Category Archives: Anthony Mackie

2018, Action, Anthony Mackie, Anthony Russo, Avengers: Infinity War, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benedict Wong, Benicio Del Toro, Bradley Cooper, Carrie Coon, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Pratt, Danai Gurira, Dave Bautista, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Olsen, Fantasy, Gwyneth Paltrow, Idris Elba, Joe Russo, Josh Brolin, Karen Gillan, Letitia Wright, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Shaw, Paul Bettany, Pom Klementieff, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Science Fiction, Sebastian Stan, Superhero, Suspense, Terry Notary, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Holland, Tom Vaughn-Lawlor, Vin Diesel, William Hurt, Winston Duke, Zoe Saldana

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

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Why did the Mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin – W., Labor Day) feel the need to grab hold of the power of the six Infinity Stones to destroy the universe? I think it’s important to understand what causes a villain to do certain actions rather than just to have a bad guy. The stronger the arc of the villain and our ability to sympathize with them on any level allows us to understand further and appreciate the underlying of who they are. In this Avengers: Infinity War (directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo), we have a powerful bad guy motivated by a tortured past and willing to destroy all of the good guys in the universe to atone for it. After the planet Titan that is no longer inhabited because he was not allowed to prevent the things from destroying it, he thought he would prevent it. Instead, he lost his planet and everyone on it. Vowing not to let something like that happen again, he makes it his mission to balance out the universe by wiping out half of it completely. But to do so, he’ll need all six of the Infinity Stones that will power his Infinity Gauntlet, which will then allow him the ability to bend time, space, energy, and the laws of physics and reality.

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2009, Academy Award Nominees, Action, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, David Morse, Drama, Evangeline Lilly, Guy Pearce, Inspired by True Events, Jeremy Renner, Kathryn Bigelow, Ralph Fiennes, The Hurt Locker, Top 10 Movie of 2009, War

The Hurt Locker (2009)

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“The rush of battle is a potent and almost lethal addiction, for war is a drug.” – Chris Hedges, author of War Is A Force that Gives Us Meaning.

2009’s The Hurt Locker is absolutely one of the finest movies ever made. It was completely gripping in its year of release and is a movie that will remain relevant until the end of time. It was monumental that director Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break, Zero Dark Thirty) became the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director and the first woman to direct a Best Picture of the Year. It only took 80 years…Just as impressive, and a large credit goes to Bigelow, was the breakout performance for two future Hollywood A-listers in Jeremy Renner (The Town, Wind River) and Anthony Mackie (The Adjustment Bureau, Triple 9). Ironically, both have landed themselves as Avengers characters, something I will touch on later in this review. There have been many excellent movies about the war in Iraq (Stop-Loss, The Green Zone, The Messenger, Grace Is Gone, Lions for Lambs, In the Valley of Elah, Jarhead), The Hurt Locker is second, falling just behind Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper. And it’s close. Each is a film that showed be watched multiple times. Each had a lead that hit his performance completely out of the park, each had incredible direction, and each had a chilling score that could be listened to on a quiet night on the couch at home. It is, without a doubt, a movie that should be viewed by anyone who enjoys/appreciates war movies.
2016, Aaron Paul, Action, Anthony Mackie, Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Clifton Collins Jr., Crime, Drama, Hidden Gems, John Hillcoat, Kate Winslet, Norman Reedus, Suspense, Triple 9, Woody Harrelson

Triple 9 (2016)

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If you watched season 1 of HBO’s True Detective and you were as much of a fan of the six-minute single-shot shootout scene that ended episode four’s (titled Who Goes There) as I was, you might just very well like John Hillcoat’s (The Road, Lawless) underappreciated Triple 9. Likewise, if you watch Game of Thrones and found the intense battle between the Jon Snow led wildlings and the white walkers at the end of season five, episode eight (titled Hardhome) as the best single scene in the history of the show, you might just very well like the star-studded Triple 9. If I had trusted my instincts and not those of the critics, I would have been able to appreciate this gem of a popcorn flick on the big screen. Instead, I let the movie pass through the theaters, knowing I would see it eventually at home, but convincing myself that, despite the awesome previous, I would be disappointed by this movie. One of my colleagues at work recently asked why I hadn’t told her to see Triple 9, knowing that it was a movie right up my wheelhouse. She was really the first person I actually knew who had seen the movie. So I feel obligated early on in this review to match this movie with an audience that can best appreciate it. If you like the intensity that comes with a bank robbery movie (my two favorite bank robbery movies are The Town, which is my second favorite movie ever, and the original Point Break), I can’t think of a reason that you wouldn’t like Triple 9. There are plenty of underlying storylines, but just like those two movies, Triple 9 refuses to take its foot off the accelerator and doesn’t confuse its audiences by undervaluing the ferocity of its story by wasting even a single scene that isn’t relevant to its story. In 2016, you almost needed a caveat when talking about movies. So while Captain America: Civil War is the best movie to be released in the first five months of the year, the best non-superhero movie is Triple 9.
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2016, Action, Adventure, Anthony Mackie, Anthony Russo, Captain America: Civil War, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Evans, Daniel Brühl, Don Cheadle, Elizabeth Olsen, Fantasy, Frank Grillo, Jeremy Renner, Joe Russo, Marisa Tomei, Paul Bettany, Paul Rudd, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Science Fiction, Sebastian Stan, Super Hero, Tom Holland, William Hurt

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

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Captain America: Civil War is perhaps the greatest superhero movie that Christopher Nolan has not directed. My two favorite superhero movies (The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises) belong to him. As of this post, my third favorite would probably be a toss-up between Batman Begins, Iron Man, and Captain America: Civil War. There are others (such as The Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, etc.) that are up there, but there is clearly a distinction between the top 3 or 4 and all of the others. I hope that superhero movies continue to get better, but unfortunately, it feels like we get 3-4 bad ones for every good one we get. So when we get a movie like Captain America: Civil War, it’s important to take pause, see it, praise it, and encourage more movies like it because we know that poor movies will continue to be made because all of them seem to gross over $100 million easily. And the reason they do is our fault. We continue to see these terrible movies. But that is a different story for a different day.
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2014, Action, Adventure, Anthony Mackie, Anthony Russo, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Chris Evans, Fantasy, Frank Grillo, Joe Russo, Robert Redford, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Science Fiction, Sebastian Stan, Super Hero

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

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In a day and age where it seems like a new superhero movie is getting released every other week, it is hard for an average mainstream moviegoer to know which ones are worth watching, which ones to skip, and what order you should watch these movies. This seems to be particularly important with the Marvel movies and of even more importance with The Avenger movies. I have done my best to see The Avenger movies as they’ve been released, but there have been some that I have found to be terribly along the way, including Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Age of Ultron. It certainly has not helped that Marvel characters who aren’t Avengers (like Spider-Man) are starting to show up in movies featuring The Avengers. It’s only a matter of time before all of these other Marvel characters (Ant-Man, Deadpool, etc.) start appearing in each newly released movie. At that time, it just might be time to give up. Don’t even get me started about the future when either Marvel or DC buys the other out and we get characters like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Iron-Man, Thor, Captain America, Flash, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern, Hulk, etc. all end up in the same movie. It won’t occur for a while, but when this market becomes stale many, many years from now, there will be too much money sitting on the table not to do it. Of course, the purists will also be upset those who write the comics (though they most likely already are), but if I’ve learned anything, it’s that money speaks.
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