Iron Man 2 Review: Surprisingly Sassy Sequel

By Leo Owen

3rd November 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Director/ Producer: Jon Favreau

Writer: Justin Theroux

DVD and Blu-ray release date: October 25 2010

Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment

Number of discs: Available on solo DVD, double disc DVD and three disc combo DVD/Blu-ray

Price: From £9-£15.93

Running Time: 119/124 mins

Certificate: 12

Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Bettany, Jon Favreau, Clark Gregg, John Slattery, Kate Mara, Leslie Bibb, Garry Shandling, Christiane Amanpour

The super hero genre is still going strong and quite rightly with releases like Favreau’s sequel to his first surprisingly entertaining Iron Man Stan Lee comic book adaptation. Full of the same tongue-in-cheek gags and fun-filled action that kept audiences chuckling the first time around, Iron Man 2 follows a disillusioned Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) who’s publicly recognised as Iron Man and is having to fight to keep possession of his suits – the only things keeping him alive while also rather paradoxically gradually killing him.

Action packed from the outset, the film opens with Tony free-falling and then blasting off into a cheesy American flag clad expo, featuring scantily “dressed” dancers in US colours to complement his dramatic entrance. Tony is full of the same feigned arrogance seen first time around, cockily claiming: “I have successfully privatized world peace” but as his blood toxicity levels fluctuate, his behavior becomes more erratic, seen by his hedonistic late grand prix entry, his sudden promotion of Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) to CEO of the Stark family business and characteristic flippant remarks, such as “I want one”, referring to Ms Rushman (Scarlett Johansson).

While he worries about his life, in true comic book style an ex-colleague of his father’s and his nemesis, comes back from the grave through his son seeking revenge. Keen to bring down Iron Man, Mickey Rourke stars as the unrelenting ex-con scientific mastermind – a Jaw’s like villain with predominantly silver teeth.

Other new characters come in the shape of a kick-arse Johansson, complete with black lycra cat suit and swift leg work, taking out an entire corridor of guards in the time it takes Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) to floor one. With her double identity, mysterious personality and quick-witted boss (Samuel L. Jackson), she’s set to either win Tony’s heart or bring him down.

Iron Man 2’s lengthy running time passes unnoticed in action packed sequences and cheeky humour. Although Samuel L Jackson’s character is underdeveloped and explained, Downey Jr’s repeat charismatic performance, the endearing chemistry between Stark and Pepper Potts and scenes like Starks’s party and the dumb-bell fight more than make up for it.

***

Special Features:

DVD

• Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by Jon Favreau -

Alternate Opening

Coulson at the Senate

Natalie Wears the Gauntlet

Element Rediscovered (extended)

• Featurettes -

Creating Stark Expo

Practical Meets Digital

Music Video: AC/DC “Shoot To Thrill”

• Digital Copy

Blu-ray

• Feature film with optional commentary by Jon Favreau (HD)

• S.H.I.E.L.D. Data Vault (HD) — Extend your knowledge of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with high-level clearance into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s digital data vault. Interact with select scenes from the movie that include new layers of graphics and insider information. View case files, dossiers, S.H.I.E.L.D. training films, tech details and more.

• Previsualization and Animatics (HD)

• Ultimate Iron Man: The Making of Iron Man 2 (HD) – including Rebuilding the Suit, A Return to Action, Expanding the Universe and Building a Legacy.

• Featurettes (HD), including Creating Stark Expo, Practical Meets Digital, Illustrated Origin: Nick Fury, Illustrated Origin: Black Widow, Illustrated Origin: War Machine and Working with DJ AM.

• Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by Jon Favreau (HD), including Alternate Opening, Coulson at the Senate, The Sub-Orbital Jet, Tony’s Workshop (extended), Natalie Wears the Gauntlet, Flying Party Girl, Mark II Security and Element Rediscovered (extended).

• Concept Art Gallery

• Theatrical Trailers (HD)

• Music Video: AC/DC “Shoot To Thrill”

Summery Feel-Good Fluff: Letters To Juliet

By Leo Owen

4th October 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Director: Gary Winick
Writer: Jose Rivera, Tim Sullivan
DVD and Blu-ray release date: October 4 2010
Studio: E1 Entertainment
Number of discs: 1
Price: From £10.99-£14.93
Running Time: 105 mins
Certificate: PG
Starring: Vanessa Redgrave, Gael García Bernal, Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan

The trailers and poster virtually tell you all you need to know about this film, including its conclusion so why rent or buy it? Letters to Juliet is unlikely to attract film geeks, a male audience or more discerning film goers but that said, hardcore romcom fans won’t be disappointed.

Young engaged couple, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) and Victor (Gael García Bernal), go to Italy, combining pleasure with business as Victor plans to meet potential suppliers for his soon-to-open restaurant. While sightseeing in Verona, Sophie discovers “Juliet’s secretaries”, so-called because this group of sensitive souls answer love-struck letters left by locals and tourists under Juliet’s balcony.

Helping the loved-up ladies, Sophie discovers a fifty year-old letter from Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) concealed and decides to answer it. Swiftly after sending her reply, Sophie meets Claire and her pompous grandson, Charlie (Christopher Egan), who have come to track down Claire’s first love. Recognising a good story and at a loose end, Sophie tags along, helping their search.

Letters To Juliet stars two equally overbearing and frustrating male lead characters but one couldn’t care less while the other cares too much. Sophie’s fiance, Victor, is more interested in food than her, rarely paying attention to anything she says. He’s more interested in travelling “120 miles to see a mushroom” than sightseeing, something Sophie can’t understand. Eventually they agree to a “win, win” plan, splitting off so Sophie can explore and Victor can visit vineyards, olive oil factories, wine auctions and cheese makers.

Charlie is rude from the outset but is in fact a man with a heart – a lawyer who takes pro-bono cases defending the defenseless and churns out romantic drivel: “You must feel like you’re about to find your long-lost soul mate.” Looking like something from Beverly Hills 90210 and sounding like a toff with his ridiculously over-the-top British accent, Charlie actually hails from Summer Bay, having starred in Home and Away for many years. At times he acts like a petulant child and at others he spouts some of the best lines of the film, describing Claire as “Churchill in a dress” and his feelings about ending his trip: “like a school boy on Sunday”.

Letters To Juliet is nothing new, frankly downright predictable and packed with stinky cliched stilton. Winick actually manages to incorporate a hero riding in at the last moment on a white horse and satisfies viewers with the obligatory balcony scene, Charlie rather obviously hints at earlier in the film. Lines like “Love is never too late” and “I went for a ride an old man but I came back a young man”, are sure to trigger tears of happiness from sentimental hankie-hugging viewers.

The tumultuous relationship between Charlie and Sophie is supposed to be the source of all humour from their opening brisk purposeful strides set to slapstick music – in reality funnier moments stem from the name Lorenzo as Claire bewitches elderly Italian men all over Tuscany. One gentlemen recalls in horror the women he wooed the night Claire met her true love: “I curse her moustache”, while an old dude in speedos sporting a tied up Hawaiian shirt is enough to make Claire contemplate abandoning her mission.

Letters To Juliet is no masterpiece and the ease with which Sophie gets work published in the New Yorker is unrealistic and frustrating but as far as breezy light-hearted summer feel-good films go, it does the job.

***

Special Features:

• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• The Making of Letters to Juliet
• Commentary With The Director And Cast
• Widescreen
• Featurette: A Courtyard in Verona

Death At A Funeral: Inappropriately Funny

By Leo Owen

27th September 2010 | 1 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Director: Neil LaBute
Writer: Dean Craig
DVD and blu-ray release date: September 27 2010
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Number of discs: 1
Price: From £11.99-£14.98
Running Time: 92 mins
Certificate: 15
Starring: Danny Glover, James Marsden, Chris Rock, Peter Dinklage, Zoe Saldana, Luke Wilson, Keith David, Loretta Devine, Ron Glass, Regina Hall, Martin Lawrence, Tracy Morgan

The opening coffin sequence is a good indication of what to expect of the rest of this black infused American remake of the 2007 British comedy, Death At A Funeral.

A motley crew of relatives reunite for an ill-fated funeral each bringing with them their own baggage. Whispered bickering starts an already doomed service as brotherly rivalry and a mother’s favouritism makes for a sour reunion.

Aaron (Chris Rock) is the oldest brother and an author whose unpublished book no-one has read. His successful writer brother, Ryan (Martin Lawrence), is the favourite – a rich arsehole who brags about travelling first class and tries to usurp Aaron’s right to read the eulogy, suggesting he is an incompetent writer: “Daddy’s only going to die once”.

Other relatives are equally unsupportive of Aaron’s writing talent, telling him: “We can all write cheques”. Add to this, his mother, Cynthia’s (Loretta Devine) constant cruel jibes at his wife, Michelle’s (Regina Hall) inability to get pregnant and it’s no wonder Aaron is highly strung: “You can’t understand death until you have given life”.

Aaron is not the only preoccupied family member – Norman (Tracy Morgan) is worried he has a pigment mutation and family friend, Derek (Luke Wilson), still loves Elaine (Zoe Saldana) while her fiancé Oscar (James Marsden), takes what appears to be valium but ends up naked on the roof flapping open his knees.

While all this family-orientated drama goes on, mystery guest dwarf, Frank is angered he wasn’t left anything in the will and feels like a “cheap piece of arse” so wants the $30,000 he deserves, threatening to show Cynthia sex pictures to prove he was her husband’s lover.

Death At A Funeral is full of obviously comical slapstick actions, including a dancing tripping midget and a whole host of made-for-laughs gags, like family friend “Little Martina” being described as “in 12th Grade but her arse in grad school”, the Frank situation summarized as “Our father was having sex with a guy that could fit in his pocket” and a drugged up Oscar’s assessment of the funeral: “I want our wedding to be like this”.

By far the biggest joke of the film is an almost unrecognisable Danny Glover as the famously moody Uncle Russell – a wheelchair-bound bitter old guy constantly jabbing people with his walking stick and making inappropriate remarks like “Let’s just burn him and get it over with”, to the point where a fellow relative threatens: “You better stop this or you’re going to be in the box next”.

Afro-Caribbean Death At A funeral does nothing new but a strong cast and appropriately apt timing results in a continuous onslaught of comical episodes happily keeping viewers chuckling hard throughout.

****

Special Features:

• Commentary with Director Neil LaBute and Chris Rock.
• Deleted Scenes.
• Outtakes.
• Death at a Funeral: Last Rites, Dark Secrets Featurette.
• Family Album Featurette.
• Death For Real Featurette.

Blu-ray Exclusive Bonus Material

• movieIQ™+sync and BD-Live connect you to real-time information on the cast, music, trivia and more while watching the movie.

Review: Micmacs – Charming And Characteristically Quirky

By Leo Owen

21st June 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Director/ Producer: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Writer: Guillaume Laurant, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
DVD and Blu-ray release date: June 21 2010
Studio: E1 Entertainment
Number of discs: 1
Price: From £10.99
Running Time: 101 mins
Certificate: 12
Starring: Dany Boon, Dominique Pinon, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Yolande Moreau, Michel Cremades, Julie Ferrier, Omar Sy, Marie-Julie Baup

Jean-Pierre Jeunet (A Very Long Engagement, Amelie, The City of Lost Children, Delicatessen) returns with another quirky, surreal and thoroughly enchanting offering.

Bazil (Dany Boon) is orphaned when his father is blown up by a mine he is disarming and his mother has a break down. He goes to live with strict nuns, eventually running away by hiding in a baker’s van. Years later, working in Matador video he is shot in the head accidentally when two people sloppily wage war against each other in the street outside.

Released form hospital with a bullet permanently lodged in his skull, Bazil’s apartment and job have been given away and most of his possessions stolen. His video shop replacement gives him one of the bullets from the gun he was shot with she finds in the gutter.

Jobless Bazil stands behind a pillar a busker stands in front of mouthing her performance, raising some money. He is living on the beach, too ashamed to take the handout food given to the poor and pitifully washing himself when the street cleaner comes.

When he meets Slammer (Jean-Pierre Marielle), he tells Bazil: “I know a family who will adopt you,” and Bazil’s life changes. Living inside a giant sculptured dome of rubbish, disguised by its outer case of junk and christened “Tire Larigot” is his new family – a group of quirky outsiders, all boasting unusual talents, and lending their skills to their home-grown factory of recycled junk, salvaged from skips.

Happy with his new life, one day by chance Bazil sees the same symbols on the bullet that struck him and the mine that killed his father reflected in a puddle. Looking up he sees the facing offices of two giant armaments headquarters and has an epiphany.

With the help of his new oddball family and “salvaged gear” a series of intricate carefully orchestrated plans are put into action, playing the armaments kings off against each other until they sabotage each other’s businesses and the gang publicly humiliate and expose the two men for what they are.

Micmacs A Tire-Larigot translates as “lots of suspect activities” which is certainly what Jeunet gives us in this delightfully absurd slapstick gem. As always, he creates a visually surreal but stunning world and fascinating characters. Tambouille, also known as Mama Chow (Yolande Moreau), is reminiscent of Ma Larkin, mischievous and playful yet also motherly while Petit Pierre (Michel Crémadès), the gadget-maker is the group’s father figure. La Môme Caoutchouc (Julie Ferrier), also called Elastic Girl is a contortionists who will “bend over backwards” to help her friends. Remington (Omar Sy) is an ethnographer who types up speeches and does impersonations. Fracasse (Dominique Pinon – Amelie, City of Lost Children, Delicatessen) is a world record-holding human cannonball. The youngest gang member, Calculette’s (Marie-Julie Baup) father was a surveyor resulting in her ability to instantly size up the measurements of anyone or anything merely from a glance.

Characteristically, Jeunet allows us into Bazil’s (Dany Boon) head to see the inner-workings of this endearing lead. Bazil imagines a football pitch with hidden mines under it, contemplates if zebras are black or white and observes that chosen destinations always lie in the map’s folds.

Much of the film is highly stylised with exaggeration, from the opening credits at the start mimicking the black and white films Bazil loves and is able to mouth along to word for word to the typical character over reactions almost in the style of the commedia dell’arte – the full orchestra who appear and start to play behind Bazil as he notices the building where the armaments are made.

The script is peppered with witty light-hearted clever word-play showing Micmacs doesn’t take itself too seriously: “I have something in mind that concerns him,” says Bazil, referring to François Marconi, one of the weapons manufacturers. “I’m not into contortionists – my mum always told me to avoid twisted girls,” Bazil jokingly confides to La Môme Caoutchouc.

Combining a serious moral message, large dollops of charm, subtle humour, character resolution and romance, Micmacs is testimony to Jeunet’s continued lively imagination and vision.

****

Special Features:

Interview with Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet

I Love You Jim Carrey!

By Jonathan Campbell

25th March 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Or at least I used to.

When on form, I’ve always found Carrey to be pretty majestic.

‘Dumb and Dumber’, ‘Man on the Moon’ and ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ all showcase his unique talents and versatility as an actor. Read more »