Movie Review: Iron Man

This summer has officially started off with a bang. I listed Iron Man #2 on my movies to see this summer. The only concern I had about this movie was Robert Downey Jr. I wondered if he could pull of Tony Stark. Would he be Bale in Batman Begins or Ben Affleck in Daredevil? Not only does he pull it off, Downey looks like he’s having fun doing it.

Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark, a billionaire weapons maker who is as rich as Bruce Wayne combined with the intelligence of Peter Parker. Stark is kidnapped and mortally wounded on a trip through Afghanistan. His only escape is constructing a metal suit to fight his way out.

After escaping Starks devotes his life to fighting the very people who use his weapons for evil. He uses the prototype metal man suit he made to engineer a sleeker version, giving us Iron Man.

Robert Downey Jr gives us one of the better super hero performances. It’s easy to hold a moviegoers attention in the Iron Man suit. The special effects, gadgets, eye-popping special effects, or even the cool colors can sell themselves. The scenes where he’s not wearing the suit is where we need to see the actor shine. Downey does a masterful job with his witty performance as Tony Stark. He’s so believable as a billionaire/playboy/egomaniac that I’m not even sure if he’s acting.

Terrance Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jeff Bridges round out the supporting cast in the film. All accomplished actors who did a really good job. Whoever casted for this film did a wonderful job of getting actors who could hold up the scenes that didn’t have explosions or cool Iron suits in them. I didn’t find myself bored, staring at my watch waiting for another action sequence.

One of the villains in the movie is Raza played by Faran Tahir. Raza did not have a lot of lines in the movie, but his presence seemed necessary. I look forward to seeing him in some more movies.

My suggestion: Iron Man is a fun ride for everyone. One of the better comic book adaptations that’s been made over the years. Jon Favreau did a magnificent job constructing this film, and including some of the nuances of the comic book. The storyline is good, the action is great, not to mention the script is funny and keeps you engaged for the whole film. The action reminds me of mornings sitting up ignoring my chores, reading comic book after comic book. I would have never imagined we would see those same comic book heroes on such a big stage. Next up, The Hulk!

3:10 To Yuma

I heard a few months ago that Gladiator (Crowe) and Batman (Bale) were starring in a western together called 3:10 To Yuma. They are both two of my favorite actors right now. If I heard they were starring in a film, even if it sounded bad, I might say “Hmmm It could be worth seeing.” For some reason that title sounded familiar.

I went home that night and searched my TiVo and found it on my Westerns Channel. One of the million channels that I pay $89 for every month. That brings me to my rant for the week. Why don’t cable companies let you choose what channels you watch and they can charge you. It can be a base rate for 25 channels and you can pay extra for the pay channels like Showtime and HBO. If you want 25-50 channels you can pay more for that. I think that’s a great idea. I would have half of the channels that I have now. Now if you don’t have cable or satellite you can’t get any channel. Why aren’t more people upset about this?

Anyway I watched the 1957 original Yuma and it was really good, surprisingly good. My roommate said that if the remake was anything close to the original it would be a hit. You know what, he was right.

Yuma picks up with struggling farmer Dan Evans (Bale) crosses paths with notorious outlaw Ben Wade (Crowe). Desperate for money Evans agrees to help transport Wade to the town of Contention and put him on the 3:10 to Yuma Prison where he will be hanged (hence the name of the movie).

They really sell the fact that Wade is a ruthless killer. As you watch the movie you realize that Wade isn’t the only one to be worried about. His outfit is on the way to bust their leader out before he’s put on that train. They are lead by his second in command Charlie Prince (Ben Foster. I almost didn’t recognize him but he played Angel in X-Men 3). Prince is a reckless gunslinger who will shoot anything in sight. He’s a very colorful and one of the more memorable characters in Yuma. So much that in my Fantasy Football League a friend changed his team name to Charlie Prince, and another friend is determined to start a bike club called “The Outfit”.

There are some differences between the original and the updated version of the story. Most notably the ending of the movie, but it still has the same feel to it. Some of the scenes are taken straight from the 1957 version and are done well. This version has way more gunfights and is a lot more graphic, but never gets off track. The characters remain the same and even the characters they added fit in very well. They did a great job adapting this film. You figure it’s been 50 years so something has to change. Showing a struggling farmer in 1957 is different than in 2007. This movie showed how it affected his family and the relationship with his wife and kids.

My suggestion: The best movie of the fall so far. Great remake and a fun story to tell. It’s one of those stories you’d hear as a kid. Bale and Crowe both deliver in this film. I think I may go see it again.

My Grade: 3.3 – Way to start off the Fall. A few tweaks here and there and you may have gotten an A.

W-A-R is B-A-D

All summer I’ve sworn that Pirates Caribbean 3 was by far the worst movie I’ve seen. That was until Saturday afternoon when I went to go see Jet Li and Jason Statham star in War. I got together with three of my good friends and I must say we were all very excited to see this movie. None of us really had high expectations. We wanted to see an “ok” plot, some good action, a few laughs , and a big finish. Let’s just say we got none of the things on our wish list.

Statham plays Crawford an FBI agent who’s a complete bad (you know what) that works in San Francisco’s Chinatown. He knows martial arts and speaks fluent Chinese. One day Crawford’s partner Tom (Terry Chen) and his wife and daughter are killed by Rouge (Jet Li). Fast forward to 3 years later and Crawford is obsessed with the case and is divorced from his wife because of it. He’s spent the last few years trying to find Rouge, who for some reason changes his face every six months.

We all know what happens next. Rouge shows up again and Crawford is on the case. This time Rouge is starting a war between two crime families, the Triads and Yakuza. The two families feud with Rouge and Crawford’s battle caught somewhere in the middle.

The only reason I had a problem with this film was because it could have been a B+ film, and somehow it ended up being a C- (and that may be generous). The fight scenes with Jet Li and the cool cars saved the film, and now make it a rental.

Some of the movies funnier moments come from Wick (Mathew St. Patrick) who is an FBI agent. Now it’s not anything that his character does in the film, but how horrible his acting was. I’m sure if you look him up on IMDB you’ll see he has a nice body of work. War was definitely not one of his best performances. The guy looks like Barry Bonds and Theo from the Cosby show had a kid. I’m still wondering how he got that part in this movie.

The plot stunk! There was a twist at the end that really made no sense at all, and the ending was terrible. I was hoping to see this great fight scene between Jet Li and Jason Statham, and that didn’t happen. I thought I’d get some good action and that didn’t happen either. I’m not sure what direction this movie was going. It seemed to be all over the place at times. The crime bosses didn’t seem bad enough. You always need a good villain and the villains in this film were a little too happy. They gave us no real reason to cheer for Crawford as he chases Rouge all over town. I found myself cheering for Rouge more than anything.

My suggestion: Don’t see it. Rent it if you REALLY love Jet Li or have a taste for bad movies. Me and my friends were very disappointed. We discussed the movie and tried to salvage what we could. Ultimately we all decided it was one of the worst movies of the summer.

My grade- 2.2: You failed your final. Now you have to face the music at home. Maybe you should stay at your friends house until your parents cool off.

I spy you…...spying me!

I have to admit that I wasn’t really ever a fan of Matt Damon. It wasn’t until I watched the Departed and I hated him through the whole movie. The only other Damon movies I can stand are the Bourne movies.

I really liked the first movie a lot. When I went to see Bourne Supremecy I was on a “date” I’m with all of my friends and they know how much I wanted to see this movie. She gets up and leaves about 20 minutes into the movie. She’s gone for about 5-10 minutes and so since she’s technically my date I get up to go check on her. I find her outside the theater sitting down on a bench and she’s crying talking about how sick she was and she couldn’t watch it. The camera jerked around too much. So being the nice guy I am I sat outside with her for the remainder of the movie. Since it didn’t really workout between us I feel like an idiot, but at the time I felt I did the right thing. If I’m on a date now I’ll give her a roll of quarters and she’ll play video games until I’m done.

This new Bourne is a one of those summer movies that comes up late. It reminds me of a politician who’ll throw his name out there late just to steal some votes.

The movie starts with some action as we see Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) still on the hunt for his true identity, battling bad guys as his amnesia at the same time. At the same time local newspaper reporter has been following Bourne’s story and wants to find out more about Treadstone and the people involved. The government has started a new group of young assasins codenamed Blackbriar. These guys are like Jason Bourne but younger and have cooler gadgets to use.

Bourne has help in this movie from Nicky (Julie Stiles. Who I swear is Alicia Silverstone 2007. I hope she can get it together and land some bigger roles) and Pamela Landy (Joan Allen who I loved in Face/Off)

The movie is full of action but there are some dry points. I’m not sure if it’s because I saw a 9:50 movie on a Friday night after a long week or the food coma I slipped into after Johnny Rockets or if those scenes were really that dry. When I think about it, I really liked the movie. There was nothing spectacular about it other than some cool fight scenes and you get to see Bourne tear people apart with the newest edition of US Weekly. I would love to see how the people at Treadstone teach that in fighting class.

My suggestion: Go see it if you’ve enjoyed the other two movies. It’s worth the $9.75 I spent and it was really a good movie to see with a group of guys. It’s a great way to end a run of good Summer movies.

My Grade: 3.0 – Way to go! Not fantastic but at least you can hold your head up when you tell people what your GPA is.

Roll Out!!!!

Did I really wait a lifetime for this or, am I just imagining things. . It was finally here, a live action Transformers. I knew it would look good since Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg are involved. I sat through weeks of my friend leaving me mean messages like “Hey did you hear what happened? They are pulling Transformers out of the theaters because something is wrong with the movie. Sorry.” If any of that would have been true I’m not sure I wouldn’t be blogging from jail right now. My only question was about the plot and the actors in the film. If those two elements could be good I was guaranteed to be watching the movie of the summer.

I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a complete nerd, but the storyline is simple. Autobots and Decepticons lived peacefully on the same planet until the Decepticon leader Megatron wanted to take over and went after a cube called the Allspark. The Allspark was lost in space and ended up on Earth. The Autobots need to get the Allspark before Megatron gets his hands on it and destroys all human life on earth. Caught in the middle are Sam Witwicky (Shia Le Bouf) and Mikaela (Megan Fox). Sam has something that both the Autobots and the Decpeticons need to find the Allspark.

The plot is believable, and not too cheesy. The characters are good, and not too corny. Some good performances by Tyrese, Jon Voight, Anthony Anderson, and Josh Duhamel. We all know the real stars of the movie are. The Transformers!!! Prototype cars and CGI Robots. Is it possible for Optimus Prime to show up at the Oscars? Maybe he can roll on stage and take out Rosie O’Donnell. How much would you pay to see that? I’m up to $750 and I don’t feel ripped off yet.

The Autobots are include Bumblebee, Jazz, Ratchett and Ironhide and last but not least Optimus Prime. I always thought Jazz was the “black” Autobot. In my head it makes perfect sense. When I watched the cartoon he would always rhyme and he had sunglasses for eyes. He falls right in line with Franklin( from Peanuts), Hong Kong Phooey, and Destro from GI Joe. It didn’t help that I found out Eddie Winslow from Family Matters provides the voice.

The Decpeticons are lead by Megatron, Barricade, Destroyer, Bonecrusher, and Starscream. Megartron is especially evil in the movie, which was great. It was a lot like the 80’s cartoon in that aspect. They even threw in some lines from the animated movie.

The fight sequences were so big and elaborate, but I never felt lost like I couldn’t tell what was going on. I was 10 years old again. I was cheering and applauding Optimus Prime and I really wanted to see them get the best of the Decepticons. I loved the fact that they didn’t show all of the cool scenes on the trailer. There were still plenty of scenes where I could hear the whole crowd “ooooooh” and “ahhhhhh”. You couldn’t tell me it wasn’t real…………..well at least for those 2 ½ hours. After the movie to see all the smiles on my friends faces, I knew I wasn’t the only one who felt like they had a trip back to my childhood.

I haven’t enjoyed a movie with this much hype in a long time. It was well worth the wait. I lived up to my expectations and that’s saying something because my standards can be high at times. (yes I admitted it)

My Suggestion: Do you want to be the last person on earth who hasn’t seen this movie? I didn’t think so.

My Grade – 3.7: You didn’t get a 4.0 because you didn’t want your parents sticking you in a gifted school away from all of your friends.

'Yippee-ki-yay'

Live Free Or Die Hard

In the 80’s and 90’s we had action movie franchises. Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop, Rambo, Indiana Jones, and my personal favorite Die Hard. I can’t believe it’s been over 10 years. I can’t believe how many times I’ve seen the original Die Hard. It was one of the first action movies I really felt drawn too. What would I have done if I was in the Nakatomi Plaza that night? Thank God For John McClane.

Bruce Willis is back as All-American tough guy John McClane. The movies picks almost 20 years after McClane has rescued us from Hans that dreadful night in Los Angeles. Now the FBI database is hacked and John is sent to retrieve a hacker. When McClane arrives to pick up the kid he realizes he’s not the only one looking for him. Now John is on a mission to protect this kid and figure out why people are out to kill this harmless hacker.

This movie takes a new angle with hi-tech terror. This films bad guy is Thomas Gabriel (who’s constantly called by his full name through the movie) played by one of my favorite actors Timothy Olyphant. He’s believable as the cyber geek who’s hell bent on proving his point. He’s like that nerdy math tutor who’ll do anything to prove his point about hyperbolic geometry and will lecture you for hours about it, except in this film he’s proving a point about national security and putting everyone’s lives at risk, but I think you get the point. He’s also pretty cruel and equally funny at times. He’s almost likeable until you realize, “Wait a minute! He’s killing people”

Matt Farrell (Justin Long) is the hacker caught in the middle of this national disaster. He also provides some of the movies funny moments. As usual McClane provides classic one-liners as well as this hysterical laugh. It’s one of those, I can’t believe this is happening to me/ maybe I’m losing my mind laughs. He also seems to enjoy killing these people. He contiues to warn Gabriel that he's going to kill him as if he knows how something that the rest of us don't. Clerk’s Kevin Smith plays Warlock, another hacker in the film. His character alone is funny. He’s this hacker who ranks high on the FBI’s list but he lives at home with his mom. I think there is more truth in that than I want to believe.

You get the feeling in the movie that McClane is one of the last heroes we have left. When the country needs him, nobody can stop him. He even fights Gabriel’s girlfriend Mai (Maggie Q) and does not go easy on her. My pick for MTV Movie Awards – Best Fight next year. We are all in need of a hero these days and I think that’s why I was drawn to this movie.

Live Free Or Die Hard is a throwback to the old action movies. One of the best action movies I’ve seen in a while. Decent plot, good villain, and some pretty unbelievable action sequences. It’s a formula that worked for the first three Die Hard installments and does not disappoint this time around. Who would have thought a PG-13 action movie could be this good? Thank God for John McClane.

My Suggestion: Go see it! Especially if you’ve seen the first 3 or even watch the heavily edited versions on USA or TNT.

My Grade – 3.5: Great Job! You’re pretty consistent. Let’s hope you make the Dean’s List.

Not So Fantastic Sequel

Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer

This summer’s movie theme should be, “The Summer Of The Sequels.” I can think of 8 off the top of my head. They market these movies like it’s new material. It’s not! It’s just a remix of a film I watched 2 years ago. I know how I feel about a movie when I respond to questions my friends ask. Here is the actual exchange between me and my friend after the movie:

Friend: How was the movie?
Me: I bought tickets for Transformers

When the first thing out of my mouth is how I bought advanced tickets for another movie 10 days away, not good sign. Some would say it’s a bad sign. You be the judge. Our newest comic sequel , Fantastic 4 , fits the bill with familiar faces, likeable characters, new villains, and the same old story.

The movie opens with the media craze surrounding the wedding of Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) and Sue Storm (Jessica Alba). The movie quickly picks up pace as there are sightings of a silver “comet” like figure on US spy satellites, along with these massive holes in the ground. The Four quickly piece together the what is going on. There have been planets with the strange matter activity and were being destroyed 8 days after the first Silver Surfer sighting. In order to fix things quickly team up with Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon) in hopes of finding the surfer and saving the world.

The movie has on ok premise, but seems to be stale at times. In Spiderman 3 if you took away all the special effects and cheesy dialogue, there was some sort of substance left in the movie. Fantastic 4 lacked that. Not that it was a bad movie, but that it could have been a better movie. One thing that bothers me the most was that the villains weren’t villainous enough. Dr. Doom sort of shows up, does a few bad things, and then leaves. You never got the feeling that they were really in any sort of danger. The relationship between the Surfer and Glactus was talked about but it would have been great to open the movie with a little back-story. I just didn’t feel connected if you know what I mean.

The comic relief of the movie was Johnny Storm (Chris Evans). He has some pretty good one-liners in the film that kept you laughing. Somehow they went away from that in the second half of the movie. The special effects were also very good. The scene where Galactus is eating earth is amazing. As you’ve see in the trailer the Surfer just looks cool, and thanks to Laurence Fishburne he also sounds cool. The first thing my friend said to me after the movie was “I would like to have seen more of the Surfer.” I couldn’t agree more.

My Suggestion: - See it if you need to. I wouldn’t wait in line to see it. There are at least 5 more sequels to come this summer so your $9.75 can wait for Rush Hour 3.

My Grade: 2.0 – Maybe you should study harder, but nobody else is so why should you.