Todd Lyden

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...