FILM REVIEW OF ''CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER"

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (**** OUT OF ****) gives super-hero sequels a good name.  Not only is this$170 million blockbuster far better than its superb ‘origins’ predecessor, but it also is a real game-changer for the Marvel Universe.  Former Fantastic Four actor Chris Evans reprises the title role as Steve Rogers, a 90-pound weakling turned 240-pound heavyweight, whose exploits inspired millions in World War II.  Remember Rogers spent about 70 years in suspended animation in an iceberg after he contributed to the defeat the Nazis as well as Hydra.  Rogers maintains his sense of honor, or naivety, throughout all his trials and tribulations.  Evans makes his old-fashioned, nice-guy antics appear both convincing and charming.  Meaning, Captain America remains essentially a goody-two-shoes-bachelor with-a-shield.  Our hero takes a licking but keeps on ticking despite whatever adversaries he tangles with in the second, in-name-only theatrical Captain America feature.  Co-directors Anthony and Joe Russo of You, Me and Dupree let the action coast occasionally in this larger-than-life, two-hour-and-sixteen minute melodrama, but the combat scenes are staged with so much kinetic artistry that you will teeter on the edge of your seat during them.  Everything is still appropriately formulaic but entirely outlandish in the gravity-defying Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely screenplay that puts our hero early and often behind the eight ball.  My favorite close-quarters combat encounter occurs in the elevator with our hero cornered and outnumbered.  Later scraps on the three Helicarriers emerge as no less electrifying.  Predictably, everything is business as usual, but the Russo brothers and their scribes provide enough twists and turns to keep you interested in this noisy nonsense.  Mind you, one or two things won’t register as total surprises because you know some characters cannot perish.  Nevertheless, if you enjoyed the first Captain America with Chris Evans, you will probably love the second one as much if not more!

In terms of a chronological timeline, Captain America: The Winter Soldier takes place two years after the cataclysmic New York showdown, but the action itself covers only three days.  Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) hasn’t totally acclimated himself to the 21^st century, but he refuses to let it interfere with his duty.  While jogging around Washington, D.C., the fleet-footed Rogers befriends congenial Air Force flyboy Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie of Notorious) who counsels veterans suffering from PTSD at the VA Hospital.  No sooner have they gotten acquainted than Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson of The Avengers) rolls up to whisk Rogers off onto his next dangerous mission.  Later, Sam Wilson joins Rogers in his capacity as the winged hero Falcon.  The first major action scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier is designed to show how extraordinary our eponymous hero is under fire but also how vulnerable he remains.  Terrorists have stormed a S.H.I.E.L.D. surveillance ship, and they are issuing outrageous demands for the release of the hostages.  Actually, this predicament reminded me of the first mission that Stallone and company embarked on in the initial Expendables epic.  Mind you, Captain America and his trusty boomerang shield clear the perimeter so Black Widow and Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo of End of Watch) can free the hostages and settle with the terrorists.  However, more than meets the eye occurs during this seemingly simple mission, and Captain America confronts his superior, S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nicholas Fury (Samuel L. Jackson of Pulp Fiction), about Black Widow’s cyber-exploit.  No sooner have Rogers and Fury fussed at each other at the sprawling new island headquarters of S.H.I.E.L.D. than Fury briefs Rogers about the next best thing.  Project Insight will link three Helicarriers via spy satellites and to eradicate preemptively any threats either domestic or otherwise.  Naturally, Captain America doesn’t like Insight.  If he is shocked that things have changed so much that such a measure must be taken, he is even more shocked later when Fury shows up at his apartment with blood on his hands and an assassin lurking nearby.  Of course, D.C. Police are nowhere to be found when these imposters do everything except blast holes in either the engine block or the tires of his fortified SUV during a tense auto chase through D.C. streets.  If this weren’t enough for Captain America, he must go toe-to-toe with a mysterious combatant with a Six Million Dollar Man arm to save the day.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier makes several references to the previous film that strengthens its bond with it.  We get a glimpse of the girl that Steve loved and we watch as Steve’s best friend, Bucky Barnes, contends with amnesia.  The filmmakers not only bring us up to date about Bucky, but also we learn more about renegade enemy scientist Dr. Arnim Zola who collaborated with the Red Skull in the first Captain America.  Furthermore, Zola opts to become a ‘ghost-in-the machine’ like Johnny Depp in Transcendence.  The Russos and their writers keep hurling obstacles into Captain America’s path, and our hero doesn’t have an easy time conquering the villains.  Anthony Mackie gets to play the first African-American Marvel super hero, and he attacks the role with relish.  He wears a sophisticated set of mechanical wings that enable him to fly and perform far-fetched feats.  Scarlett Johansson is just as tough and sexy as she was in The Avengers.  Meanwhile, the best special effect in this special effects extravaganza isn’t a special effect.  Actor Robert Redford proves computer graphics stand no chance against the real thing.  Redford qualifies as the most distinguished silver-screen good guy to cavort in such a dastardly manner since Henry Fonda in Sergio Leone’s western Once Upon A Time in the West.  If you’ve never seen Redford in action, you owe it to yourself to check him out.  By his presence alone, Redford makes this action-adventure opus into a memorable experience.  Let’s hope that Marvel Studios can keep up with good work with the forthcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015. 

FILM REVIEW OF ''OCULUS" (2014)

Although it’s more fresh than original, “Oculus” (*** OUT OF ****) qualifies as a subtle but spooky supernatural saga.  This creepy, complicated, psychological horror chiller casts an ordinary, everyday piece of household furniture as the source of all Evil.  You may have one in your home, office, and/or car.  Horror thrillers have appropriated virtually everything inanimate and transformed them—houses, cars, beds, bulldozers, condoms, toys, etc.--into murderous machines.  The addition of mirrors should surprise nobody.  This notorious object has been killing people as well as their pets for centuries with nobody the wiser about it.   Actually, this isn’t the first time Hollywood has employed mirrors other than to offer the latest updates as in Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”  The Karen Black nail-biter “Mirror Mirror” (1990) represented an early example of evil mirror melodramas.  A high school teenage girl summoned ghostly energy from a mirror to deal with obnoxious girls bullying her.  Later, the Kiefer Sutherland thriller “Mirrors” (2008) appropriated mirrors with ghostly powers.  Basically, there are three kinds of evil mirror movies.  First, the owner of the mirror calls the shots.  Second, the mirror from Hell  takes everything back to Hell.  Third, the mirror adopts other corporeal characteristics.  In other words, the mirror shape-shifts into man or beast and leaves the wall where it is hanging on to create terror.   Mind you, the malevolent mirror in “Oculus” doesn’t kill its victims by shape-shifting into something larger.  Here, we have an evil as impassive as it is impersonal.   In fact, the mirror does nothing but hang on the wall.  Gaze into this wicked mirror, and you’re not going to be the same!  The mirror exerts an eerie effect on individuals.  Everything turns into something else.  After you peer into this mirror, you find it difficult to distinguish between reality and fantasy.   Nothing in “Oculus” is what it seems!

“Absentia” director Mike Flanagan and co-scenarist Jeff Howard generate more than enough dread despite their preposterous but audacious premise.  “Oculus” contains scenes that will make the hair on the nape of your neck and forearms levitate. Unmistakably, the setting and the storyline give away the film’s modest $5 million budget.  Flanagan and Howard confine the mayhem primarily to the confines of a suburban residence with some exterior jaunts to various, peripheral locations.  More importantly, Flanagan and Howard forge sympathetic characters in the crucible of this mesmerizing melodrama who maintain our interest throughout its 105 minute running time.  The leads are attractive, and we want them to succeed in their cosmic battle between Good and Evil.  Compared with mega-budgeted horror pictures, “Oculus” appears minor in many respects.  Nothing in the form of either savage beasts or exotic creatures emerges from the mirror to eviscerate our hero and heroine.  Indeed, some abhorrent things occur, but nothing that will afflict you with nightmares.  You’ll be able to sleep with your lights off after dark. This unsettling, R-rated saga doesn’t wallow in blood and gore. Flanagan creates terror in your mind without crossing the line with gutsy, gross-out, gore moments.  Make no mistake, people are slashed and bled, but “Oculus” is neither “Alien” nor “Predator.”  Ultimately, despite its small-budget, low-wattage cast, and nominal gore effects, “Oculus” makes the grade because we care about the protagonists—two siblings--who set out to expose that infamous mirror as a mass murderer!

“Oculus” combines characteristics of haunted house movies (think “The Shining” and “The Amityville Horror”) with found footage flicks, such as “The Blair Witch Project” and the “Paranormal Activity” franchise.  Most of the action occurs in a single house where two siblings, Tim Russell (Brenton Thwaites of “Blue Lagoon: The Awakening”) and Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan of the BBC’s “Doctor Who”), grew up together and witnessed the deaths of their mother and father.  Flanagan complicates this chronicle by presenting not only a contemporary story line about the siblings as adults, but also as adolescents in an alternate flashback, so we experience what they saw in their youth.  Essentially, Tim saw his father kill his mother, Marie (Katee Sackhoff of “Riddick”) so he shot his father Alan (Rory Cochrane of “Dazed and Confused”) and killed him.  Since the incident, Tim has spent ten years in a psychiatric hospital recuperating from the nightmare.  Since he has just turned age twenty-one, Tim is released because the doctors don’t believe he constitutes a threat.  Meanwhile, Tim’s obsessive sister, Kaylie, who is two years older, has been working at an art auction house.  She picks Tim up after he is discharged, but he refuses to stay with Kaylie and her fiancé, Michael Dumont (James Lafferty of (“S. Darko”), who works with her at the auction house.  Instead, Tim prefers to chill out in a motel.  Later, Tim learns that Kaylie has obtained the opulent 400-year old mirror that once graced their father's office.  Furthermore, she has taken it back to the house where their parents died and placed it in the same room!  If this weren’t enough, Kaylie has assembled a sophisticated array of gadgetry, including video cameras, sound detection equipment, and temperature monitors.  She behaves like one of the “Ghostbusters” but with a straight face.  She is determined to prove that Evil lurks in the mirror and brought about tragic consequences not only for her family but also others, too.  In this respect, “Oculus” resembles a found footage flick.  She believes that she can expose Evil and destroy it with one striking blow.  Unfortunately, the chief problem with “Oculus” is that we never learn what prompted the antique mirror to embark on its reign of evil and what lies behind it.

The performances are good.  Karen Gillan is especially forthright in her naivety that she can defeat Evil.  Brenton Thwaites is almost as good as her cautionary little brother.  Rory Cochrane and Katee Sackhoff make a believable couple.  Incredibly enough, Annelise Basso of “The Red Road” and Garrett Ryan of “The Millers” are terrific as their adolescent counterparts. The pacing is even, but you may jump occasionally at some sudden visual revelation.  As it turns out, Flanagan expanded “Oculus” from his half-hour short film “Oculus Chapter 3: The Man with the Plan.”  “Oculus” qualifies as an above-average reflection about terror. 

FILM REVIEW OF ''NOAH'' (2014)

Visionary filmmaker Darren Aronofsky is an acquired taste.   The Brooklyn-born, Harvard University graduate makes esoteric films with a film festival-oriented sensibility, and he dabbles in subject matter and story-lines that may strike some audiences as provocative but offensive.   Most of the time, Aronofsky helms R-rated movies that are far from being family friendly.   “Black Swan” (2010), “The Wrestler” (2008), “Requiem for a Dream” (2000) and “Pi” (1998) carried R-ratings, while the MPAA gave “The Fountain” a PG-13 rating.   Despite his debatable subject matter and storylines, Aronofsky takes his movie-making efforts pretty seriously.   Indeed, Aronofsky lives up to his provocative but offensive reputation with his sixth feature-length film.   “Noah” (**1/2 OUT OF ****) should not be mistaken for a conventional Christian movie.   Writer and director Aronofsky and co-scenarist Ari Handel draw not only on the Biblical Book of Genesis: Chapters 6-9, but also the apocryphal Jewish Book of Enoch.  Mind you, Aronofsky has described “Noah” as “the least biblical film ever made.” This ambitious but uneven 138-minute Old Testament tale bristles with surprises that drastically differentiate it from most theatrical Christian films.     According to Aronofsky, he wanted to explore the Great Flood as “an environmental apocalypse,” and he classifies Noah as “the first environmentalist.”    Superficially, the “Black Swan” filmmaker’s adaptation adheres to the broad, general outlines of the Biblical saga of Noah and the Great Flood.    This Paramount Pictures release, however, constitutes the first Biblical blockbuster to incorporate supernatural elements which have been confined traditionally to either science fiction or fantasy films.  The supernatural elements in part come from the Book of Enoch, principally the fallen angels referred to as ‘the Watchers.’  

“Noah” opens with the title hero as an adolescent.  Noah’s father Lamech (Marton Csokas of “Kingdom of Heaven”) unravels a sacred snake-skin and tells Noah about it when Tubal-cain (Ray Winstone of “The Departed”) and henchmen interrupt them.  No sooner has Tubal-cain shown up than he murders Lemech without a qualm.  He smashes Lamech in the skull with a hammer.  Decades afterward, Noah (Oscar-winner Russell Crowe of “Gladiator”) has grown up.  He has a wife, Naameh (Jennifer Connelly of “Blood Diamond”), and three children, Shem, Ham and Japheth.  Noah and Naameh have kept   themselves busy raising their three sons.  They behave like hermits and shun city-living.  Since Adam and Eve have been exiled from Eden, the Earth has degenerated into a desolate, inhospitable Hell on Earth.  Indeed, “Noah” resembles “Mad Max” because everything looks sun-scorched, and everybody dresses as if they were in a leather-clad, medieval movie.  At one point, Methuselah appears as a warrior clad in full body armor with an extraordinary sword.  As vast armies of men charge headlong toward him, Methuselah hoists his sword and then plunges it in the ground.  Miraculously, when he sinks the sword into the Earth, the effect is comparable a modern-day fighter jet dumping napalm, and Methuselah incinerates the entire army!  Much later, Noah has a dream.  He finds himself underwater with thousands of corpses.  When he awakens, he has his marching orders.  He visits Methuselah, now an ancient man in a remote cave atop a huge mountain and explains that the Creator plans to destroy the world with water instead of fire.  Along the way, Noah and company come across some brutal but sad looking hulks of giants referred to as Watchers.  The Book of Enoch contains references to these Watchers.  In this instance, the Watchers are fallen angels. They are mentioned briefly in Genesis as the Nephilim. Eventually, Noah recruits the Watchers to help him construct the Ark.  For the record, it takes Noah and company ten years to construct the Ark.  The novelization of the film is more explicit about the time factor than the film. Once the villainous Tubal-cain learns about Noah’s plans, he arrives with his dirty, filthy army to take advantage of this golden opportunity.  Tubal-cain demands that Noah assure him passage aboard the ship, but our hero defies him.  When Tubal-cain makes threats, the Watchers line up ominously behind Noah to defend him.  Meantime, Noah and Naameh have taken in a poor girl left-for-dead, Ila (Emma Watson of the “Harry Potter” movies), and she becomes Shem’s playmate.  Family tensions arise between Ham (Logan Lerman of the “Percy Jackson” movies) and Noah, when Ham is not allowed to take a girl for himself from Tubal-cain’s kingdom. 

As historical Biblical films go, “Noah” is nothing like the earlier release “Son of God.”  Moreover, little in “Noah” resembles the 1966 epic “The Bible: In The Beginning” that cast John Huston as Noah, with an ark that looked more like a ship more than a rectangular wooden cargo container box.   Russell Crowe’s darkly-clad Noah qualifies as much as an action hero as a patriarchal figure who shuns meat as a part of his diet.   He can wield a knife with the best of them, and he acquits himself admirably in close-quarters combat when he clears the deck of the Ark of intruders before the rain launches the vessel.   In fact, Noah is terribly obsessed with the awesome duty that he must do for his 'Creator.'  Initially, he believes that he must preserve the wildlife for a new world even though he thinks that his own family is condemned to perish!  The performances are all above average with Ray Winstone making a thoroughly evil villain Tubal-cain.  Anthony Hopkins shows up occasionally as  Methuselah.  Jennifer Connelly makes quite an impression, too, as Noah's long-suffering wife.  For the record, nobody utters the name ‘God’ anywhere in “Noah,” and this crucial omission may be more than traditional Christians may tolerate.   In the novelization of the film, the word Creator is substituted for the name God, too.  Indeed, Aronofsky takes full advantage of poetic license in his interesting but awkward re-imagination of the Great Flood.  Throughout “Noah,” the principals entwine the snake skin that the serpent shed when it slithered into Eden, and this birthright is deployed for its magical properties.   The character of Methuselah provides Noah with a seed from the Garden of Eden that enables him to build the Ark.   Aronofsky changes several things, eliminates certain characters from Noah’s family, and allows a treacherous stowaway to slip aboard the Ark. If you are a stickler for fidelity, you aren't going to like this beautifully lensed opus. Ultimately, the supernatural creatures that will spoil it for Bible purists.  Secular audiences may enjoy “Noah” more than their spiritual counterparts for Aronofsky’s radical departure from the story and the new design of the Ark.

A FILM REVIEW OF "TROY" (2004)

"Das Boot" director Wolfgang Petersen shuns the gods in "Troy" (*** OUT OF ****) but doesn't suffer the consequences. This loose, long-winded adaptation of Homer's spear-and-sandal classic "The Iliad," about the legendary siege of the eponymous city and the hard-bodied combatants, who clashed swords, conjures up not only spectacle on a grand scale but also delivers charisma on an even grander scale. Traditionally, when we think about the Trojan War, we think about the adulterous Helen, who started it all when she cuckolded husband Menelaus and skipped Sparta with youthful Paris. After all, Helen's claim to fame rests on her comely features that reportedly launched a thousand ships. On the other hand, this revisionist, 21st century rendition spends more time admiring the abs of its heroes rather than the eyes of its anorectic heroines. Consequently, "Troy" ogles Achilles more often than Helen, and for good reason, too. Not since John Travolta buffed up for Sylvester Stallone’s abysmal "Staying Alive" (1983) has an actor so conscientiously dedicated himself to a muscular makeover.  Reportedly, Pitt spent six months building up his body.  Ironically, he pulled his Achilles tendon during the production.  Meanwhile, the producers make sure Brad bares his body early and often to display his magnificently sculptured biceps and six-pack.  This is not Brad Pitt as we are accustomed to seeing him.  He has a signature lunge as Achilles when he delivers the death blow with his sword that he repeats at intervals against his opponents that is visually striking.

 

Meanwhile, Petersen and scenarist David Benioff omits scenes of the Greek deities who would have divulged too much and ruined the suspense and tension in this mortals-only account of events.  A blond, bluffed-up Brad Pitt portrays Achilles as a pugnacious prima Donna.  He thumbs his nose at Agamemnon and lives for the moment in combat when he can attain his dream of immortality.  Compelling plotting and memorable dialogue bolsters this lengthy, but satisfying 162-minute, epic rehash of history's most celebrated ancient war. Nevertheless, despite its marathon length, skillful storytelling, and its secular, down-to-earth, reimagination of Homer, "Troy" has more going for it than the sum of its shortcomings. An impressive cast, including screen veterans Peter O'Toole and Brian Cox, Nigel Phelp's astonishing production values, the seamless integration of computer-generated effects with live action footage and several superbly staged combat sequences that have no equal in ancient actioneers offset whatever flaws in this $175-million plus, English language extravaganza.

The larger-than-life action opens in 1200 B.C.  King Agamemnon (Brian Cox of "The Glimmer Man") leads his army out to confront Triopas (Julian Glover of "For Your Eyes Only") on the field of battle. Agamemnon is an avaricious, warmongering opportunist. Triopas suggests Agamemnon and he avoid needless bloodshed by pitting the best of their best against each other.  This amusing prologue shows the womanizing Achilles as the greatest warrior of his day, a "Rambo" of antiquity, who can whip any adversary.  In his first, on-screen scrap, Achilles takes down an imposing Goliath-like opponent who makes our protagonist appear puny by comparison.  Size counts for little, because the smaller Achilles displays his agility in slaying his adversary with a single blow!  "Perfect Storm" director Petersen choreographs the action sequences with considerable flair and imagination, thanks in part to veteran James Bond stuntman Simon Crane.

The hand-to-hand combat appears not only believable, but also the actors wield their swords, shields, and spears with credible ferocity.  Later battles qualify as more than just aimless mob warfare with splendidly clad extras roughhousing it with their counterparts. Watch the way Achilles and his mercenaries cover themselves with their shields to repulse wave after wave of arrows.  The participants wield their armor with as much savvy as their swords and spears.  Meantime, the dialogue scenes that intersperse the gritty action are just as memorable. The theme of immortality pervades this fine example of an ancient world epic.  Ultimately, anytime Hollywood handles ancient history, the dialogue possesses an ersatz quality, but the lines here are insightful.

Indeed, Homer’s classic “The Illiad” inspired this illicit romance that prompted this war. Anybody who survived the 1960s should remember the classic Greek sagas such as "Jason and the Argonauts" (1963) and "Clash of the Titans" (1981). Every action on Earth generated corresponding action in the realm of the gods with Zeus lording it over his supernatural peers. "Troy" ignores the gods but doesn’t rank as a lesser effort for this neglect, though one can imagine how many more millions of dollars and minutes of time inclusion of the gods might have required. Generally, scenes with the gods serve to clarify terrestrial conflicts and clue us in on what we might have missed on Earth.

One of the shortcomings lies in the source material and its lack of explanation.  For example, audiences not familiar with Trojan mythology might have a difficult time understanding why an arrow through Achilles' ankle would prove so fatal. Petersen and Benioff scale down the action to mortals-only, and "Troy" looks as close to what could have happened if it happened. The beachhead landing (lensed in Mexico) emerges as the ancient equivalent of the sixth of June, D-Day landings in Normandy in World War II, with an armada of oar-driven ships crowding the sea from horizon to horizon.  You finally get to see the famous Trojan horse in the final 45 minutes.  Ace lenser Roger Pratt gives "Troy" a big-screen magnitude with his awesome long shots of virtually anything beyond arm's reach. When the opposing armies march against each other on the level lands in front of Troy, the spectacle is breathtaking in its scale.

Although Petersen and Benioff have tampered with the venerable plot, the action is worth-watching from fade-in to fade-out.  Achilles emerges as more of a villain, but Hector (Eric Bana of "Hulk") looks like a wrongly slain hero. Paris and Helen emerge as the least effectual lovers in a long time.  Naturally,  Orlando Bloom wields a bow and arrow.  Altogether, "Troy" ranks as a joy to watch!