Posts Tagged ‘Peter Parker’

RICHARD’S REVIEWS FOR MAY 2, 2014 W “CANADA AM” HOST Todd van der Heyden.

Screen Shot 2014-05-02 at 9.53.44 AMRichard Crouse sounds off on his reviews for this week’s releases: ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ and ‘Joe.’

Watch the whole thing HERE!

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2: 3 STARS. “the busiest superhero movie in recent memory.”

The-Amazing-Spider-Man-Movie-2_1386682323At two-and-a-half hours the new Spider-Man movie is almost equal parts action and story. The first fifteen minutes contains not one, but two wild action sequences that’ll make your eyeballs dance. If you haven’t had your fill of special effects for the week your thirst will be quenched early on. Then the onslaught of story begins. Jammed packed with plot, bad guys and lots and lots of moony-eyed love, it’s the busiest superhero movie in recent memory.

Fresh out of high school Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is being pulled in two different directions. He loves Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) but is troubled by a promise he made to her late father (Dennis Leary) that he would never let anything bad happen to her.

Meanwhile, Peter’s old friend Harry Osborn (Dane De Haan), heir to the OsCorp fortune, is battling a hereditary genetic disease he thinks can be cured with a dose of Spider-Man’s blood and Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), a low level OsCorp electrical engineer, has an accident that rewires him into Electro, a highly charged villain with the power to control electricity.

“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” is this is a movie with several well-crafted dramatic moments. Too bad most of them feel like they’re lifted from another movie and dropped into this one as placeholders for the action sequences. Peter Parker is shedding tears over his love life one minute, swinging on webby vines through the streets the next. Both tones are well executed, but they often feel forced together.

Garfield works to distance himself from Tobey McGuire’s Spider-Man. First thing you notice is that he’s not as mopey as McGuire; as Parker Garfield is nerdy and angsty, not downcast and ennui ridden.

Secondly, he’s witty when playing the web slinger. The Sam Raimi “Spider-Man” movies didn’t use Spidey’s comic book sarcasm but Garfield’s Mach 2 version isn’t shy to let loose with some entertaining trash talking.

His portrayal is bright, punchy and more akin to the comic books than anything McGuire or Raimi put on film.

Emma Stone’s football-sized eyes and smart smile rescue Gwen from the simply fulfilling the girlfriend role. She brings some spark to the character and shares some good chemistry with (real life boyfriend) Garfield.

Speaking of sparks, Foxx could have used a few more as Electro. A bundle of neurosis before his electro charged accident, Max becomes one of the rare villains who was more interesting before he got his powers.

De Haan, who was so good in “Chronicle,” is interesting as Harry / Green Goblin. His obsession with finding a cure for his disease is a springboard for his transformation into the Goblin and Da Haan embraces a malevolence that makes the character memorable.

“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” has good actors—plus a fun cameo from Paul Giamatti—a love story and some good action—you will believe a man can swing above the streets of New York—so why does it feel somewhat unsatisfying?

Maybe it’s the two-and-a-half-hour running time, or the something-for-everyone mix of action, heartbreak and comedy, or perhaps it’s the fact that it feels like a well made copy of the first Garfield “Spider-Man” movie, which itself was a riff on the McGuire movies.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2. “packed with plot, bad guys and lots of moony-eyed love”

the-amazing-spider-man-2-firefighterBy Richard Crouse & Mark Breslin – Metro Canada Reel Guys

SYNOPSIS: Fresh out of high school Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is being pulled in two different directions. He loves Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) but is troubled by a promise he made to her late father (Dennis Leary) that he would never let anything bad happen to her. Meanwhile, Peter’s old friend Harry Osborn (Dane De Haan), heir to the OsCorp fortune, is battling a hereditary disease he thinks can be cured with a dose of Spider-Man’s blood and Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), a low level OsCorp electrical engineer, has an accident that rewires him into Electro, a villain with the power to control electricity.

STAR RATINGS:

Richard: 3 Stars

Mark: 2 Stars

Richard: Mark, at two-and-a-half hours the new Spider-Man movie is almost equal parts action and story. The first fifteen minutes contains not one, but two wild action sequences that’ll make your eyeballs dance. If you haven’t had your fill of special effects for the week your thirst will be quenched early on. Then the onslaught of story begins. Jammed packed with plot, bad guys and lots and lots of moony-eyed love, it’s the busiest superhero movie in recent memory. Did you get caught up in the film’s web?

Mark: No, Richard, the movie got caught in its own web. Too much of the film is like the last one, which was very good, but do we need to rehash the origin story yet again? The action sequences are good, and they’d better be, because the plot and characters are feeling kind of tired by now. Not that there aren’t good things in the movie. I liked the Jamie Foxx’ villain, who was sadly sympathetic in a Frankenstein kind of way. And Dane DeHaan, as tortured Oscorp heir Harry Osborn, has the best scenes in the picture, with an otherworldly look that reminded me of a British fascist circa 1936 or Tilda Swinton’s illegitimate son; I’m not sure which.

RC: I thought he kind of looks like the Evil Annoying Orange with a better haircut. To each his own. He does have some of the best scenes in the film, and this is a movie with several well-crafted dramatic moments. Too bad most of them feel like they’re lifted from another movie and dropped into this one as placeholders for the action sequences. Peter Parker is shedding tears over his love life one minute, swinging on webby vines through the streets the next. Both tones are well executed, but they often feel forced together.

MB:  The movie seems more like a pastiche than a sequel. Sally Field, bless her Norma Rae heart, invests her part with the intensity of a Eugene O’Neill play. Jamie Foxx makes a sympathetic villain in the Frankenstein mode even though he’s made up like a rogue member of Blue Man Group. But Richard, why is Spidey so cocky this go round?  His awkwardness is usually part of his charm.

RC: That’s more from the comic books. The Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies didn’t use Spidey’s sarcasm but on the pages of the comics he wasn’t shy to let loose with some trash talking.

MB: the movie is watchable and intermittently entertaining, but the franchise needs to invigorate itself to keep me in its web.

Why make a new film when you can recycle an old one? By Richard Crouse In Focus Metro Canada July 4, 2012

amazing_spider_man-widePlay it again, Sam. Hollywood has long been a fan of movie reboots. Spider-Man is the latest flick to get a an actor makeover.

The adage, “The only constant is change,” is only partially true in Hollywood. The list of recent movie reboots is as long as Lindsay Lohan’s arrest record, and there’s more on the way — we’ll soon see new versions of Death Wish, Fletch and Highlander — but while the titles stay the same, the faces change.

This weekend, Peter Parker swings back into theatres, but instead of Tobey Maguire behind the familiar red-and-black-webbed mask it’s Social Network star Andrew Garfield.

Not everyone is happy about the change. 1234zoomer commented on the new movie: “IS NOT GOING TO BE THE SAME WITHOUT TOBBY!!!,” (her uppercase and spelling, not mine), but Maguire  has been gracious, saying, “I am excited to see the next chapter unfold in this incredible story.”

Whether the new Spidey acknowledges Maguire is yet to be seen, but at least one replacement had the manners to recognize their precursor on screen.

George Lazenby paid a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Sean Connery in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. After a wild battle to rescue Contessa Teresa (played by Diana Rigg) the new James Bond didn’t get the girl. “This never happened to the other fellow,” he says, looking dejectedly into the camera.

Former Bond Connery went on to co-star in The Hunt for Red October with Alec Baldwin playing Jack Ryan, a character later played by Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck.

It’s rumoured that Chris Pine (who took over the part of Captain Kirk in Star Trek from William Shatner) will soon reprise the role.

The Batman franchise has also had a revolving cast. Since 1943 seven actors have played the Caped Crusader, including Lewis G. Wilson, who at 23 remains the youngest actor to play the character, and George Clooney who admits he was “really bad” in Batman & Robin.

It’s not only the Caped Crusader who changes from time to time. Harvey Dent, the handsome district attorney who turns into villain Two Face has been played by Billy Dee Williams, Tommy Lee Jones and Aaron Eckhart and The Dark Knight’s Maggie Gyllenhaal took over the role of Rachel Dawes from Batman Begins star Katie Holmes.

Finally, Jodie Foster’s take on FBI agent Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs was ranked the sixth greatest protagonist in film history on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Heroes and Villains list, but when she declined to reprise the role in Hannibal, Julianne Moore stepped in.