Captain America: The Winter Soldier

My belief when it comes to comic book movies is that all superheroes are only as good as the villain they fight against. It's why The Dark Knight will remain to be the best superhero movie for the foreseeable future. It's not just about Batman (who is my favorite superhero, hands down), it's about Heath Ledger's incomparable Joker, a villain so gleefully terrifying, so ruled by absolute chaos, that you actually wonder if Batman will make it out of this ordeal alive (and the events of The Dark Knight change his life in massive ways, as seen in The Dark Knight Rises). That being said, I know we are supposed to cheer for Captain America because he is the good guy, but how the hell can you when The Winter Soldier is so f-ing cool???

While I'll always admittedly be a DC Comics girl, the thing I love about the Marvel Universe that has been created on screen is that everything is interconnected. Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury has popped up in every Marvel film. This is Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow's third film - after Iron Man 2 and The Avengers. They reference Tony Stark and Bruce Banner and the "events in New York" a.k.a. The Avengers. I love that aspect of these films. What I haven't loved about the Marvel films up until now has been the way all of them have managed to feel absolutely jumbled when it comes to the big action set pieces, like you have no idea what's happening except that someone is fighting someone. Well, Anthony and Joe Russo, who directed The Winter Soldier, come from the James Cameron school of directing action sequences, in so much as you can understand what's happening. Sure, the big action pieces are still so over the top and outlandish (but isn't every action movie like that to a certain extent??), but at least you can tell what's happening and that's a major foot forward for this film. Also, The Winter Soldier is far and away the best of the Marvel movies. By miles! The summer blockbuster season usually doesn't start until May, so I wondered why they decided to open Captain America in April, but I guess when you've got a product that you know is good, you want to get it out there as soon as possible. Now all the other superhero movies to come this summer (Spider-man 2, The new sequel/prequel/whatever X-Men movie), have to live up to Captain America, and not the other way around.

As far as plot goes, the film opens with Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow going on a super secret mission to help a hijacked S.H.I.E.L.D. boat on orders from Nick Fury. Something about the mission seems shady to the Captain and when he gets back to Washington D.C., it doesn't take long for all hell to break loose. Usually, in Marvel movies in particular, the actual plot is so labyrinthine that I have trouble following the events (and I have no idea how young kids who show up to see their favorite superhero have any idea what's going on at any time), but another reason The Winter Soldier is so great is because the plot may be complicated, but it's also able to be followed. It takes us about forty minutes or so before we encounter The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan, and I can honestly write an entire article about my increasing levels of attraction to him while playing this role, but I digress), and that's when things get really, really, really good. It seems Black Widow has heard of him - he's sort of an urban legend - an assassin so ruthless, so menacing, so unstoppable. Needless to say, he's a worthy villain for Captain America, mostly because he's just as strong, if not stronger than our hero, and there are often times when you're not sure the Captain will make it out alive. This makes for a good superhero movie - you need to have the good guy feel genuinely threatened!

The action scenes in this movie are impeccable - it's got everything! You want a bad ass multi-car chase? You've got it! You want a man with a bionic arm marching down the streets of D.C.? It's yours! You want a man jumping from a building into a helicopter? That's yours too! The action is thrilling and intense - most especially the best action sequence which is a fight scene in an elevator. I swear I stopped breathing for a good three minutes during that amazing to watch scene. Another thing this movie has? A sense of humor (something severely lacking from last summer's Man of Steel)! It's not that I want to be rolling on the ground laughing during comic book movies, but these movies tend to be on the dark side, so you need moments to lighten things up. And there's plenty of those.

I'm not the biggest fan of Chris Evans as an actor, but I think he does a great job as Captain America. He's got a sort of breezy charm and confidence which really works for the role. Scarlett Johansson continues to be a total bad ass as Black Widow (I'd also like to announce that I think we are currently witnessing the prime of Scar Jo's career, and it's sort of been a pleasure to watch her these past two years or so). Anthony Mackie is a new edition to the group as Falcon, and he's absolutely wonderful. He's got great chemistry with Evans and he's so cool and calm that it's easy to cheer for him. Robert Redford is another new edition to the cast as an upper level S.H.I.E.L.D. guy and he brings his movie star charisma to every scene. But let's face it - this movie belongs to the Winter Soldier. Sebastian Stan may not get a whole lot of dialogue, but he manages to steal the entire movie. He's mysterious, cool, and somehow, sort of sexy (just me???). Sure, the movie is too long (aren't most movies??), but that seems like a minor complaint.

I don't typically like to give out grades this high so early in the year, but I just can't help myself. The Winter Soldier is a totally fun, entertaining movie, most definitely recommended.

Grade: A-

(P.S. In case you don't follow me on Twitter, and you should (@wonderfulscar), then you missed my official hotness ranking of The Winter Soldier cast: Sebastian Stan > Anthony Mackie > Redford > Frank Grillo > ScarJo > Sam Jackson > Chris Evans)

Pain and Gain

Every once in a while, the perfect movie comes along for the perfect person. It happens with actors all the time. There are certain actors that you don't really think are particularly good until you see them in a certain role in a certain movie, and then you think, well, ok, now I get it. This can be said of just about any action star, but more specifically, an example that comes to mind is Ryan Phillippe. No one is convinced that he is the next Brando or DeNiro. But if you watch him in a movie like Cruel Intentions, you sort of understand. That role, that movie was perfect for him and his specific talents. If it can work like that for actors, then surely it can work like that for directors as well. Case in point - Michael Bay. Bay has long been one of my favorite punching bags. I think he makes a lot of big, stupid movies, all of which are getting less and less enjoyable to me as the years go by. But then came Pain and Gain, and with its over the top plot, shoot em out action sequences, and bevy of beautiful women, it's sort of the perfect movie for Bay. And somehow, maybe even accidentally, Bay managed to make a good movie, or at the very least, three-fourths of a good movie. Someone on Twitter managed to call this movie Michael Bay's Pulp Fiction, and while I don't quite think this is THAT good, I can admit that Pain and Gain is highly enjoyable.

Pain and Gain follows the outrageous true story of the Sun Gym Gang from the mid 90's in Miami, Florida. The main characters Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg), Adrian (Anthony Mackie) and Paul Doyle (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson)are a group of body builders / personal trainers who work at Miami's Sun Gym and decide to kidnap one of their super rich douche bag clients (Tony Shalhoub) and torture him until he just decides to sign over his entire fortune to them. Somehow, said victim manages to survive being tortured, run over, set on fire and, while the cops don't believe his outlandish story, a private investigator (Ed Harris) does and eventually begins to investigate the now living large gym rats.

So, Pain and Gain is a super dark comedy, very bleak with no happy ending in sight (i.e. my kinda movie). All sorts of things work really well with this movie. The first being that the story, no matter how outlandish it gets (and it does get pretty freaking crazy) is all true. So, when the movie gets a little nutty, the fact that it is indeed a true story keeps in grounded in reality. Then there are the great performances. The three leading men - Wahlberg, Mackie and Johnson - are perfectly cast. No one is going to argue that The Rock is a great actor, but this is the perfect example of this being the perfect role for him. Wahlberg is one of the very few actors who can oscilate between comedy, action and drama with infinite ease and this is the perfect movie for his talents because its sort of all three in one. Mackie is one of the most underrated actors out there and it's great to see him shine. But Johnson is sort of the scene stealer. He is hilarious and terrifying as a born again coke head who shares a special connection with the kidnapping victim but also is a terrifying brute. And the fact that it is sort of a shoot 'em up movie works in Michael Bay's favor. Again, I'm not saying he has suddenly turned into Martin Scorsese, but this movie is good because of, or maybe even in spite of him. Perhaps the movie loses some of its charm near the end, when it becomes more of a cliche than anything and perhaps it would have worked better if it had been a little bit quicker. If Bay is going to become a serious filmmaker, then he needs to hire an editor who can rein him in. Still, for the most part, Pain and Gain is a fun movie, dark and outlandish, but all of the craziness somehow works. I suspect this was a one and done for Bay since his next movie is a remake of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but at the very least, we've gotten one good movie out of him.

Grade: B-