Nerd overload.
The Incredible Hulk is hitting theaters this weekend. As is the new M. Night piece The Happening. And not being released this week, but coming to my favorite local theater (The Ambler Theater) this week is The Fall, a foreign film being billed as the best visuals since Pan's Labyrinth.
Being a child of the 80s, I grew up watching the old Hulk tv show with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, as well as all of the Marvel Comics related cartoon shows that flooded the airwaves in the 80s. All of these cartoons ushered me right into the world of comic books. So the glut of Marvel Comics movies that have come out recently and will in the next few years have me very excited. (The little tease of the Avengers movie that is in the works is worth sitting through the Iron Man credits for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.) The new Hulk movie looks to make up for the lackluster Eric Bana outing from 2003. I believe in Ed Norton. He rarely steers us wrong (we can forgive Everyone Says I Love You). With Louis Leterrier at the helm, it should have some solid action as well as a good story. His Transporter movies were nothing short of action movie perfection.
The Happening is a return to the roots of what somehow made Shyamalan a household name. After disenchanted audiences griped and moaned about Lady In The Water and The Village, M. Night goes back after the audiences he won over with The Sixth Sense and Signs. Although, people seem to forget that his first major studio film was about a ten-year-old kid's hard time in Catholic school. All of these movies were great films in their own right when compared to the genres of film they belong in and not expecting Lady to be like Signs just because it's the same director. You have to respect a director's desire to dabble in different genres because they want to and not to appease fickle audiences. Shyamalan and Danny Boyle are perfect examples of how a good director can make good movies no matter what the genre.
Ambler getting The Fall is just giving me a chance to be lazy and not drive to Philly. All I really know about this one is that the visuals are stunning and the main premise is a little kid hearing a fantastical story from some dude in a hospital. That, and my friend Shannon LOVED it. Not that it would mean anything to anyone else, but she never steers me wrong either. Maybe I should hook her up with Edward Norton.
--John Berry, Online Editor--