The Expendables 3 (2014)

“The Expendables” brings back Sylvester Stallone and his action pals (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, Jason Statham) for more grinding mayhem, this time against Mel Gibson as an arms dealer. After the improved sequel, “3” ought to be aces. It’s garbage. The film gets cut to a bloodless PG-13 to get the kids in, but it’s still far too violent for children, with hundreds of onscreen deaths. (Yet, “Boyhood” got an R!?!) But that’s nitpicking. The plot is shambles, bending backward to intro younger heroes, all of them a snore – especially Kellan Lutz from “Legend of Hercules.” The young lot get captured, forcing the older lot to stage a rescue mission. Why bother? Gibson proves again he’s wildcard actor, brimming with madness, but his role is a bust. Buying bad art for $3M is evil? Harrison Ford plays a spook subbing for Bruce Willis, who played “Agent Church” in parts 1 and 2, but quit this entry over pay. So Ford delivers the line, “Church is out of the picture,” and winks directly into the camera. I saw a tear in his eye. C-

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Marvel Studios ups its game like never before with “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” which puts the red, white, and blue-sporting, square-jaw Greatest Generation super soldier hero (Chris Evans) back solo after the Earth-in-peril hoopla of 2012’s “The Avengers.” 

Last round, in “First Avenger,” Cap fought Nazi mad scientist Red Skull. It was pure World War II adventure, Burt Lancaster or Indiana Jones style, with pop art know how, I dug it. Mostly. (Damn the PC moves.) 

In this better sequel, Cap’s up against post-9/11 American paranoia, where we gladly trade up privacy rights for better security. Think body scan at the airport. Think Patriot Act, Bush, Obama, drones, and the NSA. Marvel and directors Joe and Anthony Russo -– guys who have only done comedy as far as I know -– give it all a solid F.U. 

I was giddy watching it. I almost applauded. Should have applauded. Nerd drop: It all reminded me of Nick Fury vs. SHIELD. Look it up. 

Speaking of, Cap and the Avengers’ employer, one-eyed super spy SHIELD boss/ grump Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is all about “security first,” and he argues, “This is how we do it,” showing off to Cap three massive autonomous airship/attack drones from hell that will patrol the world 24/7, squashing sabers before they rattle, bad thoughts before they form. 

A mad Cap bounces back, I paraphrase, “Not in my day.” 

Despite the bravado, Fury knows better, too. Then his life goes bad, and in comes a bigger SHIELD honcho, played by none other than Robert Redford, who 40 years ago basically was Captain America. Think “All the President’s Men,” et al. 

Yes, his role is all too obvious, but the irony is deliciously morbid. Who do we trust now? Captain America, in short, is battling America. The man who played Bob Woodward and corrupt power-made presidents is now …. Just watch it, folks, comic book nerds and American history nerds alike. 

Intense, smart, grisly violent for a PG-13, action packed, “Winter Soldier” is classic ’70s conspiracy flick filtered through super heroics. “Parallax View” with tights and sci-fi.

As for the title? Look to the first film and one death we didn’t see, and work from there. I won’t dish spoilers, but that plot and the return of Toby Jones’ quack scientist in … non-human form again shows Marvel’s reach for just all-out kicks, rooting back to impossible crazy 1950s drive-in films and the comics I grew up on. 

This wowed me. Comic book film herd Americana fun with a bang. Yes, it sets up sequels and plays comic book rules (no one really dies, do they?), but, man, more of this, please. A 

Jack Reacher (2012)

In “Jack Reacher,” Tom Cruise is the coolest guy in the room who’s miles ahead of everyone else, can fight five guys no sweat, and when he walks by -– even at a Goodwill –- every woman swoons. The college girls, too. Yes, Cruise may be “playing” Jack Reacher, but really he’s spinning on his own ego. And since Reacher is one of those secret Army guys with no personality or background, why not let Cruise do so? He is the main attraction. Sorry Lee Child books fans. Here, Reacher investigates a mass murder carried out by an ex-Army sniper who we know is innocent because we saw another man (Jai Courtney) do the deed. Fear not, Reacher/Cruise will down every villain, right up to the one-fingered evil Blofeld cousin (famed director Werner Herzog) with an agenda so uninspired 007 would yawn. Not Reacher/ Cruise. He coolly threatens, scowls, and drives a Chevelle in a kick-ass car chase that’s a riotous hoot. All of this is carried out as a massacre plot that shies at the shock of violence to get a kid-friendly PG-13. But post-Sandy Hook, when a movie killer targets children, why are we not looking at an automatic R rating? B-

World War Z (2013)

Against all odds -– based on an episodic novel seemingly impossible to adapt straightforward, and a production history rife with massive re-shoots and enough upheaval to make James Cameron wince -– actor/producer/Robert Redford-blessed Brad Pitt has performed a miracle. He’s made a fun, smart, summer popcorn thriller with “World War Z.” (Max Brooks -- son of Mel -- wrote the cult novel, for which TV sensation “The Walking Dead” likely owes its existence.) 

Pitts plays Gerry Lane, a former United Nations special investigator of human rights abuses now a stay-at-home dad. Quickly in the film, Gerry and his doting wife (Mireille Enos) are driving their daughters in Center City Philadelphia when radio news pops of a rabies outbreak among humans, and then traffic around the family pops and booms as the city falls into mysterious chaos. (The editing in these scenes is jittery with fear and gripping as hell.) Gerry catches a glance: Deranged people attacking each other, biting arms and faces and legs, and spreading the inhuman malady, with eyes bulging and bones cracking with sick unnatural movement. 

Of course Gerry is needed for his wonder-boy skills, and the U.N. calls and saves him and family, before tasking our hero with the impossible: Find the origin of the outbreak and any possible cure before the humanity flat lines. With that, Gerry globetrots to South Korea, then Israel, then onward and outward, all the time thinking of his family. He’s a good dad first. (Debate the moral choices made here later, on your own time.)

Pitt and director Marc Forster, and a long gang of writers, including several “Lost” alumni, and some replacement director unknown, have nailed not just an undeniably cool version of the Brooks’ book, they also have cleared one other hurdle: Breaking from “Walking Dead” and other zombie horror classics, “Shaun of the Dead” among them. How so? They drop the “every man” angle and make this a mystery film from the top down, the world’s “police” attempting to beat a clock to save all of humanity. You can practically hear the “Law & Order” ka-klum! noise. And it works. 

Yes, the lack of any gore and guts for the PG-13 rating and the preordained knowledge that no one we care for, or Gerry cares for, will be chomped liver, breaks the dramatic weight, but the finale with Pitt staring down a zombie with an overbite is marvelous, chilling fun. Also kick-ass: A scene set inside a jumbo jet with a female Israeli soldier (Daniella Kertesz) saving our hero’s ass, plus the fall of Jerusalem is beautifully-played, large-scale CGI work seen from the eye of God. (Speaking of, the politics pitched here seem like a dare to the real world, and may be worth a second watch on their own.) 

If you need a hint of the behind-the-scenes “Z” chaos, look quick for actor Matthew Fox (also from “Lost”) as a helicopter pilot. He appears for only a few frames. In an original cut, he was a major character. But that I did not fully pick up on that in the theater? That’s as cool as taking out a zombie with a kro-bar and drinking a Pepsi to celebrate. And, yes, that happens. B+

Alex Cross (2012)

Halfway through watching a shocking dull and vacant Tyler Perry sleepwalk his way through playing James Patterson’s famed detective “Alex Cross,” the actor who should be playing the role arrives for a cameo that kills. Giancarlo Esposito. You know his face. “Breaking Bad.” “Usual Suspects.” He scorches screen as a mob boss called on by Cross as the stalwart detective sinks to “Untouchables” methods to bag the psychotic assassin/kick boxer/artist (!!) who killed his wife. That’s the main plot, set up by a starved-looking Matthew Fox (“Lost”) as the thrice-talented loon slow-tortures and kills a woman and then goes gonzo across Detroit in a mysterious spree that leads to a massively unsurprising conspiracy of typical James Patterson pedigree. But forget the forgettable plot. Back to Perry. Love or hate his “Madea” films, he is undeniably entertaining, and can own a screen. Here, he’s outclassed by furniture. A stiff on moving legs, sans zombie makeup. Is he tired? Put off by the rough (but PG-13) material laid out by director Rob Cohen? I have no idea. “Cross” opens DOA, and save Esposito’s blip, stays a flatliner. D

Taken 2 (2012)

“Taken 2” is pure GOP values: ’Merica is pure and strong, and every last Muslim is an evil perv-o killer, and women are helpless creatures who cannot drive a car or plan a vacation without male supervision. Fox News would endorse it. The themes are serious, I think. Liam Neeson again plays the ex-CIA agent who shoots,stabs, stomps, and rips apart dozens of evil foreigners to save his daughter (Maggie Grace) and now kidnapped wife (Famke Janssen) from slavery. We’re in Turkey and Islam looms like a disease, and every person of color -– be it police to hotel clerk -- is part of the conspiracy. Fox News. It’s all less than 90 minutes, so the trip is mercifully short, and Neeson is fast becoming a thinking man’s Chuck Norris, even if the thinking is fascist and WASP. To get a PG-13, director Olivier Megaton (his real name?) goes bloodless and when necks break in Neeson’s fists, we hear no sound because snapping bone is somehow more offensive than gunfire. The editing is terrible, and so  is the slant that Neeson (wonderful actor) is taking onscreen. D+