GILFs

So I have a couple of things to talk about today, last night I went to see the newest Marvel film The Incredible Hulk. This is a re-booting of the character after the decidedly lukewarm reception that the 2003 Ang Lee film received. To be fair if you’re going to give a character with so many obvious psychological undercurrents then you have to expect a film maker like Lee to run with them. For me the main failing of that film was the garbled last 30 minutes or so, I thought I’d fallen asleep after Banner is captured and is confronted by a plainly batshit Nick Nolte as his father with the way the story seemed to jump 20 minutes.

So that brings me to the 2008 version, this time around the film is a lot more streamlined and trades on peoples memories of the Bill Bixby tv series, going as far as having the actors face appear on a tv screen and using THAT piece of piano music as part of the score at one point. Ed Norton takes over the role of Bruce Banner (as well as taking an uncredited pass at the screenplay) and gives a more sympathetic performance than Eric Banas’ in the previous film, small touches like putting Banner in several sizes too large trousers that are pulled up almost to his chest make him more endearing than the more conventionally good looking Bana.

As the film picks up Banner has been on the run from the army led by General Ross (played by a moustache totting William Hurt) and has made it to Brazil although it isn’t long before Ross along with a special forces operative called Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) are back on the trail and triggering the first Hulk transformation of the film and Banners return to the US to find a cure.

On the whole this is better than the standard summer blockbuster, the effects may veer into video game cut scene territory a little too much but the actual Hulk looks good throughout evoking the look of Dale Keowns art. Importantly the film doesn’t out stay its welcome, too often now films are dragged out to near 3 hour lengths when there’s obviously no need, Transformers and Spider-Man 3 were prime culprits of this and the less said about the life stealing experience that was Pirates of the Caribbean the better. Director Louis Letterier doesn’t overdo directorial ticks, he keeps things simple and moves the story along at a steady pace.

The performances are solid if unspectacular, Liv Tyler gets the thankless task of Banners best girl with her one moment of true character coming in a cute scene that shows why Puny Banner will never get a booty call. Tim Roths ‘roided up super soldier who eventually becomes a more legitimate but dull looking foe for the Hulk is good value and he looks like he’s having more fun working with CGI than Ewan McGregor managed in the 3 Star Wars prequels combined.

As in Iron Man there’s a cameo at the end of the film (thankfully not after 10 minutes of credits) to set up the eventual Avengers film, so far Marvel have kept these crossovers simple and are progressing the idea of a shared universe but it doesn’t take much for that to become overly convoluted and annoying for film goers who don’t see every Marvel film. Hopefully Marvel keep it this way.

The other thing I wanted to talk about was after going to the film I met a couple of friends to go and see The Bangles play. Although it seems like every band and it’s dog from the 80’s and early 90’s are reforming I have no problem at all with this revival, The Bangles put out some great records, especially Everything which came just prior to their break up. I didn't really know anything about the band when I borrowed Everything from the library when I was in university during 1995 but I fell in love with it. Every song felt effortless to like but they had the staying power to stand up to repeated listening, any album that contains this single can’t be faulted.

As shallow as it is (and I’m particularly shallow) I couldn’t help noticing how great the original members looked, Susanna Hoffs is 50 this year but could easily pass for 10 years younger and guitarist Vikki Peterson is definitely taking some fashion tips from Sheryl Crow. Musically they sounded very tight and although you’d expect that from a band on a greatest hits tour playing songs that they’ve been performing off and on for 20 years they weren’t overly polished, you could see that they were really having fun.

If a band’s going to get back together then I’d much rather see them in this environment than one of the regular revival tours in an enormo dome where you have the lead singer and an anonymous backing band trying to fit as many songs into 25 minutes as they can. You know they want a bit of money for a new pool but this way is a lot more fun.