Captain America: The Winter Soldier ****
Captain America: The Winter Soldier may not be the perfect Marvel movie, but it is the best of this year's crop, and possibly the best solo Marvel superhero (non-team) movie so far.

Why? Because Captain America: The Winter Soldier has learned what all superhero films should learn - that the superhero doesn't make the movie, it should first be a good story - science fiction, mystery, thriller, whatever - and then the superhero should be placed in that story. Too often superhero movies are simply 'origin' stories for the superhero and they fight a supervillain - the end. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is actually a thriller, specifically, a spy thriller (ala James Bond), where the protagonist happens to be Captain America. That's the difference, and what a difference it makes.

Could it be better? Yes, there's still a lot of room for improvement here. Robert Redford appears as a member of a covert organization (SHIELD) that is compromised from within (hmmm... where have we seen this before *cough* Three Days of the Condor... *cough* Spy Game), and from the get-go, you just know he's going to turn out to be the bad guy, but O.K.

Also the 'comic book physics' get pushed a little too far at times. Captain America should be able to do superhuman things to a point, but he really isn't Superman, just an augmented human. Not only are some of the things a little too physics defying, but by making him such an uber-badass all the time it tends to paint him into a corner. For example, at one point he surrenders when he's surrounded by a group of armed men pointing guns at him. That makes sense. But what doesn't make sense is why he's surrendering to a group of armed men pointing guns at him this time, when all throughout the film he's taken on groups of them, including an aircraft shooting at him - with him just dodging the bullets, and now suddenly he thinks he can't do it again, despite having done it just an hour ago?

But those things can be overlooked given the smooth forward momentum of the entire story. Large parts for Nick Fury, Black Widow, and Falcon also really enhance the feeling that is a story about a world of super spies (Hell, even Batroc 'zee leeper' makes an appearance as a terrorist), and not just a Captain America saves the world type 'superhero' film.

That does mean sacrificing a little of the patriotic American-centric nature of the character (hey, you knew they were going to do that anyway, given the reliance of the studio on foreign market success), but at least it does include some commentary on the state of the U.S., with a subtext hinting at the NSA bulk data collection, and the controversial drone program downplayed but evident.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier has raised the bar a little for superhero movies going forward, let's see if its successors are up to the challenge.

The Wicker Man (2006) **
(and also ****)
I've given this film both a two star rating (and that's being generous) for overall quality, and also four stars for kitschy fun, because this attempt at remaking the 1973 cult classic of the same name goes so badly off-track that it becomes one of the most unintentionally hilarious bad films of the past decade.

Hollywood remakes in general tend to go poorly, especially remakes of classics, but there are so many missteps here it boggles the mind. The original was an English film and contrasted a believable stiff-upper-lip modern Brit encountering a pagan cult still practicing ancient Celtic rites in the remote islands off the coast of Scotland. As such, it was completely believable. This version however decided to relocate the cult to the U.S. of course, which automatically stretches the credibility. But not somewhere in, say, New England, oh no, it was set in the islands of the Pacific Northwest, a place Hollywood loves to shoot for budgetary reasons.

But taking the ancient Celtic cult about as far away from the British Isles as possible in the U.S., save maybe Alaska, was just the beginning. The lead role was given to none other than Nic Cage, whose (ahem) limited acting range have helped make bombs out of a lot of other genre pictures. Here Cage does not disappoint, turning in a performance so wooden that you might think the title refers to his character.

Cage plays police officer Edward Malus, who goes to the island to investigate the disappearance of a girl who looks identical to a girl who he failed to save in a car crash a few months earlier. Despite near constant flashbacks, to that scene, it's never explained, with even such details as who was driving either vehicle left completely unresolved.

These annoying, persistent flashbacks aren't the only intrusive and unexplained scenes though. Soon Malus starts having flashbacks to things that never actually happened in what is obviously a desperate attempt by the filmmakers to inject some sort of visual shock value into the otherwise lifeless film. In one particularly funny sequence, Malus rescues a drowned girl only to flashback to not having rescued the drowned girl, before flashing back to having rescued the drowned girl, before showing in the present that he hasn't in fact rescued anyone - all through a series of jump cuts. Despite this and other attempts at shock value, this PG-13 film is actually tamer, with nothing to rival the pagan debauchery of its predecessor of more than 30 years!

Eventually Malus actually has to don a bear costume (that is funnier than the 'pagan' outfits Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks wear in the comedy remake of Dragnet) in order to infiltrate one of the cult's sacred rites.

There's so much more I could go into, but I'm going to leave it at that and say grab some beers and some buds and check this out (the theatrical version is preferred over the 'unrated' version for maximum lulz), you will be rolling on the floor with laughter before the first ten minutes are up!

The Artist *****

It's kind of ironic that a tale of the Golden Age of Hollywood like this could only be made outside of Hollywood today - by the French no less.

But it kind of makes sense, when you think about it. It's a day and age where Hollywood is only interested in producing enormous budget tent pole films; and Hollywood doesn't seem to have a lot of respect for its own history, judging by all the sequels and reboots that care more about CGI than story.

The French however have a long history of appreciation for the art form of cinema (they can after all make a strong case for having originated the medium). And that appreciation shines through in spades in the film The Artist.

The Artist tells the story of two actors, one seasoned leading man 'George Valentin', and the other rising starlet 'Peppy Miller', in the early days of motion pictures. The two have a rocky romance complicated by the fact that the man's career is thrown into a tailspin with the advent of 'talkies' just as the woman's begins blossoming. No doubt inspired by similar events in the lives of real stars of the silver screen.

But, The Artist, does more than tell a story set in that time period, it actually adopts the style of the period, being entirely black and white and with musical accompaniment replacing dialogue. More than that, though, the film actually emulates the storytelling form of the period, there is a human-ness in Jean Dujardin's George Valentin that is reminiscent of the kind of character Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton might play, a good-natured fellow buffeted by fate.

The Artist is one of the best films about the Golden Age of film ever produced, and is highly recommended.

The Cider House Rules - ***1/2

The Cider House Rules got a lot of attention, both positive and negative. But in order to fully evaluate the film we have to first eliminate the two most extreme groups who praise or deride the film.

Every artist has a legion of fans who extol the virtues of everything related to said artist, regardless of the actual quality. Such is the case with novelist John Irving, who also wrote the screenplay, and whose fans overwhelmingly embrace the film as a masterpiece.

On the other end of the spectrum lie the radical detractors, mostly pro-life advocates who believe the film endorses a pro-abortion position, though that point is highly debatable.

Once these two groups have been discounted, audiences are still divided, and rightly so. The film is in fact a touching coming-of-age story set in wartime New England. But it is also true that the film is contrived, melodramatic and highly overrated.

Ultimately, The Cider House Rules is a good, though not outstanding film where plot and theme take a backseat to romance and sentimentality. If you think that sounds like something you'd like, you're probably right. If on the other hand you think that sounds too sappy for you, you're also probably right.

The Deep End ***

Let's get one thing straight right off the bat, 'The Deep End' is a thoroughly average thriller of the sort you've seen dozens of times: person A gets killed; person B may or may not have done it; person C blackmails person B. In fact I would have totally skipped this movie entirely if it wasn't for a curious thing I noticed, namely average movie goers generally didn't particularly like the film very much, yet critics were generally pretty positive. That disparity interested me, and so I gave it a watch.

The most obvious reason for the praise is the presence of film critic darling Tilda Swinton, who in fact was nominated for a Golden Globe for this film, and it's easy to see why - she definitely carries the film as the blackmail victim. Any average actress in that role and I probably would dock it at least half a star. But there are also a few small things that distinguish this thriller from the rest of the pack - not by much, they are small things after all, but nevertheless worth noting.

First is the art direction. The whole film is blue. I mean very blue. The lighting is blue. The sets are blue. Everyone dresses in blue, and most of the props are blue. It's a little like a Picasso painting from his blue period. As you might expect, there are some notable exceptions, custom chosen to stand out against all this blue. One is the blackmailer's car, a bright red Chevy Nova, and the other is a bright red coat worn by Swinton. What exactly the filmmakers were trying to communicate through these motifs I'll leave it up to you to decide, however the film at least deserves some credit for it's aesthetic sensibilities.

The other thing that's noteworthy, and probably what makes the film see much more average than it probably did at the time, is that the whole blackmail scheme revolves around exposing Swinton's son not only as a potential murder suspect, but also as being gay. It's pretty clear that in the days of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' that would've packed a greater punch. But it's almost hard to see this movie even being made nowadays - the murder/blackmail scheme may be timeless, but the closeted homosexual twist really isn't much of a twist. And given that most audiences saw this on video (it only did modest box office), chances are this too accounts for some of the disparity in ranking.

I can't complain; predictable though it sometimes is, the dramatic talents of not only Swinton, but the supporting cast as well, make for entertaining viewing.

10 Things; 15 Years Later ***1/2

One of the trends during the 1990s was movie studios making films based on the classics, especially Shakespeare (possibly because they'd run out of reliable new material). Bringing films like Clueless, Emma, Romeo + Juliet and others to a new generation of teens, who may or may not be familiar with the source material. And just to broaden the appeal, most were heavily retro-80s in style - perhaps an attempt to keep the John Hughes teen-machine running after that bankable director's retirement from filmmaking.

One of the most memorable of this crop of hybrid1980s-meets-pre-20th Century Literature was 10 Things I Hate About You, an adaptation of The Bard's The Taming of the Shrew, starring two hot up-and-coming actors, Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger.

It's now 15 years later, Stiles has settled into a comfortable if less stellar than anticipated career as a working actress, Ledger rocketed to stardom and then self-destructed a half dozen years ago, and the 80s are now a solid quarter century behind us. So how does the film hold up? Pretty good actually. Surprising for a fluffy romantic comedy aimed squarely at a teen audience. Thank the material, the filmmakers, the talent, whatever, but what should have been a disposable, trendy, adolescent confection still manages to charm, despite the obvious contrived nature of getting a story based on medieval marriage customs to work in a modern context.

Stiles and Ledger are both playing the stand-offish cool kid here - which is a nice twist from the one heart-on-their-sleeve, one hard-to-get matchmaking these films usually have. The film plays it's humor cards in a light-breezy way, never trying to beat you over the head with the jokes, and the music, mostly by third wave ska and pop bands covering 70s and 80s songs (another 90s trend), is infectiously fun.

10 Things I Hate About You may not be the high art people think of when they think of Shakespeare, but it is greatly entertaining, and remember that really was old Bill's intentions after all.

Four Lions  ***1/2

Needing neither big budget production values, art direction or set pieces, nor requiring expensive gear to produce, the mockumentary has seen explosive proliferation recently as the gateway to entry for beginning filmmakers. Fortunately, as long as one has good writing and onscreen talent, it's very hard not to make a mockumentary that's will be seen as at least passably good by those who enjoy the genre.

One of the more amusing ones in recent years was Four Lions. The film depicts the misadventures of four incompetent Islamic jihadists. Imagine This is Spinal Tap except the story follows terrorists rather than a heavy metal band, and you have a pretty good idea of what the movie is like. While the film is never quite as funny as This is Spinal Tap (really, what is?), when it hits the mark, it really hits the mark. Minor spoiler: the terrorists plan to bomb a marathon prefigured the actual Boston Marathon bombing by a few years! It is a tad dated (it was made at a time when Osama Bin Laden was still at large), but worth a look if you can appreciate good dead-pan black humor.