Ranking The MCU Films

As we come upon Avengers: Endgame, the start of a next phase, what a wonderful legacy to look back on. Also, I haven't been to see a lot of new movies so might as well post what everyone else is doing too. Here's my ranking of the MCU films. I think it's slightly different than a lot of the other lists I've read, at least when it comes to the lower ranked films. 

The Best

1) Captain America: Civil War

This remains my favorite Marvel film. I absolutely love the arcs Steve and Tony get and it was a great introduction to Black Panther and the newest version of Spider-man. It also give us the first taste of a bigger team coming together.

2) Infinity War

I've re-watched this so many times within the past year and it keeps rising up on my list. I'm not sure it will ever bump Civil War from the top, but this film is so special.

3) Thor: Ragnarok

It turns out Thor, who was already a pretty great character just needed to get in touch with this ridiculous side. This was hilarious. 

4) Black Panther

Rarely does an origin story come together as well as Black Panther. The characters, the costumes, the rich villain, this has it all.

5) Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Chris Evans plays Captain America so well I can't help but love his set of films the most. This works as a wonderful spy film and I loved the rapport Steve and Natasha have in this one.

6) Avengers: Age of Ultron

Everyone hates on Age of Ultron but it's still one of my favorites. I love the introduction of Wanda, Pietro, and Vision. Ultron was one of the better villains they've had too. The scene of all of them fighting by the cradle is still one of the most stunning things they've filmed.

7) Avengers

While the original movie feels a tad dated due to Cap's suit. (Seriously, who's idea was the hood?) I still have fun with this. 

8) Iron Man 

The film that started it all. It bothers me that I don't enjoy the sequels as much because I really loved this.

9) Captain America: The First Avenger

Ugh, Cap and Peggy. I miss them.

10) Spider-man: Homecoming

I've always had a soft spot for Spider-man, and this was a great follow up to Civil War

The Rest

11) Captain Marvel
This felt like a phase one film, but one we definitely needed. I went back and forth with this and Spider-man for the #10 spot. 

12) Ant-Man & The Wasp
I thought this was even better than the first. Scott and Hope just work so well together.

13) Thor: The Dark World
This is another one that gets shit on a lot, but I dug this. Sure, the villains are kind of a mess but overall, I enjoyed the story.

14) Ant-Man
I still can't believe I almost didn't go see this in theaters. It was such a delight

15) Doctor Strange
I think Doctor Strange really shined in Infinity War more than he did in this film. I will say, until Black Panther came along this had the coolest score.

16) Guardians of the Galaxy
I knew nothing about the Guardians and it turned out so much fun. And it was before Chris Pratt turned into an annoying twat. I miss those days.

17) Thor
I actually didn't like Thor the first time I saw it, it was only after watching Avengers that I went back and appreciated it a bit more. 

18) Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Half of this movie is excellent, but the main plot with Star Lord is awful, which brings it down. 

19) Iron Man 2
I don't hate this movie as much as others do, but it does rank low. I really like Tony here and Don Cheadle picking up as Rhodey is perfect. It's just slightly lacking

20) The Incredible Hulk
This one is usually last on a lot of lists I read. Which I get, because it's very unmemorable and Ruffalo is so much better in the role. I can't even imagine Edward Norton playing Banner anymore. Especially in Ragnarok. You know he would've tried to take over that script.

21) Iron Man 3
This is the only MCU movie I flat out hate. I wanted so badly to like Iron Man 3 and I did until that annoying kid showed up and Pepper did...whatever she did. They also under utilized the great Rebecca Hall and the villain was lame. Upon first watch, I was just medicore, but on the second watch....nope. Just hatred. 

2019 Blind Spot Series: Network

What I knew going in: The basic plot, and I thought I knew the ending.

When aging anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) goes off on a tirade on air, his Network execs decide to exploit his outbursts for higher ratings. Diana Christianson (Faye Dunaway) is ruthless and will do whatever it takes to make this show a ratings winner, where as Max Schumacher (William Holden) feels a bit more bad about the situation. 

Of all the Blind Spots I had this year, I was looking forward to this one the most as I enjoy journalism/newsroom type scripts and this did not disappoint. It's aged very well and the performances are just as good as everyone said they were. Faye Dunaway was my favorite. I'll admit to only thinking of Mommie Dearest when I hear her name so seeing her give a performance like this was wonderful. 

The only thing this film does that wasn't perfect was blending in the other subplots within the network. I kept waiting for them to all come together smoothly but I feel like it didn't translate as well as it should.

The ending surprised me because I thought I knew how it went down. I had always heard this movie being inspired by what happened to Christine Chubbuck, so I was expecting a suicide to play into it. What actually happened was so cold and calculated it caught me by surprise.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: A

Memorable Quote: "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore." - Howard Beale (Peter Finch)

Thursday Movie Picks: Let's Start At The End

This week's Theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is all about those movies that begin at the end. There's so many to choose from so I went with three films that start out with the main character's death before we see how they got there.

1) American Beauty

Lester Burnham tells us right from the get go that "in a few months, I'll be dead." This remains my all time favorite movie.

2) Sunset Boulevard

This is one of the best films I've seen on my Blind Spot list and one of the first things we see is our lead's lifeless body floating in a pool. 

3) Into The Wild

We know immediately that Chris' wilderness trek isn't going to end well. This was a wonderful little film that despite being an Oscar nominee, feels a bit underrated. 

Review: Shazam!

I choose you as champion.

Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is a foster kid that is constantly running away trying to find his real mother. One day a wizard (Djimon Hounsou) chooses him to inherit his powers when he says the magic work - Shazam! The only person Billy can tell at first is his new foster brother, Freddy. (Jack Dylan Grazer) They attempt to test out his powers before having to face off with a real villain, Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong)

Shazam is a comic character I'm not familiar with at all, so I went into this pretty blind and was pleasantly surprised with how much fun this is. Zachary Levi, who plays Billy in Shazam form has excellent chemistry with Grazer and the film is at its best when the two of them are together. It's definitely geared towards tweens/teens. It makes me wonder if this will be some generation's Last Action Hero. Plenty of the jokes land, and I appreciated the quick Street Fighter reference. If you're bringing young children, there is one part that's pretty scary for them. It's actually surprising how graphic this specific death is, but they'll recover quickly. Or at least my son did.

The actors and the jokes are what carry the film but it suffers from a few things. Mainly the special effects, which are pretty terrible. I know this film didn't have a huge budget but if they're building a universe they need to throw some of their Aquaman money at these other films too. It's bad enough that Levi is clearly running around in a rubber padded suit, but those demons felt like they were from the early 2000's. The 3rd act also has some pacing issues. You should never go into a comic book movie's 3rd act and wish they'd hurry up and get to it, they're supposed to be fast paced.

There's one other thing I'm undecided on and I'd love to hear your thoughts: This movie pokes a lot of fun at Batman v Superman (Aquaman too in the second end credits scene) and I'm torn on whether or not it's funny or a bad idea. It's really on the nose, and even if those were misfires should you really be taking the piss out of the films that started the very universe they're continuing to build? We do that enough on the internet already. I think it might be better to not acknowledge how much they crashed and burned and just try to move forward.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B

Memorable Quote: "Get him, Batman!" - Shazam (Zachary Levi)

Review: Unicorn Store

We have what you need

Kit (Brie Larson) is a 20 something who has just failed out of art school because no one appreciates her childlike vision. She moves back in with her parents, (Joan Cusak and Bradley Whitford) and takes a temp job at an office to try to feel more adults. Then she receives an invitation to a store that "sells what you need." She meets the eccentric Salesman (Samuel L. Jackson) who says he can sell her what she's always wanted....a unicorn.

When this premiered at TIFF back in 2017 it got pretty lukewarm reviews and currently sits at a 5.0 on IMDb. But has a big fan of Brie Larson and a 31 year old woman who loves a good shimmer eye shadow, I was always going to see this no matter what the reviews said. 

I think the underwhelming consensus is wrong of course because Unicorn Store is an absolute delight of a film. Larson seems very comfortable behind the camera despite this being her first time directing. I suppose you could make an argument that some of the supporting characters falling flat, but that felt like the point to me. Kit is trying to fit in a dull world when she wishes she could be in a world full of glitter and color. And she can, but she doesn't know how to find that yet. She's not exactly coming of age, but she's coming into a balance of sorts.

Brie is great of course, as is Samuel L. Jackson in his small role, but there are two other supporting characters that I think are wonderful as well. Karan Soni (Who was hilarious in Miracle Workers) who plays her old friend and somewhat nemesis Kevin, and the more prominent Virgil (Mamoudou Athie, who was the standout in The Front Runner) who plays the man she enlists to help build a stable for her unicorn. I especially loved the chemistry Athie and Larson had together.

The plot is outlandish enough to where the ending could go a few different ways, and I think the note it ended on was lovely. Netflix has really been getting me with these lighter films. I feel similarly to this as I do Dumplin', I just adore it. 

Recommended: Yes

Grade: A-

Memorable Quote: "Don't you just want to jump into that screen and hug the shit out of your own precious pink unicorn? - The Salesman (Samuel L. Jackson)

Thursday Movie Picks: Unrecognizable Actor Transformations

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is about those actors who took it to the next level and transformed themselves for a role. These are the three that I thought of first.

Christian Bale - Vice 

He not only gained a bunch of weight, but he completely nailed Dick Cheney's voice. Out of my three picks, this is the only movie that I actually like. 

Jared Leto - Chapter 27

Why yes, that bloated dude is Jared Leto, playing John Lennon's killer in the dreadfully dull Chapter 27. He apparently ended up with gout at some point because of his dramatic weight gain. 

Rooney Mara - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

While most women would've slapped on a wig and fake piercings, Rooney Mara actually got that awful haircut, bleached her eyebrows and truly got all the piercings Lisbeth Salander had. That's commitment. 

Rambling TV: What I watched in March

I'm once again going to attempt to keep a semi regular schedule talking about what I watched on TV. I plan on posting at the end of each month. Some of these shows started before March but since I finished them up this month, I'll throw them in here too. Here's what I've been watching on the small screen.

I Am The Night (TNT)

This started in January and it caught my eye because it starred Chris Pine and was slightly related to the Black Dahlia case. Overall, it was fine. India Eisley was really good in the lead role but this wasn't must see TV for me. It was well done, but ultimately a bit forgettable. 

Miracle Workers (TBS)

This show is beyond stupid but it's funny as hell. Daniel Radcliffe and Geraldine Viswanathan play two angels who are tasked with making two humans fall in love or else God, played by Steve Buscemi is going to blow up Earth. 

The Good Place (Netflix)

My husband and I binged this on Netflix. It started out as just background noise but we eventually got into it. It has some great one liners, but I don't think it's something I'd tune into week after week. I could just wait for the next season to drop on Netflix. Weirdly enough, it's the lead, Kristen Bell who is the part of this I like the least. Everyone else feels natural in their roles. She feels like she's acting. 

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon)

I have a free trial for Pime so of course I watched the first two seasons immediately. I LOVE this show. I don't think Prime is worth it financially to me so I'm gutted I won't get to see season 3 very easily. But I'll find away. it's worth it. 

The Case Against Adnan Syed (HBO)

This case was made famous when the podcast Serial talked about it, and now HBO turned it into a four part mini series. I never listened to the podcast, but I recall reading an article about it after it originally aired. Watching this has mostly felt like new information to me so I've found it fascinating. It's depressing that Adnan was denied a new trial. One thing I really appreciated about this doc was that Hei was never lost in the shuffle. Especially in the first episode, they really reminded you that she was a person and she's not getting justice either with the wrong person in jail. 

Thursday Movie Picks - TV Edition - Non English Shows

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is another Non English TV week. We all know I struggle this with, so I thought I'd check in on my picks from last year that I said I was going to watch. Let's see how I did.

1) Death Note

I expected to like this quite a bit, but this was like watching a TV version of Chutes and Ladders. One step forward, another step back. It doesn't help that Light, the lead character is a beyond insufferable Gary Stu and then we're introduced to Misa who felt like the author was like "Oh yeah I need hot chicks in this" and she automatically becomes Light's fangirl. Then they kill the one character that was actually given a ton of development and replace him with someone else who is basically just the boring version of said character. Ugh. 

2) Attack on Titan

I started this last year, not long after I made my original post and I've been absolutely loving it. I haven't been this into an anime in quite some time. Since there is such a long wait between seasons I also started to read the Manga, now I'm all caught up with that and get to impatiently wait for the next volume every month like everyone else. 

3) Dark

I didn't like this one as much as I thought it would either. The time travel aspect of it really took it down in my opinion. It ended up being really jumbled and disappointing. I was ready to adore this German show.

Review: Us

Watch yourself.

Adelaide, (Lupita Nyong'o) her husband Gabe, (Winston Duke) and their two children Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and Jason (Evan Alex) are off to their summer home. After Adelaide reluctantly gets dragged to the beach and asks Gabe if they can leave in the morning, they start being terrorized by people who show up to their home and look exactly like them.

You've probably already read to go into Us knowing as little as possible and I agree with that. The less the better, even though the trailer truly does spoil a lot of things. I had good time watching this. It was tense, yet still had moments of amazingly subtle humor. As someone who frequently jokes when I feel uncomfortable, I liked that Zora and Gabe did that occasionally. It makes this family feel like real people and not just characters. 

The actors are all fantastic, especially Nyong'o who carries the majority of the film. She had good chemistry with Duke. She was the serious parent and he the goofy one, I thought they played off each other well. The supporting cast of Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker aren't in it for very long, but I liked what they did as well.)

But there's one thing that needs to be said about Us. While it's very enjoyable throughout, and it's something I'd certainly watch again. It's one of those films where the more you think about it, the more the story kind of falls apart.  I'm going to put a few questions I had in white text below for those who have seen the movie to let me know what you think too. If you are one of those people who don't take movies home with you, I don't think this will be an issue, but if you like to sit with them for a while you may find yourself picking this story apart. Still, I don't think you should avoid watching this for that reason. It's a very good film with an amazing cast, an interesting concept, beautiful little details, and an amazing score. 

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B

Memorable Quote: "Dad, nobody wants your boat." - Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph)

Spoilers! Highlight over the white text below to read

1) Why didn't the real Adelaide try to escape the tethered since she was aware of the outside world? Was Red only allowed to get to the entrance because her doppleganger was there? Is that why Adelaide never tries to leave?

2) Was there only on facility? If they're trying to form a chain across the world, there had to be more, right? If so, how were they communicating to know Red's plan?

3) Were they only cloning people at the fair? Or are we to deduce that EVERYONE is cloned?

4) How did they survive after it was abandoned? 

Indie Gems: Super Dark Times

We shouldn't tell anybody about this..

Zach (Owen Campbell) and Josh (Charlie Tahan) are best friends growing up somewhere in America during the 90's. They end up in a devastating situation and the resulting cover up puts a strain on their should be unbreakable friendship. 

At first, I was worried I was going to end up in a Summer of 84 scenario where we followed around kids I could not care less about. One of Zach and Josh's friends, Daryl (Charlie Tahan) is one of the first people we're introduced to and he's so over the top and irritating I was prepared for the worst, but the film rightly sticks with Zach and Josh, and eventually Zach's crush, Allison. (Elizabeth Cappuccino)

I was familiar with both Campbell and Tahan from some of their other work and they are both wonderful here. Especially Campbell who ultimately anchors this film. It's his POV we follow. They feel like real friends. The chemistry they have together, and that Zach also has with Allison never has an un-genuine moment. 

The film does a good job of building to the accident that kicks things off, and again when they try to navigate the aftermath. For a film with a run time of 1 hr 43 minutes, it doesn't have time to drag. However, there is one huge fault to this...

They completely rush the ending. So much so that the resolution is in no way satisfying. I wouldn't even call it ambiguous because they don't even leave us with enough to think about after the credits rolled. For a film that was doing everything right, it shocks me how hard they dropped the ball here. This is almost right up there with The Butterfly Effect when it comes to films that are doing so well until the ending comes along and brings all that fine story to a screeching halt. 

I don't think everyone will be as annoyed with the ending as I was, and for that reason alone, I still recommend it, because aside from that it's very well done and the rushed nature doesn't ruin the film, only disappoints me that there wasn't more.

Grade: B+

Watched on: Netflix Instant

Memorable Quote: "We're friends.." - Zach (Owen Campbell)

Thursday Movie Picks: Private Eyes

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves is about those detectives that work on their own. I don't know about you, but this stumped me a bit. Every time I thought of a private eye movie I realized they didn't technically qualify as private. They were always part of a police force. This is what I came up with.

1) The Nice Guys

Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are a match made in private eye heaven. This movie was so much funnier than I expected it to be. It still gets quoted a lot in my house.

2) Harriet The Spy

I loved this movie when I was a kid and my friend and I used to pretend to be her and spy on our neighbors. Classy.

3) V/H/S/2

This is a cop out, but like I said. This was tough, but V/H/S/2 does start out with private detectives uncovering the tapes. One of the shorts in this film is really good and the rest range from meh to bad. But it was better than the first V/H/S

2019 Blind Spot Series: Enter The Dragon

What I knew going in: That there would be excellent fighting scenes. 

Growing up, I had family members in Karate, I would play Mortal Combat with friends on their Nintendos. I would watch movies like 3 Ninjas, Karate Kid and anything with Jackie Chan, but of course I didn't see a damn thing with the famed Bruce Lee. I'm not sure how that was possible. I even saw The Crow with his son but yet I had seen nothing but clips of Lee's work. Now here I am in my 30's trying to make up for that oversight.

Enter The Dragon is actually kind of a mess. It's not only about Lee (Bruce Lee), who plays a secret agent infiltrating a crime lord Han's ( Kien Shih) tournament. His henchmen are also responsible for the death of Lee's sister. But it also features two Americans, Roper (John Saxon) and Williams (Jim Kelly) who are also there dealing with their own things.

It's a bit distracting, but I was drawn to Williams, not only because Kelly is insanely hot but he was escaping racist cops so I was immediately on his side..and he's the first to die of the bunch. It just had weird pacing and I found myself getting annoyed whenever Roper was on screen because I didn't care for him the way I did Lee and Williams. Lee's character weirdly gets treated like an afterthought at times despite this being his movie. 

The martial arts however was fantastic and did not disappoint. Lee is a joy to watch. Over all, I was expecting this to be a bit faster pace but I still had a good time watching it. I think my expectations were just slightly too high.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: C+

Memorable Quote: "A board can't hit back." - Lee (Bruce Lee)

Indie Gems: Other People

I thought this happened to other people. 

David (Jesse Plemmons) is a writer living in New York who flies home to Sacramento to be with his dying mother, Joanne (Molly Shannon) as she quits chemo. His relationship with his family is strained since he came out 10 years prior and they did not take it well, especially his father. (Bradley Whitford) Now the current situation forces everyone to rethink what family means to them.

This fell into my Netflix black hole after reading Jay's review on Assholes Watching Movies and while I thought it sounded like something I'd like, I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. What I've found during this Netflix clean out is I tend to drift towards my cell phone while watching some of these films, I never did once here.

Cancer dramas can be very cliche, but writer/director Chris Kelly (Who apparently wrote this based off his own experiences) litters his film with genuine humor and skips all the platitudes. David and Joanne, as our main focus feel like mother and son. You can tell just by listening to Joanne where David gets his knack for comedy from, even though he's at a point in his life where he's not successful. 

Molly Shannon is absolutely amazing here. For me, when I see her I think of Superstar, even though I know she's done a ton of more dramatic work since then. I didn't get a single second of Mary Katherine Gallagher here. I stayed strong with her at the beginning and wept for her at the end. Plemmons also puts in great work. David isn't the most likable character, but he's never so bad to where I don't care about him. All of this is just happening at the worst possible time.

If you need a film to amuse you for a while, then make you cry it all out at the end. (or maybe I'm a wuss and you'll power through it) This one is for you.

Grade: A-

Watched on: Netflix

Memorable quote: "When you miss me, come visit your sisters." - Joanne (Molly Shannon)

Thursday Movie Picks: Movies You Thought You'd Hate, But Ended Up Enjoying

This week Wanderer was kind enough to take one of my suggestions. We've all been there, right? Gone into a movie with the lowest of low expectations and them come out pleasantly surprised? Or in some cases loving what you saw? That's what we're talking about this week. Here are some films that surpassed my expectations. 

1) Nebraska

I put off seeing this until the very last second the year it was nominated for an Oscar because what would a black and white film set in the Midwest have that could possibly interest me? Turns out a decent amount. This was far better than I expected.

2) Aquaman

I wasn't a fan of the character, I wasn't a fan of Momoa, and The DCEU's track record sucks, but I had a ton of fun watching this. It surpassed every expectation I had. 

3) Red Eye

I remember the night I saw this very clearly. I worked at a movie theater, and we were opening this and The 40 Year Old Virgin. We stayed after work the night before, and everyone wanted to watch the latter, but our boss was like "Come on, this is like 90 minutes, we can watch both." And we did, and this ended up being amazing for what it was. 

What Movie Sparked Your Love for Cinema?

I saw this question on Twitter as part of a "get to know me" game and when I tried to think of the answer for myself, what I came up with kind of surprised me.

I've mentioned before that working at a movie theater as a teenager is what broadened my horizon for films, but what was the movie that got me to look at cinema beyond the comedic and horror films that I normally stuck with?

At first I thought of American Beauty. It's my all time favorite movie which I saw for the first time at age 13. While it's very important to me because it was the first time I considered dysfunctional families and stopped feeling alone about it, I never really got into anything like it until years later. 

I thought of all the Shirley Temple movies I would record off of AMC when I was little just so I could watch her tap. I loved those too, but I never watched other classic films. 

I loved big franchises like Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter, but back then I was just enjoying the ride and not thinking about the process. At least not right away. 

Weirdly enough, I think the movie that changed cinema for me was a small, tough to watch indie called Mysterious Skin. You see, when I worked at that theater we'd get magazines showing all the upcoming films. And because I lived in a small town it means we rarely, almost never got independent films. When I read about Mysterious Skin, it intrigued me. And it starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who I was familiar with. 

The funny thing about this is that there was a decent amount of time between me learning about the film and it actually coming out on DVD to rent. But just reading about it changed something. I remember finding IMDb, getting recommendations, saving titles, learning about the Sundance Film Festival and going on a movie watching spree. When I'd actually see it in the fall of 2005, it was heavy. It deals with child abuse and plenty of things that make me uncomfortable to think about but I was in awe of how well it was made and how good JGL was in it. How director Gregg Araki shot around those uncomfortable scenes made me appreciate the film making aspect that I had rarely considered before. All I had to compare it to at the time were those shitty Lifetime movies my mom would try to scare me with. This was in another league. 

That same fall, my boyfriend and I drove to the nearest big city and spent a few days doing nothing but watching all the movies in theaters that our local one would never get. We ended up seeing a lot of the eventual Oscar nominees for that year, and that started my tradition of religiously watching it. 

Because of Mysterious Skin, I looked for more independent films. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stopped being the kid from 3rd Rock and 10 Things and became my favorite actor. Because of Mysterious Skin, I'd look up Brady Corbet's filmography and find Thirteen, a film that remains in my Top 5 today. That led to me seeing Evan Rachel Wood, and her becoming one of my favorite actresses too.  It's probably because of Mysterious Skin that I tend to gravitate towards all this dark and dysfunctional story telling. (Actually, maybe I can blame that one on American Beauty. Or all those slashers my parents somehow allowed me to watch.) 

Regardless, while I always liked watching movies, I don't think I truly loved everything about them until I was 18, reading that theater magazine in between stringing up projectors and having an obscure title catch my eye. 

What movie did that for you? 

Also thank you for making it to the end of this rambling. 

Review: Captain Marvel

What makes her a hero.

Vers (Brie Larson) is a Kree warrior whose life is dedicated to fighting Skrulls. She has no memories of anything else. During a mission, she is captured by a Skrull named Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) who unearths fragments buried deep in her subconscience. After she escapes, she crash lands on Planet C-53 also known as Earth, and meets up with a young S.H.I.E.L.D agent, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to fight the infiltrating Skrulls and figure out her past.

After all this time, finally Marvel has given us a female led super hero movie and if you've spent any considerable amount of time on the internet, you know incels are pissed about it. So every time this movie flat out showed a man trying to talk down to a woman, harass a woman, or expected to be owed something from her, I smiled, because I knew somewhere there was a man-baby getting all bent out of shape about it.

Shitty people aside, Captain Marvel was a blast. It gets off to a rough start with a dark battle and mostly uninteresting characters but as soon as Vers lands on Earth and meets up with Nick Fury, this movie comes alive. I didn't realize how much I missed consistently seeing Fury in these movies. Jackson has excellent chemistry with Larson and Vers and Fury together are very similar personality wise. The heart of the story is when Vers finds out she is Carol Danvers and meets up with her old friend, Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch)

I liked how they tied things together with the other MCU movies. We see a few familiar faces from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise and our favorite traveling infinity stone also makes another appearance. I think Carol is going to fit in nicely with the other Avengers too. I especially want her to have scenes with Wanda because she's my current favorite.

If there was one thing I was worried about when Captain Marvel was announced, it was how they handle her power. She's been hyped as the most powerful being in the universe so I was afraid they would introduce her as this deus ex machina and that she would run over all the other Avengers. But, I should've just trusted The Russos. Even though they had nothing to do with this movie, they seem to be taking those fears seriously and they have proven to write weaknesses in the already OP characters like Thor, Scarlet Witch, and Hulk. 

Another aside, what they do with the Marvel logo at the beginning of this film might make you cry.

Recommended: Yes

Grade: B+

Memorable Quote: "Your ass." - Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) simultaneously 

Indie Gems: The Incredible Jessica James

I'm dope.

Jessica (Jessica Williams) is an aspiring playwright  who still pines for her ex-boyfriend. (Lakeith Stanfield) Her friend, Tasha (Noel Wells) sets her up with an acquaintance, Boone (Chris O'Dowd) who is also fresh out of a relationship and they strike up a friendship.

I have no excuse for how long it took me to watch this film. I think Jessica Williams and Chris O'Dowd are hilarious, and this got great reviews when it came out. It just fell into the Netflix black hole. I'm happy to say this did not disappoint.

If you're familiar with Williams from her stint on The Daily Show, her humor is all over this. I'm guessing she was given a lot of leeway to improvise and it all works in her favor. Same with O'Dowd, only he can sell himself with "Also, I'm good at cunnilingus" so nonchalantly. 

There's not a lot in terms of plot here but that's okay. Jessica is interesting and it was so easy to root for her throughout. I liked how they handled all of her relationships too, between her and Boone, Tasha, Damon, and everyone else around her. It felt very organic and funny. I really wish I would've seen this sooner, because it's something I can easily see myself watching again and again.

Grade: A

Watched on: Netflix

Memorable Quote: "Oh...you probably think...no I mean she's good with dick." - Boone (Chris O'Dowd)

Thursday Movie Picks: The Cold War

This week's theme from Wandering Through The Shelves are movies that take place during the Cold War. I quickly realized that I don't have a lot of films I like with this theme, or even ones that I've seen. I'm sure I'll be kicking myself for not thinking of several movies once I read everyone else's but for now I'm stuck. Here are some Cold War movies that are on my watch list that I haven't gotten to yet. 

1) Charlie Wilson's War

Julia Roberts initially put me off from seeing this, which is crazy because it stars Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman and they are two of my favorite actors. 

2) Good Night and Good Luck

Another one that has been in my Netflix queue for ages. I've seen parts of this movie just never in one sitting. Admittedly, I was bored with what I saw, but I'd like to give this film a fair shot eventually.

3) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

I have no desire to see this to be honest but my husband really liked it so I feel I should watch it for him.