Iron Man 3

ACTION/ADVENTURE

The Demons We Create

8.5 out of 10 | Movie and DVD

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Rated: PG-13 Sequences of intense sci-fi action violence throughout, and brief suggestive content
Release Date: May 3, 2013
Runtime: 2 hours 20 minutes

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Director: Shane Black
Writers: Shane Black, Drew Pearce
Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingley, Rebecca Hall, Jon Favreau, James Badge Dale, Stephanie Szostak, Paul Bettany, William Sadler, Ty Simpkins, Miguel Ferrer

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SYNOPSIS:  After the events in New York City fight off the alien attack alongside Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Hawkeye and Black Widow, Tony Stark's world is further torn apart by a formidable terrorist called the Mandarin. After those he holds dear are put into jeopardy, Stark starts an odyssey of rebuilding and retribution.

REVIEW: Shane Black re-invented the action genre with his screenplay for Mel Gibson's Lethal Weapon. After writing The Long Kiss Goodnight, Black slipped into the background for a period of time before he and Robert Downey, Jr. on the 2005 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. That film may have been the catalyst that reintroduced both into A-list territory again. Now they collaborate again, with writing efforts from Drew Pearce (the upcoming Pacific Rim), with the fourth adventure of the armored avenger named Iron Man.

The alien attack on New York City from a wormhole connected to the other side of the galaxy is over. The Avengers have disbanded for the moment. Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr., The Avengers), still suffering from the aftermath of the battle and his near death experience, finds he can not sleep and finds himself spending sleepless nights making new Mark armors. Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow, Contagion) has moved in with Stark at his Malibu ocean front home, with her and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau, Identity Thief) working at Stark Industries. Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle, Flight) still pilots the War Machine suit, repainted and renamed the Iron Patriot as it serves the United States' interests.  AIM think tank director Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce, Prometheus) approaches Pepper with the idea of rewriting the human DNA structure for healing people, but she worries that the technology is too easily concerted to a weaponized version. All the while, United States President Ellis (William Sadler, Man on a Ledge) and Vice President Rodriguez (Miguel Ferrer, The Manchurian Candidate) deal with a new terrorist threat in the form of The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley, The Dictator), a man who hi-jacks the airwaves with announcements of America's corruption and need for cleansing fire. When a bomb blast puts Happy in a coma, Tony declares to the public that The Mandarin is in Iron Man's vengeful cross-hairs. Tony's public announcement sets off a chain reaction of destruction and damage that tests the limits of both the Iron Man suit and Tony's determination and abilities.

Tony Stark has come a long way from his abduction and captivity in the desert under the thumb of the Ten Rings. He has endured threats from within his own company and threats by his own government. Now a hero in the eyes of the nation, he must deal with internal demons revolving around his own insecurities against defending against the unknown, and new international terrorist threats that strike too close to his own home and family. Insomnia and anxiety rule his life, even with the support of Pepper.

Shane Black brings a different dynamic and tone to the third solo Iron Man adventure. Pulling his source from the 'Extremis' storyline, Black and Pearce create a modern villain to put in Tony Stark's path, coupling that hidden threat with the public face of Iron Man's most famous nemesis, The Mandarin. Tony Stark must face overwhelming powerful enemies, face questions about his own mortality against the likes of gods, aliens, and monsters, and face the fact that even with all of his armor he must rely on his own guile and wit. In the first two Iron Man films, Stark's genius created the Mark suits to win the day. In Iron Man 3, the power of the suits in simply not enough - no matter how smart Stark is.

Robert Downey, Jr. shows again why there is no other choice to fill the Mark suits as Tony Stark. Its not just the designer sunglasses and well groomed facial hair. Downey, Jr. has the humor, physicality, snark, and range to put Tony through all of his paces. Jon Favreau acts his namesake as Happy Hogan, happy to be an actor instead of pulling directing duties as well. He even gets to play detective for a bit. Paltrow shows she is not just a pretty face, donning the Iron Man suit on one occasion and kicking serious butt in another. Guy Pearce is at his slick, charismatic best as the rival genius Killian to Stark, taking Iron Man 2's Justin Hammer and adding a more beautiful exterior and a more mad scientist interior. Ben Kingsley, who may never hear the end of it from the devotee fans of the comics about his interpretation of The Mandarin, brings the Iron Man villain to an all-too-real modern era as a terrorist, losing the powers of the alien rings that the comics' Mandarin relied on to face the armored avenger. Rebecca Hall (Everything Must Go) joins the cast as bio-geneticist Maya Hansen. 
Joining the bad guys, James Badge Dale (The Grey) plays Killian #2 thug Savin and Stephanie Szostak (We Bought a Zoo) plays soldier Brandt. Paul Bettany (Priest) returns as the trusty A.I. servant Jarvis, and Ty Simpkins (Insidious) plays young Harley Keener, a kid that seems to set off Tony's anxieties with a couple simple questions.

Shane Black plays with a 70s motif and sensibility, making Tony Stark deal with a mystery that he may not be able to solve with computer models and simulations - or his powerful armor. Part Bourne Identity, part Mission: Impossible, part I Spy, Stark deals with a threat as fluid as Cold War tension and as real as Modern Era terrorism. Stay through the graphic end credits for the retro style and music to end cap Black's tone. Also stay until the end for an Easter egg scene. It's not as geek-tastic as some of the sequences we have seen in the past, but it is amusing.

Iron Man 3 is a different machine from previous outings. A little more serious than Favreau's films, this sequel has everything we have come to expect, and more. The only thing missing is the AC/DC soundtrack.

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Contagion

Sterile Environment

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writers: Scott Z. Burns
Cast: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Laurence Fishburne, Jennifer Ehle

SYNOPSIS: A woman returns from a business trip abroad suffering from a jet lag that soon becomes an undiagnosed highly contagious disease, spreading through the world's population more quickly than the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization can find a viable vaccine or cure.

REVIEW: Steven Soderbergh, acclaimed director of Traffic, Erin Brockovich, the Oceans Eleven trilogy and The Informant!, takes a script from The Informant! and The Bourne Ultimatum writer Scott Z. Burns to tackle a story that follows a highly contagious "novel" unknown viral strain that runs rampant around the globe, radiating out from a possible single epidemic source.

Opening with the movements of a single woman returning from a Hong Kong business trip who quickly falls ill, suffers seizures and dies, Contagion provides an almost investigative perspective as to the spread of the virus, its effects on the population, the response by government agencies, the economic and political fallout, and the eventual diminished return to normalcy. When Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) returns from an AIMM business trip, her supposed jet lag becomes a fiery fever and headache, leading to seizures and death. Her husband Mitch (Matt Damon) endures even more tragedy as their son is exposed and dies. The story, in parallel, follows several contagious individuals around the globe as they return to their homes, villages and countries, unknowingly carrying the virus with them to spread the infection to others by touching other people of surfaces. Once the CDC and the World Health Organization is alerted to the reported cases and deaths attributed to this new disease, doctors and scientists all other the world try to strike back with an investigation to the initial cause and genesis of the virus and how to combat it.

Soderbergh takes an almost sterile, methodical approach to this film. Where Dustin Hoffman's Outbreak focused on tracking and combating their virus within the confines of a remote American town, Contagion takes a grander perspective by tracking the spread of the disease as it grows to global proportions, sitting in as government agencies plot out their next moves, watching state and federal health organization fight and prove ineffective to the spreading anarchy, following the internet as rumor and fact blend together to flame the fires of civil unrest and panic, and living in the aftermath of a disease that may infect one in twelve of the world's population.

Analytical and businesslike, the story moves along well enough, but lacks much emotion. Only Matt Damon's Mitch and his daughter give us anyone to truly connect to. Fishburne's Dr. Ellis Cheever is too clinical and stoic, even when he worries about Kate Winslet's Dr. Erin Mears who goes out in the field to diagnose the source of the Minnesota outbreak. Jude Law's internet blogger journalist, Alan Krumwiede, tries to be a man of the people against the secretive government conspiracies, but comes off less honorable than a man of the people should be. The cast is capable and expansive, but the scale of the film reduces them to flotsam drifting on the surface of the ocean. The script is solid and comprehensive, but lacks a few intimate points. And some of the time explaining and knowing the deterioration of social services doesn't explain why homes still have running water and electricity, and why Mitch's daughter is still able to text her boyfriend after 100 days of the decimation of the world's population.

Tracking the virus as if it were a real-world exercise, Contagion shows an unflinching, third-person perspective of the effects of a possible world-killer disease. But the problem in Soderbergh's Contagion is that the film is unable or unwilling to let us in emotionally, rolling out the story in a altogether too matter the fact way. I know that you should try and keep your distance and refrain from physical contact from others in order to stay healthy, but sometimes a tender warm caring touch is more satisfying, even if it poses a risk.

WORTH: Matinee or Rental

Country Strong

Music Imitates Life

[Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Garrett Hedlund, Leighton Meester]

image from celebrity-mania.com

RANT: Wanted to go see Country Strong, but needed to go to a different Regal theater much farther away from the house. I ended up at the outlet mall in Deer Park at a Regal theater with an IMAX theater. I asked the ticket taker if the IMAX was a true IMAX or an "IMAX Experience". He was unsure, but I was able to peek inside the theater. It was not a 6-story screen, but the sound system was definitely rocking!

SYNOPSIS: A drama focusing on the multi-city comeback tour of a country superstar after a stint in rehab, her husband/manager, and two up-and-coming acts trying to break it big in the business.

Reminding me of Robert Altman's Nashville, Loretta Lynn's biopic Coal Miner's Daughter and Jeff Bridges oscar-worthy Crazy Heart, Country Strong dramatizes the glamorous glitz and urban under belly of life on the road for a multi-Grammy winner legendary country artist trying to make a comeback after alcohol destroyed her performance in Dallas and her relationship with her husband/manager.

Following Kelly Canter (Gwyneth Paltrow) on her last day in rehab , her husband James pushes her to get back on the road to soon with a 3-city "encore" tour to get the momentum back to Kelly's career. Added to the tour bill per Kelly's request is young honky-tonk bar performer Beau Hutton (Garrett Hedlund from Tron: Legacy) and Kelly's sometime lover. As manager, James adds Texas pageant queen and aspiring country pop star Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester) to the lineup.

Each character has their own baggage. Kelly emerges from rehab much to early, still needing to deal with her alcoholism and the loss of her unborn baby after an intoxicated fall from stage in Dallas. James, once a loving husband, is now a controlling manager desperate to have Kelly reclaim her place as the country legend she is - all the while failing to deal with Kelly as a wife or the loss of their unborn baby. Beau has the heart of gold to accompany his singing and songwriting skills, sometimes unsure of how far he should go in the industry. And finally, Chiles, focuses on the lights and stardom of the country stage, unable to put into shadow her childhood insecurities from a seemingly too-perfect youth.

Paltrow, McGraw, Hedlund and Meester all shine brightly in their own right. McGraw is an old 10-gallon hat when it comes to the strong, southern gentleman. Paltrow excludes the southern charm, hospitality and singing chops that she certainly honed in order to get her role of Fox's Glee. And Hedlund and Meester look they were plucked right out of line at the Grand Ole Opry. One specific moment that made the film for me was Kelly's Make a Wish Foundation appearance at a school for a young student named Travis. The scene showcased Kelly's vulnerability and her love for her music. Some of the plot is paced and placed for convenience, Kelly's alcoholism, for example, allowed to ebb and flow based on the need of the character and story.

The real star of the movie, though, is the music. With originals and country standards, every note is pitch perfect for its tone and story. I am sure at least one will make its way into the Oscar race as a nominee. The music hearkened back to my youth where I helped my father work on the car in the neighbor's garage, listening to his favorite country blues in a backless knob radio.

I enjoyed the film for what it is. The ending was obvious, even though it seemed to be the only course that would make sense. The acting is good, the music is better and the realization that fame does not necessarily buy happiness or love is just a common truth.

Worth: Matinee

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