TheRetroCritic

As our poll finally ends, I can now reveal that the Best Film Of 2011 , for the faithful followers & visitors of the RetroCritic blog is... CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER Yes, Marvel's latest attempt at adapting the superhero was a winner and arguably the best comic book movie of last Summer. It made it to number 9 in my own Top 20 Best Films Of 2011 list and seeing it take the top spot here isn't too surprising: a great mix of modern action and old-fashioned heroism, Captain America gets it right. And after the dire 1990 version , Steve Rogers deserved his comeback. It was certainly great to see Chris Evans NOT play a smirking douchebag for once. Don't get me wrong, in small doses (see Scott Pilgrim vs The World ) it was fine but... Fantastic Four happened. Twice. Captain America looks the part and boasts a strong cast: Tommy Lee Jones doesn't exactly play against type but stays on good form nonetheless and Hayley Atwell makes a beautiful and ref

You'd think that 20 years after the godawful Captain America TV movies we'd get something half-decent...not so. Made in 1990, this Captain America suffers such bland cinematography it feels like a 70's film. 90% of the film is spent with Captain America not in costume going to boring places and talking. The rest of the time Steve Rogers is wearing his silly plastic costume and being as bland as a cool character like Captain America could possibly get (very very bland as it turns out). As for the Red Skull, he's at the rendez-vous for about 5 minutes and the rest of the time he's also out of costume so in essence we get about 3 minutes of watchable Captain America vs Red Skull action: yay. In the hope that the new Chris Evans film will at the very least be entertaining, lets try and forget about this dull and lazy attempt. It's not as bad as 1994's Fantastic Four but pretty lame nonetheless.

Life post Superbad hasn't been easy for Michael Cera. His various attempts at adapting his nerdy, awkward persona to other ventures felt somewhat hit and miss ( Nick and Norah , Youth in Revolt ) even if Cera himself was always spot on. Finally, with Scott Pilgrim, we not only get his most enjoyable (and different) performance but also his best film to date and one of the best teen movies of the Noughties. Based on the quirky Manga-style comic books, Scott Pilgrim vs The World is really an ode to 80s-90s video games, kung fu films and anime so if all this geekiness isn't your cup of tea it's very likely that Edgar Wright's latest will fly right over your head like its P-bar's up to its full potential. And if you don't know what a "P-bar" is then, well, good luck with that. There's loads to enjoy regardless, though. I mean you've got Chris Evans as a skateboard-riding douche with a funny beard, Brandon Routh as a super-powerful vegan, a