The current cinema, switcheroo edition

In which I wind up enjoying the crass superhero franchise picture a good deal more than the, erm, quirky struggles-of-a-white-male adolescent-in-Wales item. I wonder if I'm not developing a weird Michael Fassbender thing (that's him above right, with James McAvoy, enacting what I'm fairly certain is NOT a Seventh Seal homage). We may have to discuss this at more length when Haywire comes out. Or not. Anyway, my reviews of X Men: First Class and Submarine for MSN Movies are here and here. Have a delightfully counterintuitive weekend, all. 

Comments

[Bart Versteirt]

Glenn, what ever happened to your delightful 'Tree of Life' review? I can't seem to access it on the MSN site...

OT: I loathed "Kick-Ass", but this one was actually very nice.

[James Keepnews]

Ach, poor Kevin Bacon -- never seems to get the roles he deserves and when he does, as in MYSTIC RIVER, he's brayed into a stoic corner by his Oscar-winning co-stars. But it's Kev who should've been nominated for that film, and should've won. Still, I'd rather hoped he'd take his Nazi someplace other than "smirky" here.

Additionally, and paraphrasing John Zorn, fucking Michael Fassbender rules.

[D Cairns]

"Late great Ken Adam"? Though, as far as I can tell, no longer working, the designer of Barry Lyndon, Dr Strangelove and a score of Bond movies is still very much alive.

[Charlie R]

Let's discuss the weird Michael Fassbender thing. I remember seeing him two summers ago in Inglorious Basterds and finding him magnetic. After catching up with Fish Tank and Hunger, I was hooked. I don't particularly like X-Men, but his presence assured that I would be seeing this film.

[Kevyn Knox]

Nothing wrong with having a Michael Fassbender thing (I have it too). Hunger, Basterds, Fish Tank, even the rather lackluster Jane Eyre. Now X-Men and soon films by Soderbergh, Cronenberg, Ridley Scott & Danny Boyle. He is just on the verge of much deserved stardom.

Yes, fucking Michael Fassbender rules - even if sometimes he doesn't know how to gesture for the number three.

[Dan Coyle]

Of everything Inglorious Basterds, the one thing that sticks out the most is "If I'm going out, I'd rather go out speaking the King's."

[christian]

Absolutely Dan. It's a great brief movie star moment.

[bill]

Dan, that's probably my single favorite moment in the whole film, and it's a film I love pretty much unreservedly.

[Jer]

Kevyn, he'll also be in the next Jarmusch, presuming everything goes as planned.

[Kevyn Knox]

That is my favourite moment as well.

[Mark Slutsky]

Mine too haha!

[Brandon]

Fassbender made me wish they would have stuck to the original "X-Men Origins: Magneto" plan. I would have paid full price to see that one.
The whole reboot of the Xavier School stuff was really unneeded, especially with such comparatively lackluster supporting characterizations...

[LondonLee]

Damn, I was looking forward to Submarine too, but this put me right off:

"I mean, there's really no other reason for Oliver to be listening to old Serge Gainsbourg records, on vinyl yet."

There's a novel by David "Cloud Atlas" Mitchell called "Black Swan Green" about young teenage boy in England in the 1980s and I just couldn't take it seriously after he had the kid wax lyrical about Roxy Music's "Virginia Plain" which came out a decade before the book was set – it just read like hip name-dropping by the author instead of something an actual 13yo boy would be listening to.