Iron Man 3

Word on the street (and, by street, I mean Entertainment Weekly) is Robert Downey Jr. might not be back for any future Iron Man endeavors, and that is definitely a shame if it turns out to be true. When these moveis lean toward the mediocre, Downey Jr. is the one who saves them from themselves. It's hard to believe anyone will be able to fill his shoes and fill the character with the perfect mixture of charm, wit, humor and cockiness. Downey Jr. is perfect for Tony Stark / Iron Man, the way Harrison Ford was perfect for Indiana Jones and Heath Ledger was perfect for the Joker.

My feelings about Iron Man 3 are so mixed that I barely even know where to start. Director Shane Black takes over for Jon Favereau here and I think that was a good thing. He injected a much needed dose of adrenaline into the series. However, at times, it's maybe a bit too hectic. I think Black had a lot of great ideas, and maybe he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to do this again, so instead of streamlining all of his ideas, he more or less decided to put every single one of them into this movie. Iron Man 3 takes place after series of events that took place in The Avengers (and the characters talk about those events A LOT... too much) and it finds Stark suffering from anxiety after his near death and unable to sleep. Instead, he's been tinkering with a new suit that comes to him and forms onto his body when he beckons. Soon, he has a whole lot to worry about other than his insomnia. A mysterious terrorist calling himself The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley, having an absolute ball) begins making serious threats against the president. Plus, a swarmy scientist (Guy Pearce) is making a play for Stark's lady Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).

That's about as much plot as I'm willing to get into. The plot is long and confusing and I seriously have no idea how any of the ten or twelve small children who were in the same theater as me had any idea what was going on at any point. Although I guess it doesn't matter. The plots of these movies take a major backseat to the special effects and the action sequence. And while it takes a good 45 minutes to get to any action sequences, each one is bigger and crazier than the one before it, until we get to that final chaotic scene which is so over the top it's almost ridiculous (okay, it's totally ridiculous and I have yet to decide if that's good or not). So, the plot is long and meandering. It takes us back to the 1999 and Stark's encounter with a brilliant botanist (Rebecca Hall) and it takes us to the middle of nowhere, Tennessee, where Stark forms a sweet but completely unnecessary bond with a small fatherless boy. It takes us from houses being destroyed to over the top battles on deserted boats. All the while there are three things that are holding this whole crazy ship together.

Okay, maybe four, if you count Gwyneth Paltrow's abs which are seriously RIDICULOUS. I have literally not been able to think about anything else in the last three days. Those abs are definitely getting me through my latest attempt at planks. But I digress.

Robert Downey Jr. is the shining star here, as he almost always is. He brings so much to the role of Tony Stark that, like I said, it's impossible to picture anyone else in the role. He sort of phoned it in during that last Iron Man movie (or perhaps that script was just such a mess that he didn't know what else to do), but he's definitely back in top form here. The second this is the direction by Shane Black which, while a bit crazy at times, is also refreshing. You can tell he's having the time of his life, that he feels the unadulterated joy of making a movie like this and that sort of energy is seriously contagious. The final is Kingsley, who steals all of his scenes as the Mandarin. Without ruining anything or saying too much, there is a plot twist involving his character which I vehemently hated and nearly ruined the movie for me, but Kingsley at least plays it well. He plays it better than any other actor could. He goes for it, completely and totally, the way very few actors could, and possibly no one else could pull off.

These few saving graces bring Iron Man 3 to a place just above mediocrity. It's definitely no where near as good as the first, but it is better than the second. If it's the end of the Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man age, I think he deserved a little bit better.

Grade: C+

Mini Reviews

Every year, I try to watch as many film released within that year as possible, so that at the year's end I have as many films as possible for consideration onto my best and worst lists. So, I've been keeping up with films I missed at the theater or that went straight to DVD through Netflix. Here are some mini reviews for those films.

Being Flynn
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Paul Dano, Olivia Thirlby
Plot: A wannabe writer discovers his deadbeat dad is sort of a loser despite the fact that he claims to be the greatest living American writer.
Thoughts: Solid acting from Dano and DeNiro can't save this cheesy, melodramatic, boring mess of a movie.
Grade: C+

Friends With Kids
Starring: Jennifer Westfeldt, Adam Scott, Maya Rudolf, Kristen Wiig, Jon Hamm, Chris O'Dowd, Ed Burns, Megan Fox
Plot: A woman in her upper 30s and her longtime best friend decide to avoid the pratfalls of their friends who got married and had kids and just stay friends and have a kid.
Thoughts: The first two thirds of this movie are an absolute joy. The cast is fantastic and it's genuinely touching and funny and well-written. However, a cliched third act threatens to ruin everything.
Grade: B-

Hick
Starring: Chloe Grace Moretz, Blake Lively, Eddie Redmayne, Juliette Lewis, Rory Culkin
Plot: A young girl realizes she's had enough of her hick family and decideds to run away to Vegas where she plans on finding a rich man. She meets some shady people along the way.
Thoughts: A super mess of a movie, although Moretz is great. But even Juliette Lewis (who really isn't in enough movies these days) and Rory Culkin (the best Culkin!) can't save this mess.
Grade: D+

Innkeepers
Starring: Sara Paxton
Plot: On the last weekend run for a Bed and Breakfast, two co-workers decide to investigate the fact that the place may haunted.
Thoughts: A fairly effective, yet predictable, ghost story. The moments of boredom and the overall lameness is nearly saved by a really great ending.
Grade: C+

Lockout
Starring: Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace
Plot: In the near future, there is a maximum security prison floating in space. The president's daughter (Grace) happens to be there when a riot breaks out. A conman (Pearce) is sent in to save the day.
Thoughts: Super cliched in just about every way, but also not such a bad way to spend a mindless summer night. Pearce is the saving grace as a smart ass anti-hero.
Grade: C-

Project X
Plot: High schoolers throw the most epic party ever.
Thoughts: It wants to be Superbad or The Hangover, but it's not nearly funny enough to be either. It tries its best to be shocking but that's not enough.
Grade: D+

The Woman in Black
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe
Plot: A young man goes to the English countryside to investigate the death of a woman.
Thoughts: Totally boring and cliched up until about the last 5 minutes when it finally got compelling, but too little too late.
Grade: D

Lawless

A few days ago, I was watching Deliverance. I know what you're thinking - what on Earth does Deliverance have to do with Lawless? And the answer is - not much. But I was wondering why they haven't remade Deliverance yet. I mean, believe me, I think it's a terrible idea, but they have remade just about everything else so it truly surprises me that they haven't done this yet. Then it struck me that there are very few actors these days who are really MEN. And I mean, MEN. Actors these days aren't like Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight. They may be able to act like men, but they aren't really MEN. Then I watched Lawless on Saturday and was remiss at leaving out Tom Hardy. Hardy is most definitely a MAN. When he beats the crap out of a guy in this movie, I have absolutely no doubt that he can do that in real life.

And so Lawless is the true story of the lives of the Bondurant brothers, a group of bootleggers in 1930s Virginia. There is Forrest (Hardy) and Howard (Jason Clarke), the older brothers who are both so bad ass that you wouldn't want to meet them in a dark alley. Then there is little brother Jack (Shia LaBeouf), who so badly wants to fit in with his brothers but is more sweet and sensitive than brooding and brawling. Their lives are perfectly fine, supplying moonshine to cops and neighbors and even a gangster (Gary Oldman), until a new deputy comes to town (best in show Guy Pearce) who decides to make their lives a living hell. Throw in Jessica Chastain as waitress / dancer Maggie, who catches Forrest's eye and Mia Wasikowska as preacher's daughter Bertha, who Jack tries to woo, and you've got your movie.

But I should mention Dane DeHaan, who plays Jack's crippled bestie Cricket. DeHaan also blew me away in Chronicle earlier this year and he kills it again in this movie. He surely has to be the most exciting new actor I've seen in years. And that has very little to do with his uncanny resemblance to a young Leonardo DiCaprio. I mean, he looks so much like DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? that I am 65% sure they actually digitally lifted Leo from that movie and superimposed him into this one. DeHaan is definitely One to Watch.

The rest of this cast is stellar as well. With the exception of The Dark Knight Rises, this is probably the best cast of actors assembled in a movie this year. This is the absolute finest work LaBeouf has done. He's always been a fine actor but has been weighted down by making bad movies. Here he truly shows how good he is at giving a layered performance and making a character likable. He has tremendous charisma which is a start. However, no one can upstage Hardy and Pearce here. Hardy is the most intense actor working today. He is completely intoxicating to watch in everything, and especially in this, which might be his finest performance since Bronson. But Pearce is the star of this show. His Deputy Rakes is a sociopathic lunatic, some kind of coiled up snake who is always ready to strike. And it's a joy to watch.

Lawless is a good movie, but unfortunately, I think it thinks it is a lot better than it actually is. Lawless, directed by John Hillcoat, is trying to be some great American masterpiece. It wants to be The Godfather, an epic truly American movie about a family that does bad things to protect each other. Lawless is not The Godfather. It has too many faults. To begin with, it completely wastes Gary Oldman in a thankless role. The roles of the women are terribly one dimensional and trite (Chastain tries her best to make her mark here and she succeeds to a point. I mean, a lesser actress who have been utterly forgettable in this movie). The pace is almost glacial, except during the extreme scenes of violence. That is truly when Lawless shines, when it finds it's niche as this character driven Western with swagger. Lawless fails at trying to be the instant classic movie it wants to be. But that's not to say it isn't a damn good movie with one hell of a cast.

Grade: B

Prometheus

Prometheus has been shrouded in a cloak of mystery (is it a prequel to Alien??) and has been so hyped that it was almost impossible to not be disappointed. With one of the hottest casts in recent memory (like, seriously, you guys - HOT), a crazy smart script co-penned by Lost scribe Damon Lindelof, direction by the sci fi master himself, Ridley Scott, and expectations that were so high you can barely reach them - how is it possible that Prometheus can be anything but awesome.

Well, for starters, the whole plot is just a little fuzzy. We start out with a prologue that makes little to no sense at all. Then we move forward and meet a scientist couple (Noomi Rapace and Logan Marshall-Green) who make a discovery that seems so miniscule that it's hard to believe anyone would give them millions, no, billions of dollars to travel into space just to try to prove their thesis. But that's exactly what a recently deceased billionaire (played by Guy Pearce - and the fact that they hired a 40-something actor just to put him in tons of make up and make him look like an old man is beyond me... why not just hire an old man actor??) does. So, Elizabeth (Rapace) and Charlie (Marshall-Green) wake up on a space ship that also includes a slimy executive type (Charlize Theron), the ridiculously sexy captain of the ship (Idris Elba) and a droll, mysterious drone (Michael Fassbender). [Do you see what I mean about this being the hottest cast of all time???] They arrive on a mysterious planet and begin to explore a mysterous cave and lots of mysterious stuff starts to happen. Some of it is intense and scary and genuinely enjoyable and some of it is cliched and redundant.

Yes, it is scary and creepy and intense to watch two random crew members get lost inside said cavern only to be attacked by a creepy, crawler. But, later, when a supposedly dead crew member comes back to life, it's just a little too horror / sci fi movie cliche for me. And, without giving too much away, probably the best scene of all features Noomi Rapace's character and a self inflicted surgical procedure. If you aren't left squirming while thinking about how this is the most bad ass female character in a film since, well, Ripley, then I don't know if you should be allowed to see movies anymore.

Speaking of Rapace, she is phenomenal. If anyone should be unfairly critiqued against Sigourney Weaver's iconic performance as Ripley, then it's good that it's the original girl with the dragon tattoo. Rapace is a total and complete bad ass. She is utterly convincable and a force to be reckoned with. However, there are good performances all around, with the other notable stand outs being Theron (who is playing at least her third mean girl / bad character in a row) who is a total ice queen and looks like she is having the time of her life and Fassbender who is hilarious and somewhat menacing as android David. The performances from this stellar cast help make the movie better, of course. I'm not saying Prometheus isn't a good movie already, because it is. Sure, it probably doesn't live up to the super high expectations (but what does these days... maybe I should dial the expectations down for The Dark Knight Rises), but Prometheus is still smart and fun. It's an utter joy ride of thrills and intense action sequences. Scott proves that he's still got it, with the dark and foreboding direction. My main problem is the script. When it's good, then it's oh so good, but the problem with it is that it's probably too muddled. I know, that sounds crazy since it's coming from one of the guys that used to write for Lost. Still, I think the problem is that the script mistakes being smart and sophisticated for being confusing. That's not to say it isn't a smart movie, because it totally is. It's just that I don't think it's quite as smart as it thinks it is. So, while Prometheus isn't quite the amazing experience I was hoping for, it's still an experience that ends up being well acted and well directed, and a hell of a lot of fun. In the swell of the brainless summer movie season, who can really ask for more than that??

Grade: B

Sicko, Factory Girl (DVD)

Sicko - A short coversation I had with my mother this morning: Mama - "What movie did you go see last night?" Me - "Sicko." Mama - "Oh, is it a horror film?" Me - "Kind of." Sicko is the kind of thought provoking film that just might terrify you. I never really realized just how bad our health care system is here in the United States. In the last few years, I've become more and more disappointed with our government and the state of our country. In light of seeing this documentary, I admit that I am rather ashamed of our government and health care system. It's a disgrace. I honestly can't believe that third world countries such as Cuba have health care systems that are more or less free. It's a riveting look at the state of our country from director/writer/producer/liberal Michael Moore. This is the best film Moore has done yet. It is less sensationalistic than Farenheit 9/11 (although I enjoyed that as well). It is absolutely not Bush bashing in the least. It's not anti-American in the least. It's pro-bettering America through knowledge and education. It's really a shame that there were four people at this film when I saw it last night. People should be spending their money and time on something like this and getting educated on the topic rather than seeing mind-numbing movies like Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean and The Simpsons (although I haven't seen it so whatever). I really, really, really hope this film makes an impact in the upcoming election. This movie is emotionally effective as well. There are multiple times when my eyes watered up. It's absolutely disgusting to see a young mother lose their 14 month old child to high fevers because her insurance company would only pay for pre-approved hospitals and the hosptial she went to kicked her out because her insurance wouldn't cover it. How can people do that to other people? I really don't know what is worse: not having insurance at all or having it and having your claims be denied for bullshit reasons? Moore takes everything a step farther when he shows the despicable way rescue workers at Ground Zero were treated after the disaster because many of them were not officially employed by the government or were volunteers. This is a movie you absolutey have to see. Then Moore visits other countries with impeccable health care: you pay nothing, you have little wait time at hospitals, you get medication for cheap, cheap prices. These countires (Canada, Britain, France and even Cuba) want to help their people. They do preventative care. In Britain, they even pay YOU for your transportation costs to get to the hospital! Things need to change in our country and I really hope this documnetary will educate viewers and, hopefully, have an impact on the future of our country.

Grade: B+

Factory Girl - This seems to be a growing trend. There's a movie that I just can't wait to see and after months and months and months of waiting, I finally see it and... it's a terrible, disappointing mess. This is how it was with Factory Girl. This film is just cliche after cliche after cliche. The characters are all two-dimensional (I'm sorry but Andy and Edie are far more fascinating in real life than they appear to be in this terrible after school special-esque movie). The script is uninspired and falls flat most of the time. To be fair, Sienna Miller does an absolutely wonderful job with the material she was given. But, unfortunately, it's not a lot to work with. One of the major flaws in the movie is that there are really no characters that you can actually like. Characters kept calling Andy Warhol's artwork superficial, and really, this movie is just superficial. No character is ever developed enough to care about them. I should probably give props to Guy Pearce while I'm at it because I imagine it's very hard to try to portray someone like Andy Warhol who is now more than an icon than a man. However, the choices in this movie left him feeling more like a parody than a person. The film takes the easy road more than once with the depiction of drugs that look like an After School Special and predictable dialogue. There are the obligatory walks through Central Park to show they are in New York and even a shot of the Eiffel Tower which just yells, "Hey, we're in Paris now!" The casting of Hayden Christensen as a Bob Dylan esque character (Billy Quinn!) is just completely bizarre to me. The thing that bugs me most though is the way this film portrays Edie who I've been fascinated with for years. It's a shame that this may be some people's only introduction to her life because it's really not worthy of her (or Warhol for that matter). They both deserve much more than this. All of these characters who are endlessly fascinating and all of these experiences and the way they shaped the art culture of the 60s is an interesting story. There is a riveting film in there somewhere. Factory Girl just isn't it.

Grade: D+