Ant-Man was our first movie. It came out in 2015 but the work on the film started in 2006 with Edgar Wright writing the story with Joe Cornish. They wrote three scripts over 5 years. Not in a hurry, I guess. Casting didn't happen until 2013 and though Wright was slated to direct he left over creative differences. Peyton Reed came in to direct and Adam McKay and Paul Ruff re-wrote the script.
Paul Rudd is the second Ant-Man, he was created in a 1979 comic book story. He's called Scott Lang and the original Ant-Man is called Hank Pym. Hank is played by Michael Douglas. The movie starts in 1987 after Hank Pym gets kicked out of his company by Howard Stark and then it jumps to 2015 when Scott gets out of prison. Scott stole a bunch of money from a big corp and gave it back to the people the company cheated. Michael Pena is is Hank's prison buddy Luis, and the movie's comic relief machine, he picks Scott up when he gets released.
Scott tries to stay honest so he can get visitation rights to his little daughter but he gets fired from his job and has little hope of a good job because of his prison record. Hank Pym manipulates Scott and Luis into thinking Luis has discovered a big safe with untold riches. Hank trains Scott in the suit and they plan to take down David Cross. Hank had locked up the Any-Man suit as being too dangerous and refused to release the tech. Cross was Hank's assistant at one point and he had continued to work on the same tech. He's a ruthless prick who finally makes a break through. He immediately sells out to Hydra. He fights Ant-Man in his Yellow-Jacket suit at the end of the movie.
There's lots of jumping and leaping and punching. Sadly, there's plenty of Marvel melodrama too. Still, it was entertaining enough. I used to rush to buy the superhero movies when they came out on DVD but now I only pick them up when they're on clearance. I wouldn't need to see this anytime soon so I'll probably wait until I can get it for a couple of bucks. I see there's a sequel coming out next year. I'll let you know if I liked it in a couple of years.
Night Of The Cobra Woman is a 1972 Roger Corman production that I hadn't seen before. It was directed by Andrew Meyer, he wrote the screenplay after writing the story with Kerry Magness. It's a made in the Philippines film with some actors from the US and a lot of locals. The Wikipedia says that Roger was disappointed with the movie and thought the script lacked logic. The Wikipedia says the films Premise is: A beautiful woman turns into a cobra. I don't know what Roger's on about, you can't get much more logical than that.
Joy Bang plays a science student visiting the Philippines to study snakes and their venom. The guy is Roger Garrett, he plays Joy's boyfriend. Joy's a cutie with lots of teeth, she has little acting ability, Roger has less. Neither of them had much of a career. Back in the movie Joy hears a woman has a super rare cobra and she wants that venom. She travels to a nearby village to find the woman. They gets caught up in the life of the evil Snake Lady who has to kill to keep young and beautiful. She had been bitten by a special cobra in World War II and in 1972 she's still as young looking as she was then.
There's a bit of nudity, plenty of snakes, and some dull scenes with little happening. The effects are low budget and not too good. The scenery and sets are OK for the most part. While it has most of a horror movie in there, Roger was right to be disappointed, it just doesn't deliver much of a story. The story and the characters wonder about, practically bumping into stuff and occasionally falling down. It gets a 4 on the IMDb for good reason. I know we were complaining while it was on and it put two people to sleep for a bit. They were sad when they woke up, "it's not over yet?" There's not much reason to see it but I was glad to have the chance. Of course, I'm obsessed with seeing all these low budget horror flicks. I tell myself, it's good to know your horror film history, then I cry myself to sleep at night.