Iron Man 3

One nice thing about franchise films is that you know exactly what to expect. This is of course what eventually causes franchise films to die. In this case, we get the continuing story of Tony Stark's coming of age story. The fact that he is 40-something is one of those suspend dis-belief things we do when we go to movies. Stark realizes that his past arrogance is causing his current troubles and this provides the plot motivation for the entire film. We get a little diversion with Don Cheadle's Rhodes character, and regular reminders of The Avengers films from last year. Good fun, solid story, plenty of action, nothing new. My one big disappointment with this film (or Oblivion for example) is the necessary voice-over to tell me everything I need to know and think. What ever happened to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, where you didn't really know what was going on half the film and it made the whole thing better? Does nobody trust the audience to be intelligent and figure things out?

3 stars (out of 5)

Easy Money

Isn't. Ever, really. This Swedish film follows JW, a blue-collar guy trying to be a rich socialite. To get there, he gets involved with gangsters and thugs of a variety of flavors. He falls in love with a pretty young socialite, gets connected with a spanish drug dealer who imports drugs from Arabs in Germany who are moving in on the Serbian gangs of Stockholm. So if nothing else, this is a multicultural affair. What is most interesting about this film is how JW's spiral downward seems simultaneously inconceivable and inevitable. Reminds me a bit of Layer Cake with Daniel Craig, although this is a lot less hopeful.

3 stars (out of 5)

Oblivion

One in what seems to be a series of "future destroyed earth" films coming out this summer. Here Tom Cruise is Jack Harper, a drone maintenance technician on earth. His job is to keep the drones running whose job it is to protect the giant fusion machines over the ocean whose job it is to provide energy to the space station. Protect from whom, you ask? Well, the Scavs of course, those alien invaders who destroyed earth in their invasion and are still hanging around causing trouble. Jack is a bit too inquisitive for his own good, and loves earth a bit too much, which gets him into trouble. He finds true love along the way and true purpose in his strangely purposeful life. Fabulous flyovers of earth although I do wonder where all the dirt came from. But otherwise, fun envisioning of ultramodern outposts and a self-repairing earth. Kept me entertained.
3 stars (out of 5)

Battleship

Hmmm... I knew it was going to be bad. It was not good. But I watched the whole thing. This was really a stretch, someone looking for an excuse to make a film. Battleship the game barely came into focus. The plot goes something like this: Lifetime screwup joins the navy, continues to be a screwup and is about to be bounced. Aliens invade earth with a scout crew and try to send a message back to "home" to bring more soldiers. Lifetime and navy screwup is the only guy that can save the day. Along the way, he gains the courage to marry the admirals daughter, break down the walls of racism in the navy and honor those who fought in past wars. No big. I feel like a need a different rating scale for bad movies, because this was a pretty good bad movie. Sort of a "lives right up to its expectations" sort of rating. But since I don't
2 stars (out of 5)

Prometheus

As the "prequel" to Alien, Ridley Scott has created another engaging world capable of sustaining story and character. The Prometheus starship is traveling to a planet that has been shown to support life and is pointed to by a variety of archeological signs on earth. The current theory is that the race that lives there is the seed of life for humans on earth. Of course, we must go investigate and cryostasis is required to get there. And of course, this means a robot is needed to monitor the cryostasis along the way. Upon arrival to the planet, life is indeed found, along with a few surprises. What I particularly liked about this was that the tension developed and released repeatedly without needed the horror-factor. Scott throws waves of action, stress, discovery without needing to "scare" the viewer. This lets you appreciate the struggle and feel the tension. My only concern is that if this is not part of a series, then I am extremely disappointed. I bought in, and need the resolution. Help me out Ridley.

4 stars (out of 5)

Fire with Fire

A straight to video, vigilante action flick. The protagonist is a firefighter who witnesses a crime, gets put into the witness security program, gets found by the bad guy, has his new witness security girlfriend threatened and decides the only way out is to go get the bad guy himself. Bruce Willis plays the long-suffering cop who has been chasing said bad guy for years and is willing to help/look away. Of course, since a firefighter is involved, we end up with fire, but it is strangely anti-climactic. Perhaps I would recommend this for late night insomnia... but I am not sure even about that.
2 stars (out of 5)

Tower Heist

This is a pretty good movie, but not a great movie. Its biggest problem is schizophrenia. With Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller, you would hope that it come out as a hilarious comedy. With title, you would hope that it was a clever and interesting heist film. Instead, it is occasionally funny and a little bit clever. It also tries to be "current and relevant" by using a Bernie Madoff like character in Alan Alda as the bad guy. While technically current,  not really relevant. Instead, it feels like it is trying to generate sympathy for the common man. So mildly entertaining. Not engaging.

Now I realize that you can't hold any action film to scientific accuracy. Otherwise you would never have a car explosion. But once in awhile there is something that is just crazy. Here you have a golden car... as in solid gold. And it appears to be lighter in weight than even a regular car. I mean, a golden car? At least make its extreme weight part of the plot...
3 stars (out of 5)