GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Marvel Studios

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 121 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy.
 

In Marvel Studios Guardians of the Galaxy, kidnapped Earth man Peter Quill/Star Lord/Chris Pratt, winds up in an uneasy partnership with a group of extraterrestrial misfits Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, and Rocket/Bradley Cooper who are on the run through space from Lee Pace, Djimon Hounsou and Karen Gillan after scavenging a mysterious orb for a buyer.

Based on the 2008 version of the 45 year old comic book series Guardians of the Galaxy, this is the first non-Avengers Marvel property developed by Walt Disney Pictures as well as being a Marvel Phase 2 movie. Guardians of the Galaxy is more of a bad-assed action film than a comedy that the movie trailers had made the movie appear to be, with the opening scenes before the credits of the movie being a tearjerker. Despite being an ensemble piece, Quill/Star Lord/Pratt is the leader of these criminals, who pulls these losers into a group in order to do something good to save the galaxy. Tree creature Diesel puts a lot of emotion into his one line of dialog that he repeats throughout the movie. Diesel also recorded all the languages of his line for the international releases of the movie. Racoon Rocket/Cooper and tree person Groot/Diesel will be the toys for this movie.

For Executive Producer Stan Lee fans, his cameo appears relatively early in the movie and the audience reacted positively to his appearance.

Being the first movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe set in space, a lot of the cosmic space elements from the Marvel comics universe are mentioned in the movie - with cameos of major comic characters, including Benicio Del Toro and an uncredited Josh Brolin. The movie also includes an Infinity Stone appearing in the movie. The cameos and the Infinity Stone hint at future movie roles in the Marvel Cosmic Universe.

While part of the promotional marketing of the movie has Glenn Close in the trailers - she has basically a walk-on part with hardly any lines, despite the nature of her character. I loved the mixed cassette music of 70's and 80's songs that was put together for Quinn's/Pratt's Walkman. I would not be surprised if the soundtrack for this movie becomes a hit. Of course what is funny is that Quinn's/Pratt's Walkman and cassette tape has lasted for over 20 years.

I saw the movie in 3D. While the 3D seemed good in the beginning - after awhile I stopped noticing it except for certain action scenes and one awe scene, some of which the action scenes made me blink.

While there might be a couple of points where scenes would seem scientifically inaccurate - given what was established, I could accept those scenes. The end of the movie was also a bit deus ex machina to me, but the end of the movie also might be acceptable given to what was established.

After the end credit music, the very last end credit scene of the movie might be controversial with the fanboys, so I would not be surprised if nothing ever became of it and just appeared in the movie as just a last joke. But then again, the fanboys would go nuts if this was real and Marvel did it right. I believe it was for legal reasons with Marvel that the creator's names that were involved with this scene had appeared after the end of this scene. If Marvel actually does make a movie and puts this on the production schedule in a slot that has not been confirmed yet, I hope that they make that movie as originally intended by the creators as a satirical existential experience, instead of just something from space.

The very last visual on the screen is that GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY WILL RETURN.

As of 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy broke the record for an August debut.

Rated PG-13 for violence, obscenity. Running time: 121 minutes.  

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy.



Click below to watch a final movie trailer of Guardians of the Galaxy.



Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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THE HANGOVER PART III

Warner Bros.

Rated R

Running time: 100 Minutes



Click below to watch The Hangover Part III movie trailer.



In Warner Bros. The Hangover Part III, the Wolf pack are back. This time, while the Wolf pack Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Justin Bartha are on the way to take fellow Wolf packer and ADHD disordered Zach Galifianakis on a personal intervention - they get hijacked by mobster John Goodman who is after escaped gangster Ken Jeong.

In this third and final movie of The Hangover series, Written, Directed, and Produced by Todd Phillips, The Hangover Part III has the principal actors back in this movie, including Heather Graham and her young son played by Grant Holmquist.

I have not seen the second movie The Hangover Part II, but you do not have to have seen it to appreciate The Hangover Part III. There were a couple of references that I believe were to Part II, but I do not think it is necessary to have seen Part II - although it did make me wish I had seen Part II to really appreciate what had happened. While Part II was about Bangkok, Part III eventually returns back to Las Vegas which makes it more of a sequel for me and puts an end to the series. Just like in The Hangover, Wolf packer Justin Bartha is missing from most of the movie - and as a result you do not get to know him as a character. As Galifianakis tells Helms, they have been on a lot of adventures together - but I do not know Bartha, except that he is Galifianakis's brother-in-law.

John Goodman as the mobster was good - although with him playing such cute, cuddly characters in the movies so often, I could not really see Goodman as being bad in this movie because this is supposed to be a comedy except for his actions. The same thing with Jeong. Jeong is just too funny to be considered a bad guy, except for his actions.

The opening music was pretty dramatic over the film's production logos, which was making me think that I was in the wrong movie theater. Once the picture actually starts and the credits start to roll, the music changes slightly so that you realize that is was stylized music for the movie. I loved the use of Schubert's Ave Maria that Galifianakis had sung for the funeral scene. I do not know if that was really Galifianakis's voice, but as Cooper says, Galifianakis sounded like an angel. I also liked the use of popular music illustrating the plot of the movie - although the background music was mostly pretty dramatic, which made the music kind of a downer for me.

I admit that the main reason that I saw this film is because of the freeway scenes that were filmed at my hometown's Costa Mesa's/Corona Del Mar's 73 Freeway in Orange County, California - which was closed for a weekend. My cousin said that they had filmed right by where they often go to dinner. The freeway scenes were pretty involved in the movie and makes me think that part of the scenes was CGI as those scenes were rather involved for a weekend daylight shoot.

I saw the film with a small audience, but the audience was laughing throughout the movie. Being locals, they especially laughed at our freeway scenes.

At the end of the movie, there are basically shots of the Wolf pack walking around as a pack in the styles from the various movies.

When the end credits start to roll - stick around, as there is a pretty large scene that is similar in style as a party from the original The Hangover.

While there is controversy about animal cruelty, the American Humane Association did On-Set Oversight on the movie and states that no animals were harmed.

At the end of the movie in the credits is a disclaimer for the Caesars Palace hotel and casino, "The scenes at Caesars Palace in the film are fictitious and not all activities depicted therein are authorized or endorsed by Caesars." 

Rated R for violence, language, sexual situations, nudity. Running time: 100 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

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