Quick Review: What's Your Number

In "What's Your Number" Anna Faris is a woman who is horrified when she reads an article in a women's magazine stating that a woman who's had 20 lovers will most likely never marry. After all, she'd been with 19 men -- and then ends up having a drunken one-nighter with her ex-boss, a d-bag played by Joel McHale (speaking of whom, I really like "Community" even though I didn't begin watching it until Season 2), hitting the not-so-magical 20 plateau. She decides that one of her old boyfriends must be "the one" and, with the help of her hot neighbor, who has many one-night stands of his own (but no magazine cares whether a man has too many lovers), starts tracking them down. But it's a mostly predictable plot and we all know who ends up together at the end, don't we? But I love Anna Faris in almost anything. And Chris Evans, as the neighbor/man-slut, isn't quite as wooden as he's been in the past (plus, I assumed he filmed this after "Captain America" because his chest hair was starting to grow back in). My grade: C-plus.

Quick Reviews: Captain America, Friends With Benefits

And without further ado, here are the two films I saw most recently...

Captain America: The First Avenger: A little better than "Thor" and "X-Men: First Class," definitely better than "Green Lantern" on the Summer Superhero Scoreboard. Chris Evans is not a great actor, which actually makes him well-suited to play this particular hero. Hate that his chest was shaved/waxed to within an inch of its life. My grade: B-plus.

Friends with Benefits: Not a remake of, and better than, "No Strings Attached." Funny, though a little predictable (aren't all romantic comedies?). Good chemistry between Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis. And quite a bit of Justin's butt. Woody Harrelson plays a gay sports editor (co-worker of Timberlake's character), which normally might be refreshing. But my friend Kurt felt the character was too much of a stereotype, while I was more put off by Harrelson's overacting. My grade: B-plus.

Quick Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

This is probably one of those movies that younger audiences will get, while the elders who dare to go might sit there scratching their heads. I think "Kick-Ass" had a similar problem, which is part of the reason it didn't do as well at the box office as some thought. And the same thing has happened to "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," which is, like "Kick-Ass," based on a graphic novel series. Fortunately, as I am sometimes (but not always) more able to adapt to the ways of the youth than other cranky 48-year-olds, I rolled with it. It was like watching a cartoon, a video game, an action flick, a comedy and a romance all rolled up into one. Scott (Michael Cera) is the slacker 23-year-old bass player for the band "Sex Bob-omb" and, while he's all Michael Cera-y with that soft voice and gawky boyishness, he's also kind of a cad. An ex-girlfriend is the band's drummer, and he's currently dating a 17-year-old girl, and then starts cheating on her when he meets, and falls for, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Then Scott learns that Ramona has seven evil exes -- among them, movie heroes Chris "Human Torch" Evans and Brandon "Superman" Routh -- and that he must defeat them in battle in order for Ramona to keep dating him. Throughout the movie, but particularly in the fight scenes, there's a variety of graphic additions on-screen, from little pop-up notes about characters to TV-Batman "K-POW!" blasts during the fight scenes, to video game graphics and sound effects. It's funny and moves quickly, although there's a bit of a lack of logic now and then that even I can't completely overlook. And then there's the fine performance by Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells, Scott's sarcastic (and gay) friend and roommate -- Wallace may be the funniest part of the movie. He's not the typical gay best friend by any means. He's a much more fully-formed character, and he has a love life. Which is interesting, since Wallace's and Scott's small apartment has only one bed. My grade: A-minus.