The (Pod) Casting Couch - Captain America/Top 4 Sidekicks

The team (Shannon Harvey @Choc_Bomb), Andrew Williams and Laura Hewison tackle the new Marvel Flick Captain America: the First Avenger and talk about their top 4 movie sidekicks of all time. E-mail us at thepodcastingcouch@gmail.com !

           
           
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FILM: CAPTAIN AMERICA REVIEW

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

Captain America: The First Avenger is a fun, thrilling boy’s own adventure that capably delivers exactly what you’d expect from a Captain America origin story. Not a bit more, not a bit less. It’s the 80% student of comic book films – the kid that just coasts on his natural intelligence and charisma without going the extra mile.

This ‘origin’ film tells a story that most Cap fans will be familiar with and the uninitiated will pick up pretty easily. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is the skinny kid from Brooklyn who can’t get into the army. He volunteers for the Army’s Super Soldier program and soon has to match wits and muscles with the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaving). Bookended by codas that set things up for films to come, Captain America is pretty fun, pretty thrilling and pretty satisfying.

The First Avenger’s biggest asset is undoubtedly its cast. Chris Evans is fantastic as both skinny Steve and super Steve, never any less than likeable, charming and passionate – though it feels like the script and suit might just be holding his full range of charisma back. Hugo Weaving gives Loki a run for his money as my favourite Marvel movie villain to date and Hayley Atwell sells the toughness of Agent Peggy Carter beautifully. Having the most fun, though, are Stanley Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones as two of Rogers mentors. Everyone in this film is great, kicking ass and all with just enough of a twinkle in their collective eye.

My main concern going in was director Joe Johnston, who forced out ‘The Wolfman” last year and watched it die both critically and at the box office like the half-formed mutt it was. Would the man behind Jurassic Park 3 turn his recent cold streak around and do justice to the Cap? For the most part, he absolutely does. The film looks great with a nostalgic sheen, great action and beautiful make up and costumes. He doesn’t waste time with two many extraneous characters like the later X-Men films or Spider-man 3 and most of all, focuses clearly on one hero and one villain. This is all good, solid directing that ensures Cap a strong critical and commercial ride.

Here’s my one complaint, though, and it’s not so much a complaint as it is wishful thinking. I feel like Captain America had the opportunity to be truly great but Johnston plays it a little too safe. Considering Captain America’s straight-laced nature, there’s an opportunity to play his adherence to rules and dedication to what’s right a little more for real comedy. There’s an opportunity to really have his romance with Peggy Carter make us feel something, but again Johnston holds back, instead choosing to create false tension with random side characters.  Hugo Weaving always feels like he could really go into memorable evil psychopath mode but again, the movie holds back, not wanting to err on the side of being too cartoonish. I would venture that nothing in this film is truly bad, a rare feat, but nothing in this film is truly great, either – and that’s fine. Better the movie pass the commercial and critical tests and set up a sequel rather than go the way of Green Lantern. Maybe those opportunities for greatness will be seized in the sequels now the character has been established, and fans of the comic books will certainly recognize where the groundwork is being laid.

There are some concerns that the film won’t do well overseas because the American patriotism won’t play, and that’s certainly an unavoidable consequence of having a superhero called Captain America. The word of mouth should spread, though, that this is just an old-fashioned good vs. evil movie, and the fact the Americans are the good and the Nazis are the bad doesn’t really come into play. We’re more looking at two divisions of those armies going to head-to-head and Evans is a charming enough lead to make you forget about the more patriotic aspects of the story. It certainly didn’t bother me – I only had one real problem with Captain America and that was the baffling-for-the-uninitiated cosmic cube stuff. Marvel need to release a pamphlet or something on what’s going on there.

Captain America also features a great musical sequence from the deservedly prolific Alan Menken, some nice character work, lots of shout-outs to fan boys and in my screening, a post-credits sequence and trailer for a certain Marvel team-up. While the Avengers trailer only disappointed mildly due to its brevity and short cuts, I would say that the post-credits sequence is not worth hanging around for at all. If your bladder is bursting, just go. It’s not worth the damage.

Captain America: The First Avenger is on par with Thor as far as Marvel’s harder-to-sell heroes go and Johnston and his actors have done a more than credible job. For me, the whole movie was even with Thor on pretty much every level. It’s a really good comic book movie that sets up the mythology with style and has an above-average cast.

I wouldn’t dream of asking more than that.

MY TOP FIVE MOST ANTICIPATED FILMS FOR 2011

One of the most fun aspects of being a movie goer is the looking forward - the anticipation of films to come. So with that in mind - let's look forward with eyes full of hope...

5. THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA

Directed by: Joe Johnston

Starring: Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America

Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull

So I had to put at least one super-hero movie on the list, given my comic-book-nerd sensibilities, and this is the one. I like the fact that its got a period setting and Captain America isn’t quite as phenomenally super-powered as others in the comic book universe. Could be a different take on the super hero genre, could be a giant clusterf*** of a movie – but one way or another I’m looking forward to it.

Especially Chris Evans as Captain America. Show me a Chris Evans role and I'll show you one of the best things about that particular film. (Not another teen movie, Fantastic Four, Scott Pilgrim). So I can only hope that this is the film that puts Evans firmly on the A-List map. Expect him to turn on a witty, charming, layered performance that the material probably won't be worthy of.

I’m also excited for Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull. Hugo Weaving is always awesome, even when he has no idea who he's playing *cough* Megatron *cough*. I can only assume he'll be an awesome Red Skull. Also add the presence of Hayley Atwell and Stanley Tucci to the list of promising acting talent.

So what’s working against it? Three words: Director Joe Johnstone. As I mentioned it my comic book movie preview he’s a massive, massive question mark over the film.

4. MONEYBALL

DIRECTED BY BENNETT MILLER

STARRING BRAD PITT, PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN, CHRIS PRATT

I’m trying to think of the last truly great team sports movie I’ve seen, but surprisingly I’m struggling. Sports movies have kind of settled into a that’ll-do-pig pattern of above-average to terrible – films like Glory Road, Coach Carter and so on at the top end – and I’m hoping that this is the project that moves the sports film on from the rut its been stuck in.

Moneyball is a movie based on one of my favourite books – Moneyball  by Michael Lewis – and it offers the filmmakers a chance to make this one of the first sports movies about the creation of a team and all the politics involved. Great cast as you can see above – keep an eye on Chris Pratt who has a very charming presence – and the possibility that there could be a really good sports movie in 2011 puts this at number 4 on my list.

3. CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE

DIRECTED BY: GLENN FICARRA, JOHN REQUA

STARRING: STEVE CARELL, RYAN GOSLING, EMMA STONE

The plot to Crazy, Stupid, Love looks brilliantly simple – man has marital problems, young man he meets helps him get back on the horse – but hopefully the talent involved gives a signal that there’s more to it than that. The romantic dramedy is a tricky thing to get right at the best of times but if one man can pull it off I reckon it might be Steve Carell.

If you’ve ever seen the American version of the Office, you’ll know that Steve Carell can pull off pretty much any moment they give him. Broad comedy, subtle comedy, affecting drama, romantic, scared, angry or whatever he’s a far, far better actor than any sitcom deserves. Even when the writing has let him down in later seasons, he’s still been able to elevate the material. From what I know about the role, they couldn’t have found a better man to do it.

Add to that potent lead performance an assist from the wonderful Ryan Gosling and my new favourite actress Emma Stone and we’ve got the potential for a romantic drama that might rise above the mediocre mire the genre has been saddled with so far.

2. TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY

DIRECTED BY: TOMAS ALFREDSON

STARRING: GARY OLDMAN, COLIN FIRTH, TOM HARDY

Anyone familiar with the material will know exactly why I’m so excited about this film. One of my favourite stories, whether filmed or read, this long-awaited version of the famous John Le Carre novel should provide us spy thriller aficionados with the fix we’ve been waiting for. What’s more, I think they’ve picked the exact right man to helm it in Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson, a man who understands the power of atmosphere better than most.

You may have noticed I focus a lot on the casts involved in these films and that’s for two reasons. Firstly I think that the mark of a promising film is the quality of the actors prepared to get involved in it and secondly good actors can elevate bad material to middling, middling to good, good to great and great to outstanding. There is an endless list of movies that depend on their performances for the greatness they achieve.

Here, the cast might just be the best assembled in any of these films. Gary Oldman is donning the brogues to play George Smiley, and he’ll be supported by Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Stephen Graham, Ciaran Hinds and Benedict Cumberbatch. As for the story, it’s second to none and with the talent involved, this might be the film of 2011. But what am I looking forward to even more than this?

1. THE IDES OF MARCH

DIRECTED BY: GEORGE CLOONEY

STARRING: RYAN GOSLING, GEORGE CLOONEY, PAUL GIAMATTI

Little is known about the Ides of March, so I’m taking a lot on spec here. This could go horribly, horribly wrong but if there’s one genre of film I love even more than the spy/conspiracy thriller, it’s the political movie, and specifically, the political movie about dirty tricks and backroom deals. Some of us are just predisposed to like certain types of movies. For some, it’s the zombie film, for some the underdog sports movie and for others any movie based on a Nicholas Sparks novel.

For me, it’s the political thriller. The Ides of March is a stage play based on the Beau Willimon play about a young man in politics getting a crash course in dirty tricks. Once again, check out the cast – Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Max Minghella, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright – outstanding.

The real eye-catcher for me though is the presence of George Clooney as director. One of my favourite films of all time is Good Night and Good Luck, the political-journalism film about Edward R. Murrow and all the backstage drama that went on around him. Clooney directed and featured in that and if this film captures any of the lightning in a bottle that film had, it’s going to be my favourite film of 2011.

SOME HONOURABLE MENTIONS

THOR – Camp superhero fun with an interesting director in Kenneth Branagh.

SOURCE CODE – The new film from Duncan Jones who showed so much potential in the anything-but-perfect Moon.

APOLLO 18: Cloverfield meets Apollo 13 meets Night watch, kind of.

HORRIBLE BOSSES: Could be the better R-rated comedy of the year and maybe the first good Jennifer Aniston film in years?

WAR HORSE: Oscar bait from Stephen Spielberg sounds like the best tearjerker of the year.

COWBOYS AND ALIENS: Um, it has cowboys and aliens. I’m looking forward to the sequel, Angels and Samurai.

SUPER 8: J. J. Abrams Area 51-ish follow up to the found-footage, brilliantly promoted Cloverfield.

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and 'Roger Sterling' in a film adapted from a Philip K. Dick short story.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS: Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis’s combined charm and sexual charisma might make the screen explode.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS: The short production time is a worry but the presence of great actors and a more than capable director has be optimistic.