Iron Man (Opening Friday, May 2)

Rating: 9 out of 10
Cast:
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes
Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane
Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts
Leslie Bibb as Christine Everhart
Shaun Toub as Yinsen
Faran Tahir as Raza
Sayed Badreya as Abu Bakaar
Bill Smitrovich as General Gabriel
Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson
Tim Guinee as Major Allen

Summary:
Iron Man stands out as one of the best comic book movies ever made thanks in large part to a healthy dose of humor, action, and a great performance by Robert Downey Jr.

Story:
Tony Stark has it all. He's a brilliant inventor. He's charming. He's insanely rich. He constantly has beautiful women at his side. Stark doesn't have a care in the world. And he certainly couldn't care less about how weapons manufactured by his company are being used. But that all changes when he's captured by terrorists in Afghanistan.

Mortally wounded, he's saved by Yensen, a fellow prisoner who happens to be a doctor. Yensen shows him how his weapons have been used for death and destruction. He also helps Stark come to realize how there are more important things in life than fame and fortune. Stark is forced to build a missile for the terrorists, but he secretly turns the tables on them and creates the first Iron Man armor instead.

Once Stark is free, he must face a new war at home... within his own company. Can Stark reverse the long history of death and destruction that he's been responsible for?

"Iron Man" is rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and brief suggestive content.

What Worked:
I am a long time "Iron Man" fan. In fact, "Iron Man" is one of the first comics I truly started collecting back in the '80s. I came on board around the time Iron Monger debuted, actually. So it was an incredible treat to see the comic finally brought to the big screen. It was an even bigger treat to see it done so practically flawlessly. I would say this film is on par with the first "Spider-Man" movie.

A large part of the success of "Iron Man" is due to the performance of Robert Downey Jr. He perfectly captures the cocky playboy attitude of Tony before being captured. He's sexist, egotistical, and inconsiderate, yet equally charming, funny, and likable. Very few actors could pull that off, yet Downey does it. He's equally convincing when Stark has his moral compass shifted and decides to become a superhero. Downey injects a ton of humor into his performance and it's never over the top. This is especially apparent in scenes where he's testing the Mark II armor components. He also has great chemistry with Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts. The two have a professional relationship that's walking the fine line of being a romantic one. The constant flirting mixed with mutual respect makes this a bit more satisfying than the tortured romance between Mary Jane and Peter Parker. They are both supported by an excellent cast. Jeff Bridges seems to have a blast being evil as Obadiah Stane. Terrence Howard could have easily been a stuffy military stereotype as Jim Rhodes, but we briefly get to see him lighten up here and there and make his character more three-dimensional. You have to give credit to Jon Favreau for letting all the supporting cast members have moments to shine. Everyone from the hot reporter in the trailers to a SHIELD agent have memorable scenes. Favreau even manages to give a robotic arm some personality that would make WALL•E jealous.

That's the other key to "Iron Man's" success – the humor. There are frequent laughs in the movie but never so many as to turn it into comedy. And it's not just Downey's one-liners that contribute to this. For example, the opening scenes showing Stark's gleefully decadent playboy lifestyle offer up lots of laughs. How can you not get a kick out of a prim and proper corporate jet that turns into a bachelor's fantasy mid-flight? Or the seemingly constantly available bar that travels with Tony? These little touches really make the movie an enjoyable experience.

Another thing that makes "Iron Man" such a success is the action. The live action suits, beautifully created by Stan Winston Studios, are perfectly merged with the CGI from ILM. With the Mark I armor we're treated to an intense battle in a cave with the terrorists. The practical suit of armor is as clunky, and lethal, as you'd expect. Later we see the Mark II armor in test flight. But it's the Mark III red and gold armor that's most impressive. When it finally goes into battle, the fanboy in you will leap for joy. We see Tony battling gunmen, tanks, jet fighters, and finally Iron Monger. It all leaves you wanting to see much more.

I think the final key factor of success with "Iron Man" is that it will please comic book fans while still being accessible to people who have never read the book. There are so many touches here and there that comic geeks, such as myself, appreciate. There are hints of War Machine, SHIELD, and more. The story remains remarkably faithful to the source material while just tweaking things enough to make it more modern. The origin story is almost identical to the comics but it's set in Afghanistan rather than Vietnam. Obadiah Stane is now an employee of Stark Industries rather than a rival weapons manufacturer, but his character is still very much the same. The list goes on an on. I can't tell you how happy I am to see the old Tony Stark again. I hate the new 'jerk' Iron Man that Marvel has been pushing on us since Civil War. Old school rules.

What Didn't Work:
I have very minor gripes with this movie. I have to really stretch to find anything that didn't work.

I would note that the music (other than "Back in Black" and "Iron Man") did not stand out in the film. There's no recognizable Iron Man theme like there was for Superman or Batman. In fact, there were many points in the film where the music sounded like it came from a TV show rather than a major summer blockbuster. There's room for improvement here in a sequel.

I would also warn people that the trailers and TV commercials spoil many of the best parts of this movie. I watched the SDCC footage, the online clips, the trailers, and commercials. If you've seen all that, there's very little left new for you. But I can't fault the marketing department too much for this. They had to sell a comic book movie to people that had never heard of Iron Man before. If that's what it takes to make this a hit and get a sequel made, I can live with it.

Finally, my 6-year-old has been waiting a year to see this movie, so I took him to it without screening it first like I usually do. (He's such a big fan that he said, "The kids at my school say I can't talk about Iron Man anymore." Yes, he's hard-core.) There were a few scenes where I covered his eyes (Stark romping with the hot reporter) and a bunch of scenes where he covered his eyes on his own (Stark being captured by the terrorists, people being hurt by Stane). In the end he loved it, but parents should pay heed to the PG-13 warning. There's nothing in here worse than what you see on primetime television, but I'd say 8 or 9-year-olds would have no problem with this film.

The Bottom Line:
"Iron Man" is everything you'd hope a comic book movie would be. It's a great start to a new franchise and a fantastic start for Marvel Studios. "Iron Man" is a great way to kick off your summer movie-going experience.

Made of Honor (Opening Friday, May 2)

Rating: 4 out of 10
Cast:
Patrick Dempsey as Tom
Michelle Monaghan as Hannah
Kevin McKidd as Colin McMurray
Kadeem Hardison as Felix
Chris Messina as Dennis
Richmond Arquette as Gary
Busy Philipps as Melissa
Whitney Cummings as Stephanie
Emily Nelson as Hilary
Kathleen Quinlan as Joan
Selma Stern as Grandma Pearl
Sydney Pollack as Thomas Sr.
James Sikking as Reverend Foote
Kevin Sussman as Tiny Shorts Guy

Review:
Tom (Patrick Dempsey) is your typical romantic comedy bachelor - a womanizer with means and charm but not much depth, or any desire to achieve any. He balances his flaws, which he's just self-aware enough to admit he has, with his friendship to Hanna, a vivacious art historian who's smart enough not to fall for Tom. When Hannah leaves for a business trip to Scotland, Tom finally notices how empty his life is without her...

...and I'm not going to bother finishing the rest of that synopsis because if you've seen even one other romantic comedy in your life then you can probably fill in the blanks just as well as I can. Suffice it to say, exactly what you think happens, happens. There is nothing, nothing, nothing original about "Made of Honor."

Which doesn't necessarily have to be the kiss of death for a film, but it doesn't help. An extremely charismatic actor or particularly sharp jokes can help a lot, even if the setup is trite and predictable, but "Made of Honor" doesn't have that either. To be fair, any decently sized film is going to have a number of hands in the pot from the studio executives on down, and that normally isn't good for much except steering a film towards extreme middle-of-the-roadness. On the other hand, it was made by the creators of "City Slickers II" and "Surviving Christmas," so that may be giving it a greater benefit of the doubt than it deserves.

Tom is the kind of smart, charming, likeable ladies man Dempsey has been playing pretty much his entire career. Given that, it's strange just how unlikeable Tom is, though that's not really his fault, he's making the best of what he's been given, an extremely self-obsessed man who's gotten a great deal without much effort, and so doesn't really appreciate anything. It's actually a bit of a mystery why Hannah, or anyone really, would be at all interested in him, once they realize how shallow he is.

No one else gets much better. Monaghan and McKidd get stuck with the typical romantic comedy supporting player assignment of being almost unbelievably oblivious to what's going on around them. Their character reactions, it seems, aren't really supposed to matter, they're just there to set up and pay off the jokes, which unfortunately aren't particularly funny.

"Made of Honor's" sense of humor is probably the film's weakest, and strangest point. It bounces off the walls in several opposite directions, sometimes in rather straightforward gentle romantic comedy bits, and sometimes in extremely puerile gags. It boggles the mind who the filmmakers were actually making the film for. Because the main character is a man the filmmakers seem to think the best way to go with him is low-brow, guy-oriented humor, but because he's not in the kind of movie that really supports that kind of thing, it has to repeatedly switch track, and the sudden changes in tone are more than a little off-putting.

The idea seems to be to build up Tom as a man's man, in order to get more mileage out of the overdone gender confusion gags once he becomes Hannah's maid of honor, but it doesn't work particularly well. Tom and all his guy friends being forced to prepare Hannah's bridal shower is kind of chuckle-worthy, but the joke is quickly driven into the ground.

It's not funny, and it's a little schizophrenic. In trying to make "Made of Honor" appeal to as many people as possible, the filmmakers have ended up with a film that doesn't really appeal to anyone.

Redbelt (Opening Friday, May 2)

Rating: 6 out of 10
Cast:
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mike Terry
Emily Mortimer as Laura Black
Alice Braga as Sondra Terry
Tim Allen as Chet Frank
Joe Mantegna as Jerry Weiss
Ricky Jay as Marty Brown
Max Martini as Joe Ryan
Allison Karman as Lawyer
Rodrigo Santoro as Bruno Silva
David Paymer as Richie
Rebecca Pidgeon as Zena Frank
Jose Pablo Cantillo as Snowflake
Caroline de Souza Correa as Monica
Randy Couture as Dylan Flynn
Dan Inosanto as Joao Moro
Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini as George
Enson Inoue as Taketa Morisaki
Renato Magno as Romero
John Machado as Augusto Silva
Bob Jennings as Sammy
Cathy Cahlin Ryan as Gini Collins
Jean Jacques Machado as Himself

Directed by David Mamet

Summary:
Chiwetel Ejiofor's impeccable performance is the best thing going for Mamet's look at the world of ultimate fighting, a film that only excels when it treads on familiar Mamet territory but ultimately suffers from the ridiculous amount of characters and a convoluted plot.

Story:
Former soldier Mike Terry (Chiwetel Ejiofor) has found peace as a black belt Jiu-Jitsu trainer as he tries to keep his school afloat. His unwillingness to sell out and fight professionally doesn't go over well with his wife (Alice Braga), who's unhappy about their lifestyle. When one of Mike's students gets into trouble with a pretty lawyer (Emily Mortimer), it starts Mike down a path that gets him involved with actor Chet Frank (Tim Allen) and a shady fight promoter (Ricky Jay) that might force him to fight professionally in order to get out of trouble.

Analysis:
The thought of David Mamet setting a film within the world of martial arts and ultimate fighting is intriguing and daunting at the same time. After the horrendous "Never Back Down," the thought of a fight movie by arguably one of America's finest writers is something that could help make older cynics take the sport more seriously, and "Redbelt" isn't a typical sports or fight movie as much as it is an attempt by Mamet to create a modern noir film within that environment. Whether or not this idea works, it's a marked improvement over "Spartan" in terms of the writing and casting.

We've only just been introduced to Chiwetel Ejiofor's Mike Terry, a former military man who uses personal philosophies while teaching Jiu-Jitsu at his school, when he gets caught up in a number of precarious situations, including an accidental shooting at his dojo involving a policeman student and a lawyer (Emily Mortimer) and a bar fight started by a washed-up actor. Before this, he'd already been having trouble to make ends meet despite his Brazilian wife (Alice Braga) wanting him to get help from her brothers, both of whom fight professionally. These various subplots will eventually come together but until then, it's an odd mix of plotlines with disparate characters that seem to have no real connection except for Mike. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that Mike is setting himself up to get screwed with the way he naively enters many of the situations.

Mike Terry is a great role for Ejiofor as he carries the movie with a confident and convincing performance that works in whatever situation Mike enters, whether it's a business meeting or a bar fight or training his students. He's clearly a well-developed character with lots of backstory that comes out over the course of the movie. Unfortunately, neither of his female co-stars have particularly interesting or as developed roles to show their strengths as actors. Essentially, Braga plays Mike's bitchy money-hungry wife ready to sell him out at the drop of a hat, while Mortimer's lawyer is somewhat more of an enigma, filled with quirks and erratic behavior who only seems included to add sexual tension, which is never followed through with, and being there to represent Mike when he runs into trouble with the shifty characters.

As with Mamet's previous films, the casting is just as key for the satellite characters that weave in and out of Mike's character arc, and Mamet has brought back his regular ensemble to maintain a certain sense of familiarity. Ricky Jay has a plum role as the sleazy and racist fight promoter who pushes Mike to re-enter the ring, Joe Mantegna is equally strong as Chet Frank's manager while Mamet's wife Rebecca Pidgeon has an insignificant role as his wife. (Like with "Spartan," Mamet cuts far too many corners when it comes to his female characters.) Mamet should get suitable credit for maintaining accuracy within the martial arts setting by bringing in real fighters from that world, and even boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini briefly shows up as Mike's former military colleague, now working on a movie set.

As always, the film is driven by Mamet's trademark rapid-fire dialogue, and while Ejiofor, Mantegna and Tim Allen easily slip into those distinct speech patterns, Brazilian actors Braga and Rodrigo Santoro and the non-actors struggle with the delivery, making their scenes feel awkward. There are plenty of scenes that work, but there are just as many others that feel shoe-horned and unnecessary to the overall story.

Sadly, it seems like Mamet has followed Woody Allen to a place where he tries to fit far too many ideas into what eventually becomes an overly-complicated and convoluted story, and as the movie gets bogged down by its abundance of characters, Mamet is left to dig himself out of the hole. Surely, there must have been an easier way to get Mike back into the ring then for him to get involved with so many different people not in his normal circle. By the time the film finally gets to the big climactic tournament, the main story hasn't gone anywhere that wasn't telegraphed from very early on. The whole thing ends on a ludicrous and implausible note as Mike never actually entering the ring after all that build-up, which is enough to destroy much of the good will that Mamet has created by weaving such an intricate character-driven tale.

The Bottom Line:
If you're a Mamet fan, you might appreciate some of these characters and the ideas he's brought into this setting--and yeah, Mamet's dialogue is still great--but with far too many characters and way too much going on, it's a hard to follow film that ultimately ends in a predictable and unsatisfying place.