Movie Review: Iron Man

Robert Downey Jr and Jon Favreau create a modern-day marvel that trumps all the other recent comic book heroes

I believe I can fly; whether by car, plane, or space-age superhero suit, Robert Downey Jr does indeed soar as Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man

Iron Man
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Gweneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard
Directed by: Jon Favreau
Rated: PG-13 for violence, adult language and adult themes
Running Time: 2 hours, 6 minutes

What does the war in Iraq, a comic book legend, a former '80s star turned drug-addled has-been and a guy best known for making one of the most hilarious post-date phone calls in cinematic history have in common?

They all combine to form one of the best comic book big screen adaptations ever as Iron Man not only delivers as an action packed summer blockbuster but succeeds in doing something none of its predecessors has done before it - humanizing the main character.

And make no mistake about it the driving force behind this flick, directed by Jon Favreau, the actor (Swingers; Made) turned director (Elf; Zathura), is the main character.

Not Iron Man, but Robert Downey Jr.

Downey rose to fame with his ground breaking performance as a drug addict in Less Than Zero and then fell victim to life imitating art as his own troubles with substance abuse derailed his career and led to stints in jail and rehab.

But he carries this film as Tony Stark, a millionaire arms inventor who undergoes a crisis of conscious after being captured by rebels in Afghanistan.

To say Stark (and Downey) is not your typical action superhero would be akin to saying Paris Hilton likes media attention.

Like Batman's alter ego Bruce Wayne Stark is a rich industrialist, but unlike Wayne Stark lives life to the extreme by bedding various women, blowing off appointments scheduled by his trusty assistant Pepper Potts (Paltrow), driving very fast in his Audi R8, and drinking scotch every chance he gets.

In other words he's just like we would all be if we were millionaires.

While he is drinking and driving (as a passenger in a 'fun-Vee') in the Afghan desert his convoy is attacked by terrorists, using his own weaponry no less, and Stark is taken prisoner by a group demanding that he build a version of his latest super missile system for them.

Every one knows the engineering genius is going to blast his way out of there, but of course there's a catch: Stark has shrapnel embedded in his body that would make a bee line for his heart if not for a magnetic device embedded in his chest, placed there by a friendly fellow captive, Yinsen.

What those of us not addicted to comics don't know is that not only does Stark blast his way out, he uses a crudely constructed metal suit to do his dirty work by blasting through his captors with an array of weapons, including a gnarly flamethrower, before escaping on the propulsion system intended for the rockets.

Thus a superhero is born.

Freed from his near death experience and disgusted by the knowledge that his weapons are not just being used to protect his country (evidently he's a bit naive, too), Tony decides to take Stark Enterprises in kinder, gentler direction, hoping to develop a larger version of the mini-reactor that allows him to live to provide an alternate power source for mass consumption.

Not so fast, metal man.

Stark's business partner and former confidante to his father, Obadiah Stane (a nearly unrecognizable and thoroughly menacing Bridges) doesn't quite agree with Tony's new agenda, especially since he's the one supplying the terrorists with Stark's weaponry, and Stane quickly moves to have Stark removed by the company's board before he ruins all the fun.

For us that's when the fun starts.

Stark sets to work on the technologically advanced version of his metal suit, which is when we get to witness the cool gadgets that line his workshop, not the least of which is his collection of exotic cars, as well as the complex boss-aide relationship he and Potts enjoy.

The rest of the movie is mostly by-the-books superhero stuff: with the iconic suit under his control Stark/Iron Man attempts to avenge his capture and defeat his new arch enemy Stane, who has now transformed into the mega machine Iron Monger, all while providing plenty of laughs with a little romance on the side.

Downey juggles all of these tasks with aplomb, switching from lothario to lovesick with ease while eradicating the bad guys without spilling his beloved scotch. He is at once simple and complex, predictable and erratic, loathsome and lovable.

However the one thing he never is is boring.

Be sure to stick around past the closing credits to get a sneak peak at what the future holds for Mr. Stark and this franchise-in-the making.

What you didn't think there'd be a sequel?

Mr Downey's magnetic performance made sure of that.

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Movie review: No Country for Old Men

"Don't ever make fun of my hairdo again"

Starring: Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald
Directed by: Joel & Ethan Coen
Rated: R for graphic violence, adult themes and language
Winner: Best Picture, Director(s), Supporting Actor (Bardem), Adapted Screenplay
Running Time: 2 hours

The Coen brothers' Oscar-winning masterpiece sends chills up the spine and keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat until the very (peculiar) end

Leave it to the Coen brothers, the masters of offbeat and off-putting modern cinema to craft a film so simple yet so complex, so tension-filled yet it seems to take longer to unspool than a Texas drawl, that the reviews run the gamut from "the best film of all time" to "possibly the most over-rated movie ever made" (actual IMDb comments).

And after finally viewing the 2008 Best Picture winner last night, I can see the arguments for both sides.

On the one hand, the story is so simple and straightforward -- a hunter stumbles upon a drug deal gone bad and absconds with the $2 million in cash as a psychotic killer hired by the druglord tracks him down -- and unfolds in such an unhurried, matter-of-fact way that some viewers could be lulled into thinking not much is going on, eliciting a "what's all the fuss about" mentality that always seems to follow slower-paced films.

But on the other hand there is much more to this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's classic novel than meets the eye, as the lines between good & evil and right & wrong begin to blur, and the only reason the saga develops so slowly is because the pace mimics the setting, 1908s Texas, which apparently was about as laid back and backwater as you can get.

Josh Brolin plays the aforementioned hunter, Llewelyn Moss, who while out on the plains stalking game comes upon a scene of a bloody massacre in the middle of nowhere; vehicles and people riddled with bullets, a huge stash of heroin in the bed of a pickup, and a lone survivor who claims he has no idea where the last man standing has taken off to.

Moss tracks the man to a nearby tree, where he too has perished, but the case full of cash lay at his feet. Sensing the severity of the situation, Moss high tails it back to his home, where he hides the cash under his trailer while he thinks of a plan so he and his wife (Macdonald) can disappear and enjoy the fruits of his lucky find.

And that's where things start to get interesting.

Hot on the trail of the missing money is Anton Chigurh (Bardem), a monotone, mop-topped menace of a man whose weapons of choice include a air-compressed cattle gun and a shotgun with a silencer the size of a can of corn. Chigurh values life about as much as Paris Hilton values privacy, and at times the decision between killing someone and letting them live comes down to a mere flip of a coin for him.

Moss sends his wife to Odessa to stay with her mom, and he takes off for Del Rio with the cash in hand and Chigurh just a few beats behind him, thanks in part to an old-fashioned homing device placed in the case (gotta love these old-style gimmicks in this age of high-tech gadgetry.)

Meanwhile the small town sheriff, Tom Bell (Jones) stays home and tries to piece the perplexing puzzle together, neither particularly wanting to nor capable of figuring out how this whole mess of a situation ended up in his lap in the first place.

The hunted soon becomes the hunter as Moss transforms from a man running for his life to a man who will do anything to fight for what he believes is rightfully his, based on the old 'finders keepers' principal, and as the bodies pile up and the two man race to see who will come out on top, the viewer gets sucked in by the overwhelming feeling of depression and dread, knowing that no matter which man wins, the outcome will not be pleasant.

"No Country" is simply a mesmerizing film from start to finish. The acting is superb, from the always excellent Jones to the Oscar-winning Bardem. The Spaniard became the first from his country to win the Best Actor trophy, and it was rightfully deserved. Never has a man in such a foolish wig who spoke in such a soft, sensible manner inspired such fear and fascination as Bardem's beguiling bad man. His character is the stuff nightmares are made of, and Bardem's seemingly effortless portrayal is one that will go down in cinematic history.

Brolin, in my wife's & I's opinion, was criminally overlooked for a Best Supporting Actor nom; its amazing that he continues to do his best work now after 20+ years in the biz.

Macdonald, a little-known Irish lass, was terrific as Moss' naive-yet-supportive wife Carla Jean, and even the long lost Woody Harrelson turns in a fine performance as a hit man sent to stop the crazed killer Chigurh; he delivers some of the best lines in the film, especially this spot-on description of his rival: "You don't understand. You can't make a deal with him. Even if you gave him the money he'd still kill you. He's a peculiar man."

Aside from the acting, the cinematography, from the sweeping vistas of the Southwest to close quarters shots of hotel rooms and AC vents, is outstanding, and the score, as subtle and understated as most of the film, lets the sense of dread build without knocking you over the head with drama-signifying crescendos.

The one problem people who love the film might have is with the ending, but let it be known that the scene is taken directly from the final page of McCarthy's novel, thereby preserving the integrity of the story while possibly pissing off viewers who wanted a bit more...closure.

But in this film the only closure comes from knowing that evil works in mysterious ways and comes in many forms.

Therefore if you ever see a lumbering man in a Beatle haircut carrying an air canister and an eerie look, please run.

And whatever you do, don't take his money.

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80th Academy Awards Recap

The annual gala was dominated by Old Men, Blood, foreign actors winning golden statues, and a sea of red.

DO NOT make fun of this man's hair

It was only fitting on a night in which storm clouds hovered over the venue and rain soaked the red carpet that the 80th annual Academy Awards would be dominated by a couple of dark films in front of an audience clad primarily in crimson.

While it appeared that the majority of starlets got the internal memo to blend in with the most infamous rug this side of Howard Cosell, two films that dealt with the darker side of life took home the most coveted awards.

The early oil industry saga "There Will be Blood" helped Daniel Day-Lewis earn his second Best Actor trophy in the least surprising outcome of the evening, while Joel & Ethan Coen's tale of a deranged killer with a horrendous hairdo, "No Country For Old Men", was the big winner, garnering statues for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem), Best Director(s) and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The telecast was strangely devoid of excitement and surprises for the most part, with milquetoast host Jon Stewart playing it safe on the heels of the writer's strike, while the stars were apparently just happy to be able to play dress up and attend an event after the aborted fiasco that was the Golden Globes.

Ironically despite all the testosterone and griminess it was the fairer sex that provided most of the intrigue on the evening.

First carrot-topped Tilda Swinton swiped the Best Supporting Actress trophy from front runner Cate Blanchett and sentimental fave Ruby Dee for her portrayal as a powerful woman with a closet full of insecurities in "Michael Clayton", a victory that took even Swinton off guard judging by her "what, I really won?" expression upon hearing her name announced.

Then former stripper-turned screenwriter Diablo Cody "shocked the world" by scoring the Best Original Screenplay hardware, not so much for her penning of the tender reality check flick "Juno", but for her decision to wear a slitted, sleeveless leopard print frock that exposed her tacky stripper tat to the stodgy Hollywood upper crust.

But the biggest surprise was newcomer Marion Cotillard winning the Best Actress award for her portrayal of troubled singer Edith Piaf in the French biopic "La Vie en Rose." Cotillard, a stunningly beautiful actress who had never been in a hit movie in the States, beat out Hollywood heavyweights Blanchett, Julie Christie and Laura Linney in winning America's premier acting award.

Plus she wore the most evocative dress, had the best acceptance speech, and sung at the post-show presser. Hard to top that.

Her win combined with Bardem's (Spain), Day-Lewis' (England) and Swinton's (England) made it a clean sweep for foreign-born actors in the 4 major categories for the first time since 1964 and only the second time ever. Bardem's win marked the first for a Spaniard, and Cotillard the first by a French woman since 1960.

As Swinton succinctly put it in her speech,"Don't tell everybody, but we're everywhere - that's what Hollywood is."

Who said our country's foreign policy was a mess?

Coming tomorrow: The Best & Worst of the 80th annual Oscars

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