Saturday, May 3, 2014

Rio 2 - Movie Review

My FlickSided review.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Movie Review

Starring Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Redford, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Hayley Atwell and Toby Jones.
Directed by Joe & Anthony Russo.
★★★½
I'm continually impressed with the Marvel universe and how they're able to get it right, at least for those characters owned by Disney. I long for the Spider-Man and X-Men rights to eventually join their comrades under one studio banner. Even then, most of those movies were good too.
I'm particularly enjoying what they're doing with Captain America. He's a potentially boring goody two-shoes character, but thanks to Chris Evans and the writers, they're getting him exactly right. They are managing to pull off what Superman hasn't been able to do since Christopher Reeve's heyday.
Cap is still in present day, and the after-effects of The Avengers still ripples through his story. He's getting more and more concerned with Nick Fury and SHIELD, and how they operate. SHIELD has unlimited resources and weapons to battle terrorism, but are they getting too big?
He uncovers a conspiracy within SHIELD, but that makes him a fugitive from them. He gets some help from Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and new friend the Falcon (Anthony Mackie), but he also has to face a new enemy - the Winter Soldier, who looks like he went through the same transformation Steve Rogers did.
You veteran-actor villain is Sen. Alexander Pierce, played by Robert Redford. He was actually the weakest part of the movie, and if Redford's the weakest part of your movie, you're doing something right.
Disney's positioned Captain America 3 to open the first weekend of May in 2016, opposite Batman v. Superman. One of them has to blink, but based the reception of Man of Steel, and the fact that Zack Snyder's directing again, I think the DC crew should be the ones who find a new date.

Inside Llewyn Davis - DVD Review

Starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, F. Murray Abraham, Adam Driver, Ethan Phillips, Robin Bartlett and Max Casella.
Directed by Joel & Ethan Coen.

★★½

The Coen brothers can go big or small, farcical or serious, Oscar-winning or Ladykillers, but every movie they've made has had that distinct Coen flavor, one of my favorites. This one reminded me most of A Serious Man.

Oscar Isaac plays Llewyn Davis, a folk singer in the early 60's who keeps barely missing success. He's not really a nice man or a sympathetic man. Whatever talent he has can't seem to overcome his ego. It has an addicting soundtrack. There was a lot to admire about the movie, I respect the movie, I could recommend it to others, but I can't say I liked it. Most Coen flicks I can watch every few years and be happy. (Arizona, Miller's, Fargo, O Brother, No Country, etc.) But this one won't enter that eschelon.

It's most notable now for containing two future cast-members of Star Wars Episode VII.