Movie Review Madness - Ant Man and Wasp

Ant Man and the Wasp is just goofy fun. It seems like Marvel-lite, just a bonus of a Marvel hero/duo.  Paul Rudd just gets better as he ages. He still looks so boyish and projects amusement. His patter alone is worth the movie. Evangeline Lilly as Wasp can kick butt and FLY!  He even protests, “Hey, Wings? Seriously?”  And I love Michael Pena as Luis – Ant Man’s work partner in his “real” time security company job.  Pena is awesome in serious movies, but he obviously has a sense of humor and enjoys letting his freak flag fly. Some of his lines are laugh out loud funny.

I can’t begin to discuss plot. Let’s just say the word “quantum” is used a lot. Somehow, Wasp’s mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) is still floating in the quantum tunnel. Is she still alive? Hmmm…….

Wasp’s father (Michael Douglas) has been working on a way to get her back. Meanwhile, there’s some poor creature (the ghost) who is between worlds and needs the tunnel to go suck energy from Michelle. Samuel L. Jackson has been helping her. So there is a scientist war going on, a quantum war, and a whole lot of other people trying to get Douglas’s lab.  I won’t go further, and frankly just don’t ask too many questions.  This movie is just sheer movie-making effects, fun, patter, and summer don’t use your brain too much kind of movie.

The acting is fine, the effects are good – small and tiny. Paul Rudd carries the amusement and I give him props. This is a big tub of popcorn and a vat of soda worthy flick. Just laugh and go with it. Stay for the two extras at the end. What the heck! Support the Ant-Man and Wasp

Movie Review Madness: Fury

“Fury” is the name of the tank. It’s WWII, 1945, and though the crew looks beat down, America is making inroads in Germany. However, “Ideals are peaceful, history is violent” says Sgt. Collier (Brad Pitt) to the new guy, Norman (Logan Lerman). The poor kid was a clerk, and now he’s in the second gunner seat of a tank. The wide-eyed fear and horror is palpable on his face. But as the tank rolls through towns, takes out German battalions, we see him harden in this unflinching portrayal of war. 

The guys have made it through Africa, France, and now Germany. They count on each other and especially on the sergeant.  Pitt brings a quiet nobility to his role. He’s stalwart and commanding, and then he walks away and has his moment of fear/relief/ and utter exhaustion. Then he rallies and keeps his tank on the move. With a tank’s eye viewpoint, the director keeps us in the mud and in the middle of fire. It’s scary and claustrophobic.  

“Fury” does not give us major history lessons, but it does show the endurance of war weary men. I give the film a B for making me care about the guys, for solid filmmaking, and for the tank perspective. The fury does build and unleash in many different ways.