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Iron Man 3 starring Robert Downey Jr, Guy Pearce and Ben Kingsley: Fun, Fun, Fun

Posted on August 26, 2013 Written by ripitup

iron-man-3-poster — Image via marketsaw.blogspot.com.

If I had to choose just one word to describe Iron Man 3, it’d be fun. It’s a fast-paced, action-packed, and highly entertaining superhero movie. It could use some more rock numbers that made the first 2 awesome, but overall it is the right type of film for the series.

Of course like any movie, Iron Man 3 isn’t without its haters or discontent viewers. But given that you know what to expect, you shouldn’t be disappointed – especially if you like director/co-writer Shane Black’s more mainstream work (the action classic Lethal Weapon, for instance).

In addition to the usual cast of Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle (who took over from Terrence Howard after the first Iron Man), we get Oscar-winner Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Schindler’s List, House of Sand and Fog), and Golden Globe nominees Rebecca Hall (The Awakening, Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and Guy Pearce (Memento, Lockout, LA Confidential).

Keeping in mind Robert Downey Jr. has 2 Oscar nominations, Don Cheadle has one, and Paltrow has one Academy Award, we can add the cast of Iron Man 3 to the superhero movies that casts critically acclaimed actors who also happen to be box-office draws – e.g. check out the cast of Man of Steel.

Some viewers weren’t happy with the twist, but I found it quite fun- it was one of those laugh-out-loud moments for me, and it was perfectly acted and directed.

It was also fun to see our beloved cheeky hero Tony Stark to be suffering from anxiety attacks after everything they went through in The Avengers. Alien attacks can get to a guy, apparently…

And yes, there are clichés in the movie.

The Story:

In 1999, at a Christmas part in Bern, we meet the ever-cheeky Stark hooking up with an intelligent hottie (Rebecca Hall), and ignoring anyone who is not his date. Among the ignored and humiliated is Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), a geeky scientist adoring Tony’s work and wanting to work with him.

Fast-forward to now, Tony is with his former assistant/current managing partner/acting CEO Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow). While she is busy running the firm, Tony is obsessing over creating back-up Iron Man outfits, paranoid that there can be other alien attacks he will need to protect Pepper from.

In the meantime, the recent terrorist leader The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) who is hacking satellites and distributing scary messages and threatening the president (William Sadler).

When a different kind of bomb badly injures Tony’s friend/head of security Happy (Jon Favreau, director of the first Iron Man) and puts him into hospital, he openly threatens The Mandarin, and Mandarin responds more openly and violently than anyone could have predicted.

With his house and lab pretty much destroyed, Tony has his intelligence, Jarvis on zero battery and smart kid he runs into to deal with Mandarin, as well as the weird Terminator-like human/robots who just don’t get killed easily…

Have fun!!!

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Swordfish starring Hugh Jackman, John Travolta, Halle Berry & Don Cheadle

Posted on February 13, 2011 Written by ripitup

Swordfish starring Hugh Jackman, John Travolta, Halle Berry & Don Cheadle. Directed by Dominic Sena. Written by Skip Woods. Image via maniadb.com

Swordfish starring Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, John Travolta and Don Cheadle

Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman) is a brilliant hacker who recently got out of jail and banned from working his mojo on computers. This suits him just fine, because all he wants to do is to see more of his young daughter Holly (Camryn Grimes). Unfortunately, his ex-wife (Drea de Matteo)is an alcoholic bitch married to a porn industry king and has gotten full custody. Stanley needs a lot of money to win a court battle and he doesn’t have any. Knowing his weak point, Ginger (Halle Berry) finds Stanley to make him a dangerous offer: her boss Gabriel (John Travolta) needs the best hacker for a highly illegal job and is ready to pay Stanley millions for his services. While Stanley doesn’t want to go back to jail, “helping” Gabriel seems like the only solution. Unfortunately, Gabriel is a lot more dangerous and psychotic than Stanley first estimated, Ginger seems to be full of secrets and the F.B.I agent Roberts (Don Cheadle) – the very agent who put Stanley behind bars in the first place- is after Gabriel and wants to use Stanley to get to him. How the hell will Stanley survive and get Holly back?

Swordfish is one kick-ass action/thriller. It starts with a blast, and some dialogue that only foreshadows how crazy and well-prepared Gabriel is. John Travolta makes a great villain. And Gabriel is even scarier and more powerful than his Broken Arrow character because well, the villains and the good guys in Swordfish have some really fine grey areas. The writing is fast, the action is satisfactory and despite defying logic in some areas, it is one hell of a ride. Directed by Dominic Sena (Gone in Sixty Seconds, Kalifornia, Season of the Witch). Written by Skip Woods (Hitman, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The A- Team).

8/10 for the entertainment value.

Favorite scenes:

– When Gabriel (John Travolta) goes all ballistic to shake their tail in the street – while making Stanley drive.

– Everything about Gabriel’s getting in, and getting out plan.

Fun notes:

– Stanley’s ex-wife is played by Drea de Matteo – who played Angie on Desperate Housewives in the show’s 6^th season. She also played Joey’s sister in the Friends spin-off Joey.

– Hugh Jackman co-starred with Halle Berry 3 more times: The X-Men trilogy.

– Dominic Sena has directed Nicolas Cage twice: 2000’s action film Gone in Sixty Seconds and 2011’s fantasy action Season of the Witch.

– Nicolas Cage and John Travolta starred in Face/Off together where both of them played the villain and the good guy in the same movie.

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Brooklyn’s Finest starring Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke and Don Cheadle

Posted on August 19, 2010 Written by ripitup

Brooklyn's Finest starring Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle and Wesley Snipes — Brooklyn’s Finest starring Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle and Wesley Snipes. 2009. Image via: filmizlefull.net

Brooklyn’s Finest tells the story of 3 Brooklyn cops that are going through a problematic time in their lives:

Sal (Ethan Hawke) has already more kids than his cop salary can support but his wife (Lili Taylor) is pregnant with twins. Moreover they live in a small house, whose wood mould is endangering both her and her pregnancy. He feels stuck. He has to move his family to a big house and to be able to afford it, he has to steal. So he chooses to steal from ruthless criminals. But how can he manage to get away with stealing dirty money in the middle of dangerous operations?

Tango (Don Cheadle) has gone undercover among drug dealers. It has been a long time on the job and he feels like he needs to get out. His loyalties are getting blurry and his wife is divorcing him. He is expected to give Caz (Wesley Snipes), a dealer who is trying to get out but he has developed a strong bond and friendship with him.

Eddie (Richard Gere) is 7 days away from his retirement. He is lonely, he drinks a lot, is depressed and even suicidal. His only friend seems to be a hooker and he really hates the assignment given to him on his last week: he needs to train rookies. What can be more dangerous than keeping young, red-blooded rookies just trying to start being cops?

The movie concentrates on both the internal and external conflicts of these characters. And even though most of their misery could have been prevented (especially Sal’s – he should have known better than having so many kids on a cop’s salary and a sick wife), you can’t help but feel for their humanity, identity crisis and the choices they need to make. It is a plot that becomes stronger with the acting. The story is a lot more intriguing and depressing than it looks on paper.

These three cops’ destinies eventually will intersect to give the audience a pretty good finale.

This is a solid crime/drama. It is powerful but you might get distracted by how much swearing is going on, especially in Tango and Caz’s scenes. It might be authentic but it is open for discussion whether or not it distracts you.

Written by Michael C. Martin and directed by Antoine Fuqua – the director of Training Day- the movie that brought Denzel Washington Best Actor Oscar and Ethan Hawke a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Rated at 7.0 on Imdb. 7 from me as well. It is worth your time, just don’t watch it if you are in the mood for something uplifting or if you want to be a cop. Note that the film comes with a great supporting cast too: Ellen Barkin, Vincent D’Onofrio (cameo) and Will Patton. It may not be a great film but it is a pretty good film.

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Iron Man 2 starring Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, Mickey Rourke and Don Cheadle

Posted on June 23, 2010 Written by ripitup

And Tony Stark is back!!!

The first movie is about how Iron Man gets to be Iron man, his complicated relationship with his assistant Pepper and even more complicated relationship with his business partner Obadiah You might check the review for refreshing your memory.

Iron Man 2

Well, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is just being Tony Stark. He is mischievous, fun-loving, full of funny one-linters and witty sarcasm, and loving Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow). He has reassured the government – by making total fools of them-that Iron Man is a technology that no country has ever come close yet. Of course he has made enemies in the process: the weapons expert and the CEO of weapons manufacturer Hammer Technologies, Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell). He also has an outraged Russian enemy, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke). He is the scientist son of a scientist father who- according to Ivan-was not treated right by Tony Stark’s father, Howard Stark (John Slattery). Ivan is working on re-creating a fine weapon on his own. And Tony has another problem: he is dying. The palladium in his chest is increasing the toxicity in his blood and if he can’t find a replacement element or a cure, he will die…

So while Tony doesn’t go easy on any parties or crazy stunts, he is also making radical changes in his life. He hires a new PA, as he makes Pepper the CEO of his company. His new assistant is Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson): a fiery, intelligent and capable redhead who is just even more capable than Tony can actually imagine and will soon find out. These changes are driving Pepper crazy and she doesn’t know about his condition, are putting a strain on their relationship.

So Tony has to win a battle against himself, Ivan and later a collaboration of Ivan and Sam. It doesn’t help that he might also be screwing up his friendship with his close friend Rhoedes (Don Cheadle)….

New enemies, old and new allies, lots and lots of action (more than the first), great sexual and romantic chemistry, beautiful leads, great sound and visual effects, a kick-ass soundtrack and a very satisfying sctipt: Yes, I loved Iron Man 2. I freaking loved it. I have no idea it is rated less than the first one. Well, we will see what the eventual rating will be as it sits at 7.5 on IMDB at the moment, voted by nearly 50.000 people whereas the first is an 8.0, voted by nearly 170.000 people. I guess it is customary to rate the sequel lower for a lot of movies, no matter how great and fun it is. 9/10 from me.

I am not an Iron Man expert, mind you. I am not a comics reader. I am however a movie nut and I have an addiction for kick-ass entertainment movies like the Iron Man series. Lots of action, visually stunning, a good script and great sense of humor. Iron Man gives just that. I may not be a comic book fan but I am a fan of the movie adaptations. The technology and the fighting, the villain vs the nice guy are fun to watch. You should of course keep in mind Sam Rockwell is as terrific as always and Mickey Rourke makes a great Ivan. It is cool to have Samuel L. Jackson too. And I finally get why men love Scarlett Johannson. Yeah, yeah, she is a fine actress. But she is also playing one of the most gorgeous, dangerous and kick-ass female characters ever and she has red hair. Wow.

Scarlett Johannson as Natalie Rushman/ Natlie Romanoff in Iron Man 2 — Scarlett Johansson as Natalie Rushman/ Natlie Romanoff/Black Widow in Iron Man 2. Image: moviesonline.ca

Fun facts:

– Happy- Tony’s driver/mate/guard/boxing partner is played by Jon Favreau, the director of the series. Before Iron Man, Jon was mostly known as his frequent writing/acting collaborations with actor Vince Vaughn.

– The actor playing Howard Stark, Tony’s father, is John Slattery. Sex and The City fans might have felt he looks familiar. Well, he is. He is the actor who played Carrie’s politician boyfriend Bill Kelley in third season for 2 episodes. Remember the guy who had a really weird request? This might refresh your memory.

– James Rhoedes was played by Terrence Howard in the first movie. He is replaced by Don Cheadle and I have to say I think Don makes an even better Rhodey. He also gets have a lot more fun, wearing the suit: fighting and flying and all that….

The Trailers

[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNQowwwwYa0[/pro-player]

[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siQgD9qOhRs&feature=channel[/pro-player]