Monday, May 6, 2013

Mean Girls [A Fat Jesus Movie Review]


I never went to a huge public high-school. Both schools I ended up going to, and graduating from, were very small and medium sized private schools. Our family was never rich, don't get me wrong, I just never went to a big public school like the one featured in Mean Girls. I never had the interest of seeing this growing up. I probably always wrote it of as a "girly movie" or something I'm sure. But now I'm a completely normal and well adjusted 22-year old male, and after the urges of a couple friends, I finally got around to this. I love Tina Fey, and this was well before Lindsay Lohan when on her first coke binge, so I held out some hope for this. I wasn't disappointed, but this was just not my cup of tea.

Mean Girls follows the story of Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) as she goes to high school for the first time. Cady's parents, Betsy and Chip (Ana Gasteyer and Neil Flynn), are zoologists and they spent the last 12 years doing research in Africa. Luckily on the first day Cady meets Janis and Damien (Lizzy Caplan and Daniel Franzese). They teach Cady the ins and out of the high-school, including all various cliques, and there is a ton of them. They single out one group in particular, The Plastics. This trio of girls, the insecure one, Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert), the rich, but ditzy one, Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried) and their leader, The Queen Bee, Regina George (Rachel McAdams), run the school. When The Plastics take an interest in Cady, Janis hatches a plan to destroy them from the inside out. After being accepted into the group Cady is shown something called "The Burn Book". This is the ultimate book owned by Regina that keeps the rumors, secrets, gossip from all the girls and teachers in the school. Not long after, Cady falls for Aaron Samuels (Johnathan Bennett), Regina's ex-boyfriend, which causes Regina to steal him from her. This prompts Cady to decide to continue on with Janis' plan. But instead of destroying The Plastics, she may be destroying her name and alienating herself from the entire school.

My biggest problem with Mean Girls is that I find almost no way to relate with a lot of the stuff going on. Sure, in movies you're supposed to experience things as the characters do. But, with some movies you kinda need to have some sort of connection with at least something in there for it to hit you. This does in no way make it bad per se, but for me it really does downgrade my liking of it by whole lot. Once I stopped caring about the petty gossip or the unnecessary drama, this movie doesn't have a lot to hold it up. One liners, even though there were a lot of great ones, and decent performances by Lohan, Caplan and McAdams, aren't enough to hold up this movie. I just named almost the full main cast there, and if the main cast aren't getting the job done for me, you can bet the supporting roles, the great Tina Fey and Tim Meadows, won't be able to pick up the slack. Speaking of acting, while I went into this not expecting The Godfather-like performances, everyone came off as ho-hum. Lindsay Lohan was perfectly fine as the lead, Lizzy Caplan had a great supporting role, Rachel McAdams was great as the antagonist, with Fey and Meadows getting some good moments. Everyone else seemed disconnected to me though. Amanda Seyfried does not have acting chops in the slightest. While her stupidity, in character, was cute for awhile, you can't believe someone is that moronic. While Lacey Chabert, was forgettable. Hell, I didn't even know who she was since hasn't done anything worthwhile, outside of voice acting, since this film.

Just because the acting is sub-par and I didn't connect with a lot of the movie doesn't mean everything was bad. There was a lot of good humor in this. From one liners, to observational humor, Tina Fey is great at bringing out the funny in anything. As evidenced by her writing for SNL for nine years and 30 Rock for seven years. Fey is no slouch and everyone in this movie was written very well. Whether they did all they could with the role, Tina wrote it what anyone plugged into the hole, so to speak, could bring the humor out. The writing was top notch as well, as you can probably tell by these past few sentences. While the story is very "teenage", it was still a good one that's better than most teen dramas on TV or in the movies today. Engaging characters, a good lead and a great bad guy. When they aren't on the screen the support and story is good enough to make this a hit for both adults and teens. The adults laugh at the stupidity of some of the characters and the humor, while teens are engaged by the drama aspect of it all. Not many tweener movies get this balance right. They try too hard with its humor or goes too far with the drama content. I do wanna single out a few people for their acting. Lindsay Lohan is great in a leading role, at least she was ten years ago. She personified the shy girl trying to fit in. From gaining the acceptance of her first two friends, to generally being apprehensive whenever she was with The Plastics. Lohan played Cady flawlessly. McAdams on the other side of the coin was a great villain. She played the popular high school girl, that would ruin anyone's lives on the turn of a dime very well.  Pretty, popular and peccancy, McAdams personified Regina George. Finally the best supporting role goes to Lizzy Caplan, well at least before Lizzy got "big". She played the conflicted, to an extent, friend of Cady to a fault. While also wanting to destroy her self proclaimed enemy. She is the anti Cady that Cady needed in the film. The acting, writing and humor was all solid, which kept me watching.

Mean Girls has a lot of good, but for me personally a lot of bad. I had no connection to much in this film and the lazy acting by a lot of the people on screen really hurts this. This is still a greatly written movie, and all credit goes to Tina Fey there. The humor is solid throughout, yet repetitive. Despite the lacking acting, Lohan, McAdams and Caplan are pretty good, with Fey and Meadows providing great moments as well. This is a very like or hate it movie. Especially if you liked it growing up. At best for me though it was only okay, but this is still one of the better teen drama's you'll ever see. At the very least we can be comforted that "fetch" will never happen.


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Saturday, May 4, 2013

42 [A Fat Jesus Movie Review]


I love sports and while baseball isn't high up on my list of favorites, playoff baseball is always fun to watch. Baseball movies as of late, like Moneyball and Trouble With The Curve, are pretty good movies. Which gave me the hope that 42 would at least be as good as the latter. Jackie Robinson is one of the most prolific players to ever compete in any sport. He broke down racial barriers in an exclusive sport and changed how things worked within, at the very least Major League Baseball. This movie is about how a sport was changed, now if only players would quit doping up, and maybe the sport can reclaim some of it's former glory.

42 is a biopic and follows the story of Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) being recruited to, and playing for, the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Robinson is traveling with his team as they stop to get gas on the team bus. Robinson asks to go use the restroom, to which the attendant denies. Robinson threatens to take their business elsewhere, and the attendant lets him use the restroom. Afterward, a scout from the Brooklyn Dodgers approaches him and sends him to Brooklyn to speak with Dodgers owner Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford). Rickey offers Robinson a $600 a month, with a $3500 signing bonus, contract to play with the Dodgers on the condition he keeps his anger under control. After the meeting Robinson calls his girlfriend, Rachel Isum (Nicole Beharie), and proposes to her, to which she says yes. Robinson already has to deal with being a black man, even in the minor league on the Montreal Royals. Also, because a white man is playing second base, Robinson is forced to learn how to play at first instead. Through racial trials, such as heckling and violence, and being denied residence at hotels, Jackie Robinson broke through barriers and stereotypes when he became a Brooklyn Dodger.

I liked this movie. Let me rephrase that, I like this movie when Chadwick Boseman is on the screen. But we're not gonna start with my likes here, we're gonna start with what I didn't like. There was a fair amount of bad in this. We'll start with Branch Rickey, again let me rephrase that. We'll start with the portrayal of Branch Rickey by Harrison Ford. It started out fine, I figured that was just how he talked, or at the very least it was how a lot of owners talked back in those days. Now don't misunderstand me, I don't mind if a movie drops the taboo "n-word", especially if a movie is set in a racially charged era. It was nothing to do with content, but with delivery. After about the third scene with Rickey in it you get tired of the accent. You get tired of his mannerisms. You get tired of Harrison Ford doing whatever's he doing to portray Branch Rickey. Maybe it was overacting, or maybe it was that Harrsion was told to do it that way. Whatever the reason, it was quite annoying to me throughout. The other big thing about this is that scenes not directly involving Chadwick Boesman as Jackie Robinson were pretty bland. Now thank goodness this was a Jackie Robinson movie of this could've gotten way out of hand. There were a few scenes where it soley revolved around Rickey and other GMs or Rickey and his managers, and they were so boring to me. It's not just limited to Rickey scenes. Even the scenes with Jackie's wife, Rachel, I just didn't seem to care about. There's a definite focus on Robinson, and while I understand he can't be the only person on screen, at least make me care about the others when they are.

I loved the overall story of this. While I don't agree this is a racially dominated society anymore, well at least not at the moment, I do appreciate what Robinson had to go through playing for the Dodgers. Chadwick Boseman did a fantastic job in his first major role, especially such a high profile one. You got the feeling that he really became Jackie Robinson. You felt the highs and lows that he felt. You could feel the emotion pouring out form his performance. He was truly the lead in this movie and made every scene that involved him. From playing on the field, to locker-room interaction and life between games, Boseman personifies Robinson. The story is written very well too, whenever you watch a biopic you want detail. From the little things like having an announcer giving play by plays during the game scenes, to managers setting line up and and working with other players. It all flows so well. When you watch you'll can catch the bigger things like John C. McGinley announcing games, and the smaller things like coaches, well coaching. The other half of this is the story itself. Following Jackie's life both on and off the field from signing to acceptance was a great thing to watch over the course of the movie. The writing was done well, but like I said above, some of the performances could have been handled much better. Finally I'll touch in the baseball scenes themselves. I love the old style of the stadiums. I love the crack of the bat and the olden style uniforms. Everything about the games themselves added a huge air of authenticity. This movie is full of great moments, scenes and historical significance. Everything from the portrayal of Robinson and the scenes full of periodical racism, to baseball mangers behind the scenes and general managers negotiations. Everything is top notch and provides a great looking into the way things worked in the 40s.

42 is a great biopic, but it's execution could have been done a lot better. The story is top notch and has great source material. Chadwick Boseman is phenomenal as Jackie Robinson, and despite this movie's flaws that should not be overlooked. Harrison Ford, in this, to me is annoying, but maybe you'll like what he did with Branch Rickey. If you love baseball you're gonna love this biopic. It has everything from game play to behind the scenes interactions. If you're not a baseball fan you'll still be able to appreciate all that Jackie Robinson went through to break down racial barriers. While 42 has its problems, it's still well worth a watch, and I really do look forward to seeing Chadwick Boseman in other films.


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Pain & Gain [A Fat Jesus Movie Review]


It's no secret that Michael Bay is one of the most criticized directors of all time. Hidden among his plethora of terrible movies lies a rare few where explosions, and over the top grandeur, doesn't ruin his the movie he's directing. Alas though the dark comedic story that was just released, in Pain & Gain, does not fit into this category. With a surprisingly decent performance by both leads, Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson, and a controversial adaptation to a real life story, this had all the makings to be a surprise. Instead we have a movie that starts of well and then trails off so badly, it left me in pain by the time the credits rolled. Pain & Gain is one of Micheal Bay's least worst films to come out lately.

Pain & Gain is set in 1995 and follows the story of Sun Gym personal trainer Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) and his two friends Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) and Paul Doyle (Dwayne Johnson). The three men are big bodybuilders. Daniel Lugo is sick of being normal, and after going to a motivational seminar, led by Johnny Wu (Ken Jeong), he decides to become a "doer". One of the people Daniel trains is a rich, self made business man, by the name of Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub). He is constantly flaunting, and sometimes complaining about, his wealth. Daniel gets the idea that he's gonna kidnap Kershaw and make him sign over all his money and assets to the three friends. Adrian agrees due to the fact that all the steroids have wreaked havoc on his body. Paul, recently released from prison up North, is a cocaine addict that has found religion. He decides to come to Miami and needs a place of his own. The three, known as The Sun Gym Gang, eventually kidnap Kershaw and stores him in one of his warehouses. Daniel assumes it'll be full of fitness equipment, but instead is full of sex toys. After putting him through the proverbial ringer, Kershaw signs over everything, but there is a problem. The documents need to be signed with a notary present. Luckily the owner of Sun Gym, John Mese (Rob Corddry), is a notary and Daniel tricks him into authorizing the documents. This sets into motion the best, and eventually worst, moments of The Sun Gym Gang's lives, as they find out they really shouldn't be "doers".

We're going to break this one down in the terms of first half and second half. The first half of this movie is pretty entertaining. It sets up the story and characters well, and is pretty humorous. While the second half becomes too serious of a movie, with not enough good direction to get to point B and too many failed attempts at humor. The one constant though is that the adaptation to a real story is lacking. I don't mind dark comedy, but that only gets you so far. The writing and dialogue for the first hour or so of this movie is good. Mark Wahlberg is a likable lead, that really turns himself into Daniel Lugo. A guy at his core who wants to better his life, in a less than desirable way. Meanwhile, Dwayne Johnson played the coke addled man recently let out of prison, who turned to religion, exceptionally well too. He personifies Paul Doyle, who wants to help his follow man more than himself. Both are smart, but are missing just enough up there to put what they're doing in severe jeopardy. The dialogue is full of meat-heads thinking they're right, messing up simple thoughts or words and somehow hatching a ridiculously hair brained plan that somehow worked. It's full of character development, decent one liners, and dark humor that's very entertaining. I was really into the story and characters, even the humor at points, but then it took a sudden, extremely dark turn. This was about halfway through the movie as well and leads me to all that is bad about this flick. Cause it takes quite a nosedive. 

To put it simply, the second half of this turns into quite a boring, thriller-like movie. Which is not what this is in the slightest. The trio still retains their childlike oblivion to everything that they're doing, but the movie somehow shifts into a weird game of cat and mouse with Ed Harris. The trio turns into a group that would murder to cover their tracks, and if they have to their bright idea is to cover it all up. While all this is fine, this isn't a thriller and these guys are written to be masterminds. The comedy becomes very stale and unfunny, while you marvel at how these guys have even gotten to this point. The acting is still fine by the likes of Wahlberg, Johnson and Harris, but the story and dialogue written to go with everyone feels out of place. Speaking of the story it becomes completely formulaic. Kershaw hires a detective to get his money back. In turn they get nowhere until these muscled up morons screw up and then they are caught. It's how all these movies with lacking writing go and this is no different. Also tone of the movie turns quite bad. It goes from this lighthearted-esqe (dark) comedy, to a movie where essentially murderers and thieves try to evade being caught. The problems don't end here as, even in the first half of the movie, there are a ton of scenes that have no business being in there. While no scene was overly long, cutting some of these "fatty" scenes would've shortened this bear of a movie. This is a long two hours, and it feels like a lot of movies these past two years have been hurt by length. They think longer equals better, and with a movie with a lot of substance this is fine. But in a movie lie this it really hurts it.

Know I've read up on how Pain & Gain is based of a true story. Which is actually pretty horrific and that the real life people involved aren't thrilled with this movie. I'm not thrilled with this because it had potential to be good and I watched a movie fall apart. Aside form the first hour and the overall performances by Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson and Ed Harris, this is a pretty forgettable movie. Good for a watch if you can get through the second half, but not worth your hard earned money when it hits DVD and BluRay.


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Evil Dead [A Fat Jesus Movie Review]


This was the first movie I've seen in theaters since Django Unhcained in January, back when I was still living in Texas, that I was looking forward to. The Evil Dead franchise has always been one of my favorites. It's also been one of the more bizarre movie trilogy's of all time. Morphing from pure B-movie horror, to campy b-movie horror, while ending in straight fantasy. Sam Raimi crafted a series along side Bruce Campbell which has garnered one of the biggest cult followings of all time. But in this day and age everything seems to need to be remade. Nine times out of ten the remakes bland, horrible or uninspired. But Evil Dead, Evil Dead got it right.

Evil Dead opens with an injured, staggering girl in the woods being captured. She wakes up tied to a post in a room full of people. The girl's father is about to light her on fire, to which the girl pleads otherwise. Eventually she reveals she's possessed, is lit on fire and shot in the head by her father. Years later a group of friends; Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), Olivia (Jessica Lucas), Mia (Jane Levy), Mia's brother David (Shiloh Fernandez), and David's girlfriend Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore), are meeting up at an old cabin in the woods. They are meeting here to help Mia stop using drugs, as she has overdosed to the point of clinical death. When they first go inside the cabin, Mia begins to complain about a "stench of death" that no one else notices. They discover a door to the cellar hidden under a rug. In the basement they find animal corpses hanging from the ceiling, a shotgun and the Naturom Demonto aka The Necronomicon, The Book of the Dead. Eric begins to read the pages aloud, despite the numerous warnings written in the book. He ends up casting a demon that begins to haunt Mia. Mia begins to plead with everyone to leave, but they dismiss it as withdrawal symptoms. Mia then steals one of the cars to try and escape, but crashes it in the woods. Mia sees the demon as she crawls out of the wreck and runs into the woods, where the demon possess her. Mia begins to to torture the member's of the group, and tells them in a demonic voice that they will not survive the night. It becomes a mad dash for survival as this group experiences the supernatural as they never dreamed possible.

This is definitely the best horror movie so far this year. Fede Alvares, with the help of Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, all three men who worked in the original The Evil Dead, created one of the best remakes in recent memory. But this is not without flaws. What I liked about the original is that there was no "back story" about another person possessed by the book. That we came in on the kids heading up for a relaxing weekend at the cabin. There's didn't need to be an example to start the movie, cause we would end up seeing it during the movie itself. The book explains it all without having to see what happened to someone else with the same possession. Also I found myself not caring about anyone aside from Eric, David and of course, Mia. I mean for God's sake did it even matter that David's girlfriend Natalie was in here at all. I love gore as much as the next guy, and this is chop full of it, but adding in another useless body, on top of a couple other ones, really irked me. The acting, by everyone outside of Lou Taylor Pucci, Shiloh Fernandez, and Jane Levy, was pretty sub-par too. I failed to care about Jessica Lucas (Oliva), the med student that knew it all, and it annoyed me that she was the pseudo leader cause of her knowledge. Also I'm pretty sure Elizabeth Blackmore (Natalie) was only in here as another body to be mutilated, as she has upwards of a few minutes of dialogue at best. Plus, like I said, I felt the whole opening was unneeded. Not bad in the least, but just felt out of place to me.

On the flip side, the great in this movie was pretty great. Jane Levy gives a good performance a Mia. Between her being possessed and her non possessed side, it was nice thing to be reminded throughout that Mia was still in there, despite being possessed. Confused? I used possessed to much there didn't I? Moving on. Lou Taylor Pucci and Shiloh Fernandez we're solid and really filled in when Mia, or demon Mia, wasn't on screen. The acting by these three were good enough to carry the movie. The story was pretty great as well. It kept the tone and style of the first movie, yet modernized it in a sense and gave the characters some back-story. I wasn't a huge fan of the close of the movie, but overall it was good nonetheless. First time writers for a major movie in Fede Alvares, who also was a good director, and Rodo Sayagues, did a solid job with the screenplay. If you've ever seen the original Sam Raimi trilogy, and if you haven't you should invest a Saturday and do so, you'll know it's all about over the top gore. Whether it's blood pouring out of the walls or vomiting liters of blood on someone, the gore in the Evil Dead series is one of its staples. There is no shortage of this in this either. From limbs being cut off and tongues being sliced in half, to a girl cutting her face off and raining blood. The over the top, gore, death and scares are well done and a perfect homage to what Sam Raimi did back in the the 80s. While the scares are pretty formulaic, jump scares accompanied with loud music, the innovation and gore is done well. This is probably the closest you're gonna get to a good SAW-esque type of movie since The Collector franchise, as great as the first one is, already seems to be running downhill.

Evil Dead is the best horror film of the year so far. You could go into never seeing the original trilogy and come away satisfied. This is a big testament to Fede Alvares' writing and directing. He appreciates what Raimi did, yet crafts this and made it his own. The story was good and the gore was over the top and great. While the acting may be lacking it's not hugely needed in a movie like this. Though Jane Levy did a great job throughout as Mia. If you're a fan of Sam Raimi's trilogy you'll like this I think. As I said above if you've never seen the trilogy I think you'll like this as a stand alone horror movie. Evil Dead may not live up to the hype, but it's still a pretty great horror flick.


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Friday, May 3, 2013

Iron Man 3 [A Fat Jesus Movie Review]


This Review May Contain Spoilers

 Finally! The first blockbuster film of 2013 is upon us and it's none other than Marvel's follow-up movie to The Avengers in Iron Man 3. Iron Man is one of the best post 2000 superhero movies to be released. While Iron Man 2 was severely hurt by the lack of direction in writing and well, a plot. Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle all reprise their roles in what could be the last time they're in a stand alone Iron Man film. This has Robert Downy Jr's best performance as Tony Stark, but unfortunately a bevy of unnecessary scenes in a what really feels like long movie. 

Iron Man 3 starts off with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) reminiscing about New Year's Eve in 1999. That night he meets a botanist, Maya Henson (Rebecca Hall), who has invented a drug, Extremis, which will help people recover from crippling injuries. As the two head up to their room for the night, they are approached by Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). He offers them apart of his company, AIM [Advanced Idea Mechanics], to which Stark refuses. Fast forward to present day, set after the event in New York during The Avengers, Stark is having trouble coping with what happened and is unable to sleep. He has built a bunch of Iron Man suits and it's causing problems between himself and his girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Meanwhile global security is running high as a villain, who calls himself The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), is planting bombs around the world and is now threatening the US. Prompting the government to rebrand "War Machine" as "Iron Patriot" to promote patriotism. Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) is on board with the name change. After Stark's home is bombed and destroyed by Mandarin, Stark's suit has taken him to Tennessee. Where he planned to investigate one of Mandarin's bombings. Stark is helped by a young man, Harley (Ty Simpkins), who lives in the town where a bombing took place. Stark is still having panic attacks whenever the situation that happened in New York is brought up. But Harley finally breaks through, and they discover what is really causing the bombings. Tony Stark has regained his bearings and is finally starting to find his own way. The only thing left to do is save his girlfriend, and the world, from it's latest threat and beat his arch nemesis in The Mandarin.

Well, where do I begin, this is easily one of the movies when the most hype for me coming into 2013, while I do like it, it really is ho-hum in a lot of ways. We'll start with one of the most obvious points and that is it's length. While it can work for movies like The Avengers and The Dark Knight, the over two hour run time for this really makes it feel long. Robert Downey Jr. really does shine in this movie, but not every scene in the movies revolves around him. When he's not there you wish is was at times, while other times you realize he can't possibly be everywhere at once. Another thing that would've really helped this is if they cut down on all the unnecessary and dragging scenes. As much as I love Ben Kingsley, a lot of the scenes involving him felt more like a YouTube video interjected into the movie more than anything. This move didn't need all of the John Favreau scenes either. While I know there's always an air of comedy in the Iron Man series, it didn't benefit from much involving Favreau in this.

There's a ton of stuff that could have been cut. A shorter movie, with less dragging scenes would've done this movie a ton of favors in my opinion. Since this story wasn't the best we've ever seen, while the character writing is oddly good still. I wasn't a fan of Pepper Potts being relegated to the damsel in distress. While action scenes not involving Guy Pearce and Robert Downy Jr. together felt underwhelming. Finally, I hated that they renamed "War Machine" to "Iron Patriot" for the purposes of the story. While I love patriotism for one's country, I'll chant "USA" in an instant, keeping it War Machine would've been better suited. Especially if it turns out to be the last film in the series and you've just established War Machine in the previous movie.

The action was pretty great too. We find out early on than since the event of The Avengers, and trust me there's quite a few times they remind you, Stark can't sleep and turns to making prototype Iron Man suits. The main one used throughout is his latest prototype which never quite gets there yet is almost a character in itself. There's not a ton of Iron Man suit action until the third act, but that's when they turn it up in a huge way leading to the conclusion. The fight scenes are more about Stark going back to his roots as an inventor to cleverly win his battles. Rather than just overpowered Iron Man clocking the baddies. There were some points where it got really Micheal Bay-esque, which kinda caught me off guard, but other than that the action is top notch. Like with most all of Marvel's releases. The CGI in this is top notch as always. The overall design of all the suits featured in the movie, no matter how briefly shown, looked cool. The scenery was great, the ocean shots were good and the cinematography was a nice little surprise. Couple that with the  decent music and good score and this movie both loos and sounds great.

Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark who is in turn Iron Man. After this trilogy and the future films, namely The Avengers 2, I think Downey Jr. will go down as the most charismatic superhero actor. He carries these movies almost single handedly, shout-out to Gwyneth Paltrow here. This movie really brings out the acting chops and a side of Stark's character we've yet to see. The caring for Harley, Pepper and James is overwhelming. The fact it's the first time we've seen him rattled about something, Stark's usually vastly sure of himself, is something to get used to. Combine that with the witty, billionaire charm that we've come to know, and Downey Jr. as Stark has developed to a new high. Props out to Ty Simpkins who finally got me into the movie at the start of the second act, as Stark first arrives in Tennessee. The little dude is a fantastic actor and really brought out the side of Stark mentioned above. Plus his chemistry with Downey Jr. was immense as it looked like those to were made to play off of each other in a scene. Gwyneth Paltrow is pretty good, though her being the damsel in distress wasn't a great fit for this movie. While Don Cheadle did another solid supporting role as James Rhodes aka War Machine aka Iron Patriot aka Terrance Howard's replacement. I felt Ben Kingsly was pretty bland in his role as The Mandarin, but I can't hate the guy in the slightest. While Guy Pearce gave a pretty good  performance as Killian. A lot of good performances headlined by the lead star and probably the youngest person in the film. 

For those interested I rated Iron Man 3, an I think, generous 8/10 or 4/5. Despite it's abundance of problems this is a much better movie than Iron Man 2, if not only for the fact it has an actual story. While the action in all of the Iron Man movies are fairly standard, this is definitely the one with the most bang for your buck. Robert Downy Jr. truly comes into his own as Tony Stark/Iron Man in this and his performance is worth this ticket price alone. While not in the same league as Iron Man, Spider-Man 2, The Avengers and The Dark Knight, this is still better than most superhero movies you're gonna see. There's still a ton of Marvel movies will come out these next two years; Thor: The Dark World, The Wolverine, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Guardians of the Galaxy. But I think Iron Man 3 will stand its ground and remain one of the best in the coming years.


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