IRON MAN II: ALL THE IRON, A LITTLE LESS MAN

Tony Stark: I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Robert Downey Jr? Love perhaps, is an understatement. So, Tony Stark is back, bigger better and more full of himself than from the first Iron Man, which is part of the reason why I loved this film. The problem is, that we already saw this in the first movie. So when seen again, it just doesn't have quite the same effect as it did when it was fresh and new. That is not to say, however, that it is not un-enjoyable. In this film, Tony Stark has been "outed" and everybody wants a piece of him. This includes the new bad guy lead, played well by Sam Rockwell and counterintelligence agent/avenger Scarlett Johansson in her formfitting cat woman-like suit. Mickey Rourke, added a little spice to this film as Russian bad guy Ivan Vanko and played pretty well as the muscle for Justin Hammer's (Rockwell) bad guy dictator. Gwyneth Paltrow is also back as Pepper Potts who in general was in character, but lacked the original chemistry she showed Stark. There was lots of action in this film, lots of things that blew up, lots of drama, but again, it just lacked the fresh appeal that came with the first film. This was a good film, however, I just had that feeling like I had seen it before. This is a film that I definitely would not miss, but not a film I would call best picture.

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS: WOW

It's difficult to separate the film from the circumstances surrounding it. This was and will always be known for being Health Ledger's last film before he died. The objective of the movie centered around joy and dreams and of course, good versus evil but it was anything but joy when Heath's death railroaded the film making. What I find extraordinary is how three A-list Hollywood actors jumped right in to turn the story in a way where Heath's fleeting presence was explainable and understandable. Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell shared the role, each taking turns but still maintaining enough believability for it to work.

3:10 TO YUMA

3:10 TO YUMA IS ONE TRAIN YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS
Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Peter Fonda, Ben Foster... have I left out any good reason you wouldn't want to see this movie? Westerns used to be shot in black and white, now shot in color, we find 3:10 has many shades of gray. This is no ordinary western. All the elements are there; authentic scenery, lots of gun fire, spitin', grimy, low-down, no-good bad guys; but it's more than that. The chief "bad guy" is Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) who is still pretty dirty, but more educated and smooth talking than the rest of his gang. He is captured in a small town where Dan Evans (Christian Bale) and his family live meagerly. For a price, Evans will take Wade to Yuma to catch the 3:10 that will bring him back to jail. Evans is a good honest man with traditional family values and he fights for what is right and fair. There are other men along the journey to Yuma; Wade's gang planning on releasing him and the other men intent on seeing this bad guy brought to justice. As the journey progresses, we find that Wade isn't really "all bad" as Evan's son states; to which he replies, "Yes, I am." That line between good and bad gets crossed, by both leads and the gray shades are many. Evans has just enough anger and fury as Wade does compassion and understanding. They develop a mutual respect and understanding right up until the very end. They don't become best friends or ride off into the sunset together, the ending is realistic and appropriate. Just when you think you know which side you are on, you realize the fault lies in taking sides in the first place.
Rating: Excellent Western drama, authentic and outstanding performances; worthwhile.