"Iron Man 2"
Richard's review - 3 stars
When we last saw Iron Man he had a perfectly functioning palladium mechanical heart and a best friend who looked a lot like Terrence Howard. How times have changed. In "Iron Man 2" a mysterious malady is threatening to sideline his success and Jim Rhodes, his BFF, now looks like Don Cheadle.
In the time since the previous "Iron Man" movie, (two years in real time, six months in the story) oddball weapons inventor Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) has become a national hero. He's one part Bono, two parts George Patton. His technologies, including the famous heavy metal suit, are keeping America safe, but not everyone are fans. The US Senate -- in particular Senator Stern (Garry Shandling) -- sees the egomaniacal inventor as a threat and wants him to hand over his secrets.
Then there is his rival, Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell, the best actor out there who isn't a major movie star), an unctuous arms dealer working for the government. He can best be described as a Stark wannabe whose technology is nowhere near as advanced as Stark's. Even worse is Ivan Vanko aka Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), a Russia engineer whose father used to work with Stark's old man. The weathered looking Vanko Jr. has built his own suit, this one equipped with whip-like attachments that harness electrical energy. As if that weren't enough bad guys, even Bill O'Reilly makes a cameo.
Worst of all, though, Stark's own technology may be working against him. It appears he is slowly being poisoned by the palladium that powers the miniature arc reactor in his chest.
On the plus side there's loyal old Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) Stark's Louboutin-sporting confidant who is now CEO of Stark Industries and Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson) Stark's new assistant. She's also a S.H.I.E.L.D. (if you sat through the credits of the first film you'll remember S.H.I.E.L.D. as the fictional espionage and law-enforcement agency run by Nick Fury, played by Samuel L. Jackson) undercover agent named Black Widow who wears tight leather outfits and shows an until now unseen capacity for gymnastics.
There's more plot and characters, but I'm almost out of space and haven't gotten to the review yet and that is part of the problem with the movie.
The first "Iron Man" was as clean and concise as a huge summer comic book blockbuster can be -- solid characters, not too many of them, and a clear cut story. This time around the director Jon Favreau has thrown simplicity out the window, opting instead for Michael Bay style bombast. Where the first "Iron Man" was an idiosyncratic character study with cool action sprinkled throughout, the new one reverses that formula, relying on action to carry the day.
The characters are still fairly strong, but Downey's charm seems to have faded a bit since he last wore the iron suit. Maybe we got to know him too well two years ago, but here the character doesn't have the same kind of fresh appeal he had the first time around.
Perhaps it's because the overall tone of the film is darker, but "Iron Man 2" isn't as much fun as the original. It should please comic fans familiar with the storyline and characters, and it certainly has its moments -- things go boom and Rourke is a convincing, if underused villain -- but like the "Spider Man" movies, which got bigger, but not necessarily better as time went on, "Iron Man 2" feels a bit leaden. Leaden or not, though, this will be the biggest hit this summer NOT in 3D.
"Babies"
Richard's review: 2 ½ stars
"Babies" the new documentary film by Thomas Balmes, may be the purest documentary to come down the pike this year. Released to theatres just in time for Mother's Day it is an unadorned look, with no bells and whistles -- or should that be rattles and diapers? -- at a year in the life of four infants growing up in Mongolia, Namibia, San Francisco and Tokyo, respectively.
Like the title suggests this is all about babies. There is no dialogue, no narration, no point of view. It is ninety minutes of babies crying, peeing, sleeping, playing… you know, the things that infants do. Some will find the footage adorable, others, like me, will find "Babies" to be the big screen equivalent of watching home movies (only without the proud parents cooing in the background).
Not that it isn't well shot, it is. Balmes frames every shot beautifully and there is a real intimacy in his photography. This is as up close and personal as we should ever get with stranger's kids, but as cozy as the movie may feel I couldn't help but imagine that this would have worked better as a short film.
The endless montage of babies going about their business -- sometimes literally -- wears thin after the first twenty minutes. It is interesting to see the differing parenting methods and the natural curiosity of the kids among other things, but the film misses prime opportunities to really explore the cultural and sociological differences in its subjects.
Is "Babies" cute? Yes for a short while. But without a sense of drama, conflict or insight it is little more than a Baby's First Year photo album come to life.
"Exit through the gift shop"
Richard's review: 4 ½ stars
"Exit Through the Gift Shop" is either a fascinating portrait of the growth of street art or an elaborate hoax.
Documentary or visual art art project? Either way it is an engrossing movie about the creation of art, the exploitation of art and the meaning of art. Directed by the acclaimed but unidentified street artist Banksy, a British pioneer of street art, blending graffiti, pop art with a satirical edge, it is allegedly the story of Thierry Guetta, a French videographer turned world famous artist.
The film apparently blossomed from Guetta's twin obsessions with videotaping everything in his day-to-day life and street art. He captured thousands of hours of graffiti artists in their natural habitat -- painting on buildings and running from the police -- as they created their own DIY art shows.
Using consumer grade equipment he filmed some of the superstars of the field, Shepard Fairey (whose Barack Obama portrait later became the iconic image of the president's campaign), France's Space Invader and Banksy, the daring artist who once brazenly decorated the Israeli West Bank barrier.
At Banksy's suggestion Guetta put down his camera and reinvented himself as Mr. Brainwash, a street artist who hired a staff to create his art and threw one of the largest art shows Los Angeles had ever seen, grossing over one million dollars in two weeks. Not bad for an artist no one had ever heard of.
Banksy is by far and away the best known artist to emerge from the street art movement, but despite earning a world wide reputation (and the resulting pay cheques) he is an enigma. Never photographed (in the movie his voice is distorted and he is only shot form behind) he is a mystery and that's why I use words like allegedly and apparently when I talk about this movie. There is a rumor that given the movie's strange provenance -- it ostensibly began as Guetta's home videos, turned into a doc on Banksy and then a movie about Guetta, because, as Banksy said, "Thierry is more interesting than me" -- that Guetta is actually Banksy and the entire film is the artist's provocative and beguiling comment on the art world.
Billed as "the world's first street art disaster movie" it effectively documents how hype and a bit of nerve can be as important in the creation of an artistic movement as the art itself. Banksy, through carefully placed talking head segments (although his face is obscured by a black mask and hoodie) inserts some tantalizing insights into his world.
"The reaction to the art is the most important thing," he says of his street art, which, by its temporary nature is meant to provoke a response above all else. "I used to encourage everyone to make art," he says later. "I don't really do that so much anymore."
Is that a comment on the sudden rush of artists claiming street art as their own, or on Guetta or is it a joke, the punch line to Banksy's 90 minute gag? I don't know, but I do know that "Exit Through the Gift Shop" is one of the most thought provoking and entertaining docs to come down the pike in some time.
