Puss in Boots (2011)

Antonia Banderas as Puss in Boots was the best gag in the latter “Shrek” films, boring affairs that smelled of hastened scripts and all eyes on boosted 4Qs at Dreamworks. Luckily, the stand-alone film of “Puss in Boots” – the Latin Lover kitty stars, with no ogres or talking donkeys about – stands on his own four legs despite the studio curse of all jokes and flimsy story. Puss teams with Humpty Dumpty to score the golden goose from “Jack and the Beanstalk” fame. Salma Hayek voices a femme fatale, and Billy Bob Thornton and Amy Sedaris play a redneck Jack and Jill. A flashback is dull, Jack and Jill are after-thoughts, and Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) is a shell, but the writers clearly love cats, and they pitch gags galore as Puss breaks his cool to chase a light or give himself a bath at the most dramatic moment. The “camera” has fun as we weave around this CGI world, over a bridge, and later up a beanstalk. Cat nip for feline lovers. B-

Thor (2011)

“Thor” is a blockbuster comic book movie. I was hesitant about this film early on -- I loved the books as a child/teen, but Thor’s whole Norse god history, blue costume and red cape, the hammer, and long hair? It spelled disaster. Enter Kenneth Branagh, director of several Shakespeare adaptations and the A-grade thriller “Dead Again.” He perfectly balances this superhero fantasy: Massive special effects, action, fluffy back-stabbing drama, and prerequisite heroic self-sacrifice. The plot spans a thousand years and multiple galaxies: God of Thunder Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is banished to Earth after he starts an intergalactic war (oops) thus irking poppa Odin (Anthony Hopkins). As Thor cools his heels on Earth, brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) does very bad things back home. Hemsworth – he played poppa Kirk in 2009’s “Star Trek” – is charismatic, tough as concrete, a bit foolish, but fully heroic. A sly Natalie Portman plays a scientist who Thor happens to luck into – these things happen in comic books. “Thor” could have been a disaster. We have villains named Frost Giants for crying out loud. But Branagh treats it as vital as anything written by the Bard. Near-constant jokes and asides welcome. B

A Simple Plan (1998)

Between making the wonderfully sick “Evil Dead” films and three mixed-bag “Spider-Man” flicks, Sam Raimi made “A Simple Plan,” a supremely dark morality tale that could be the dead serious cousin to dark comedy “Fargo.” Both are set in a frozen white America where bodies stack higher than snow. Here, two estranged brothers (Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton) and the one’s slovenly friend (Brent Briscoe) stumble upon a downed plane in the snowy woods of Minnesota. Inside the plane are a dead body and a duffel bag with $4 million in cash. The bag is opened, and lines are drawn. Guns, too. The trick of Raimi’s direction and Scott B. Smith’s screenplay (based on his own great book) is painting the loveless Jacob (Thornton, amazing) as the only person of conscious, and high-lighting just how far brothers can stray from one another. The dark thrill of “Plan” lies in watching just what pains people –- family -- will inflict on one another for wealth, while justifying every action. Money trumps blood, every time. A

Eagle Eye (2008)

"Eagle Eye" is an entertaining flick. It races at a brisk pace and has enough action, stunt work and explosions to keep the mind from wandering, and the always rockin' Billy Bob Thornton is back in a government hard-ass role similar to his cool turn in "Armageddon." But it wasn't even a quarter of the way into this Steven Spielberg-produced movie that I realized I'd watched this many times before, most notably in the classic "North by Northwest" and several Will Smith movies.

Shia LaBeouf (not Cary Grant or Smith) stars as Jerry Shaw, the ne'er do well twin brother of a highly decorated, recently killed Air Force officer (also LaBeouf). The day after his twin is buried, though, Jerry's empty bank account suddenly is flush with money and his apartment is loaded wall to wall with fake passports, explosives and guns. Jerry stupidly takes the cash and handles just about every weapon before his cell phone rings and a cold female voice warns him to flee before the FBI arrives. Meanwhile, a single mom (Michelle Monaghan) receives a call from the same voice, ordering her to take a nearby car and drive away or her young son will be killed. The two soon meet and are ordered to Washington, D.C., with the entire federal government on the hunt.

Without giving away the busy plot's boring instigator, I will say this: I was deeply surprised that Spielberg could be behind such a cliched, obvious twist that a pre-teen could figure it out. Spielberg apparently kicked this plot around for years, before handing it off to helmer D. J. Caruso (who directed La Beauf in "Disturbia"). True to its background, "Eagle Eye" plays exactly as a second-rate idea that's been dusted off and re-gifted. There are far too many gaping plot holes to ignore, and the ending is too implausible to bear. (Spoiler alert: The hero lives, when, in fact, the remains of his bullet-riddled body would fit inside a Tic Tac box had this been real. Also, if the Secret Service were this dumb, we'd cycle through presidents like condoms at a frat house.)

Still, LaBeouf, Monoghan and an awesome Thornton (as an FBI agent), plus some truly great stunt work and car crashes, save the film from a crash and burn. A paper-thin marginal thumbs up. B-