As you may have read in my X-Men: Days of Future Past review, I loved the movie.
I might love this video even more.
Check out James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, the actors who portrayed young Professor X and Magneto in Days of Future Past, impersonate their older Professor X and Magneto counterparts, Sirs Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen.
Sorry, but there’s no young Wolverine Hugh Jackman impersonating older Wolverine Hugh Jackman in the video.
Video courtesy of Yahoo.
Just before the lights went down in a theater that had only three people in it, a couple decided that the seats they needed to have were the ones right in front of us. It was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 all over again, except more ridiculous. We waited a minute, got up and sat directly in front of them. I feared this would lead to a leapfrogging in response by the other couple. If they did leapfrog us, we could have leapfrogged them back until we were in the first two rows of the theater, but really we would have just gone back to our original seats, now with them an acceptable three rows away. But they just sat there. It felt awesome. I highly recommend pulling this move if ever confronted with the same situation.
I enjoyed The Conspirator. It is definitely better than its score of 56 on Rotten Tomatoes would lead you to believe. It was like watching To Kill a Mockingbird set in the Civil War. James McAvoy plays a retired Union soldier turned lawyer who ends up defending Mary Surratt, the lone woman charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
The Conspirator has a very strong cast. Big stars all around. James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, Tom Wilkinson, Evan Rachel Wood, Justin Long, Colm Meany and Alexis Bledel are all in the movie. The standout performer though might be Justin Long’s moustache, which completely stole every scene it was in. I don’t know if it was real or if it was pasted on, but if it was real, more power to you Mr. Long. That was some crazy moustache.
Speaking of moustaches, I noticed that James McAvoy, like me, can’t grow hair in the center of his upper lip. “Yes, I’m not a freak!”flashed through my mind, “a Hollywood sex symbol has the same thing!” I not longer feel like a freak for my bifurcated moustache!
We saw The Conspirator at Brooklyn Heights Cinemas, now under new ownership. There’s some new décor and in June they ran a promotion where all seats were $8 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Hopefully they keep at least one of these discount days going in the future. The popcorn is still delicious and is still my number one in the city.
After the disappointments that were X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I am very happy to report that X-Men: First Class is a great movie. X2 is still my favorite of the franchise, but this gives the first X-Men serious competition for the number two ranking. The movie is like an awesome mash-up of the X-Men and classic Bond movies.
X-Men: First Class takes liberties with the formation of the X-Men. The only X-Man from the original comic book line-up is The Beast. There is an Angel, but it’s the Angel with insect wings from Grant Morrison’s run on the book, not Warren Worthington III. The other first recruits are Magneto, Havok, Darwin, Mystique and Banshee.
I’ve had fans of the X-Men comic tell me they don’t want to see the movie because of the inclusion of Azazel, the main villain from one of the most reviled stories in X-Men history; a story so bad it ruined Nightcrawler and Mystique for many people. All I can say is that the Azazel here is not the Azazel from the comics. In the movie, he’s basically just a red, mute, evil Nightcrawler. Since much of Azazel’s lameness in the comics came each of his dialogue, it should be considered a good thing that he doesn’t open his mouth in X-Men: First Class.
It’s interesting to see how this movie ties into the earlier X-men movies, which all take place after X-Men: First Class. Havok’s energy blasts are colored red here, and he’s a teen in the 1960s. I’m guessing we’re to assume that in the movies’ universe, Havok isn’t Cyclops’s brother, but is either his father or uncle. Azazel looks like the parts of Nightcrawler that don’t look like Mystique, making Azazel the leading candidate to be Nightcrawler’s father. At least the movie didn’t carry over the ancient races of demon-lookalike and angel-lookalike mutants from the comic book. Since Emma Frost was a child in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and is an adult in X-men: First Class, I think it’s safe to say that we’re all to ignore that X-men Origins: Wolverine ever happened. Fine by me.
A couple of weeks ago, January Jones, who plays Emma Frost in X-men: First Class, made headlines because she felt she couldn’t live up to the image of Emma Frost, saying “In the amount of time I had to train, it just wasn’t possible to achieve that amount of muscle without losing all the good bits.” I think we can all agree that January Jones is 100% good bits. Who is complaining about how January Jones looks as Emma Frost? Seriously, I want names! This is ridiculous. Anyone who thought January Jones looked anything less than hot in this movie is on timeout. No more internet for them until they come to their senses.
It’s interesting how much the cast of Mad Men is getting involved in comic book related projects. January Jones here, Elizabeth Moss plays a Green Lantern in the just released Green Lantern: Emerald Knights DVD and Christina Hendricks voiced Lois Lane in All-Star Superman. If only they cast Jon Hamm as Superman in the upcoming Superman movie.
There are two cameos in the movie that I won’t go into detail on, because they took me completely by surprise and they were awesome. It’d be like ruining the cameo in Zombieland. Watch out for both of them. That’s all I’m going to say. There is also a slightly less awesome, but still cool cameo is by a young Storm, who appears during Xavier’s first use of Cerebro.
The Regal at Battery Park has become my go to theater for summer blockbusters. Five of us showed up a half hour early to see X-Men First Class and there were maybe 20 people there ahead of us. I could really get used to not having to plan on getting to the theater an hour or more early in order to get seats not in the front row. Plus, there is now a Shake Shack around the corner from the theater. Pro tip: Shake Shack is far more crowded than the Regal at Battery Park. Plan your movie watching/burger eating accordingly.
Lots of comic book movies this summer. So far I’m putting X-Men: First Class over Thor. Where will Green Lantern and Captain America show up on this list?
Walking into the theater at The Angelika, I didn’t know anything about The Last Station other than James McAvoy stars in it. When I sat down, and was told it was about Tolstoy, I reaction was “Really?” Inside I was thinking “How did I let this happen? Great, time to prep for something boring and pretentious.” But as it turns out I need not have worried. The Last Station is a surprisingly humorous movie, especially considering that it’s a movie about Tolstoy. The movie features what will probably be the funniest sex scene of James McAvoy’s career. I did think it was weird that my companions and I were the only ones laughing during some scenes. Maybe the other theatergoers were also prepped for something boring and pretentious, and no amount of humor was going to rob them of that.
Christopher Plummer plays Tolstoy. This is the second movie this year that I thought Christopher Plummer was Ian McKellen. This is also the second movie where upon finding out he wasn’t Ian McKellen, I thought he was Christopher Lee. For some reason, I forgot Chrisopher Lee’s last name and thought Christopher Lee and Christopher Plummer were the same person. “He looks so different than when he played Saruman,” I’d think. “It must be because his beard is so much scragglier here than when it was so nicely combed in Lord of The Rings.” Because I thought Christopher Lee and Christopher Plummer were the same person, I found it very funny when one of the characters with a General Zod-like beard was on screen at the same time as Tolstoy. Luckily someone that looks like General Zod is funny no matter who is starring alongside him. It turns out not only is Christopher Plummer not Ian McKellen or Christopher Lee, he hasn’t played a wizard in any of the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings movies. How is this possible?
Beards play a very big role in The Last Station. If you’re wondering how important a male character is in the movie, just check the size of his beard. Tolstoy sports something that is Santa Claus meets ZZ Top, so it’s no wonder that everyone hangs on his every word. Paul Giamatti plays Vladamir Chertkov, Tolstoy’s Head Sycophant in Charge (HSIC). It’s only natural that he has the next most complicated beard, even having a line “There was a problem with the wax,” when questioned about the state of his moustache. James McAvoy’s Valentin Bulgakov is the new guy at the compound, so it makes sense that his beard is understated, about the same size as the General Zod clone who is of a similar rank as him in the Tolstoy compound.
The Last Station is at the bottom of my list of movies I’ve seen at the theater so far in 2010. But it’s a good movie and I recommend seeing it. I’ve just been lucky to see plenty of good movies so far this year. Hopefully this keeps up.