Ant-Man’s Luis hilariously sets up a big score—and scores one for the MCU sidekicks
Image: Screenshot: Marvel Studios Film Features The Marvel Moment
Ant-Man kicks off with a ton of place-setting, explaining the complicated past of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), as well as the troubled relationship between Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter, Hope (Evangeline Lilly). It’s not really until about the 20-minute mark that the movie quits revving in neutral and finally slides into gear, when Scott’s old cellmate, Louis (a gleeful Michael Peña), tells a story about a possible score. It involves a lot of secondhand and thirdhand hearsay, all relayed by people lip-synching Luis’ own words in his voice. The quick edits of the sequence suggest “fun caper,” a welcome transition out of “sloglike exposition.” (The gimmick works so well that director Peyton Reed dusts it off again at the end of the movie, and even improves upon it in the sequel.)
Luis is one of the best examples in a string of vital (and usually human and un-powered) Marvel secondary characters who add a dose of levity to the proceedings. From the moment Tony Stark started wise-cracking in Afghanistan in Iron Man, the MCU movies distinguished themselves by being funny. (One of his very first lines is, “C’mon, it’s okay, laugh. Hey!” Granted, he gets blown up by a Stark Industries missile soon after that.) Some of this levity involves physical comedy—like Tony crashing into things in his suit, or Hulk thrashing Loki around—but a lot of the MCU humor relies on dialogue.
In the group films like the Avengers and Guardians movies, there are enough heroes hanging around for someone like Iron Man or Drax to provide the comic relief. In the single-hero films, characters like Luis, Spiderman: Homecoming’s Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon), Black Panther’s Shuri (Letitia Wright), or Thor: Ragnarok’s Korg (voiced by the film’s director, Taika Waititi) help flesh out the comedy. Like any kid, Ned wants to know if Spider-Man can lay eggs or not. Like any sibling would do, Shuri makes fun of her brother’s sandals, even if he is the king. Ragnarok has a ton of delightful moments, but Korg’s deadpan pile of rocks highlights the situational absurdity even more. (“Sounds like you had a pretty special and intimate relationship with this hammer.”)
Paul Rudd is pretty hilarious all on his own, but the omnipresent grin of Peña’s Luis is truly infectious. When Scott comes in and says he’s ready to hear about the “tip” in Ant-Man, Luis jumps to his feet, enthusing, “It’s so on right now!” and finally the movie is as well. We quickly segue into Soderbergh-like scheming music as Luis, Scott, Dave (T.I.), and Kurt (David Dastmalchian) prepare for the big score. The fact that we eventually find out that Hank Pym set the whole thing up anyway just makes the caper all the more perfect. Because from now on, we’re happy to watch Luis do anything, whether it’s taking down a security guard, preparing a client presentation for his new X-CON company, or even lecturing his staff about the high costs of breakfast. After all, fight scenes are fight scenes. But nobody else in the entire MCU tells a story like Luis.
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MCU sidekicksOf which Rick Jones somehow, inexplicably, is not a member.FFS, we got Captain America, Hulk, and Captain Marvel flicks – no Rick. Ever. Which sucks.Hell, I’d take a Rick Jones played by Jaden Smith or Josh Gad at this point.
Rick Jones might be the most significant character that Marvel in general has just completely abandoned in all media.
Yep. Fucking awful. Could’ve been a Coulson-esque connective character.
Though in another glaring omission, Coulson really should have been Clay Quartermain all along.
I wish I had more stars for you!
Admittedly, my Peak Comic Reading times were late 80s-early 90s, and then against though the early 2000s, but Rick Jones seemed to already have been left by the wayside at that point. He only seemed to come up as a remnant of the past. Even now, until this very moment reading these comments, it hadn’t even occurred to me to put him in the MCU.
He could even use his famous catchphrase, “I’m Rick Jones, bitch!”
Who?Rick Jones!
Rick Jones has been in the Professional Sidekick game for so long that he prepares for any eventuality.
Wait, why is he dressed like Bucky?
Because he was Cap’s sidekick at the time and took on the moniker of Bucky.
Wait, so who is the Shirtless Fuckboy?I mean, the context seems so strange. If they thought Rick was dead, why are they just in back-alley make-out mode?
A post-Hulked out Bruce Banner.
He went the extra mile to be Cap’s sidekick.“Hi Cap I thought I’d dress up as your dead (at the time) war buddy in hopes that you’ll let me hang out with you.”
SO good.
Is there anyone not employed by Marvel who hasn’t always hated Rick Jones with a poisonous loathing so cold it burns?
I love Rick Jones. Been a Hulk fan for nearly four decades, so no hate here!
Rick Jones rules!
Me. Rick Jones sucks and I’ve never worked for Marvel.Serioulsy though, he’s like a blander Jimmy Olson.
Blander Jimmy Olsen? Shit, he’s a blander Snapper Carr!At least Snapper had snapping his fingers, Rick Jones’ got nothin’.
I don’t know. Seems like he was put to good use by PD in beloved runs on Hulk and Captain Marvel. Not everyone hated him, I guess.
And Kurt Busiek in Avengers Forever.
Dude’s great, in the right hands.
I really liked him in Spencer’s Cap run, as well.
That reminds me, whatever happened to his stripper wife Marlo?
I don’t know but Death took her appearance in an issue of Scarlet Spider a few years ago.
The “Snapper” Carr of the Marvel Universe.
Snapper Carr?
There’s a very brief reference to him in the Incredible Hulk on a list of Banner’s known associates.
Yeah, it’s all I have so far!
I really hope they decide to go back to the Hulk well sometime soon. Immortal Hulk is doing some amazing stuff with the Hulk mythos—Rick included—that it would be a shame for that to not someday play a role in the film universe. Sadly, as great as the MCU’s Banner is, it’s just nowhere near as interesting as it could be. We’ve gotten maybe a hint or two about the Hulk being “always angry” but nothing about him as a person. He’s straight up comedic relief these days.
I really hope they decide to go back to the Hulk well sometime soon. Immortal Hulk is doing some amazing stuff with the Hulk mythos—Rick included THIS.As much as it pains me to have to track down new issues when they sell out, a fucking HULK book is selling out for the first time I can remember. And that’s awesome, because it’s great.
Immortal Hulk rules. Every issue, I’m amazed at how it manages to reference and weave in bits from across Hulk’s long history in such a way that it hits but never feels….forced? “JOE.” God damn, that’s good.
And the transformations are absolutely grotesque.
That distribution deal with the other studio is probably going to keep Hulk solo projects off the table.
Yeah, I was gonna say; Rick Jones is just as unlikely as She-Hulk.
I could see them do Rick Jones as a window to the MCU post-Endgame.
Oh yea, I can see it now, Jaden Smith in a Marvel movie, “How can we be heroes, if we don’t have eyes to see mirrors?”No thanks.
Agents of SHIELD swooped in and put Mockingbird in their show when they realized the movies wouldn’t be using her.
Either the rights for Rick Jones are tied up in the Hulk/Universal Studios deal… or no one really needs a potential A-Bomb.
Even in Ang Lee’s Hulk, this character could have easily been Rick Jones instead of “Harper”. Banner even throws himself in front of the gamma blast to save him.
I love the supporting characters in Ant-Man. Judy Greer is criminally underused (as with all things Greerish, even Archer), but Cassie Lang is seriously awesome.
I one day want to see a Luis and Darcy team-up.
Luis and Darcy would be fantastic.
In fact in the comics, Scott’s relationship with his ex-wife isn’t as friendly as it is in the MCU, especially after Cassie was killed by Doctor Doom. But Doom, in his infinite kindness, corrected this grave error and later brought her back to life.
DOOM!
Bobby Cannavale’s character is an even more drastic revamp of Blake, his book equivalent, who is introduced as a guy who hates superheroes, derides the deceased Scott, and gives Cassie a hard slap to the face.
Still not as bad as the comics version of Hope, who literally tries to torture and kill Cassie at one point.
……………………………what???
Weird huh? The comics version of Hope isn’t actually the Wasp, but a supervillain called Red Queen. Basically the only similarity the film version has to her is the haircut.
Okay, I was confused because I thought you were talking about the new Wasp (who is also named Hope, isn’t she?) and I was like; why would she be torturing anybody!?But now that I see you’re talking about a different Hope this makes more sense.
There are a lot of panels/covers in superhero comics where a whole bunch of A-listers gather around solemnly as a B-lister cradles a dead supporting cast member in his or her arms. It’s like they all have a Google Alert set up or something to know where to be.
“Hey everyone! Dead teammate selfie!”
That’s because Doom is a good guy who has the best interests of the world at heart.As for that jerk Richards…..
Man, between Children’s Crusade and Avengers Arena, 2011-2012 was a brutal time to love Marvel’s youth roster… Thanks a lot, Hunger Games.
A good example of how superhero comics nowadays are filth for losers
Wasn’t she younger when she was revived? Did that stick or is that just one of those weird comic details that people eventually stop ignoring?
Ant Man seems to be more of a family/kid-friendly film than most of the other Marvel movies (except maybe Captain Marvel, which has a similar vibe), so I think it’s nice that they made a point of showing a divorced family where the parents have conflict but don’t hate each other. (Y’know, for the kids.) Bobby Canavale grows from a rival to a buddy, and by the sequel, they’re basically one big family.
The family dynamics in the sequel were great, and I would have gladly watched a lot more of them.As for “kid-friendly”, one of the times I saw the sequel in the theater, when the end credit music started playing, there were several small children dancing in the aisles with glee. Leading me to wonder where the little bastards had been for Winter Soldier.
And the conflict is really understandable. There’s never a hint that Cassie’s mom or stepdad are wrong to mistrust Scott. They want him to succeed, but they also want to protect Cassie.
I know my four-year-old son loves Ant Man & The Wasp. Thanos and his baddies are too intense and scary for him, so he never makes it very far into Infinity War, but he’s always down for AM&TW, and watches it mesmerized.
I am still in mourning that the MCU timeline is such that Judy Greer could not play the -original- Janet/Wasp as a founding present-day Avenger —BECAUSE SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME!!!
Judy Greer, in general, is so talented, but she’s been stuck playing ex-wives or wives when she could be doing so much more! You could have her play a villain, and you would strike gold! She would’ve made a great Moonstone/Dr. Karla Sofen in the has-to-happen Thunderbolts adaptation.
Thank you! I did not realize I needed this in my life until just now! Now, I must prepare, for I have a mission – to make this a reality!
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: buddy cop film with her and Linda Cardellini. Greer’s the straight-laced one, Cardellini’s the loose cannon, their captain is Margo Martindale.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: buddy cop film with her and Linda Cardellini. Greer’s the straight-laced one, Cardellini’s the loose cannon, their captain is Margo Martindale….. I want this so much now. Why would you do this to me?
In an ideal world we’d have got Ant Man instead of Iron Man 2 in the schedule release, but things got delayed (and eventually Edgar parted company with Marvel)What we got with Evangeline is good, but we might have had something even better earlier. Sadly we’ll never know.
SAY GOODBYE TO THESE.(Sorry, reflexive when discussing Judy Greer)
I’d love to see a Luis recap of all the MCU movies as an intro to Endgame.
This is the thing I didn’t know I needed until you said it. This would be amazing.
I actually came here to say this, though my version ends pretty bleakly with Luis collapsing into dust just as he finishes.
I’ve said this myself, and I keep hearing other people say it, so I hope Marvel is listening.
Judy Greer was the worried mom with ten lines in three different big budget movies that year. What does it take for her to get a role worthy of her talent?
She should probably stop screaming “You’re not my supervisor!” at casting agents.
“Say goodbye to these!”
Wot, Cheryl Tunt isn’t worthy of her???????
Tome again?
I like to think of Darcy as to MCU what Rick Jones is 616.Though she’s only appeared in two films. Marvel/Fiege need to use her more.
Luis, Korg, Happy is the team-up we need and deserve. Darcy can sit this one out (as punishment for Two Broke Girls).
So in the Iron Man 3 moment article, I mentioned the death of Malibu Mansion was the saddest MCU loss for me. The bleakness of Infinity War’s ending is a good second… but third is probably the death of Ant-thony. I couldn’t tell him apart from the other ants, but based on context I knew he was one of the better supporting ants there.
I couldn’t tell him apart from the other antsWhat, so all ants look alike? This is 2019, buddy. I thought we were past that.
“Judy Greer is criminally underused” might be the most universally-applicable sentence in all of film criticism.
Ant-Man is a movie that is far better than it has any right to be, considering the prolonged production cycle, the change in directors, etc.It’s also an interesting film in that the protagonist is largely a supporting figure in his own film (same with Ant-Man and Wasp, really). Sure, he’s the hero, but the conflict isn’t really his, it’s Pym’s. He’s really more the muscle for Hank than anything else, which creates a dynamic that is unique in the MCU films.
That’s an interesting point. Ant-Man has sort of backed into the “legacy” hero story archtype for the MCU . He (and the Wasp) are the only characters thus far to have inherited superhero identities.
I’m wondering if there’s going to be a new Iron Man or Captain America come the end of the month.
Find out in Disney+’s Falcon & Winter Soldier, streaming soon.
Will that be brought to us in glorious WandaVision?
Sebastian Stan has a ludicrous number of films left on his Marvel deal, so that is a pretty safe bet.
He just signed up for a Disney+ show spinoff though, I’m not sure if they’re going to abandon Captain America as a movie franchise.
I wonder how that Marvel deal works with the Disney+ announcement.
Besides Black Panther, that is.
That’s why I like Scott Lang. He’s the underdog’s underdog. He’s smart, but not a super-genius, and he’s not a badass in any way, shape or form. He’s a lovable goofball. He’s just the guy in the suit, using technology that he himself doesn’t understand. BUT he has shown time and again that he is not to be underestimated. That’s why I’m hoping that he and my other favorite underdog, Clint Barton, are the ones that save the day in Endgame.
Hawkeye was my favorite Avenger when I read the comic as a kid. I like Jeremy Renner’s performance, but I wish the movies in general were able to better capture his appeal from the comic. Aou and CW were good starts- hoping Endgame follows through.
I’ve mentioned her before but Hope has a comicbook counterpart: Nadia Van Dyne, The Unstoppable Wasp. Her backstory is that she’s Hank Pym’s daughter from his first marriage to Maria Pym, a Hungarian national who was abducted by the KGB when she was pregnant with Nadia and later died under torture.She was then raised by the Red Room but later escaped by reverse engineering her father’s tech and contacted the Avengers about her existence.Now, she leads a team of all-female scientists called Genius In Action Research Labs (G.I.R.L.) and became the third Wasp under the tutorage of Janet Van Dyne.She’s also made time connecting with her incredibly weird family.
Nadia is really a comic book counterpart to Hope only in the sense that with the movie out somebody at Marvel said that they should introduce a younger Wasp with a vaguely similar haircut.
And the same first name in a different language.
Unstoppable Wasp is so good, and everyone needs to read it. The last couple issues in particular have kicked it up to serious quality.
Looks neat. I’m particularly fond of Gurihiru for hitting the sweet spot between Western art and manga-style art and am so glad Marvel’s still keeping the duo after Gwenpool ended.
Thank you, Gwen! Glad to see this series return to the positives instead of “moments that were bad about this movie”
I was one who was severely bummed when this movie lost Wright but found myself surprised by how enjoyable it turned out under Reed. The final battle on the train set of a little girl remains one of my favorite fight sequences in the entire MCU
Thank you Gwen for not being Sam Fucking Barsanti
yeah, writers should only say good things about movies
At the time this debuted a lot of people assumed Luis’ spiels were leftovers from Edgar Wright’s version of the film, but in fact it was the new creative team that came up with them.
I’d love to see the breakdown of what parts of the original movie were Wright vs. Reed. The briefcase fight is something I was positive Edgar Wright would have had in his draft, but apparently not.
Also not in Wright’s draft: Hope. Or any female characters, apparently.
Hope was in the movie, but in a noticeably smaller role.
I thought I heard Payton Reed say they put her in when she didn’t exist, but A. it’s been a bit and B. I might have misinterpreted.
It was Janet who only got the barest of mentions in the earlier drafts, as opposed to being a key piece of the backstory in the finished version,
I love Edgar (no relation) but looking back over his films since Shaun it’s quite pointed how underserved female characters are in his films.Thankfully he’s rectifying this in his next project Last Night in Soho.
Luckily, the source material for Scott Pilgrim had 4 major, plot-essential female roles (Ramona, Knives, Envy, Roxie) that he couldn’t cut out.
This isn’t comprehensive but below is an interview with Peyton Reed where he sheds a lot of light on that:
https://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-07-17/ant-man-director-explains-the-differences-from-edgar-wright-version/
I know there was suposed to be dual timelines, so Hank would have had a much more physical role. Scott was going to be an ant evolved into a human, too.
As good as that Siri joke is, I never felt that particular music choice fit the scene at all.
#ReleaseTheSnyderCutofAntManNOW
You’ll love the scene where Scott realises that selling the shrinking technology is objectively the right thing to do and joins Yellowjacket in destroying any government regulation of their product.
I was one of those people. Thank you for enlightening me.
I realized how obvious that was when I rewatched the ending reveal of Down with Love.
Great to see a good moment on the list again. I hadn’t realized it until now, but the MCU has been very good with sidekicks, and Luis is a great example. He’s hilarious but also pretty competent as a fellow thief, and the storytelling is one of the best pure gags the MCU has done.
Yeah, that Luis is very good at his trade (even to the point of being able to one-punch the security guard, which in most films would have been ludicrous boasting) is one of the ways they avoid making comedy sidekicks annoying.
Ant-Man has 100 percent more Gregg Turkington than any other MCU movie, thereby making it the best MCU movie.“No, it wasn’t a violent crime, it was a cool crime.”
I’ve never checked it out. Tim Heidecker’s giving it 1 bag of unsalted popcorn really made sure I’d never check it out.
Tim was being extremely unprofessional that week. He should have recused himself from reviewing Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four, just as Gregg recused himself from Ant-Man.
Luis is easily my favorite part of both of those movies. Michael Pena is terrific, and gives an earnest sensibility to the character that sells him perfectly.
He’s a racist stereotype.
Am I the only one hoping Luis opens Endgame with a “what happened before”? Honestly, if they did a clip movie with Luis narrating it, I’d watch that.
“And Tony Stark was all, ‘I’m totally gonna get this gauntlet off him’. But then Peter Quill got all in Thanos’s face, like, ‘Why’d you kill my girl?’, and Thanos was all, ‘Nah, bro, she wasn’t your girl.’”
You put a dime in him, you got to let the whole song play out.
I can literally hear this in his voice, and I want it so badly. So, so badly.
“And the Soul Stone guardian’s all like, ‘Dog, you gotta be willing to lose something you love, like, crazy big-time’ and Gamora’s all, ‘Aw, dip, too bad you don’t love nothin’, Pops’, and then Thanos just looks at her, and the Soul Stone guardian’s like, ‘Aw, hell no’.”
Oh God, I’d be all about that.
Save that for the Blu-ray special features.
I think Randall Park outshines Luis a bit in the sequel.
I don’t know about that but Randall park killed it.
Yes, but also, sigh, Jimmy Woo shouldn’t be a sidekick character/cameo! He’s one of the most significant and important Asian characters in the Marvel universe!
Hopefully with Disney+ needing new shows he could get his own series.
Randall Park is always great. I love him as Kim Jong-un in ‘The Interview’. He’s also Asian Jim on The Office.
My favorite thing he has done so far is an Adult Swim Infomerical called Broomshakalaka.
Big fan of IKEA Heights myself, the only soap opera shot inside an IKEA.
Him explaining the Accords to a little girl was a highlight for me.
I enjoyed him not being sure if Scott actually wanted to hang out with him or not. Honestly I wish the post-credits scene was him and Scott grabbing a beer.
He’s a stereotypical mexican! Even his horn is racist! and his whole family is made up of criminals! So all the mexicans introduced in the MCU are criminals. What a great score for MCU sidekicks. I hate this character, I hate how the movie gets away with casual racism and I hate how no one ever mentions it.
While I am sensitive to your concerns Paul Rudd played a criminal so it stands to reason his mates are too. Would you have preferred that the role was recast as yet another white boy? Also I don’t recall Luis’s entire family being criminals.
Look at that clip of the story. Everyone in it is a criminal and they are all his family. And Paul Rudd can be a criminal because the MCU has plenty of white characters that are regular people. They only have one Latino and he’s a stereotypical cholo.
Cholos fucking love their white wines and neo-cubism.
“They only have one Latino and he’s a stereotypical cholo” YoYo (and Joey, and Robbie Reyes) over on Agents of SHIELD would disagree with that
AV Club writers, is that you?
Is this what the kids call virtue signaling? I’m old.
I have a very conflicted relationship to Luis. OTOH, when I tell stories it’s basically like that, down to the random primos. Buuut he is the only prominent Latino character and he’s a criminal.If the MCU had a wider variety of Latino characters, I wouldn’t have that problem at all.
a) Cue the sequel, & he’s not a criminal anymore. b) Cue the MCU TV shows, & there’s Yo-Yo Rodriguez, Robbie Reyes, Joey Gutierrez, Claire Temple, Molly Hernandez, Fr. Delgado, Rafi Hernandez, & Oscar Arocho.
(And the movies do have Agent Sitwell, but you wanted non-criminals.)
It’s still a… interesting choice to have the most visible Latino character in the movies be a former criminal.
A) he was handled much better in the sequel but this article was about the first movie and his character portrayal there. B) I don’t watch the tv universe.
Exactly. If he wasn’t the only one, it would be okay but because he’s the only representation of latino culture in the film universe then it’s troublesome to say the least.
I’m a huge fan of David Dastmalchian’s character.
Over the course of about a year, I watched Fury, End of Watch, and Ant-Man. At that point, I realized Michael Peña is one of my favorite actors and I’ll watch anything he’s in. Except Crash, I saw that when it came out and that was enough (although his part was one of the few I remember liking).
He was good in The Martian, too.
The Martian is a great movie in which Queen Lilandra leads a team of Luis, Bucky and Sue Storm to enact a plan laid out by Mordo, Wong and The Prowler to rescue the actor Loki hired.
“It’s all connected.” – Kevin Fiege
and the best part of observe and report…
First thing I remember him in was The Shield. My conclusion has been, he’s the rare actor that can do any role and does it all well.
First thing I remember him in was The Shield. Damn. Another long-running show I never watched, and that I know I should. I have a life, damnit!Well. Sort of.
The Shield is great! Give it a whirl.It suffers from a few abandoned plot threads/arcs and stunt casting (Forest Whitaker manages to be the best and worst actor on the show at the same time, because he’s laughably over the top, but it’s ultimately what sells him as a man unraveled towards the tail end of his arc), but it’s a great show despite that. Season 4 with Glenn Close is one of the best works of TV ever and it has legitimately one of the greatest endings to a TV series.I also appreciated it even more when I gave it a rewatch after Dexter, because The Shield masterfully handles the whole “villain protagonist” idea without having a breakneck pace like Breaking Bad. One of the best things about the series is that Vic Mackey is only really “safe” in season one – after that, his ass is always on the line. His actions have consequences and wrestling his way out of predicaments all require deals and actions that ultimately tighten the noose.
Walton Goggins is also pretty stand-out in The Shield, and it was one of the first places I saw the guy.
Dang, I didn’t realize he was in that!
Think it was 1 or 2 seasons towards the end. When the Strike Team was split up, he was Shane’s partner.
He is slowly becoming the type of character actor that always improves the movies he is in just by being in them. Just like Harry Dean Stanton, Jeffrey Donovan, Jon Bernthal or a less show-y version of Sam Rockwell in his underrated days (he is still great, but the oscar gave him a second career as a leading man). They all have different styles, One guy that I think should have that kind of career would be Jacob Pitts, I know, it’s a very specific opinion. But he has been consistently great in Justified and he stole every scene he was in on the Sinner. Another one is Mark Valley, hugely underrated (I still ache for more Keen Eddie).
Mark Valley: Human Target. Although only Season 1 was good.Jacob Pitts: EuroTrip. I kid.
Lol seeing the kid of Eurotrip as a badass sniper, former army ranger, was quite a shock. But damn, he owned the role.
I loved season 1 of Human Target so much, and hated season 2 almost as much as I loved season 1. What a waste.
Preach.
Mark Valley: Keen Eddie
oh my god Human Target was such a good show
The second season was just wtf fox why
You’ve reminded me to check out Sneaky Pete. I hate Giovanni Ribisi – he’s a Scientologist, he’s an acting vacuum and he was also, apparently, a twat towards Cat Power – but man am I starved for a Graham Yost TV show after Justified. And Jacob Pitts is there!Yost should get the rights to Karen Sisco, get Carla Gugino up in this bitch and reboot that show. Have another mini-crossover with Justified so we can get Jacob Pitts and Erica Tazel. HNNGH
I had no idea Graham Yost was behind Sneaky Pete, I will have to check it out, especially with Jacob Pitts in there. Yeah, Giovanni Ribisi is a bland actor. The funny thing is that Michael Peña is also a scientologist, but he is such a loveable, entertaining and talented dude that I give him a slight pass. It’s like with Elizabeth Moss, whose talent outshines her association with that awful cult. Or Tom Cruise, who keeps us so entertained by his charm and death-wishing stunts long enough to ignore scientology in every Mission Impossible movie.
I have never much cared for Ribisi, but he is very good on the terrific SNEAKY PETE. And if you’re a Yost/JUSTIFIED fan, you’ll see a lot of familiar faces. Well worth your time.
You’ve reminded me to check out Sneaky PeteI highly recommend Sneaky Pete. I didn’t/don’t know anything about Giovanni Ribisi, save that he always seems a bit sleazy to me. But – that works great for the character(s) of Pete/Maurius. The plotting of the show is tight, the danger ever-present. The supporting cast is flat-out perfect, but when you have Margo Martindale, I think the rest of your people just snap to, and do better acting than they were going to. You do not want to disappoint Margo Martindale.
Damn, learning that Margo Martindale is in Sneaky Pete has put it back on my radar. I’ll have to at least take a peek at it, now. She’s fucking amazing in everything I’ve seen her in.
Yeah I would pay to watch Jeffrey Donovan or Jon Bernthal read the backs of soup cans for 2 hours.
He’s fantastic in Narcos: Mexico
You’re clearly forgotten about CHIPS, the definition of unwatchable.
Good point. I’ve avoided that one because it looked pretty terrible, and I refuse to let anything sully the greatness that is CHiPs.
I watched it. Which was a mistake.
Not sure what Dax was aiming for with the film, but it didn’t work.
Glad someone mentioned End of Watch. Pena has been great in everything I’d seen him in, but that movie was kind of a revelation to me. Same winning personality, same goofy smile, same charm – but he’s a cop, in a drama. I never was sure why that movie didn’t get more attention. Maybe it did and I was the one not paying attention. But when I caught up with it I was very pleasantly surprised.As for his Ant-Man role — hell yes, expand it to any other MCU movies (and hell yes include Darcy in that mix). The ending of Ant-man is genius and a really good (as it turns out) cliffhanger, with Pena’s motor-mouthed recapping of conversations and events that will lead to Sam Wilson finding Scott and drafting him to fight at the airport in Germany,
I loved EoW, and am surprised it isn’t better remembered. Excellent and fully believable chemistry between the leads. The coda where Pena is telling the story about his in-laws is such a gut punch.
He’s flat-out amazing in End of Watch. For a cop movie it’s pretty low-key, really more about his relationship with Gyllenhaal than policing.
Except for David Harbour getting stabbed in the eye (shudder).
You all gotta check him out in OBSERVE AND REPORT.
Observe and Report was great. It was unfortunate it was released the same year as Paul Blart: Mall Cop.
I’m not really interested in the Dora the Explorer movie (I’m not exactly the target demographic), but Peña is delightful in the trailer.
Same here, but with Peña plus Danny Trejo doing Boots’ voice, I may have to see it. My daughter was a fan (she’s 10 now), so we may go for nostalgia’s sake. My sons (14) have said they’re always up for anything they saw as little kids, especially Pixar stuff (Cars sequels, Incredibles 2, etc).
I’m going to be Debbie-Downer and say that… drum roll please… Korg is amusing at first, but quickly becomes incredibly one-note, and emblematic of Ragnarok’s biggest problem, namely that it never knows when to leave well enough alone, and consistently undercuts any moments of actual pathos or character development in favour of a cheap laugh (seriously, you can basically count the beats… “1… 2… 3… and there it is” for when Watiti is going to shoehorn a joke in after EVERY moment of actual emotion).
I still really like the film, but it’s a VERY vexing issue (for me, if no-one else) that gets harder and harder to overlook with each viewing.Luis, however, is great, and one of the only consistently good things about Ant-Man and the Wasp: the search for a compelling plot.
Piss off, ghost
I’ve got a similar issue with Ragnarok. I like a lot about it, but it’s a fairly dark story— Thor’s basically struggling with PTSD after the events of this movie— and there’s a few too many jokes. Korg is never shown fighting and his personality implies that he wouldn’t be terribly competent in battle.Also– If it were easy to skip Jeff Goldblum’s scenes, I would. He’s not a character, he’s a caricature.
I didn’t have a problem with Korg until that very last joke, when Asgard was destroyed.Gunn did the same thing in GOTG2. Quill has an emotional moment with his newly found father, then he has to get up and announce he needs to piss.I like the comedic bits but they shouldn’t be comedies, Like Seth Macfarlane said about The Orville, It isn’t a sci-fi comedy, it’s a drama with comedy sprinkled in. Or something like that.These should be action/thriller/genre movies with comedy sprinkles.But, that’s my opinion and I enjoy all of the movies, even the ones people consider “bad”.
I have the exact same problem with Ragnarok.
Somewhere Marvel has filmed “Luis explains the Marvel Universe”
Now THAT is a Blu-Ray extra that Kang would shell out for.
Something like that sort of exists from a few years ago. I believe there’s an recap video of Luis explaining the history of MCU (including stuff from Agents of Shield) to an off camera person, who is later revealed to be Michelle Pfeiffer aka Janet Van Dyne,I think it was at Comic Con from two/three years ago, mainly to drop the casting news of Pfeiffer. Shame it never got released officially anywhere.
I would pay money to see that.
At the very least, he needs to show up in Endgame to give his version of one of the MCU movies.
Someone in one of the other Marvel threads said this too, but before Endgame even starts, there should be 5 minutes of Luis going full cliff-notes on the entire MCU, with cut-ins of every character. I can’t think of anyone in the cast that would be against this.
*bongos start playing*
I love how there was an audible murmur of delight in my showing of Ant-Man and the Wasp the moment that musical cue started, because we knew what was coming next.
And it was deep enough into the movie that the audience had kind of forgotten about that character tic, and it was a nice surprise. Plus, it led to “Baba Yaga!”
My 12-year-old son randomly bursts into “Baba Yaga come at night” to try and rattle his older brother in video games, basketball, etc.
Luis’ riff about Hope’s hair in the first movie is the highlight of the sequel’s “babbling Luis” sequence.“I want nothin’ to do with you. Look at my hairdo, I’m all business!”
“I want nothin’ to do with you. Look at my hairdo, I’m all business!” I don’t know if there are blooper reels for such things, but it’s hard to believe the actors mouthing Luis’ lines didn’t crack up at least ones during filming.
The mention of the bongos brings to mind that the music selection in all of Luis’ explanations is the Roy Ayers track ‘Escape’, which was written for the soundtrack for the 1973 blaxploitation classic ‘Coffy’ starring Pam Grier, and then re-used in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Jackie Brown’, also starring Pam Grier. Great song, great soundtrack(s). Check it out.
I really with Ant-Man hadn’t shied away from the idea of Scott as a criminal and deadbeat dad trying to turn a new leaf. Sending him to jail for exposing white-collar crime and pulling a Robin Hood on a corporation’s ill-gotten gains really dilutes the idea of him trying to do right by his daughter and earn his redemption.
Otherwise, what a fun little flick.
Make him Goliath, you cowards! Or bring Robbie Reyes into the Marvel cinematic universe! Or both! Give me a Mexican-American/Latino/a superhero, damn it.
Robbie Reyes was in Agents of SHIELD.
Yeah, I should’ve further specified: the movie side. He was great in his appearances there. They really nailed it, but I’d love to see a heavy hitter like Ghost Rider appear next to someone like Doc. Strange.
Okay, I couldn’t be sure. So many people ignored the show after the first few episodes.He was cool! I’d love to see more (any) integration of tv stuff in the movies. He’d be a great fit if they decide to flesh out the supernatural side beyond Dr. Strange sequels.
To be fair, I was that person, too. I had given up on it up until the Hydra stuff—which I heard is when it rebounded so I trudged through the first season, and I was glad I did. Quake is now easily one of the best MCU characters, and the writing’s been the tops. I’m still amazed at how good Robbie looked so I hope he comes back somehow.
Just hoping they can do better with S6. Also I’d be cool with Robbie coming back cause QuakeRider is the only hope at this point for Daisy to end up in a decent ship (I’m down for other options and I guess keeping her single is fine (even though everyone else is in a ship) just no DekeDaisy for the love of all that is holy).
It would be so cool (and funny) if Bill Foster asked Luis to be his protege, much like Hank and Scott. I’d be so down for that. And it would also add a Latino hero too finally – but also Marvel, consider White Tiger.
I find it hilarious that the idea of this second and third level criminal gossip totally works.
This was a very fun movie. Paul Rudd is fucking perfect as Ant-Man and Evangeline Lily is also perfect as Wasp.
I loved the fight scene set to The Cure’s Disintegration. When Ant-Man & The Wasp referenced Morrissey I realized that these films starring my fake best friend Paul Rudd were Tailor-made for me. The third one will probably have New Order somehow to complete my favorite musical artists trifecta.
Plainsong by the Cure. The first track off the album Disintegration.But yeah, I loved it.
Damn. You’re right. I liked that it was a non-hit from The Cure.
Michael Peña is great. Also, he looks like Mark Ruffalo.
As much as I’d like to drop into an alternate timeline and see what Edgar Wright had planned for this, I really enjoy what Peyton Reed managed to put together. I dig the heist sequence in Hank’s house, the training scenes with a ridiculously fit Evangeline Lilly (hubba), the perfect casting of America’s Sweetheart Paul Rudd, all the macro camera work in the bathtub and the dance club downstairs, Luis’ babbling and the fun with the rest of the team (‘Back it up. Back it up. Backing it up.’), and that gorgeous shot of Scott running with the ants once he starts to get the hang of being in the suit. An Ant-Man movie is always a nice place in the MCU to dip into when the heaviness of everything else starts to be a bit much.
so glad you covered this because it’s what made me fall in love with the Ant-Man movies.
The Ant-Man movies are my favorite Marvel flicks. I can’t explain why. The cast is top-notch, the characters are great, the jokes are funny and the action is creative.I don’t mind the forced villain in this one as much as the other MCU films; another money-hungry asshole in a suit not unlike Jeff Bridges in Iron Man, but they at least try to motivate him beyond money (being Hank’s protoge, but never trusted enough with to know about the Pym particles and now the info is given to some random convict instead of him; the off-handed “chemical” explanation seems like a late addition to me).I don’t know much about the whole Edgar Wright situation surrounding this film, but I read that Hope didn’t have much of a role in it, which is a shame because Evangeline Lilly is great and finally gets to kick ass in the next one.
I really love Corey Stoll’s insecure, needy supervillain. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s like GOB Bluth in a suit of power armour.
THEY HAD NEIL HAMBURGER AND HARDLY USED HIM.
But thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat’s his life!
HE WOULD HAVE MADE A GREAT VULTURE.
We GOT a great Vulture:
Hey guys, managing the Victorville Film Archive is a pretty time-consuming task, so please ease up on the criticism.
I would love to get a prequel movie about the original antman and wasp with the characters being more like in avengers earth mightiest heroes, where hank pym is the more serious science guy but its still friendly whilest original wasp is the more open excitable one
Counterpoint: That dude was incredibly annoying and added nothing to the story if you weren’t buying his schtick.
Do none of y’all remember Pena’s monolugue from Observe and Report?? ‘cause that shit was the proto this.
Something I liked about the Luis character is that when we meet him for the first time, he says he knocked out Peachy (the big man in the prison “fight”). At first, this seemed just some braggadocio, but as the film progresses, Luis turns into one-punch man, laying out dudes left and right with ease. He was telling the truth, and it was nicely foreshadowed.
I’ll never stop wondering what the Edgar Wright version of this film would have been. I’ve always guessed that this scene (with its sensibility and rapid-fire editing) had some of his style, albeit with less flare, and was probably from his version of the script.
Yeah, a lot of Edgar Wright fans seem to assume that everything good about Ant-Man came from him.Much like how Zack Snyder fans feel about Justice League.
It’s not “everything good,” but that particular scene reminds me of Wright’s style, with the quick-cutting and use of a montage to tell so much very specific information (as opposed to a general blur of transition). By contrast, I think there are good moments in the training montage in the film, and I like it as well, but that doesn’t seem like it has Wright’s unusual fingerprints on it.
there’s something good in justice league?
I love Wright’s films. No doubt it would’ve been good and fun to watch. But the further we get from that initial announcement and the more we learn about what his version would’ve been, the more I think Peyton Reed’s version was probably the superior one. It seems like he and his team heightened what was already good about the script and added the good, new bits.
It may be better overall, and certainly fits the Marvel house style a lot better, but I’m still curious what an auteur like Wright would have come up with. It might not have been as good, honestly, or as well-balanced, but I think it would have been more distinctive. (Which is likely part of why he never got to make the film.)
what an auteur like WrightUsing a journeyman director like Reed instead of an “auteur” like Wright might have seemed like the safer choice, but this scene was distinctive, and it didn’t come from Wright.
That’s my point – we don’t really know which parts were Reed’s, and which were from Wright’s original script. All I’m saying is that given the similarities to Wright’s distinctive style, my hypothesis is that this scene was the latter. Reed deserves credit for the execution, but none of us know whether he deserves credit for the idea and the writing or not. The film was in a fairly advanced stage of production before Wright left, and one way or another, by the admissions of the filmmakers themselves, a lot of his ideas made it into the final version. I think this was likely one of them.
But, Luis’s stories were Peyton Reed’s idea.
Source? I hadn’t heard that. (I don’t know whether that is correct or not, but it’s not something I’ve heard him specifically credited with.)
https://uproxx.com/movies/ant-man-peyton-reed/
Don’t ever forget…
How is this article based on this premise…
Luis is one of the best examples in a string of vital (and usually human
and un-powered) Marvel secondary characters who add a dose of levity to
the proceedings.
…and yet it doesn’t mention Darcy Lewis at all. She is arguably the first of the vital secondary characters who adds a dose of levity, unless you want to give that title to Happy Hogan, in which case she is second.
I saw Michael Pena in the trailer for that Dora movie, and I know he’s been in the business for a while, I’ve seen him in other things, but I look at him now and I think Luis.
Say what you want about the trailer, but that bit of him describing rave music kills every time.
“Baskin Robbins always finds out, man.”
Old-mian-have-safe
I just cannot get this page to load in a non-brokeass way.
Ant-Man was a pleasant surprise, it was so much fun. I also remember being flabbergasted by the sfx used to make Douglas look young in the opening scenes, just incredible work. The Thomas the Tank scene is wonderful. Evangeline Lilly is just ridiculously hot and Luis was the MVP. What’s not to love?
I need Michael Pena’s character to do a recap of all the marvel movies. Also, truth syrum..
Sadly, I expect that the greatest -possibly only- missed opportunity in Avengers: Endgame, will be the absence of an 11-year, 22-film, 45-second recap by Luis. Should it actually be part of the movie, only dogs will be able to hear my rapturous squeal of joy. For those of you in other time zones with dogs, I offer an advance apology, just in case.
I’m actually more of a fan of the second Luis motor-mouth explanation that closes the movie. Stan Lee mouthing the words “crazy stupid fine” might just be my favourite of his cameos, and I love the way the camera holds on Luis for a second or two after he says, “He said yes.”
Luis’s stories are some of the best filmmaking moments in the MCU. Everything works: the writing, directing, editing, acting. Just a great example of the collaborative process of filmmaking.
Luis better have survived the snap* i im going to riot