Iron ManReview by Nathan Weinbender
“Iron Man,” based on the long-running Marvel comic book series, is a very good superhero film, and the key to its success is the ever-dependable Robert Downey Jr. Yes, the movie’s special effects are impressive. Yes, the action sequences are thrilling. Yes, it features a foreboding villain, a pretty girl, a devastating crisis of worldwide proportions that needs to be remedied in the course of two hours.
“Iron Man” is everything you’d expect it to be—a loud, fast-moving action-adventure spectacle—but at the core of the film is Downey, who is cool, collected and meditative, and whose performance is almost better than the movie requires.
He plays Tony Stark, the CEO of a billion-dollar weapons manufacturing company that was instituted by his father. He’s a boozer and a notorious ladies man—his private jet has a full bar and pole-dancing flight attendants—as well as a prodigious electrician and programmer (we’re told he built his first computer mainframe when he was six).
When he travels to Afghanistan for a demonstration of a stealth missile, Stark’s Army escorts are attacked and he’s kidnapped by terrorists who order him to build them his latest weapons system. Instead, Stark constructs a nearly indestructible suit of armor, which he uses to escape.
Now he’s Iron Man, and when he returns home he perfects the suit and dedicates himself to stopping the warfare from which he once profited. Stark’s personality transformation from purveyor of destruction to protector of peace is actually believable, mostly because Downey keeps the character grounded in reality.
Nobody has ever played a superhero the way Downey does here: His smarmy, off-the-cuff delivery is nothing new, but it’s made refreshing when viewed within the context of this role. Few actors can convey good-natured cynicism quite the way he can—it’s a genius casting decision.
Despite his standout performance, Downey doesn’t really chew the scenery, and he allows the supporting actors to make an impression as well. Gwyneth Paltrow is surprisingly good as Stark’s personal assistant Pepper Potts, and she and Downey have a snappy chemistry that’s racked with sexual tension.
A hardly-recognizable Jeff Bridges plays Obadiah Stone, the staunch second-in-command at Stark Industries, who resents Tony’s decision to cease manufacturing weapons and, quite inevitably, becomes the film’s villain.
Terrence Howard, as Air Force colonel James Rhodes, isn’t given enough to do, but, based on the character’s history in the comics, he’s bound to have a bigger role if the film develops into a franchise.
Tony Stark is a dynamic character, flawed but engaging, and Downey and director Jon Favreau could work wonders with him in whatever sequels are to follow. “Iron Man” doesn’t have the originality and spirit of the early “Superman” films or the pathos of the first two “Spider-Man” pictures, but it works on its own terms as pure special effects-driven entertainment.
Grade: B+
Directed by Jon Favreau. Written by Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb and Shaun Toub. PG-13; 126m.
Forgetting Sarah MarshallReview by Nathan Weinbender
What I appreciate most about the films of Judd Apatow—and those of his many subsidiaries—is that they are, above all else, endearing. It’s a quality that is missing from so many modern comedies, which are crass and mean-spirited all the way through before tacking on manufactured sentimentality at the end.
“Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” which Apatow produced, is effortlessly endearing. It’s funny, yes, and although it’s hard to be funny, it’s even harder, I think, to make a sweet, good-natured film that never feels artificial or cloying.
It has been written by its star, Jason Segel, who has the looks of an average Joe but the appeal and charisma of a major movie star. He plays Peter Bretter, a struggling musician who scores a popular crime show that stars his actress girlfriend, Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell).
When Sarah breaks up with Peter after a six-year relationship, Peter is devastated, and he escapes to a Hawaiian resort in an attempt to keep his mind off his romantic troubles. Unfortunately, in a coincidence that could only exist within the confines of a screenplay, Sarah and her new boyfriend, British pop sensation Aldous Snow (Russell Brand), just happen to be staying in the same hotel.
Segel plays the role of the brokenhearted loser with great conviction and aplomb—like Steve Carell and Seth Rogen before him, he's perfectly cast as the lovable schlub. Mila Kunis is surprisingly good in the thankless role of the pretty hotel desk clerk who falls for Peter, and Russell Brand, as Sarah’s preening goon of a boyfriend, brings a droll sensibility to his vacuous character, and he walks away with some of the movie's best one-liners.
The basic premise follows the groundwork set by all Apatow-related romantic comedies: Down-to-earth guy is unlucky in love, ends up in a relationship with an enchanting girl who is way out of his league, finds himself in a predicament where his relationship is put in jeopardy, everything turns out okay in the end.
But in the case of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” (and it was true of both “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up”), it’s not the film’s premise that makes it memorable but its colorful characters.
Grade: B+
Directed by Nicholas Stoller. Written by Jason Segel. Starring Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Russell Brand, Bill Hader and Jonah Hill. R; 112m.
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