Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review

I saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 8, 2014!! I am not a big fan of The Avengers, but I always see the superhero movies that studios put out. I'll be honest: I'm more of a DC guy, but when it comes to Marvel I love X-Men, which I also look forward to seeing at the end of May. Captain America is great, because he actually comes across as a hero in my eyes in terms of how he conducts himself, and what he stands for.  Many of the other Avengers like Thor are portrayed as heroes, yet I find him to be really pompous and always root against him. I'm a Loki fan-much more intricate character, which is probably why the second Thor movie was more enjoyable for me than the first one. It really showed that Thor has an antagonistic personality, and made Loki more sympathetic, while still maintaining that cerebral part of his personality.  I just wanted to make that point. In Captain America: Winter Soldier, they successfully combined the events of the first movie with the events in this one. There was really good connection between the past and the present. I liked that Hydra ultimately becomes a first class antagonistic organization-very planned strategies. It's great when comics and movies portray intelligent villains. Chris Evans does an excellent job as Steve Rogers. I thought that Scarlett Johansson was very good as Black Widow. I really just want them to make a stand alone Black Widow movie, as I find her character to be fascinating. Unlike Rogers who is a super soldier, she's a mortal woman just going out there kicking ass and looking good doing it. This is a great look at being wary of who you can trust. We find out SHIELD is compromised. The movie really does a great job of creating different twists that kept the movie flowing. I predicted who was behind the whole hostile take-over as soon as they introduced the character, but it was still very well done. Samuel L. Jackson was at his best as Nick Fury in this. Sebastian Stan did an excellent job as the Winter Soldier. Anthony Mackie looks a lot like the Falcon should look from the comics, and his friendship with Rogers looked natural on screen. This movie had some of the best action sequences in comic book movies. I think the scene where Nick Fury is attacked on the street is one of the best scenes you'll find. The sequences are fast and exciting. Every character from Captain America & Black Widow to Alexander Pierce (played brilliantly by Robert Redford) & Maria Hill (played by the awesome Cobie Smulders) had a chance to shine. Everybody had a purpose, while the story was very intricate combining the threat of Hydra in the past with the present day hostile take-over of SHIELD. This movie was very well done. I know everybody thinks the Avengers was the best movie ever (I don't at all), but I would say Iron Man 1 & Captain America: Winter Soldier were the two best individual Avengers movies, while my favorite Marvel movie is X-Men: First Class. The deeper look at the main characters, the strong usage of the supporting characters, the intricate detailed plot filled with double turns bridging the past & present, and the excellent action sequences make this a truly special comic book movie. There's also some great twists in SHIELD headquarters during the final battle sequences that were handled so perfectly. I'll give it a 4/5, as I do most comic book movies with the exception of The Dark Knight and X-Men First Class which both earned 5/5 from me. Also, stay after the credits for the extra scene which helps set up Avengers: Age of Ultron (which should be 1,000 times better than the first one hopefully) really well. I'll just say we got a great look at two characters that will have a tremendous impact on that movie. One of my all time favorite Marvel characters (Black Widow actress first name & Hermione Granger are your hints) was one of them. They handled that pretty well. I was very impressed with Captain America; Winter Soldier. It's been a while since I could say I really liked a Marvel movie before this.

The Grand Budapest Hotel Review

Dad and I saw The Grand Budapest Hotel on April 4, 2014!! I've always been a fan of Wes Anderson's work, because he's always walked a fine line between genius and ridiculous. This honestly could be his finest project. I was into the movie the entire time. There was never a point where I thought anything dragged.  The cast was top notch, and may be one of the best ensemble casts you will find in a movie. The story of Gustave H. was interesting. I thought Ralph Fiennes was magnificent in this role. I've always been a big fan of Fiennes throughout the years-very good actor. He was on top of his game here. He perfectly balanced eccentric nature with distinguished gentleman very well. Following his and Zero Mustafa's journey to right certain wrongs by solving a big mystery made for a truly entertaining movie. While there were different story arcs for each character, these arcs all converged into the central plot of the movie. There were so many mememorable scenes, as well as great dialogue throughout. I also want to point out that I usually am not a fan of Adrien Brody's work, but he was really entertaining here. He basically served as a chief antagonist here, while Willem Dafoe was perfect as a creepy assassin. The chief plot revolves around paintings, wills, hotels, bakeries, and the larger than life character of Gustave H., and the men and women he came in contact with. It's a brilliant movie in so many ways-the performances, the amazing usage of color, the insanity of certain scenes that work really well, and the different cameos made for one great movie experience. Some of the cameos included F. Murray Abraham (who looked shockingly like Abraham Lincoln here-not kidding at all), Edward Norton (he was great as a scout master in Moonrise Kingdom as well), Bill Murray, and Harvey Keitel. It was really great seeing Saoirse Ronan as Abigail (actually perfectly cast in this role based on her work in Hanna and The Host). I think the other actor besides Fiennes and Brody that really stole the show was Tony Revolori as Zero. He and Fiennes had such incredible, natural chemistry. Their dialogue scenes were really well done, and their zany adventures were so much fun to follow. I really enjoyed his last movie Moonrise Kingdom a great deal, but Grand Budapest Hotel was excellent. I really can't wait to add this to my DVD collection. There are so many memorable moments, characters, and dialogue, and the cast was able to adapt to the roles really well. All of this combined with the attention to small details as well as the elaborate story passed to different generations certainly warranted a 5/5 for me. This is such a fun movie to watch. I'd highly recommend seeing this as it's a perfect example of why I still enjoy going to the movies. Among all the one dimensional action movies, comic book movies, etc. there are still some that portray artistic merit, and Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel does that in multiple ways.