Mike TV Goes to the Movies

Look, I know what you’re thinking: “Mike just talks about television, what does he know about movies?” Well, for one, you’re a dick, why would you be so against me talking about movies? That’s weird. I go to movies a lot. So I’m gonna talk about ’em.

This weekend I saw Captain America: the First Avenger and Friends with Benefits.  Completely different movies, except for all the Nazis running around- there’s nothing sexier than watching Justin Timberlake sock Hitler in the face…. I wish I knew Photoshop so I could show you how awesome that would be. If you’re out there and have free time, send me that picture and I’ll give you high fives for days.

Make that picture be here!

Captain America is the last installment before all of the Marvel movies culminate in the Avengers next summer. It follows the story of Steve Rogers, who goes from weakling to the first Super Soldier during WW2. The cast is pretty solid, led by Chris Evans as Captain America. I have to admit when his role was first announced, I was apprehensive, I just knew him to be the sort of dumb and arrogant guy from Fantastic Four and Not Another Teen Movie. Watching Sunshine is what convinced me he had the gravitas to pull off playing the Captain. And gravitas is definitely necessary- Captain America differs from most super heroes, he’s not who you go to for clever quips, and he’s not driven by tragedy. Rogers is motivated by his love for his country and the belief in what is right. Evans handles the little guy given strength perfectly, but don’t expect Robert Downey Jr. level quippage from him, that’s not Captain America’s thing. Which is probably going to bug moviegoers; these days they expect superhero movies to be filled with wit and clever banter, unless they’re made by Nolan.  The powers behind this flick could’ve fleshed out the side characters to bring the humor more than they did.

The biggest part that bugged me was the middle montage scene. We see Cap and the Howling Commandos starting to take down Hydra bases, but we don’t see any fight in detail nor do they show the characters getting to know each other- just that since it’s a montage time has passed and obviously they’re all now great friends. That and I could have used more of Rogers’ and Bucky’s friendship in the beginning of the movie pre-Super Soldier serum. They only hint at the friendship those to have, and part of the movie suffers from that neglect. The supporting cast including Tommy Lee Jones, Dominic Cooper (who I cannot wait to see tear it up in the Devil’s Double), Haley Atwell and Stanley Tucci do fine work filling out their roles. The one downfall in the cast is Hug Weaving as the Red Skull, who most of the time seems like he forgets which country the Skull is from as he jumps from accent to accent.

When it comes down to it, Captain America is a fun summer film that could have used a little more meat to it. It was better than Thor and Iron Man 2, but not up to par with the first Iron Man. As always stay til after the credits…I cannot wait for the Avengers next summer. Words can’t express that enough.

Friends with Benefits (or the friends who fuck movie you should see instead of No Strings Attached) is the second flick I saw this weekend, and the more enjoyable of the two. That’s no insult to Captain America, just showing how good this romcom was. Mostly because it did what most romantic comedies forget to do, bring the comedy! It was directed and co-written by Will Gluck, who was also behind last year’s Easy A. After these two films, I’ll be following his projects pretty closely. With Easy A, Gluck took high school movies and played within their tropes while commenting on how dumb they can be, and FwB he does the same thing to romantic comedies. It’s entirely predictable, because that’s the whole point of the movie. But within the familiar plot, Gluck and crew comment on how unreal those movies usually are, and help ground this one with actual reality. If Meta bugs you, this movie will- be warned. Luckily for me, I love that shit.

It also helps how charismatic the cast is. I could watch Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis talk about pretty much anything. In the last couple of years, Timberlake has proven he can handle any kind of movie, and he does comedy well, though at times he’s over the top (most of the time over the top works in the film; there’s a few times he seems like a petulant child). Kunis is a dream to look at, plus she can act her balls off; out of all the That 70’s Show alum, she is by far the best- I never would have guessed that back in the day. The cast is rounded out by fine actors, Patricia Clarkson, Richard Jenkins, Jenna Elfman and Nolan Gould (Luke from Modern Family- kills it here as a little magician) all do great comedic work, and bring the heavy when it needs to be there. The Alzheimer’s stuff can be a little heavy handed, as is Woody Harrelson’s gay sports editor, but neither get in the way of a very funny movie. Oh, and the fake romantic comedy throughout the movie starring Jason Segel and Rashida Jones is fucking ridiculous.-MG