Movie Ramblings: The Great Marvel Movie Catchup

I came to the world of Marvel relatively late, getting into X-Men comics only after the first set of movies was released. I really got into the 1970s and 1980s X-Men comics and have been trying to consume everything I can find chronologically since then. I’ve had a bit of a break in reading them in recent years and become more interested in the film adaptations.

Movie Ramblings: The Purge – Anarchy

The follow up to The Purge starts 1 year after first film with the date explicitly stated but we aren’t entirely sure why this matters. After all, the only links between the 2 films are the concept of the Purge and one character who makes a very brief appearance here. Maybe it is to emphasise the fact that the second film was released the year after the first.

Anarchy abandons the intimate enclosed setting of the first for the wide open streets. It is more Escape from New York or The Warriors than Silent House. Like Alien and Aliens the first film is an elegantly crafted claustrophobic thriller while the second is a sprawling macho gun-fest. While both are entertaining I can’t help but feel that the second has sacrificed much of the elegance of the first.

Movie Ramblings: The Purge

The Purge is a pretty standard violent home invasion thriller/horror movie based around the somewhat novel idea that the invasion takes place on the one night a year when the government has made all crimes legal for 12 hours. So the main characters are aware of and somewhat prepared for the risk but they seem a bit blasé about it and make a lot of the usual horror movie mistakes when things start to go wrong. There is a lot of standard horror movie fare here but it is just interesting enough to keep your attention.

Movie Ramblings: Wild

Wild is based on the book by Cheryl Strayed and is an autobiographical story of her 1000+ mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2569 mile footpath running from the US/Mexico border to the Canada/US border. The film is filled with beautiful imagery and poignant scenes.

Movie Ramblings: Hot Tub Time Machine

Hot Tub Time Machine is a strange mixture of the obnoxious, offensive, vulgar comedy that is so typical of modern comedy films and a typical John Cusack zany romantic comedy. The zanyness is just enough to distract from the vulgarity but it could have been so much more if it had the courage to step away from the (inexplicably) commercially successful vulgar comedy.