Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY  (2014)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: James Gunn
    Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista,
    Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Lee Pace, 
    Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou,
    John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Benicio Del Toro
At last, a superhero comic-book action movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, an intergalactic adventure in which the heroes bicker and complain and insult each other and generally act like idiots as they race around the universe in search of "the orb," a softball-sized sphere with planet-destroying powers. There are five members of this misfit team. A thief (Chris Pratt) with a fetish for the pop hits of the '70s and '80s. A muscular, scarified giant (Dave Bautista) bent on revenge. A hot-looking, green-skinned warrior babe (Zoe Saldana). A raccoon (Bradley Cooper). And a tree trunk (Vin Diesel). I'm not making this up. It's better if you don't try too hard to figure out who all the other characters are. They're not very well defined, and there are too many of them. The story's like that, too, pretty much, fast and funny and ten times too busy. None of that matters, really. We're not talking about Hector and Achilles and the Trojan War here. We're talking about a make-believe war over a fantasy planet, and a tree trunk and a green-skinned warrior babe and a scene-stealing, wise-guy raccoon. The top money-making movie of 2014.