If Jackie Robinson’s fate had seen him turn out an unsung hero, 42 might be more worthy of protest. Taken at face value, it’s strictly inoffensive; it’s the tale of how Jackie Robinson broke the glass ceiling in baseball, diluted into a series of uplifting bullet points before coming to an abrupt and all-too-convenient close (because nobody wants to end a feel-good movie with reality). There’s a blueprint to this sort of cinema, and Brian Helgeland follows it doggedly in his third- technically fourth, if you count Payback*- directorial outing, hitting beat after crowd-pleasing, expected beat. Maybe that’s not a crime worthy of filmmaker jail, but it’s certainly not a guaranteed path…
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Ohhh, Look…First '42' Poster Slides Into Home
I’ve felt for a very, very long time that poster-making has become something of a lost art, particularly when it concerns big studio movies or star-driven movies. Seeing even the slightest amount of effort put into the creation of a movie poster tends to pique my interest, so it stands to reason that when somebody really knocks it out of the park with a one-sheet, I get a little bit giddy inside. Which brings us to this poster for 42, the upcoming Jackie Robinson biopic hailing from Legendary Pictures. It’s kind of spectacular. It’s also slightly reminiscent of the Skyfall poster from last year, but there’s so much more that’s special about…