Jet Li in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

New for this week are a few movies, but there's only one I think we're even considering seeing... We'll probably go for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor so check in this weekend if you need a second opinion before you decide to see it or not. We'll probably go on Friday night. You can check out more info and the trailer HERE

Photo credit: ©Universal Pictures, via allmoviephoto.com

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Also opening this Friday: 

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Swing Vote 
"One ordinary guy is giving the candidates a reason to run.

Starring Kevin Costner, and a ton of other great actors like Stanley Tucci, Nathan Lane, Dennis Hopper, Kelsey Grammar & more... You can view the trailer here: Swing Vote Official Site

Add'l Info: Runtime: 100 minutes • Rated PG-13 for language

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The Midnight Meat Train
"The most terrifying ride you'll ever take."

 A New York photographer goes after a serial killer... I can't say the name of this one without laughing. I'm sure my hubby will rent it when it's on DVD, but I don't think we'll be paying money to see it in the theater... You can check it out for yourself HERE if you love horror movies and think this might be up your alley... Based on the short story by Clive Barker and starring Brook Shields, Bradley Cooper, Vinnie Jones, Leslie Bibb...

Add'l Info: Runtime: 100 minutes • Rated R for sequences of strong bloody gruesome violence, grisly images involving nudity, sexual content and language]

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In Search of a Midnight Kiss
"It's not just another kiss." 

This romantic comedy sounds like fun... about a guy who's friend convinces him to place a personal ad after a particularly tough year... where he meets a woman who is bent on finding someone to be with at midnight on New Year's Eve. You can check out the official site with trailer HERE

Add'l Info: Runtime: 90 minutes • Untrated • Grand Jury Award for Best Film, 2008 Florida Film Festival

The Midnight Meat Train is a new horror movie being released in Trinidad and Tobago today but is accidentally being listed as All Ages on Movietowne's website. The Midnight Meat Train is based on a 1984 short story from the master horror writer Clive Barker. The movie already received rave reviews on IMDB based on its premier showing in the US but will only be widely released on 1st August. I can't wait to see The Midnight Meat Train but I will have to since plans are already in train for The Dark Night starring Batman and The Joker. The Midnight Meat Train is directed by Japanese director, Ryuhei Kitamura and I hope he is as good as they say.  The movie stars Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb and the scary Brooke Shields.

I am interested in The Midnight Meat Train not because the name sounds suggestive but because it's an R-rated horror movie based on a Clive Barker story featuring a photographer and his camera. It looks like a rangefinder film camera and not a digital SLR.  Somehow, memory cards and computers are not as scary as darkrooms and chemicals.

The Plot: In the Far East, trouble-seeking father-and-son duo Rick (Fraser) and Alex O'Connell (Ford) unearth the mummy of the first Emperor of Qin (Li) -- a shape-shifting entity who was cursed by a wizard (Yeoh) centuries ago.

Swing Vote

Director: Joshua Michael Stern
Stars: Kevin Costner, Paula Patton, Kelsey Grammer

The Plot: When Bud Johnson (Costner) goes to cast his vote for the next U.S. president, a glitch affects his ballot, and protocol allows him to make up his mind at his own discretion. With the entire nation focused on his every move -- and, of course, his pending decision -- will the admittedly lazy Bud make an informed choice?

The Midnight Meat Train

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Stars: Vinnie Jones, Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb

The Plot: A photographer (Cooper) hunts down a serial killer (Jones) who preys upon travelers in the subways of New York City.

Frozen River [limited]

Director: Courtney Hunt
Stars: Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott

The Plot: A struggling single mom (Leo) reluctantly partners with a Mohawk Indian woman (Upham) to make money from running illegal immigrants across from Quebec into the U.S. While both women swear each trip will be their last, one particular run leads to an unexpected confrontation ...

In Search of a Midnight Kiss [NYC]

Director: Alex Holdridge
Stars: Scoot McNairy, Sara Simmonds

The Plot: Broke and alone on New Year's Eve, Wilson (McNairy) just wants to spend the rest of a very bad year in bed. But, when his best friend convinces him to post a personal ad, he meets a woman (Simmonds) bent on finding the right guy to be with at midnight.

Thank you for checking my blog I believe in supporting all type of movies if you see something that I have not posted please let me know lets support our film makers. All info today was brought to you by IMDB.com

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No-one?

I just recently stumbled across the entire series of Popular, a television show whose name did not befit its social status in the high school that is TV ratings. In fact, Popular was that kind of funny lookin' kid in the middle row who was neither cool enough to sit up the back, nor smart enough to sit up the front. And yet he had a certain charm about him that, when you look back through all the daggy high school photos, seems to invoke a certain nostalgia for the good old days... Did I overreach with that metaphor? Nevermind. Nobody will have read this far anyway.

Popular ran from 1999 to 2001 on the WB, and was eventually cancelled due to poor ratings - and yet it has always remained, somewhere in the depths of my memory, as that show that I used to try and catch sometimes in the middle of the day - the one with Samantha the 'nerd' (why are nerds on TV always good looking?) and Brooke the 'most popular girl in school', Carmen the 'fat one with the good heart', Lily the activist, Nicole Julian the bitch, and so on. And of course there was that catchy theme song.

I vividly remember the first time I watched Popular. It was the first or second episode, I think, and Sam the budding journalist was video-interviewing students about popularity in high school. Anyway, there was this video Sam took of Carmen where she started talking about being overweight, and I remember the camera zooming in on Carmen's face as she broke down in tears, and me starting to cry with her. I think I must have been 11 at the time, and in my young life it was the most moving thing I had ever seen. I thought Sara Rue deserved an Oscar. Of course they don't give awards to shows on the WB *cough*Gilmore Girls*cough* but I was unaware of this in my youthful ignorance.

Looking back at the series, I realise that I didn't quite get it at the time. The popular kids weren't always the bad guys - sometimes Sam was a bitch, and the character you wanted to support was on the wrong end of the argument. Hidden under all the 90s colours and commercialisation, there was a true exploration of what it meant to be a kid in high school. Okay, so in some ways it was a little over-dramatic, but it also hit on some real issues - at the end of the first season the cool and uncool kids came together in support of their teacher who was getting a sex change. Probably not likely to happen in most schools, but heart-warming nonetheless.

And let's face it, Mary Cherry had the coolest name on television.

If anyone wants to see some 90s magic in all its glory, here's part 1 of many. Popular truly was a snapshot of 90s high school television culture, and I don't care if nobody else wanted to sit with it at lunch - it will always be captain of the cheerleading squad to me.

Caitlin

Rated PG-13.  Directed by Jon Favreau.  Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Leslie Bibb and Shaun Toub.

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Well, what other quote would I use?  Truth be told, I wasn't really planning on seeing Iron Man, but good reviews and the recommendations of a number of friends inspired me to check it out.  I knew almost nothing about the character (as opposed to all those years watching the Batman animated series) or his adversaries, and I think that made the movie more enjoyable.

One of the better superhero movies of the new wave (seriously, I feel like so many of the major blockbusters coming out are comic book ones...Hellboy 2, The Incredible Hulk, The Dark Knight, Hancock, etc. etc.), Iron Manbrings the character of Tony Stark and the creation story of Iron Man to a wide audience.  A slightly less depressed version of Bruce Wayne, Stark as played by Robert Downey Jr. is one of the more memorable characters, comic book movie or not, of any movie of the past few years.

After a quick burst action scene, we flashback to get some of Stark's backstory -- a boy genius and son of a legendary weapons developer, he took over his father's company and continued its rise to a dominant global corporation.  Without giving too much away, a profound life-changing type of event causes Stark to question his place in the world and his company's role in bringing death and destruction to innocents across the globe.  Whereas before, he was happy to accept the nickname the "Merchant of Death" as long as it came with the billions of dollars and steady stream of supermodels, Stark's epiphany leads him to create Iron Man.

Robert Downey Jr.  is perfectly cast, just absolutely perfect, and it's hard to imagine anyone else doing the role justice.  He is Tony Stark, right down to the public missteps and (in the sequels, supposedly) his propensity for substance abuse.  Downey makes the movie succeed and puts the cherry on top of his career renaissance. 

Downey & Gwyneth Paltrow as his loyal assistant Pepper Potts have great chemistry and she is also very well cast.  Terrence Howard, as one of Stark's only friends, a Air Force colonel, has his moments and hints at a bigger role in the sequels.  Jeff Bridges, as Stark's Industries #2, is unrecognizable at first and is the only one to be a little too comic-booky in his acting at times. 

Favreau does a very solid job of directing and I particularly liked the West Coast location.  Stark definitely seems like a West Coast type of hero, and I think the setting helped out the feel of the movie.  The effects are great and seamless, and Iron Man looks fantastic when he's on screen.  The script is mostly fine, especially for a superhero movie -- it's a little light on the action, but as far as a creation story goes, it's a decent balance of exposition, humor and shit blowing up. 

The worst part of the movie was probably the lame-ass, forced product placement (Burger King), but other than that, I was pleasantly surprised with the production.  It's about as entertaining as a movie in this genre can be, and it's worth watching simply for Downey alone.  The cool special effects and action scenes are just a bonus.

Grade: B+

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It was a bit different for me...

I happened upon Iron Man on a Saturday night. Me, and nine other people in the entire theater. No, it wasn't opening weekend. But it was the weekend following.

Robert Downey Jr.'s getting it together. And I'm happy for him. I've been a fan since his Ally McBeal days. Actually, before that, since U.S. Marshals (The Fugitive sequel). He was hit-or-miss for a while with Wonder Boys and Bowfinger. But a couple of his latest ones, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Good Night, and Good Luck, and Zodiac have been surprisingly enjoyable. I guess he and director Jon Favreau work well together.

Downey's the slick-talking head of a major U.S. weapons manufacturer. Gwyneth Paltrow (swoon!) plays his assistant. He gets kidnapped by terrorists and has an epiphanic eye-opening. Instead of making weapons that end up in the hands of terrorists, he'll combat terrorism head-on in his Iron Man suit. Terrence Howard (of Crash) is kind of a military liaison. And Jeff Bridges (who's been in more movies than I care to recount, but more notably Blown Away, The Big Lebowski, and Seabiscuit) is the bad guy.

If you're a Marvel fan and have followed the comics since you were a kid, you know the story.

Leslie Bibb (from The Skulls, and TV's Popular) has a small part as a reporter.

This is the first Jon Favreau-directed film I've seen, and I'm looking forward to more. Though his status will forever be placed on a pedastal for producing Swingers.

there's not really much i can say.  other than this movie kicks ass.  i've seen some bad comic book movies before.  like x-men 3, but this one is really good. 

i've never been much of a comic book geek.  i'm pretty geeky, but not in the comic book way.  just never was my thing.  i do like seeing comic characters come to life for the big screen though.  and i put iron man up there with the best of them.  the first x-men, batman begins, superman returns, sin city (although none of the other films mentioned here are quite so dark as sin city-it's a great comic book to big screen film) etc.  those are all fairly recent pictures but who's got an attention span any longer than that?

i put it just one notch below my favorite comic book movie.  that is V for Vendetta.  i just love that freaking film.  so politically resounding years and years after the publication of the comic book novella.

but back to iron man...

i almost forgot how attractive gwyneth paltrow is.  she's really, really something.  she plays tony starks secretary/everything woman.  and she does it with such elogance.  she is stunning.

also stunning is leslie bibb who plays a journalist that ends up in philatroping tony stark's bed.  nice going tony.

but i think my favorite performance, other than the kick ass CG, is from the dude.  that's right.  the dude.  jeff bridges turns up here doing the best kris kristofferson knock off i've seen since, well, kris kristofferson.  it was about halfway through the movie i figured out it wasn't kris kristofferson.  imagine kristofferson's character from blade, only bald and without such a pronounced limp.  that's the dude, dude.

terrence howard is really good too.  he always is.

this is the first big blockbuster of the season i think.  i'm sure something will knock it off.  something like the dark knight, which looks killer in the previews.  and i'm also pshyched for hellboy 2.  should be a good movie season.

Iron Man (2008)

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Shaun Toub, Leslie Bibb, Faran Tahir, Sayed Badreya, Clark Gregg

Directed by: Jon Favreau

Thank you Marvel Studios. Thank you Jon Favreau. Thank you Robert Downey Jr. Thank you for not only making the first good comic book superhero movie since 2005's Batman Begins, but also for restoring my dormant enthusiasm for what had become a favourite sub-genre of mine. I grew up reading comic books, so once they started coming out with quality adaptations of comic book heroes, beginning with 2000's X-Men, I generally had a few movies a year to get geeked up about in anticipation.

I loved the first two X-Men films, the first two Spider-Man films, and even the underappreciated Hulk film. But following the triumphant Batman Begins, the genre spit out three years of dreck, beginning with the mediocre-but-fun Fantastic Four, followed by the abysmal X-Men: The Last Stand, the bloodless Superman Returns, the embarrassing Ghost Rider, and the disappointing Spider-Man 3, which became a microcosm of the genre as a bloated mess that drowned in its own excesses.

The result was that I no longer greeted the announcement of a new superhero adaptation with excitement, but instead dreaded what Hollywood had in store (with the lone exception being this summer's The Dark Knight). If they could screw up the Spider-Man franchise with the same players in place from the earlier two films, there wasn't much reason to suspect that they'd get new franchises right, particularly since the properties were being handed over to hacks like Brett Ratner and Mark Steven Johnson, and roles being populated by affordable non-stars like Brandon Routh.

So when the early news of the Iron Man film started filtering in, I mostly met it with indifference. Jon Favreau to direct? Sure, I liked him as an actor well enough, and felt that Elf was a decent comedic vehicle for Will Ferrell, but getting the director of Zathura to helm a new blockbuster sounded like getting the director of Barbershop to helm a franchise (oh wait, that happened). But then they casted Downey Jr as Tony Stark, and suddenly, in spite of myself, I was intrigued. It was such an inspired casting choice that I had to take notice, and it only got better when the filled out the cast with Terrence Howard as Jim "Rhodey" Rhodes, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, and Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane. That's a surprisingly A-list cast for a film of a character who was second-tier in terms of popularity throughout his career.

My next problem was getting psyched for a character that I never cared all that much for. For me, Iron Man was always a cool looking costume, but I never read many of his comics (maybe 4-5 Iron Man issues and another dozen or so Avengers comics featuring Stark). Then the trailers started popping up, and I was forced to admit that it looked pretty good. Then the favourable buzz started filtering out of Comic-Con and suddenly, after a few years of indifference and bitter disappointment, I found myself looking forward to the theatrical debut of Iron Man almost as much as I was the theatrical reboot of the Joker.

I'm thrilled to report that Iron Man meets all the anticipation and hype, kicking off the blockbuster season of 2008 with a bang. It's big and brassy in the best traditions of the action blockbuster, without having to insult the intelligence of its audience to pull off the big thrills and effects of the genre. It captures the spirit and energy of the genre of my youth while adding enough maturity through its cast (the youngest principle cast member is Paltrow at 36) to engage an adult audience. Favreau expertly weaves physical effects with CGI, giving the action scenes a sense of realism one wouldn't expect from a movie about a guy in a high-tech suit of armour, while infusing the film with a smart sense of humour that keeps the origin-heavy story engaging.

The biggest reason for the film's success is Downey Jr, who makes the Howard Hughes-esque Tony Stark more interesting than his armoured-clad alter-ego. Which is essential, since the movie spends more time with Stark out of his armour than it does with him in it. Usually, the extended origin story portion of superhero movies threaten to drag down the action, but Downey Jr's smug portrayal of the billionaire industrialist keeps it lively, while the weight and humanity he injects into the role builds the necessary pathos before the pyrotechnics begin.

In fact, the one few flaws of the film is how the big action set-pieces feel a bit rushed and less impactful than the earlier character development moments. Normally, this would be a dealbreaker for such a film, but Iron Man is able to invest the audience in its hero so thoroughly that its climax still satisfies while leaving room for improvement.

Along with Downey Jr, credit must go to Gwyneth Paltrow as Starks' assistant and all-around Girl Friday Pepper Potts. I haven't been interested in anything the actress has done since 2001's The Royal Tenenbaums, and she usually comes off as unnecessarily cold. But in Iron Man, she exhibits a natural chemistry with Downey Jr while exhibiting a relaxed sexuality and intelligence, bringing more to the character than what I suspect was on the page. When the cast was announced, she was the principle I cared the least about, so I was pleasantly surprised when she turned out to be such an asset to the film. The love interest character is usually the weakest element of any super hero film (including the otherwise superb Batman Begins), so it's a testament to Paltrow and the film as a whole that this isn't the case with Iron Man.

So comic book fans, let your geek flag fly and rejoice that after three years, a movie has come worthy of your obsessive devotion. My enthusiasm has now been restored, leaving me not only desperate to see The Dark Knight, but also more excited to see The Incredible Hulk, and especially excited at the prospect for a sequel to Iron Man (to that end, make sure you hang around until the end of the credits for a bonus scene). If Favreau, Downey Jr and Marvel were able to generate this much excitement with an origin story, I can't wait to see what they can do with that out of the way.

4/5

Related:
Batman Begins (2005)
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Ultimate Avengers (2006)