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Jerry Wills,
Rick Avery,
Joni Avery,
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Ang Lee,
Ang Lee
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: Universal Studios
: Action, Science Fiction , Werewolves, Killer Critters, Comic Books, Superheroes, Mad Science, Mad Science
: English, Spanish, French
: English, Spanish, French
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Ang Lee directs the live-action feature film The Hulk, based on the Marvel comic book created by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby. Emotionally stunted Dr. Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) is part of a research team at the University of California at Berkeley. Corporate hustler Glenn Talbot (Josh Lucas) takes notice of the lab and makes plans to take it over. Then Bruce accidentally gets hit by an experimental ray and grows into a huge beast, destroying the lab in the process. A creepy janitor who claims to be his real father, Dr. David Banner (Nick Nolte), starts to secretly use the experimental ray on himself. He creates some mutant dogs and sends them after Bruce's lab mate and ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly). After Bruce saves her life in the form of the Hulk, she lets her distant father, General Ross (Sam Elliott), take him to an abandoned army base in the desert. However, Glenn Talbot takes over the operation and wants to patent the creature's superpowers for his own profit, so he holds Bruce unconscious in an isolation tank. When provoked, Bruce turns into the Hulk and makes a break for San Francisco, leading to a desert chase sequence involving military aircraft, tanks, and bombs. Only the sight of Betty can make him turn back to his human form. When he is eventually captured, Dr. David Banner shows up for a final confrontation with his son and his old adversary, General Ross. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
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| A not-so Jolly Green Giant
by kiume
December 12, 2003 - 7:33 PM PST
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2 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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The most disappointing comic book superhero movie to date. Yes, one of the best-looking (with a free aerial tour of Southern Utah), featuring more digital editing effects than I've seen in a movie before. I'm not talking about "special effects." I'm talking about the scene-to-scene cuts and transitions. Plus great opening credits. That sort of thing.
They're way more interesting than the movie itself, which turns out to be an Oprah-esque rumination about children who don't get along with their parents. Dysfunctional father figures, repressed memories. No kidding. Repressed memories. A troubled childhood. Poor Bruce Banner can't emote until he turns green. Eric Bana, playing Bruce Banner, can't emote either, which make his scenes like watching an animated cardboard cutout.
The movie does have its rewarding moments. Veterans Nick Nolte and Sam Elliott chomp on the scenery with relish. In fact, I wish they had gotten rid of everybody else and just made a movie about these two. The Sam Elliott character was a nice change, a gruff, stock military officer with some scruples. The only real conflict is between him and mad-scientist Nolte, Bruce Banner's ethically-challenged father.
I mean, the only real conflict. The rest of the movie--all 2 hours 20 minutes--is otherwise about Bruce Banner coming to terms with his inner child. BOOORING. And considering the property damage his alter-ego causes, my sympathies for him were taking a beating by the end, too. Nor did it help that in every other scene had his sort-of-ex-girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly) turning him over to the authorities. Hey, with a girlfriend like that, who needs arch-villains?
If you go back to the very campy television series, you discover a big reason why the movie doesn't work: Lou Ferrigno (who shows up here in a brief cameo). No, really. You see, Lou Ferrigno is a big guy as far as humans go, but he is human. This digitally-enhanced Hulk, in comparison, is Jack-and-the-Beanstalk sized. Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum, and so big and so impervious that nothing's much of threat (well, except for his father; take it away Oedipus!).
This is not a good idea in an action flick. Note that in the last two Terminator movies, Arnold's robot is the underdog. Similarly, Ferrigno's Hulk, being human-sized, had to employ some ingenuity during his steroid rages. The scene that sticks in my head from the series is that of Ferrigno's Hulk landing a passenger jet that had lost its hydraulics. Ang Lee's Hulk couldn't have even fit in the cockpit.
Which also bugs me on the conservation-of-matter, geek-physics-plausibility scoreboard. Bill Bixby turning into Lou Ferrigno is something every pencil-neck kid dreams of; Eric Bana turning into a creature 100 times his original mass is just stupid. A word to producers of comic book action movies: don't insult the intelligence of your nerd fan base THIS much. |
| Warning: Unskippable Trailers
by ziggr
December 7, 2003 - 6:18 PM PST
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2 out of 3 members found this review helpful
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There are 2 minutes of Universal trailers that play before you get to the disc's menu: Fast and the Furious 2, Sinbad Legend of the Seven Seas, Battlestar Galactica, and Bruce Almighty. You can fast-forward through them, but you cannot Next or Menu.
Also included in the Bonus Material is a "SunnyD" item that plays 2 15-second commercials for Sunny D and an "Earn Free DVDs" item that plays a 30-second commercial for the Universal Entertainment MasterCard.
Bonus materials also includes "Hulk Cam" which interferes with some DVD players' ability to pause or change audio/subtitle tracks.
Even with annoying DVD authoring, the movie itself is a fun diversion, you get exactly what you expect. The Hulk vs. Tank scene is a perfect exploration of "Hulk smash!"
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| It's Not Easy Being Green...
by Brujaria
September 28, 2003 - 10:18 AM PDT
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11 out of 13 members found this review helpful
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After seeing the trailers for this one, I thought it looked incredibly bad. After the hordes of movie goers panned it, I kinda wondered. Why do the unwashed masses hate it so much? So I found out...
Instead of a campy, action packed, wise-crack filled, summer fodder movie we have one of the best "superhero" films since 1978s Superman: The Movie. Like Superman you don't see the titular character until about a third of the way into the film (45 minutes here). That third of the film is used to carefully build characters and set the stage for the action and drama that follows.
In an unexpected about-face from Hollywood tradition, this story, however absurd it actually is, is taken completely seriously. It is treated with the same respect as a non-genre dramatic film.
The actors, with one minor exception, are all on board with this concept and turn in superb performances and treat the material with the same seriousness as director Ang Lee does.
Nick Nolte is perfectly cast as Bruce Banner's half-mad father and Sam Elliot as the villain never resorts to mustache-twirling and scenery chewing. Plus Eric Bana and Jennifer Connelly are totally convincing in their roles.
Unfortunately some of the CG are a little overly obvious and the ending leaves much to be desired, but those are about the only nits I can pick.
Don't follow the herd, check this out and enjoy the best comic book adaptation in years. |
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| A complete-as-I-can-make-it list of movies shot in and around SF (with LOTS of help from www.norcalmovies.com) and the Bay Area. I'll try to put comments and info about the movies and rate the ones I've seen. Please email me with any errors or add. info. |
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