BRUCE LEE: THE MAN, THE MYTH

BRUCE LEE: THE MAN, THE MYTH

With all the talk lately about Bruce Lee and his appearance in ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD it's probably not a coincidence that this has popped up on the (really, really cool) free streaming app Tubi. (To be fair, it's also on Amazon Prime but it was noticing the Tubi listing that prompted this post.)

 

Our small, southern town didn't have a true 'grindhouse' theater, but it did have the 'old' theaters downtown versus the 'new' theater by the mall.

The new theater got the bigger mainstream releases while the downtown theaters got, well, stuff like this. Those are also the theaters where I saw THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW and CALIGULA and BASKET CASE and the like.

Those movies, my dad took me to see. But this one - dad was off stationed in Turkey for a year and somehow I got mom to take me to this one. She stayed up in the back and let me go down closer to the front where I liked to sit - one very young, very white kid in a crowd 100% older and probably 90% non-white.

One of the best, most memorable movie-going experiences of my life.

Won't be quite the same, but here's a direct link to the film on Tubi:
https://tubitv.com/movies/282408/bruce_lee_the_man_the_myth

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME

SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME (2019)

Directed by Jon Watts

Written by Chris McKenna

Screenplay by  Erik Sommers

Starring Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Samuel L. Jackson, Marisa Tomei , Jacob Balaton, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, and Cobie Smulders

Rated PG-13

 

 

Fair warning...this isn't a big write-up, but it gets a little bit spoilery with both this film and AVENGERS: ENDGAME so if you've somehow managed to avoid all the noise about that film and the previews for this film well, not sure I'd continue past the cut...

CHARLIE'S ANGELS

CHARLIE'S ANGELS

Writer: John Layman

Artist: Joe Eisma

Colors: Celeste Woods

Letters: Taylor Esposito

Publication Date: 2018

Published by Dynamite Entertainment


Anyone who's seen the constant mentions of THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN and THE BIONIC WOMAN around here probably won't be too surprised to find out I'm also rather keen on CHARLIE'S ANGELS.

Regular readers (ha! like there's any of those since i'm not even a regular poster) also won't be too surprised that I approached the recent comic book mini-series from - again - Dynamite with a bit of trepidation.

So, does this one belong up there with THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN: SEASON SIX and WONDER WOMAN '77 MEETS THE BIONIC WOMAN or down with, well, the rest of their seventies TV series continuations?

AVENGERS: ENDGAME

AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2019)

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

Screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

Starring everyone, okay? Just...everyone....

Where to even start?

Well, first off and perhaps most importantly - NO SPOILERS HERE. I'm going to ramble on for a bit about the movie but if you want specifics as to what happens, you really should just go see it.

And, since there will be rambling, I'll go ahead and put a cut right about here:

The Forgotten DEADPOOL 2 Write-Up

Whoa.

Been even longer than the usual "man, it's been awhile" postings I usually do.

Wouldn't have been quite as long if I'd remembered to post this thing back when I initially wrote it.

It's a small thing, but at least it's actually still playing, at least in my little rinky-dink one-theater town. I guess people are still going to see it.

Anyways, here goes...

DEADPOOL 2 (2018)

Directed by David Leitch

Screenplay by Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Ryan Reynolds

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, Jack Kesy

 

Deadpool is back, and even more Deadpoolier, which is great for people who like that sort of thing. Since I enjoyed the first one, I was happy to plunk down and watch this one.

To really talk about how I feel about it, tho, I'm going to have to throw in some pretty

BIG

SPOILERS

so I'll hide them behind a cut and some pretty pictures...

SOLO - A STAR WARS STORY

SOLO - A STAR WARS STORY (2018)

Directed by Ron Howard

Screenplay by Johnathan Kasdan & Lawrence Kasdan

Starring Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clark, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Paul Bettany

Possibly some very minor spoilers ahead, so I'll toss a break in here:

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (2018)

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

Screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt and more but seriously I'm tired already....

No spoilers here, by the way.

Wow.

Remember THE AVENGERS? (And yes, I'm talking the 2012 Marvel movie, not the 1960s British spy series. If you're unfamiliar with that one I'd suggest fixing that problem as soon as possible.)

Remember wondering if they could bring a movie together that featured all three(!) of the main franchise leads, along with the other characters introduced along the way, into an entertaining film? Those were much more innocent times, weren't they?

Ten years and nineteen films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has brought us here - Thanos is finally "doing it himself" and going after the Infinity Stones that have been weaving their way thru most every MCU movie to date. Doing so will make him quite simply the most powerful being in existence and so it will take every other powerful being banding together to stop him.

Somehow, the original AVENGERS managed to give all the characters time to shine. Somehow, the Russo Brothers upped the ante with the massive CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR and it turns out that movie was just a warm-up. Nearly every named character in the MCU comes out for this one.

At this point, they're not even trying to make a movie that 'first-timers' can walk in to and follow with no issue. Maybe one line is given to *who* these people are and their relationship (if any) to the other characters they're on screen with because from the opening frame, this juggernaut of a film starts moving and only takes a breath during the final credits.

It is, basically, one long fight scene, spread across the universe as the disparate characters each have their own encounter with Thanos or his minions and find their way to each other before the final battle. Even so, they manage to pack some surprising emotional beats into the proceedings, grounding at least some of the conflicts on a more personal note than "saving the universe."

And more than maybe any other film in whole MCU series - because that's what it is, each film a chapter in a longer story - it will leave you wanting to see the next one and sooner rather than later.

Avoid spoilers and just go see it.

(and like I said, you can take a breath and maybe a bathroom break once the credits start because the only end-credits scene is allllll the way at the very end)