Chris Luckett

This week’s new releases: Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Double.

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CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

Running Time: 136 mins.
OFRB Rating: PG (violence)
Starring: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Redford, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Samuel L. Jackson, Frank Grillo, Cobie Smulders, Emily VanCamp, Toby Jones, and Garry Shandling
Verdict: Captain America: The First Avenger may have been the worst of the ten Marvel Studios movies, but unexpectedly, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the best movies Marvel’s made yet. From its thrilling opening sequence to its surprising ending, it barely takes a wrong step and moves at a really brisk pace. Each scene seems hard to top, then is quickly dwarfed by the crazy turns of the plot and immense action sequences that follow. It sets the stage for The Avengers: Age of Ultron, teases the third Captain America movie, and best of all, still holds up for those who have never seen a Marvel movie. (4½ stars out of 5)

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THE DOUBLE

Running Time: 93 mins.
OFRB Rating: 14A (coarse language)
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, Yasmin Paige, and Noah Taylor
Verdict: There’s a been a number of masterpieces about doppelgangers in recent years, from Adaptation. and Femme Fatale to The Prestige and Moon. Richard Ayoade’s The Double does not belong in the same company.  The Dostoyevsky adaptation comes off like an inscrutable student art film where everything symbolizes something but damned if the movie’s going to bother telling you. Everything about The Double’s plot and setting has been done better before. The ending may be clever, but it can’t save a movie ultimately more concerned with being intelligent than entertaining. (2½ stars out of 5)