Marvel Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk

 This is the Hulk before the Avenger's version of the Hulk.  Hulk/Bruce Banner (Lou Ferrigno/Edward Norton) is staying off the radar in Brazil.  Howe ver some of his blood gets into a bottle where he works, and his location is revealed.  General Ross (William Hurt) is determined to bring him back as he himself is a weapon.  As a result of this confrontation Banner decides to head north, hoping for a "cure."  He sees his girlfriend, the general's daughter Betty (Liv Tyler).  Of those trying to capture Hulk, Emil Blonsky/ Abomination (Tim Roth) is the most determined, even to the point of attempting to dupicate Hulk's results and make himself a monster.  This leads to some pretty intense fight scenes.  Hulk tried living with his girlfriend, but in the end decides he is better living alone.

Movie Review: At the Movies: ****Captain America: Brave New World (2025)

 I found this movie very entertaining.  The president (Harrison Ford) is the character Thaddeus Ross, who had a thing against the Hulk.  This seems to still influence him, as his daughter, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) avoids him as a result, and he is trying to prove that he has changed.

The part of the movie which is a bit confusing as an island has appeared with a new mineral more precious than vibranium.  The show starts with Falcon/Captain America (Anthony Mackie) and Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) recovering it.  As a result they are invited to the Whitehouse.  Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbley) the African American who was not accepted as a super hero but incarcerated for 30 years for experimentation by Ross, attends with them.  

At the reception, Bradley, along with five other attendees start shooting at the president; however they do not kill him.  They are all arrested.  The President had asked Captain America to reform the Avengers, but withdraws the offer and doesn't want anything to do with Captain America.  Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas) portrays the secret service agent assigned to resolve the assassination attempt.  She is a former Black Widow.  

Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) is the man behind all the bad stuff happening, including mind control and use of the super-human serum.  He almost brings the U.S. and Japan to war fighting over the new mineral.  When things to be almost resolved; they are not.  We are introduced to a new Hulk and Captain America has met his match.

Movie Review: ***Armageddon

This is a 1998 Touchstone movie dealing with a comet headed on a collision course to Earth, which is large enough to ensure the end of all life on Earth.  There are a few pre-comets which land in New York and around the globe.  However the big one is due in 18 days. 
They recruit a team of roughnecks to fly to the comet, drill to the core where they can place a nuclear bomb to blow the comet around earth which each half clearing on either side of the earth's atmosphere.  We are dealing with a man with lots of experience in drilling (Bruce Willis) and his daughter's (Liv Tyler) lover/fiance (Ben Affleck) who he doesn't like, because he does things brashly at times, and his daughter is too good for a "roughneck."  Billy Bob Thornton plays the NASA mission director.  An interesting side light is Steven Tyler singing "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" while his daughter (in real life) is becoming engaged.  Of course everything that can go wrong does go wrong: their weigh station, refueling stations burns up, and they take aboard a cosmonaut, they miss their landing site, and one spacecraft is hit with debris and crashes, on of the riggers contracts space dementia and goes crazy, etc. etc.  This movie has a twist in the end, but it is a very rough ride for our drilling rig workers turned astronauts.  A bit of strong language is not needed.