The greatest compliment and easiest assessment is that Winter Soldier is a much better movie than the first Captain America. A much more interesting plot and the feeling that everything isn’t going to be Okay just because Cap is around. There are serious, world changing events going on (for regular citizens and those sworn to protect them).

First and foremost, Chris Evans is much more comfortable wearing Captain America’s boots. Much like how Robert Downey Jr. is synonymous with Tony Stark, Evens is Steve Rogers. Well written dialog between characters (if rather blunt and in your face at times) develops a tangible bond between the good guys and makes their struggle seem more believable. I really like the idea of HYDRA having it’s tentacles wrapped around seemingly everything come to light and what it takes to really stop them. It parallels todays corruption and unease going on today, but frames it in comic book trappings.

HYDRA is evil and devious, going to crazy over the top feats to mold the world in a way they see fit. There’s some great action scenes from start to finish which range from infiltration missions, cat and mouse chases on foot and in vehicles, some surprisingly great hand to hand fighting (even if some of it is way too shaky and disorienting) topped off with screen filling explosions and destruction. Captain America’s super abilities let him do some really interesting and creative stuff action wise. With great speed and strength he’s got that cool superhuman “crash through stuff” navigation, he can take a serious beating and still get up which let’s him get away with more fantastic stuff (huge falls, general punishment) and his shield work is something no one else really does. There’s some really cool offensive and defensive weapon work in each fight he uses it in. Since he can’t shoot energy around and really doesn’t rely on guns much, they exploit his hand to hand strength to great affect (tip of the hat to the sound guys for really selling the hits). Plus, the characters supporting CA are really great too. Everyone else is just a human, but really good at what they do so they are able to smartly back him up. Captain America may be running point, but he wouldn’t be nearly as effective without the team he trusts.

I think I like The Winter Soldier so much because it’s a great division of Good vs Evil. The good guys are fun to be around and easy to root for. The bad guys are really bad and offer a real challenge to over come. The Winter Soldier is a great foil from Steve Roger’s past and an equal match in terms of strength and ability. The string pullers of HYDRA are real dirty suits and give a different level of challenge to over come (Black Widow really gets to shine and Nick Fury gets to be much more than a guy barking orders). I really appreciated seeing the regular people, the ones who are just cogs in the wheel of the machine stand up for themselves when evil shows it’s face. They didn’t need to be convinced or otherwise cajoled to put their foot down and try and stop awful things from happening right in front of them.

This is probably my favorite Marvel movie so far, even if it runs a bit long. They drop seeds to continue the universe all over the place and the entire cast gets to shine. This production team manage to successfully balance a lot of spinning plates, it’s some impressive stuff. There’s a few more comic book movies this year, let’s hope the quality is the same!

Awesome movie. The story of Captain Richard Phillips and his crew of the MV Maersk Alabama, a huge cargo ship that got hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009.

Tom Hanks plays Captain Phillips, so you know what kind of performance you can expect (the end is truly breathtaking stuff). He plays against Muse (new comer Barkhad Abdi who plays his part just as well as Hanks) who is the leader of the hijacking. The event plays through an intense few days and knowing too much will dull the sense of emergency and suspense on your first watch. It’s a well paced 2 hour experience that’ll leave you tingling.

With Paul Greengrass directing a movie on the ocean I was concerned Captain Phillips would be a free-for-all camera pitch and roll fest. He reeled it in though and comes through with what I think might be his best work to date.

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters! Not the Perron family, they have a demon infestation (ghosts are apparently a different kind of annoyance). The Conjuring is the latest haunting (with a dash of possession) film that has scared the pants off of a whole lot of people (huge opening weekend, almost 140 million domestic total).

It seems like most of these movies are based on “true events” which is always a good hook to have in promotion. This one is from the files of Ed and Lorraine Warren who are authorities on contact from the other side. Through the late 60’s and into the 70’s they made dozens of trips to investigate paranormal activity (even a full blown possession before this case apparently). The Warren’s are contacted by the Perron family who have just moved into a farm house and there is some really shady stuff going on. As soon as the Warren’s enter the home, they know that this isn’t a hoax or the family hearing things that can be explained away. There is a evil presence that has attached itself to the Perron’s and won’t let go of them easily.

It’s an effective horror movie. The easiest comparison is to the Paranormal Activity franchise, but this isn’t a found footage movie. This follows the more tried and true cinema take and evens mimics the 70’s style film aesthetic to match the time period of the movie. The Conjuring relies on a lot of jump scares/orchestra hits, but there is a heavy sense of foreboding and dread as soon as the boarded up basement is found in the house. The cast is great, the story of the house is a neat one and the haunting set pieces work up well. Misdirection, stuff in the shadows, physical manifestations, right up to ‘drag em around by the hair’ and demonic possession.

Director James Wan has made his bones in the horror genre (Saw, Insidious) and I like his work here. Interesting shots and production design with solid FX work. He knows how to set a scene and follow through. But there’s so much competition in this genre now that they all step on each others toes. The ‘hair dragging’ bit has been done to death, it’s hard to show something new. While I did like the movie, you can’t ignore how it checks every box down the haunted house list which makes it feel redundant. Speaking of showing, The Conjuring avoids almost any gore. Some scratches, bruises, a bit of ‘evil vomit’ and a bite wound are the extent of it.

The end was a real cop out too. It seemed too easy and simple. The movie is a huge build up until the last 10 minutes and then it’s suddenly over. For a demonic entity with a real mission, it sure gave up without much of a fight. It was almost like it knew it was on 100th page of the script and it was time to wrap it up quick. An otherwise strong horror movie left me disappointed at the end. You don’t want that to be your audiences’ last feeling.