Atlantic City Weekly

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In this summer of mildly disappointing superhero movies (X-Men: First Class, Thor, or in the case of Green Lantern, a full tilt stinker), Captain America, directed by veteran Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer, October Sky, Hidalgo) delivers the goods in an engaging fashion. Chris Evans, minus his flame on-skills from the Fantastic Four films and with his hot body photo-shopped out of the picture to play 98-pound weakling Steve Rogers early on in the film, is quite the hero.

The initial premise is engaging, as we watch Rogers, a little man with asthma, trying to join the army in pre-Pearl Harbor America. He keeps getting rejected and he keeps trying to find a recruiting station that will take him.

Rogers is fearless despite his frailty, a quality that catches the eye of scientist Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), who invites Rogers to join his very special military project. Erskine has engineered a chemical that works like a superhero steroid with the idea being to create super soldiers to stop the Nazis from world domination.

Gruff Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) isn’t sold on Rogers as the best candidate to be the initial guinea pig, but Erskine has a reason for his choice. The serum heightens all the qualities of the subject, not just strength and endurance, and he believes someone with compassion will get the most out of his experiment. Erskine has seen the effects of the serum on someone whose mindset was less noble than Rogers’.

There is also a dame tossed into the plot, a British agent, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) who brings a modern, post-feminist sensibility to a film otherwise steeped in World War II nostalgia. That said, she is still there primarily to be Captain America’s love interest.

Once Steve Rogers has been transformed into Captain America, he wastes no time using his newly acquired abilities to capture a Nazi spy in a breathtaking sequence that includes a race in the streets of New York that finishes with Captain A chasing down a mini-submarine.

Due to the circumstances that unfold, there will only be one super soldier, and Phillips isn’t gung ho about using him, but Captain America doesn’t give him a choice when he decides to save his best friend Bucky (Sebastian Stan) and the rest of the soldiers captured by the ultimate villain, the über-evil Johann Schmidt, played by the go-to supporting play for tentpole summer movies, Hugo Weaving (The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, V For Vendetta, Transformers).

While Captain America is in many ways a set-up movie for next summer’s multi-superhero Avengers film, it stands on its own as an enjoyable superhero flick with a great final showdown between hero and villain, characters we enjoy (both good and evil), some cool weapons and vehicles and a story that’s engrossing.

Chris Evans delivers the perfect superhero with heart and Weaving is just as convincing as the epitome of evil (not easy when you consider that Hitler also shows up in this movie in a cameo role).
Captain America seamlessly blends nostalgia with a classic superhero vibe and delivers an enjoyable popcorn summer entertainment.

No Strings Attached to ‘Benefits’
Back in January No Strings Attached, starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher, attempted to be an anti-romantic comedy that was in fact, a conventional romantic comedy by the end. Now, Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis are in a movie that follows the exact same path, a movie about two people who decide to be friends and sexual partners, without the messy component of romance. This mini-genre also includes the superior Love and Other Drugs with Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, released last December.

No Strings Attached and Friends With Benefits are essentially the same movie, an okay romantic comedy, certainly better than crap like The Ugly Truth (which is referenced in Benefits), but not that much better. Justin Timberlake is a talented comic actor, a side of his persona that has been best served by the hilarious digital shorts on Saturday Night Live. Fans of those music videos will appreciate an appearance by Patricia Clarkson (the SNL short “Mother Lover”) as Kunis’ sexually liberated mom. Richard Jenkins also adds a little weight as Timberlake’s Alzheimer-inflicted dad.

Watching Friends With Benefits made me want a Timberlake-Portman pairing in the future.

Captain America ***
Directed by Joe Johnston; rated PG-13

Friends With Benefits  **1/2
Directed by Will Gluck; rated R