Iron Man 2

OPENING: 05/07/2010

STUDIO: Paramount

RUN TIME: 124 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

Opening Statement
With this release, Iron Man 2 joins some pretty elite company of fellow superhero films like The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 2. The similarity surrounding this trio? They’re all superhero film sequels that are even better than their respectable predecessors. Iron-Man 2 is absolutely awesome, no doubt about it.

Facts of the Case
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes) appears to have a great life. He’s every city’s salvation after saving the world with his Iron Man technology, he’s a young bachelor/billionaire, and he’s got a brain the size of the Grand Canyon. Well, books aren’t meant to be judged by covers, and in this case neither should people. Stark proves that appearances can be deceiving.

Behind all the glitz and glam, Stark is actually dying. The more he utilizes the Iron Man suit, the more toxins enter his blood. And with his time becoming shorter and shorter, life isn’t making things easy for him. The US Government is breathing down his neck, wishing to monopolize his Iron Man technology which they deem too dangerous for a civilian to possess. A Stark Company rival, Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell, Everybody’s Fine), is out for major vengeance after Stark humiliates him at a Senate hearing. And on top of that, a dangerous and ruthless new enemy has emerged out of Russia in computer savvy Ivan Ranko (Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler). Like Hammer, Ranko also wants Stark’s head on a spit, since he holds Tony and his father, Howard Stark, accountable for the death of his own father. With many scores to settle, and time running low; Tony Stark attempts to beat the odds, save the world, and ultimately save his own life in the process.

The Evidence
Since superhero movies are total cash registers, consider Iron Man 2 one of the modern day tricked out jobs, complete with electronic screen and bar code scanner. This movie is going to rake in a huge sum of money, and deservedly so.

It excels in everything, but first and foremost, Downey Jr. completely makes the movie. I can’t picture anyone else in this role. His constant witty behavior and comedic one-liners are absolutely fantastic. He makes a wonderfully cocky Tony Stark, and at the end of the day, I can’t decide whether I like him more in this role or as Sherlock Holmes. It’s a tossup all right. In addition to Downey, Rourke made a great adversary, acting very mysteriously and providing us with a very respectable, well done Russian accent. Personally, I didn’t care the Hammer character. I don’t think Sam Rockwell was the best choice for the role. He came off as too much of a nice guy, and I think a more sinister-appearing actor would have filled the part better then Rockwell did.

As far as action goes, it’s basically everything an action-loving junkie would want in his movies. Huge explosions, nice looking machinery, and ridiculously sweet action scenes. Even Scarlett Johansson (He’s Just Not That Into You) gets in on the action, beating baddies and taking names like a lucha libre professional. If you like action, you’ll be very pleased with this movie, I assure you of that.

But the beauty of Iron Man 2 is that it’s not all action and a weak story, like for instance From Paris With Love. The story is deep, the character development is strong, and the multiple storylines are intriguing and interesting. This is a very smart superhero movie; you’ve got to tip your hat to Jon Favreau and Justin Theroux. And in typical Iron Man fashion, there is a handful of foreshadowing of the story premise for Iron Man 3, INCLUDING A POST-CREDITS SCENE! So once the credits roll, do not- I repeat, do not- leave your seats!

And hey, what do you know? A good chunk of the film takes place in my old hometown of Flushing, New York! Now whether you like it or not, I’m going to give some selfish praise to the movie for using my childhood dwellings as a central location in the film. Of course they made it more or less unrecognizable, making it appear a good 97.4% more upscale then it really is, but I’m not complaining. Let’s Go Mets!

Closing Statement
With its great blend of action, comedy, drama, and special effects; count on Iron Man 2 to be a film made of, not iron, but steel (or any other type of alloy/element that’s tough and impenetrable). The movie is great, and absolutely lives up to the hype, in a way I feel most common folk moviegoers thought 2010’s other big release, Alice In Wonderland, did not. Go see it!

The Verdict
9/10

Sherlock Holmes

OPENING: 12/25/2009

STUDIO: Warner Bros.

RUN TIME: 128 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Nothing Escapes Him.

Opening Statement
There’s been a lot of talk about just how much director Guy Ritchie has altered the famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes for the sake of pleasing modern ADD-riddled audiences. Granted, the character isn’t entirely true to his literary roots, but then that’s actually been the case with quite a lot of his cinematic incarnations (including the beloved Basil Rathbone films). This is not your grandfather’s Sherlock Holmes film — in fact, one might even argue it isn’t a Sherlock Holmes film at all — but it is an entertaining romp.

Facts of the Case
This time around, Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) is in a rather disheveled state. His longtime assistant, Dr. Watson (Jude Law), is about to be married, which means Watson will no longer be around to accompany him on crime-solving adventures. Holmes responds to this in a surprisingly childish manner, not-so-subtly insulting Watson’s fiancee at every possible opportunity and retreating into a terrible state of depression. Holmes starts to perk up, when he hears the recently-executed Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) has seemingly risen from the dead in order to engage in further acts of devious behavior. Everyone at Scotland Yard is positively baffled, and the idea of solving such a challenging case stimulates Holmes. Dragging Watson along one last time (or is it?), Holmes determines to figure just how Lord Blackwood was able to escape death’s clutches.

The Evidence
When I first saw the trailer for b>Sherlock Holmes, I couldn’t help but let loose a sigh of disappointment. Yes, let’s take another iconic character, give him a post-modern spin, and put him in a standard-issue CGI-dominated blockbuster. That sounds like a delightful idea (insert dripping sarcasm). Fortunately, the final product is a better than I expected. Sure, it’s often a typical CGI-dominated blockbuster, but Robert Downey, Jr. ensures that the character remains a distinct individual, despite the film’s attempts to turn him into a Victorian-era Jason Bourne.

There are a lot of things about this Holmes that might seem unfamiliar. We’ve heard he was a boxer, but here he seems on par with Muhammad Ali. We’ve heard he had fondness for opium, but not that he was both a junkie and an alcoholic. We’ve heard he was a messy slop with a tendency to dress badly and smell worse… well, no, that’s actually a strange new addition. However, the things we love best about Holmes are left intact: his casual delight in spelling out everything he knows about a person as soon as they enter a room; his general sense of superiority to those around him; and his simultaneous pleasure/relief at finding something that can put his considerable mental powers to work. Downey accentuates Holmes’ snobbery, which could have come across as particularly obnoxious, if not for the savvy inclusion of a child-like vulnerability buried within the character. It’s a terrific and quite original performance, owing nothing to anything other than Downey’s imagination.

Ritchie is best-known for his convoluted gangster films — Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, RocknRolla — which have a way of twisting this way and that until a cathartic third act explains everything in entertaining detail. His overactive style may be a bit much for a Holmes story, but a quick consideration of his storytelling tendencies reveals why he was a respectable choice for this film. For me, one of the great pleasures of the Holmes stories has always been that moment towards the end in which Holmes cheerfully explains how he came to his spot-on conclusion, putting everyone else in the room (both innocent and guilty) to some sort of mental shame. Ritchie knows how supremely satisfying such moments can be, twisting the plot tighter and tighter until finally allowing it to unravel, spilling all of its secrets in the form of a patented Holmes monologues. What joy!

Alas, not all of the film is quite so satisfying. I found my attention beginning to drift, as the movie started losing focus and veering a bit too far off course. I didn’t particularly care for Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler. McAdams is fine, but any Holmes fan will know that Ms. Adler is someone Holmes regards reverently as The Woman. What we get instead is the usual politically correct composite female stereotype: strong, lovely, can fight every bit as well as the boys, smart as Holmes, and doesn’t seem to have much dimension beyond these external attributes. The usually-excellent Mark Strong doesn’t get enough to do as Lord Blackwood. And, while Jude Law’s Watson is generally appealing, make no mistake: this is Downey’s show.

Closing Statement
While fans of Conan Doyle’s stories — and previous cinematic incarnations of Holmes, for that matter — may protest the wild action-fest that is Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, I found it enjoyable. However, I have no intent of putting up any great defense of it. The film isn’t great art and it’s only moderately good entertainment. Still, if you’re looking to have a good time at the movies, you could certainly do worse.

The Verdict
7/10

The Soloist

OPENING: 04/24/2009

STUDIO: DreamWorks

RUN TIME: 117 min

TRAILER: Trailer

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

SOUNDTRACK:

The Charge
No one changes anything by playing it safe.

Opening Statement
I became an instant fan of director Joe Wright in 2005 when I saw his adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Wright managed to take a story I had never quite warmed up to and make it an intensely romantic and emotionally involving cinematic experience. He impressed me even further in 2007 with the masterful Atonement, which tells the tragic story of two young lovers in World War II England. Wright’s latest feature is The Soloist, his first modern-day film and his first American film. Is it another triumph for the director, or are most critics correct when they claim he has taken his first tumble?

Facts of the Case
The film is based on a true story chronicled by LA Times writer Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.), a columnist searching for a human interest subject to write about. One day, he runs into a very odd-looking homeless man (Jamie Foxx) on the street. The man, who introduces himself as Nathanial Ayers, is wearing a variety of peculiar clothes, carrying a shopping cart full of junk, and playing a violin with only two strings. He doesn’t seem to be completely there, often ignoring things people say to him and spewing off rambling and semi-nonsensical stream-of-consciousness rants. Lopez might have just walked away and forgotten about him, but two things caught his attention. First, Nathanial is actually quite a good violin player, considering the broken instrument he is working with. Second, Nathanial mentions in passing that he once attended Julliard. Curious about whether there is any validity to this claim, Lopez calls Julliard and does a little fact-checking. Indeed, it seems, once upon a time, Nathanial was a well-regarded educated man. So what is he doing on the streets?

The Evidence
It sounds like the setup to an inspirational film, doesn’t it? Indeed, the trailers for The Soloist have marketed it as the story of a journalist who helps a troubled but brilliant musician get back on his feet. The trailers are misleading. Nathanial is not merely a troubled man, he is a man who has completely succumbed to madness. Sure, his musical skills are remarkable and he’s capable of engaging in a coherent conversation. Even so, his mind is trapped in a series of tangled turmoils too deep and complex for an ordinary human being to climb out of without suffering great damage. This serves as a source of constant frustration for Steve, whose early approach to Nathanial is akin to that of a repairman coming to fix a leaky roof. He’s convinced if he can get Nathanial some proper medication and off the streets, everything will be okay.

Alas, The Soloist isn’t A Beautiful Mind. There doesn’t seem to be a solution on the horizon for Nathanial’s schizophrenia, and many of the attempts to “make his life better” backfire horrifically. Love in the form of friendship may not be all that Nathanial needs, but it’s the only thing he’s going to accept. Steve’s attempts to deal with this reality represent some of the high points in the film. It’s difficult to adjust to the idea of giving someone unconditional love and support, despite the awareness that it probably isn’t going to go very far towards helping them recover from their problems.

One of Wright’s more controversial decisions was the choice to use real mentally ill and homeless people as supporting cast members. Some claim he is exploiting them, which I’ll leave it up to you to decide. I do think having them in the film adds a considerable layer of reality that many of us see every day on the streets but almost never on the big screen. Wright’s direction is heartfelt and gritty, achieving a cinematic poetry both in the concert hall and on the graffiti-laden streets of Los Angeles. Foxx and Downey are as effective as you would expect these two fine actors to be, and composer Dario Marianelli expertly utilizes the music of Beethoven (Nathanial’s favorite classical composer, and mine too) as the basis for his original score.

Jamie Foxx is quite good, but one can honestly tell his performance is a slightly romanticized and over-dramatized version of reality seemingly designed to garner award nominations. The moments that really affected me are those in which the screen is filled with those real people who are struggling. There is nothing wrong with wanting to “fix” the lives of such troubled individuals, and I applaud those good citizens who provide them with better food, a warm place to sleep, medicine, and counseling. However, The Soloist suggests love demonstrated in the form of friendship and human kindness is a need too often overlooked.

I may make the film sound rather sentimental and I suppose it is, aside from the fact it acknowledges there are no easy answers to the kinds of problems people like Nathanial face. It isn’t a perfect film, and sometimes it goes a bit far in attempting to push our emotions. Even so, the successes are far more noteworthy than the failures, and what happiness is found in the end is certainly earned.

Closing Statement
The Soloist has the required combination of honesty and emotional pull to potentially inspire audience members to do more for the homeless in their community. I often roll my eyes at “message movies” for trying to shove self-righteousness down my throat, but I responded to this one and certainly recommend it.

The Verdict
8/10

Tropic Thunder

Opening Date: 08/15/2008

STUDIO: Dreamworks

TRAILER: Trailer

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

The Charge
Get some. 

Opening Statement
Before The Dark Knight captured the mania and hysteria of the summer, the season’s runaway success was that of Iron Man and its star Robert Downey Jr. The film’s $300 Million box office success has opened every possible opportunity for the actor, and since a second Iron Man is a virtual certainty, the only question is what he’ll do next. So yeah, star as a critically acclaimed actor in a Vietnam war film, while wearing blackface. Seems only logical right?

Facts of the Case
Ben Stiller (The Heartbreak Kid) and Justin Theroux came up with the story, which Stiller directed. The film’s hero is Tugg Speedman (Stiller), an action star of a franchise whose recent films have been poorly received both critically and at the box office. His attempted dramatic crossover films have also failed. Hi co-star, Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black, Nacho Libre) has been a franchise star as well, however his films, called The Fatties, are simply nothing more than bathroom humor where Jeff plays all the characters. Think the Klumps from the Eddie Murphy Nutty Professor films, except with more farting. Jeff has a bit of an addiction problem as well, and has been arrested on occasion where he’s acted up. Speaking of acting up, the dramatic star is Kirk Lazarus (Downey), winner of several “Crying Monkey” statues, along with every other acting trophy under the sun. His is a method acting of the highest order. To play Lincoln Osiris in Tropic Thunder, Lazarus dyed his skin black and took on a Detroit accent (of sorts) for the role. When the film’s production falls out of budget and time, their technical advisor (Nick Nolte, Hotel Rwanda) suggests to the director that the boys be taken away from their creature comforts and dropped in the middle of the jungle with limited contact to the outside world. The film documents what occurs afterwards. 

The Evidence
I was fortunate enough to catch an advance screening of Tropic Thunder in San Diego the night before Comic Con started, and it was a surreal experience to say the least. After a filmed introduction to the film by the stars (exclusive to San Diego crowds and which will no doubt make the DVD), the film’s experience is designed to get you to buy into the characters as much as possible. Trailers for the ‘fake’ stars’ films will air before the feature, along with a commercial for “Booty Sweat,” the drink that another one of the film’s stars, Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson, Roll Bounce) markets. Then you’re dropped right into the shiz, so to speak.

In advance press for the film, Ben Stiller has said, in several places (notably Playboy) that “There was something so ironic and funny about actors talking about how hard it was to go off to boot camp for two weeks for a movie about a war when it obviously had nothing to do with the real experience of war.  It might have been my own bitterness about not getting parts in these movies, but I did think there was the seed of something in the irony of actors taking themselves too seriously.  Maybe this movie is my revenge. “  This revenge, combined with the observations made in the film, makes Tropic Thunder as enjoyable as it is. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some humor at its base elements, where Speedman encounters severed heads of humans and animals which, within the context of the bit, is a little on the disappointing side, but other jokes designed to poke fun at Hollywood’s expense are quite good.

Speedman’s agent, Rick Peck (Matthew McConaughey, in the role Owen Wilson was due to play before his suicide attempt) is a supporter of all things Tugg, but when he’s presented with a moral quandary choosing between his longtime client and friend and the wealth and luxury of a Gulfstream jet, things become muddied. He wants no part of the jungle, but when Tugg isn’t given his contractual obligation of a TiVo at his temporary jungle residence, that’s when things start to hit the fan. Oh yeah, the guy who presents Rick with this dilemma? That would be Lee Grossman, played with some prosthetics and a bald cap by Tom Cruise. Yes, THAT Tom Cruise. As the fictional Grossman, Cruise plays a loud, profane alpha dog of a man, a studio boss with no time to dispense platitudes, but will woo anyone over to the dark side if it will advance a greater good, and throw them under the bus if they get in his way. Cruise swears, dances (almost worth the admission price alone with all the makeup), and in a particularly funny sequence near the end of the film, congratulates and chastises executive Bill Hader (Superbad) within the same sentence. What little time he spends on screen isn’t wasted, and there’s usually a bellylaugh or two to be gained from watching him.

Much of the film’s jokes and dialogue are on the guilty laugh / cringeworthy side. When discussing Speedman’s failure with the film Simple Jack, Lazarus says that the failure of the role was because he didn’t temper his character’s mental deficiencies, using a funny yet oddly logical argument that puts Rain Man and I Am Sam in some context. Downey’s African-American inflection borders a little bit on the Kingfish side of things, and when Chino starts to belittle all things Aussie, Downey (as Lazarus) defends them, and does so as Osiris to boot. When one of the cast members is found out to be gay, Portnoy, in an attempt to feed his addiction, talks in detail of what he would do with him if he could be allowed to get drugs.

If there was something that could be considered a little bit on the weakish side, it would be the story within the film. Getting to the last battle sequence seems to drag a little long. Even at 1 hour and 47 minutes it’s about 10 minutes longer than the film should be, but the performances are still excellent. Stiller’s actual Vietnam story seems to lean quite a bit on Apocalypse Now, with Tugg acting as Colonel Kurtz, while Lazarus, in blackface, wears white makeup in an attempt to break him out. Yes, he’s white, made to be black, then white again. Got it? Black tends to ham it up a little, but his hamminess does have a slight edge to it, and Downey is no C. Thomas Howell (Soul Man). The lines are funny, he stays in character even after the camera stops rolling, and although McConaughey took over Wilson’s role, it’s hard to imagine anyone else doing it. It’s the best portrayal of an agent I’ve seen since Martin Short in The Big Picture. And Cruise damn near steals the film in the limited screen time he has.

This kind of material is something I’d been wanting to see Stiller do for ages. He got close to it in the early ‘90s, but I think with age, perspective, and given the chance to go all out, he could make an excellent and hilarious satire of Hollywood as it’s laid out right now. Tropic Thunder is a great first step towards that destiny, if he chooses to take it.

Closing Statement
Tropic Thunder does a couple of things for me as a moviegoer I didn’t think were possible. First, it made me pretty much absolve Ben Stiller for all the cinematic sins he’s committed through the years. Second, (and this is the bigger one) never, NEVER did I think that Tom Cruise could be so biting and hilarious. This is the funniest performance he’s ever given, in part because it’s so blustery and without depth. Combine that with a hearty dose of politically incorrect humor and a finger in the eye to the Hollywood establishment, and you’ve got a winning comedic formula. Tropic Thunder stands to be the highest-grossing comedy of 2008, and with everything that happens here, it’s worth the ride.

The Verdict
Come for Downey, stay for Cruise and the jokes. It’ll be well worth your time.

9/10

Robert talks about taking the film in a different direction than recent superhero adaptations.

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Gwyneth gets caught in a TMZ-like question from one of the UK press. Although, with that accent, everything sounds polite.

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Jon is still adjusting to his star status, but hasn’t lost his trademark sense of humor.

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