Captain America: The First Avenger ****

Captain America: The First Avenger Directed by Joe Johnson (2011)

 Captain America: The First Avenger is a good movie because it it made for nerdy comic book guys who want a story that is true to the comic, has good action, and most of all is great looking. Chris Evans (The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movie) plays Steve Rogers, a guy so scrawny that the army rejects him five times when he tries to enlist to fight against Hitler’s Nazis. But Rogers has will and most of all guts, and is finally accepted in a special program that gives him a total extreme makeover and turns him into Captain America. There of course is a love story, but the screenwriters kept the romance to a minimum and most of the story revolves around Captain America fighting his arch-nemesis, and one of my favorite comic book villains of all time, The Red Skull (played by Hugo Weaving from The Matrix and Lord of the Rings).

Horrible Bosses ***

Horrible Bosses Directed by Seth Gordon (2011)

Horrible Bosses is one of those films that suffers due to its trailer. After seeing the first commercial I thought that it seemed like a ridiculous movie in which all the funny parts were used up in the few scenes shown, and they weren’t that funny. But I am a huge Jason Bateman fan, even though he doesn’t always wind up in the best films, he is always a solid, and Charlie Day, who plays Charlie in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is one of the funniest people alive. So when we were looking for a film to see the other night and nothing else was playing that looked any good we decided that Horrible Bosses would give us at least a few chuckles.

The Tree of Life *****

The Tree of Life Directed by Terrence Malick (2011)

Terrence Malick has been working on his fifth feature film for what seems like forever but to me it was worth it. While the film could come across as pretentious, religious garbage, I found it to equal, if not surpass his previous works (The Thin Red Line, The New World, Badlands, and Days of Heaven). The story is centered on Brad Pitt as the patriarch of a Texan family in the 1950s. For the most part we get short snippets of the families everyday life, seen as memories coming from the oldest boy, now all grown up, played by Sean Penn. In between these memories and scenes of Sean Penn still coping with the death of his younger brother, we get to witness the creation of Earth, including storms, underwater shots, volcanoes, and even a couple of dinosaurs. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 *****

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 Directed by David Yates (2011)

 Now this is the right way to end a franchise. Not only did this give me, as a Harry Potter fan, a satisfying ending to an up and down series, but it was actually a very good film on its own. We get a lot more action and adventure in this installment, which came as a relief after the somewhat boring part one. The final Hogwarts battle scene was quite impressive and, even though I had read the book and new everything that was going to happen, it still had me on the edge of my seat.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I ***

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I Directed by David Yates (2010)

 While I am not the biggest Harry Potter fan in the world (I left my wand at home when I went to the films), I did read and adore the entire book series and have seen each installment of the film series as well. While my reviews have been mixed on the films I did enjoy all of them and was anticipating the final films based on the seventh novel, which I also thought was the best. And director David Yates had done some interesting things with the previous two films so I knew I would at least get my moneys worth. I did not get to see this film in theaters, only catching up with it on DVD right before Part II was released. 

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives ****

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives  Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (2010)

While all of Weerasethakul’s films have so much going on, most of which I have little idea what they mean, it is the visuals that make films such as Blissfully Yours, Tropical Malady, and Syndromes and a Century breathtaking experiences. His films are often so beautiful that I find myself missing stretches of dialog. The lush green of Thailand is as much of a character in many of these films as any people, or in the case of Uncle Boonmee a fish.