The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot

On paper, The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot sounds like a dream. A fever dream, maybe, but a still a super-cool, old school exploitation flick that had to have fun coded right into its DNA. An American soldier in World War II, just a regular guy from a small-town with a gal waiting back home, also happens to be a lethal, multi-lingual super-spy who is assigned to track down and assassinate the most evil man in the world, Adolph Hitler. Which he does in the first quarter of the movie. Then in the present, we discover this same soldier is still alive, an old man wracked with guilt over the heavy burden of his lethal capabilities. He’s recruited by the government again as the only man who can track down and kill the Bigfoot. Yeah, that’s right. Apparently, the sasquatch is carrying a lethal disease that will cause a massive plague unless he’s put down, and only our elderly super-spy friend has both the skill and the natural immunity to complete the mission. 

 All that and it stars the ultra-cool Sam Elliot as the old man and TV’s Aiden Turner as the younger version? For someone who loves ridiculous, high concept exploitation films, this sounded perfect for me. Because my wife has a deep, abiding affection for Aiden Turner, she agreed to watch it on streaming with me over spring break.

Unfortunately, like so many dreams, the greatness of The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot failed to really materialize the way I’d hoped. 

The film’s primary problem is that it refuses to embrace either of its two impulses. On the one hand, it wants to be a meditation on the passing of time, the power of regret and loss, the melancholy of aging, and on the other hand, it also wants to be a ludicrous, action adventure movie about a guy killing Hilter AND Bigfoot. It probably could have successfully been either version but because it tries to be both, it ends up being neither.

It’s never really clear what Elliot’s character Calvin Barr is so sad about. We find out that he lost his girl back during the war (though I don’t think it’s ever clear exactly how) and here he is half a century later still acting like a 15 year old who just got a break-up text. The film spends a lot of time watching him mope and only breaks the monotony when he pauses to beat three would-be thieves to a pulp – which he then proceeds to feel sad about.

The Hitler assassination sequence is nervy and fun, and there are a few flashes of exploitation silliness like when Barr, presented with an entire military arsenal to choose from to hunt Bigfoot, just points and says, “This knife, that gun, and this scope” and the camera zooms in on his determined face with a big musical fanfare. But those kind of winking, ain’t-this-fun flourishes are few and far between in a film that, for its amazing concept and title, is actually quite boring.

Elliot cuts an impressive leading man figure even at 74 years old, but when the script is undisciplined and the direction poor, there’s not much for even the best performer to do. Despite my wife’s deep love for his work on the BBC’s Poldark, we both agreed that outside of that particular program, Aiden Turner is actually not a very good actor. His nearly wordless performance was probably supposed to seem strong and silent, but it mostly comes across like Turner couldn’t pull off a convincing American accent. Larry Miller as Barr’s brother is probably the worst piece of casting I’ve ever seen.

Writer, director and producer Robert Krzykowski (criz-KOW-skee) had almost all the creative control on this picture but he really would have benefitted from at least one other strong voice urging him to trim here, cut there, and choose a definitive direction for his wonderfully conceived but clumsily executed movie.

Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel starring Brie Larson and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck is something of an important moment as far as comic book movies go. While it is not the first big budget superhero movie starring or directed by a woman (that honor goes to 2017’s very good Wonder Woman), it is the first for Marvel Studios, home of Iron Man, the Avengers, and Black Panther. Marvel has generally made better and more lucrative films than DC, home of Superman, Batman, and Suicide Squad. But up until now, it was primarily a boys club, both in front of and behind the camera. So for the most successful studio to finally give meaningful screen time and creative input to women is important and not to be undervalued. Representation matters and the bigger the recognition, the greater the progress, I hope. 

But there’s also the matter of the film itself, independent of the economic, social, and political forces that shaped it. Is it any good? Eh, it’s okay. 

 The film begins with Vers, a proud member of the warrior elite class for the Kree, a humanoid alien race that sometimes has blue skin and sometimes doesn’t. She’s smart-alecky, tough, and eager to help in the fight against the Kree’s mortal enemies, the greenish, gobliny, pointy-eared, shape-shifting Skrulls. The only problem is she can’t remember anything beyond six years ago but has fitful nightmares about a past she can’t really recall. Vers goes on a rescue mission that goes wrong and ends her up on Earth in the mid 1990s, where she meets up with a mid-level government agent named Nick Fury. Even a casual comic book movie fan knows this is where Captain Marvel’s story directly intersects with the larger Marvel universe. From there, Vers discovers who she used to be and how she came to live with the Kree. I won’t go into any spoilers here, but it’s probably no surprise to say that she’s not who she thought she was. 

Vers, who is later known as Carol Danvers, is played by Brie Larson who, despite being an Oscar winner, seems to lack the gravitas to pull off this role. She seems to smirk more than emote and when she lands on earth and strides around in her silver and green suit like it’s the most normal thing in the world, her performance has shades of Buzz Lightyear before he realizes he’s a toy.

The script which was written by no fewer than five different contributors feels uneven – overstuffed in some areas and woefully thin in others. Vers transition from Kree warrior to Carol Danvers is superficial and muddy, and there are plot holes the size of a plummeting spaceship throughout. There are some really enjoyable moments of comic relief, and certainly the moments when Danvers stands up for herself and fights against those who have manipulated and oppressed her are satisfying. But overall, I didn’t leave the film soaring, energized by a combination of great filmmaking and significant representation.

However, I also acknowledge that I may not be the ideal audience for this picture. My two daughters loved it, and wisely pointed out that there was no romantic subplot as a crutch and that Danvers was an independent character rather than someone defined by the men in her life. They also appreciated how relatable Danver’s struggles being respected in a man’s world felt to them. (Having a discussion with my daughters about chauvinist micro-aggressions after a Marvel movie is just one of many perks of this gig.) They also pointed out that the scene when Vers who becomes Carol Danvers who is eventually dubbed Captain Marvel whips up on a roomful of her former fellow Kree soldiers while No Doubt’s 90s anthem “Just a Girl” plays is just pretty freaking cool. Who am I to argue with that?

I thought Captain Marvel was okay, my daughters thought it was great. Go see it with your teenagers and see what you think.

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

With The Hidden World, the How to Train Your Dragon series wraps up what has been a beautifully made and at times surprisingly mature trilogy of films. Never receiving the praise or box office of a Pixar film and lacking the hip energy of, say, Into the Spiderverse, the Dragon films have nevertheless consistently provided excellent character design and world-class animation while telling stories about friendship, loyalty, self-acceptance, and loss.

 

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World picks up a year after the end of the last film. Hiccup, the skinny, least-likely Viking ever, has been chief since the death of his father. In that time, his cliff-side village has become both a dragon utopia and wildly overcrowded. This problem is compounded as Hiccup is pressured by his friends to propose to his longtime girlfriend, even though he doesn’t feel ready. These domestic concerns take a backseat as a team of warlords who want to create a dragon army hires Grimmel the Grisly, the dragon hunter who supposedly killed every night fury dragon on the planet except for Toothless, Hiccup’s best friend and protector. All of these problems motivate Hiccup to seek out the Hidden World, a long-rumored place beyond the edge of the map where dragons live undisturbed by humans who either want to kill, exploit, or domesticate them.

So the film is a quest – partly to find a place where Hiccup’s beloved dragons can be safe but partly for Hiccup to become the kind of person who can let those dragons go if that’s what it takes for them to be protected.

As has been the case with the previous two films, The Hidden World addresses some surprisingly mature themes and hides them beneath exciting dragon attacks and ridiculous humor. The films have dealt with physical disability and death as Hiccup lost a leg in the first film and his father was killed in the second. The third film is largely about maturity when it comes to making relationship decisions. Though he’s riddled with insecurity as he compares himself to his literally larger-than-life father, Hiccup withstands the pressure from his village to get married and rule as a royal couple simply because he knows he’s not ready. In an animated fantasy world, for marriage to not be the automatic solution to a problem is still kind of unusual. Later, when Hiccup has to make decisions about standing on his own as a leader and what to do with Toothless and the other dragons he’s spent so much time protecting, the choices he makes feel earned and heartfelt.

In addition to its narrative strengths, The Hidden World manages to improve on the already magnificent imagery and cinematography of the last film. The flying sequences, in particular the one when Hiccup and Astrid discover the entry to the Hidden World, are thrilling and tactile.

As ever, the character design and animation of Toothless, the dragon that seems to be part cat, part dog, a little bit of koala bear, and a smidgen of toddler mixed with snake, is wonderful. Toothless doesn’t speak and yet his body language and facial expressions convey everything an audience needs to know. The sequences of him meeting, flirting with, and wooing a newly discovered light fury are completely wordless, and yet are touching and hilarious. They are excellent examples of technology being used to create art.

The film ends with a flash forward and seeing how several of the major characters end up some years down the line. Like everything else in the How to Train Your Dragon films, the sequence is beautifully made – it’s funny, exciting, touching, and a joy to look at. If you can watch it without tearing up just a little, you’re a stronger person than me.

I’m a little sad that Hidden World marks the end of a series I’ve enjoyed so thoroughly, but I appreciate the integrity and artistry with which the films were made.