Iron Man 2 (2010)

From the Pompous Thomas 2010 Review Backlog!

Iron Man 2 is a nearly perfect summer movie. It's funny, exciting and ultimately kind of forgettable. I'm writing this review two months after I saw the movie and I can't remember much about it other than the basics: Robert Downey Jr. is funny, he flirts with Gwyneth, ScarJo looks super good but doesn't really do anything, Sam Jackson comes around and glares at people and then there's a big fight against Sam Rockwell (who plays a nerdier version of Tony Stark) and Mickey Rourke's evil super robots. At the end Gwyneth and Robert Downey finally give into their love just like Peter Parker and Mary Jane at the end of Spider-Man 2.

Like the above suggests, there are a ton of characters in the movie. I actually left out a couple: Jon Favreau as a butler or whatever and Don Cheadle plays Tony Stark's eventual sidekick. It's such a good cast that I enjoyed the non-action sequences better than the super hero stuff even though that was all really good. As packed as it is, the only parts that sagged were the Sam Jackson bits in the middle. But, I really like this grand Avengers project of Marvel's, so I'll allow it.

Cost/Benefit Analysis: I paid 5 bucks to see this one on a weekday, but would have been happy paying full price. It's full of fun and spectacle with a huge cast of stars having a good time. Get a big loud bucket of popcorn when you watch this one.

The Warlords (2007)

From the Pompous Thomas 2010 Review Backlog!

The Warlords is a Chinese historical epic from a couple years ago that was released in the States a couple months ago. It stars Andy Lau and Jet Li, a couple of big names that have been in awesome historical epics before, so I was expecting great things. Instead, what you got here is an awkward movie that feels like it was cut down from a much longer movie... but it wasn't. Ugh.

The movie lacks substance. There's one pretty brutal action scene in the Jason Bourne shaky cam-style that takes place about a third of the way into the movie but the rest of the movie is exposition, narration, and other boring stuff. Jet Li's army conquers city after city, but we only get to see the before and after. First the generals arguing about something, then when there should be another big battle (or at least a montage!) some on-screen text will say "They captured the city" or whatever and it's back to arguing.

I guess some people will get into the betrayals and love triangle between Lau, Li and Female Love Interest (I'm pretty sure that's the character's actual name), but it wasn't enough for me. I was pretty bored the entire time.

Cost/Benefit analysis: I paid 9 bucks to see this movie and... it wasn't worth it. It might be worth 2 or 3 if you're sick of Hero and The House of Flying Daggers and need an Asian action fix, but this isn't an essential movie by any means.

Fun Note: Wikipedia says that the movie had a 40 million dollar budget. It also says that 15 million of that went to Jet Li. I wonder if that's part of the problem...

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

From the Pompous Thomas 2010 Review Backlog!

Exit Through the Gift Shop: Fun and games with the street art underground or revenge documentary? How about both! This movie has two distinct halves. The first half of this super-low budget documentary is pure fun and games with our POV into the thrilling world of street art; the one and only Theirry.

Theirry films everything he does. EVERYTHING. Cooking, sleeping, walking, talking, working, playing. He's a goofy and lovable guy and the artists he meets through his street artist cousin are like Robin Hood and coolest kids in school rolled into one. The time we spend marveling at their cleverness and laughing at their hijinks is some of the most fun I've had watching a movie. The second half is a lot different.

In the second half, Theirry stops hanging out with famous street artists like Banksy and Shepard Fairey and becomes the engineer of an elaborate industrial/commercial street art machine. Theirry stops being the goofy guy holding the camera and becomes an object of scorn. It's hard to see the movie and street artists like Banksy turn on our hero like this, even if he does seem to deserve it. But then you remember that Banksy directed this movie. You have to wonder if we're really getting both sides of the story or if this is just Banksy's way of getting back at Theirry for being such a huge sell-out, man.

Cost/Benefit Analysis: I saw this movie for free, but I was planning on paying full price to see it. The movie's truthiness is a bit suspect, but it's still a good story, no matter what actually happened.