Sam Worthington stars as Perseus, the half-mortal son of Zeus (Liam Neeson) in these movies that are primarily a showcase for big special effects sequences that would be at home in a God of War videogame. The villain in the first film is Zeus’ brother Hades (Ralph Fiennes), who unleashes an undersea beast upon a city in order to inspire mortals to pray to the gods again. Though he is tempted by Zeus to hide out in Olympus, Perseus chooses to fight the kraken “as a man”, defeating Medusa and saving the princess Andromeda in the process. It’s all very exciting, while being somehow stiff and soulless at the same time.
The sequel fares no better; this time the villain is Aries, who has tricked Hades into kidnapping Zeus in the underworld, draining his energy to release Cronos and destroy mankind. Perseus, now a father thanks to Andromeda, rides his pegasus into battle again while Zeus and Hades combine forces. As I watched I found myself wondering who actually enjoys movies like these.
The latest Pixar film is the tale of Merida, a Scottish princess who would rather shoot targets with a bow or climb a dangerous rock face than take lessons in etiquette from her mother. Her father lost his leg in a battle with a particularly fierce bear and her little brothers are hell-raising triplets. Merida’s life reaches a breaking point when three allied clans show up to offer candidates for her hand in marriage, and since the manner of competition is her choice, she chooses archery – and wins her own hand, infuriating her mother and putting the truce between the clans in danger.
So, the regular season has crawled to the finish and summer has started. Here’s what I am watching:
Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston star in this pleasantly weird refresh of Albert Brooks’ Lost In America, written by David Wain and Ken Marino, directed by Wain. These guys have worked together on far edgier stuff, like Wet Hot American Summer or The Ten, but this one is more of a comedy aimed at the mainstream, like Role Models. And like that film, it has some pleasant surprises but we always pretty much know where it is going. Rudd and Aniston are winning and believable as a couple at loose ends after the economic downturn forces them to move out of their New York apartment. Marino is gleeful as Rudd’s asshole brother, so intolerable that they take refuge in an “intentional community” (ie., commune) instead. 
Ralph Fiennes makes his directing debut and stars in this sort-of-modernized adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known histories, about a Roman general who is not shy about getting into the thick of battle to repel the invading force of a rebellious province. When supporters in the Senate propose to give him the political office of Consul, rivals use the power of public opinion to have him banished instead, where he joins the rebels he recently fought and threatens to take revenge on Rome. 
Someday, when they deliver my eulogy, they will say “he watched a lot of Nicolas Cage movies.” And this was one of them. Cage stars as a high school English teacher (!) who is married to a musician played by January Jones (!!) and colleagues with Michael from Lost, Harold Parrineau (!!!) After his wife is brutally beaten and raped, Cage is approached in the hospital by a mysterious man called Simon (Guy Pearce) who runs an underground vigilante Amway service, where they will get your revenge in exchange for a favour to be named later. Not in his right mind, Cage agrees and the rapist is supposedly killed. Case closed…
