Iron Man review

It seems that ever since the initial success and resurgence of the comic book movie, headlined by X-Men in 2000 and Spider-Man in 2002, Hollywood will not rest until every other comic super hero is exploited with similar results. Thus we now have Iron Man. Not being a comic book reader myself, I am not very familiar with the history of this character and cannot judge this movie’s accuracy and trueness to the original vision. However, taken strictly as an action filled two hours, Iron Man succeeds.

Tony Stark has taken over the helm of his father’s company, manufacturing weapons and selling them to the government. When a sales demonstration in Afghanistan goes bad, he becomes a terrorist prisoner. Once they discover who he is, they keep him captive and demand that he build them a batch of his company’s latest new-fangled missles. Instead, he manages to construct a complex battle suit and fight his way out of captivity. While the absurdity of fashioning a war machine in a desert bunker with relatively basic materials is obvious, it serves to have the required effect on Stark. Returning home and concluding that his company is doing nothing to help the terrorist problem in the world, he sets out to stop making weapons and privately begins plans in his own workshop for a perfected and enhanced battle suit.

One can’t help but make comparisons to Batman, mixed with Superman’s ability to fly. The head of a massive company with unlimited money and resources creates the means to deal with wrongdoing directly. Unfortunately, without being able to compare it to the comics somewhat limits my perspective. Because of this, and the similarities to other comic heroes, I can’t really say that Iron Man is any better or any worse than the other flicks of this genre. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the majority of them have been pretty decent in the last few years.

Throughout the building of the suit, learning to use it skillfully, and inaugural attack mission, we are treated to some cool special effects and light comedy. The suit definitely looks cool as hell, the villians are not quite as memorable as the Joker or Dr. Octopus, but there is certainly a payoff villain that more than gives Stark a run for his money.

Basically, if you are a comic book fan or enjoy other films of this kind then you’ll probably like this one too. If you’re not much into that world, then you can safely skip it without losing sleep. It didn’t strike the same chord with me as the original Spider-Man did when it first came out, but I thought it was a cool action movie all the same. I’ll definitely be buying it on Blu-Ray.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Fans have been itching for a new Indiana Jones film for 20 years, and they have finally been rewarded for their long wait. It has been said that one of the major reasons for the delay has been getting a script that George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Harrison Ford all liked and felt passionate about. Also, with as busy as these three are, I’m sure getting them all together to pull another movie together took some juggling in their schedules. Well, I am happy to report that the time taken to make sure everything felt right has paid off. It is easy to get back into the character and for the most part, the story holds up.

Indy 4 wastes no time in setting a familiar tone. It starts out just as you would want it to, with a major action scene in a fondly familiar setting from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Shortly after things calm down, our aging hero meets a young man by the name of Mutt (recognizable to those who saw Transformers) who has been instructed to find and recruit him to assist in the recovery of Mutt’s parents, who have been kidnapped in the quest for the Crystal Skull. The enemies this time are not Nazis, but Russians, and the particular reason why the Russians are searching for said skull, its origins, and the ultimate result of returning it to where it needs to be are a bit outlandish, even for an Indy film, and no doubt feel out of place with this iconic character.

That small detail aside, this is an Indiana Jones flick through and through. The boy becomes his constant companion, and while he is clearly inexperienced and nervous in exotic ruins, Jones is in his element here and shows that while he may be older, he can still hold his own. Mutt eventually shows great enthusiasm for the hunt and is more than capable in the action packed, improvisation-filled fight scenes that Indy always seems to get himself into. He proves himself to be a worthy successor to the ragged fedora, in more ways than one. There are plenty of winks and subtle nods to the previous movies and the characters that filled them, including one major player returning from the past that is a perfect fit and very welcome. The grin-inducing John Williams score is present and accounted for and the obligatory jokes about Ford’s age are surprisingly kept to a minimum.

There are a few missteps however. The action mostly holds up, but there are a few over the top moments that are just too ridiculous, including taking shelter in a refrigerator at the end of the opening sequence and some absurd Tarzan style vine swinging toward the end. Also, the previously mentioned origin of the skull makes the last 10 minutes of the climax having you wondering if your watching Indiana Jones or some other big name summer blockbuster that hasn’t come out yet.

These two flaws are easily overlooked when looking at the movie as a whole and there is definitely enough here to please fans of old. If you’ve been clamoring for an archeology fix ever since the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles TV show ended, this is what you’ve been craving. A great addition to the franchise.

Phone Booth review

Released in 2003, Phone Booth stars mainly Colin Farrell, but also includes several other relatively big names. Farrell plays a cocky, smooth-talking publicist with no conscience. At the start, we see him working several of his “clients” to get what he wants out of each one, lying and deceiving anyone he can and stringing along some young kid as a trainee. He has no cares except keeping up his facade. Soon after, he goes to a phone booth in the middle of Times Square and gets a phone call that will change his life. The person on the other end of the line tells him that if he leaves the phone booth or hangs up, he will be shot via sniper rifle.

Almost the entire film takes place in this one location and is only about an hour and a half long. While this may sound limiting, suspense and mood are the name of the game here, and these are done extremely well. The cinematography, music, and the haunting voice of the faceless caller (who is recognizable, but not immediately so) are all used to maximum effect as the tension is ramped up a notch every few minutes. At first, Farrell is convinced he is being messed with and was randomly chosen by some psycho. We learn that this caller knows quite a lot about who he is and how he lives his life. Eventually, a quarrel over the use of the phone booth ensues and someone is killed. Once the cops show up, the suspense is taken to a whole new level as the police are clueless about who is on the other end of the line and attempt to negotiate with Colin as a killer. Finally, it is revealed that the caller wants to teach Farrell a lesson and confess to the rest of the world that his life is a lie and he does not appreciate what he has.

The movie keeps you interested the whole time and the acting is excellent. Farrell, the caller, and the police chief that runs the negotiation are the three main actors but they play their parts well. The caller’s voice is perfect for building tension and walks the line between calm and calculating and slightly insane. Farrell is on the hot seat the whole time and acts his part very well considering that the only way he can interact with his adversary is over the phone. At the end, his character goes through a complete breakdown as the image that he has dedicated himself to maintaining comes crumbling down. Without saying too much, when he finally bares his soul to the world it is truly memorable, some great acting if you ask me.

Sadly the DVD has only one special feature, an audio commentary track. It is a good one however, as the director explains the process of filming a movie on location on only one set. This one should be easy to find on store and rental shelves and I definitely recommend it. One of the most suspenseful movies Ive ever seen!

AVP: Requiem

I certainly was not expecting this movie to be as good as the first AVP, mainly because it is directed by people other than the previous director and I wasn’t really impressed with what they had expressed to the media about the vision and direction they were taking. Pretty much, I was right. I did, however expect Requiem to be better than it turned out to be. Its cool scenes are too few and far between and it is marred by a setting and events that either don’t make sense or don’t jive with the established formula for these iconic sci-fi characters.

AVP:R starts out pretty cool. It picks up immediately where the first AVP left off. We get to see the alien/predator hybrid burst out of the chest again. This new creature kills the crew of the spaceship and it crash lands somewhere in Colorado. As expected, the alien face huggers and eggs that they were experimenting on are knocked loose in the crash, infect a few locals, and are soon running all over the city. In a cruel tease, we see some sort of elder or king of the predators on their homeworld. He has been notified of the crash, quickly collects his hunting gear, and departs in his own craft to clean up the mess.

The rest of the movie involves the townsfolk running from and trying to defend against the aliens while the elder predator goes around camouflaged and cleans up evidence with some kind of neon blue glowing juice that is able to dissolve all the questionable bodies.

The best parts of the movie are, like the first time around, watching the alien and predator duke it out. The elder predator is able to easily dispatch grunt aliens one after another. He is clearly very experienced. The hybrid is more than a match for him though, mixing alien speed and physiology with predator strength and hunting skills. Its a shame then that so many other things detract from this. We are introduced to a few human characters to try to get us to feel for them, but things pick up quickly and the character development is poor so you end up not really caring about what happens to any of the humans. Maybe its just me, but I find it completely uninteresting to watch people from our own time try to fight the aliens when they are so obviously mismatched with our primitive weapons. Most importantly, don’t tease us with 5 seconds of the predator homeworld only to have the entire movie take place in Colorado!!! GAAAHHH!

As far as the new stuff, I guess I can accept the blue glowing goo that dissolves stuff, but late into the movie we see that the hybrid creature has somehow gained the ability to start sucking on a pregnant womans face and plant something inside her that turns the baby into aliens. Whuuuuttttt????? Where the heck did THIS idea come from? It seems out of place and untrue to what either the alien or predator is supposed to be. Lastly, during the humans escape from the town, one of them picks up the predators shoulder gun that has fallen off. Without any knowledge of technology from another planet or how to use it, he proceeds to shoot the gun at any alien that comes near him. I dont think those guns even have triggers!

The reason the first AVP worked so well (especially set in current times) is that the location was so remote and unique it might just as well have been on another world. It also gave the aliens and predators a good, believable reason for being in the same movie together that made sense. The human characters were obviously only along for the ride, caught in the middle of something bigger. This movie feels more like a rehash of Alien Resurrection with a predator cameo than it does an AVP sequel. I am willing to forgive a lot if a film makes up for it with cool stuff. I’m afraid to say though that Requiem’s problems are too big and the cool stuff not nearly plentiful enough to overcome them. One of the biggest sequel screw-ups Ive ever seen, and thats saying a lot coming from me. If you’re an unwavering fan, wait for DVD and put it on your Netflix list. If you spend actual money on it, you will be let down. I was.

I Am Legend review

For those of you that don’t already know, this is actually a film version of a book. A pretty old book in fact, I believe it was written in the 50s.

The premise here is that the year is 2012. Several years before, scientists had invented what was supposed to be the cure for cancer. Much to everybody’s dismay, once injected with this “cure,” people eventually started either dying or turning into some sort of mutant zombie/vampire creature. Three years later, Dr. Robert Neville remains the last man on earth. He lives his days building up supplies, broadcasting his existence on the radio, and waiting for any other people that may have survived this viral holocaust. He also conducts experiments in his basement laboratory, hoping to eventually find a cure. At night, he bunkers himself up in his home and waits for morning, as nighttime is when the creatures are free to roam the streets.

I had started reading the book before seeing this movie to try and get some context. While I didn’t finish it, I can say that Will Smith portrays his role quite differently than the character in the book. In the novel, Neville is not directly referenced as a scientist, nor does he own a dog as he does in the film. Instead, he is established as a hopelessly depressed alcoholic who uses liquor as an escape to cope with the nightly taunting of the “vampires” banging and shouting at him outside his door. This behavior is only alluded to here. He doesn’t really drink, however he is shown frequently talking to his canine companion and having conversations with various mannequins he finds in the city. As the movie progresses, one senses that the endless days of isolation are making him lose his mind a bit.

This movie is a bit slow in its first half but there are a couple of tense moments. The creatures are a little different than other vampires or zombies we’ve all seen before. The backstory of the main character is filled in slowly and you start to really feel for him. The ending is slightly disappointing and some may be put off by its slow start and lack of action moments until the last few scenes. If you go in without too many high expectations I think you can enjoy it. I wouldn’t recommend full price though. Either see a matinee or wait for DVD.

Oh, and if any of you ladies enjoyed seeing Will Smith’s naked butt in I, Robot, you will enjoy his topless work-out scene in I Am Legend. Personally though, I think it just shows that hes getting a bit old. You can tell.

Alvin and the Chipmunks review

Anyone old enough to remember the cartoon of the same name from the 80s and early 90s needs no introduction to this movie. I was pleasantly surprised to find the film true to the cartoon and more fun than I thought it would be.

At the very start we meet Alvin, Simon, and Theodore, three chipmunks in the forest who are storing nuts for the winter. Their tree is cut down and transported to a downtown office building to be to be decorated for Christmas. The three brothers are amazed at their new surroundings. We also meet Dave Seville, a struggling amateur music writer who is unsuccessfully trying to sell his work to a studio that is headquartered in the same building. When he is rejected, he mopes his way home and the chipmunks stow away with him.

When Dave first meets the crazy kids, he thinks he is going insane and kicks them out. But when he discovers they have singing talent he provides them a home in exchange for their musical skills. Before long, Alvin and the Chipmunks become the next hit sensation and have a record deal.

This movie does many things well and is very accurate to how we remember these characters from watching the TV show so many years ago. The voices are correct (not hard considering that they are just pitch shifted very high), Dave portrays his role well (Alllllviiiinnnnn!!!!), even their look is well done. While they are computer generated, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore look realistic and at the same time extremely familiar, right down to Simon’s glasses and the outfits they wear. Even the plot is decent, as we hear the creation of one of our favorite songs from the Chipmunks Christmas album. This is a great film for kids, with cute characters and catchy musical numbers that are fun and recognizable. Devon’s little sister was dancing in the aisle at one point! And it has great nostalgic value for adults who had any fondness of Saturday mornings with this troublesome trio. I give it a pleasantly unexpected high recommendation, worth theater price.

Saw 4 review

While the story for this one is a little different than the previous three, Saw 4 manages to continue fleshing out the backstory of these characters and refuses to let the series die.

Now you might think that since everybody died at the end of Saw 3, that was it. Tsk, tsk. Being the genious that he is, Jigsaw has planned for every possible situation. During his autopsy, another of those mysterious microcassette tapes is found in Jigsaw’s stomach. It seems that there is another officer that is being “tested” and the work is indeed continuing.

As I said, the backstory of the killer is filled out even more as we hear from his ex-wife. We learn the original source of his hatred for people’s unappreciation of life. There are good things and some not so good things here. On the bad side, the plot line of the new officer’s trip to redemtion plays out very similarly to that of Saw 3. He meets several people who are going through their own trials and it is up to him to decide weather to help them or let them attempt to help themselves. Also, the story is more complicated than before and brings back a couple people from the previous films. If you don’t remember them or don’t do your homework it can get a little confusing. Lastly, the death traps this time around are even more creative and greusome than ever! You get the feeling that the filmmakers are simply trying to up the cringe-factor as much as possible.

The good news is that if you loved this part of the last films than you will find more of the same here. I enjoyed learning more of the history and it seems that what few loose ends were left are tied up completely here. However, the end of the film most definately leaves room for additional Saw movies. If they ever decide to make Saw 5, they will have a clean slate.

So, if you’re up for another round of frantic, high tension brutality you can see a matinee or rent the DVD. If you’re over the whole thing than you can skip it without losing any sleep. I liked it but none of the subsequent Saws are able to capture the same thrill as the original.

Transformers review

Based on the TV show of the same name from the 1980s, Transformers attempts to bring all the action, coolness, and fond memories of the cartoon to the big screen in a mix of live action and computer artistry.

The movie starts off with a bang. We have a US military base in the middle east that comes under attack by a mysterious, renegade helicopter. Quickly, we find out that this helicopter is more than meets the eye (heh heh; I couldn’t resist). As our forces attempt to secure the trespasser, we are treated to our first transformation. The helicopter stands up, unfolds, and brandishes weapons far beyond anything we have on earth. Its even accompanied by the same sound effect used in the cartoon, which can’t really be explained unless you’ve seen the cartoon and remember what it sounds like.

Shortly after, we meet Sam Witwicky. He buys his first car and eventually learns that it is very special. He meets the fellow Autobots and learns that Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, wants to control the universe by retreaving the All Spark, a cube that holds incredible energy. It turns out that both the cube and Megatron are being held on earth and the war is on.

While the story is pretty basic, the main themes in this movie are done very well. The underlying story is that of a boy and his car. This was a special relationship in the cartoon and it continues to be so here. The transformers are portrayed very realistically (as realistic as transforming robots can be) and they are huge and convincing. The transformations themselves have been a matter of a bit of controversy with fans. Some argue that they are too complicated and were approached with too much of a an attitude of, “Ok, if this could actually happen, how would it really look?” This is a matter of personal taste. I don’t really mind them, I think they’re pretty cool. With today’s technology I fully expected them to be extremely complicated anyway, but to each his own.

The director took certain liberties with a few things, some of which were quite upsetting to transformers die-hards. Most notably that Megatron and Bumblebee no longer transform into the giant gun and VW Beetle as they did in the cartoon. Instead, they become some kind of futuristic looking jet fighter and a new Chevy Corvette concept car. While the first change is completely understandable from a practical point of view, the second is a little dissappointing. The Camero is definitely cool, but due to the fact that the other Autobots are all high profile GM vehicles, its a little too obvious that the movie has a great big marketing tie-in with GM. Also, the transformers now appear to be able to mimmick any electronic or mechanical device they want just by analyzing it.

These details aside, the movie is blast to watch, especially for fans of the TV show. The acting is decent, there is humor that is surprisingly good, and there are tons of shout-outs to the old series. The best of which is probably Optimus Prime. The leader of the Autobots fits his semi-truck persona great, and the voice actor is the very same guy that did his voice in the 80s! Awesome!

The Grudge 2 review

I just got around to seeing this movie.   The first Grudge continues to freak me out to this day and I was ready and anxious to pop this one in.   I watched it at night, turned off all the lights in the house, and prepared myself.   While this round wasn’t quite as good as the first one, it was still full of creepiness and suspense.

If you remember the first movie, it told the story through two different timelines, eventually connecting the first chain of events with the second at the end. This time the story is told in much the same way, except that now there are three paths to follow. The first thread is a direct continuation of the events immediately following Karen’s hospitalization at the end of Grudge 1. Her sister has come to Tokyo from the US with the intent of bringing her home. Of course, she finds Karen’s research, goes to the house, and along with a journalist who has been following the case, goes in search of the real roots of the problem with the ghosts. Its kind of interesting because we learn a little more backstory of the mother who is the main antagonist.

The other two timelines take place two years later. 3 high school students go to the house to play a trick on their wannbe friend. They bring the curse on themselves and proceed to get taken out. Meanwhile, a mysterious new girl is brought back to her home in Chicago and infects the wife of the family living in the apartment next to them with the curse.

There are many similarities with the first movie in the way the story is told and the themes involved. The three stories all happen at different times, but like before they are interwoven with each other throughout the length of the movie. While the two latter events come together pretty good at the end like the first movie did, the continuation storyline has an ending that is pretty weird. It goes on with some imagery that made it a little unclear what they were trying to suggest. This is part of the Japanese style of filmmaking though. Not all loose ends are tied up and explained. Again the point is driven home that this curse is bigger than anyone and cannot be stopped. The filmmakers seem to take this a step further however, and state that it is growing, able to infect not just people who go to the house but people who come into contact with affected individuals. Also, some of the scares have lost their luster slightly because we know what to expect. And by the end of the film, so many people are being taken out that it gets a slight bit repetitive. That being said though, this movie is still scarier than anything else out there right now. I get a chill up my spine every time I hear that moaning. I am not one that gets scared at movies, but I will freely admit to turning on every light in the house after watching it. I was even hesitant to get my laundry from the basement because it was late and everybody else was asleep!

So, the first movie is better but this one still manages to be freaky. BTW, if you want a cultural experience, go out and rent Ju-on. This is the Japanese film that the original Grudge was based on. If I remember correctly, its subtitled but is just as spine-tingling as the American version and its interesting to note the differences between east and west versions.

Superman Returns review

I’ve wanted to see this movie ever since I heard they were making it. If you just look at the commercials and previews, you might think that this new Superman was a remake, as there are a lot of similar-looking scenes to the 1978 original. Before too long though, you’ll realize that this isn’t your Superman of yesteryear! It occurs to me that a good percentage of the young people that could see this movie weren’t even alive when Christopher Reeve first donned his blue tights. How old does that THAT make me feel?!

I’m happy to say that like Alien vs. Predator (another film that was a long time coming and could have been really bad), this new iteration takes us back to the glory days of the Man of Steel. Everything is done right and with respect to the source material. From the opening credits (done in the same style and font as used in the original film) all the way to the all-american, nostalgia inducing theme music. The costume itself has been redone in a similar fashion to the Spider-Man uniform, updating it for the new millenium while staying subtle and serious (no nipples on this guy *cough*Batman*cough*). The story is relatively basic and doesn’t try to get too complicated, but it does manage to be a little original. Basically, when scientists believe they have found a rock from Superman’s home planet of Krypton, he feels he must seek out the source, which explains why he’s been gone so long. As the name implies, Superman has returned and found that Lois Lane has moved on with her life and Lex Luthor is again out of prison. Everybody plays their role surprisingly well and even manages to take on the look and feel of the original characters. He may not be Christopher Reeve, but Brandon Routh (who the hell is that???!!) plays a decent Superman and even a good Clark Kent. Kevin Spacey has appeared to really embrace his role as the evil genius w/ a superiority complex. Luthor discovers the Fortress of Solitude and decides to pilfer it’s crystals and flood the world, forcing the population to pay top dollar for his own private real estate. Not great, but hey, we’re in superhero world now.

The main draw of this movie is seeing Metropolis’s favorite do-gooder fight crime using state of the art movie special effects. We now see him save an airplane full of passengers and fly through building windows in ways we never would have dreamed in the ’80s. Even bullet-time makes an appearance, giving an all-new, quite literal meaning to the phrase “faster than a speeding bullet!” Between the new effects, the safe but comfortable story, and the heart swelling memories the actors and film-makers have brought to the screen, I recommend seeing Superman Returns in the theaters like it should be. This one’s worth full price. And to top it all off, they do the right thing. They dedicate the film to Christopher and Dana Reeve and family.