Best Picture Nominee Movie Catch Up: Spotlight

Spotlight (2015)

Directed by Tom McCarthy

Screenplay by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy

Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Brian d'Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Billy Crudup,  Jamey Sheridan, and Neal Huff

I remember when the scandal broke with the sexual abuse, and the Catholic Church trying to cover it up. I was disgusted. My views on organized religion were deteriorating at the time and I had good reason. This movie has to be seen.

During the summer of 2001, the Spotlight Team as part of The Boston Globe are urged to do a story about the child sexual abuse case by their new Editor-At-Large, Marty Baron (Schrieber). The team headed by Robby (Keaton) wants to keep the story hush until they are ready to publish the expose. Mike (Ruffalo) and Sacha (McAdams) dig deeper to find something bigger than they thought possible.

This movie is a slow burn. The beginning of the movie was a bit clunky with that opening scene in the 70s. I guess, it was establishing the Church's complicity to the abuse. Sure. We already know what happened. That scene doesn't need to be there.

The actors were solid in the movie. In my opinion, I thought that Mark Ruffalo gave a great performance as Mike. I was confused when I learned that his character was Puerto Rican. Made me side eye the film. Or when Stanley Tucci, playing Mitchell Garabedian, said that he was Armenian. Right.

By the end of the movie, I wanted all the churches to burn. I know that big organizations will be corrupt or try to protect their own people. This movie was gripping.

Rating: 9/10

Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Directed by Joe Johnston

Written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely

Based on comic book, "Captain America" by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby

Stars: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Stanley Tucci, Neal MacDonaugh, Derek Luke, Kenneth Choi, JJ Feild, Bruno Ricci, Toby Jones, and Tommy Lee Jones

As I previously stated in my Avengers review, I did not see The First Avenger to prepare myself for the movie. There were some things about the film that I had questions that were answered by watching this film. I know the general lore of Captain America and his journey. I can say for certainty that this movie is better than Thor.

There was some hesitation about letting lead actor Chris Evans take over the role of Steve Rodgers, because he previously played a Marvel superhero as The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four films.

The setting of the film follows almost exactly were the comics left off. Rodgers was a skinny kid that possibly weighed 110 pounds soaking wet when he is repeatedly rejected by the Army in the middle of WWII. His childhood friend, Bucky (Stan) tries to dissuade him from joining the army. A chance encounter from Dr. Abraham Erskine (Tucci) changes his life forever. Erskine recruits him to a top secret operation to create a new breed of super soldiers to fight the Nazis. Most importantly to help stop the tyrannical Red Skull (Weaving) and his HYDRA army from taking over the world.

For me, I wish that Marvel would have concentrated more on these "origin" movies as well as The Avengers. I think that Iron Man 2, Thor and this movie all suffer from having to tell the back story of the characters that are going to make up this superhero team. It seems the quality of film suffers, because it has to be filler to see how this component of the Avengers came from.

There were some aspects of this movie that I didn't like, but that would be spoilers for people who are not familiar with the lore of Captain America. Chris Evans was fine here. He was not bad or good. I thought that the character presented on screen was brave and stupid. When Steve becomes Captain America, he doesn't listen to reason that his actions has consequences. Steve is supposed to be this tragic hero, but comes across as being over-confident to a point where you want something to happen to him. The action scenes were okay. Nothing remarkable here.

I have to stay Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Chester Phillips was great. He was chewing the scene with his one-liners. Weaving was solid as Red Skull. Steve's sidekick, Bucky was very charismatic on screen. The love interest for Steve, Peggy Carter, played by Hayley Atwell was strange. I wondered if she was interested in him before he got taller and buffer. What if he stayed the scrawny toothpick?

I had a couple of issues with the plot. How comes the shield is supposed to be indestructible, but the shield has wear and tear on it? Would you think that a massive faculty like HYDRA would have been trounced by  a lone man in a loud red, white and blue getup? I didn't understand how the hell the Terraset ended up in a lockbox in Norway? If Steve Rogers meets Iron Man's father who built the device that made him, did he acknowledge that in The Avengers? I could be nitpicking. Somebody help me out.

My Rating