Entertainment Overload

Iron Man accomplishes what I heretofore thought was impossible: it makes the first act of the hero’s origin story (before he attains his powers) the most enjoyable part of a comic book movie.

Tony Stark is a guiltless hedonist living the ultimate playboy lifestyle with narcissistic charm and dexterity. As a rich weapons manufacturer, he indulges in high technology, gleefully treats objects like women (a Big Lebowski reference for you Jeff Bridges fans) and flies in a private jet packed with strippers and booze.

As ‘Back In Black’ blares on a stereo system, he boasts of his company’s latest devastating firepower available for sale to the U.S. military. It is at this time that a group of Afghani terrorists obliterate his convoy and take the fatally wounded Stark hostage. It seems he is needed to build a missile for them; the twist being that it is a weapon he himself designed. 

The only way his heart can be kept beating is by keeping it connected to a crude battery unit. In a terrifically suspenseful sequence, Stark stalls for time so he can build an iron suit capable of protecting him from bullets and explosions while he wipes out his captors. 

Upon returning to L.A. (in an unlikely rescue), Stark decides to stop developing weapons and live a nobler lifestyle (which is no fun). However, Jeff Bridges (the requisite confidant-turned-archenemy) has other ideas and battles against Stark’s newfound idealism while secretly creating his own goliath suit; presumably because all bad guys in these movies crave Ultimate Power. 

Robert Downey Jr. is the producers’ ace-in-the-hole. Without him this would be just another mediocre entry in the long line of cookie-cutter Marvel films. His performance hits you like a shot of pure oxygen. He is the slick, supercool badass with snappy one-liners we all wish we could be. Even when the plot falls apart, Downey’s mere presence makes the onscreen nonsense bearable (and, at times, hardly noticeable).

The rest of the bland cast isn’t worth mentioning. After Stark constructs his true Iron Man suit and the obvious reveal of Jeff Bridges as the villain, there’s nowhere left to go except the inevitable showdown. Or so the screenwriters have surmised. The remainder of Iron Man’s running time is a tedious, disappointing affair. 

My personal preference would have been for Stark to simply fight terrorism across the globe without the stale conflict of Jeff Bridges’ character (especially because Bridges’ dialogue eventually becomes cartoonishly rotten, even for this type of movie). There’s a scene where this happens and it’s the last time Iron Man provides a refreshing antidote to the typical mundane style of storytelling prevalent in Marvel’s blockbuster features.  

At least the audience can rightfully expect a better sequel from the brave, abrupt surprise ending.

Joel & Ethan Coen’s latest is easily an improvement on their sorrier, more recent offerings (Intolerable Cruelty,Ladykillers). But it’s harder for me to tell you if it’s the brothers’ strongest since their magnum opus, The Big Lebowski(I at least half-liked O Brother, Where Art Thou? & The Man Who Wasn’t There).

No Country For Old Men comes up short for me in one crucial area: its third act. This is one of those movies that doesn’t really have a climax and yet putters along anyway for quite awhile before finally exiting stage right. The wind-up is unsatisfying and seems like it’s married to the source novel too close for comfort (though I haven’t read the book to be sure). 

The dialogue remains tight and clever throughout but I didn’t feel like the movie really delivered any kind of payoff. It’s fine for a film to gloss over what would normally be the logical endpoint of its story and search for a higher meaning, but I didn’t feel the Coens achieved this. A rewrite of the ending would have elevated the whole film to another level, because the rising momentum of its tension was strong and well-earned from the beginning. This is a composition that’s quiet (almost no background music whatsoever) and still. Characters talk only when they need to. The excellent Roger Deakins cinematography is draped in shadows, looking natural yet striking. There’s no special f/x sleight of hand or plot twist trickery to distract you from the meat and potatoes script. Like the Bourne spy yarns, you’re shown all the steps a character takes to pull off an escape, retrieve a briefcase under siege, or blow up a car without explosives. 

Until the last 20 minutes or so you’re not left with any lingering questions and there aren’t any plotholes to speak of. It’s not a weak, messy finale so much as it feels deflated and almost dull compared to what came before. Thrillers like this one are most memorable when they save the best for last. 

Tommy Lee Jones is actually the star of this, not Josh Brolin (who still gave a captivating performance despite getting shortchanged near the end). Tommy Lee is a towering actor as usual and Javier Bardem hits all the right creepy notes as the existentialist killer hunting down Brolin (he manages to be a real world version of Two-Face in his coin toss scenes). 

This is definitely one of the better movies of the last few years but not good enough to win my vote for 2007’s best. I’d recommend seeing it eventually but unless you can figure out a better explanation for the end than I could come up with, you also might think it falls short of greatness.