Marisa Tomei

Spider-Man: Far From Home

  • Title: Spider-Man: Far From Home
  • IMDb: link

Spider-Man: Far From Home movie reviewFollowing the events of Avengers: Endgame, a movie you will definitely want to see before sitting down for this one, Spider-Man: Far From Home centers around Peter Parker (Tom Holland) struggling to fill the void left by Earth’s mightiest heroes while also trying to enjoy his high school class trip to Europe.

There’s quite a bit screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers (both who also helped write Spider-Man: Homecoming) get right. One of the oldest Spidey tropes is Peter Parker being crushed by the responsibility thrust upon him at such a young age. The loss of Iron Man, and expectations for him to grow into “the next Iron Man,” are overwhelming for the teenage super-hero just wanting to protect the neighborhood and find time to admit his feelings to the girl he likes (Zendaya).

The script offers a new threat in elemental monsters from a parallel Earth and Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal), a hero who has tracked them here. When Peter’s summer trip is hijacked by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) he has no choice but to help Mysterio fight the threat as he struggles with his destiny.

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Spider-Man: Homecoming

  • Title: Spider-Man: Homecoming
  • IMDb: link

Spider-Man: Homecoming movie reviewSpider-Man: Homecoming presents a problem that Marvel and it’s tightly-connected Marvel Cinematic Universe has been able to avoid… until now. Having not yet relaunched any of the Marvel Cinenamatic characters, Marvel hasn’t had to deal with recasting and repackaging the same old stories. Working with Sony, there’s no doubt this is a MCU movie, and not only because of the appearances of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), and a cameo so good I wouldn’t think of ruining it here. For the most part, writer-director Jon Watts and his five (FIVE!?) other screenwriters succeed in building on the character’s small role in Captain America: Civil War.

Tom Holland returns as Peter Parker. Other than being a bit too buff, Holland’s take works well. Despite his good intentions and smarts, Peter continues to get himself in over his head (both in and out of costume) while failing to juggle his life as Peter Parker and as a web-spinning vigilante. And while I’m on the subject of webs, let me say that the comic nerd in me is happy that the new franchise has kept web-shooters as Peter’s creation rather than Sam Raimi‘s choice to go with organic web-shooters.

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Trainwreck

  • Title: Trainwreck
  • IMDb: link

TrainwreckAmy Schumer, who also wrote the script, stars as a relationship-averse mess of a woman whose world view is changed after interviewing a doctor (Bill Hader) for a local magazine. Trainwreck is a pretty straightforward romcom focusing on Amy’s struggles with love and her dysfunctional relationships with her father (Colin Quinn), sister (Brie Larson), and former boyfriend (John Cena). Like many scripts written by stand-up comedians, Trainwreck is a bit uneven. At times the film is quite funny even if all of its jokes don’t quite hit home.

Directed by Judd Apatow, the film boasts an odd collection of unlikely supporting characters. Along with Cena we also get LeBron James (playing himself) as Hader’s client and friend, Amar’e Stoudemire, Tilda Swinton as Amy’s demanding boss, and Daniel Radcliffe and Marisa Tomei as the stars of a movie within the movie about a dogwalker and his client in a running gag that never pays off.

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The Ides of March

  • Title: The Ides of March
  • IMDB: link

ides-of-march-posterThe loss of innocence is the theme for George Clooney‘s latest directoral effort which centers around a high-ranking political staffer whose idealism is shattered over the course of the two-hour film as he learns just how dirty a business politics really is.

The youthful Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling) has worked on more campaigns that most staffers twice his age but he believes he’s finally found the real thing in Governor Mike Morris (Clooney). Morris is one of two front-runners for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President. With Myers help he might even make it, if he’ll agree to make the backroom deals to get him the delegates needed to sew-up the nomination.

Myers is approached by the campaign manager (Paul Giamatti) for Morris’ opposition who attempts to woo the wunderkid over to his campaign. Although he declines the offer, Myers’s hyper-paranoid boss (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is angered over his protege’s willingness to meet with the enemy.

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