Check it Out! - "The Avengers"

I told you all I’d have a post up about “The Avengers” in less than a week.  ;)  I enjoyed this movie even more than I enjoyed “Thor”.  Having watched "Thor" first did help make things clearer about several of the characters, and what I read on Wikipedia about the other main characters (like Ironman and Captain America) gave me enough background to basically understand what was going on.  The only problem I can find with “The Avengers” is deciding which character I like the most.  Well, actually, I've had two problems in regards to the movie.  The other was finding the DVD in the library.  They had it under “M” for “MARVEL’S The Avengers” instead of under "A" or "T".  Really?  

Anyway, back to the one problem that actually has to do with the film, picking one character to be a favorite (and I'm meaning opposite-gender favorite).  Guys have it a bit easier, since they only have the Black Widow and Agent Hill to choose from, but us girls…I’m personally trying to decide between Thor, Cap, and Hawkeye.  While I thought Tony Stark was funny, if I was around him for much longer than the amount of time he was on screen (aka watching a movie where he was the only main character), he’d probably start to get on my nerves.  And while I thought Dr. Banner was a really nice guy when he was himself, he also seemed like one of those guys that you’d just “friend-zone”.  

If I was objectively choosing which of those first three guys I’d want my future husband to be like character-wise, I’d go with Cap, since he has such a strong moral compass, high sense of honor and loyalty, and is a bit old fashioned, which can be an advantage in some ways.  But then, on the other hand, Thor is so…so…dreamy.  He’s romantic, has that almost-extinct air of chivalry and heraldic charm about him, and has an even more lofty code of honor than Cap does.  And he’s a prince of a pretty cool-looking world, too, just sayin’.  And then Hawkeye is just so darn smooth with ice in his veins.  He might not have what could be called a "moral compass", but he does have a sense of right and wrong and, while he can be a loyal, dependable agent, he will also go against an order if he thinks that it is wrong (according to Black Widow's testimony).  He can be a good follower and a good leader, whichever the situation calls for.  And he’s mixed modern technology with a tried and true weapon of old, which is the epitome of coolness in a warrior.  A top-notch archer who uses rappelling lines and mini bombs and knows self-defense and how to fly a jet?  How much cooler can you get than THAT???  Well, there is an impenetrable shield that doubles as a giant Frisbee and a magic hammer that came from the heart of a dying star...

Sorry, where was I?  Oh, yeah, all the different characters of “The Avengers”.  I think the fact that the movie pulled all of them together and made it all work is a big reason why the movie was so successful, and why I enjoyed it so much.  So, like with my "Thor" review, here are my *mostly* objective impressions of the main characters, in the order that they appear in the movie.

Director Nick Fury:  He’s a guy you’d want to have take you under his wing.  He knows his stuff, and he knows what he needs and how to get it.  He also won’t let the “powers that be” get in his way.  The fact that the Avengers Initiative was his "baby" makes you like him more, too. 

Agent Phil Coulson:  In “Thor” he seemed like a jerk at certain points, but in this movie he’s all cool.  The way he was being a fan all over Cap and asking him to autograph his trading cards was so fun!  He’d be another one that you’d want to learn a lot from.

Clint Barton/Hawkeye:  As I said earlier, he is smooth.  And when he is sane he’s definitely a guy you’d want guarding your back.  I really hope they flesh out his character in the next “Avengers” movie.  (I also think it’s cool that he has a tiny uncredited part in “Thor”.  See below).

Loki:  Well, at least he’s figured out which of his two personalities he’s going to go with.  Unfortunately, he picked the nasty one.  He’s got some problems!  (I do have to admit, I had wondered why he didn’t slink off while Thor and Ironman were fighting in the woods, but after you find out what his plan was it made sense, it was because he WANTED to get inside the command ship.  That should have given them a big clue right there).

Natasha Romanov/Black Widow:  That is one chick you don’t want to mess with!  Her beating up those three guys at the beginning of the movie while she’s tied to a chair and has Coulson on hold is about the best action sequence in the whole movie (and Coulson's just waiting on the other end of the line without any concern at all).  But you also get to see deeper inside of her, that she has darkness in her past that she is trying to overcome, and that makes her a bit vulnerable.  She might be a seasoned spy, but she is still has a heart, too.

Dr. Banner/Hulk:  He really IS a guy with a split personality.  When he’s his normal self, he’s a really nice guy who you’d trust with baby-sitting your kids (and your kids would probably adore him).  But that temper…sheesh.  I do have to say though that I really like it that he was the one that finally got Loki to "sit down and shut up".  :)

Steve Rogers/Captain America:  The fact that he is a guy out of time makes him a very intriguing character.  He knows his stuff and is a great leader, but because he's been out of touch with the world for 70-some years, his knowledge and leadership tactics are seen as outdated, which isn't necessarily true.  I also think he has some of the funniest parts in the whole movie.  Probably my favorite was when he told Fury that he doubted that anything could surprise him anymore, and Fury said, "Bet ya ten bucks."  Then right after they enter the main control room of the command ship for the first time and it's just taken off from the water, Cap walks up next to Fury, pulls out his wallet, and hands him $10 without saying a word, all while still looking around the room with a bit of an awe-struck expression.  (LOVE it!  And don't worry, Cap, I didn't get all of Tony Stark's references, either).

Tony Stark/Ironman:  Like I said earlier, he’s funny, but too much of him could be annoying.  He is definitely a quip master and a smart-alec.  (I wonder if the term “snarky” should have really been “starky”?  It’d have fit).  After the Avengers all decide to work together he becomes a lot easier to get along with, and if you pay careful attention you can catch a couple of quick references which show how he has changed from being self-centered to wanting the best for the team.  I also like the fact that Pepper (his girlfriend/secretary) totally owns him.  :)

Thor:  Thor is still his wonderful self.  He struggles some with his temper still, but then since his enemy is his little brother that is a bit understandable.  When his fighting with Loki during the final battle you can tell a difference in Thor's attitude towards him before and after Loki stabs him.  Before, he was keeping his cool and treating him as a regular adversary.  After, he was like, "Don't you DARE do that to me again, you little punk!  I'm bigger, tougher, stronger, and meaner than you will EVER be."  Thor is also the only Avenger who doesn't really let his pride get hurt and in the way during the time that the team was about to implode.  He just mocked the others for being so "petty" ("and tiny"), and then rescued Black Widow from the Hulk.  And Thor has unarguably the coolest first entrance in the whole movie.    

Hmm, I guess Thor is still my #1 favorite, but Cap and Hawkeye are pretty close seconds.  ;)  Anyway, watching them all work out their various differences and basically being forced to band together through a lack of any other options was really fun.  I hope the second movie, which is slated to come out next year, is just as well done.  I know it can't have the same flavor, because all the guys are friends and allies now, but that fact can open up a bunch more opportunities for fun.  

Check it Out! - "Thor"

I'm one of those people who never jumps on a bandwagon when it's first taking off.  I'll stand around either ignoring it and hoping it goes away or watching it to see what happens.  If what happens piques my interest in any way, I do a lot of research about it before I decide to run and catch up with the wagon and hop on.  That's the way I've been with this whole Marvel comic-books-turned-to-movies series.  I wasn't even interested until all the stuff started coming out about the second Thor movie last November.  And after watching a trailer or two, I decided that it looked kinda cool.  So, I did what I always do: I looked it up on Wikipedia after it hit theaters to read the storyline.  I hadn't realized until then that it was just a small part of a big conglomeration of movies.  I had figured that since it was called "Thor 2" that it was a sequel, but other than that I had no idea.  I had heard vaguely of Ironman and I remembered when Captain America first came out, but I hadn't realized that they were all connected and interwoven with each other.  So I started investigating several of the different main characters, both on Wikipedia and on YouTube.  And after doing that research, I came to a couple of conclusions.  The most important one was that I really wanted to see "The Avengers".  I guess it's the idea of a bunch of heroes all coming together for a common goal that appeals to me the most (I'm currently working on a novel that has a similar theme, just not with superheroes).  I also knew that I don't have the time to watch all of the movies that come before it, but a friend had told me that that is really the best way to watch them, in order.  So I decided on a compromise:  I'd watch the first "Thor" before I watched "The Avengers".  Not only would that give me the needed background on the latter's villain (Loki), but out of all the members of the Avengers' cast, Thor is the one I've come to like the most.  I guess it's the history buff/old legends lover in me.  (Cap is a close second in my favor, but from what I've seen it looks like his first movie could be a bit more graphic since it's set in WWII, which is not one of my favorite periods.  Correct me if I'm wrong).   So a few nights ago I finally got to watch "Thor".  And I enjoyed it.  It wasn't as graphic as I had been afraid it would be and the storyline was pretty interesting.  Since the movie is pretty well known, I'm going to give my impressions of each main character instead of giving a movie summary.

Thor:  When the movie started off, my first thought was "What an immature jerk.  He knows he's a hot shot and isn't afraid to let everyone know about it."  It was great watching him "grow up" and become a pretty amazing guy.  By the end of the movie I was thinking "Where in the world can I find a guy like that?  He doesn't need to look like him, just act like him (although the looks would be a bonus)."  ;)  And I love that his vocabulary is superb, which is very intriguing to this wordsmith wannabe.  I also really like the fact that in the movie they don't portray him and his fellow Asgardians as gods but as super-humans from another world (just like Superman) who were seen as god-like by the ignorant Vikings.

Loki:  One question:  Is he bi-polar or something?  At the beginning of the movie, I actually liked him better than Thor.  While he was a little jealous of Thor, he truly seemed to care about his brother and wanted to protect him from his own stupid decisions.  But after he discovers his real identity, he seems to flip-flop between being a power-hungry, greedy dictator and a wounded son who wants to earn his family's love.  He's seriously like two different people.  The wounded son one you just want to hug and tell him that he really is loved, but the other one...keep me away from that creep!  The one major complaint that I have about the movie is related the Loki: they don't do a good job explaining his shape-shifting skills.  If I hadn't known ahead of time that he could do that, I would have been confused at several points during the movie.

Jane:  After watching the movie, the cynical side of me was like, "Really?  An intelligent woman like that is going to fall in love over the course of a couple of days with a stranger whose sanity she questions?"  But then the romantic side of me responded, "Yeah, but that stranger was a pretty buff guy with good looks, a deep, soothing voice with a cool accent, and a flair for chivalry and old-timey honor.  I mean, c'mon, wouldn't YOU get weak in the knees if he'd kissed your hand?"  The romantic side of me won that argument. You're excused, Jane.  You're one smart girl, but you're human, too.  I also liked the fact that she has a one-track mind.  It made her more believable as a character. :)

Odin:  What a guy.  What a ruler.  What a DAD.  Some people think that Thor's banishment in the movie came about because of Odin's temper, but I didn't see it that way.  The way I saw it, he was willing to do what his son needed the most to become a better person, even though it ripped their family apart.  Wow.

Sif and the Warriors Three:  Sif is really the only one of Thor's band of friends that you get to know anything about.  What you learn about her is she is one tough girl and that she is obviously in love with Thor.  And he probably has no clue (which would be typical of that kind of thing.  He didn't help matters any when he touched her face as he told her to retreat during their fight with the fire monster.  You could see in her eyes that she was about to swoon).  As far as the Warriors Three go, I learned enough about Volstagg from a deleted scene I found on YouTube to make him my favorite of the three.  He's just a big ol' teddy bear!  (just as long as you don't make him mad).

(Skip forward to 3:15 to see the part with Volstagg).

I'm glad that I watched this movie first.  I think it did give me some good background.  Be on the lookout for a post on "The Avengers" in the next week or so!  :)

"DWTS", Internet Fan Edition

Well, a new season of "Dancing With the Stars" has started.  And let me go ahead and admit that I am not a die-hard fan of the show.  I'm more of a side-line fan.  That means that I don't watch the show on TV, but the day after the show is aired I will look online to see how my favorite pros did the night before (I don't give a dern about the celebs), and then on the Thursday after the show I will look up their individual dances on YouTube.  The result is that I spend only about half an hour at most on my fandom each week versus however long the show is (I'm guessing at least an hour?).  I don't have to sit through the dances of the competitors that I'm not a fan of, and if I want to I can skip the judges comments and scores.  If a dance seems too risque or weird I can skip that, too.  But I do really enjoy the aspects of the show that I do follow.  Some of the dances are very, very beautiful.  You just have to find the right ones.  That is what I am a fan of, the dances that are pretty much just clean, elegant movement.  And of course I like some of the show's regulars.  The judges interactions with each other can be hilarious, and the interactions between my favorite pros and their students can be both funny and sweet.  (By the way, my fave pros are Val Chmerkovskiy, Maks Chmerkovskiy, Tristan MacManus, and Tony Dovolani.  I'm glad Maks and his snarky humor are back for this season, but I'm going to miss Tristan's lilting Irish accent.  :( )

I decided that in honor of Season 18 starting I would compile my top 10 favorite dances from the past seasons of DWTS.  They are categorized by the type of dance, ending with my all-time favorite at #1.  I hope you enjoy them!  :)

#10: Jive, Val and Zendaya, Season 16

So much energy! They could seriously be replacements for the Energizer Bunny.  And to such a spunky song, too!  You've just gotta love it.  :)

#9: Jive, Tony, Leah Remini and Henry Byalikov, Season 17

The dancing might not be that great in this one, but it's so much fun you hardly notice.  Their spoof of the judges is hilarious!  Tony could fill in for Bruno any time he wanted to and I doubt anyone would be able to tell the difference.

#8: Tango, Val and Kelly Monaco, Season 15 (All Star Season)

This is a wonderful tango without any unnecessary "sexiness" or shock factor (and a great play on a classic story).  I love the song, too.

#7:  Paso Doble, Tony, Cheryl Burke, and William Levy, Season 14

Tony serves as the third member of this trio dance, and it is really cool.  I normally don't get in to the Paso Doble, but, c'mon, they're doing Zorro!  And they made the celeb, Levy, have to keep up with Tony's dancing, so seeing them face off is impressive. (The rehearsal bits before the dance are pretty funny, too). 

#6:  Hip Hop, Val and Zendaya, Season 16

Hip-hop isn't at all considered ballroom, but since Val was the student in this one, I decided to include it (and, in my opinion, he did great!)

#5: Quickstep, Maks and Brandy, Season 11

I don't understand why so many people get on Maks.  In the intro stuff to this dance, he is so cute and funny!  And the dance is really sweet, too.  Maks definitely knows his stuff, no matter what people think of him.

#4: Quickstep, Val and Kelly Monaco, Season 15 (All Star Season)

I think the quickstep would be so much fun to learn.  Hard, but fun.  And this one is so sweet and airy! 

#3: Quickstep, Maks and Anna Demidova, Season 6 or 7 (Pro Dance)

I know Anna is another pro, but it is really cool after watching the pros and their students perform a dance to see how two pros do it.  It is so smooth and so effortless!

#2: Foxtrot, Tristan and Gladys Knight, Season 14

Tristan's foxtrots are always so sweet and sentimental.  I think the reason he's gotten stuck with several older celeb partners is partly because of that approach.  He is always so gentle with them!  And I could seriously listen to him talk all day long. ;)  (Skip forward to the 3.15 mark for the actual dance.  This was the only clip I could find).

#1: Foxtrot, Val and Zendaya, Season 16

This is my favorite dance.  It is just - so - CUTE!  And graceful.  And fun.  I love the way they treated each other like a big brother/little sister (especially in the intro part of this clip).  It's from watching them interact that I first became a fan of Val.  :)


I hope one of the Chmerkovskiys win the show this year.  They've come so close time and time again, but never won it all (kind of like the Texas Rangers in recent years...yeah, you know I had to bring baseball into this somewhere. ;) )  While I like Tony as well, since he has already won once it's one of the brothers' turn to get the Mirror Ball.  Good luck this season, Val, Maks, and Tony!

UPDATE!!!!!!

Congrats to Maks and Meryl!!!!!!!  I'm so happy Maks has finally won after thirteen seasons of trying and not quite making it.  The two of them obviously had wonderful chemistry (maybe even better than Val and Zendaya?), and Meryl is obviously very talented AND seems like such a sweet person.  I only wish they had done the quickstep at some point this season.  One thing that I love about the vid above of the announcement is that as soon as they are pronounced the winners, Val and Tony are right behind them jumping up and down and congratulating them.  It's so sweet!  :)

(This is from the DTWS 10th Anniversary show, and in my opinion is their best dance).

Check it Out! - "Alias Smith and Jones"

Back during the time that "Gilligan's Island" was one of the most popular shows on TV, a pretty frequent question for guys was "Who's your type, Ginger or Mary Ann?"  As far as I know, there was no female equivalent to that question, but it could have been "Who's your type, Hannibal Heyes or Kid Curry?"  This question refers to the main characters of the early '70s TV show "Alias Smith and Jones".

The show is about two Western outlaws in the 1880s (Heyes and Curry, who are played by Pete Duel and Ben Murphy, respectively).  During the show's pilot, they begin to realize that with all the advances in train and bank safe technology that it might be a good idea for them to get out of the thieving business while they still have a chance.  They ask the governor of Wyoming for amnesty, hoping that, since they've never killed anyone during any of their robberies, they will get off easy.  The governor agrees to give them amnesty eventually, but until he does they have to stay out of trouble AND not get arrested for what they have previously done.  So for the rest of the series the fellas travel around the West under the aliases of Joshua Smith and Thaddeus Jones, trying to avoid being recognized, get money in an honest way, and clearing their names whenever they are falsely accused of a crime.  The show is fun to watch with a good mix of humor and suspense (as well as some pretty good plot lines), and Duel and Murphy played off of each other perfectly.

The only sad thing about this show is that part way through the series Duel shot himself and died.  The show's producers recast the character of Heyes with actor Roger Davis, who had originally been the narrator for the show's opening credits.  After that cast change a bunch of fans quit watching the show, because to them Pete Duel WAS Hannibal Heyes, and they didn't think that the show had the same quality (my dad was one of those fans).  I've personally told myself that at some point I should watch one of the episodes with Davis playing Heyes, but I keep putting it off.  I guess a part of what bugs me about it is that Davis didn't even look or sound a thing like Duel, so how could he be the same TV character?  (In my opinion, if the producers and writers had done a plot twist where Heyes died on the show and then had Davis come in as a different character, like maybe Heyes' brother or something, then a bunch of fans would have kept watching the show.  That's what I think, but then I wasn't around to give my opinion when the show was aired). 

Update 10/2015:  I have finally watched a few shows with Roger Davis playing Heyes.  He does a good job, and is fairly enjoyable to watch, but his Heyes is definitely different from Duel's Heyes, and not just in the looks category.

A part of what made the show so wonderful was the differences in characteristics between Heyes and Curry.  Like with Ginger and Mary Ann, if one of them wasn't your type, the other one probably was.

Hannibal Heyes: He was dark, had dimples and a deep voice, and was very, very smooth.  He was the brains of the partnership, and he could talk his way out of *almost* anything (nobody's perfect).  Most of the schemes he came up with were successful, but occasionally he took a bit too big of a risk and got his hand burned.  He was the more refined of the two and a bit more educated.  A card shark, "subtle" and "sharp" were two words that described him perfectly.  It was when he couldn't figure out the combination of a safe that they started thinking about getting amnesty, because if he couldn't crack it, then NOBODY could.  (He's my mom's favorite).  ;)

  
Jedidiah "Kid" Curry: He had curly blond hair, blue eyes and a Western drawl.  As one of the fastest guns in the West, he was more brawn to Heyes' brain, and while he could be stubborn, he was loyal *almost* to a fault (as I said with Heyes, nobody's perfect).  He could be a hothead at times, but most of the time he had a pretty amiable personality.  He was also a bit of a softy for "damsels in distress", which occasionally got him in to trouble and usually ended with him getting a broken heart by having to leave her behind.  In all other areas he was pretty practical and down to earth.  (That's my boy! <3)

You can find pretty much all of the episodes from all three seasons on both YouTube and Hulu, and you can get them on DVD as well.  Pete Duel died part way through season 2, but he was still in more than half of the episodes (one other thing to note is that Roger Davis played the bad guy in one of their earlier episodes, "Smiler with a Gun".  He did do a good job with that role). 

To entice your interest, here are a couple short video clips and quotes from various episodes. Starting off with their opening sequence:

Heyes: You see men doing this kind of work [ranching] for all their lives?
Curry: I'm havin' a little trouble seein' me do it for another week.
(from the episode "Journey from San Juan") 

from the episode "The Posse that Wouldn't Quit"
(Side note: I'm glad Kid Curry had that mustache for only a few episodes).

Heyes: Kid, did your mother think you were perfect?
Curry: As a matter of fact, she did.  Did yours?
Heyes: Yeah, but yours was wrong.  
(from the episode "Everything Else You can Steal")

 

from the episode "Jailbreak at Junction City"



So, who's your type, Hannibal Heyes or Kid Curry?  ;)