AVENGERS: ENDGAME

For years the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been teasing the awesome power of the Infinity Stones, the Infinity Gauntlet, and the mad titan Thanos' mission to wipe out half the life in the universe -- and seeing that happen in Avengers: Infinity War.  So what happens next?  The conclusion of this saga in the epic Avengers: Endgame.

Following the events of the last movie, the remaining Avengers quickly track down Thanos (Josh Brolin), only to discover that he's destroyed the Infinity Stones.  We then jump ahead five years.  Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is providing counseling to those who remain, while the Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) is locked away trying to find a way to reverse Thanos' deed.  The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) has found a way to merge Bruce Banner's mind with his green-skinned ego, while Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has let himself go.  Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) has started a family with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), while Hawkeye/Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) lost his whole family and takes his anger out by killing criminals.  Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) is working with just about everyone.  And Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) is helping other planets deal with the same thing that happened on Earth.

Then Ant-Man/Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) shows up.  He's been trapped in the quantum realm -- but while five years passed for the rest of the world, for him it's been five hours.  Time works differently there, so he and the Avengers make a plan: Use the realm to go back in time, get the Infinity Stones before they were destroyed, and reverse Thanos' mass genocide.  But they only have enough Pym particles for one trip to the past and back -- and tampering with time has unforseen consequences...

There's a lot Endgame tackles -- and it does it very well for the most part.  We get to see new sides of characters we've known for decades, and the time travel element allows us to go back to many of the earlier movies, from revisiting characters who've died to characters running into their past selves.  There's plenty of humor spread throughout the movie, but it doesn't diminish the high stakes of saving half the life in the universe.  And yes, there's an epic battle, final deaths, and saying goodbye to staples of the MCU.

While Avengers: Endgame isn't perfect -- there are at least two paradoxes that go unexplained -- it is a very satisfying wrap-up to the storylines of the MCU.  I can certainly understand why the audience cheered during the movie.  This movie is exciting, nostalgic, and very satisfying.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

ROUGH NIGHT

Quite a few years ago, there were a few dark comedies about men at a bachelor party dealing with the death of the stripper they hired.  I suppose it's gender equality that the formula is being reversed in Rough Night, where the women have to deal with this problem.

About a decade ago, Jess (Scarlett Johansson), Alice (Jillian Bell), Blair (Zoe Kravitz), and Frankie (Ilana Glazer) were sorority sisters and best friends in college.  In the present, Jess is dragged away from her political campaign and fiancee Peter (Paul W. Downs) for a bachelor party at a glass-walled house in Miami Beach, thrown by the other three friends -- and Pippa (Kate McKinnon), Jess' friend from Australia whos presence causes tremendous jealousy from Alice, who sees herself as Jess' best friend.

The women party it up -- drinking, clubbing, even doing coke -- and they hire a male stripper for Jess.  He gets a bit rough with Jess, and when Alice tries to jump him she accidentally kills him.  Worse, they look very guilty -- they have cocaine, they moved the body to a sex swing to keep it from being seen -- so they decide to get rid of the body.  This involves everything from driving the body through town in a tiny car to dealing with the creepy swingers (Demi Moore, Ty Burrell) next door.  Meanwhile, Peter is freaking out because he can't get in touch with Jess, so he winds up in his own misadventures when driving down to win her back.  And, of course, another male stripper turns up, and folks come looking for the dead stripper...

Rough Night is a pretty basic crude comedy.  There's lot of raunchy humor, from the near-continual profanity, to visual jokes (like the corpse being "disguised" by wearing sunglasses with a penis nose).  The cast is good, with Jillian Bell standing out as the seemingly wholesome teacher who's hornier and raunchier than all the other women.  Unfortunately, this movie follows some pretty predictable patterns: The women all blowing up at each other, a transition to almost being an action movie, and a schmaltzy "best friends forever" ending.  But there are a lot of laughs for most of the movie, making Rough Night good (if somewhat standard) entertainment.

Overall grade: B
Reviewed by James Lynch

HAIL, CAESAR!

Nostalgia can be both good and bad, bringing folks back to a seemingly better time while often tempting folks to just live in the past instead of doing something great for the present.  The latter is, alas, the trap Joel and Ethan Coen fall into with their new film Hail Caesar!

It's the 1950s, and Eddie Manniz (Josh Brolin) is an executive fixes at Capitol Studios.  His job, which extends into all hours of the day and night, is to oversee the studio's assorted films and to fix the problems the actors get into.

And there are plenty of problems.  Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) is starring in the studio's big religious picture Hail, Caesar! but he has an older scandal hanging over his head; he also gets kidnapped by a group called the Future.  Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) is a Western movie star whose country accent is terrible in his high society movie, driving director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes) crazy.  DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson) faces the scandal of being a single mother, leading to the solution of having her adopt her own baby.  Mannix also has a possibly better job offer from a military company, and his battle with smoking leads him to confession every day.  There are also cameos by Channing Tatum as a musical's star singer-dancer Burt Gurney, Jonah Hill as studio legal patsy Joseph Silverman, and Tilda Swinton as identical twin gossip reporters Thora and Thessaly Thacker.

The Coen brothers have a great reverence for the 1950s movies, whether it's the snippets of the fake movies or the chain-smoking tough guy Mannix doing what he has to in order to keeps the wheels of the studio running.  Unfortunately, there's not more to Hail, Caesar! beyond this superficial adoration of the time period.  The truly stellar cast isn't given any real depth for any characters, and there aren't enough laughs or amusing scenarios to make this an effective comedy.  There are potentially interesting threads (the religious imagery and themes alongside the Communists) but they're given zero development.  Hail, Caesar! is ultimately nice to look at but not much more.

Overall grade: C
Reviewed by James Lynch

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

The Avengers may be Marvel's most powerful superhero series -- and with their movie, Marvel's biggest box-office hit and focal point for the plot threads begun in other Marvel movies.  Avengers: Age of Ultron brings the team back together for another round of saving the planet and battling their personal and team demons.

Age of Ultron starts with a bang, as the team -- Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hawkeye/Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), and Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) -- is attacking a Hydra base to obtain Loki's staff, and the Tesseract it contains,.  However, in addition to Hydra's weapons, they have a special project: the Maximoff twins.  Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) can move faster than the eye can see, while his sister Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) can throw energy bolts, read people's minds, and show them their worst fears.  The twins have a hatred of Tony Stark, and Wanda uses her power to show him the other Avengers all dead.

Thor wants to take the staff back, but Tony gets a few days to experiment on it.  He learns the Tesseract has a gem that has a sort of program, and he (with Bruce's help) wants to use it to make a program to protect the planet -- without telling his other teammates.  Unfortunately, it creates Ultron (voiced by James Spader), an artificial intelligence who wants to create "peace in our time" by driving the Avengers to extinction (and a lot more).

The rest of the movie is a combination of the Avengers fighting Ultron, his nigh-innumerable robot duplicates, and the twins -- as well as dealing with their fractured spirit after Wanda shows everyone but Hawkeye their fears.  There's also more fighting between Captain America and Iron Man, a possible romance between Bruce and Natasha, a lot mote character development for Hawkeye, and cameos from night-innumerable supporting characters from almost every other Marvel movie.  Oh, and Paul Bettany goes from being the voice of Jarvis to the character the Vision.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is both enjoyable and frustrating.  The regular cast is quite good as always, James Spader is suitably creepy as the evil robot, and the twins are decent (even if Olsen's character is almost all defined by her accent).  At the same time, the movie feels over-long at times, lots of characters "leave" when we know they'll be back for the sequel(s), and there's a bit too much slow-motion in the action sequences.  Avengers: Age of Ultron is entertaining, but it isn't as quotable, exciting, or fan-fantasy-fulfilling as, well, the last Avengers movie.

Overall grade: B
Reviewed by James Lynch

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

Captain America is back in action -- and dealing with a lot more than just super-powered villains -- in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  This movie adds a bit more nuance and thinking to the superhero formula, without shying away from some pretty intense action.

The Winter Soldier opens with Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) working with S.H.I.E.L.D., helping Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Natasha Romanoff/the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) take down some terrorists.  But Fury had his own agenda, and Captain America is getting tired of secrets and being lied to.  In addition, Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. official Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) are about to launch Project Insight, which will send three heavily-armed Helicarriers in the air to protect (and strike) anytime there's trouble.  Fury thinks this will stop problems before they start, while Cap thinks it's creating fear, not freedom.

Then things get complicated.  When Fury is looking into Project Insight, he's ambushed by heavily-armed men and managed to drop a flash drive off with Cap before heading to the hospital.  Soon Cap is branded a traitor by Pierce, and the all-American hero is fleeing from S.H.I.E.L.D. while trying to uncover the truth and figure out who can be trusted.  Along the way he's joined by Sam Wilson/the Falcon (Anthony Mackie), a fellow soldier who apparently has unlimited access to a high-tech flying outfit.  There are surprises and twists, old enemies, a threat to millions of people, and the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), a powerful assassin with a robotic left arm.

The Winter Soldier joins The Avengers as one of Marvel's best superhero movies.  The cast is terrific, especially Chris Evans as the hero who finds himself adrift not in the modern world's technology and society but in its duplicity and scheming.  There are plenty of appearances from characters in past movies (Cobie Smulders as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Garry Shandling as a senator) and references to other Marvel comics to make fans of the comics happy, while providing enough information for folks who know this universe through the movies alone not to feel lost.

Not all of the twists in the story are surprising (as in many movies, politicians are not to be trusted), but The Winter Soldier manages to combine action, suspense, and mystery into a movie that could have been just more good guys in colorful costumes hitting bad guys in colorful costumes.  The Winter Soldier is a very entertaining superhero movie for adults.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

her

Computers and the internet have certainly changed how people date and interact, from Facebook to dating sites, but what happens when people can get emotionally involved with the technology itself?  her, written and directed by Spike Jonze, is a intelligent and delicate romance story in the near future that demonstrates that that even with amazing technology, the more things change the more they stay the same.

Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is a lonely guy.  He makes a living taking information from people and writing emotional letters to their loved ones (which a computer writes in the client's handwriting).  He's been separated from his wife Catherine (Rooney Mara) for months, but he can't bring himself to sign the divorce papers.  He spends time with his friend Amy (Amy Adams) and her critical husband Charles (Matt Letscher), spends a lot of time playing a videogame alone in his apartment, rarely dates, and has a humorously horrible experience with online sex.

Things change -- or do they? -- when Ted gets Samantha (voice of Scarlett Johansson), an operating system designed to learn, to be intuitive, and to grow.  Ted finds Samantha to be funny, smart, challenging, helpful, and it's not long before the two are dating, having sex (handled tastefully), and sharing their thoughts and dreams.  But along with the joy of new love comes the challenges of a long-term relationship: Ted's panic when he can't get touch with Samantha (usually omnipresent, thanks to Ted's earbud); worries about having less sex (and an attempt to spice things up that falls flat); fears one person is outgrowing the other; one verbal slip-up leading to a big argument,; and, of course, "we need to talk."

It would have been easy for her to be a treatise on technology, but while the movie has a lot to say about tech and people (Ted's job involves artificial creations; almost everyone walks around with a smartphone or earbud) it's more about relationships and emotions, as real for Ted and Samantha as for regular humans.  Joaquin Phoenix plays Ted perfectly, as a sensitive and sad guy who wants love and romance but always manages to get in his own way.  Scarlett Johansson's vocal performance is touching, as her character grows from a friend to lover to someone finding that there's more in the world beyond her boyfriend; it's very easy to forget that her character is a disembodied computer (or, as she'd say, an operating system).  There's lots of humor here -- the goofy early dating, Ted's co-worker Paul (Chris Pratt) having a man-crush on Ted -- but also a lot of the elation and heartache of love.  her may seem about a human-program relationship, but it's a moving look at how we interact with each other, for better and worse.

Overall grade: A
Reviewed by James Lynch

DON JON

So, what's dating like for guys in a world where they can get porn almost anywhere? And what are the other illusions affecting romance? These are some areas covered in Don Jon, written by, directed by, and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Don Martello (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a fairly typical 20-something New Jersey guy. He lifts weights, has dinner with his family, goes to church and confession every week, hangs out at clubs with his buddies Bobby (Rob Brown) and Danny (Jeremy Luke), and seems to have endless one-night stands. Don also loves porn. He watches it all the time (even after bedding his latest conquest, while she sleeps), has a very well-defined system for looking for the perfect clips, and even explains at length why handling himself to porn is better than sex with an actual woman.

Eventually Don decides to try getting with a woman as hot as the hottest women he's seen in porn. This would be Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), a woman Jon describes as a ten but who shot him down. He decided to go for the long game with her, aiming for a long-term relationship instead of just sex. She is a sucker for romantic movies and relationships; she also uses her sex appeal to change Jon, from meeting his family and getting their friends together, to having Jon take a night course so he can become something more than a bartender. It's at the latter place that Jon meets Esther (Julianne Moore), a strange slightly older woman who may be sobbing one meeting, smoking week the next, and loaning Jon some "good" porn after she sees him watching some on his phone. And yes, even dating Barbara doesn't get Jon away from his beloved porn for long...

Don Jon is a intelligent, clever, modern take on what makes men men and women women -- complete with all their faults and agendas. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is wonderful in the title role, as he makes Jon both likeable and pathetic at the same time. Jon seems to want to go through life just having fun, while sounding like an addict when it comes to his porn; he keeps saying "I can stop anytime I want" while never stopping. Scarlett Johansson is very good as a woman who knows how to work her beauty to her advantage; I just wish the movie had more of her outside Jon, so we could learn more of what makes her tick. The supporting cast is very good (especially Tony Danza as Jon's foul-mouthed, football-addicted father, and Brie Larson as Don's sister who is almost always silently texting, whether at the dinner table or in church), and Julianne Moore gives another great performance as an atypical woman who is more vulnerable than the other characters in the movie. Don Jon won't settle the arguments about whether porn is good or bad (though the movie has plenty of examples of media's sex-filled images of women (and yes, that Carl's Jr. commercial in the movie is a real commercial)), but it does a very good job of entertaining while exploring what masculinity and feminity mean in the modern dating landscape. Overall grade: A- Reviewed by James Lynch

THE AVENGERS

The Avengers is many things: the dream of Marvel comic book fans come to life; the culmination of Marvel's movies Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America; and, thanks in large part to the writing and direction of Joss Whedom, an ensemble movie that manages to give equal time to all characters instead of focusing on one to the detriment of the rest.
The setup of The Avengers is pretty straightforward. Secret government agency S.H.I.E.L.D. is experimenting on the Tesseract (the ancient, powerful artifact seen in Thor and Captain America) when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) suddenly appears and steals it. He also takes mental control over several people there, including master archer Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). S.H.I.E.L.D. leader Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) fears the worst, so it's time for the Avengers Initiative. Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and martial artist Natasha Romanov/the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) set out to assemble a team of heroes, albeit full of flaws. Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is their super-soldier, but he's still adjusting to the present day. Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is brilliant and has a powerful suit of armor -- but he's pretty self-centered. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is a demigod whose pursuit of Loki puts him at odds with the other team members. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) is brought in to help track the Tesseract -- but there's the fear that he'll lose control and turn into the Hulk. And the Black Widow is worried about Hawkeye's switching sides.

But there's more going on than just personality differences and in-fighting (and physical fighting). S.H.I.E.L.D. has its own secret agenda. Loki's plan for the tesseract are complicated -- and include letting himself get captured. And of course, there's an alien invasion on the horizon...

The Avengers works amazingly well, both as an action movie and a superhero movie. Joss Whedon has plenty of experience writing and directing ensembles (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Firefly/Serenity), and he lets all the characters shine. The actors are all terrific in their roles, from the previous antics of the heroes to Johansson's alternating from vulnerable to manipulative, and Ruffalo (taking over for Edward Norton) oddly and appropriately self-contained as the scientist trying not to lose control. The movie has a wicked and frequent sense of humor, as well as some moving moments and scenes as well; and that's in addition to the exciting action sequences. Squeezing all of this into one film does make The Avengers run a little long at times, but it ultimately pays off.

The best summer blockbusters give more than just special effects, and The Avengers certainly delivers. This is one giant movie (with some of Marvel's biggest names) that delivers thrills, laughs, excitement, and (often missing from action movies) itelligence.

Overall grade: A-

Reviewed by James Lynch

VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA

While Woody Allen's more recent comedies have been fluffy, screwball antics, his older ones combine humor with thoughts and musings on life and love. Woody is back to deeper comedy with his latest film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. In this film, what could have been a mere sex romp becomes an exploration of what it means to love, and to get what one wants.

Best friends Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are vacationing together in Spain. Vicky is the more level-headed of the two: She is engaged to a nice, ordinary, somewhat dull man named Doug (Chris Messina) and is traveling in Spain to do research on Spanish culture. Cristina is an artist who just finished months making a 12-minute movie and feels like wandering. Vicky considers love as stability and security, while Cristina wants love to be filled with passion, drama and pain. The two ladies are staying in Barcelona with Vicky's friend Judy (Patricia Clarkson) and her husband Mark (Kevin Dunn). And Vicky and Cristina soon become enamored of the sights and sounds of Spain.

At an art gallery, both ladies notice handsome painter Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) who Judy says had a passionate divorce. A short time later Juan Antonio meets the women and offers to take them with him for the weekend to see the sights, drink fine wine, and make love -- hopefully with both of them. Cristina is intrigued and smitten, Vicky is insulted and a little offended -- but they both go with him. And when a stomach ailment interferes with Juan Antonio and Cristina's getting together, he and Vicky wind up sharing a night of lovemaking.

The movie jumps forward a few weeks, when Doug has joined Vicky in Spain and Cristina is living with Juan Antonio. Only Vicky keeps weighing the stable but dull prospect of life with Doug with the reckless but wild time she had with Juan Antonio. Cristina, meanwhile, finds herself enjoying life with Juan Antonio and discovering a love of photography -- but faces new challenges when Juan Antonio's crazy and somewhat dangerous ex-wife Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) not only shows up, but also moves in with Juan Antonio and Cristina!

In lesser hands Vicky Cristina Barcelona could have become a frivolous film about male fantasies. Woody Allen, writing and directing the movie, transforms it into two separate views of what happens when people wonder if getting what they want means having what they want. Rebecca Hall is a female version of the characters Woody Allen used to play in his movies -- someone clever, intellectual, and prone to overanalysis which sometimes leads to inaction -- and she makes Vicky a genuinely nice person who suddenly wonders if her desired life of predictability is all she really wants. Scarlett Johansson (a regular in Woody Allen's movies these days) plays Cristina as a modern bohemian, someone ready to fall into love and defy society, but who may not be able to handle all she receives. Javier Bardem is immensely charming and seductive -- but his character is also passionate about life and art and Spain, a gourmand of life rather than a libido-driven stud. Penelope Cruz is wonderful as the ex-wife who's alternately suspicious and accepting of Cristina, who loves and hates Juan Antonio, who is an artist herself -- and a true wild and tortured soul. Cruz and Bardem demonstrate consistently Juan Antonio's assertion that he and his ex-wife are "meant to be together and not meant to be together." And Woody Allen treats Spain as the ideal of romanticism, full of color, life, and the omnipresent strings of the played Spanish guitar.

I could have done without the narration, which often stated what would have been evident from the dialogue and the acting; and a subplot where Judy has a situation mirroring Vicky's crisis was a little heave-handed. Still, there are plenty of laughs and plenty of musings in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. It's good to see Woody Allen back in fine form.

Overall grade: A-

Reviewed by James Lynch

Nanny Diaries (2007)

The Nanny Diaries is a look at the high society of Manhattan's upper East Side. Starring Scarlett Johansson, and Laura Linney, it is an adaptation of the book of the same name. The book was written by Emma McLaughlin, and Nicola Kraus, both of whom worked as nannies to subsidize the cost of their NYU education.

In the film, Johansson plays Annie Braddock, a recently graduated business major with a minor in anthropology that has been pushed by her mother to go into corporate America. After "choking" on her Goldman Sachs interview, she decides to take it down a notch, have a rest, and becomes a nanny for the summer. While the money is initially good, the child's mother, known only as Mrs. X (Linney), and the child, Grayer, torture her to the point that she just can't take it anymore. While over time she bonds with the child, an episode that occurs with Mr. X serves as the catalyst for a new direction in Braddock's career direction.

The Nanny Diaries is cleverly told. There is a shell story of an anthropologist going undercover to study NYC's elite, complete with the dioramas at the Museum of Natural History depicting fathers golfing, and mothers shopping. There is also plenty of anthropology lingo, such as field guide entries, and "going native." Underneath this however, is some significant social commentary. Unfortunately, many of these nannies are exploited people that are cheap labor to Manhattan's richest. They get little to no time off, and sometimes are not even paid the agreed upon wages. Also disturbing is that the parents of these children, as exemplified by the father, Mr. X in the film, have no interest in parenting. They have children to fulfill a social obligation, but have no interest in raising a family- clearly a sad social commentary.

On a simpler level, The Nanny Diaries is the story of Annie Braddock, and her first job. Along the lines of The Devil Wears Prada, she is given task after task, which turn into a series of tests whether she will break or not- all with little or no reward. At the end of the film, they even short change her out of her pay!

Overall, I liked The Nanny Diaries quite well. It was well paced, well acted, and the screenplay was well done. If you missed it in theaters this summer, catch it on video, and don't miss the interview with the book authors in the bonus features.

Overall Grade: A

Reviewed by Jonas