In 2008 Marvel began their ambitious plan of creating a cinematic version of their comic book universe. The lead up to the Avengers seemed like a giant mountain to climb…and it paid off for Marvel. And over and over, Marvel saw themselves succeed. And here we are at ten years and 21 movies later were arrive at the culmination of that success.
The Avengers were left in a pretty broken state after Captain America Civil War. Picking up shortly after the end credits sequence of Thor Ragnarok, the film kicks off with a sense of sacrifice. Thanos has finally stepped into the light and with his acolytes has decided he must collect the stones that have been the undercurrent of the films for so long himself.
As the various corners of the Marvel Universe come together, Thanos and his minions get closer and closer to achieving his goal. This can be a tricky balancing act, to bring together such a large number of characters. And the film mostly is able to make this work by pairing groups off. The Guardians of the Galaxy meet up with Thor and they split into two groups while Iron Man, Spidey and Doctor Strange go on a trip through space and so on.
Thanos is one of the stronger villains the Marvel Universe has presented. Brolin gives him a dark sincerity. He clearly believes in his goal, and sees it as good. It becomes clear that when his acolytes proclaim he brings mercy, he actually believes this.
Seeing the interactions between characters who have, so far, been in their own worlds, such as the Guardians and Doctor Strange is a lot of fun. The film contains plenty of entertaining and light hearted dialog.
The movie is full of exciting action and moves along at such a fast clip the two and a half hours just flew right on by. Infinity War is fun, with just enough seriousness to keep some of the shocking moments from feeling cheap.
I really enjoyed Avengers: Infinity War and am looking to see how this all plays out in the films to follow (well, Ant Man & the Wasp and Captain Marvel both take place before Avengers: Infinity War, but hey, there is an Avengers movie after that).
Spielberg’s Jaws begot Joe Dante’s Piranha which begot more man eating fish movies. One of the most fun of these films was the 1999 smart sharks thriller Deep Blue Sea. A fun film starring Thomas Jane, Samuel Jackson, Saffron Burrows and LL Cool J, Deep Blue Sea has become a bit of a cult classic. In spite of painfully dated (and weak) CGI sharks (though the mechanical sharks used in the film are quite impressive) the film still holds up as a solid b-movie thriller.
A good standup can give a real cathartic laugh or even challenge your perceptions through humor. While I was familar with Natasha Legerro through various appearances on Comedy Central…I really only know Moshe Kasher from some appearances on the late @Midnight. I knew that with Legerro I would be getting some raunchy jokes mixed with some pushing the limits of polite conversation. I did not know what to really expect from Kasher. Other than, for some reason, I always thought he was a gay guy. And apparently (in spite of a joke about jerking off to gay porn at the fertility clinic) he is not. He and Leggero are married and have a child (they were still in the expecting stage at the time)…hence the title of the Honeymoon Stand Up Special.
The whole comedy of discomfort can be a difficult tight rope. Sometimes you can reap great reward from making your audience squirm and laugh. Usually this comes in the form of uncomfortable truths and “I cannot believe the comic went there”. But in some cases, the joke is dying a slow death. Unfortunately, Leggero’s set suffers from this a couple times. She can definitely elicit laughs, but an offhanded joke about the Catholic Church’s child abuse scandal would have worked if it did not get drawn out into a cringe worthy discussion about how the altar boys are “asking for it”. On the other hand…men will likely find it uncomfortable just how many women have tales of random men masturbating in public in front of them. We are awful.
One night in a small town, local ranch hands are visiting the local whorehouse. One of the ranch hands becomes enraged with the girl he is with and brutally attacks her, leaving her scarred. When the Sheriff, Little Bill, arrives, he sets the penalties for the ranch hand. The Madam, Strawberry Alice, finds his verdict horribly insufficient. They start to pool their money to hire a gunslinger to kill the man.
Wyatt Earp arrives with his wife Mattie in the town of Tombstone during the silver boom. He meets with his brothers Virgil and Morgan and their wives. Shortly after taking over work in the local saloon running the poker table, his friend Doc Holliday shows up.
Tripping Through Gateways 