Captain America: The First Avenger - The Summer Blockbuster that delivers the goods!

Steve Rogers, a kid that has been rejected for military service on a number of occasions, volunteers for a top secret program which seeks to turn the average soldier into a superhero. This program successfully turns him into Captain America, a hero dedicated to the truths, ideals and defense of the American way of life.

In this summer of blockbuster sequels and comic book adaptations it might be difficult to sell a film like Captain America to the movie - going public, but there are a number of reasons why they should not skip over this tale of The First Avenger.

The story gave the audience the necessary nuts and bolts of the good Captain's origins to draw them in without overwhelming them in miniscule details that could derail it. Director Joe Johnston effectively mixed solid action sequences along with properly timed bits of humor to give the film an almost "Indiana Jones -esque" quality. But what set Captain America apart from those other lackluster sequels or comic book films was the performance of Chris Evans as the title character. When the audience is first introduced to Captain America, he is a skinny kid from Brooklyn named Steve Rogers who has been rejected by the Army four times due to his poor health and other medical problems. One got the sense that Steve had been picked on most of his life, but that did not stop him from standing up to bullies or taking on challenges that stronger men shied away from. He was the prototypical underdog and if Johnston had just jumped straight into showing Captain America cracking skulls and kicking Nazi butt without showing the audience who he was before, the film would have lacked the depth to story and character that it exhibited throughout (a trait sadly missing in the bulk of films released this summer). The humanity and heart that Evans endowed Steve with at the beginning not only made him the perfect subject for the Army's Super Soldier program, but also gave the audience a hero that they could relate to on an emotional level.

It was easy to stand up and cheer for Captain America for it was the first summer blockbuster of 2011 to deliver the goods (and make sure you stick around after the credits for a special surprise, you'll be glad you did).

Grade: B

Green Zone: You might not like what you see

A word of advice for those of you checking out this film. It is not another "Bourne" movie. Green Zone took on topics much closer to reality than a super soldier who lost his memory.

Army Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller is sent out to find weapons of mass destruction in the provinces of Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. When the intell he and his troops receive fail to uncover anything, Roy sets out to discover why. The answers he finds lead him into a world of lies and cover-ups perpetrated by factions within the U.S. Government.

It is rare to find a film that not only provides excellent action but also has the courage to make a meaningful statement, Green Zone is one of those films. Director Paul Greengrass delivered the same kind of frenetic, hand-held camera shot action pieces audiences have grown accustomed to seeing from his previous work on the last two "Bourne" films. Matt Damon was solid as Roy Miller, a soldier whose singular focus on discovering the truth about the weapons of mass destruction propelled the story and kept the film moving. But where Green Zone distinguished itself from other action thrillers set during the second Iraqi conflict was in its portrayal of the U.S. Government. Inspired by true events or not the film painted quite an unflattering picture of certain Government agencies. Those agencies, the CIA and Defense Intelligence, bickered amongst themselves as each attempted to weld power and create an Iraq that they could control. The question of if the United States even had real intell to justify invading Iraq to overthrow Saddam was posited in the film as well, further pushing American viewers out of their comfort zones of believing their Government had nothing but the noblest of intention when freeing the Iraqi people. Clearly this depiction of events might upset some viewers but one has to admire the statement both Greengrass and Damon were trying to make. Green Zone was not just some action film filled with funs and explosions but a complex war thriller with loftier aims of making the audience face some truths they might not have wanted to.

Grade: B