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 

All is Lost (2013)

A perfect companion piece to the space-set “Gravity,” “All is Lost” also follows a lone person (Robert Redford as “Our Man,” no name) as he faces death on the vast Indian Ocean, his ultra-chic yacht sinking, every hope escaping his grasp, until suicide becomes not something to fear, but embrace. I don’t know why so many desperate lone survival tales are hitting the screen now -– think of “Life of Pi” or “Captain Phillips” -– but what a remarkable run. Here, Redford -– in a brilliantly paced, near wordless performance that wows with its refusal to go “big” –- awakens to the crash of his yacht against an adrift shipping container. His boat punctured and sinking, the man slowly and clumsily patches the gape. And just when hope is reachable, it crashes away as a violent storm hits, fresh water supplies disappear, and cargo ships –- ironically the man’s only salvation –- pass by like gods too busy to notice a believer. His technology and wits fleeting, Our Man must navigate the ocean by eye. J.C. Chandor’s (“Margin Call”) film is tense and methodical, stepping for every beat that “Gravity” rocketed past as he puts alongside Redford. Most deserved use of the “F” bomb ever. A

The Natural (1984)

Not just a classic baseball movie, “The Natural” is an American fable as fantastical as Paul Bunyan or Superman. Quintessential American actor Robert Redford plays Roy Hobbs, a middle-aged (35!) man who finally climbs to the majors to become the “best that ever came or will be” on the diamond. He can pitch like a tank, and hits balls -– with his own bat carved from a tree stuck by lightening –- like Ruth. Years earlier Hobbs was on his way to young stardom when a woman shot him out of spite, before committing suicide. Hobbs has buried the past, but is not ashamed of it, for it does not define him. Yes, Roy is waylaid and deceived, and Homer’s “Odyssey” is name-dropped and shadows the story, complete with a Cyclops (Darren McGavin plays a crooked investor with a glass eye). Directed by Barry Levinson, shot by Caleb Deschanel, and scored by Randy Newman, this is a superhero film for guys who think a baseball cap is just as good as a red cape. Corny? Sentimental? Obvious? Absolutely. But I recently re-watched it to the outside sounds of fireworks and thunder. I felt as if a child, peaking at God. A

The Great Gatsby (1974 and 2013)

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby” has spawned roughly six filmed versions. I have seen only two, and it seems a movie version that equals the book is far and forever out of grasp. That is a reference to the book, which if you have not read is a shame. Because I’m skipping the plot re-hash. Read the book.

The 1974 version comes with high pedigree: Francis Ford Coppola has his name on the screenplay, and the top-line stars are Robert Redford and Mia Farrow, both at career highs, as the deeply unknowable titular character and the possibly soulless Daisy, she the woman of his desires/obsessions/ past. Sam Waterston is our hero/narrator, Nick. Redford as the make-you-swoon Gatsby? Cannot go wrong, right? “Well, of course you can.” This is a dud. My wife loves it. I don’t. The book zings with jazz and satire, hidden meanings, the notion that on your third read you catch new-to-you symbolism and connections. Never has an attack on excess come off as empty. Redford -– great actor -– is stiff and wrong as Gatsby, with Farrow over-acting the hysterics. Director Jack Clayton nails the look of the era of loud jazz, loose morals, and great wealth -– Gatsby’s house is the Rosecliff House in Newport, Rhode Island, and my wife and I have been there -– but it trudges along slow and empty. That moment at the end comes not as tragic and sickeningly ironic, but just tepid as … pool water. Dig, though, Scott Wilson as a wronged man. C

Baz Luhrmann’s version is all excess, an ironic eyebrow raiser as the novel attacks the very notion of flash and glitter as suffocating. Recall the absinth kicks of “Moulin Rouge!”? This “Gatsby” is all about that, in 3D. We open with narrator Nick (Tobey Maguire) as a novelist/patient inside a sanitarium, a wrecked shell encouraged to write of the incident that derailed his life: His dealings with mysterious Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), waif cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan) and her husband (Joel Edgerton). Yes, McGuire is playing Nick as Fitzgerald. How quaint. Luhrmann smartly mines deeper, fuller emotions, and DiCaprio nails the role of a delusional man who drops the term “old sport!,” but has no idea what it means, and does not know his life’s goal is a dead end. In a flip from the ’74 version, it is Maguire who is miscast, giving a “Spider-Man”-era wide-eyed, gawky performance that looks ridiculous on a man his age. The hip-hop fueled parties staged by Luhrmann drown satire, while the visual barrage of Nick’s written words floating in air reminded me of the quiet of reading a book. There is no quiet here. Only noise. C+

Buck (2011)

“Buck” follows the man behind “The Horse Whisperer,” the 1995 book and 1998 Robert Redford film about a kind cowboy who tames a wild horse and therefore saves its owner, a wounded girl. The real Horse Whisperer is Dan “Buck” Brannaman, a former rodeo child star who found solace and salvation in horses after a life of hellish abuse. We follow family, horse owners, trailers and farms, but director Cindy Meehl makes it clear, this is about anyone’s life, even Philly boy, and taps into raising children, holding a marriage together, and reaching out to others. It’s not all sweetness. Just as the film turns Buck into a Zen Jedi Magic Man, he meets a troubled horse he cannot save, one that – in a jolt of shocking violence – nearly rips a man’s face off. The gush of blood is real. Buck is heartbroken. I could have saved him, he says. Old film of the dad with Buck is an unsettling peak at child abuse, the old man’s claws dug into the boy’s wee shoulder. A jolt to anyone who knows what that means. Maybe Buck is a Zen Jedi Magic Man. A-

Quiz Show (1994)

Directed by Robert Redford and penned by Paul Attanasio, “Quiz Show” details the “TV is God” bubble pop that no one – or not enough people – ever heard. On the well-loved 1950s game show “Twenty-One,” a guy named Herbie Stempel (John Turturro) is winning night after night. But his nerdy, Jewish-by-way-of-Queens persona doesn’t jive for advertisers. Herb is forced out. Enter Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), a Columbia University instructor from a dreamy New England family and with movie-star looks to boot. “Quiz Show” details how this show and these guys came crashing down to earth, because it’s all fake. Redford spins many plates – TV ethics, education, bigotry, the quest to surpass one’s father, and pure corruption of power -- and does so perfectly. The 1950s have rarely been re-created with such loving detail and rhythm, and with such a steely eye on the façade of America as the pillar of truth and success, operated by men who only want money and fame. Best scene: At tale’s end, Stempel looks on with glee and then horror as Van Doren is ripped to shreds, with his parents watching helpless, by angry reporters. Redford’s view of truth on television is timeless. A

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Updated: 21 February 2014

"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" is the greatest of cinema fun from the late 1960s, and the best buddy comedy action film ever made. Period. Flat out.

Even if I hate, loathe, despise, and cringe at the hippie-dippy piano crap Burt Bacharach music heard in the title song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head." And the dodololedo-shit near the end, you know it sucks.

Commie? Maybe. But I hate the music.

Oh, yes, the film. Worship. In case you're not familiar with this classic tweaking of the western genre, here goes: The Hole in the Wall Gang, led by Butch (Paul Newman) and The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford), robs one too many trains and is pursued by a never-seen gang of lawmen. In their bid to stay alive and re-start their career criminal ways, Butch and Sundance, along with the latter's lover (Katherine Ross of "The Graduate"), head to Bolivia.

Big mistake.

But, watch it and love it.

Mixing standout comedy, solid Western action, and some mild suspense, "Butch" jump-started the Hollywood buddy flick and satirized everything about all of the above before it ever got popular enough to poke fun at.

The film is never better when Newman and Redford not only out fox the law, but also out-smart-ass each other with witty and riotous dialogue. When Butch and Sundance jump off a cliff into a raging river below to escape their captors, it's one of the great stunts of all filmdom, and played off as a quick laugh. Startd by tough-guy Redford's admission that he cannot swim.

The build up to that jump ("What do you mean you can't swim?!?") is comedy/action nirvana, and a send up of tough guy posturing. There's never been a screen duo as cool as these guys. (Ambiguously gay theses abound if the viewer chooses.)

If only for that damn music, this would be classic Top 20 proportions. Top 10. Ugh. "Raindrops." No. Tone deaf bricks. On my head. As is: A-

Lions for Lambs (2007)

Robert Redford's well-acted "Lions for Lambs" follows a liberal California professor (Redford), a Republican senator (Tom Cruise), and a journalist looking at the end of her career (Meryl Streep). The film goes against the Hollywood grain by showing every conceivable side to the debates on war, religion and Bush, but for the worse. Once the lines are drawn and the opinions given, this by the first half hour, the film doesn't have anywhere to go. Scenes involving two former students turned G.I. Joe don't really pay off as they obviously have been shot on a soundstage. Or badly CGI'd. Still, the best poke in the eye is how Redford demands us to give a damn, be it right or left or wrong. C+