Tag: Clark Gregg

G20 Review

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and it is apparently worth millions upon millions of votes in G20. A shot of now President Danielle Sutton (Viola Davis) rescuing a child during the Iraq War two decades earlier is what prompted her rise to the highest office in the land. This picture is not really about that. Instead it’s a run-of-the-mill streamer that fails to capitalize on its casting or location.

We first meet President Sutton in the throws of a domestic crisis. Her teenage daughter Serena (Marsai Martin) has slipped past the security perimeter of the White House to go clubbing and the media picked up on it. The mother-daughter drama shifts to South Africa as they travel there for the title summit. The First Gentleman (Anthony Anderson) and Serena’s little brother (Christopher Farrar) accompany.

Other members of the Presidential entourage included lead Secret Service agent Manny (Ramón Rodriguez) and the Treasury Secretary (Elizabeth Marvel) while the VP (Clark Gregg) is back stateside. If you don’t figure out who might not have POTUS’s best interests in mind early on, you might fail 101 in this cinematic universe.

Mercenary Edward Rutledge (Antony Starr of The Boys and Twitter meme fame) and his band of goons certainly aren’t on her side. They hijack the proceedings with a plan to crash the world economy while enriching themselves through cryptocurrency. Digital cash is a weirdly overarching theme in the screenplay that lists four writers. President Sutton is G20’ing to promote a plan helping African farmers via access to the technology. I half expected “Brought to you by bitcoin” to crawl across the bottom of the screen.

Unlucky for Rutledge, the Commander-in-Chief’s military background allows to her go all John McClane throughout the Cape Town hotel. Manny, the British Prime Minister (Douglas Hodge), South Korean First Lady (MeeWha Alana Lee, providing a couple moments of sorely needed humor), and IMF chair (Sabrina Impacciatore) become her new kitchen cabinet as they fight off the villains in kitchens and ballrooms. The First Family is separated from the matriarch with the crypto bandits on their trail.

You can’t blame Viola Davis for wanting her own 90s style shoot-em-up and she does bring a dignified presence to this junk food. Mr. Starr is also an appropriately unhinged antagonist. The problem is the execution. The fight sequences aren’t memorable and this doesn’t even bother to make use of its gorgeous South African setting (perhaps budget constraints were the culprit). This could’ve been set in a Wichita Ramada Inn when you really think about it.

The tired screenplay keeps returning to what made Sutton the leader of the free world with the photo. The picture’s backstory made me curious if a worthwhile movie could’ve been made about that. It might’ve been more worthwhile than the images we’re left with in G20.

** (out of four)

Oscar Predictions: Thelma

Schwarzenegger. Stallone. Squibb. At the Sundance Film Festival, we have a new seasoned action hero via Josh Margolin’s Thelma. It casts June Squibb, 94 years young, seeking revenge on a phone scammer. Costars include Fred Hechinger, the late Richard Roundtree, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg, and Malcolm McDowell.

Ms. Squibb, nominated in Supporting Actress for 2013’s Nebraska, is unsurprisingly drawing critical kudos for her work. The Sundance notices thus far have resulted in 100% Tomato meter. With the right amount of exposure, Thelma could be a sleeper.

Awards prospects are shakier. I’d say this is more of a Golden Globes post than an Academy Awards one. A shrewd marketing campaign might put Squibb in line for an Actress nod in Musical/Comedy at that show. It’s all about how visible (or not) this project becomes over the next few months and the level of competition that is TBD. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…

Captain Marvel Movie Review

By the time the strains of “Just a Girl” blare over the speakers during a climactic fight scene, there is no doubt that Captain Marvel has adequately placed itself as a bridge between Avengers epics. That’s not an especially high bar in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it answers the most important question needed before April’s Avengers: Endgame – who’s this new heroine that’s going to help the team we’re accustomed to seeing?

That would be Brie Larson as Vers. She’s part of the Kree alien race with persistent flashbacks to an old life on C53, a planet otherwise known as Earth. Her mentor is Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), who helps her hone her mysterious superpowers. The flashback mentor is Mar-Vell (get it?) and she takes the form of Annette Bening as an all-knowing being who may have taught Vers in a previous life that’s fuzzy to her.

Since this is the MCU, we correctly suspect that purported good guys may become bad guys and vice versa. Vers and her team are battling another race called the Skrulls, led by Talos (Ben Mendelsohn, always solid). They can take the form of any being they wish, so we see Mr. Mendelsohn in his bespectacled British form and in impeccable creature makeup.

Vers’s interactions with the Skrulls involves a crash landing in Los Angeles. Not today’s L.A., mind you, but 1995 L.A. where relics of the past like Blockbuster Video and two-way pagers exist. This time frame is mined for humor and its soundtrack that includes Nirvana and Salt n Pepa. We also meet Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) in his pre eyepatch days and a rookie Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg).

The Earth bound action gets us to a place where we can call Vers the Captain now. And clad in her Nine Inch Nails t-shirt, it get us one step closer to her joining Captain America, Tony Stark, and others decades later.

Captain Marvel is yet another origin story and it follows the tried and true MCU blueprint. Luckily for us, that familiar path includes picking directors (Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck) that are unconventional choices (they’re known for indie dramas like Half Nelson). It includes humorous touches that work and plenty of them come in the feline form of Goose, who steals some sequences.

Have there been stronger intros in this franchise before? Absolutely. As the first female MCU hero with a stand-alone tale, Larson is spirited. Is her back story as inspiring as what the DCU provided in Wonder Woman? I’d have to say no. And like many MCU pics before it, the villains here are standard – even with fine actors playing them. We will see if Larson’s character can become a fan favorite in this vast world. I’d say the jury is currently unsure. At the conclusion of Avengers: Infinity War, we learned she was needed. Captain Marvel provides some decently entertaining history as to why.

*** (out of four)

Captain Marvel Box Office Prediction

Captain Marvel pilots into theaters next weekend with the highest opening of the year thus far easily in its sights. The latest entry from the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes after a banner 2017 from the studio that saw Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War both earn over $675 million domestically. Brie Larson stars as the title character alongside Samuel L. Jackson as a younger Nick Fury as the tale takes place in the mid 90s. Other costars include Jude Law, Annette Bening, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lace, Gemma Chan, and Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, known for making small pics like Half Nelson and Mississippi Grind, up their budget game here behind the camera.

The newest MCU saga serves as a bridge between Infinity War and the upcoming Avengers: Endgame, as was hinted at during the end credits of the former. That alone should provide it a substantial opening. As mentioned, it should have zero trouble posting the year’s largest debut and should hold that designation until the Endgame arrival in late April. How much that specific number is lies within a wide range. On the low-end of projections, we could see a debut in the vicinity of the $117 million made by 2017’s Spider–Man: Homecoming. The high-end could approach the friendly neighborhood of $180 million.

If Captain Marvel makes it to that level, we could be looking at an all-time record for the month of March. That mark is currently held by Beauty and the Beast at $174 million. I’m not sure it manages to get there, but it’s dangerous to underestimate the MCU. I think a more likely scenario is the #3 biggest March debut – currently held by The Hunger Games, which made $152 million out of the gate. I’ll put it just over that.

Captain Marvel opening weekend prediction: $154.4 million