Super Troopers 2 / **½ (R)

Fox Searchlight

Mac: Steve Lemme

Rabbit: Erik Stolhanske

Thorny: Jay Chandrasekhar

Foster: Paul Soter

Farva: Kevin Heffernan

Captain O’Hagan: Brian Cox

Genevieve Aubois: Emmanuelle Chriqui

Guy LeFranc: Rob Lowe

Mountie Podien: Hayes MacArthur

Mountie Bellefuille: Tyler Labine

Mountie Archambault: Will Sasso

Governor Jessman: Lynda Carter

Fox Searchlight Pictures presents a film directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. Written by Broken Lizard. Running time: 100 min. Rated R (for crude sexual content and language throughout, drug material and some graphic nudity).

For those of you waiting for the return of the dysfunctional group of Vermont State Troopers that brought the comedic crew of Broken Lizard into the modern lexicon, the wait is finally over. And what a wait it was. In fact until April 20^th was close enough for everyone to start making social media memes alluding to getting high but never outright saying it, I’d forgotten all together that the planned follow up to the 2001 cult comedy hit Super Troopers was even coming. In fact, it’s been almost ten years since the comedy troupes’ last feature all together.

I was a fan of their work, and it feels like I should add “back in the day” to that statement. I thought Super Troopers was some kind of stupid comedy genius, and I was a huge fan of their 2006 movie Beerfest as well. Club Dread (2004) and The Slammin’ Salmon (2009) didn’t have quite the cleverness of the other two though. I’ve missed their conversational comedic style and hope it won’t be as long before they come out with more original work. Unfortunately, there does seem to be a slight staleness to the Super Troopers universe.

Avengers: Infinity War / ***½ (PG-13)

Marvel Studios

Tony Stark/Iron Man: Robert Downey Jr.

Thor: Chris Hemsworth

Bruce Banner/Hulk: Mark Ruffalo

Steve Rogers/Captain America: Chris Evans

Natasha Romanoff: Scarlett Johansson

James Rhodes/ War Machine: Don Cheadle

Doctor Strange: Benedict Cumberbatch

Peter Parker/Spider-Man: Tom Holland

T’Challa/ Black Panther: Chadwick Boseman

Gamora: Zoe Saldana

Nebula: Karen Gillan

Loki: Tom Hiddleston

Vision: Paul Bettany

Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch: Elizabeth Olsen

Sam Wilson/Falcon: Anthony Mackie

Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier: Sebastian Shaw

Heimdall: Idris Elba

Okoye: Danai Gurira

Mantis: Pom Klementieff

Drax: Dave Bautista

Groot (voice): Vin Diesel

Rocket (voice): Bradley Cooper

Pepper Potts: Gwenyth Paltrow

The Collector: Benicio Del Toro

Thanos: Josh Brolin

Peter Quill/Star-Lord: Chris Pratt

Marvel Studios & Walt Disney Pictures presents a film directed by Anthony Russo & Joe Russo. Written by Christopher Markus & Stephen Feely.  Based on the Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Captain America created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Star-Lord created by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan. Rocket Raccoon created by Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen. Thanos, Gamora & Drax created by Jim Starlin. Groot created by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby. Mantis created by Steve Englehart and Don Heck. Running time: 149 min. Rated PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action throughout, language and some crude references).

I struggle to find exactly what to discuss about Marvel’s latest epic cinematic enterprise, Avengers: Infinity War. Marvel is very good at building toward big events such as this one, and they’ve spent several movies worth over the past few years building to this movie in particular. Just look at that cast list. Don’t think I’ve listed the only faces you’ll recognize from other Marvel movies either. The subjects of those movies have their own unrelated adventures, and little details and credit cookies in them lend hints toward the greater story that they all are building toward. Now it is here. It is a good story and a fitting one considering the grandeur of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The set ups are done and the players play their part and to say any more than that would spoil everything they’ve built. So, I will leave you with this biblical verse, which in itself may be saying too much.

“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

                                                                                                                        Genesis 3:19

A Quiet Place / **** (PG-13)

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Paramount Pictures

Evelyn Abbott: Emily Blunt

Lee Abbott: John Krasinski

Regan Abbott: Millicent Simmonds

Marcus Abbott: Noah Jupe

Paramount Pictures presents a film directed by John Krasinski. Written by Bryan Woods & Scott Beck and John Krasinski. Running time: 90 min. Rated PG-13 (for terror and some bloody images).

Noise is something we take for granted. There’s always noise. Even in the darkest moments of night when the world at large is resting, our world is filled with noise. I can hear the hum of trucks from the interstate a quarter of a mile away at night when everything else is quiet in the house. However, nothing ever seems as quiet as it does when you are startled awake in the night by a nightmare. At that moment, silence can be stifling. And when all seems as still as it can be, with that nightmare lingering in your brain, the slightest little sound—a creak in the floor, a branch on a window, the fractional settlements of a house that occur throughout a structure’s lifespan—can bring an uncontrollable start. That moment when you suddenly think that the breaking of the silence will cost you your life, that is where the entirety of the new horror movie, A Quiet Place, exists.

Ready Player One / *** (PG-13)

Warner Bros.

Parzival/Wade: Tye Sheridan

Art3mis/Samantha: Olivia Cooke

Sorrento: Ben Mendelsohn

Aech/Helen: Lena Waithe

I-R0k: T.J. Miller

Ogden Morrow: Simon Pegg

Anorak/Halliday: Mark Rylance

Warner Bros. presents a film directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline. Based on the novel by Ernest Cline. Running time: 140 min. Rated PG-13 (for sequences of sci-fi action violence, bloody images, some suggestive material, partial nudity and language).

There’s an interesting trend going on in filmmaking today that I don’t believe we’ve ever witnessed in cinematic history. It seems to have started at the dawn of the superhero movie, but has been building to a crescendo as more and more filmmakers who grew up in the 80s are coming into their own in Hollywood and are turning modern films into a sort of meta homage to the films of their youth. One of the filmmakers primarily responsible for the great popularity of cinema in the 80s was Steven Spielberg, who directed many of the iconic films of that era. With Ready Player One, it seems Spielberg has been inspired to up the meta level of modern filmmaking by making his own homage to the era that he was in great part responsible for building.

Spielberg chooses the right material for his meta gambit in his adaptation of Ernest Cline’s novel Ready Player One. Cline is making a name for himself as an 80s enthusiast—his second novel Armada is also heavily soaked in 80s nostalgia. I can’t imagine the nerdgasmic feeling that must’ve come over Cline when he discovered that Spielberg himself was interested in adapting his 80s nostalgia-centric novel. Anyway, Spielberg’s many professional connections to all things 80s and Cline’s obsession with them makes this a near perfect teaming of creative minds. Spielberg brings in frequent superhero scripter Zak Penn, also responsible for the story behind the equally nostalgia-driven Last Action Hero, to shore up Cline’s own screen adaptation.