Now on DVD: Robert Downey Jr. and Jason Segel are Stark, naked

Iron Man
Review 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 Marshall
Review 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.

From dope to dopey

Pineapple Express
Review by Nathan Weinbender

“Pineapple Express” combines elements from ‘70s stoner comedies and ‘80s action flicks and approaches them with the no-nonsense practicality and pseudo-intellectual rhetoric of Judd Apatow movies. Here’s proof that we have come a long way since Cheech and Chong, but perhaps that’s not saying much. Perhaps that’s not saying anything at all.

Now, it’s true that the two main characters in “Pineapple Express,” produced by the ubiquitous Judd Apatow, are potheads and that they are high through most, if not all, of the film. But there’s a point halfway through where one of them, surveying the damage they’ve caused, wonders if, hey, maybe we wouldn’t be in so much trouble had we not smoked so much weed.

That’s what druggies refer to as a moment of clarity, and it’s what separates our super-high protagonists, played by Seth Rogen and James Franco, from the cinematic stoners of yore. I wish Cheech and Chong had had as much mental wherewithal, because only then would one of them have observed that, hey, maybe we wouldn’t have made so many awful comedies had we not smoked so much weed.

Rogen plays Dale Denton, a pothead process server who spends his days serving subpoenas, getting high in his car, visiting his high school-aged girlfriend during her lunch period and chilling with his spacey drug dealer Saul (Franco). During a routine visit to Saul’s for a toke or two, Dale buys a bag of choice marijuana called Pineapple Express. It’s so good and so rare, Saul tells him, that smoking it would be “like killing a unicorn.”

Later that night, as Dale gets high in his car, he witnesses a murder committed by a drug kingpin named Ted Jones (Gary Cole) and a female cop (Rosie Perez). He flees the scene, leaving behind a smoldering joint that Jones manages to trace back to Saul. This is the point in the film when the violent action material kicks in, and it’s also the point when the movie loses its footing.

The action sequences in “Pineapple Express” are jarring, so violent and aggressive that they don’t fit within the context of a comedy. Too many scenes smack of desperation, as the characters run around frantically and beat up on one another in frantic attempts at cheap laughs. The climax is especially miscalculated, so overblown and overlong that it seems to drag on forever—when we should be engaged and laughing, we feel overwhelmed and exhausted.

What does work in the film is the witty rapport between the characters. The script, written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg (they previously penned “Superbad”), is brimming with dialogue that is not only funny and inventive but completely real. Rogen, basically playing himself, does little here that we haven’t seen him do in other movies, while Franco is a breath of fresh air—his squinty-eyed, deadpan performance is engaging enough to carry the film through its dreariest patches.

“Pineapple Express” has been directed by David Gordon Green, who specializes in quiet, meditative, low-budget dramas. His work here is strictly by-the-numbers (I likely wouldn’t have mentioned the director had it not been him), and having recently re-watched his debut feature “George Washington,” I’m reminded of what a terrific filmmaker he can be. If this movie has any impact at the box office, here’s hoping that Green gets a more consistent script for his next Hollywood effort.

Grade: B

Directed by David Gordon Green. Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Starring Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny R. McBride, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez, Kevin Corrigan and Craig Robinson. R; 111m.