Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), an indefatigable runt in 1942 America, would do anything to serve his country’s World War II effort.  Turned down time and again by the Military, Rogers finally gets an opportunity from expat German doctor Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), the inventor of a serum to create a super soldier.  Transformed into Captain America, Rogers gets paraded around as a goofy mascot before proving his super solider bona fides in a daring assault on a Nazi stronghold.  During that mission, Rogers meets his one equal: Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), the sole German to use Erskine’s serum and a man as monstrous as Cap is heroic.

Captain America: The First Avenger continues Marvel Studios recent streak of enjoyable big budget flicks.  Johnston channels old-timey action films in a way that feels invigorating and fun without becoming a saccharine pose, while his cast performs with great relish (along with Tucci and Weaving, Tommy Lee Jones and Hayley Atwell are a joy to watch).  The key to it all is Evans, well cast in a role written for likability and big pecs but little depth.  As both a digitally altered pipsqueak and alpha male stud, Evans’ Cap is possessed of a singular drive to serve (and maybe get some Atwell action too) that propels the film with aplomb but also weakens the ending, as what could be a genuinely tragic final moment gets short shrift.  The little kid in me found a great deal to like in this film; the 39 year old walked out just a little bit wanting.

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*Oh yeah, I forgot to blog about seeing Thor.  Here’s my six word review: big dumb fun, really enjoyed it.

Frank D’Arbo (Rainn Wilson) is a doughy wad of insecurity married to a recovering drug addict (Liv Tyler.)  When scummy strip club proprietor Jacques (Kevin Bacon) steals her away, Frank takes desperate inspiration from a Christian television superhero and resolves to fight crime as the Crimson Bolt.  Wielding a huge wrench, he brains criminals all around town and arouses a comic book fan named Libby (Ellen Page) to become his equally violent sidekick, Boltie.  After issuing some morally dubious beatdowns, the pair resolve to take on Jacques’ army in a deadly showdown and rescue Frank’s wife.

If Super were simply a garden variety comic book film, it could certainly be called a success; it hits the right beats and provides ample action and laughter.  What makes Super truly great is the willingness of Gunn and the cast to take on tropes and play them out to the most terrible extremes.  The violence perpetrated by the Crimson Bolt and Boltie takes a toll on the audience- it’s viscerally repellent by design.  Page’s Libby is an intriguing take on the role of women in stories like these, as she willingly subsumes herself as both a sex object and a sidekick.  Wilson is truly brilliant and courageous as the put-upon Frank, playing him as pathetic, psychotic, and ultimately humane.  Gunn and company let these characters indulge their every fantasy, and in doing so create a story that is compelling, elegiac, and a potent commentary on its genre.

Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) has lived a life of seclusion, trained by her ex-CIA father (Eric Bana) for the inevitable reckoning with her mother’s murderer (Cate Blanchett.)  After escaping her American captors, Hanna begins a long trip to Berlin with the aid of a British family.  While dispatching armed guards is little challenge for the combat prodigy, dealing with her new friends is far more complicated: her sheltered worldview and dearth of socialization make every conversation a new and often awkward experience.  By the time she reaches Berlin, Hanna finds that both her pursuer and father have actions to answer for.

Hanna tries to balance multiple sensibilities- action thriller, coming of age story- and does so with varying degrees of success.  The numerous fighting sequences are deftly handled and propulsively scored by The Chemical Brothers, yet can’t help but feel rote and derivative.  The bits of spy intrigue are hardly better.  Far more effective are the moments of revelation, of discovery, for the heroine.  A late night encounter between Hanna and a far more worldly girlfriend (Jessica Barden) is both tender and electric, while her strange visit to a fairy tale house is gorgeously expressionistic in execution.  Ronan’s magnetic performance is ferocious, wide-eyed, and ultimately what makes this patchwork tale of young adulthood a worthy experience.

Kim Soo-Hyun (Lee Byung-Hun, The Good, The Bad, And The Weird and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) is a bad-ass government agent whose pregnant fiancee dies cruelly at the hands of serial killer Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik, Oldboy, Sympathy For Lady Vengeance.)  Thirsty for blood, Soo-hyun seeks the murderer out and, after brutalizing a few innocent suspects, finds the target for his sadistic plan of revenge.  Kyung-chul, however, proves to be a formidable opponent for South Korean James Bond, and thus a simple plan of vengeance becomes the bloodiest downward spiral imaginable.

It’s a credit to Ji-woon and screenwriter Park Hoon-jung that I Saw The Devil has laughs, action, and pathos to go along with much bloodletting.*  Soo-hyun is both reprehensible and sympathetic; Kyung-chul is truly monstrous, but his non-the-wiser family still figures in the proceedings. And while the Grand Guignol style of I Saw The Devil nods heavily to both Chan-wook’s Oldboy and Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, it ends by suggesting an unsettling question that would fit in the more subtle Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance: in the messy business of vendetta, who is the titular Devil?

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*It’s also informational- apparently, South Korea is like Miami when it comes to serial killers.

Or, you cast Matthew McConaughey, pump up the villain of the week, and push a mediocre film into theaters.

Directed by Brad Furman, The Lincoln Lawyer feels like it could’ve made a fine Friday night series circa 1985 (or three times a week on TNT circa right now) but as a feature length film, it’s a little shallow.  When the hustling Haller gets tipped about poor little rich boy Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) in the pokey, it looks like an easy payday.  Unfortunately, as Roulet’s true colors come out, Haller must balance skillful lawyerin’ with a renewed sense of justice if he wants to protect his family, help an old client, and keep his license to practice law.

As the sly but uncomplicated Haller, McConaughey gives a winning performance; he’s clearly having fun and carries the movie, aided by game supporting turns from Marisa Tomei and William H. Macy.  Unfortunately, John Romano’s screenplay is populated with stock characters and too much telling-rather-than-showing, which amplifies that feeling of a low-budget TV show on the big screen.  The Lincoln Lawyer is Friday night popcorn fare, but only if that popcorn comes from your microwave and you’re eating it on your couch.

A bit of housekeeping before getting to the list: the Over/Under podcasts continue to be produced by Phillip Mottaz and me.  You can listen (and subscribe!) via iTunes or at our Podbean page.  Please check them out and if you’re inspired/challenged/agitated, we encourage you to let us know in comments.

So, it’s Valentine’s Day, a “holiday” that I frankly have little use for.  You might say that I’m not romantic or that I’m too much a curmudgeon, but really it comes to this: I dislike the idea that I should put a day aside to celebrate my lover.  If I really love Sandra, shouldn’t I try to do that every day, be it a fun one or a lazy one or a difficult one?*

Okay, pontificating done.  My whinging aside, I do like seeing the Facebook updates and Tweets and watching guys frantically assault florists on that late afternoon.  And I do realize that we all get too busy with minutiae to give proper affection to those we adore.

Today I present a list of my favorite filmic swatches of romantic love.

3. Better Off Dead- ah, Monique Junot (Diane Franklin), a sort-of Manic Pixie Dream Girl who teaches one Lane Meyer (John Cusack) how to fix a car, ski the K-12, and survive the psychotic paper boy.  But all it took for her to win my heart was two words: “language lessons.”  At last- a woman that can literally save your life!

2. In The Mood For Love- the whisper into the wall.  Is it strange that one of my most cherished romantic moments in any film is the culmination of unfulfilled love?  Because it is.  It’s unbearably perfect that this story ends with Chow (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai) sharing his secret love with the only safe listener available.

1. Shoot The Piano Player- Charlie and Lena’s first night together.  Charlie (Charles Aznavour) might be my favorite film protagonist: buttoned-up and taut as a bow at all times, yet buzzing with a frenetic inner monologue.  But for one night, Lena (Marie Dubois) quiets his mind and softens his body.  They lounge in bed, and the film cuts back and forth between affectionate whispers and slackened dozing.  Charlie and Lena haven’t been broken by love (that came before and will return later) but melted, tenderized, kneaded.   A wide, envious smile crossed my face the first time I saw this scene.

Happy Valentine’s Day to my wife, if only to tell her that she helped eliminate the envy.

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*Yes, I realize that this is a strawman and no, I’m not saying this to criticize you and how you choose to celebrate February 14th.  As well, Sandra always gets me something for V Day, and I don’t feel unloved the other 364, so I openly concede that this is my issue.

Directed by Debra Granik (with a strong screenplay by Granik and Anne Rosellini), Winter’s Bone is equal parts desperate pursuit and portrait of an insular community.  Ree Dolly is the presumptive head of her family, taking care of her mother and raising her siblings with material support from neighbors and intimidating uncle Teardrop (John Hawkes.)  When drug-cooking father Jessup misses a court date, it’s up to Ree Dolly to find him before the law can lay claim to the family home and property.  Dad’s disappearance is something of a mystery, however, and the same people who provide venison or cash become downright menacing when Ree Dolly defiantly knocks at forbidden doors for information.

If Winter’s Bone were just a rural thriller, it would be worth watching simply for the brilliant performances of Lawrence and Hawkes, not to mention Granik’s assured direction (watch for those names plus Rosellini’s at Oscar time.)  What makes the film truly great are deft observations on provincial decorum: waiting for a man’s permission to enter a home, offering a warm drink to an unwelcome guest, shutting up to the police, avenging if your family’s been wronged.  It’s in Teardrop’s unspoken but resigned acknowledgement of his duty, and in Ree Dolly’s weary yet bright-eyed embrace of her siblings: cultural codes unite, suppress, protect, and destroy their adherents.

Please give it a listen when you’ve got a chance.  Happy Holidays!
Over/Under: Grab Bag

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-Amber Waves (Julianne Moore) in Boogie Nights

“Nature hates a purposeless thing.”

-Rasputin, to Hellboy in Hellboy: Wake The Devil

Oh, and let’s throw one more out there for good measure:

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper

- The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot

Okay, that last one in particular is apropos, seeing as there actually is a big bang at the end of the episode, but it’s so pathetically rendered that I have to think it’s unused footage from the Dollhouse episode “The Hollow Men.”  It’s sad, really- for a show that has been as consistently good-looking as The Walking Dead, the destruction of the CDC via thermobaric weapon is a series of terrible special effects shots.

And saddest of all is how we got to this point: via the worst episode of The Walking Dead thus far.

“TS-19″ starts so promisingly, too.  The cold open is a doozy, as we finally witness how Shane came to leave Rick in that hospital before taking Lori and Carl to Atlanta. Shane watches as Walkers move through the hospital and soldiers execute those potentially infected.  Rick is still comatose, and Shane desperately tries to wake his friend for a rescue but gets no response.  Thinking his partner is truly dead, Shane barricades the room with a gurney* and flees the scene.  If this sequence were just exciting and horrifying, that’d be something, but it actually gives the audience a little info about the troubled Shane.  Maybe he hooked up with his friend’s wife and tried to become father to Rick’s son, but he truly believed that Rick was dead.

After finally giving Shane a bit of shading, the episode jumps back to last week’s cliffhanger outside CDC headquarters.  The mysterious Jenner allows the survivors to enter the facility, but not without blood tests and a cryptic warning that those shuttered doors will never open again.  After that, he proves a fine host, offering hot showers, booze, and complete security from the Walkers.  Only Shane thinks to question Jenner about what the hell’s been going on, but there are neither answers nor a cure. All assembled enjoy the drunken revelry, save for a grieving Andrea.

That’s a lot going on in this episode; just about every character has some little personal moment (T-Dog loves his hot water shower while Andrea hates hers) but Jenner’s motives for letting the group in remain murky.  Shane has been humanized a bit, Carol gets to share a book with the kids, and Dale gets to corrupt Carl with a little wine.  Rick gets some shower love with Lori, the talking supercomputer introduces herself, and Daryl… well, Daryl drinks like me a redneck.**  Jacqui (Jeryl Prescott Sales) looks forlorn, scowls a lot, and doesn’t say much, same as every episode.  Andrea drunkenly acknowledges that the world as they know it is gone.

There are too many things crammed in here.

Season one of The Walking Dead is just six episodes long, and with “TS-19″ the too-brief season length finally makes a negative impact.  There’s soooooooo much that Frank Darabont and Company want to get to, and the carefully measured pace of episodes one through five gives way to an episode that’s overloaded.  ”TS-19″ feels bloated and in over its head- and despite that, very little actually happens.

The centerpiece of the episode is Jenner’s presentation of Test Subject 19′s transformation from human to Walker. Noah Emmerich gives a fine performance in this segment, simultaneously offering a science lecture and a eulogy for his dead wife.  And yet, this midsection is a waste of time.  Here’s what we learn during the visually dazzling sequence: the Walker plague kills people and then reanimates them, there’s little hope for the world, and watching the death of a loved one is difficult.

Was anyone in doubt of these facts?  Hasn’t this all been covered in previous episodes? This is the last episode of The Walking Dead until late next year, and most of its time is spent rehashing what is already known or understood.  There are uniformly strong performance throughout the episode, but they’re all in service of pointless wheel spinning.

Ah, but we do learn one thing- the CDC structure will self-destruct when it runs out of power.  Now we have the drama of a ticking clock; hell, there’s even one on the wall! And thus Daryl gets to act like a crazed idiot,*** Shane gets to displace more Rick-frustration, and Jenner gets to point out the hopelessness of the situation (again.) The Walking Dead has often covered familiar ground, but “TS-19″ feels like a cliche.

Lazy storytelling is bad enough, but things get even worse as the episode heads for the homestretch.  Jenner wants to die in the explosion**** but allows Rick and the others to try to escape the blast.  Andrea, devastated by her sister’s death in “Wildfire,” chooses to perish as well until Dale passionately argues against her selfish decision. Moved by his affection for her, Andrea nobly chooses to struggle on with Dale and the others; it’s a very human, touching moment…

Except, y’know, for the fact that Jacqui the selfish bitch chooses to abandon T-Dog (“I’m staying, sweetie!”) and is unmoved by Dale’s heartfelt speech.  As she and Jenner await their impending incineration, they clasp hands and smile warmly as the music swells, attempting to add dignity to an undignified moment.  If she’s so happy to be free of this horror show, why celebrate as her beloved charges back into that hell?  If there had been any attempt to characterize her prior to these moments, there might be some nuance or meaningful complication in her death.  Instead, it’s a cheap moment.

Speaking of cheap, ”TS-19″ ends with that laughably bad digital explosion.  And with that, our ragtag fleet heads back out onto the road in desperate need of sanctuary… which is pretty much exactly where they were toward the end of “Wildfire.”  Thus, the big season finale of a hit show has offered just a little bit of character development, barely any advancement of the story, and used its climactic moment to put the characters right where they were about 42 minutes ago.  ”TS-19″ is an episode without purpose.*****

If you’ve been reading these write-ups, then you know that I’m a pretty big fan of those first five episodes.  Darabont and Company have earned a lot of good will with me up through “Wildfire,” but “TS-19″ makes me concerned about the direction of The Walking Dead going forward.  I’ve enjoyed the patience of the show, the focus on relationships, and the emphasis on mood and atmosphere over ostentatious action.  I’ll make a point of watching season two, but this whimper of a season end tempers my enthusiasm for next fall.

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* Hat-tip to Encrazed Crafts, a cat who also writes about the show and predicted this very scenario last week!

** Southern Comfort gets a LOT of product placement this episode.

*** Norman Reedus is truly wasted in “TS-19.”  Somehow, he was becoming the necessarily irreverent Han Solo of The Walking Dead, and here he has nothing good to do.

**** Lemme get this straight- he lets theses ragged people into his sanctuary and insists on blood tests, presumably for his safety, simply to keep his suicide from being a lonely one?  That either screams incompetent writing or Big Plot Point To Come!!!

***** Yes, Jenner whispered something Important into Rick’s ear before the explosion, but if that’s all that came out of this episode then YIKES.