Movie: 3D Captain America - The Winter Soldier

Watch out! There be spoilers ahead (potentially)!

I may be getting jaded, but these superhero movies, especially the Marvel ones, are all starting to look the same. There's a superhero, a really evil bad guy, the world is about to end, superhero pummels bad guy in the last scene, world lives to see another day. Really, the superhero is interchangeable with these story lines. This could be a Thor movie, or an Iron Man movie.

That's not to say this isn't a good movie. I liked it very much. Chris Evans is a very likeable hero. It's just that there were no surprises in this movie. It really is a by-the-book superhero movie. If it was up to me, every superhero movie would be under the control of Joss Whedon, but unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world. I can't wait for the next Avengers movie.

If you are a watcher of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show (and if not, why not? It's excellent), then the plot of this movie will be familiar. It's pretty much the same as this movie. Bad guys Hydra take over S.H.I.E.L.D., and Captain America has to save it. That's what I meant earlier when I said there were no surprises in this movie.

The highlight of this movie for me was the performance of Sebastian Stan as the bad guy. This guy is really charismatic, and I've got no doubt we'll see him in more movies. It was really great to see Robert Redford as the chief bad guy as well. He adds a certain gravitas to this movie. I also thought the Captain America uniform was superbly designed, even the one at the end that he took out of the museum.

The ending of the movie sets up the next Captain America movie, and because of the box office popularity of this current Captain America, there's no doubt it will becoming in a couple of years time.

My summary, Winter Soldier is an ok movie, I liked it, but it's not the best movie I've seen so far this year. It's certainly not as good as the Avengers, but who's going to compete with the sharp mind of Joss Whedon?

Movie - The Trip To Italy

This is a very pleasant little movie.

There is no plot to speak of. It's just Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon playing fictionalised versions of themselves, driving from one restaurant to another, with the backdrop of some spectacular Italian countryside.

Not a lot happens, action wise, but the dialogue is hilarious in places, especially when they start talking about movies and doing impressions. The part where they were talking about the Dark Knight Rises, and how Michael Caine wasn't going to "bury another batman", almost caused me to leave the cinema so I could have a really good belly laugh without interrupting the other cinema patrons.

Movie: 3D X Men: Days Of Future Past

Bryan Singer is back where he belongs: making great X Men movies. His last foray into the X Menu universe was 11 years ago. Has it really been that long? Seems like only yesterday....

The plot of the movie itself is nothing original. It's been done in lots of movies. Basically, the world has gone to hell. Mutants are being hunted down and killed by giant human engineered robots who can detect mutants and adapt to their powers. The robots were created back in 1973 by a scientist, who was subsequently killed by mutant Raven, who is also known as Mystique. Of course, this killing has spurred on the government to continue working on the giant robots, with the aid of the soon captured Raven's DNA, to make the robots adaptable. Wolverine is sent back to 1973, in a fashion, to prevent Raven/Mystique from killing the scientist, and thus preventing the mutant/human war. Just like Marty McFly going back to 1955 to prevent terrorists from killing Doc Brown.

The movie is in 3D, but it didn't seem all that noticeable (I see a lot of 3D movies so maybe I'm becoming immune to it's effects). I don't think it would have made much difference to have seen the movie in 2D. I think I'm quite lucky. I have no problem with watching 3D movies. The difference in the lighting level is barely noticeable to me, and I don't get headaches like I know some people do. Maybe it's because the cinema I go to has all their machinery set up correctly (I only ever go to one cinema).

All the usual cast are back from previous X Men movies. According to IMDB, Hugh Jackman still holds the record for the most times an actor has played the same character in films, seven. He's also the only person who has been in all the X-Men films, if you count the little cameos as well. One great addition to the cast is Peter Dinklage, who was in one of my favourite movies, The Station Agent.

Wait for the end of credits, there's a little bit extra. I have no idea what it means though. I'll guess I'll have to wait till 2016 and X Men Apocalypse.

Heard In The Supermarket On This Day: May 23, 2014

Today, I heard one of my favourite Neil Diamond songs, Brooklyn Roads.

"Brooklyn Roads by Neil Diamond on YouTube"

Heard In The Supermarket On This Day: May 21, 2014

My local supermarket doesn't play the usual "muzak" when you are a walking around trying to find something to eat that hasn't been processed to within an inch of it's life. Sometimes they play some cool stuff. So I've decided to keep a record of the last song I hear as I leave the complex, mainly as a little exercise to amuse myself.

Today, we had "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS, one of the great songs ever written, in my humble opinion.

Here it is on YouTube:  "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS

By the way, as I was searching through YouTube, I also found this version from American Idol which I quite like as well:  "Never Tear Us Apart" from American Idol

Movie: Noah

Firstly I want to say that I am not religious. I don't believe any of the tales from the bible, although I do believe that the myth of the flood is based on a true event, just not on a world wide flood. I went so see this movie because I believe the basic story of Noah and the flood would provide plenty of opportunity to create a big cinematic epic, with lots of good looking visuals and thunderous, wall shaking sound effects.

This movie is just plain crazy.

Think the Bible meets Lord of the Rings, with Noah as a kick-ass ninja superhero beating up on the bad guys (all that's missing is a big ass cigar dangling from his lips with which he can light his dynamite..). I can understand why the religious people hate this movie, but I think their cause would be better served with ignoring this movie completely and not drawing any unwarranted attention to it. I suspect it will disappear off the big screen quite quickly.

The most ridiculous things are the ugly rock monsters, who start off as man's helpers (as angels I think), then enemies (when God punishes them by changing them into ugly rock monsters), and then help Noah build the ark!... Now, I'm no bible scholar, but I don't remember hearing anything about ugly rock monsters in the bible.

There was no specific mention of "God" in this movie. Everything was being done in the name of the "Creator".

Not much more I want to say about this movie. Even the music wasn't very good. I did like Emma Watson though, and Ray Winstone always makes for a good bad guy. Oh, and the guy who is Percy Jackson was ok as well.

I see this movie is in 3D as well. I didn't get that option, so, being a big 3D fan, my opinion of this move may have been different had I seen it in 3D.

Springsteen: You Never Can Tell

Absolute proof that the E Street Band are the greatest band in the world right now:

"You Never Can Tell" on YouTube

If you are not a Bruce fan, watch this and then try to resist becoming one...