With Rush releasing to extremely positive critical acclaim in theaters today, it’s time we took a look at Ron Howard‘s body of work. It seems odd that Opie and Richie Cunningham grew up to become one of the most successful and powerful directors in Hollywood, but then these days simply not becoming a felon after being a child star is a huge accomplishment. Since 1977’s Grand Theft Auto, he’s built a solid body of work including one of my five favorite films of all-time. He also proved that skinny pasty redheads can be awesome narrarators too as he served as the voice behind (and guest star in the fourth season) Arrested Development. But focusing on his work behind the camera, these are my five favorite of his films.
1. Apollo 13 (1995) 2. A Beautiful Mind (2001) 3. Ransom (1996) 4. Frost/Nixon (2008) 5. Cinderella Man (2005)
Killing Time is going to be posting weekly reviews/talkbacks on Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, but after an awesome pilot, here’s a look at what’s in store for the season and it just makes me want to dive right back into Level 7. COULSON FOR PRESIDENT!
Marvel’s live-action universe has come to television and comic book geeks everywhere are turning cartwheels. We’re going to try a little something new with SHIELD and review each episode, hit the bullets, posit theories, point out embedded geekery and hopefully get some talkback going on the comments. SHIELD’s pilot was the highest rated debut of any drama in four years and it was a treat.
SHIELD absolutely feels like a natural extension of the MCU and any questions as to whether or not it was going to tie into the events of the films or not was answered with a resounding YES in the pilot. Not only is the pilot episode a sequel to The Avengers, it also is a sequel to Iron Man 3. In fact, it brings Iron Man 3 into the MCU storyline in a way Iron Man 3 failed miserably to do. There are direct ties to nearly every film so far and this series looks like it’s going to be a hub for the development and expansion of things touched upon in the films.
It has a very simple plot picking up months after the events in The Avengers. Agent Coulson is back from the dead (more on that) and we’re introduced to his strike team. In the wake of the Battle of New York, super powered individuals are popping up and SHIELD is competing with some other group (AIM? Extremis is used and they were introduced in Iron Man 3) for their services.
The pilot centers around J. August Richard’s Mike Peterson, a laid off factory worker who is outed as a “hero”. It turns out that he’s actually a Project Extremis experiment. This is a new variant on Extremis called Project Centipede that also utilizes Gamma radiation and Chitauri (aliens from Avengers) tech scavenged after the battle. The team comes together to try to recruit/save him while those who experimented on him try to put him down. We meet everyone, get little hints as to what may lie beneath the surface of their characters, are treated to cinema-quality F/X and awesome Whedon-y dialogue. In short, it’s everything a Pilot needs to be and it sets up the series to go anywhere and everywhere.
Points of Geekery/Quick Thoughts
The apartment that Agent Ward uses the awesome fingerprint plate scanner to gain access to is mentioned as belonging to Von Trapp. Sounds like a Latverian name…
Cobie! Maria Hill makes a cameo appearance at the beginning and end of the episode. Hopefully Cobie Smulder is just the first of MCU characters to drop by the show.
Hill and the SHIELD doctor (played by Shepherd Book from Firefly…he probably has a real name) drop the most intriguing plot development and that’s the truth behind Coulson’s re-appearance. He thinks he was out 40 seconds and that Fury used his “death” to motivate the Avengers who, as he points out, do not have the clearance to know he’s alive. As far as Coulson’s concerned, he spent the last few months recuperating in Tahiti, but Hill and the doctor clearly know that’s not the case. My current theory is that the real Coulson died in New York and that Fury imprinted a Life Model Decoy to take his place because he was too valuable to use, but to really be Coulson, he can’t know he’s a synthetic replacement. What do you guys think?
I love the idea that there’s a constant stream of cosplay girls prancing in a circle around Stark Tower lol.
We get the patented SHIELD flying car! Fan service galore.
The episode ends with Sky and Coulson in Lola the awesome aforementioned flying car getting a call that there has been a “0-8-4”. This is the title of next week’s episode and we’ll have to wait and see what happens next. Share your theories and thoughts. Get PSYCHED, people, we have an honest-to-goodness comic book happening on TV every week! Pilot Score 9.25/10 Lola Score 10/10
Photo from Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD 1.02 entitled “0-8-4”
Just a quick reminder to weigh in on what is currently the best show on TV. You can vote by going to the Killing Time home page and clicking buttons. It’s simple. The voting on this has been extremely disparate. Any one of six or seven shows could still win.
With Rush releasing to extremely positive critical acclaim in theaters today, it’s time we took a look at Ron Howard‘s body of work. It seems odd that Opie and Richie Cunningham grew up to become one of the most successful and powerful directors in Hollywood, but then these days simply not becoming a felon after being a child star is a huge accomplishment. Since 1977’s Grand Theft Auto, he’s built a solid body of work including one of my five favorite films of all-time. He also proved that skinny pasty redheads can be awesome narrarators too as he served as the voice behind (and guest star in the fourth season) Arrested Development. But focusing on his work behind the camera, these are my five favorite of his films.
Killing Time 