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

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

TRUE GRIT

The American Western returns to the big screen with True Grit, a remake of a John Wayne movie done by the Coen Brothers. This time around the result is both quirky and traditional.

The story in True Grit is about revenge, both legal and vigilante. Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), a very mature, blunt, and serious 14-year-old girl, is after Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), who killed her father in Arkansas. He fled to the Indian territories, where the law is uninterested in pursuing him. Mattie ignores the calls for her to head home; instead, she (comically) sells off some ponies to hire people to pursue Chaney, capture him, and return him for trial and execution.
Mattie winds up with two very different cowboys. U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) is a mess: old, fat, drunk, and one-eyed. He also has a reputation for being tenacious and more willing to kill a target than let him escape, so Mattie hires him over other candidates. Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) has been pursuing Chaney since the latter killed a Texas senator. LaBoeuf is more civilized than Cogburn, but possibly less experienced. And naturally, Mattie accompanies the two men on the manhunt.

True Grit is a blend of the romantic and realistic. There's a feeling of nostalgia for the West, as the trio travel through scenic terrain through much of the film. Cogburn and LaBoeuf are contrasts of the code of the West: the former is a wreck but gets the job done, while the latter is polished and prideful but may not have much backing him up. At the same time, this movie is very violent, from a public hanging early in the film to numerous scenes of bloodshed that are far from romanticized.

The Coen Brothers bring a few oddball touches to the film -- a wilderness doctor wearing a bearskin for warmth, Mattie's grandmother sharing a bed and stealing the covers -- but this True Grit is, by and large, a traditional Western, complete with dangerous terrain and shoot-outs against incredible odds. The acting is all very good (though young Hailee Steinfeld is given an edge with her serious dialogue over Jeff Daniels' almost clownish drunken buffoon) and the Coen Brothers know how to pace action and create tension. True Grit doesn't redefine the Western, but it's a good journey into the Old West.

Overall grade: B
Reviewed by James Lynch