April 2013

Zero Dark Thirty

  • Title: Zero Dark Thirty
  • IMDB: link

Zero Dark ThirtyDirector Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Marc Boal‘s examination of one woman’s 10 year odyssey to track down Osama bin Laden is an amazing piece of filmmaking that earned the top spot on my list of the Best Movies of 2012Jessica Chastain stars as the increasingly obsessed CIA agent who isn’t lacking in self-confidence or knowledge but could use better people skills. Plucked from high school after 9/11 the movie follows Maya’s mission to find the illusive courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti (Tushaar Mehra) who she is certain will lead back to bin Laden.

Bigelow delivers a hard look at the successes and failures of the operation which finally bore fruit thanks to Maya’s (Chastian) dogged determinism. The movie doesn’t shy away from controversial issues such using torture to extract information, but it neither endorses or condemns the methods used over the decade long search for the man responsible for the attacks on 9/11.

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Guardians of the Galaxy #1

Guardians of the Galaxy #1The new adventures of Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Groot, and Drax begins with Peter Quill receiving a surprise visit from his estranged father and a warning that Earth has been deemed off-limits to all extra-terrestrials. Realizing such a bold pronouncement would only paint a bullseye on his homeworld, the Guardians of the Galaxy head into the Milky Way where they find Iron Man, in his spiffy new space armor, fighting off an entire battleship of Badoon.

After a pretty good reintroduction to Peter Quill (and his major daddy issues) the comic ramps up the action pretty fast as Iron Man and the Guardians work together to stop whatever the Badoon have planned. The good news is the group is successful. The bad news is the Guardians crash land on Earth, immeadiately violating the treaty his father just signed (which may have been his plan all along).

A strong first issue, even if Quill and (to a lesser extent Iron Man) get the spotlight shone of them far more than the rest of the team.

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