You may not have heard this, but there are a few movies out there this summer that feature regular people doing semi-regular things–without webs, cowls or glass hammers. Actually it’s famous actors playing regular people, but that’s close enough. Former swinger and Iron Man director Jon Favreau got Robert Downey, Jr. to go all human in Chef. Chef is a pretty normal story, though Scarlett Johansson is in it and she’s sort of supernatural.
The documentary on film critic Roger Ebert, Life Itself, is pretty damn good. That guy loved movies and life and he fought a truly gruesome battle with cancer. Unlike in all the summer blockbusters only one person dies in Life Itself, but it’s Ebert and it’s sad, despite his great passion for living. Lighter on the heart is They Came Together–Paul Rudd and what seems like the cast of SNL. It’s Amy Poehler’s movie. She’s always great and she’s great in this. And James Brown is coming on August 1. Not the Godfather of Soul himself but his story–biopic style. Get On Up will have a legend to impersonate and early word says Chadwick Boseman “gets up and does his thing.” But this last one kind of ruins our list–because James Brown was a superhero and a monster. So there you have it. Now go watch X-Men!
