ChrisThilk Blog

As a longtime fan of Marvel Comics characters I’m having a blast with all the movies that have been coming out in the last eight years or so, going back to 2000’s X-Men. But while they’ve been alternately fun or exciting it’s just now that it’s getting interesting, with Marvel now tying all their movies together in anticipation of 2011’s The Avengers.

The Incredible Hulk is quite good, and this is coming from someone who actually more or less enjoys 2003’s Ang Lee-directed Hulk. Edward Norton does a good job as Bruce Banner and everyone else, including Liv Tyler, is enjoyable as his love interest Betty Ross.

What The Incredible Hulk manages to do is both be more serious and be more of a comic book movie. It’s fast-paced and exciting. Plus there’s a lot of inside Marvel stuff going on, including a lot of stuff about the Super Soldier serum that’s likely to tie into the upcoming Captain America movie.

Gotta say, having just seen it, that I’m greatly disappointed by the news that Hollywood is planning a Chris Rock-starring remake of Death at a Funeral.

The movie is laugh out loud funny as it tells the story of a British family dealing with the death of its patriarch, whose funeral becomes the forum for airing out all sorts of hidden secrets. Things go from bad to worse throughout the course of the movie as lies are piled on top of each other as members of the family attempt to hide certain revelations and developments. On top of all this Alan Tudyk’s characer, who has accidentally taken a heaping helping of hallucinagens, gets increasingly paranoid and naked and inadvertantly becomes the instigator of much of the troubles at the wake.

If you’re someone who enjoys the dry wit of the British you’ll definitely enjoy Death at a Funeral.

It’s actually kind of funny that Speed Racer wound up being the in-flight movie on my return trip to Chicago from San Fransisco. It’s funny because at The Converation, one of the graphic artists who worked on the movie was on a panel and joked, after showing a clip, that the amount of people who had seen footage from the movie had just doubled.

I did not think Speed Racer was as bad as some of the release reviews made it sound. In fact it’s quite enjoyable if you decide to go with the flow of the movie. I’m still no fan of Emil Hirsch (insufferable in Into the Wild) but he’s not bad here. And the rest of the cast performs admirably, especially John Goodman as Speed Racer’s mechanic father.

It’s fast and light-weight, and the comments about the colors popping off the screen certainly hold true even on a tiny airplane seat-back screen. And I think the opinion that it was made for and perfectly acceptable for kids is more or less true. Sure there are some things that are going to have to be explained but that’s true in just about anything that’s not Blue’s Clues.

After watching such a poor presentation I actually found myself looking forward to watching it again on a bigger screen and so have kept it in my Netflix queue.