About a week ago Sizemore twittered he was organizing another bloggers screening, this time for the Brazilian movie City of Men. I was interested, but I hadn’t actually seen the critically acclaimed sort-of-prequel to it, City of God. Although I had heard a lot of good things about it, I didn’t feel it was my type of movie and had avoided watching it. Now with this screening of it’s sequel coming up, I finally sat down and took some time to give it a go. And I am so glad I did.

City of God is a Brazilian drama directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund. It’s an adaption of the novel of the same name (by Paulo Lins), which in turn is based on a true story. The Cidade de Deus is a slummy lower class neighbourhood, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, teeming with drug dealers and gang members. Rocket is a teenager who lives in Cidade de Deus in the seventies and the movie opens with him caught in the middle between a gang and police shoot-out. It then jumps back to ten years earlier (the sixties) and Rocket tells us how he got into that situation, which includes tales about his family, friends and neighbours.

I hadn’t expected to like this movie; I thought it would be all dramatic and serious because it’s about the slums and drugdealing. I’m not saying it isn’t (cause it is), but Meirelles and Lund manage to embed an unexpected lightheartedness in how the movie is told. There’s a weird light black comedy vibe going on, making you laugh one moment and shiver in shock the next.

The movie is about the slums and drugdealing, but most of all it’s about kids growing up. Yes, they have to deal with guns and drugs and death, but they also have to deal with the standard stuff: figuring out what to do with their lives, overcoming their insecurities and how to get that first crush to finally kiss them. But they’re doing this all while trying to survive in this gang ruled world, full of both ruthlessness and humanity.

The look and feel of this movie is superb. Initially, the story flashes back in one big jump of ten years, but after that Rocket gives little glimpses of stories he will tell. For instance, at one point he introduces a character briefly, who’s not that relevant to that scene, only to say he’ll came back to that story later. It gives a great dynamic to the film, eluding to future events and giving the viewer something to wonder about. The cinematography is beautiful; it’s gritty and harsh, but that all contributes to the bleak realism of the movie. There are a couple of wonderful camera pans and freezes, highlighting key moments.

City of God is a film you have to have seen. Not everybody may think this film will be for them, but even then I recommend giving it a try, you may be surprised. There’s a very good reason why this film is so high in a lot of “Best-Of” lists and I imagine it’s going to stay in those lists for a very long time.

Unlike in the US, where both Wall-E and Wanted opened last weekend, here in the UK we got stuck with only Wanted (we’ll have to wait a couple more weeks for the from-what-I’ve-heard-so-far “perfect” Wall-E). But, man, what a film did we get stuck with. It might not have the same finesse or perfection or timelessness that Wall-E undoubtly will have, but it takes you on one hell of a ride.

Wanted stars James McAvoy as lifeless gutless office cublicle dweller Wesley Gibson. His life sucks and he knows it; his girlfriend is cheating on him with his slimy best friend, his boss yells at him every day, his whole life consists of everyday the same old boring routine. It all turns around though when one day the sexy and deadly Fox (Angelina Jolie) shows up to inform him that his long lost father is actually an assassin and was murdered yesterday. Wesley is recruited into his father’s old organisation (led by Morgan Freeman), The Fraternity, a secret society of super assassins, who will train him to avenge his father.

First off, this movie is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Mark Millar, but trust me, it is nothing alike. This movie isn’t an adaptation, the whole premise is even completely different (superassassins in the movie, superheroes/villains in the comic)! I’m mainly surprised of Millar’s claim that 70% is like the comic. No, it isn’t! More like 15%. They’ve lifted a couple minor scenes from the beginning of the comic, threw in a couple of characters with the same name, but rewrote the rest of the entire movie. Don’t get me wrong, I love the film as it is, but don’t expect an adaption of the book. Truth is I’m not even sure a true adaption would have worked; I don’t think a lot of movie goers would have appreciated that story.

There are people who are going to hate this movie, who will call it stupid, who will lament the loss of this generation’s moral code (I’m not making this up, just check out the message board on IMDB). While I’m not disagreeing with all of them (I mean nobody can claim Wanted is a smart film), it somehow seems to me that some people expect every movie to be Oscar-worthy and dramatic and serious, and thereby disregarding and belittling all other movies. Some movies are just meant to be brainless entertainment. And Wanted is one of them.

On the action front Wanted delivers and it lives up to it’s R-rating/18-certificate. As you might have seen in the trailer, there’s a great car  chase at the beginning of the movie and after that (not to give any spoilers away) it only gets better. It’s R-rating comes from a lot of bloody Wesley, bullets going through heads and part of the film being set in an abbatoir, but it wasn’t as disgusting and bloody as it could have been. I felt queasier at 300 and Sin City, then with Wanted, just to give you a slight idea what type of R-rating we’re talking about.

James McAvoy is great as Wesley. If you had told me last year, this guy would be an action hero (not completely fitting, it sounds too goody two-shoes) I wouldn’t have believed you. But he manages to pull it off. His character starts off as a (to put it in the terms of the movie) pussy and turns into a bad-ass killer; and McAvoy makes you believe it. Wesley isn’t that likable, but you don’t care, he isn’t meant to be likable, he’s a killer. I didn’t get Angelina Jolie’s casting as Fox when I first heard about it, but that’s because I was expecting the Fox from the comic. She’s perfect though as Fox in the movie, although her acting chops are thoroughly underused here; except for a couple key scenes, she’s just standing pretty for most of the movie. Any random actress/model/”actress/model” could have filled that position.

I was expecting a lot from director Timur Bekmambetov; I loved the visual style of two of his previous films, Nightwatch and Daywatch. Here he delivers… sometimes. Some scenes are beautifully shot, in a comi-book visceral like style, slightly over the top, but still stunning. Other times though he does the same “mistake”as a lot of current day action movie directors: he doesn’t focus and moves the camera way too quickly. Give us time to see what on the screen! Next to that there are a couple of screen transitions which were a bit confusing. Still I do look forward to see what he does next; he has the potential to be phenomenal.

Wanted is the perfect action summerflick; lots of action, a flimsy story, but a lot of fun. It’s not going to go down in cinematic history, but it’s a great way to spend an entertaining summer afternoon.

Recount
It’s not my cup of tea, but I’m sure there a lot of people who will be interested in this movie. Recount is a behind-the-scenes retelling of the 2000 presidential elections. Written by Buffy-alum Danny Strong and directed by Jay Roach (Meet The Parents, Austin Powers), it features a solid cast (Kevin Spacy, Laura Dern, John Hurt, Denis Leary and Tom Wilkinson). [Trailer]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
If you haven’t heard about it already, this year a new chapter of the Star Wars saga is coming out… and this time it’s an animated TV show. To kick it off a feature film will be released in theatres, hence this trailer. Set between Episodes 2 and 3, it centres on Anakin, Obi-Wan, Amidala and Anakin’s padawan learner Ahsoka battling the clones and their masters. Before seeing this trailer I was a bit apprehensive of this project; after the previous 3 crappy ones, did we really need another Star Wars movie? Seeing this trailer though does give me hope for this actually turning out pretty okay (although I’m not a fan of the animation/CGI style). But does anyone here truly believe new character Ahsoka won’t die sometime during the series? [Trailer 1] [Trailer 2]

Traitor
I hadn’t heard of this movie before, but it looks intense and dramatic. Don Cheadle plays a former special operative working for terrorist organizations and Guy Pearce is the FBI agent after him. From the trailer though it doesn’t seem to be as clearcut as that; expect no bad guys and good guys in this movie, but a whole lot of shady grey characters. [Trailer]

The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor
I admit: I was a huge fan of the previous Mummy movies. Both of them (not The Scorpion King though; that was crap). So I was kind of excited when I heard they would make a third movie. And then I heard that Rachel Weisz wasn’t coming back. And that this time it would be Chinese mummies. And that the son would be all grown-up now. Yeah, not that excited anymore. This trailer though has gotten my hopes up a bit; it still could be a great entertaining summer movie. Plus it’s got Jet Li as a fighting magic-wielding mummy; that’s gotta count for something! [Trailer]

August
Somehow the little I had heard of this movie, gave a complete different impression on what it actually is about and it actually looks interesting. Josh Hartnett is Tom Sterling, a entrepeneur attempting to keep his company afloat in August 2001, when the dot-com bubble burst. To me it seems a hipper, younger Wall Street type of film and I wonder if we’ll look back at it with the same appreciation. [Trailer]

Tropic Thunder
A couple months ago I had posted the first (normal) trailer for this movie and claimed it could be the dark horse of this movie season. Now a Red Band trailer has also came out and to be honest I’m not that crazy about it. I want to like and love Tropic Thunder (especially Downey Jr.’s character), but this trailer is cause for worry. [Red Band Trailer]

Vicky Christina Barcelona
I’ve always found it difficult to predict whether or not I’ll like a new Woody Allen movie. Somehow you never really know what type of movie it’s going to be. With Vicky Christina Barcelona I’d expected no difference. It stars Scarlet Johansson and Rebecca Hall as friends on a holiday in Spain, who get involved with a painter (Javier Bardem) and his ex (Penelope Cruz). Strong cast and an unusual premise, I think this is going to do pretty great during awards season. [Teaser] [Trailer]

The X-Files: I Want To Believe
I never was much of an X-Files fan; I’ve seen about half of the episodes (only started watching in the sixth season) and never watched the ending. So I have no idea how this movie exactly relates to the series. Yes, it stars Mulder and Scully, but I wonder if there are any important plotlines hailing back to the show. [Trailer 1] [Trailer 2]

Righteous Kill
You’d think a movie with Robert de Niro and Al Pacino should be pretty amazing. And this film isn’t. I’m not saying it’s bad, terrible, horrible, etc, but for a film with two legends in it you’d expect a little bit more. De Niro and Pacino play two veteran NYPD detectives on the trail of a serial killer, who might be a fellow cop. [Trailer]

City of Ember
Based on the young adult’s book of the same name, City of Ember revolves around the titular city, a sealed-off underground settlement of which the electrical system is failing. The two main characters, 12 year-olds Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, race to figure a way out and save their people. I love the idea of this and if the effects and acting are any good, this could turn out to be an amazing movie. [Trailer]

Because of a conversation this afternoon with londonfilmgeek on Twitter, I was reminded of the brilliance that is Labyrinth. This was one of my favourite films as a kid and it still remains one of my “rainy day” or “I’m sick and want chicken soup” movies. Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) is one of the first movie heroines I could identify myself with (it helped that I had a younger brother named Toby too) and the movie never fails to lift my spirits. And I love the Escher inspired hallways:

So you’d think with a blog post title named ‘Return to Labyrinth’ I’d be reminiscing about the movie, going on about how much I loved it and adored it. Well, not exactly. You see, while browsing this afternoon for all things Labyrinth, I stumbled on… Return to Labyrinth. It’s an original English-language (OEL) manga based on Labyrinth. Set 13 years after the events of the movie, it centers around Toby, now a teenager, who Jareth the Goblin King still wants as the heir to his throne. The manga is supposed to be a four part series with the first two parts released in August 2006 and October 2007.

Why have I never heard of this? The first volume came out back in 2006. 2006! That’s almost 2 years ago! So why does nobody I know know about it (I’ve got some big Labyrinth fans friends)? Bad marketing or just a very bad story? I’m hoping it will be a great and worthy sequel, but if it isn’t we can always pretend it never existed (yes, Wachowski brothers, I am looking at you).

To make it better though, there’s also an online version, so you can start reading right away. I haven’t tried it out yet, so I’m not 100% sure that all of it is available, but from what I can tell it seems to be the whole thing. Three chapters are available; it’s about 60 pages from the 208. So far I’m really enjoying it and will order paperback. If you want the dead-tree version, you can get it at the TokyoPop store or Amazon.

After seeing Iron Man and the special tidbit after the end-credits, I decided to finally try and delve into the world of the comic book geek. One of the comics I picked up was The Ultimates: Volume 1 Super-Human, a re-imagining of the Marvel’s superhero team the Avengers. Why this comic? Because the Avengers movies coming out in 2010 and 2011 is rumoured to be based on it and for once I wanted to read the comic before seeing the movie.

Since the announcement of these two movies a couple weeks ago, the rumours and fan speculations on the casting have began to increase. First, we heard Matthew McConaughey was in the running for Captain America. Then that Marvel wants Brad Pitt as Thor. The Empire Blog even has a list of potential Captain America candidates. On fan sites, the theories range from Paul Walker as Captain America and Maggie Q as Wasp to Dominic Purcell as Thor. The casting of this movie has got the geek crowd reeling and it’s fun watching everybody come up with their own ideas on who should play the parts.

The casting of three characters are set already: Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Edward Norton as Bruce Banner (the Hulk) and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. They haven’t actually confirmed yet that they will be in those movies, but I’m being the optimist here and believing they won’t pull out of it. By the way, I love that the artists used Sam Jac’s likeness in the comic (mind you, before the movie came out) and it’s perfect he agreed to playing the movie character.

What nobody so far has mentioned though is that the characters in “The Ultimates” actually have a discussion about who should play them if there’s ever a movie! Here’s the dialogue:

Nick Fury: Hey, did you hear you’ve been optioned as a movie? Betty Ross was telling me they’re already in discussions with Brad Pitt about a three picture deal to play Captain America.

Captain America (Steve Rogers): Who’s Brad Pitt?

Giant-Man (Henry Pym): What, are you serious? My God. This might not be such a disaster after all, huh? Who do you think they could get to play you, Nick?

Nick Fury: Why, Mister Samuel L. Jackson, of course. That’s not even open to debate, Doctor Pym. And I’ll tell you the one guy who could do a convincing Tony Stark — From Hell’s Johnny Depp.

Wasp (Janet Pym): What? Depp’s too much of a pretty-boy. Stark’s a crazy kind of Howard Hughes character. I’d rather see someone with more of an eccentric range.

Nick Fury: Don’t underestimate Depp, Mrs. Pym. A lot of people tag him with that pretty-boy label, but he’s actually one of the most accomplished actors in Hollywood at the moment. Picture him doing Ed Wood in an Iron Man suit and you’ve got Tony Stark up there in celluloid, baby.

Giant-Man (Henry Pym): Yeah, I could see that. You know, you’ve actually got a real knack for this casting thing, Nick. Who do you think they could get to play me?

Nick Fury: Oh, that’s easy. Lantern-jawed Matthew McConoughey, of course.

Wasp (Janet Pym): What about me?

Nick Fury: Heck, who else but Miss Lucy Liu?

Wasp (Janet Pym): Oh, naturally. Even though she looks absolutely nothing like me, she’d be great because all Asian people are basically identical, right? Who’d be your back-up choice, General? Bruce Lee?

Captain America (Steve Rogers): Who’s Bruce Lee?

The characters then go on to make fun of Bruce Banner (the Hulk), claiming he could be played by “Woody Allen”, “the creepy, little kid from the Sixth Sense”, “Stuart Little” and “Steve Buscemi”. While I don’t think any of this casting will actually come to pass (besides the Samuel L. Jackson one of course), it’s still interesting to see this piece of dialogue.

Now a question for you, dear readers: who would you cast for these movies?

I’ve given some thought into how I want to review this movie. On the one side I want to give my normal spoiler-free review, but on the other hand I want to go a bit deeper into it, singing it’s praises and nitpicking it’s faults. So I’ve decided to actually do two reviews. One for the people who haven’t seen it yet, so without spoilers, but a quick “is it any good or not?”. And one where I don’t have to care about spoilers, where I can just speak my mind mind about certain scenes, characters, etc. The review you’re reading now is the spoiler-free one; you can expect the other one in the next couple of days.

In Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull (from now on I’m just calling it Indy 4) 20 years have past since the previous movie; the year is 1957 and the United States and the Soviet Union are approaching the height of the Cold War. The film opens at a military warehouse in the Nevada Desert, where Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is coerced into helping the Soviets find a mysterious artifact. Led by Colonel-Doctor Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), the Soviets believe the Crystal Skull could grant them the ultimate power and Indy does what he can to stop them.

The opinions on Indy 4 are so mixed and I can understand why: this is not a film everybody will love or hate. While some people may be on the extremes, I think most will be caught in the big wasteland between, not completely writing it off and hating it, but also not proclaiming it as the greatest movie ever made. It’s been 15 hours ago since I saw Indy 4 (including a good night’s sleep) and I’m still analyzing and going over the movie in my mind, trying to figure out how I precisely feel about it.

The best part of the movie are the action seqeunces. Indy 4 has some fun, exciting scenes and nobody can deny the brilliance of those moments. The car chase (this is not a spoiler, it’s an Indiana Jones movie, you knew there would be a car chase) in particular is exhilarating, except for some minor monkeying around. The whole film is beautifully shot, in and outside those action scenes. Indy 4 cleverly makes use of reflections and shadows, creating a visually stunning movie.

Acting wise the film is solid. The cast are all comfortable in their roles and you can see the delight they must have had while filming this. Harrison Ford may look his age, but his Indy is still as charming and kicking ass as no other. Spielberg and Lucas weren’t lying when they said the character would stay true to its roots. Indiana Jones remains the same Indiana Jones, even though he’s now a little older and slightly slower. I was expecting the worst of Shia LaBeouf, but his character Mutt Williams fit into the movie. I’m warming up to his performances and I do think he could go on to do great things (as long as one of them isn’t an Indy spin-off). Karen Allen literally lit up the screen whenever she was on; mainly because of a big goofy grin I couldn’t fail to love (I can see though that some people might find it irritating). Cate Blanchett is lovely as the evil Soviet agent. Yeah, lovely, not really a compliment for an “evil” character. While there wasn’t anything wrong with her performance, her character missed the intensity of the “bad guy” you love to hate. But that’s got more to do with the script than anything else.

And that’s where the Indy 4 suffers: the script. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’m not going to go into detail here, but the plot feels shaky at the best of times. Especially the last act is what withholds me from truly loving this movie. What I don’t understand is that the reason Spielberg and Lucas waited so long with making Indy 4 is that they were waiting for a “good” script. If this was a good script, how the hell did the bad ones look like?

I can’t say if you will enjoy Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull. This is one movie everybody must see, just to determine their own opinion on it. It goes without saying you should see it in the cinema; visually the movie is outstanding and for that alone I would recommend it. It’s a great summer movie and a worthy Indiana Jones movie, but I can’t help but wonder how will we look back at Indy 4 in 20 years time?

Episode 62: “Time’s up”

A week ago I did a guest blog post about Apple Spotting and I came across this video showing the product placement used in Independence Day. It’s part of a series by YouTuber JediMoonShyne, featuring the product placements in all different movies.

Quarantine
There haven’t been that many good horror movies lately, but Quarantine might turn that tide. It’s an American remake of the Spanish movie [Rec] and stars Jennifer Carpenter (Debra Morgan on Dexter) and Jay Hernandez (Six Degrees, Hostel). The movie’s about a hazmat team investigating a quarantined apartment complex and find there a camera depicting why and what happened during the quarantine. [Trailer]

American Teen
I’ve heard a lot of good things about this little documentary; some even claiming it might be one of the best movies this year. It follows 5 high school seniors as they finish their last year: the Jock, the Geek, the Rebel, the Princess and the Heartthrob. The film shows these kids being more than just the stereotypes they’ve been labeled with. [Trailer]

Lakeview Terrace
I love Samuel L. Jackson, but I’m not sure even he can save this movie. In Lakeview Terrace he plays a cop harassing his new neighbors (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington). Although there might be some unexpected cool plot twist, the trailer seems pretty straightforward and pretty boring. [Trailer]

The Children of Huang Shi
Not my type of movie, but for an indie film it does got an impressive cast: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh. It’s about a British journalist and an American nurse, who rescue a group of orphans during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937. [Trailer]

The Wackness
I’m not sure what to think of this trailer; so far it didn’t really convince me to go see the movie. Set in the 1990s, its about Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck), a teenage pot dealer, trying to make the most of his summer. I’ve read good reviews though, so I’ll keep an open mind until I’ve actually seen it. [Trailer]

Space Chimps
This is the type of movie that gives animations a bad name. Thank God for Wall-E and even Kung Fu Panda for this summer! If you hadn’t gathered it from the title, Space Chimps is about a group of chimps going into space. The only fact about this movie that has got me a tad interested is that Andy Samberg (SNL) is doing one of the monkey voices. [Trailer]

Hamlet 2
How could there be a sequel to Hamlet if everybody dies at the end? Why, by using a time machine of course! This movie is actually about an actor-turned-high-school-drama-teacher (Steve Coogan) who together with his students tries to stage a politically incorrect musical sequel to Hamlet. [Trailer]

The Pixar Story
Don’t you just love Pixar’s movies? This documentary is a behind the scenes look of the company and it’s employees and associates. I don’t exactly know what the deal is though with the release date; it came out in America back in August 2007 and has even been there on TV. So far though I haven’t found anything about an international release. Till we do, this trailer will have to be enough. [Trailer]

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Still four more days till this movie hits the cinema. I liked the first movie, mainly because I had read the book and watched the very crappy TV series as a kid (compared to that everything looks good). I think Prince Caspian will continue in the same vein: a good entertaining kids movie, but nothing more. [Trailer]

College
It’s not the worst trailer around, but I don’t think this movie will be that much of a hit. But then what do you expect from a movie about three high school kids visiting a university and pretending to be freshman, just to get girls and get drunk? [Trailer]

Hancock
The previous trailer of this “Will Smith as a superhero/tramp” movie looked so horrible, I lost all faith in it. Now a bit of that faith is coming back, after having seen this extended trailer. Beware though: I think it gives too much of the plot away. [Trailer]

The Spirit
I love the look and feel of this trailer. I’m only scared people are going to think it’s a Sin City rip-off, which it isn’t. It is from the same comic book artist Frank Miller, so of course they’re going to look similar. In this case though, Miller is also actually directing the entire movie. [Trailer]

Young People Fucking
Again a movie that has had a lot of buzz and good reviews at festivals. It’s a comedy that intertwines the stories of 5 couples over the course of one sexual encounter. [Trailer]

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan
I actually enjoy Adam Sandler’s movies most of the time. True, they’re not the funniest films, but it’s not the worst out there. Here Sandler plays an Israeli agent who wants to give up his super spy life to become a hairdresser. [Trailer]

The Babysitters
The first thing that crossed my mind when hearing the title of the movie was: “Oh no not another Babysitters Club movie”. I couldn’t be more mistaken; these babysitters are from a very different caliber. After fooling around with one of her customers, a 16 year old teenager realizes she can make money by turning her babysitting service into a call-girl service for married man. [Trailer]

Last Friday I went to see Iron Man on opening night at the Odeon on Leicester Square together with a big group of fellow geeks and bloggers, including Cristiano (of course), LJ, Sizemore, Whatleydude and a whole bunch of others. Suffice to say that it was a pretty great experience and this is one movie you must see in the cinema.

Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark, a genius playboy millionaire and CEO of the weapon developing Stark Industries. While he is the brain behind his company inventing many of the high-tech items himself, Tony is the stereotype millionaire: a hard drinking, gambling ladies man without a care in the world. That is, until he gets captured by terrorists in Afghanistan and is forced to reproduce one of his own missiles. Stark instead secretly develops a way to free himself, which puts him on his path to become Iron Man.

As a lot of people have been saying, I do think Iron Man is one of the best comic book adaptations so far. Unlike most superhero movies it stayed true to the comic books, without trying to make it more grittier and real, yet also without making it look cheesy. That being said, the visual effects in this movie are stunning. Not once did I have the feeling I was looking at CGI; everything seemed fluent and realistic. There also weren’t any unnecessary CGI scenes in it; sometimes with other movies it seems to me as if certain battles go on forever or that certain scenes are in it, pure for the sake of doing “some cool CGI”.

I don’t think this movie would have worked with anybody other than Robert Downey Jr. in the role of Tony Stark. This is one character he was born to play and, boy, does he play that character well. Downey brings a lot of his own personality to Stark, playing the millionaire-turned-superhero pitch perfectly. With Iron Man in the cinemas and Tropic Thunder coming up, I think we’ll remember 2008 as the year Robert Downey Jr. became a movie star.

While it is Downey’s movie, the performances of the other actors are also all top-notch. Gwyneth Paltrow is cute (although perhaps a bit smiley) as Stark’s assistant Pepper Pots and makes their relationship believable. One question: was it all makeup or does Paltrow really have freckles, but always covers it up? Jeff Bridges is almost unrecognizable as Stark’s mentor Obadiah Stone, even shaving his head for the role. Then there’s Terence Howard as Stark’s military friend Rhodey. While he isn’t featured that prominently in this movie, I know we’ll be seeing that character and his alter-ego War Machine in future sequels.

My only small gripe with this movie is parts of the plot. At times it was a tad predictable and to me the science sometimes seemed a bit off (although I’m sure a true Iron Man fan will be able to explain it all to me). The largest problem I had though wasn’t with the movie at all, but with it’s trailer. Seriously, how much can you give away? Besides showing a lot of the action sequences, most of the funny moments were featured in the trailers. Then they also took a bit of a scene from the final scene in the movie! Why?!

On a personal note (please don’t hurt me now), I didn’t love this movie as much as almost everybody else I’ve heard talking about it. It’s not that I don’t like Iron Man or that I don’t find it a great movie, but for me something was missing and I can’t seem to pinpoint exactly what. Typically when I love a movie, I come out of the cinema with this childlike glee and giddiness. And with Iron Man I didn’t get that feeling. Not sure why, cause it ticked off all the right boxes (maybe I’m just more of a Batgirl).

All in all, though, Iron Man is a great blockbuster movie. It’s up there as one of the best superhero movies ever. Plans have already been announced for a sequel to be released in 2010, so Tony Stark is here to stay. Try to catch it in the cinema, cause this is one movie where you’ll want the big screen experience. One more tip: stay seated until after the end credits, there’s a brilliant little extra you can’t afford to miss.

Episode 56: “Awesometeen”

The more I hear about it, the more I can’t wait for Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. This video is a short interview Neil Patrick Harris did with EW. He not only talks about Dr Horrible, but also his role in Harold and Kumar 2 and what he thought of Jason Segal (his How I Met Your Mother costar) in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.