Movie Review: Iron Man Three

A year ago, The Avengers came, saw and conquered the box office and its fans.  Iron Man Three sure looks to follow its path as Tony Stark is back in an all-new Iron Man adventure packed with enormous effects, many sidekicks and lots of quippy dialogue delivered in a style is uniquely Robert Downey Jr.'s.

The events in New York that leaves the world and Tony Stark unsettled and that is not the place Stark hopes to find himself in.  He has high anxiety if anyone even mentions the city of New York and spends nights he should be sleeping working on the perfect version of the Iron Man.  He is too involved in his personal demons but as we know trouble always manages to find our superheroes.

In this case, trouble is called The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) who takes responsibility for terrorist attacks against the United States.  And when Happy (Jon Favreau), Stark's head of security, ends up in the hospital after a bomb explodes at the Chinese Theater, Tony just has to get involved. This time it ends up getting really personal as The Mandarin blows up his home to smithereens.

That's when the Iron Man emerges, when all his chips are down and he is reduced to back to being, as he calls himself 'a mechanic'.  He must research what The Mandarin's true intentions are, save his friends and find out what his past has to do with his present.  Robert Downey Jr. was made for this role and it shows.  He knows this character like the back of his hand.

The rest of the cast do their part in aiding Iron Man as both the Iron Patriot (Don Cheadle) and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) step up to saving the day.  Stark also gets a wee sidekick for a little while which leads to great bit about a Dora the Explorer watch. It's hilarious. 

Guy Pearce also does well as crazed scientist Aldrich Killian.  I enjoyed James Badge Dale's turn as an evil henchman and Happy Endings' Adam Pally as super-enthusiastic Stark fan.  But the real scene-stealer of the film is Ben Kingsley who takes it to new heights as The Mandarin.  You'll want to watch it again mainly for him.

Just as Joss Whedon's second film The Avengers kicked off the summer season, so does director Shane Black's second film that just sparkles with some great dialogues and explosive climax. Sometimes a Marvel movie is just what the summer doctor ordered.  Take a friend and enjoy the start of summer at the movies. 

Directed by Shane Black; Screenplay by Shane Black and Drew Pearce; Cinematography by John Toll; Editing by Peter S. Elliot and and Jeffrey Ford; Music by Brian Tyler.

Additional cast: Paul Bettany, Rebecca Hall, Ty Simpkins and William Sadler

Rating:

Top 5 Films for Mother's Day

In most parts of the world today, Mother's Day is celebrated.  And as I'm sitting at home sick (having given my own mother the flu), I got to recalling some of my favorite films that feature great, moving and memorable mother-daughter relationships with her.

5. Brave - One of the few animated feature films that contains a solid relationship between a mother and daughter.  In most animated feature films (see Disney films), the mother doesn't make past the first fifteen minutes.  However, in Brave (co-directed by Brenda Chapman), headstrong Princess Merida and Queen Elinor learn to finally listen to each other and what they wish for their lives. In the end, like every fairy tale, all's well that ends well.

4. One True Thing - Meryl Streep, who excels in most mother's roles, plays the long-suffering wife and mother to a novelist husband (William Hurt) and her writer daughter Ellen (Renee Zellweger).  In the film, Ellen comes to realized how unfairly she's treated her mother and comes to share a closer relationship as her mother is diagnosed with cancer.  Keep the tissues handy as Streep, of course, absolutely brings it.  And if you're still longing for some weepy films, check out Steel Magnolias or Terms of Endearment.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

3. Freaky Friday (1976) and Freaky Friday (2003) - This is the ultimate mother-daughter movie.  What could get a mother-daughter who don't see eye to eye than spending a day in each other's shoes? Literally!  These two Disney films are classic entertainment with Jodie Foster and Lindsay Lohan (before her downfall) playing the daughters.  But the newer version needs to be seen for Jamie Lee Curtis' absolutely fearless performance. 

2. Stepmom - This one never fails to bring on the waterworks.  And I always have an urge to sing 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' afterwards.  Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts are at their best when they become part of one big large happy family when Roberts marries into the family.  The last scene is so good between the two women who each have fears and insecurities for their children.  I can watch this film anytime.

1. Imitation of Life (1934) and Imitation of Life (1959) - My final recommendation features strong performances from the actresses in both films. Similar to the recent HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce starring Kate Winslet, the films features lasting friendships between white widow, her black housekeeper and their heartbreaking relationships with their daughters.  Watch these if you can.

News Update: Cinderella, Elizabeth Bennett fights Zombies and JJ Abrams visits Downton Abbey!

Meet the new Cinderella!  Walt Disney Pictures' new live action film on Cinderella cast its lead actress in Lily James (Downton Abbey) after their first choice Emma Watson passed on it.  The film has 2014 release and features Cate Blanchett as James' evil stepmother and will be directed by Kenneth Branagh.  Although my personal favorite Cinderella film still remains 1998's Ever After: A Cinderella Story featuring a kickass Drew Barrymore (bad English accent notwithstanding) in the Cinderella role and Angelica Huston as her stepmother.

The zombies live to see another day!  The Universe does want to see Elizabeth Bennett and her beloved Darcy become zombie hunters. And I will get to see a Regency zombie apocalypse.  Huzzah! Lily Collins (formerly Snow White in Disney's Mirror Mirror) will star and director Burr Steers (17 Again, Charlie St. Cloud) will helm Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, based on Seth Grahame-Smith's best-selling novel. 

He reinvented Star Trek and he's on his way to do the same to Star Wars, so what's filmmaker extraordinaire J.J. Abrams doing in the Downton Abbey kitchen? Can he introduce time travel into the show and bring back Matthew Crawley? Pretty please!!!

First clip of Pixar's upcoming short The Blue Umbrella

Here's a first clip from Disney Pixar's new short, The Blue Umbrella, due to debut in front of Monsters University this June. The official description says:

It is just another evening commute until the rain starts to fall, and the city comes alive to the sound of dripping rain pipes, whistling awnings and gurgling gutters. And in the midst, two umbrellas—one blue, one not—fall eternally in love.

I can hear the 'awws' in the theater already!  And it's also eerily reminiscent of the yellow umbrella scene from How I Met Your Mother.  Umbrellas and love, go figure!

Directed by Saschka Unseld, the short will make use of the studio's newest technology that gives the film a "photorealistic" look largely because of new algorithms and lots of global illumination.  The result as you can see for yourself is absolutely stunning. 

(Photo: Wall Street Journal)

Glad to see Pixar experimenting with animation technology to create bold and unique shorts that still touch our hearts.  Might we see a Pixar full length feature one day in this manner? I'm sure the geniuses over at Pixar are already hard at work at it. 

Around the World in Posters: Before Midnight, The Bling Ring and Only God Forgives!

Check back in with Celine and Jesse in the third part of the story in Before Midnight.

Waiting for Star Trek Into Darkness? Check out the Enterprise crew plus director JJ Abrams in Empire magazine.

I'm suddenly reminded of The Rocketeer (1991) in this new IMAX poster of Iron Man 3.

Let's count down the days to Spike Lee's adaptation of Chan-wook Park's Oldboy.

Neon-sign dragon welcomes us to the world of MMA fighting in Only God Forgives.

 Stylish new poster for brand-conscious The Bling Ring.

 

It's hammer time! Chris Hemsworth returns in Thor: The Dark World.

Meet the fastest snail on the track, it's Turbo!

New The Bling Ring Trailer!

Oh, Hermione! The full trailer for Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring released this week (Sidebar: What is with all the new trailers lately? I’m positively overwhelmed with all this new footage) and it shows more of L.A.’s teen set behaving badly and robbing celebrity homes.  I also caught a brief glimpse of Leslie Mann playing someone’s mom, I’m not yet sure who.  I’m still not used to Emma Watson’s American accent, I really hope it grows on me and doesn’t distract from the actual film.  The film will play in the Un Certain Regard section of this May’s Cannes Film Festival and release in June 2013.

News Update: Cannes Film Festival jury, Divergent and Shaun the Sheep!

(Photo: Oscars)

The jury for the Cannes feature film competition was announced this past Tuesday. The members are directors Ang Lee, Cristian Mungiu, Lynne Ramsay, Naomi Kawase and actors Nicole Kidman, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Auteuil and Vidya Balan. I’m totally floating my theory again that Spielberg and Lee are actually besties. A couple of months ago, they were both competing for the DGA (which they both lost to Ben Affleck) and the Oscar (which went to Lee) and now they’re on the same jury at the Cannes International Film Festival this May with Spielberg as jury president. Hopefully we might see a collaborative project from the both of them (like with Spielberg and JJ Abrams or Peter Jackson) someday. Hey, I can always hope.

First still of Shailene Woodley as Tris in Divergent as she is initiated into Dauntless.  Based on the Veronica Roth novel and directed by Neil Burger (Limitless, The Illusionist), the film also stars Kate Winslet, Aaron Eckhart, Theo James and Maggie Q and is due for release next March 2014.  Bodes well for the next The Hunger Games!

And finally, one of my favorite animated characters, the mostly silent yet lovable Shaun the Sheep is headed to the big screen. I've followed the little guy ever since he first appeared in Wallace and Gromit's A Close Shave and then graduated to his own TV series. Getting a starring role in his very own film was the obvious choice.  Here's to more adventures on the farm, Shaun looks very ready for his closeup!