Some Movie Reviews

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

If you are in the mood for a light-hearted action spy movie, this is a good choice. Set in the midst of the Cold War in 1963, American thief turned CIA agent Napoleon Solo is tasked to exfiltrate Gaby Teller from East Berlin.  Against the odds and a persistent Russian Agent, Illya Kurakin, he is successful (all in the opening scenes). Gaby’s uncle is involved in the continued developed of Nazi nuclear weapons, so Solo and Kurakin are ordered to work together with Gaby to infiltrate their network.     

As the Russian and American learn to work together (rudely calling each other Peril and Cowboy), the insults fly thick and fast even as they develop a loose friendship. While it is a shoot-em-up, many of the potentially violent scenes are underplayed through the use of low sound and music, and so the intensity of them is decreased. It was produced by Guy Ritchie and I really liked the cinematography and the soundtrack. The humour is dry and clever, with both of the main actors dead-pan expressions just adding to the fun.

A fun, easy-going, action movie and a good choice for a night in.

Captain America: Civil War

If you follow the Marvel Avengers series like we do, you will be well aware of this one and that is bills itself as Iron Man vs Captain America. Of course, the story line is a little more complicated than that – although not much!

In essence it follows the same plot line as the kids movie The Incredibles, that is – what happens when the world gets sick of super heroes getting in the way, saving some people but accidentally killing innocents and destroying property in the process? In this version, the UN gets in the way with a resolution to bring all of the Avengers under their jurisdiction. Iron Man sees the need for such action while Captain America is strongly opposed. Bringing in almost all of the Avengers superheros to date (eg. Ant Man), including some new ones (I won’t spoil the surprise!), in one massive battle you end up with two sides, six Avengers on each pitted again each other. Two of my favourites were missing (Thor & Hulk) but with 12 superheros there was more than enough to go around!  In fact, too many – in this movie they all call each other by their first names and for the less well known ones, I was struggling to remember who was who!

All in all, this is another fun episode in the very long running, multi-million dollar Marvel franchise.  Lots of action, no swearing, funny lines and clever humour. Now I am trying to figure out when it would be appropriate to start watching them all again, under the excuse of introducing them to our son…