Todd’s Movie Blog

The latest horror film being promoted right now is the Liv Tyler vehicle The Strangers, a based on true events film, that is as factually accurate as 2003’s Open Water was, which is to say not at all, since the only people who could tell you what happened aren’t here anymore.  Which leads to what I really don’t like about modern horror films.  This film, like the Hostel and Saw movies, or last years Funny Games, do the same frustrating thing, you spend two hours watching someone get terrorized and then at the end, they die, end of movie.

Film makers have been doing this since Romero’s first zombie movie in the late sixties, but what was groundbreaking and thought provoking then has become cynical and nihlistic now.  Plus it violates the most important aspect of a thriller that Hitchcock always followed, you can do anything you want to the protagonist as long as they come out okay at the end, otherwise you make the audience feel cheated, and I don’t like feeling cheated.

I’ve discovered something rather interesting coming out of Hollywood this month.  A minor story trend that is at the heart of two very different movies, the Wachowski’s Speed Racer and David Mamet’s Redbelt.  Essentially these two movies make the same point in very different ways, that it is better to compete in a sport for the sheer love of the game than compete for a monetary prize.  Both films have as villains conglomerates who fix the competitions so that particular people win and are opposed by single heroes who fight to expose the hypocrisy of the business.   Personally of the two I prefer Speed Racer’s confusing Tron inspired escapades to Mamet’s thoughtful and thought provoking drama for one simple fact, Speed wants to earn an honest living doing what he loves, while Mamet’s protagonist  prefers subjecting a life of quiet destitution on himself and his family rather than sully the good name of martial arts by actually earning money with it.  Considering how many people are broke and out of work, I’d rather root for someone’s financial and moral victory rather than just a moral victory that, knowing Mamet, wouldn’t change the status quo anyway.

I’m a little late getting this review up, my computer crashed and it is just now starting to run okay.  But enough of the excuses, I went and saw Iron Man last Sunday and it is easily one of the best superhero movies ever made, easily sliding into the top  hierarchy alongside such cinematic gems as Superman, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Batman Begins.

A brief synopsis of the plot, Tony Stark is a genius weapons manufacturer who, while in Afghanistan to demonstrate his latest missile to the military, is attacked and captured by terrorists.  Dying from a chest full of shrapnel working towards his heart, he only has a week to live and the terrorists  are wanting him to make a version of his new missile for them.  Instead he builds a device to keep his heart going and a robotic suit to escape with.  Once back home he shuts down the weapons manufacturing wing of his company and works on perfecting his armored suit, only to discover that the original attack on him was ordered by one of his oldest friends, which leads to robotic mano a mano showdown.

Iron Man does something that has been missing from superhero movies since the first Superman, namely a sense of humor about itself.  While some films have had some jokes scatter about, the over all tone is still dark, i.e.  the Spider-Man, X-Men, and Batman films.  But here although the acting and setting are played straight and serious, there is an amusing subtext to a lot of whats going on.  A perfect example is a scene where Pepper Potts has to replace the device in Stark’s chest that keeps him alive.  It is a brilliant piece of film making that combines funny dialogue to a suspenseful sequence with an erotic subtext.

The acting is all top notch with Terrence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow both give great performances, Howard easily showing his growing frustration with first the playboyish Stark and then with the more responsible Stark, while Paltrow shows a vast range of emotion in a character who is falling in love with her employer, knows it’s a bad idea, and actually manages to get some distance from him.

Of course Robert Downey, Jr. is the big star her, playing the hard partying Stark just right and is fascinating to watch as he gradually moves from walled off indifference toward redemption for his past turning of a blind eye to the flip side of what his weapons making causes.  He is helped in part by his own past indiscretions which are always in the back of the viewer’s mind.

And yet as great as Downey is, he is blown off the screen by Jeff Bridges’ villainous Obadiah Stane ( how can you not be a villain with a name like that).  He is a gregarious and ingratiating presence until about the two thirds mark, when you see his utterly ruthless true colors start to emerge.  His best scene is a monologue given to a paralyzed Downey, where you realize in his mind he isn’t the villain, Downey is.  In Stane’s world view he is the hero, working to correct the problems in the world and bring everything back in balance.  What really makes it work is some of what he says is hard to argue with. Wow! Relevancy in a comic book movie.

So I highly recommend seeing it.  It has action for the action fans, romance for the romance fans, and some intelligent commentary on the state of the world right now and  what our place it has been and could become. Plus Stan “The Man” Lee has a cameo as Hugh Hefner(?!?).  Something for everyone.