These Movies Both Start with a W

They are also just mindless summer popcorn fare for the most part.  But it's in the 90s here and I hate it so I like to spend my weekend days in a movie theater.

I went into White House Down with zero expectations, so I suppose it didn't disappoint.  I still can't stand Jamie Foxx, regardless of his Tarantino status.  But I don't mind Channing Tatum.  Ever since 21 Jump Street I've been a bit obsessed.  This movie had the awful corny dialogue and situations:  Wacky White House tour guide who's all, Get your hands off the antiques!  Little girl who is wise and brave beyond her years!  Multi-layered government conspiracy!  A crowd of people outside the White House who are cheering while tanks roll in and get in a firefight with the bad guys, as opposed to running in terror (or not being allowed within a 10 block radius in the first place)!  I suppose there are worse ways to spend a summer day.  Like outdoors.  Also, Channing Tatum in a white tank top.


At least in World War Z people were acting as they would in real-life - freaking terrified of zombies.  I really liked the zombies in this movie actually -- fast-moving, and swarming, like a wave of water rushing down a street.  Pretty cool.  But OMG the plot.  You could tell there were tons of reshoots and script changes.  The last 1/3 is cool - basically a huge we-have-to-get-through-a-bunch-of-zombies sequence - but it feels like a different movie from the globe-spanning catastrophe movie in the beginning.  And the very end feels hella tacked on.

Basically, I sat through these movies and it was OK, but I don't plan to see either of them again, until they're on HBO 100 times a week and I can't escape them.  Also, I plan to read - I know, read! - World War Z, mostly because I really think this zombiepocalypse thing could happen and I need to be prepared.  I've already got a camp stove.

Man of Steel/This is the End

I saw Man of Steel yesterday, so I finally feel capable of writing about it.  Not because it's so deep that it takes a lot of time to process, but because - Jesus Christ on a bike - Henry Cavill is hot.  I'm sorry, but he is.  No, not hot, just really, really ridiculously good-looking.  Like, criminally so.  So good looking that every time he comes on screen I end up with my mouth hanging open in awe of his face.  I'm not kidding.  He's beautiful.

But is the movie good?  Yeah I think I liked it.  I think I really liked it.  But I also wonder if I'd be OK with watching Henry Cavill watch paint dry.  That'd be a good film.  Jesus, he's handsome.  I think the movie is stronger in the first half - really laying out the backstory, effectively showing the struggles of a growing alien boy.  Then the second half happens and it's nonstop fighting.  The action is definitely well done - it's really well-directed.  Because a quarter of the movie is 2 grown men flying around and flinging each other into buildings and fighting and you totally buy it.  The movie also changes some stuff in the Clark Kent/Superman backstory, at least as I know it.  I'm not entirely sure I buy the way it ends up; I need to see it again to see if it makes sense.  I mean, if I have to....

I've been eagerly anticipating This is the End like no other movie this summer.  It's as if the movie industry read my mind - let's put all of my favorite funny guys who have awesome chemistry together into a vulgar comedy.  Perfect.  Everyone was awesome and it was just as funny as I hoped it would be.  Plus it's crazy because, you know, apocalypse and everything.  It's brilliant.  As brilliant as Superman is beautiful.