Too bad about "Olympus has Fallen". I couldn't get with North Koreans as believable competent bad guys.

Caught IRON MAN 3 last night. What an awesome start to the summer 2013 season.

Terrific, slickly produced, funny as hell pseudo-throwback to the 1980s/early 90s Hollywood action movies mixed with modern pytotechnics and the sci-fi/fantasy portal that is Marvel. We get 3 (or was it 4?) outstanding action setpieces. This might be better than the first (wonderful) IRON MAN film. This entry was directed by Shane Black, who back in his day of course scripted LETHAL WEAPON and LAST BOY SCOUT and a few years back directed KISS KISS BANG BANG with a pre-superstardom Robert Downey Jr.

And yeah like those movies, IM3 is basically a buddy actioneer albeit Downey and Don Cheadle don't team up together until the 3rd act but that beast narrative is there, highly kinetic and more one-liners than it knows what to do with. This is what the disapointing IRON MAN 2 should've been in the first place.

It's also solid science fiction. The ads you all might've seen showed Downey's new gizmos like remote controlling his Iron Man suits and pieces of the suit magnetically attaching to him one at a time. (And Black and his crew utilize this established fact for inspired imagination.) The villains with their new "Extremis" virus, which turns people into nearly-indestructable superhumans with regenerative powers if a tad explodey. How can a guy in a tin can defeat this technological superiority? By throwing everything plus the kitchen sink at them. (I'm sure I saw a kitchen sink flying around in that impressive climax fight.)

Crazy thing is the best moments in IM3 for me are when he's on the run, without his suits and basically forced to use his brains to fight back MacGuyver style. Handcuffed in the middle of a Tennessee town with two of those Extremis freaks on his ass? He doesn't let that get him (and his massive ego) down because he's Tony Stark, he'll figure something out. And he does.

I will say this though. The ads are misleading. This is not a remake of THE DARK KNIGHT, and some fanboys are pissed they didn't get that remake that they apparently were expecting. Oh boo hoo. I respect Marvel and Black for not going down that plot road that many recent movies have done already (SKYFALL, etc.) and tried to basically use that presumptions against you.

I give this ****1/2 out of 5.

This Is 40. It stars Paul Rudd, Megan Fox and Jason Segel. ****/5.

Caught this last weekend, I agree with your score.

I watched 1992's Innocent Blood again last night (I've seen it a few times). It's sort of Donnie Brasco meets Twilight. Despite its critics and failure at the box office, I like it (it was filmed in Pittsburgh). One thing that's cool about it is that its cast was a Sopranos warm-up of sorts. Besides Anthony LaPaglia and Chazz Palminteri, there's Robert Loggia, Tony Sirico, and David Proval. Also, Don Rickles has fun with his role.

I believe John Landis directed that, didn't he?

Yes.

The Sundance Channel is now playing DDA (Pacino is great) with Marathon Man to follow. Two good flicks.




TIS

I just watched Serpico for the first time a few days ago it reminds me of The King of Comedy because it's one of the truly underrated movies of 2 of the greatest Actors. IMO it's Al's best performance other than GF 1.

Yes, I loved Serpico too. One of my favorites. I saw it at the theater and it was very popular (as was Pacino). I remember seeing the real Frank Serpico on various shows after that movie. The Tomorrow Show comes to mind with Tom Syner, if you remember.


TIS

Boy, that didn't take long. I just saw an ad for a new Lifetime Movie titled, "Jodi Arias, Dirty Little Secret." Geez, trial just ended.





TIS

Saw "The Internship" with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. The best way to describe it is "Wedding Crashers Lite."

Ya'll might want to give a look at Trouble With the Curve with Clint Eastwood, Amy Adams, and Justin Timberlake. It's a pretty good baseball movie as the back ground to something of a troubled father/daughter relationship (By the way, you might pick up some batting tips).

I like Clint's values themed movies these days. Also, Timberlake has turned out to be a good actor. For those of us who are fathers, it may stir memories of teaching our daughters about baseball (even football). I know I tried to teach all of my daughters baseball and used to throw the football with them. There's one scene where he pitches to his 33 year old daughter and she hits it into outfield and then rounds the bases. He watches her as she does so smiling all the time especially when she does a cartwheel between 2nd and 3rd.

My daughter grew up with two older brothers, so she was a bit of a tomboy. One of my favorite memories of summer was pitching to her and her friend Joey, who has Down Syndrome, on a scorching sunday afternoon while a golden retriever collected the balls after each hit.

I'll give that movie a see just for that scene.

Gee tug at my heart strings a bit why don't ya.
I'm sure your daughters enjoyed those moments as much as you did.

Saw a midnight showing of Man of Steel. Pretty good. Some things worked. Others not so much. Would be interested in a sequel with something like Doomsday. None of that Justice League crap though.

My oldest son got home from work at eleven, showered and headed off to a midnight showing of the movie too. He also thought it was pretty good.

I thought MOS was OK, in fact I would compare it to SUPERMAN RETURNS from several years back: Several interesting ideas*, some nice eyecandy action setpieces, and I'm ultimately underwhelmed.

Its weird that for a movie that tried its darn best to make you care about the hero (following the Nolan playbook, its basically SUPERMAN BEGINS), I felt no real investment in him or his journey or the stakes really. The one moment where I did feel something was that brief scene with Meloni in Smallville, where fear and ignorance is defeated by decency.

The 3rd fact becomes disaster movie mayhem porn like you expect from Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich. When Supes and General Zod have their big expensive fight, I really didn't care and actually wanted this movie to end.

Not to mention there was never (for me at least) a big "whoop" moment, if you will where for a scene you lose yourself in the story and leave yourself hopelessly giddy. I think of Hulk smashing Loki like a ragdoll in THE AVENGERS.I think of IRON MAN when Tony Stark fights his way out of the cave. I think of Batman's first night out in BATMAN BEGINS, or Christopher Reeve's Superman debut when he grabs the helicopter. Or beyond that superhero genre, Harrison Ford pulling out his gun on that swordman in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Bruce Willis telling off the police captain in DIE HARD. The heroes in STAR WARS escaping the pitfalls in the Death Star, and so forth.

Using a scale, I would give this 3 out of 5.

*=For example, how the Lois/Clark relationship is totally reimagined is a good idea. Wished it would've actually added up to something.

I watched The Great Mouse Detective and The Black Cauldron last night with my niece imo the 2 most underrated Disney films.

Well, I finally caught The Dark Knight Rises on HBO last night. I was somewhat disappointed. Primarily, I wanted to watch it because it was filmed in Pittsburgh (In fact, when I was in Pittburgh two years ago, I got caught in traffic when they were filming one fight scene).

I don't know; it seemed like there was something missing. It seemed pedestrian. The superhero pathos that seem to be on display in today's movies makes those heroes seem ordinary. Also, the villain seemed a stretch. I was surprised that Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 90s rating in both categories.

Watched The Italian Job from 1969 yesterday, it was ok.

Ends in a literal cliffhanger, i think they were planning on making a second one to start where this one ended but i guess they never got around to it.

I think without equivocation Man of Steel is the best Superman movie ever made.

As I said in the Man of Steel thread, I saw it a second time. I got more out of it and the fact that I saw it in a huge screen certainly helped. It still wasn't perfect but I'd maybe give it 3 out of 4 stars.

I recently saw First Time Felon starring Omar Epps as a vice lord. This movie is on YouTube and came out in 1997 on HBO. Decent movie.

In the Dark Knight Rises final scene, Robin stands on a rising platform. What is that platform?

Same one seen earlier in the film, which if I remember right, encompassed Batman's workstation and costume.

Also I suppose Nolan liked the symbolism of the rising of a new Dark Knight.

I watched two movies recently, but couldn't stay up to see the endings. One was Mystic River, which I liked quite a bit. I thought the acting was outstanding, and was wondering whether it received Academy Award nominations/awards, specifically Sean Penn.

The other was Shutter Island, which had me hooked in the beginning, but I was losing a little interest before I went to sleep. Is this movie worth watching to the end?

Kly, I've seen that Shutter Island has been on tv several times in the last few weeks. I have never watched it but was tempted to cause it sounds like it might be good.




TIS

I've seen both you should definitely watch the end of them imo, both have very dramatic endings i won't ruin anything but i think you'd be glad you watched the rest of them. Also, Sean Penn and Tim Robbins both won Oscars for their roles in Mystic River, but i'm not sure if Kevin Bacon or any of the other actors were nominated.