Great expectations for Superman's "Man of Steel"

Superman hits the big screen again with "Man of Steel", and many are predicting a smashing weekend, with a box office score of 108 million, and maybe a total of 1.000 million at the end of the summer. Why? Because he's Superman, of course!

Sandler's Grown Ups Critics are just jealous children

It’s there anything better than being Adam Sandler’s buddy? Duh. Being Adam Sandler, of course. So, please, please don’t pay attention to those movie critics using epithets like inane, derivative, repetitive, immature… you name it. There’re just jealous. For real.

Consider this: picture yourself being a comedian making not only comedies, but successful comedies aimed to the low- and the middlebrow. Yep, no Woody Allen material, for starters. Making unpretentious movies is not the major offense to the critics, but not caring about them it is.
Adam Sandler has been releasing through Happy Madison a consistent string of hits that has made him a major box-office draw, besides, if he uses any theme that used with proper treatment could be “Oscar Gold”, he uses it lightheartedly: offensive humor sometimes, but not-so-offensive of too controversial statements. Additionally he uses a lot of familiar faces in his movies over and over again, not only from Saturday Night Live, but Kevin James, Henry Wrinkler and the hottest female A-listers, by the way. Some of them wouldn’t be getting any action those days just by themselves, but that’s not a problem for them, thanks to old chum Sandler.

Considering all this, is completely no surprise that the newest Sandler flick features an all-star ensemble cast (Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Salma Hayek, Maria Bello, Maya Rudolph, Joyce Van Patten, Ebony Jo-Ann, Di Quon, Steve Buscemi, Tim Meadows, Madison Riley) which coincide to mourn over the death of a basketball coach that made a difference in the lives of the starring male cast (once a champion team back in 1978). In the meanwhile, their families celebrate the 4th of July weekend, reconnecting to the simple things of life and patching up things between them and their children.

Too corny? Too much déjà vu? Too much toilet humor? The critics thought so, even without a saluting-the-flag-scene in the era of the first post-american president (God forbid!). For me, like most Adam Sandler movies, it was a truly entertaining movie, in spite of all its faults (real and alleged ones). It doesn’t need to promise. I go and watch it, totally sure that it will deliver.

Beyond that, to all the allegations of corniness and cheap sentimentalism, and the lack of warped personalities that make Hollywood pictures “interesting”, I would simply point that Egg-head made a movie about friendship, something in he truly believes, and you can realize it in real life, too.


This guy is so much better than you, critics.

I love you Phillip Morris (A Dr. sipmac’s review in the first person!)

***Warning – Contains Spoilers***

I confess that since I read a couple of reviews and the non-controversy originated by the strange situation of a movie with such A-Listers like Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor cannot find mainstream audiences, I was more than curious to watch the movie and see what’s the fuzz about it, and maybe write a review, too. As a matter of fact I have sort of a project for the blog about four summer “movie reviews”. I have already started with “Kick Ass”, and if I am able to make the four reviews, I will create a special tag for it.

As for the movie, obviously it is not your everyday topic: a man named Steven Russell reliving his life story in which we found (in a horrible way) he’s adopted, later he finds out his biological mother does not want to know anything about him and in one of the crucial moments of the movie, we learn he’s gay and he decides finally to live as such. One can understand the motivations of the character; he tries then to compensate what he had to put up with all these gone years and tries to lead a wealthy lifestyle. The problem is that this ex cop becomes a con artist, and eventually gets caught. Now in prison, he knows the love of his life, Philip Morris.

The love scenes give some kind of impression: that for all that matters; Philip and Steven are so in love that in their minds they could be at a five-star resort at the beach instead of the slammer. A big achievement of this movie, without a doubt. Things are going to get messy from here, but in a comedic way. If you want to watch the film, I think I’ll spare you the rest.

As for the lack of promotion and why this movie is not being distributed, it is said that the gay theme is the reason of this. Homophobia is alive and well, but somehow this is not the complete explanation. Some kisses and rough sex scenes in the era of Redtube and Pornhub? Puh-leeze. The movie is already R-rated. As a love story, it works pretty well, both actors did it great, even if it is somewhat disgusting how Steven Russell spends his live by literally and figuratively screwing people. As Seinfeld said: “Not that there’s anything wrong with that…(being gay)”, but the con man stuff is something else, not easy to digest. That's why I didn't dig "Catch Me if You Can". The characters are sympathetic, but Russell's actions are not. Is as enjoyable as Big Daddy feeding poison and hate to Hit-Girl in "Kick-Ass", if you think closely about it.

Add to this the “Bush did it” stuff, and finally we're getting there. Obama is already in the second year of his term, and the “I blame Bush” game is getting a little old, even if he had a responsibility with the life sentencing of the real-life Steven Russell.

I don’t know how to say it differently, but the film gets damaged for good when it gets in the activist mode in the very last minutes.

But as I said, good movie anyway. And deserves to be watched several times.

Regards,

Dr. sipmac

Related articles

• Jim Carrey: Ewan McGregor 'Is A Great Kisser' (huffingtonpost.com)
• Why The Real Steven Russell Will Probably Never See Jim Carrey + Ewan McGregor's Morris Make Out (queerty.com)
• Movie Review - I Love You Phillip Morris (chicagonow.com)
• Watch: Jim Carrey Talks 'I Love You Phillip Morris' and Loving Ewan McGregor (towleroad.com)

"Kick Ass" kicks the comic books and superhero movies standards you know where

Warning: No big spoilers here - safe to read

By Dr. sipmac

¿Jan Luc Picard or James Tiberius Kirk? ¿Star Wars or Star Trek? ¿Law and Order or CSI? ¿DC or Marvel? Dr. sipmac's heart still belongs to the DC Universe, and he remembers how when he was a child he used to think of the Marvel superheroes as second-rate Super Friends wannabes. While Superman had a succesful major motion picture, Captain America had a lame movie to offer (a little research tells Dr. sipmac that it had to be one of the two 1979 TV Movies starred by Reb Brown or both). It was sometimes utterly painful to watch Peter Parker being regularly abused by J. Jonah Jameson, even if it was a cartoon. Hey, you can tell anything you want about Clark Kent, but he never took abuse from anybody just the way Parker did. And, ¿have you ever seen the dreadful Marvel cartoons of the WWII era?

But nowadays Dr. sipmac recognizes that Marvel has done a superior job since the begining, and always had the ambition to aim always for something different and edgier than its competitor, even within the boundaries of the Comics Code Authority. And it has handsomely paid off: The X Men movies, the Hulk movies, the Fantastic Four Movies, the Iron Man movies... and on the other side, a lame attempt to revive the Superman franchise and (fortunately) the Dark Knight.
Maybe Dr. sipmac oversimplyfies in his analysis, but you may think he's getting the overall picture right. Marvel connects a lot better with the readers than DC does and sets the trend where competitors parasitically thrive. The trendsetting example this time is, as the title already revealed, "Kick Ass". There is a lot of reviews for this movie, sip is not going to try to top, but he feels the need to share still a few more thoughts.

As in Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, literature, even in the form of the "despicable" comic books is approaching reality and slowly reshapingly it. In the Golden Age of Comic books it took an extra-terrestrial or a multi-millionaire to fight crime; in the Silver Age the lead was taken by a geek that gained radioactive superpowers, and the modern age artists like to praise the exploits of superheroes with no powers, even no special training. Just like Kick Ass. Well, and that modern age Batman, the awesome and lethal Hit Girl.

For sip, it was hauntingly attractive to write a story about a superhero-without-powers for years. Well, you can say it's too late, it is already been done. But you didn't knew that the first requirement for that implausibly plausible character was his insanity. Yes, for Dr. sipmac it was clear from the beginning that the protagonist had to be a complete nutcase, with his madness barely concealed. Sip imagined an insignificant hard working clerk, a worthless peon tired with his mindless job, that decides to "fight evil" after working hours. He would dress as... a giant bird. He would drive an old clunker across the city until he could find something he could fight for.

And now you may think, sip, it's really too late. You are talking about Big Daddy, the father of Hit-Girl. No, sip is surely talking, er... retelling Don Quixote. Just think about it: take the superpowers or the special skills away from a costumed hero and tell me what you get? Don't be shy... yes, a ridiculous, insane and senseless person. A Don Quixote.

It surely can be found ideology traces in the comic book-movie tandem, but you (maybe) never thought you could find even deeper meaning in this externally harsh and coarse presentation. We need more Don Quixotes in this world.

What are you waiting for? Go and watch the movie!