Captain America : The Winter Soldier

Please raise your hand if you actually remember the plot of any of the Marvel superhero movies that have come out recently; excluding everyone who fits in the category of a comic book freak that is. I saw Ironman 3 on opening night and even wrote a lengthy review of it afterwards; but three months later I tried to explain to someone what it was about and I drew a total blank! This is what mainstream Hollywood has become, a collection of forgettable popcorn flicks that are full of beautiful people who cant even get naked in them because they need to keep the movie pg-13. At the very least you could throw me a bone (pun intended) and have Kat Dennings go down on Natalie Portman ala Black Swan in the next Thor. But perhaps I'm asking too much of Hollywood; I mean we can't even get the NC-17version of Nymphomaniac released over here but it's perfectly fine to charge pre-teens $1300 a ticket to see the next One Direction documentary in 3D! I swear I'm not as sexually deprived as I sound; I just want the studios to grow some balls again and release movies with some substance.

Needless to say, I went into Captain Johnny Storm : The Winter is Coming with super low expectations. Speaking of, does anyone remember how awful those Fantastic Four movies were? Remember all of the lame dancing plastic man was doing in the nightclubs to impress the ladies? Terrible (in Charles Barkley voice)!

Sorry, I'm back on track now. Winter Soldier takes place in modern day D.C. soon after the events in New York (see Avengers) occurred. Steve Rogers is struggling to find his place in the modern world with all of its changes in technology and values. But he continues to fight the good fight along with his good friend Natasha/Black Widow; who is constantly pimping him out to every girl in sight in hopes of finally getting him a date. Soon after a somewhat successful mission to rescues hostages on a SHIELD carrier ship, Rogers is clued into a big military initiative to help control possible threats to nations and to the world as a whole via the help of giant airborne carrier ships. They have the ability to knock out a specific target almost instantly (sounds like Real Genius). But something happens that causes Nick Fury to question the security of the operation and he requests that the project be delayed. And it's not soon after this that an organization attempts to take the life of both Fury and Rogers in a rather daring attempt. Leading the attack is this mystery man who appears to be as fast and as strong as Rogers is but he comes complete with 1990's Trent Reznor hair, a Hannibal Lecture mask, and a metallic arm that makes him look cooler. So Rogers is not only fighting for his life but also trying to uncover who is behind the attacks before millions of human lives are put at risk.

There are a number of plot twists in this action packed thrill ride, none of which I will reveal here. And yes I purposely made that last line cheesy. For the most part they make sense in the context of the movie and I have to admit that they kept me on my toes. The action scenes are full of mini guns, karate, krav maga, explosions, and beautiful women; basically everything I look for in a movie! And the writers play to the strengths of the characters; so you're not stuck listening to a ton of background stories again. You instead get what you paid to see and that's Captain America knocking people senseless with his awesome shield and his bionic man speed and strength. The two scenes in particular that stand out are the beat down that takes place in the elevator and the first time you see Falcon and his awesome suit unleashed!

Basically what it all boils down to is that I cannot help but like a movie that makes a reference to both Real Genius and Wargames. So even if the rest of the movie sucked I would still give it a rating of fresh. This is probably my favorite of the Marvel comic movies so far and I have to give it a rating of very FRESH! Do yourself a favor and check it before they start releasing more superhero movies with dance numbers in them.