Captain America: The First Avenger

Another superhero movie, coincidence? I think so.

Captain America is the story of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) an American in the 40's whose ailments prevents him from joining the army and defending his country. A scientist (Stanley Tucci) sees potential in the scrawny idealist and helps him to enlist in a secret program that turns him into a superhero. Also starring Tommy Lee Jones, Dominic Cooper, and Agent Smith from The Matrix. If you've been reading my blog at all then I won't have to say how much I enjoyed the fact that this movie takes place during World War II, but I will anyways. I do enjoy period pieces. Countries tried some crazy shit in the hopes of gaining the upper hand in WWII (Hiroshima, anyone?) and genetic mutation to create super-humans isn't really that far-fetched (using some magic power-of-the-gods stuff to achieve that though, maybe (but I wouldn't put it past the Nazis)). So the moral of the story is that I liked the basis for the plot and setting.

I also liked Chris Evans as Captain America. I found Ryan Reynolds to be distractingly good-looking in Green Lantern, and Evans seemed to be just the right amount of good-looking. He has this all-American quality to him, which is probably appropriate considering the movie. This movie also used some super technology to make Evans look really scrawny for the first bit, and it was so believable that it makes his character really likeable throughout, Captain America is truly a decent guy, even with a six-pack. I really liked Tommy Lee Jones, even though his character is pretty generic, he has that balance of hard-ass and softie that plays well for military characters. Stanly Tucci does a quality German accent and adds a bit of depth to all his roles, regardless of how small. Dominic Cooper (Sky from Mamma Mia) could have been played by anyone but I like the tie-in to Iron Man (he plays Tony Stark's father). Hayley Atwell played the love interest, they never explained why she was British (unless I missed it) and it bothered me how she didn't wear a helmet in combat (presumably because it would mess up her hair and be unlady-like) but her character was likeable enough.

This brings us now to the villain - Schmidt/Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving. I just didn't find him very scary or intimidating, and the fact that the serum turned his face red was kind of random. I don't know if the writers were hoping that a Nazi as a villain would be enough, because Nazi's are the worst kind of people, and that should speak for itself? I also had issue with Captain America's costume/uniform (I can't think of the word), it's kind of dirty and boring. And other than being stronger and faster than he was before (and brave to begin with) what, exactly, are his super-powers? It seems like a lot of his awesomeness comes from that shield, and well, that's just a shield. The ending was also kind of a let-down, clearly it's setting up for The Avengers movie, which is all well and fine, but darn it, he had a date with Peggy for next week, and what ever happened to that?!

All in all though, I did enjoy this movie. The casting was great, skinny Chris Evans was cool, and the retro 40's thing was appealing. I also thought it was really neat how they used actual recruitment/propaganda posters during the ending credits - clever and visually stimulating. I rate this movie better than Green Lantern, but not as good as X-Men: First Class.

Bad Teacher

I assumed this movie was going to piss me off. I am a qualified teacher with no teaching job, and there are thousands of us, and I figured that a movie about a person not appreciating having a coveted teaching job would make me mad. It actually didn't though. Cameron Diaz's character was so ridiculous that the whole thing was pretty unbelievable. It was also, however, entertaining. Bad Teacher has no moral and Diaz's character has little redeeming qualities, even at the end. Her character is just plain mean and barely likable. It's always interesting to see Justin Timberlake act, but he doesn't add much, and the random hook-up between Diaz and Jason Segel at the end is exactly that - random. What propels this movie is the sheer outrageousness of how Diaz's character acts, you kind of root for her to get caught, and I was actually happy when Ms. Squirrel gets JT. Bad Teacher is not necessarily a bad movie, like I said before, it's entertaining, but School of Rock did this genre waaay better.

Lars and the Real Girl

Starring Ryan Gosling and Patricia Clarkson, Lars (Gosling) has trouble connecting with people, he lives alone and avoids his brother and sister-in-law as much as he can. He finds the girl of his dreams in a life-sized doll named Bianca that he ordered off the internet. This movie definitely reminded me of The Beaver, that I reviewed previously. Both involved men struggling with mental illness and use an inanimate object to deal with their lack of connecting with the world.

Lars and the Real Girl is a sweet and oftentimes funny movie. Ryan Gosling is perfect as Lars, he is subtle and likable and makes this movie honest instead of a farce. The supporting cast is all what they need to be as well, the quirky and patient coworker, the struggling brother, the kind and compassionate sister-in-law. But what really makes this movie way more than about a man who falls in love with a sex doll, is the community. Lars' family fears that everyone is going to make fun of Lars (and them too), but instead (after initial hesitation) they embrace the positive change that Bianca is making in Lars' life. I found myself often wondering how I would act if faced with a similar situation, which can speak to how relatable this seemingly outrageous storyline is.

I enjoyed this film, I liked how patient it was in developing the relationship between Lars and Bianca, and between Lars and pretty much everyone else. I liked the message, I liked the subject matter. I do wish that we would have been privy to more of Lars' thought process when he decided to order the doll. Many things are not said in the movie, you have to infer often, and gather the moral for yourself, which is part of the subtly that I liked, but there were some parts where I would have liked more.

Green Lantern

This movie was strange. Maybe, like I am Number 4, I did not expect it to be so science fictiony. The last two superhero movies I've watched, if I can remember correctly, was X-Men and The Green Hornet. In both of these movies, the superheros are human, and everything takes place on Earth. Well, Green Lantern has a huge inter-galactic back story that I wasn't really expecting and I had a hard time buying into it. I don't expect the movie to be believable, but most of this one felt like a cartoon, and I had some The Mask flashbacks with all the green.

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, and Tim Robbins, Green Lantern is about a team of green superheroes trying to save the galaxy from a fear-thriving rogue alien. A green ring chooses Reynolds to be one of the Green Lantern, and Lively is the love interest. There's no denying that Reynolds is a good-looking guy, but there's just something about his face that seems hyperbolic, and is hard for me to take seriously as a superhero. Blake played one of the girls in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and I've liked her ever since, she is a beautiful girl with an interesting voice. Peter Skarsgaard plays Hector, the disappointment of a son to Tim Robbin's Senator character. Hector could have been an interesting character, but the way things play out, he ends up being kind of pointless.

There are definitely some plot holes and this movie asks you to suspend belief in reality, but it isn't a bad movie, just strange.