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The Avengers Review

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[dropcap style="font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;"] T [/dropcap] he Avengers is the latest Stan Lee Marvel extravaganza….only this time they have enlisted the writer of Toy Story, Josh Whedon to co-write and direct (with an assist by Zak Penn of The Hulk and X-Men). That creative dialogue introduction combines with an all-star cast that is mostly pre-branded as the various super heroes. I this way, we start out loving and not having yet seen enough of these heroes and yet we get the bonus of watching them interact AND save the world from Loki.

First there’s Captain America played by Chris Evans. His debut was as Captain America: The First Avenger in 2011 and in general this least “super” of the super heroes is set up as the leader of the band. Then there’s Iron Man played hilariously by Robert Downey Jr. He provides half of the film’s humor through sideways one-liners just as he did in the other Iron Man films. Mark Ruffalo is Bruce Banner, a.k.a. The Hulk, who surprisingly provides the other 50% of the humor (only a Toy Story guy cold make THAT work). Scarlett Johansson is the Russian Black Widow, who kicks ass almost as much as her ass kicks ass as the director gives us repeated walk-away shots to admire the Scarlett derrière. Cobie Smulders smoulders for those who need their fix of 2012 brunettes (it is a 2012 phenom). Meanwhile Chris Hemsworth as THOR and Jeremy Renner as tough-guy Hawkeye round out the cast.

Here’s the good news….you are getting a full-bore cast and story here that is easily the best all-around super hero movie I’ve ever seen….by a long shot. Here’s the bad news….despite the obvious sequel-inducing ending where we preview the next anti-Avenger, there is almost nothing left to make you think this can be improved on. Imagine putting all your alpha into your first trade…..I think that may be where Josh Whedon showed us his Pixar naïveté. Imagine a hedge fund manager leaving nothing for his next 2% + 20% event?

Puncture Review

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[dropcap style="font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;"] P [/dropcap] uncture is a little-known film based on the true story of Michael Weiss, who fought the battle of the retractible, disposable syringe against big pharma and the health care purchasing organizations that control hospital procurement. It was produced, directed and acted in by Mark and Adam Kassen. The real star that plays Weiss is Chris Evans, who plays the fine-line role of brilliant litigator and excessive drug addict.

I liked Puncture for all the same reasons I liked Erin Brokovitch and Michael Clayton. I suppose that means that the first mistake the producers made was in not calling this movie Michael Weiss. It is about the unlikely and righteous battle of a small under-capitalized firm and an unlikely champion who is deeply flawed personally, but stands on the moral high-ground against the big money litigation bar and the devious, corrupt and homicidal big money players. This combines underdog with the flailing and hardly-organized loser who everyone wants to love and wants to see triumph.

This was clearly low budget because I never heard of it, but it was shot with perfectly OK production value and does not look or feel cheap. What struck me more than anything is that this story is almost identical to the most recent John Grisham novel The Litigators, which I just read this Fall. My guess is that some big production company buys that book, casts a few big stars and promotes the Hell out of it based on the pedigree. In some ways, Puncture is the same sort of victim of the Hollywood (mostly hedge fund financed) movie formula machine that it portrays vis-a-vis big pharma. Maybe no one gets killed and maybe millions of Africans do not die at the hands of reused plastic needles, but Puncture has effectively been stabbed just the same. Take the trouble to see this on Netflix or PPV.