Batman vs. Superman, et al.
Notice how a lot of critics are beating on the Bat like The Ramones at a Blitzkrieg Bop? The Bat isn’t going anywhere. In fact, Warner Brothers just dropped a teaser trailer for The Batman Lego Movie that opens next year, and appears to channel the zany humor that ran through the first media interpretation of Batman, namely the campy television series from the ‘60s that starred Adam West as Bruce Wayne.
As for Batman vee Superman: Dawn of Justice, director Zach Snyder places the Dark Knight going through a very dark night of the soul. Everybody (except Supes and Wonder Woman) and that includes Alfred has a five o’clock shadow. Snyder has never delivered a film better than Watchman, but his filmography is filled with snippets of inky and brooding melancholia.
Frankly, the first hour blew me away with its imagery some of which consist of Bruce Wayne dream sequences that appear to be triggered by the contents of a terrorist cell phone that he has covertly cloned. In particular, there’s a sequence where we find ourselves in the middle of some kind of desert warfare where some of the soldiers appear to have wings. It was like a hypnogogic hallucination that a starving person might experience.
Then there’s the second half. Basically a bunch of super heroes battle a hybrid alien monster and tear up both Gotham and Metropolis. It’s so rote and derivative of just about every comic book movie to come down the pike. And ay, there’s the rub.
As long as we’re talking about movies made for fans and not for critics looking to sharpen their snarky skills look no further than Get A Job.
This star studded misfire of a comedy was shot in 2024 – ‘nuff said. Mikes Teller, Anna Kendrick, Jay Pharoah, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and a few others headline as college graduates trying to find a job. Alison Brie, Marcia Gay Harden, Bruce Davison and Bryan Cranston play parents, or employers with their own issues.
If you like any of the above Get A Job can be a pleasant diversion between better programmers. If you like to bong out while playing video games in front of a large screen this is your manna.
— Michael Bergeron
