• Director: Jon Favreau
• Writer: Justin Theroux
• Year of Release: 2010
• Actors: Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke
• Genre: Action
• Country of Origin: USA

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

Interestingly, what director John Favreau and writer Justin Theroux have chosen to show us is the fall and redemption of Tony Stark. When we catch up with our hero, he’s at the top of his game. Iron Man is a hero to millions; as he tells Gary Shandling’s slimy politico, he’s privatised world peace, in the process becoming pretty much the most famous man on the planet. Robert Downey Jr. plays the character with the expected amount of roguish charm, but this time out he’s lent him an arrogance that borders on hubris; Tony’s acting like the world owes him a favour, and it’s easy to think that he needs taking down a peg or two.

Enter the villains of the piece, Mickey Rourke’s Ivan Vanko and Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer. Like Batman’s rogues gallery, these two have been formed, albeit inadvertently, by the actions of the hero. While Vanko wants revenge for perceived sins against his own father by Stark’s illustrious Howard Hughes expy dad, Hammer is jealous of Tony’s flamboyant success and wants a piece of the pie himself. It’s the “dark mirror” angle, using the antagonists to reflect negative aspects of the hero, and it’s used well here. Rourke in particular lends his character, loosely based on the comic book characters Crimson Dynamo and Whiplash, a palpable sense of menace, his every word and movement dripping with implied threat.

As the film progresses, we see Stark’s world crumble as he loses the trust of both the public and those closest to him: personal assistant Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow, returning) and military liason Rhodey (Don Cheadle, replacing Terrence Howard), eventually culminating in a drunken, powersuited brawl that all but proves the government’s fears right; in the wrong hands, the Iron Man suit is a threat, and Tony Stark may very well be unfit for the job. All the while, we’re also following Hammer and Vanko’s machinations, dealing with a beefed up SHIELD presence in the form of Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, Tony’s health problems brought about by his ARC reactor pacemaker, and a half-dozen other subplots and continuity shout-outs.

Indeed, the major problem with Iron Man 2 is that it’s trying to cram too much into its runtime; this film isn’t just a straight-up sequel, it also has to set up Marvel’s planned Avengers movie, plus leave room for a potential Iron Man 3, not forgetting to give us a satisfying and somewhat self-contained story arc and resolution here. It’s mostly successful, but that’s a lot of balls to keep in the air, so perhaps we can forgive the occasional fumble. Jackson’s appearance as Nick Fury is the most disappointing aspect of the film, as it’s clear that he’s not creating a character, but rather merely playing Sam-Jackson-With-An-Eyepatch. He appears to be having fun, but his persona is so well known that it takes us out of the world of the film when he’s on screen. Gwyneth Paltrow also detracts; she’s given little to do, and spends her time alternating between being exasperated and motherly. Apart from the fact that she was in the last movie and so we expect to see her in this one, she could be excised from the film almost entirely with no-one in the audience being the wiser.

But enough of the negativity – when Iron Man 2 works, it really works. There’s so much to enjoy here; Downey Jr. is great, as is Johanssen’s slinky, deadly Black Widow, and the action sequences are fast paced and kinetic, with the climax reaching a scale of destruction and mayhem that I don’t think has been topped in recent memory. A lot of that is down to the introduction of the War Machine armour, a gun-studded version of Iron Man, piloted by Rhodey, that’s pretty much just a two-legged engine of destruction. The extended chase sequence/battle between Iron Man, War Machine, and Vanko’s army of robot drones has to be seen to be believed. Anyone with an appreciation for the action aesthetic will not be disappointed here.

All up, Iron Man 2 is a success. Like most sequels, it lacks the novelty and surprise of the original (let’s face it, none of us really thought it’d be as good as it was), but it exceeds its precursor completely in terms of scale, pace, and action. A few dead spots aside, it manages to keep all the plates spinning, developing Stark’s world while broadening to include links to the larger Marvel film universe that is currently brewing. IF this is any indicator of what’s to come, roll on The Avengers.

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

So it opens this week in Australia and May 7th in USA. Get to a cinema and tell us what you think after you have seen it.

Now we just need the film. Now please…

After months of waiting and some massive hype buildup, the first trailer for the sequel we’ve all been waiting for hits with a MASSIVE bang! This follow-up to Favreau’s metal masterpeice lok like its a whole heap of fun and promises lots of shit blowing up left right and center.  Downey has lost none of his charm and is currently THE best written superhero on screen. BAR NONE!

Rourke’s growly dialogue is a bit hard to hear, but its going to be a whole lot of fun finding out what his deal is… and I make no bones about it, i’m happy as Larry that the letter and number combination 3-D  is currently nowhere near this film!

Oh enough of my rabbiting on, go watch the freaking trailer!  I’m surprised you’re still reading this! GO!!!!

Trailer

[See post to watch Flash video]

Tell us how awesome it is.  We know but we want to hear you say it too. feedback and let us know if you’re as jazzed as us!

Serial killers are a pretty common commodity in movies, particularly since the release and massive success of ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ made Hannibal Lecter as instantly recognisable a name as James Bond or Darth Vader there’s been a steady flow of lethal nutjobs each with their own gruesome gimmicks and for the most part they have become entertaining but entirely forgettable stock characters driving the plots of equally entertaining and equally forgettable films. At first glance it would be easy to dismiss ‘Se7en’, a mystery thriller about two cops chasing a serial killer who commits murders based on the seven deadly sins, as just another disposable lambs wannabe but that would be a huge mistake. Not only is ‘Se7en’ easily it’s equal but it’s arguably even be better than ‘The Silence of the Lambs’.

Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt star as the detectives in pursuit of the killer, one in his final days before retirement, the other newly transferred in to replace him. Both actors put in great performances and both characters have enough depth to keep them believable and interesting throughout. Kevin Spacey is magnificently creepy as the killer and though he’s not on screen for that long it’s his performance that remains the most memorable and unsettling. Gwyneth Paltrow also gets fairly little screen time as the wife of Mills (Pitt) and though she uses it well she tends to be mentioned a lot less than her co-stars in connection to the film, though that is notably due to the part rather than the actress in it.

It’s worth mentioning that entertaining as the film is it’s one of the darkest things I’ve ever seen and you’re more likely to feel shell-shocked than uplifted by the time the end credits role their way down (not up) the screen. It’s a film that’s worth sitting and thinking about once it’s over but they won’t be happy thoughts. This quickly feels less like a police procedural and more like a journey into a modern day heart of darkness.

‘Se7en’ plays out in an unnamed modern american city but the atmosphere is closer to that of an urban dystopia than a thriving metropolis, almost perpetual rain, dim light and disused buildings are the norm here and there’s only about two or three scenes in which anyone looks happy. This environment is sharply contrasted in the final act by a bleached out desert populated only by a dead dog and some man-made pylons. The effect of the change is startling, mainly because the second setting achieves the feat of being even more depressing than the first, the perfect backdrop for the film’s bleak, nihilistic climax.

The serial killer at the heart of this world is a man who believes himself an instrument of God, reminding a world he sees as plagued by sin of His presence and laws (though he does so with a remarkable disregard for ‘thou shall not kill’). It’s not that you come round to his way of thinking (or if you do I urge you to seek immediate help), but in a world this horrible he’s easy to buy and seems remarkably fitting to his environment. In an unoriginal but nonetheless highly effective move his face isn’t seen until very near the end of the movie, his victims and the brilliantly disturbing opening credits sequence are our only insights into his mind whilst he himself is kept a shadowy, mostly absent presence. He isn’t a compulsive killer, rather he is driven by a cold determination and twisted piety backed up by formidable patience and intelligence that make him a criminal quite removed from the daily grind of either cop’s normal cases.

The men out to catch this killer are not FBI profilers or forensics experts, they are normal detectives who happen to catch the case. Mills is convinced of his ability to do some good in the world and of a recognisable distinction between men like the killer and normal human beings, whereas Somerset struggles to maintain either conviction. Interestingly Somerset’s existence is much closer to that of the killer than Mills, living alone in a neatly ordered home, reading in libraries deserted except for the security guards, losing faith in the world he has spent his life trying to help. Mills by contrast has a wife, pets and an apartment directly above a train line, his existence is messier, more normal, warmer. But is also Mills that experiences the greatest, and darkest, transition over the course of the film.

I feel compelled to write about the ending of ‘Se7en’, since it is one of the most infamous twist endings ever put on screen, but I also feel compelled to avoid spoilers since if you haven’t seen it I refuse to spoil it for you. So I will say only that, like the rest of ‘Se7en’, the impact of the film’s climax is not lost with time and repeat viewings. In a world where most Hollywood films can be relied on to deliver some form of happy ending there is something shocking and also something oddly refreshing about the end of ‘Se7en’.

I thoroughly recommend this film to anyone who is yet to see it and won’t be overly disturbed by the gore, it never stops being both entertaining and disturbing and retains it’s power on repeat visits. This is a darker breed of Hollywood entertainment.

The Vidcast
This episode comes in at
38 Mb.Direct Link to mp4 (quicktime)

Hi-Res, much prettier, version
The Hi-Res version comes in at
71 Mb.Direct Link to mp4 (quicktime)

When wealthy industrialist Tony Stark is forced to build an armored suit after a life-threatening incident, he ultimately decides to use its technology to fight against evil.
Starring Robert Downey Jr, Jeff Bridges.

More Iron Man info on IMDB…

Please, compliment our ability to get Tiarne on the show in the forums

Copyright

CSTV Ep9 – Iron Man by
Joffre Street Productions is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.