Ant-Man

Flush from the unprecedented series of successful movies based on their comic book titles, Marvel Studios has been emboldened to start making movies on their lesser known characters, the first being Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Its surprise commercial and critical success paved the way for Ant-Man (2015), a character created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, and who first appeared in Tales to Astonish #27 as the superhero alter ego of a brilliant scientist. Anticipation was high for this movie when it was announced that filmmaker Edgar Wright, responsible for beloved cult movie hits Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007) among others, would be directing and co-writing it. However, a few months before principal photography began, Wright abruptly left the project over the dreaded “creative differences” excuse, which temporarily threw it into limbo. Peyton Reed, known for comedies like Bring It On (2000) and Yes Man (2008), replaced Wright raising more than a few eyebrows and leading to speculation as to what kind of movie he would make. The casting of Paul Rudd, known mostly for appearing in comedies, also seemed to suggest that there would be considerably more humor in Ant-Man than in previous Marvel movies.

Skilled cat burglar Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has just been released from prison after years for breaking and entering and grand larceny. He tries to go legit for the sake of his daughter (Abby Ryder Fortson), getting a job – albeit briefly – at Baskin Robbins and quickly gets fired in an amusing scene. Meanwhile, reclusive scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) is trying to keep his invention of technology that allows one to shrink to the size of an insect a secret because S.H.I.E.L.D. tried to appropriate back in the day.

His protégé Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) has spent years trying to figure out how Pym achieved it and is very close to perfecting it himself with the plan of developing a potential army of soldiers wearing suits with this technology and then selling it to the highest bidder (i.e. Hydra). Believing Cross to be dangerous, Pym seeks out someone to utilize his Ant-Man technology and stop Cross. As luck would have it, Scott owes child support and is desperate to find work in order to prove he’s responsible. He agrees to pull a burglary with ex-con pal Luis (Michael Pena) and his fellow ex-con roommates in a nicely orchestrated set piece. Scott uses his considerable skills to bypass various security systems in a house that turns out to be Pym’s residence.

Scott finds the Ant-Man suit and puts it on, accidentally discovering what it does when it shrinks him down to the size of an insect in his bathtub. As a result, it now looks like a massive reservoir and the simple act of turning on the water is like a massive tidal wave to Scott. This sequence is a marvel of seamless special effects as we see Scott bounce from landscape to landscape that includes the surface of a vinyl record, a rug and a vacuum cleaner. It turns out that this has all been an audition, of sorts, planned by Pym who has been watching Scott for some time. He comes to Scott with a deal: go back to prison or work with him to stop Cross.

Casting against type, Paul Rudd is excellent as Scott Lang, balancing his character’s desire to be reunited with this daughter and the fun action stuff, especially when Pym’s daughter Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lily) trains him to fight. Rudd is believable as one of Marvel’s trademark flawed heroes in need of redemption. He also brings his considerable good-natured charm to the role, which only enhances how entertaining and enjoyable he is in this movie.

Michael Douglas is quite good as a veteran scientist also looking for redemption to be a better father to his daughter. He also provides the required pathos as Pym is wracked with guilt and regret over losing his wife to the Ant-Man technology. Much like with Robert Redford in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), it is nice to see a veteran actor of Douglas’ stature having fun and cutting loose in a big budget comic book superhero movie like this one.

In the scenes where Pym mentors Scott, Douglas and Rudd play well off each other as the former plays straight man delivering the necessary exposition dialogue that explains who he is and what his technology can do while the latter is the audience surrogate, acting appropriately (and hilariously) incredulous when confronted with all this incredible technology. Honed on countless comedies, his reaction to a few of the amazing things he experiences is priceless.

Corey Stoll brings just the right amount of gravitas and menace required for the stock bad guy role. The actor tries hard to give Cross some depth and provide compelling motivation for his character’s actions. There is an attempt in the screenplay, and with Stoll’s performance, to show Cross’ descent into madness the more power hungry he becomes.

There is something pretty cool about seeing Scott running alongside a vast army of ants or running along a barrel of a gun. The final showdown cleverly juxtaposes an epic battle on a small scale – a children’s train set – but the stakes couldn’t be more dramatic. Most interestingly, Ant-Man introduces the existence of the Microverse, a dimension that exists on a sub-atomic level thereby leaving the door open for the possible introduction of The Micronauts much like Guardians of the Galaxy ushered in the notion of the cosmic portion of the Marvel Universe.

Ant-Man is a heist movie/superhero origin story combination that utilizes the same story structure as Iron Man (2008): a cocky, ne’er-do-well utilizes experimental technology to defeat a rival with the same tech only with a decidedly lighter touch and more heart. The movie is full of the kind of colorful visuals we’ve come to expect from Marvel with a nice blend of humor, exciting action and characters that are easy to root for and others to root against. The visual effects are incredibly rendered and beautifully realized as you would expect. For the most part, a movie with so many cooks in the kitchen is surprisingly coherent with only a few jokes failing to hit the mark, but it is far from the disaster some feared. In the end, Ant-Man manages to tread a fine line between openly acknowledging the absurdity of its concept (the ability to shrink down to the size of an insect) and telling a rousing story about redemption. After the decidedly darker tone of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Ant-Man, with its bright colors and more freewheeling vibe, comes as a welcome palette cleanser of sorts before we head back into more serious fare with Captain America: Civil War (2016).

DVD of the Week: I Love You, Man

Thanks to the success of Judd Apatow comedies, many of the actors in his unofficial repertory company have parlayed their memorable supporting roles into starring turns in their own films. Case in point: Paul Rudd (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and Jason Segel (Knocked Up) are certainly no strangers to Apatow’s films and, in Rudd’s case, had a pretty good career before hooking up with Apatow. Now, they get to be the stars of their own film, I Love You, Man (2009), which capitalizes on the “bromance” craze, a term which has hopefully reached its expiration date.

Peter (Rudd) and Zooey (Jones) have recently gotten engaged. She immediately tells all of her girlfriends while he tells his folks. After having dinner with them, Peter realizes that he doesn’t have any real guy friends and certainly not a best friend that could be the best man at his wedding. He enlists his gay brother Robbie (Samberg) to set him up on some man dates, tries the Internet and hangs out with some of the husbands of his wife’s friends, all with no success. While trying to sell Lou Ferrigno’s house, Peter meets Sydney (Segel) who seems like a cool guy and they hit it off. A week later they meet up for a drinks and bond over fish tacos. Sydney gets Peter to come out of his shell and get in touch with his inner Alpha male. He also gets him to open up about his sex life and loosen up in general.

Paul Rudd has played nebbish, mild-mannered characters before with Knocked Up (2007), but he raises it to a whole new level with this character. Having never really had a best friend like Sydney before, Peter’s not sure how to act and comes off as uptight as he desperately tries to impress him. Rudd does such a good job of being socially awkward that some of the scenes where he tries to act cool are almost painful to watch.

Jason Segel is a versatile actor capable of playing extroverted characters (Knocked Up) and introverted ones (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and with Sydney he plays a bit of both. At times, he seems like a cool, laid-back kind of guy but he’s also quick-tempered too. Sydney is extremely patient in drawing Peter out of his shell and one keeps wondering if this guy is too good to be true but fortunately the film doesn’t try to pull the rug out from under us in that respect.

Andy Samberg’s gay brother bucks the traditional Hollywood stereotype of being flamboyantly effeminate in favor of pulling it back and showing restraint. Robbie is Peter’s brother who also happens to be gay. It is so refreshing to see a comedian refusing to go for the obvious, scenery-chewing shtick in favor of subtlety. Samberg gets laughs from his understated, dry sense of humor and is one the primary reasons that I Love You, Man is so much fun to watch.

John Hamburg directed the much-maligned Along Came Polly (2004), which I actually enjoyed if only for Philip Seymour Hoffman’s scene-stealing performance, but the director has much better material to work with on I Love You, Man. The result is a very entertaining, highly enjoyable comedy that actually assumes the audience has some intelligence while also providing the requisite gross-out gags but doesn’t overdo them (thankfully).

Special Features:

There is an audio commentary by director John Hamburg and actors Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. The three guys joke and banter with each other like old friends while heaping a lot of praise on their cast-mates as this track veers into a shameless love fest at times. They also point out acquaintances and crew members who have small roles in the film. They do tell some amusing filming anecdotes which somewhat salvages this commentary.

“The Making of I Love You, Man” is pretty standard press kit material as key cast and crew members talk about the characters and the film’s plot. There are plenty of clips from the film along with behind-the-scenes footage.

“Extras” features 22 minutes of outtakes as we see the actors improvise various takes for a given scene that is pretty funny, especially whenever Paul Rudd is involved as he comes up with some amusing variations on dialogue.

Also included are six extended scenes that feature the cast riffing beyond what we saw in the film.

There are three deleted scenes which feature Peter going on a man date where he plays a game of rugby and gets injured. There is a scene where Peter and his brother talk about man crushes and friend sluts over bowling. And we see The State’s David Wain as a wedding photographer getting Peter and his friends to do some silly poses.

Finally, there is a pretty funny gag real as cast and crew goof around on the set between and during takes. They also take pleasure in making each other crack up.