Todd Lyden

Somewhere back when, I used to talk about movies on this blog. I thought I might take a look at the box office winners this year to see what I have seen and give you some of my thoughts... I went down as far as 25! 1. Captain America: Civil War - Did exactly what it needed to do. Wish that we could have seen the movie without the "civil war" that was PROBABLY planned BEFORE they got RDJ involved.  2. Finding Dory - Not a bad sequel, but really added nothing to the overall appeal of a much better predecessor.  3. Zootopia - One of the gems of the year. This will be rewatched if not rehashed with the eventual sequel. 4. The Jungle Book (2016) - Sorry, I could NOT get past the CGI backgrounds. I don't care what people say, the animal effects were largely ok, but I could never see past the GREEN SCREEN on this one. And a sequel?  5. The Secret Life of Pets - STILL HAVE NOT SEEN. Good or bad?  6. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Edit about 45 minutes and th...

Thank to a local radio station, 96.5 BOB , the j-man and I hit the midnight showing of " Captain America: The First Avenger " last night. Wow. In a summer full of superhero, comic-inspired films like " Green Lantern ," " Thor ," and " X-men: First Class ," the Captain certainly nails it. I've seen 2/3rds of the list mentioned have to say that this movie plain WORKS. There are two big reasons it works. 1. Joe Johnston , the director, has immense respect for the character and the story and he tells it to borderline perfection. I talked about him before and why he was perfect for this movie. I think I need to revisit his "epitome movie." 2. Chris Evans IS Captain America . I am sure others could have carried the role, but Evans displays a humility that few roles have required him to carry before. See my discussion of his "trajectory" to this role. He has the strength and charisma required of the part, but the ...

Image via Wikipedia Something different today. Directors! As the slate of summer movies starts, Captain America is a movie that is getting some attention. The director of the action, period piece is Joe Johnston . The man is a protege of George Lucas . He designed Boba Fett ! Heck, he was a stormtrooper on the Death Star! He is a master of special effects, but also loves to tell a great story. He stepped in to clean up the mess a previous director made of last year's "Wolfman" with Benico Del Toro. Before that, he directed the passion project, "Hidalgo." My epitome movie for Mr. Johnston is " The Rocketeer ." Sure he did great special effects in " Jurassic Park 3 ," still my fave of those dino-movies. He had a great run with " Jumanji ." Did you know he directed " Honey, I Shrunk the Kids ?" The man is versatile, but his willingness to tell a great story married to even better special effects is unmatched. Wh...

Image via Wikipedia Trajectory is the  path a moving object follows through space as a function of time. I got to thinking about where I might want to be after watching " Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" the other night. Partially because it's lead star apparently has NONE as I discuss here . But largely due to one of the bit players in the ensemble of the movie: Chris Evans . You MIGHT remember him for his first big turn in the spoof "Not Another Teen Movie." I certainly remember him. I did not realize he had some TV roles behind him, but he left them far behind once that movie hit. He carried the suspense actioner "Cellular." This film relied on his ability to communicate only through a phone and he pulled it off. However, it appeared he might be stuck in a typecasting hell of playing a sort-of bumbling California boy (ironic as he is from Boston). This seemed confirmed when he was chosen to play the hot-headed Human Torch in 2005's "Fantastic ...