Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2
2010
Directed By: Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke

Now, I'm not a comic book fan. But for some reason, I get very excited about these movies. The big-budget, explosion-ridden movies. They are intriguing. The first Iron Man was awesome. It was well written, acted, and mostly everything about the story reeled you in for an exciting 2 hours. This one was good, but lacking in a few areas.

Robert Downey Jr has proved over the last few years that he is a phenomenal actor. When he speaks, the entire room stops. Everyone hangs on every word that Tony Stark blurts out. His delivery is flawless, and the overall rapport between the characters seems effortless. Never would I think the flow of character development would be so smooth in a comic book movie. The consistency of the characters make the new movie flow from the first one.

Of course, the first movie concentrated on the story of the creation of Iron Man. Which is usually how these things go. But Iron Man did something different. In the sequel, they did not try to squeeze in a million bad guys for him to defeat. There is one bad guy. One foe for Iron Man to overcome. Now of course there are those other foes like the US government and his own self deprivation. But overall, it had less of a comic book feel and more of a hero feel.

The movie focused more on the man underneath the Iron Man suit than the costume itself. The subtle lead-in for the highly anticipated Avengers movie was intriguing but did not take away from the story at hand. And of course, with today's technology, it seems almost unnecessary to mention the special effects, but they were very good as well.

The few things I didn't like did not have too much burden on my experience. Don Cheadle's character seemed a little too flip-floppy for me. He seemed all over the place and couldn't make up his mind on which side he was on. There was also a small issue with some fight scenes. The birthday party fight scene with the non-fitting music seemed a little dragged out, and something from a bad episode of Family Guy. Also, the final fight scene seemed a little short-lived. Usually I find final fight scenes in comic book movies to be too long, this one seemed a little too short. But of course there is always the possibility of another sequel, and though I was confused at first over the scene after the credits, it was explained to me, and I do look forward to the next few years of Marvel comic book movies.

Iron Man 2 was exactly as I expected. Action packed, witty, and 2 hours of pure entertainment. Jon Favreau has seemed to find his niche. Though Elf was pretty awesome as well.

Stars (out of 4): ***

A Nightmare On Elm Street

A Nightmare On Elm Street
2010
Directed By: Samuel Bayer
Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner

I find these movie remakes being a giant waste of money. I admit that I am part of the generation that has a terrible attention span and wants blood, blood, blood. However, the remake of this very classic slasher film is pretty dysfunctional. Story line: horrible. Acting: abhorrent. Freddy character: draining. I never though I'd get sick of hearing Freddy Kreuger speak. The fact is, there will be no Freddy Kreuger other than Robert Englund.

My first experience of Freddy's character was in the 2003 "Freddy vs. Jason". Now that film was just as senseless, but at least it was somewhat interesting. Taking the 1984 original and butchering it (no pun intended) was a mistake. It makes me upset that Wes Craven's genius is thrown down the toilet. "Freddy vs. Jason" had some interesting characters and a story line I could get behind. You got exactly what you expected.

This remake of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" seemed to have no direction. The classic scenes of the girl being thrown around the room held up a bit, but honestly there was no care about the characters what so ever. The movie jumped around from character to character and you never really know who the "main characters" really are.

Now, going into it, I knew what to expect. However, I did expect a little more to be done for me regarding the movie. This was a remake of a CLASSIC. Wes Craven's first nightmare is a staple and a pioneer for the slasher flick. Freddy is a household name of terror and fear. I feel that this movie just took him down a few notches in the terror belt. There comes a time when loud noises just will not do the job of scaring people anymore. This was a poor representation of a collection of nightmares from 1984-2003. It was not as bad as the remake of Friday the 13th, but it was not very good.

Stars: * 1/2

Kick-Ass

Kick-Ass
2010
Directed By: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage

Superhero film. Done before? Well yeah. This movie comes out of nowhere showing a lonely high school kid who decides to become a superhero. He buys a scuba costume and walks around with batons. The fact is, he never really does anything. It seems like every time he is ready to be a superhero, someone else comes along and saves his ass. The weird thing is, that when Dave is dressed in his hero costume, he sounds a lot like Tobey Maguire in Spiderman. I'm serious. I don't know if they did that on purpose, but it's just something I noticed.

I'd say about 90% of the movie is predictable. And I know that's not the point. But I would love a little unpredictability from a superhero movie. I did like the movie. I thought it was funny and somewhat creative. But I get really tired of character actors constantly being the same person over and over. McLovin seemed like McLovin. So yeah, I don't really have too much to say. The predictability was lame but it was a good movie. It entertained me.

I would like to have a little soapbox about people bringing their young children (like 4 years old) to a movie that clearly is rated R. If you have kids you have a responsibility. The End. You need to realize that going to a movie is not as easy as it once was. Be a human and take care of your kid. If going to the movies is that important, hire a sitter. Plenty of people are looking for work, it's not that hard. And yeah, kids will probably use bad words and such early in life, but bad parenting is not going to help one little bit. Kids need to be kids. Idiots, be concious of what the hell you're doing.

Stars (out of 4): ** 1/2

For Love of the Game

For Love of the Game
1999
Directed by: Sam Raimi
Starring: Kevin Costner, Kelly Preston

I never thought I'd ever find myself rooting against the Yankees in any type of media form. This film, however, brings you into the world of legendary pitcher Billy Chapel as he takes the mound in his very possible last game ever. While pitching a gem and being perfect throughout, the story throws you into the world of his on-and-off relationship with Jane. You see how the two met, how her insecurities and his fame interfere with their relationship.

The story takes a slow, but necessary turn into this side story of the love. Throughout the film you see his battles with love, physical condition, and baseball. Parts of the film were a little corny, but it was good. I feel that because I actually found myself caring about the main character. Like I said earlier, rooting against the Yankees was tough, but it happened. I was rooting for the perfect game to come together. The Yankees are painted like a bunch of bad guys, which I didn't like, but I understand.

It was a fitting movie to watch during the first week of the baseball season. It brought through that mystique of any baseball movie. Watching a film about baseball is unlike watching a film about any other sport. The tradition is always brought through in such fine form that it makes you want to step onto a diamond.

This film brings out the true tradition of baseball, love, and the juggling of both. I liked it. It was a tad long for the type of film it was, but I didn't mind it as much as I usually would. Still didn't like rooting against the Yanks.

Stars: * * *

Chloe

Chloe
2009
Directed By: Atom Egoyan
Starring: Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried

This is something that confuses me a bit. There's this film starring a girl who in one way could look absolutely gorgeous, and with one bad camera angle or slip of makeup could look like the troll in Lord of the Rings that stabs Elijah Wood in that chest plate thing. Amanda Seyfried is a young, blonde, skinnyish actress. She has lips that are so big they make Pamela Anderson jealous.

In this film, every scene involving Seyfried was a hit or miss. She either looked gorgeous or hideous. Her body is fantastic regardless. The essence of the movie did not revolve completely around the "sexiness" of her character. I actually liked this aspect. It wasn't all about "hey there's boobs". The nudity was subtle and was actually somewhat important to the story. A steamy lesbian scene was hot and also told a lot of the back story that didn't use words.

Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson play a couple who have trust issues. They have a nice house that seems like it is made completely out of glass. They have a 17-18 year old son who bangs a hot chick early in the film. He is detached from his mother and seems to only trust his father. The family dynamic was a little off, but Liam Neeson is the man. So oh well.

Moore hires Seyfried to seduce her husband. Moore wants to see how Neeson will react to a young blonde making approaches toward him. What a concept! Of course a man will act in a flirty way if a cute younger girl approaches them. Seyfried then begins telling Moore about the adventures that ensue. The film fell a little flat in some areas, but I'm not upset I saw it. It was alright. Although the theater I was in actually had the volume down an awful lot. I never thought I'd have to strain to hear talking in a film.

Stars: **

Greenberg

Greenberg
2010
Directed by: Noah Baumbach
Starring: Ben Stiller, Rhys Ifans

A movie. A movie about a man. A movie about a man. That's about it. This movie focuses on a man who housesits for his brother when the latter goes on vacation to Vietnam with his family. The man (Roger) played by Ben Stiller is an emotional rollercoaster of a man. He had recently been released from a mental facility. He housesits and begins forming a relationship with his brother's personal assistant (Florence). Throughout the course of the film Ben Stiller has mood swings and outbursts that could be the very reason he was in a mental facility in the first place.

At times the movie is agreeable and illuminating. I found myself entranced by some of the dialogue exchanges between Roger, Florence, and Roger's friend Ivan. Overall though, the movie seemed to fall flat. The story never seemed to gain a solid ground. I felt that the screenplay was all over the place, and, even though I love him, Ben Stiller is still Ben Stiller in this role and there's no way around it. When he talks all I think about is him milking a cat.

Ben Stiller is a comedic genius (with the exception of Tropic Thunder). But this movie role did not feel like it fit with Stiller's demeanor. Greta Gerwig, who plays Florence, has a certain mystique about her, but her manly voice and awkward look make her role seem to fail as well. They tried to present her in a positive light, but nothing positive came through.

I feel that since the movie is very independent it did not have the allure of anything. The draw of Ben Stiller is what brought me to the theater. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

Stars: *

Rain Man

Rain Man
1988
Directed by: Barry Levinson
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise

So I know the film is 22 years old. But I had never seen it. I always saw it referenced in other films, but I wanted to see it for myself. Fantastic. It's a really good film. I really don't know what else to say. Of course seeing Tom Cruise kind of annoys me, well because he's annoying. But honestly he played his role really well. You have to have patience with this film because it's pretty long (2 hrs 13 mins), and there are certain parts that I found were kind of obnoxious and unnecessary.

Overall, the film was really good. The message it sent was awesome. I hated how during the Las Vegas scene I kept thinking about The Hangover (great movie). But that's just how it happened. But Jesus, Dustin Hoffman. I never really like him before (except in Hook), but he was fantastic playing autistic Raymond. The chemistry between Hoffman and Cruise was magical and believable.

It was also interesting to see how autism was looked at back in those times. Being an education major, I know that autism was never seen as a real disability until recently. There's a scene where a doctor says "He's artistic?" and Tom Cruise corrects her. She says "I don't understand". It's great that a doctor would not know what autism is. Anyway, good movie. I'm glad I have Netflix because it makes me able to see these films I would probably never see.

Stars (out of 4) * * * 1/2