Hi, due to site problems and also due to the fact I am posting this on the 3rd anniversary of being married to my wife (Happy Anniversary, Jen!), there will be no posters to accompany the blurbs this week. They shall return next week.
1. Iron Man (3,800 Theaters, 126 Minutes, Rated PG-13): If you’ll let me put on my grumpy old man hat for a second, let me just say you kids today have it great. Back in my day, you’d be lucky to get a comic book movie once every three years. And then, you’d usually only get Superman or Batman. And more often than not, they’d be pretty bad movies.
Nowadays, there are 3 to 5 comic book movies per year. B-listers like Daredevil and Ghost Rider get flicks, as well as indie graphic novels too. And some of them are quite good. Iron Man looks to be one of the good ones.
Yes, the summer blockbuster movie season is upon us, and just like Christmas in department stores, it seems to start earlier and earlier each year.
Iron Man is Tony Stark, a military industrialist who has a near fatal accident and is captured by enemy forces in a hostile land. They want him to create weaponry for them. What he does is create a suit of armor and kicks ass.
The way I see it, it would be hard to screw this movie up. Iron Man’s story is unique and individual, and the cast has one Oscar winner (Gwyneth Paltrow) and three Oscar nominees (Robert Downey, Jr., Terrence Howard, and Jeff Bridges). If this is the first offering under Marvel self-owned movie production company, they could have a long a successful run in front of them.
Oh, and to echo what Rich said the other day, stay through the credits. You’ll be glad you did.
2. Made of Honor (2,700 Theaters, 101 Minutes, Rated PG-13): You might think releasing any movie the same time as the highly anticipated Iron Man would be the equivalent of suicide. But the success of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, released the same day as Tim Burton’s first Batman, proved that money can be made with counter programming. And while there will be a fair share of comedy, and perhaps a smidge of romance in Iron Man, it is nowhere near a romantic comedy.
This is basically a male version of My Best Friends Wedding. Patrick Dempsey is a man who realizes that he loves his female best friend. Too bad she is about to get married and asked him to be the man of honor. Now he has to break up the wedding from the inside.
You have to love Patrick Dempsey’s career arc. From teen movie icon to relative obscurity to TV heartthrob to movie star once again. People should be inspired by his example. I’m talking to you, Christian Slater.
