, and III), writer/director James Gunn (Dawn of the Dead, Slither, Super), and acting coach John Homa.  Over the course of eight episodes they did everything from scream to fight and act scared, terrified, seductive and angry.  Honestly, an acting-themed Reality TV series felt like a lot of fun, and if I were a fan of the Saw franchise, I'd have to admit that being able to watch Reality TV and video games related to the upcoming sequel in the series would be a great way to build excitement.

Honestly, the work behind these last two posts has been some of the most fun I've had all month (since the first film, that is).

Genre Character of the Week: The Crimson Bolt

I had heard about the movie Super a few years ago and as I’ve enjoyed the films of James Gunn whenever I’ve caught them (Slither is my current favourite, but Lollilove had a nice mockumentary-feel throughout) so the idea of a super-hero film starring Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) sounded like something right up my alley.

A number of obstacles soon started to form however; it didn’t play in any of my local theatres, and review after review of the film left me feeling less enthusiastic about the film. The movie came out on DVD earlier this year, and it sat on the shelves at my local department store for $25 – which is a little steep for me to purchase a movie without watching it first. Even my online DVD-rental place didn’t have it. Then, while grocery shopping with my BFF Mike last week, I found it in my local Safeway for $5, so I snapped it up. Which leads to this week’s genre character, Frank D’Arbo, aka The Crimson Bolt.

Frank (played by Rainn Wilson) is a short-order cook, married and a pretty simple guy; he loves his wife and one of his favourite memories is of helping the police. One day his wife leaves him for a jerk named Jacques played by Kevin Bacon and Frank breaks down.

Finding inspiration in a Christian-themed super hero show called The Holy Avenger (played by Nathan Fillion) who saves children from a devil with the power of Christ, Frank decides to become a superhero, after all, in the words of the Holy Avenger

"All it takes to become a superhero is the choice to fight evil"

So Frank sets out to stop crime, and the movie follows him as he stumbles and bumbles his way through his new life. Personally, I enjoy the fact that the violence in the film is very realistic and does a good job of showing just how vicious Frank can be with criminals. I found that the similarly-themed film Kick-Ass sort of glorified the violence that the main character caused, and I felt this film did a better job of dealing with the themes of religion, self-worth and redemption better than the other.

Frank comes across as a simple guy pushed too far. He is not unlike Michael Douglas in Falling Down (one of my favourite non-genre films) in that he wants to live in a world where right and wrong obvious and separate. Although the film won’t be for everyone, I actually ended up liking it and yes, it will stay in my DVD collection.