The superhero franchise discussion: Mystery Men (1999)

[Wee Little Puppet Man]

I'll be watching Iron Man 1 & 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and then finishing with Captain America.

I'm watching Iron Man 2 before The Incredible Hulk as in IM2 Tony still hasn't come round to to the Avengers idea but in TIH he's looking to recruit Banner. Plus when Tony and Fury have their meeting at the end of IM2 you can see a news report from TIH on one of the screens in the background from after the Hulk's brawl with the troops on campus.

And I know Captain America comes first chronologically but I thought I'd save it for last as it was the last to be released.

[Son of Solo]

Sorry folks I'm late with this one. Having a busy life these days made me completely forget about this thread whatsoever. Anyway...

Discussion at the moment ...
Speed Racer (2008)
Viewing starts Sunday 29th April
Discussion ends 13th May

Below are films which we are going to discuss in the upcoming weeks

Tank Girl
The Crow: Salvation

[FREEFALL]

I love the Speed Racer movie, this is the film the Wachowski siblings wanted to make, and do it there way. This film had more style then most films and utilised the film techniques of hyper-realism that would later be found in other films like Scott Pilgrim et al. But the film doesn’t apologise for anything. Who cares that it flopped...sadly; this film was a labour of love for the fdirescvtors and a bloody good attepts of making a film about bloody car racing. It is when I suggested the closest thing to a live action anime we are ever going to get...unless the Akira movie is awesome and right now I doubt it.

Right lets start with the casting, now I saw a few episodes of the original show when I was a wee girl and I was impressed with the actors cast. They seem to fit in with there animated counterparts; the parents had more to do. Props for Susan Sarandon for delivering some warmth in her lines and her devotion to her sons.

Speed Racer, lets be honest he was a boring character in the cartoon who only won because Racer X let him...every bloody time. Here he has to work for everything and to be honest the whole coming of age thing has been done to death, but to see it in a film like this, felt so refreshing. Also as the movie proves, he deliberately lived in the shadow of his bother’s death. But he was always the better racer.


Now the character of Trixie plated by Christina Ricci is interesting, she seems to live with Speed, even though she is filthy rich and owns her own helicopter but doesn’t share a room with him. She is a damn good driver, though not a professional herself, but compared to her cartoon counterpart, she was fairly tough. Her she is more equal...but sadly at the same time, has nothing more to do then brood over Speed!

Now to the villain Royalton, the moment he stepped in, the only member of the cast with a British accent, we all knew he was the villain. But this is a world where a car race, can determine the London stock exchange. He was hamming it up, and it fit.

But lets go to the real stars of the movie, the races them selves. I could not have been the only one who got a thrill watching the grade prix, it was awesome. Ok it defied the law of physics...but who cares. It was brilliant to see. Bonus points for having the original theme song played within the race.

Now to Racer X aka Rex, nice double subversion with the fact he really was Rex with plastic surgery and once again the fact his little bother was the better racer. One of the more interesting scenes is when Rex and the Inspector go to the Racer home and meet Spritle. Right so after your fake your death, your parents have another child...who freaks out when he opens the door to you. Ok that has to be awkward and really sad.

Spritle is one of the more fascinating characters because apart from being a glutinous brat, he really is. Is that he is the only one of the racer boys who is never seen racing. Even child speed had that car! Soc he was born after his brother died and his father had some sort of breakdown, has clearly an interest in cars, but no one seems there to give him the time to let him learn. Ok he could be banned because his mother doesn’t want to lose more then one child...or the fact he’s desperate to learn but no one really cares about teaching him. Even when he sneaks into his brothers car and interrupts the date with Trixie...he though they were going to the track. Additional the moment he flipped off Royalton was just awesome.

Now one character that I believed ins always overlooked is the mechanic Sparky, there are a few scene of him that are totally awesome. First of all the scene where Pop fights the Nonja and refers to the people in the room as “my boys” ok he was already in the room with Speed and Sparky, but we can assume he meant Sparky in that comment. Also at the start of the final race when Sparky thanks Speed for the fact that he’s there as well as promising him that he will share the victory if he wins. Is really nice. For a start in this world the families join them on the podium for a “glass of milk”...I know, lets not go there. But at the same time he’s telling Sparky that he is a member of his family and he keeps his word as well

[The Yeti]

Never seen the cartoon. In fact never knew it existed when the film came out.
So my sole contribution will be a casting choice:

"Hubba Bubba".

[Son of Solo]

I watched it for the first time last week. While I respect people that do enjoy this I personally thought it was a jumbled mess of a film. The story didn't seem to make any sense and while the effects were all very amazing it was just far too colourful and loud it was painful to look at.

Remember back in the early 90's when lots of kids were having fits due to flashing images on Sega Megadrive's Sonic The Hedge Hog? I thought this was going to happen to me any second while watching it. Sometimes I couldn't keep up with what was going on on the screen.

[MDY]

It's very much a Marmite film is Speed Racer - people usually seem to either love it or hate it, but I'm very happy to fall into the former category..

I think the first stumbling block is that you have to wholeheartedly buy into this new reality that the Wachowski's take you to for the duration of the film. A world where racing is bigger than football, X-Factor and Strictly put together, where (to a large extent) the whole world is shaped by it.
It's an entirely different world, hyper stylised, brash, colourful - futuristic in many ways but yet retro in others (particularly the wholesome depiction of family life and the straightforward storytelling - Pushing Daisies fans should feel at home here).
That's ambitious, something we don't often see - Scott Pilgrim perhaps being the most obvious other depiction of an 'unreal' version of our world..

The film goes right for your inner child, to those of us who might still watch cartoons, who are still a big kid at heart, who on occasion like to step back from the complexities of the adult world and just indulge in something fun. Who don't always want something deep, worthy and meaningful to watch, who might choose Avengers over Dark Knight..
The themes are simple: good verses evil, underdogs vs big business, staying youthful vs growing up..

It celebrates play and imagination, the insane race tracks evoking memories of 'driving' toy cars round the furniture in your bedroom, jumping over gaps, up sheer surfaces and round whatever obstacles lie in wait.. Or being on a rollercoaster at a theme park. Instead of being a crutch for action scenes, the CGI in this feels like the only way to create something so different to what we're used to seeing.. And yet it's not soulless, dull or incoherent like the multibillion grossing Transformers films were.. (sigh).

The plot and actors have come in for a lot of criticism, but the performances just fit the world - it's supposed to evoke memories of sixties and earlier family shows (as well as the original anime of course), wholesome (without being too schmaltzy). Frankly it's nice to have a (largely) functional family onscreen for once..

If nothing else, the film is worth seeing for the racing scenes - quite frankly they're mind-blowing, especially on Blu-Ray. The circuits are beautifully designed, there is action by the bucketload and the rush of colour and speed is eye-melting.. Giacchino's wonderful soundtrack tops things off brilliantly.

The film does have a couple of issues - the bad guys main conspiracy does seem needlessly complicated and Speed's little brother and chimp can be quite annoying.. but look past this and it's a hell of a ride from start to the exhilarating finish of the final race..

It's available for peanuts on both DVD & BR now - so if your inner child is still breathing, give it a go..

The critical savaging it got is of course well known, but there were a few positive ones too from those who 'got' it..
http://www.time.com/time/arts/articl...738558,00.html

[Boo]

Been a while since I watched this and to be honest it was only at the insistence of my brother who wanted to dribble over Christina Ricci that I watched it at all, but I remember it being a lot more fun than I was expecting. Definitely more style over substance but I wouldn't expect much else from the Wachowski brothers.

[FREEFALL]

reading the above comments it's definatly the marmite of movies...like Batman and Robin eh Solo! lol xxx

[Son of Solo]

B]Discussion at the moment ...[/B]
Tank Girl (1995)
Viewing starts Sunday 13th May
Discussion ends 27th May

Below are films which we are going to discuss in the upcoming weeks
The Crow: Salvation
Spawn

So we have finally reached Tank Girl. A film I've never seen before and that I've just remembered to order this morning. One I've heard so many bad things about of the years I'm actually really looking forward to watching it and making up my own mind.

Of course some people would probably like to forget how much love they showed for this film when it first hit screens

[darkman]

It's been a while since I saw this but I remember that I liked it with the exception of Ice T in the kangaroo costume. As a general rule Ice T shouldn't be allowed to star in sci-fi movies.