It’s rare these days that a franchise gets a chance to make a clean start, especially so soon after the last failed attempt. With Marvel Studios’ The Incredible Hulk, they not only wash away the bad taste of Ang Lee’s 2003 portrayal of Bruce Banner as a tortured soul (Hulk), but bring us a rather kickin-superhero movie that has a solid (albeit simplistic) storyline, relatively fleshed-out characters, decent emotional ups-and-downs, and some rollicking action scenes. The film starts out five …
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
It’s not often that an Oscar-winning drama gets a sequel, and retains most of the original crew and cast. I don’t think Lord of the Rings counts, since it was based on a book and so two sequels were inevitable. But 1998’s Elizabeth ended when Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) was crowned – so there was plenty of story material from her reign left untapped, some of which is covered in this year’s sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age. There are three concurrent …