Iron Man Vs RoboCop
Saturday, June 21, 2008


Do I really need to explain the premise of Iron Man? Marvel decided to take back their comic book movie franchise(s) from the studios, and make these films in their own image.

How would I rate that effort? Gentle, familiar - certainly with no surprises.

Summary: Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) of Stark Industries gets kidnapped in Afghanistan while visiting with US troops to demonstrate and oversee how his company's weapons are being used. Well, let's just say that after that ordeal he has a change of heart.

I liked this film: it was funny. Robert Downey, Jr. has these huge, intense, stroke of midnight eyes. He gives a good performance. It's what he does, the most he can do, along with the snarky remarks that makes this film fun.

I certainly loved the Audi he drove.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard (is it me, or does his voice grate in this flick?), and Jeff Bridges (love me some JB) round out the cast of familiar faces.

I have to treat myself to all the Jeff Bridges flicks I can find - starting with Starman. Hmmm.

Hey, Jon Favreau (of Swingers; directed Elf with Will Ferrell) finally lost weight. He plays bodyguard / driver. Fitting role: he's already a big mofo. Glad to see him drop those killer pounds.

I watched this film thinking: Reminds me of a sedate, calm version of RoboCop.

When that masterpiece of science-fiction sadomasochistic sarcastic extremism - thank you Paul Verhoeven! - came out, I watched it a total of four times.

I was in total lust with Peter Weller's lips.

I've never watched any movie that often since.

Iron Man is a sweeter, kinder version of RoboCop, or Batman if you prefer.

Labels: Gwyneth Paltrow, Iron Man, Jeff Bridges, Jon Favreau, Paul Verhoeven, Peter Weller, Robert Downey Jr., RoboCop, Terrence Howard

posted by GoldenAh
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Naked Lunch
Thursday, May 15, 2008

A film by David Cronenberg, from a novel by William S. Burroughs. I watched this film because I always expect work produced by Cronenberg to be weird.

Plot summary: an exterminator's wife has been using his bug powder as a drug. He's at the police station when they ask that he speak to someone. Turns out to be this big disgusting bug, which asks him to kill his wife. Why? Supposedly, she's an agent and not really human. Later, he "accidentally" shoots her in the head. After that episode, the film follows a circular path covering the same issue(s) over and over again.

Can't say I was disappointed. This is a perfect film art school movie. I can imagine a professor prodding students to find the hidden themes, symbolism, metaphors, subtext, context and the like in this film.

Since I loathe cockroaches and all manner of bugs, I found this film to be disgusting and creepy.

The only thing I enjoyed was Peter Weller's well shaped lips.

But was it a good film? Honestly, I dunno. I was wondering if there was some kind of anti-communist, anti-homosexual, or pro-homosexual, pro-communist subtext. It had a very 1950s feel to it. And the repressed 1950s gave us the over-expressive 1960s and 1970s.

I think only someone during those eras could "get" what was going on in this film. 'Cause I didn't.

Labels: David Cronenberg, Naked Lunch, Peter Weller

posted by GoldenAh
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