The Avengers

Having seen most of Joss Whedon's TV and film output (all of Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse, as well as Serenity), I'm pretty familiar with Whedon's quippy dialogue cadence, and his dramatic storytelling tropes, so as populist entertainment, "The Avengers" succeeds as a 140-minute thrilling roller-coaster ride for the comic book nerds, while also being accessible to the general public. In fact, it's almost a love letter to comic book nerds in how the plot unfolds, and produces match-ups between the heroes in a way to vetting one another before they are tasked with the avenging in an effort to protect Earth from being subjugated by a Loki-led army for a would-be alien conqueror (Annihilus/the Other?), as Loki hunts down the Tesseract (the Cosmic Cube that is being studied as a plentiful, clean energy source referenced from the previous "Thor" film).

I found some of the fight action to be influenced heavily by WWE, but still immensely fun and entertaining. The tough part of the script was juggling so many characters, and still finding ways for each character to shine, and Whedon's script does a good job in that respect, while still maintaining good pacing overall. Even when there were spots where the story could have bogged down, we get some nice bits of dialogue that diffuses the tension with laughs. The characters are shown to know of the weaknesses and foibles of one another, but still find enough common ground to coalesce into working in a ad hoc team environment as the threats to mankind's future survival continue to manifest themselves.

The film succeeds in giving the audience what it wants, but it's not a sophisticated piece of storytelling in terms of plot structure, and a lot of the second unit action rates a tad below what a James Cameron would produce, but the action is so fast and furious, you don't have a lot of time to dwell on the minor shortcomings of spatial dynamics in how the action sequences develop. The action scenes have somewhat of a Michael Bay quality to them, but with better purpose in serving the story, and providing some dramatic tension in the final act of the film with the heroes scrambling to stem the tide of a flying army coming through the inter-spatial portal, thanks to Loki's actions.

The film's script is loaded with nuggets of character interactions which produce laughs and the fight action produced cheers and shock (in the vein of "Whoa! Did you just see that? Dayum..." The film gains momentum through its running time, though the opening act was good at setting the table, but I wasn't quite feeling it until the early middle of the film, and the film concludes well in providing plenty of menace and mayhem, and also finding small ways to address thread of character development.

You will be entertained by this film, no "ands, ifs or buts" about it. On that level, it hits the mark. I did see it in 3D, but I don't think it really adds much to its overall presentation, so seeing in in 2D should suffice if you aren't crazy about 3D anyhow.

I give it 3.5 stars, or a grade of B+ (will take in another viewing, but on IMAX, as my comic book friends want to see it on IMAX the next time just for all the fight scenes).

P.S., yes, stay for 2 additional scenes in the end credits, one comes right after the spotlighted actor credits, and the other one (so hilariously on-point) comes at the very end of the credits.

The 5-Year Engagement

I think this film gets off to a somewhat funny start with its cast, but along the way, the film's running time feels like 5 years, and it just went on and on, and the middle section of the film really sags. Segal's writing buddy, Nicholas Stoller directed this film, and his direction is nothing special, but he really gets up close at times, so close you could see the peach fuzz on Emily Blunt's face in one scene due to the lighting and angle of her face. There are bits of comedy that work, but it gets dragged down by many of the other scenes that languish on the screen, and bored this viewer.

I give it 2.5 star, or a grade of C+.

Safe

This was a live-action cartoon, somewhat in the vein of "Crank" in that Jason Statham's character, Luc, is a former stone-cold operative on the NYPD force, who kills if he's led to believe it's justifiable by his superiors, and in an elevated self-defense kind of way. The manner in which Luc dispatches so many would-be assailants in his path borders on this being a comedic-action farce. Luc, down on his luck, is ready to pack it in, but he finds a reason to live when he notices a little Asian girl (Mei) being hunted down by Russian mobsters in the subway. Mei has the ability to remember long strings of numbers, and the Chinese mob are using her to courier the numbers for some payday, and the Russians get wind of it, and mayhem ensues, and Luc finds himself in the middle of it because he's so determined to keep Mei safe.

But those looking for Stathem to put the hurt on some bad guys will get their money's worth, as some are straight-up brutal and wince-inducing.

I give it 2.75 stars or a grade of B- for giving its intended audience want it wants in a Stathem action flick.

The Raven

"The Raven", set in 1849, features Edgar Allan Poe, a writer and a poet finding it tough to make ends meet, though thoroughly a dastardly scroundrel with a fiery personality, and a credit history littered with unpaid bar tabs. John Cusack has some fun as Poe, and the film's plotline come to the fore as someone in Baltimore is staging murders similar to the ones that Poe wrote about in his stories, and the police find Poe to be of some use in anticipating the serial killer's next victim.

This film really didn't need to be rated R, though the script does toss in some salty language, and pushed for more gruesome displays of murders based on Poe's stories, but I guess the producers wanted to go as brutally and viscerally violent as Poe's stories lended themselves to be.

I give it 2.5 stars or a grade of C+-.

Think Like A Man

"Think Like A Man" is a comedy about the sexes, and how each side tries to get what they want from their significant other. Based on the Steve Harvey book (in the film), the film intercuts with Harvey's nuggets of relationship wisdom as the script segments the film into "chapters" featuring a group of guy friends into male archetypes and their dating/relationship exploits. The main problem with a movie like this is that the characters come off far too one-dimensional, but comedy is played broadly, so it works on that level, but it's not all that involving for the handful of relationships that get scrutinized as the women try to use Harvey's advice to change their men's behavior in their relationship dynamic.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.

The Lucky Ones

Zac Efron continues to try his hand at more adult roles in this film based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, so you know there will be a lot of forlorn looks between the principle protagonists/lovebirds-to-be, and features a 1-dimensional antagonist who threatens to keep te lovebirds apart.   Zac plays Logan, who has completed 3 tours of duty, and found a photo of a woman at the site of hot zone, and becomes determined to find her as he ascribed his survival to finding her photo, and indeed he is able to track her down in a small down in Louisiana.  And since I am a fan of Taylor Schilling, and she played the woman in the photo, I gave the film a shot. 

I actually liked how director Scott Hicks shot the film, some nice camerawork and choices to set the tone of the venue.  The script has some cutesy moments, and has a cloying quality to plot development.  All in all, it's a chick flick, and succeeds mostly in that genre.  

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.

The Three Stooges

I wasn't quite feeling it for current-day incarnation of "The Three Stooges", but then the scene with the defibrillating iron showed up, and I started to laugh quite a bit from that point on.

The plot is nothing more substantial than its original roots, but it does enough to bring enough of the 3 Stooges funny to warrant a matinee viewing if you liked the original 3 Stooges material.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.