I had high hopes for this film, mostly because the previews were downright hysterical. Not only that, but the advertisers totally sold the movie by the director, Todd Philips, who also did "The Hangover".
But this movie was no "The Hangover".
It centers around Peter Highman (Robert Downey, Jr.), an expectant father who was on business in Atlanta when an unfortunate run-in with Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) caused him, through a series of mishaps, to be put on the no-fly list. With his wallet and bag left on the plane, all Peter has is his cellphone. That is, until Ethan comes along and offers to drive him to LA.
What happens from there are the sort of things that you expect in a road trip movie: a violent confrontation with a disabled veteran, stopping off to buy drugs at a dealer's place in Alabama, a run-in with Mexican law enforcement, a gross-out masturbation scene, and the piece de resistance - a trip to the Grand Canyon.
Overall, while the movie was funny, it wasn't hysterical. A lot of the funny bits were in the trailer, which was disappointing. Also, Peter is an extremely dis-likable character. He has a serious anger problem, not to mention his own ego is the size of a rhino. He believes himself to be so perfect that no matter what Ethan does, it is seen as sub-standard.
Galifianakis is playing the character that he always plays - the slightly stupid, do-gooder, who can't seem to do anything right. I would love to see him do a comedic role where he is still able to show his talents, but he doesn't have to play the "dumb" guy. In "It's Kind of a Funny Story", we got to see a small piece of that. So now, Zach, I plead with you: DO MORE OF THAT!
Jamie Foxx plays Darryl, Peter's friend from college who is a little too attached to Peter's wife (Michelle Monaghan). It's creepy, but also quite funny. But Darryl offers a little insight into Peter's past life, and how he functions as a human being, which I found refreshing because otherwise he is just a giant douchebag.
So on the CWeave scale, I give this movie a 6. Again, it wasn't hilarious, but I laughed out loud in a few spots. Even the stuff that was from the trailers was still funny when placed in context. And though Peter rubbed me the wrong way, I enjoyed the other characters far more.
Showing posts with label Robert Downey Jr.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Downey Jr.. Show all posts
Monday, November 8, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
"Iron Man 2" - in theaters
I saw this movie twice on opening weekend. I went once with friends, and then again on Mother's Day because my mom wanted to see it in IMAX. And who am I to refuse a free movie?
To start off, I'll say this about "Iron Man 2" - it was NOT made to be in IMAX theaters. Apparently it is quite popular these days to simply reformat a movie after it's been shot to play in an IMAX theater rather than shoot the movie with IMAX cameras. This is a ripoff, in my opinion, that compares to reformatting a film to be in 3D. I think it's the movie industry's way of trying to squeeze a few more dollars out of paying customers.
With that said, while the film was enjoyable to watch in IMAX, I wouldn't have bothered if it hadn't been free. I had a similar experience in the normal theater.
As for the movie itself, I found Robert Downey Jr., once again, to be spectacular as Tony Stark. His cockiness and narcissism is somewhat endearing because while yes, Tony Stark is all about Tony Stark, he IS fighting evil too. And frankly, if I had invented the Iron Man Suit in addition to all of the other gadgets that Tony rocks in this film, I'd be a bit full of myself as well.
Surprisingly, I found Scarlett Johansson's character, Natalie Rushman, aka The Black Widow, to be a total bad ass. And I was incorrect in assuming that she was a villain prior to seeing the movie. She's actually one of the good guys, and has some frickin' amazing martial arts moves. So I give major props to Scarlett.
Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role as Pepper Potts, who gets promoted to CEO of Stark Industries, and hence has to clean up all of Tony's messes, while Don Cheadle takes over the role of Colonel James Rhodes who has the unfortunate duty of being Tony's friend/liaison to the U.S. military. To be honest, I could've done without Don Cheadle. And the same goes for Terrence Howard who played Rhodes in the original. Maybe it was because Rhodes is always attempting to procure the Iron Man technology for the military, or that he just plain wasn't much fun, but either way, Rhodes' role could have been minimized further.
Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell had the distinct pleasure of playing the villains. Mickey Rourke was absolutely foul as a Russian physicist out for vengeance (and as my mother commented, "Are all of those tattoos real? Because if they are, that is disgusting."). I have always found Sam Rockwell to be fantastic in pretty much any role, and he doesn't disappoint here. And he dances, which is always fantastic.
There was a lot going on in this film, and while yes, it got kind of hectic, I also thought it was entertaining as hell. So on the CWeave scale of 1 to 10, I give this film a 7. It wasn't as good as the original, but the performances really drive the film, as long as you can stomach the fact that Jon Favreau gave himself a much bigger role the second time around, and you would rather that he didn't.
To start off, I'll say this about "Iron Man 2" - it was NOT made to be in IMAX theaters. Apparently it is quite popular these days to simply reformat a movie after it's been shot to play in an IMAX theater rather than shoot the movie with IMAX cameras. This is a ripoff, in my opinion, that compares to reformatting a film to be in 3D. I think it's the movie industry's way of trying to squeeze a few more dollars out of paying customers.
With that said, while the film was enjoyable to watch in IMAX, I wouldn't have bothered if it hadn't been free. I had a similar experience in the normal theater.
As for the movie itself, I found Robert Downey Jr., once again, to be spectacular as Tony Stark. His cockiness and narcissism is somewhat endearing because while yes, Tony Stark is all about Tony Stark, he IS fighting evil too. And frankly, if I had invented the Iron Man Suit in addition to all of the other gadgets that Tony rocks in this film, I'd be a bit full of myself as well.
Surprisingly, I found Scarlett Johansson's character, Natalie Rushman, aka The Black Widow, to be a total bad ass. And I was incorrect in assuming that she was a villain prior to seeing the movie. She's actually one of the good guys, and has some frickin' amazing martial arts moves. So I give major props to Scarlett.
Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role as Pepper Potts, who gets promoted to CEO of Stark Industries, and hence has to clean up all of Tony's messes, while Don Cheadle takes over the role of Colonel James Rhodes who has the unfortunate duty of being Tony's friend/liaison to the U.S. military. To be honest, I could've done without Don Cheadle. And the same goes for Terrence Howard who played Rhodes in the original. Maybe it was because Rhodes is always attempting to procure the Iron Man technology for the military, or that he just plain wasn't much fun, but either way, Rhodes' role could have been minimized further.
Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell had the distinct pleasure of playing the villains. Mickey Rourke was absolutely foul as a Russian physicist out for vengeance (and as my mother commented, "Are all of those tattoos real? Because if they are, that is disgusting."). I have always found Sam Rockwell to be fantastic in pretty much any role, and he doesn't disappoint here. And he dances, which is always fantastic.
There was a lot going on in this film, and while yes, it got kind of hectic, I also thought it was entertaining as hell. So on the CWeave scale of 1 to 10, I give this film a 7. It wasn't as good as the original, but the performances really drive the film, as long as you can stomach the fact that Jon Favreau gave himself a much bigger role the second time around, and you would rather that he didn't.
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