Nerd in the 'Noke

Shazam! (2019), PG-13, 2 h 12min - Shazam! has been out for a couple of weeks now (not including the early preview weekend), and after being delayed by much needed yard work, I was finally able to check it out last weekend.  I haven't had much time to work on my review, but I did want to get something written up on it so I apologize in advance for this being short and sweet. I have very little prior experience and knowledge of the character.  As a matter of fact, the only Shazam! material I had read before seeing the movie was the story arc that Geoff Johns and Gary Frank did as backup features in Justice League during DC's New 52 era, and the first couple of issues of Johns' current run on the title with Dale Eaglesham.  Which actually turned out to be fortunate, as this film takes a lot of inspiration from Johns' take on Billy Batson and family. Billy (Asher Angel) is an orphan who has bounced around from group home to foster family and back over and over as he...

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), R, 129 Minutes - Each year there seems to be at least one action flick released opposite whatever romantic drama/comedy hits theaters in attempts to take advantage of the very commercial holiday.  This year that film was Kingsman: The Secret Service, adapted by director Matthew Vaugh from the Mark Millar/Dave Gibbons created comic book. Kingsman is an independent intelligence organization that operates for the betterment of mankind with no political agenda.  The only way to become a Kingsman agent is to be recruited by a surviving agent when another agent has passed.  That is the scenario we are shown in this film.  Eggsy (Taron Egerton), a bit of a troubled youth, is taken under the wing of Kingsman agent Harry Hart, code name: Galahad (Colin Firth).  We come to learn that Eggsy's father died saving Galahad and other agents on a mission years before.  Galahad becomes a surrogate father of sorts as Eggsy quickly ris...

The Imitation Game (2014), PG-13, 114 minutes - The Imitation Game is the type of film that seems to have been made especially for someone like me. Biopic? Check. Period piece set during World War II? Check. Benedict Cumberbatch leading a wonderful cast? Check. Educational (despite expected liberties in the story taken by Hollywood)? Check. This film is based on the life of Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), focusing particularly on his efforts to crack the German Enigma code during World War II. We're shown his social awkwardness and eccentricities as he is assigned to a team of mathematicians and crypt-analysts yet stubbornly works alone on the design of a machine that he believes is the only way that they will be able to crack Enigma within the daily time constraints (the Germans would re-key Enigma on a daily basis). Only after meeting and working with Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley) does he learn how to better interact with his team, consisting of Hugh Alexander ...

Zero Dark Thirty (2012), R, 157 minutes - Zero Dark Thirty.  Military slang for thirty minutes past an unspecified hour in the early morning (before 10am when the hours are prefixed by a '0').  This is the phrase that provides Kathryn Bigelow's latest military thriller chronicling the ten year hunt for Osama bin Laden with its name (similarly to 2008's The Hurt Locker). Based on first hand accounts, Zero Dark Thirty begins with an eerie, blank screen with cell phone and radio chatter from people experiencing the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.  It then skips forward two years and picks up with the interrogation of a detained al Queda member by a CIA agent named Dan (Jason Clarke).  Mid way through the interrogation we are introduced to the driving force behind the successful search for bin Laden, another CIA agent named Maya (Jessica Chastain).  Maya is fairly new to the CIA and is on her first assignment.  Brutal torture tactics ...

Zero Dark Thirty is director Kathryn Bigelow's first film since her Oscar winning effort The Hurt Locker (Best Director and Best Picture in 2010).  It is based on the hunt for, and death of Osama bin Laden thanks to Navy SEAL Team 6 in May of 2011. The Hurt Locker was a very small budget film, filled with great performances from relatively unknown actors at the time.  This time around, she is armed with a much larger budget for another military thriller and a cast filled with promising and veteran stars.  Jessica Chastain has proven to be a force with roles in recent films like The Debt, The Help, and The Tree of Life).  Joel Edgerton was excellent in Warrior, and Mark Strong and Kyle Chandler are good in just about everything they work on. With all of the classified information that revolves around such events, we may never know how accurate this portrayal of the story is.  It will be interesting to see how politically charged the film turns out to be. ...

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011), R, 127 minutes - I've been looking forward to this film for a couple months now (ever since first seeing the trailer online), looking forward to it for a couple of reasons: 1) Gary Oldman and Colin Firth are on my 'must see' list, and 2) Tom Hardy is quickly racking up a resume worthy of being on said 'must see' list.  It also doesn't hurt when you throw in John Hurt and Mark Strong for good measure. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is, as one might expect, a spy flick.  I have not read the source material (John Le Carre's novel) so I cannot compare how the film lives up to the story, but in my opinion it is a very well made 'thriller' at that.  I use quotes when I say thriller because it is actually a fairly slow moving film.  There really aren't any action sequences to speak of (unless you count one scene in which Tom Hardy's character gets punched).  It is a much more cerebral story than your typical t...

Green Lantern (2011), PG-13, 105 minutes - Over the past 6 years, Green Lantern, under the watchful eye of writer Geoff Johns has become one of my favorite comic books. So, as one could imagine, I've been looking forward to this pretty much since the day that it was announced. The first teaser trailer from late last year come off pretty cheesy and I started to worry a bit. Later trailers were cut differently and looked much more promising. Then, this week, initial reviews started coming out and Green Lantern was getting absolutely crushed. So last night when I went out with a few friends to see it, I wasn't sure what to expect. Could it possibly be that bad? I had a hard time believing that. Geoff Johns didn't pen the script, but he did Co-Produce the film (Marc Guggenheim, another comic author helped with the screenplay). And anyone who has read even a couple of issues of his run can tell that he cares deeply about the character. Surely Warner Brothers would li...

The Eagle (2011), PG-13, 114 minutes - I wasn't really sure what to expect going into The Eagle. On one hand, it is a Roman epic, which is generally the type of film I jump all over. On the other hand, The Eagle's star is Channing Tatum. And in the past, the only movie that he starred in that I enjoyed was Stop-Loss. He tends to headline 'chick flicks' (not that that's a bad thing, they just don't interest me at all) but definitely has the potential to be a leading action man. So, walking out of the theater with a couple friends after watching The Eagle, I was pleasantly surprised with what I had just seen. Tatum plays Marcus Aquila a young Roman Centurian who strives to find out what happened to Rome's storied Ninth Legion, and as a result, what happened to his father (the commander of the Ninth) so that he can clear the family's name. He is joined in his quest by his British slave Esca (Jamie Bell). The relationship between Marcus and Esca is ...

Robin Hood (2010), PG-13, 140 minutes - The latest Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe collaboration is not the Robin Hood story we've all grown up with. Instead it's an alt continuity story of how Robin Hood became the outlaw that robs from the rich and steals from the poor that we are all familiar with. When you get right down to it, Ridley Scott's version is a prequel that mixes up character's histories while they still filling the same roles within the story. Russell Crowe stars as Robin Longstride. That's right, Longstride. Not Loxley as in previous incarnations. Longstride actually poses as Robert Loxley at Sir Walter Loxley's (Robert's father) request after Robert and his fellow knights were killed in an ambush as they attempted to return the recently deceased King Richard's crown back to the palace (he was killed in battle). It seems like an odd request, but Sir Walter (Max von Sydow) knows that if news of his son's death reaches the public, t...

Kick-Ass (2010), R, 117 minutes - As some may know, Kick-Ass is based upon a comic book series (8 issues), written by Mark Millar and penciled by John Romita, Jr. Millar's name may sound familiar to some movie-goers even if they are not into comics. Another of his creations - Wanted - was a big summer flick a couple of years ago. Just as he did with Wanted, Millar succeeds in telling an interesting story while being shockingly violent and/or profane at times. Trust me, parts of the trailer don't even begin to portray how violent and profane Kick-Ass can be. That being said, as long as you are not easily offended and don't mind a little (ok, alot) of actiony blood-splatter, you will be thoroughly entertained by this comic book movie. Kick-Ass is the story of Dave Lizewski, your everyday nobody teenager. He wonders why no one has actually tried to be a costumed hero in real life. After having a comic book nerd debate about it with his close pals, he decides to or...