Iron Man 2

Jon Favreau and team deliver a worthy sequel to one of my favorite modern super hero film

A great visual treat and an enjoyable story I highly recommend it especially if you liked the first one.

A few direct thoughts and potential spoilers down below.













-Don Cheadle as Lt. Col Rhodes. Don't get me wrong, I love Don Cheadle and I have never understood the details on why Terrance Howard left but Don didn't really do that much for me here. If there is a third and he's back, I am hoping the role is a little beefier.

-RDJ continues to shine.

-For the first time ever, Scarlett Johanssen didn't bore the crap out of me.

-Oh and Micheal Bay...The final suit battle at the end? THAT is how you do big robot battle action.

-John Favreau? I again applaud your work. Thank you for being a director who understands his source material properly. (and I loved your beefed up role..I always love you just as much in front of the lens)

Final rating:
On a comparative scale of modern Super Hero sequel films:
In second place behind Spiderman 2 and just beating out The Dark Knight*

On its own.. a great fun film.




*I know..sacrilege from a hardcore Bat-fan like me right? Guess I should someday back up that rating.

The Return of JAMG...a review of NInja Assassin

Ninja Assassin.


It's a ninja flick. Not much more you need to know about it than that. It's a bit bloody but it's over the top. As a saturday night actioner, you can't go wrong.

Rain (the Korean pop sensation) played a decent ninja fighting back against the evilness of the clan he grew up in. Having previously enjoyed his appearance in Speed Racer, I was happy to see him get lead role and hope he gets more opportunities in film.

Thanking the master movie reviewer Joe Bob Briggs, I would like to return to the "INSERT TYPE HERE-Fu" classification system.

-LaundryFu

-Blind Fold-Fu


-Highway-Fu

-Burning Dojo-Fu


-Silhouette-Fu


Other great points of interest:

Ninja Hidey-Holes
1000 Shuriken Barrages
Telepathic Heart beat Mutual Masturbation (don't ask)
Best advice: When you come home to find two ninjas fighting in your living room...run.

And on a unrelated note, in this film we got to enjoy the presence of the British actor Ben Miles.


Best known here in Just Another Movie Geek headquarters as Patrick Maitland, the Well Endowed, Tory Voting, Loveable Sexist Pig from Coupling. His character as a flirt and "player" is a trait that seems to be carrying over to other roles. In both this film and his small role in Speed Racer, certain "Patrick-isms" have come through. Conscious decision on behalf of the actor or production, I can't say..but I can only offer this hypothesis:

Patrick will always be Patrick

A question...

Is it humanly possible to hate Ned Beatty?



I mean seriously. Think of any role you have seen him in.

Pure genius.

He plays both slimy/evil and sweet/good with equal gusto.

call me one to commit Anime Sacrilege...

..but I have an interesting idea.

Remake the original Super Dimensional Macross.



Don't get me wrong, I love the original Macross. From its humble dubbed roots as the first chapter of Robotech, to the original Japanese versions deep and compelling story. This anime is a cornerstone of my love of animated works from Japan. However the original run looks a bit worn at this point in time. There was even one studio who worked on it who did some rather shoddy work. This master piece needs a facelift.

But I do not really want to see it just remade* ... just reanimate it.

Use all of the original sound fx, voices, story and script. Just update it to the same animation level Macross Zero was done at and you would have a winner. However, I do not want just a frame for frame remake. At least not entirely.

You could do the following and still keep the original feel:

-Flesh out many static scenes.
-Make life on the Macross even more believeable.
-Make the battle scenes even more impressive (you could even cheat a little with new animation on many of the unfortunate re-used scenes)
-Erase Minmei entirely! (just kidding..I actually like her)

Its a dream for sure, but I for one think it would be beautiful.

*I know Hollywood keeps banging around the idea of live action Macross. Even with the CGI beauty of Avatar, I don't feel the world of Macross can be condensed so easily. Yes, I do know Macross DYRL did kind of what I am asking for, but I don't care for the changes to the story it made nor do I enjoy that it has been retconned into continuity.

ignore me too

Cause I am nothing unless acted upon by an outside force.

this is a test

ignore this post...it means nothing to me.

Avatar, Holmes and The Doctor

It's been an entertainment filled end of year for us here at Just Another Movie Geek headquarters. We hosted our last Saturday cinema for 2009, got to the real cinemas twice in less than a week and said goodbye to a very good fictional friend.

AVATAR:
I don't have much to add to what has already been discussed about this film. I enjoyed it, but fully accepted I was just looking at something pretty with the simplest of stories to tie it all together. To all the animators and visual people who worked on this film I salute you, you did a great work and I look forward to what we will be entertained with in the future with the new techniques and technology you have invented. However, 3D still isn't doing anything for me. It's a gimmick just to get more people to pay lots of money at the theater. When the only thing that impresses me in the 3D in the movie is the ash falling from a fire, then something isn't working. There are those that like it I am sure, but it just aint for me.

SHERLOCK HOLMES:
Just saw this today actually and Dr. Mrs Just Another Movie Geek and I thoroughly enjoyed it. RDJr gave us an excellent performance as the tortured genius side of Holmes we rarely see in the visual realm. And Guy Ritchie, thank you for finding your skills again, it's good to see you back to good things. While I will admit my actual knowledge of Holmes is limited to the few movies I have seen and a random spattering of some trivia, I must say this portrayal and the world created worked very very well. The script was tight and funny. Not to hard of a plot but didn't pander to the LCD. For all the talk of "Holmes and Watson are gay!!!" stuff, sure...you can see that. But what I saw was the tortured soul of Holmes and his support and friendship of his best friend and Hetero Life Partner Dr. Watson. If you like a fun movie or just find RDJr dreamy, I recommend checking it out.

DOCTOR WHO:
No spoilers here for those who haven't seen it yet. The ending is wonderful, and pure Russel T Davis. But of everything that was great to these episodes, the greatest of course is the final performance of David Tennant.

While Christopher Eccleston will still and probably always be my favorite Doctor, David gave us such a brilliant run in the last 4 years. I look forward to the new guy and Moffat's direction but David, you will be missed.

Okay, one spoiler:
Who was the old woman Time Lord who appeared to Wilf and was Crying to the Doctor? My money: The Doctors Granddaughter

Sure, the last we saw of her was The Doctor locking her out of the TARDIS but who is to say she never got back to Gallifrey?

Movie of the week shot(s) 3 & 4:

Fire


Water

I think i'm turning Japanese...

In order to complete Dr. Mrs. Just Another Movie Geek's viewings of all Sean Connery Bond films (she has seen all the good ones) I am suffering through "You Only Live Twice." Oh Sean Connery, I am glad it was a big check.

Movie of the week shot #2

Shot #2:


Air