Our Man Stan... "With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story"

Excelsior!

The Story:

A biography covering the life and career of Stan Lee and the characters that he created for Marvel Comics.

I love Stan Lee.

You'll never find a more engaging pitchman who so believes in what he does than Stan.

While I no longer read the comics, I will always love the characters that he created, or to spread the love truthfully, co-created in many instances.

Writing comics would probably be my dream job, therefore Stan Lee is my ultimate hero.

He had the job that I would love to have, but would always feel I could never live up to.

But man, it would be a blast to try!

To sit back and realize that YOU are the man telling stories about Spider-Man...or the Fantastic Four...or...

Yeah, pretty cool gig.

And for the most part, all of the other people that are interviewed in this film also gush about how cool Stan is, both genuine and personable.

Plus, there's some nice Stan at home scenes with his lovely wife, those two are still madly in love after all these years.

So if you want to see a good documentary on Stan and the history of Marvel, here you go!

Now available to stream instantly on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade: B

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Maybe I'll watch it again in a few years, but nothing that screams "buy me!"

"Bullet To The Head" ? That Sounds Painful...

That's going to leave a mark!

The Story:

James Bonomo (Sylvester Stallone) is a hitman living in New Orleans.  After completing a job, his partner is killed and James barely escapes.  Meanwhile, detective Kwon (Sung Kang) comes calling to find his partner who was also murdered.  The two cross paths, and then reluctantly join forces as they realize that the killer ( Jason Momoa) took out both of their partners.  They'll uncover a layered web of corruption and deception as they work their way to the top of the food chain. However, how long can Kwon tolerate Bonomo's less than legal actions as they seek out the information they need?

Has anyone had a better late career boost than Sylvester Stallone?

He's hung around long enough to be cool again! ;)

Personally, I think the movies that he is making now are also much better than what he was making years ago.

Granted, Stallone also has no problem bringing back the gratuitous violence that embodied the 80s action films, and added an extra layer of splatter to make the movies more violent and less cartoony.

Though sometimes when people die, it's still pretty funny watching them explode... : /

Nice to see that Sung Kang is getting some work outside of the Fast and Furious franchise.  We'll see where he turns up after this.

It appears that this movie is based on a French Graphic novel, so yay, comics win again!

It's directed by Walter Hill who hasn't done many feature films in quite a while, and his heyday was also in the 80s with 48 Hours probably being the best movie of his career.

It's probably nothing groundbreaking that you haven't seen in a million and one other action/buddy cop movies.

It is a nice spin having a hitman and a cop team up, and how they are able to one-up each other, and tear down each other often at the same time.

Not bad...

Final Grade: B-

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Probably pass on purchasing or watching it again.  I have to choose my action films carefully around here. :)