Iron is the Man

Iron Man is one a movie that I respect the heck out of because a studio has finally realized to leave comic book characters in the hands of capable and inspired directors. This is the case here with Jon Favreau. He is a bona fide Iron Man comic book reader. This no different than Sam Raimi's love of Spider-Man. These are two franchises that will continue to bloom and entertain because there is great care. We have all seen the destruction of what happens when a studio goes for a quick cash grab like X-Men: The Last Stand and the abysmal Batman and Robin. Iron Man has the chance to be a great story and it is off to a terrific start in one of the better origin stories.

Tony Stark is a womanizing alcoholic who happens to be a brilliant weapons designer. He is also the worlds largest jerk and needs to be kidnapped by terrorists to be given a dose of reality. That is why Robert Downey Jr. is perfect for the role. His own demons clearly come out in the character of Stark and his road to redemption is similar.

Pepper Potts is played by Gwenyth Paltrow and she is perfect has is Tony's "Money Penny." The "love story" isn't over the top and truly understated as it should be. This role is a departure for Paltrow and makes her likable among the "fan boys" who love this stuff. I loved their relationship because she plays Tony's babysitter, yet she knows his dark secrets and accepts his faults.

There are so many things to appreciate in Iron Man. It was thoroughly enjoyable to see Tony Stark creating the Mark 1 in Afghanistan and then using it to escape. During this scene we learn that Stark, although brilliant, is naive and not as smart as we had previously given him credit for being. His weapons are being sold to the enemy and the entire time he thought he was protecting his country. His true enemy is capitalism and he must decide on what is important upon is return to the United States. Does he protect those who need protecting or does he turn away and cash check after check? I also like that Iron Man is who he his. Unlike Spiderman or Peter Parker, Tony Stark isn't afraid to let the world know. He doest allow the villians to put a bulls eye on his chest. He calls himself out and lets the world know his true identity.

It is clear from the opening scenes of the movie who is true enemies are and although it is supposed to come as a big reveal at the end we are not that surprised. This does not detract from the movie, but the "secret" could have been more guarded.

Now for the suit. The birth Iron Man was so utterly fascinating that I could have watched an entire movie about how Tony Stark perfected its awesomeness. Yes, I said awesomeness. The Iron Man suit is so freakin' cool that it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. There are so many opportunities for Stark to use the suit and he does so in a bad-ass way time after time.

Frankl, I cannot wait to see where Iron Man is going to go. I hope Marvel doesn't ruin the franchise by trying to stuff too much alfalfa into this pita. The idea of cross-over films is an interesting idea, but be warned, there is more to the Tony Stark story that needs to be told uninterrupted.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Dull?

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is built upon expectations. It is nineteen years of wanting and waiting. It is supposed to be the return of an iconic adventurer. I had to ask myself, do we need another Indiana Jones movie? The answer is “yes” we certainly need another Indiana Jones, just not this one. Crystal Skull gets so much right and at the same time it gets so much wrong. Our hero Indiana is the same as he was years ago just a little grayer and far more intelligent than I remember. This Indy figures out riddles and puzzles with such simplicity that it made me uncomfortable. The Henry Jones Jr. I remember stumbled onto things with good guesses and savvy survival skills. Yes, he was smart too just not to the point that he didn’t have to work for it. The problem with Spielberg and Lucas’s latest effort is that script is not basic enough. It is spread thin in all directions and its focus is never fully realized.
The biggest question mark going into this movie was Harrison Ford. He has suffered a string of awful films and he needed Indiana more than the audience. He delivers. There is only a “look” Ford can give as Indy and it is clear that he is more than just a hat and whip. It was refreshing to see Ford not “mail it in” for another pay-day. He was just as charming as he has always been and the main reason to see this film. So what’s wrong with this film?
Let’s start off with Cate Blanchett as Agent Spalko. Spalko is the fair haired girl of Josef Stalin during the Cold War. Stalin made it no secret that he was interested in finding ways of perfecting psychic warfare. He was also hell bent on creating ape men that would replace Red Army soldiers and bring about the end of democracy in the West. This was a reminder of the original Raiders of the Lost Ark where Adolf Hitler’s obsession with the occult was explored, but unlike Raiders, Crystal Skull complicates the matter. It isn’t about the evils of communism spreading into the west by the means of an all powerful crystal skull. You see, the Ark was just a device that was to be used for world domination. Blanchett does a fine job of playing a villain, but in my estimation she isn’t mean enough and never puts Indiana Jones in any real peril. He is never beaten or truly tortured and his escapes are too simple considering the painstakingly effort the Russians take to apprehend our hero.
Karen Allen’s return as Marion Ravenwood was the one thing I was looking forward to seeing in Crystal Skull. Marion has always been the women that would never back down to Indiana and their relationship was electric in Raiders of the Lost Ark. She is THE WOMAN for Indiana. She challenges his sensibilities and yet he loves her more than any other woman. So I ask the “Beards,” Why is she so smitten with him in her return to the series? She is like a wide-eyed school girl who is looking for Indiana to give her his varsity letter jacket. They made her a woman of the fifties and the truth is Marion as always been a head of her time. Although there is a certain nostalgic sweetness to their very first lines together in the film, she was almost submissive. I was disappointed and delighted at the same time to see Allen reprise her role. Again, Lucas has made things bitter-sweet.
There are some things that are dead on in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The set pieces are amazing and the opening sequence is something to behold. It was evident that Lucas was returning to his days of American Graffiti. Racing cars in the fifties is just cool and I was hooked by the first half of this film. I was also pleasantly surprised by Shia LeBeouf’s Mutt Williams. He was the perfect sidekick for Indiana and did exactly what he was supposed to do in the movie. The motorcycle escape had me believing this was going to be the Indy film we had all dreamed about. Unfortunately, this movie becomes unraveled in the second half and loses its wit rather quickly. Again, they failed to keep it simple and the Crystal skull turns into implausible scene after implausible scene before deflating.
It is important to remember that I cannot spoil this film for those who have yet to see it. As a fan of Spielberg and Lucas, I could write pages about this movie. It is hard for me to only like half a movie, but this is the case here with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The first act is very solid and the second doesn’t come to a crescendo. I am not disappointed by the movie, but I am concerned that this film cannot stand on its own. Crystal Skull is a nice piece of nostalgia just not a great movie.

Whaddya Lookin' At?

There are great fight scenes then there are GREAT fight scenes in movies. I mean the kind of fights that tickle your undercarriage kind of good. I love stupid and pointless action. It is like eating a Ding-Dong, unsatisfying, but good. Like Ding-Dongs, bad fight scenes can cause you to gag. The ultimate fights are the ones with great tension and the build up is so freaking unbearable that you want to be in the movie to settle the score yourself. The beauty of a downy-brook is that it doesn’t have to be bloody or torrid with non-sensible action, it needs to be wrapped tightly in emotion. It has to tap into a primitive yearning of wanting revenge or the desire to prevent harm being inflicted by an adversary. The “fight” in the movies is thing that makes us “stay” in our seats and await the inevitable outcome. Great fights are the very things that call for repeat viewings and they are the very reason such “terrific acting talents” such as Van Damme and Steven Segal had successful careers (I can’t believe I just wrote that). Here are my top five fight scenes:

5) DANIEL LARUSSO vs. JOHNNY LAWRENCE (THE KARATE KID)
Get him a body bag, yeah! This fight was so awesome when I was a kid. I watched this movie repeatedly just to get the fight scene at the end. Johnny Lawrence was such a jerk to poor Daniel. He rode a scary dirt bike and smoked hippie lettuce in the bathroom and jacked Daniel-son up more than once. The famous crane whooped ass and you know you all tried it. Hey, when you’re the best around…

4) FRANK DUX vs. CHONG LI (BLOODSPORT) Chong-Li! Chong Li! Jean Claude is blind and still fights off Chong Li in this cinematic masterpiece. Van Damme was totally bad-ass in Bloodsport.

3) TYLER DURDEN vs. Himself (FIGHT CLUB) Scary, poignant, dark…FUNNY! Fight Club is the movie that makes you believe you like being hit. Who better to beat you up than you? What a crazy metaphor for the learned weaknesses of men. Thanks Mom!

2) LUKE SKYWALKER vs. DARTH VADER (STAR WARS EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK) Holy Crap this was the mother of all fights. Vader lures Luke into the carbon freezing chamber and when Luke arrives Vader’s sword glows ominously. The fight is furious and ends with a severed hand and whiney hero hanging from a weather vane.
1)

1)ROCKY BALBOA vs. APOLLO CREED (ROCKY) Rocky knows he can’t win and says so, but we stand and cheer at our hero losing. The fight itself is tense with drama and for most us we hate Creed because he represents a brand name. Apollo is “Microsoft” and Rocky reminds him of his roots. I still get teary at the climax of this one. The fight is violent and furious and involves a razor blade. ROCKY! ROCKY!

The Return Roar

Rumors of my disappearance have been greatly exaggerated. I did not think about the considerable amount of time it takes to keep up with a blog and to keep it fresh. The truth be told, I used this blog as therapy this past summer. I still love movies and have many things to write about or to share. I just want my TWO supporters to know that I acknowledge letting you down the past few months and will try harder to keep this blog new. It kept me contact with a few of you and I sincerely miss that.

There are several movies I have watched since my last post in October and I will give you a very brief rundown and few random and insignificant thoughts…

I Am Legend: Good with potential to be great. Will Smith is on the precipice of a truly breakthrough role it just isn’t this movie. The Fresh Prince needs to opt for a good script rather than a big pay day. There was too much emphasis on action in the last half-hour and the human side of things was lost. Combine this movie with Children of Men and I think a terrific movie may germinate.

Juno: Thoughtful and unpretentious. It might be the best screenplay written in many years. It showed the beauty of pregnancy as well as the immaturity of teens in similar situations. JK Simmons was priceless as Juno’s father. This was quirky, but honest.

American Gangster: Overblown crime drama. Too much in the same vein as Scarface, not enough of the two heavyweights dueling it out.

Charlie Wilson’s War: This movie was glossy in its portrayal of the Afghan/ Russian war, but it was damn entertaining. It was well worth the admission to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman. This is proof that good scripts can be great given great talent to carry out their purpose.

Up and coming: Horton Hears a Who

And You Can Quote Me...

Today’s Roar is for the guys. It is my belief that one of the most awkward situations to take part in is the dinner date with one of your wife/girlfriend’s good friends and her new beau. You see, this sets up for hours of elongated torture, but if you’re lucky, it can turn into something special. You are on the outside looking in and your wife/girlfriend has a vested interest. She wants to know if this guy is the “one” her friend will settle down with and she goes along to either give approval or the dreaded thumbs down. You go along because you are told you have to and you hope that the restaurant makes an abnormally sized steak so you don’t have to talk to this potential dweeb. As a man you know that the possibility exist that this particular guy may not have any of your interest, hell, he may not even like women and this thing could be a charade. Being the good soldier that you are, you smile and tell your wife/girlfriend this is going to be “fun.” The truth is that this fellow has a lot to prove to you. He has to pass your personal litmus test. In the back of his mind he is hoping you approve of him because if you don’t, chances are he isn’t getting to the “promise land” with your wife/girlfriend’s friend. Once the date begins you shake hands and you get over the lame introductions that are standard fare. After the appetizers come and you have already discussed your careers, he says something that catches your ear. You see, he ordered a steak just like you, but instead the waitress brings him the wrong dish with two center cut pork chops. He looks at you and says, “I don’t eat no swine.” You both look at each other and immediately you have formed a bond. Your heart actually flutters a bit because it has been so long since you have been able to quote movies and have someone actually “get it.” After all, you are a man and you pride yourself on the movie quote. You’ve practiced this skill for many years and it always seems to work among men. It is nice to sit with someone else who has also been trained in the art of the “quote.” As the evening rolls on, the quotes get more obscure and this guy gets about 95 percent of them. The “promise land” isn’t too far away for this guy you tell yourself. Once the dinner is over and you are leaving the restaurant you whisper into your wife/girlfriend’s friend’s ear and tell her “He’s cool.” This changes everything for your new friend, because your approval just got his passport stamped Ah! The power of movies!

Now I could get into quotable movies, but we have all heard the popular ones. For today’s roar I will post some of my favorites and hope you do the same.

5) “You will be…You will be.”-Scary Yoda

4) “San Diego...”-I could go on with this but I’d be doing a disservice to Ron Burgandy

3) “Hey Dorn, none of this ole bull****.”-Major League

2) Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny (bleeping) Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.” -Chevy Chase Christmas Vacation

1) “God darnit, Mr. Lamarr, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore.”-Blazing Saddles (Mr.Taggert)

Trick or Treat?

I felt the need to see this movie as late in the fall as I possibly could. Its August 31st release date just didn’t cut it for me because it wasn’t close enough to the actual holiday. I had been increasingly anxious to see a “new” Michael Myers on screen and to celebrate the return of one of my all time favorite “creep out” films. I have said before that remakes are usually bad ideas turned into bad movies, but I was more than willing to give Rob Zombie a pass on this one. After all, I have always pictured Zombie as a teenager relaxing in his room playing death metal and reading the latest Fangoria Magazine. He was going to be the guy to pay the proper respects to the John Carpenter original. I spent time during the spring of last year reading articles and listening to interviews with Zombie. He exuded a confidence about HIS Halloween. He stated numerous times that this Halloween movie was HIS own with a slight touch of Carpenter. I trusted Rob Zombie. I saw the Devil’s Rejects and was impressed with the social commentary that the film put off. Sure, it was brutal, but it was funny and had a style. I must admit to liking House of 100 Corpses too. Halloween was in safe hands and once again I’d feel the uneasiness of Mike Myers prowling the streets of Haddonfield. As I watched Halloween, the thoughts of safe hands corroded into a laughable mess and Rob Zombie butchered an iconic super villain with the need to make HIS movie.
The first big mistake with this movie is the script. We are forced to watch a young Michael Myers come into his own as a psychopathic killer. It isn’t the least bit interesting. Zombie tried to create sympathy for the young man by giving him the most dysfunctional family ever created for the screen. His mother is a stripper, his sister could care less, and his mother’s live in boyfriend is a low life loser. Their house in Haddonfield is not a happy home, yet these people co-exist in the same habitat and frankly, it is rather unbelievable. Michael is picked on at school because his Mom dances topless at the local “Gentleman’s Club.” After receiving a beating in the boy’s bathroom, he is taken in by the principal and to our surprise they find a dead cat in his book bag. My sympathy for Michael is gone and now he is just a troubled kid. Enter Samuel Loomis played by Malcom McDowell. Now, Loomis was played by Donald Pleasance in the original and I believed McDowell would do the character credit. He did not because there was nothing in the script for him to work with. Loomis believes the boy needs to be institutionalized and says so during his conference with Ms. Myers. Meanwhile, Michael runs off and begins killing everyone in brutal fashion while wearing a clown mask. That is right…a clown mask. He later slaughters his entire family except for his baby sister, Boo. He is subsequently put into the institution where Loomis is to oversee his “rehab.” Flash forward 15 years and Michael is now grown up and when I say “grown up” I mean 6 foot 5 with a hulking frame. This is ridiculous because I believe the movie takes place before Balco. Myers is in the process of being “transferred.” To where? We never really find out and why should it matter? Myers gets loose, kills everyone and voila he is free. How convenient. When I said the script was lacking I meant it is abysmal. Myers returns home and Zombie gives a shot for shot remake of the original with slight variations to a few murders. I have a problem with this because this is HIS movie. I won’t spoil the big reveal or the surprise ending, but let’s just say you won’t be shocked.
The major problems with Rob Zombie’s Halloween aren’t necessarily with his idea of creating a psychopath. The problem is we don’t need an explanation of “evil” or why it walks among us. It is just scary to think that a person exists in our world like Michael Myers. As a viewer, we don’t need to know his intentions. Carpenter’s Halloween was a success because his Myers had no rhyme or reason. He was created out of need to murder and inflict pain. The original brought a presence more than a character and gave us a creepy stalker who was institutionalized and escapes in grand fashion. He isn’t given “super powers” and rarely bust through walls or appears out of no where. Zombie’s Myers is cartoonish and not frightening enough for today’s audiences. Zombie’s Halloween is brutal and that is HIS fatal mistake because brutality isn’t horror. Horror movies are supposed to be scary and when we sit through them we should feel uneasy as they tap into our adrenal glands. I’m starting to feel that the horror genre has gotten far away from being creepy and scary. We now have a slew of movies that are kindly called “torture porn” by critics. These movies do have their place and Eli Roth’s Hostel is an exploration into that area, but Michael Myers doesn’t belong in a movie just about brutality. I know this was an attempt by Zombie to make HIS movie and he did, but he lost sight of what makes horror frightening. A cartoon can be stopped, but PURE E…Vil (Donald Pleasance) cannot.

All Aboard!

The “old west” is as American as any one thing we have in our culture. It is exclusively ours. The west has its rightful place with apple pie and Fourth of July. Over the years the cinema has captured this piece of Americana with grandeur and wonderment. Yes, there was the spaghetti western trilogy of Sergio Leone, but they captured the essence of what the west was and what it would soon become, even though they were filmed in Spain and Italy. Westerns used to be common place in the movies and demanded iconic actors to take on the roles of Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, and Butch Cassidy. Recently, Hollywood has strayed away from the western because those films do not make money and our fascination with the west has dwindled. A lot of modern westerns have become stylistic with Matrix like action and have lost their charm in telling stories of good vs. evil. 3:10 to Yuma is that movie. It is the western I’ve wanted to see. Charming? No. Harsh? Yes. Stylistic? No. A tale of the good nature of some and the evil ways of others? Yes. This movie relies heavily on its actors to carry a simple story and it does so effortlessly.
Christian Bale (Batman Begins) plays Dan Evans, a rancher who is on the verge of losing his farm to a major railroad company. Dan is a man tortured by being discharged from the Union Army due to a “battle” wound. He has lost favor in his oldest son’s eyes and his wife has not looked at him in years. Yet, Dan holds onto hope and out of hope, he becomes a desperate man to save his family from certain demise. Bale plays Evans perfectly. He isn’t the prototypical hero that we have become accustomed to in most action epics. Dan’s whole story never unfolds into the final frames and this a true credit to the screen writers.
Evan’s life changes drastically when he runs into wanted criminal Ben Wade played by Russell Crowe (Gladiator). Crowe is as good as he as ever been. He is mean, nasty, and dangerous. There is also a sadness built into his character and it something we see on screen, however, we are not sure if his sympathies are genuine. For me, this is the strength of Crowe as an actor and it is what makes him special. When Evans and Wade first meet Crowe does not endear himself to Dan. He takes Dan’s horses and has accidentally killed two of his cattle. Later, the two meet as Wade is captured in town and 3:10 to Yuma begins to move.
The plot is simple. Get Ben Wade to the prison train in Yuma before his gang comes to free him. Wade’s escorts consist of a bounty hunter (played by Peter Fonda), a veterinarian, a railroad representative, and Dan Evan’s who takes two hundred dollars to help bring Wade to justice. A lot happens in between and we get classic camp fire scenes, horses riding across the mythical west, and a gang of the meanest bastards hunting down the convoy. It is in this simplicity that this movie works because there is an increasing tension throughout the journey, but the most pleasant surprise of the movie is Ben Foster (X-Men 3) as Charlie Prince, the loyal sidekick of Ben Wade. Foster probably won’t receive a best supporting actor nod, but he should be under consideration.
3:10 to Yuma worked for me on multiple levels. There is a rich, heart tugging story between a boy and his father, a villain who lives amongst codes and not laws, and the old west in all of its glory. This movie is very American and captures the essence of good action yarn. Yuma is a 1957 remake and I usually hate remakes, but this movie deserved to be treated with great actors such as Bale and Crowe. I am glad it received the proper respect it deserved and I am certain you’ll enjoy boarding the 3:10 to Yuma.