Tag / Captain America

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You Ought To Be In (11) Pictures

Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime.  The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since.  Given those guidelines, it is time once again to look at the now 107 actors that have starred in at least 10 films that I have seen, as of July 1.

We continue today with the fourteen actors that have starred in exactly 11 movies that I have seen, up one from 3 years ago.

Kevin Bacon

Our first newcomer of the week, Bacon first showed up on my screen prior to the start of my database, either with 1988’s She’s Having a Baby or 1991’s He Said, She Said.  After that, he showed up in spurts, with two films each in 1996, 1998, and 2001.  He laid fallow for 17 years before returning in 2018 with 2017’s Patriots Day.  His eleventh, and most recent appearance, came earlier this year in 2020’s You Should Have Left.

Halle Berry

Berry moves up, having racked up starring roles in four different decades now.  I first saw Berry in 1992’s Boomerang, which I saw in a screening at Stewart Center at school.  After notching five films during the 2000’s, she had a seven-year quiet period before returning to my screen in 2020 with John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.  Her most recent film that I’ve seen was last year’s Moonfall.

Jim Carrey

There has been no change for Carrey since I last encountered him back in 2009, when I saw the previous year’s Yes Man.

Jennifer Connelly

As a 16-year-old in the spring of 1991, I fell in love with Jennifer Connelly thanks to the ads for Career Opportunities, which is very likely the first film of hers that I saw.  2000 was my most prolific Jennifer Connelly year, when I saw a whopping two movies starring her, followed by pretty consistent appearances throughout the decade.  After a thirteen-year absence, she returned to my screen in a starring role last year alongside Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick.

Daniel Craig

Daniel Craig first appeared on my radar in a starring role in 2007, when I watched his initial outing as James Bond in Casino Royale.  I had two three-year mini-streaks, with films in 2007 through 2009 and 2011 through 2013.  His two most recent appearances both came in 2022, thanks to the two franchises that account for seven of his eleven films: 2021’s No Time To Die, his final film appearance as James Bond, and 2022’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, his second go-around as Benoit Blanc.

Chris Evans

Chris Evans first appeared on my screen in 2002 thanks to the previous year’s Not Another Teen Movie and has been a pretty steady presence ever since.  In 2011, he debuted as Captain America in Captain America: The First Avenger and picked up an additional five films for the remainder of the decade, ending with his final appearance in Avengers: End Game in 2019.  His most recent appearance came earlier this year in Ghosted.

Hugh Grant Continue reading →

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Loss Of A Legend

Legendary Marvel artist John Romita passed away yesterday at the age of 93, according to his son, fellow artist John Romita Jr.  Romita defined the look of Spider-Man for a generation and was Art Director for Marvel from 1973 through the early 2000s.

Romita’s career began in the late 1940s at what was then known as Timely Comics.  Following a stint in the Army, Romita returned to what was then known as Atlas Comics, helping to relaunch Captain America in 1953.  After a short stint at DC working on romance comics, Romita returned to the newly christened Marvel Comics, where, following a short stint on Daredevil, he took over the art duties on Amazing Spider-Man following the departure of creator Steve Ditko in 1966.  Along with his tweaks to the design of Spider-Man and Peter Parker, Romita helped create iconic characters like Mary Jane Watson, Rhino, Kingpin, Shocker, and more.

As Art Director, Romita also designed a number of characters on titles that he wasn’t working on, including Wolverine and Punisher.  He was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2002.

I have at least 38 comics drawn by John Romita in my collection, starting with issue #44 of Amazing Spider-Man, cover dated January 1966, and ending with issue #132, from May of 1974.

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You Ought To Be In (10) Pictures

Movie_Reel_22

Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime.  The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since.  So, given those guidelines, and thanks to a corona virus inspired uptick to my movie watching this year, it is time to look at the 100 actors that have starred in at least 10 films that I have seen, as of July 1.

Today, we start with the 27 actors that have starred in 10 movies that I have seen, a slight increase from the 22 at this level 3 years ago.

Jessica Alba

After a string of 8 films in 6 years in the mid 2000s, there has been nothing new for Jessica Alba since I saw her in 2010’s Valentine’s Day in 2011.

Dan Aykroyd

No change in Aykroyd’s total, with it going on 18 years since I last saw one of his starring roles.

Elizabeth Banks

Our first new entry, Banks first graced my screen in a starring role in 2006 thanks to The Baxter.  After a dry spell in the early 2010s, she bounced back with 7 films in 5 years, finishing up with 2018’s The Happytime Murders, which I saw in 2019.

Kate Beckinsale

It’s been a quiet 3 years for Beckinsale, who I last saw in Underworld: Blood Wars in early 2017.

Halle Berry

Another newcomer, who has racked up starring roles in 4 different decades now.  I first saw Berry in 1992’s Boomerang, which I saw in a screening at Stewart Center at school.  After notching 5 films during the 2000’s, she had been pretty quiet until returning to my screen earlier this year in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.

Chevy Chase Continue reading →

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Vacation Recap – Universal Studios

UniversalAfter a whole 9 weeks since my last trip to Florida, I woke up early on the morning of June 1 for a 6 AM flight to Orlando with the family.  After landing, we caught the shuttle to the Hard Rock Hotel, where we had a long wait for the rooms to be ready.  After a quick lunch and a round of mini golf at the Citiwalk, Dennis, Angelina, Danny, and I went to Islands of Adventure for a quick re-introduction to Harry Potter land and the Jurassic Park ride.  We then headed back to the hotel, finally got in to our rooms, had dinner with appearances from a minion and Scooby Doo, and then called it an early night due to the early flight.

Thursday morning we got an early start and started at Universal, where we had a breakfast date at the Leaky Cauldron in the new Harry Potter area.  After breakfast, we headed to Olivanders to pick up wands for the boys, then went through the line for the Gringotts ride, before my mom and I begged off before the ride began.  It was at this point I got a text message from Jeff asking me to get him a wand.  As you may recall, I was at this very spot with Jeff less than 2 months ago and he could have purchased his own wand, but he was being a bit of a baby.  So, I went and bought him a wand, putting more thought in to it than I probably should have.  Once everyone was done at Gringotts, we hopped on the Hogwarts Express for the ride to Islands of Adventure.  Later, we wound up back at Universal, where Danny had an encounter with the shrunken head on the Knight Bus.

Friday was back to Universal for a character breakfast at Cafe LaBamba, followed by a return trip to Harry Potter land. After a quick trip back over to Islands of Adventure, we headed back to the hotel for some fun in the pool.

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by jim

Post Mortem – Agent Carter

agentcarterAfter two impressive, if lowly rated, seasons, ABC pulled the plug on Agent Carter, the time-appropriate sequel to the first Captain America film.  Hayley Atwell portrayed the title character, Agent Peggy Carter, who worked for the SSR after WWII.  The series filled the gaps, both between the loss of Captain America at the end of the war and the current day Marvel universe and also during the hiatus of Agents of SHIELD on the ABC schedule.

Of all the shows that found themselves cancelled this year, this is the one I will likely miss the most.  There was tremendous talent involved in this show and it offered a certain fun spy vibe that no other show fulfills.  I certainly expect bigger and better things from Atwell in the future and hope the character shows up again, somewhere in the vast Marvel cinematic universe.

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Midseason Review – Tuesdays

old-tv-set1We continue our look back at my expectations for the fall television season, and today we are focusing on Tuesdays.

7:00

Selfie – I love Karen Gillan and am quite fond of John Cho, but put them together in this loose adaptation of Pygmalion and, at least based on the pilot, you get a steaming pile of something or other.  I will give this a chance to improve due to the talents involved, but I don’t hold out a great deal of hope.

Well, the show was quickly pulled off the air and cancelled.  Hopefully, Karen Gillan returns to our television screens quickly, in something worthy of her talents.

The Flash – Spinning off from Arrow comes this latest forray from the CW in to the world of DC superheroes.  Hopefully it follows more from Arrow‘s example than Smallville‘s.

I don’t know if this has been the best new show of the season, but it has certainly been the most fun.  It has a sense of joy that neither Smallville nor Arrow had before it that brings a bit of levity to the DC television universe.

7:30

Manhattan Love Story – I’m not too sold on giving this new show, about the romance beteen two nuerotic New Yorkers, a shot.  But, I’m willing to try anything once.

Well, some show had to be the first one cancelled this season, which is about the only thing this show accomplished.

8:00

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – The show, which greatly improved following the events of Captain America: Winter Soldier, returns for a second season at a later timeslot and with a new status quo.

The battle between SHIELD and Hydra continues in a much improved show from one year ago.

Supernatural – For some reason that nobody can particularly understand, the show returns for its 10th season.  The show has been adrift for quite some time now and last season really started to drag.  I’m willing to keep watching, but I don’t know for how much longer.

Due to timeslot conflicts, I had to record this on a different TV.  To date, I’ve watched maybe 3 episodes of the new season and I’m not in much of a hurry to watch the rest.

Marry Me – Casey Wilson reunites with the creator of Happy Endings, who also happens to be her husband, for this new comedy.  Happy Endings was a tremendous show that ended way too early, so I will give this a shot and hope that it rekindles some of that magic.

This also needed to be recorded on a different TV due to timeslot conflicts.  I haven’t watched much of it, but I have enjoyed what I’ve seen.  It does seem to scratch, at least a little bit, that Happy Endings itch.

New Girl – The group returns for season 4, and less couples than we have seen in year’s past.  Hopefully, the funny keeps coming.

I think the problem is that they have too many characters that they don’t really know what to do with.

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ABC Upfronts

agents_of_shield_bannerABC, which finds itself in fourth place as this season winds down, has provided a fall schedule that is relatively stable.  Mondays, Saturdays, and Sundays will return in the fall exactly as they wrapped up this spring.  Tuesday sees Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. move back an hour, with the new Pygmalion update Selfie, starring former Doctor Who star Karen Gillan, leading off the night.

Wednesday stays mostly the same, with The Goldbergs and new comedy Black-ish filling in the holes left by Suburgatory and Mixology.  After years of trying, and failing, to find something on Thursdays that could lead in to Grey’s Anatomy, the folks at ABC have given up, instead moving both Greys and Scandal up an hour, leaving the 9:00 hour to the latest from Shonda Grimes.

In the winter, Agent Carter, a spin-off from the first Captain America film following Hayley Atwell’s character in the post-war years, will take over for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. while Galavant, a musical fairy tale comedy, does the same for Once Upon A Time.

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2011 Movie Review – Part 3

In 2011, I managed to see movies that were released in 1972-1973, 1975-1976, 1978, 1985, 1997-1998, 2001-2002, and 2004-2011.

Now, continuing Thursday’s look at the second batch of 50 movies that I saw last year, here are movies 100 – 13?.

Chain Letter (2010)

A decent horror flick about the dangers of not forwarding on those emails.

 

The Dilemma (2011)

What happens when a cheating spouse gets in the way of business and a bromance.

 

Letters To Juliet (2010)

A predictable tale of love, thanks to a letter written decades ago.

 

The Muppets (2011)

The Muppets return to the big screen for the first time in over a decade, and it was well worth the wait.  If you grew up with the Muppets and did not enjoy this movie, you have no soul.

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