Iron Man :

Starring: Robert Downey Jr. (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Terrence Howard (Jim Rhodes), Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts), Hilary Swank, Samuel L. Jackson

Directed by Jon Favreau
Produced by Avi Arad, Kevin Feige
Written by Arthur Marcum, Matthew Hollaway, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby

By the end of his film Jon Favreau’s Iron Man is a light and fluffy character, a superhero colored in with bright bits of crayon, but he doesn’t start out that way. Ironically it’s early on in the story when Tony Stark, the man inside the bright red suit, is still a carefree playboy and globe-trotting arms merchant that he has the most edge. It’s there that Favreau’s superhero movie works best, as Stark is captured by a group of terrorists known as the Ten Rings (nod to all you Mandarin fans), injured, and forced to work in a dank cave designing weapons.

Left with no choice Stark sets to work making killing machines as they demand, he just doesn’t make the killing machine his captors expect. Robert Downey Jr. is understated and complex as Stark, slaving away in the dust, working in secret for his own freedom under the threat of death, turning his grave injuries into triumph. Favreau seems to know that this early origin story is indeed the best part of his script, since he lingers on it, spending nearly half of his unexpectedly lengthy film on this well staged and acted setup.

If you’ve seen the trailers then you know that Stark eventually gets out of the cave and you know how he does it. It’s the kind of moment that’s bound to elicit cheers from the audience, and it doesn’t hurt that we know he’s kicking terrorist ass. Once he gets home, Stark sets about re-evaluating his role in selling weapons to the murderers of the world. Deciding he’s had enough of it, he puts his mind to the task of figuring out how to stop it. Tony Stark isn’t just a wealthy arms dealer, he’s beyond brilliant. We believe that this charismatic man, this wealthy inventor with an oversized ego, might really come up with this particular answer. His answer is Iron Man.

It’s there that the movie starts missing beats. We meet Tony Stark’s assistant, the plucky Pepper Potts, played by terribly miscast Gwyneth Paltrow. Their scenes together are agony, and often seem utterly misplaced, as if they belong in an entirely different movie. We meet Stark’s business partner and mentor, Obadiah Stone played by a bald and bearded Jeff Bridges. There’s nothing subtle about Stone, or any of the limply mysterious plot devices surrounding him. You know what he’s up to the minute you see his chrome dome. We meet Stark’s best friend Jim Rhodes, the best character in the film’s supporting cast. His role is limited, but Terrence Howard acquits himself well and leaves us wanting more of Rhodes.

And eventually we meet the movie’s obligatory villain, an uncreative, familiar riff on the notion that every superhero must face his exact opposite and equal. The Hulk must fight the Super Hulk. Superman must fight three Supermen. Iron Man must fight the Super Iron Man. It’s not very creative, and their final fight leaves something to be desired.

The problems are all in the second half of the movie, where Iron Man stops being different and settles for being ordinary and at times even silly. It becomes a well put together, well polished, but very standard, paint by numbers superhero origin story. There are no surprises, and even while it remains immensely entertaining that’s somewhat disappointing after the first half of the film where we sit down and get to know a man who describes himself as a merchant of death. I wanted to see how such an obvious villain becomes a hero, and the answer is apparently that someone simply flips a switch in the script.

Yet I don’t want to sound like I’m down on this movie. Iron Man is a lot of fun, especially for a superhero origin story, since they so often end up going awry. While I wasn’t blown away by the final battle between Iron Man and the film’s baddie, there are other great action sequences. Unlike most superheroes, Iron Man isn’t about stopping petty criminals or stalking city streets. His mission is global, and his big coming out party happens in a dusty Afghanistan village, saving villagers and farmers… where absolutely no one is looking. It’s the best action sequence in the entire film, and the place where you’ll want to cheer, even though there’s no over muscled robot for Iron Man to face off against.

It’s also refreshing to see a superhero flick in which the hero isn’t some angsty teenager or a borderline underwear model. Tony Stark is a mature man, with deep rooted flaws. Unfortunately, Favreau’s movie chooses to ignore most of them when things really get moving. My hope is that with this as a setup, we’ll get more of the screwed up egomaniac lurking inside Tony Stark’s helmet, and maybe even a more worthy, creative villain as well. The film is filled with all sorts of geeky references hinting at things to come. Iron Man is good enough that you’ll look forward to seeing them brought to fruition in whatever sequels drop from this tree.

Sex and the City

starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, Chris Noth, Jennifer Hudson, Jason Lewis, Mario Cantone, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler director: Michael Patrick King 

Carrie Bradshaw, successful author and everyone’s favorite fashion icon-next-door, continues to narrate her own story about sex, love and the fashion-obsessed single woman in New York City. Carrie and her friends, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda, juggle jobs and relationships while navigating motherhood, marriage and Manhattan real estate. 

Carrie Bradshaw, successful author and everyone’s favorite fashion icon-next-door, continues to narrate her own story about sex, love and the fashion-obsessed single woman in New York City. Carrie and her friends, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda, juggle jobs and relationships while navigating motherhood, marriage and Manhattan real estate. 

Cast  crew Michael Patrick King Director Sarah Jessica Parker Carrie Bradshaw Kim Cattrall Samantha Jones Cynthia Nixon Miranda Hobbes Kristin Davis Charlotte York Chris Noth Mr. Big Jennifer Hudson Louise Jason Lewis Jerry ‘Smith’ Jerrod Mario Cantone Anthony Marentino David Eigenberg Steve Brady Evan Handler Harry Golden blatt Michael Patrick King Screen play Candace Bushnell Source Material Darren Star Characters as Source Material Sarah Jessica Parker Producer Michael Patrick King Producer John Melfi Producer Darren Star Producer Toby Emmerich Executive Producer Richard Brener Executive Producer Kathy Busby Executive Producer Jonathan Filley Executive Producer Eric M Cyphers Co-Producer Melinda Relyea Associate Producer Tiffany Hayzlett Parker Associate Producer
This month the other stiletto finally drops, as Sex And The City makes its long-awaited transition from television to the big screen. While the hit series-turned-movie follows a group of thirty something women looking for love in all the wrong, yet fashionable, places, its appeal transcends generation. Here a couple twenty somethings look for Prince Charming and an expensive bottle of champagne…Sex And The City style.

It’s Wednesday afternoon, and I’m sitting here in the bright sunshine, at Hey Lucy’s in Toronto, (it’s cheap martini day) waiting for Stacey P to get her butt here - she’s usually about five minutes late, so that gives me some time to collect my thoughts…

How can you write about finishing up your twenties? Your twenties are the foundation for the rest of your life. People say your twenties are the time to live it up, and it really is a time of learning - who you really are, what you really want, and how to be that person you dreamed of being when you “grew up” - but it ain’t always easy.

“Dawning consciousness, free brotherly love, sex with multiple partners without consequence, drug use,” Harvard lecturer Marc Zender joked of the supposed powers of crystal skulls. “You know, tons of stuff.”  Professor of archeology, expert on Mesoamerican cultures (particularly Mayan civilization), scholar of Aztec writing, and, shall we say, obtainer of rare antiquities, Dr. Zender is something of an authority on the skulls — and has a lot more insight into the meaning of the film’s title than his comment above might indicate. 

Although crystal skulls were once displayed in museums across the globe (including the Smithsonian) as proof of ancient Mayan grinding technology, they’re actually all fakes, most likely manufactured in late 19th-century Germany. Zender said this makes the artifacts “as perfectly legitimate a subject for Indy’s fictional adventures as either the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail.” 

Fictional or not, New Age believers do ascribe powers to these hauntingly beautiful artifacts. At the very least, they have the power to reveal something about the plot of the upcoming movie (due out May 22, 2008), which has been a hot topic of speculation since the title was made public at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards (see “Shia LaBeouf Leaks ‘Indiana Jones’ Fourth Title At VMAs”). 

“It is said that when [High Priest of the Maya] willed death with the help of the skull, death invariably followed,” Zender said. “For anyone who believed this story, then, the crystal skull was a grim and deadly artifact, exactly the kind of thing that Indy would go searching for. 

“But a funny thing happened on the way to the present New Age movement,” Zender laughed, saying the artifact somehow morphed from a device of doom into “an airy-fairy vehicle for harmonic convergence,” which can amplify and focus psychic abilities. “People are able to gaze into the eyes of the crystal skull and see these scenes — to either read the past with great clarity or predict the future.” 

More interesting, perhaps — given recent rumors that the film would place Indy into direct conflict with aliens (or at least the bureaucrats at Area 51, where some of the film supposedly takes place) — is Zender’s explanation of another one of the crystal skulls most flouted powers. 

“These things are big crystals, and people started thinking of them as these super computers of past civilizations. If a silicon chip can hold tons of information and data, imagine what a gigantic 11-pound crystal can hold,” Zender said. “So maybe this skull has stored all of the lost knowledge of the Mayans or Atlantians, or ET.” 

Recent online speculation seems to focus on this explanation, with scuttlebutt centered mostly on Indy’s rumored otherworldly foes. But if Dr. Jones wants to phone home, it’s going to be hard work. 

“When all seven, nine, 13 — pick your number — when these skulls appear together, then a brand new age blossoms,” he said of devotees’ beliefs, with a tone of incredulity in his voice. “True believers believe that each skull has its own specific property, and bringing them all together makes all those abilities available to everybody all at once.” 

Indiana will probably find one (or more) of these skulls where they supposedly originated, in Central America, which means a pretty rad trip back to “Raiders” territory for fans. The story could even be based on the skulls’ real-life discovery. 

“Frederick Mitchell-Hedges, the adventurer, explorer and Atlantis aficionado, claimed to have discovered a crystal skull at the Mayan city of Lubaantun, in southern Belize (then British Honduras) in the early 1920s. He knew very well that he bought it at Sotheby’s in the ’40s,” Zender said of the true beginning of the legend of the crystal skulls. “This skull was supposedly found by his adoptive daughter Anna on her birthday, when he let her into the dig site to search out a birthday keepsake.” 

A young girl with a somewhat oddball archeologist father known to keep some of his artifacts? While pure speculation, adapting this story would seem, at least, to provide a plausible means of reintroducing Marion Ravenwood (played again by Karen Allen). 

The Holy Grail is an obvious quest for eternal life, the Ark for power. With so many divergent theories on crystal skulls, however (and given the fact that the legend itself is only 70 years old), Zender’s assessment is that there is just no way to tell where this adventure will ultimately take Indy. 

“They’re not attached to any real ancient tradition. Every true believer has a slightly different take on them,” Zender sighed. “As with most romances, by the end of it, the skull will have to be destroyed and the [ancient] civilization will pass away. But we’ll just have to wait and see how.” 

A top Israeli commando named Zohan (Adam Sandler) fakes his own death in order to pursue his dream: becoming a hairstylist in New York. Though he wants to put his life of counter-terrorism behind him, he quickly finds that it is not so easy to escape one’s roots. As enemies old and new try to take him out, they will all come to learn the same thing: you don’t mess with the Zohan.

Adam Sandler, certainly known for some grade-A ridiculousness and juvenile humor, has outdone himself in his latest, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. With the typically less-than-funny Jewish-Palestinian hostility as a back story, Sandler, by way of heaps of hummus and a cantaloupe-sized crotch - which, by the way, given it’s prominence should have its own credit - delivers comedy the likes of week-old bed-head - strikingly laughably, thoroughly dirty and evidently lazy. Sandler pushes aside more sophisticated Zionist jokes, in favor of, for example, having elderly Charlotte Rae (”Different Strokes”) talk about erectile dysfunction. Grannies seem to be the real ones messing (around) with the Zohan.

As an unstoppable Israeli soldier, Zohan and his turrets-like disco dancing is revered the country over. He can catch bullets in his nostrils, leap from buildings and remain unmoved when a piranha is placed in his swim trunks. Yet this Semitic superhero’s true passion is to one day cut and style hair - to make “the silky-smooth.” Zohan travels to America to pursue his dream, but his past eventually catches up to him. 
Fans of Sandler’s will love the film. It’s the bawdiest of his work - Judd Apatow is one of the writer’s - and the most action-packed. It’s also completely ridiculous. There’s an appreciation upfront for the concept and fun, but the film falls apart towards the end like a bad perm, mainly when John Tuturro, as Zohan’s enemy The Phantom, has more screen time. Rob Schneider as a Palestinian cab driver and telemarketer proves a bit flat, as well. Watching Zohan serve in the neighborhood watch, cut his teeth as a beautician and bang senior citizens is the best part of the film, which formulaically is about 15 minutes into the movie and about 20 minutes from the end. 

Various cameos help keep the rhythm up, however. Chris Rock, Mariah Carey, George Takei and many, many more familiar faces pop up throughout the film. Why? Who knows. It’s a decently entertaining element, especially Dave Matthews’ career-worthy role as a hating hick. To the film’s credit, Zohan stays far away from trying to insert any forced “can’t we all get along” messages pertaining to the opposing countries. But obviously, in a movie like this, things wrap up in a neat, contrived little package. Well, not a little package in Zohan’s case.

Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 animated film about a bungling panda who aspires to be a kung fu warrior. Kung Fu Panda is directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne and produced by Melissa Cobb. Although the concept of a kung fu panda has been around since at least 1993,[2] the idea for the film was conceived by Michael Lachance,[3] a DreamWorks Animation executive. Work on the film did not begin until 2004 and the film premièred at the 61st Cannes Film Festival in May 2008. The film was released internationally on June 6, 2008, but will be released in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2008. The film is distributed by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks.

The film stars the voices of Jack Black, Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, David Cross and Ian McShane. In the United States, it has been rated PG by the MPAA for sequences of martial arts action, and in the United Kingdom, PG by the BBFC.

Synopsis: “Kung Fu Panda” features Jack Black as Po the Panda, a lowly waiter in a noodle restaurant, who is a kung fu fanatic but whose shape doesn’t exactly lend itself to kung fu fighting. In fact, Po’s defining characteristic appears to be that he is the laziest of all the animals in ancient China. … “Kung Fu Panda” features Jack Black as Po the Panda, a lowly waiter in a noodle restaurant, who is a kung fu fanatic but whose shape doesn’t exactly lend itself to kung fu fighting. In fact, Po’s defining characteristic appears to be that he is the laziest of all the animals in ancient China. That’s a problem because powerful enemies are at the gates, and all hopes have been pinned on a prophesy naming Po as the “Chosen One” to save the day. A group of martial arts masters are going to need a black belt in patience if they are going to turn this slacker panda into a kung fu fighter before it’s too late.

It’s amazing that Marvel wanted to make another Hulk movie in the first place. In comic-book stores, The Hulk is only slightly less popular than Spider-Man, but at movie theaters, not so much. Ang Lee’s moody 2003 Hulk flopped, earning only $132 million domestically. Normally, that would mean franchise death, but in 2005, Marvel grew tired of licensing its characters (and losing profits) to studios and acquired $525 million to start funding films itself. Marvel also decided that The Hulk’s popularity as an icon made the movie do-over worth the risk. ”It’s Spidey and Hulk standing atop Mount Marvel,” says Kevin Feige, the company’s president of production. ”It felt silly to wait more than five years to bring The Hulk back to the screen.”

The Incredible Hulk is not another origin story: When the movie begins, Bruce Banner (Norton) is already The Hulk. He’s hiding out in Brazil, trying to find a cure for the gamma-ray exposure that turns him into a monster. Before long, his whereabouts are uncovered by Gen. Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt), and the movie turns into an extended chase, as Banner tries to cure himself while eluding Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), a soldier who turns into the scaly fiend Abomination. The new Hulk film is said to remain truer not only to the comic book but also to the old Lou Ferrigno TV show.

It’s unfortunate that Hulk has been generating negative publicity lately, because there’s a lot at stake for Marvel: The company’s first two films, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, are being released this summer. Marvel’s decision to cast Norton as Banner was a gutsy choice in more ways than one. Norton is an enormously respected actor, but the Fight Club star also has a reputation for being an intense presence behind the scenes. ”When you work with Edward, you are dealing with an actor/producer/director — someone who is passionate about film and cares about every project he does,” says Bob Yari, who produced two of Norton’s movies, The Illusionist and The Painted Veil. ”You have to be prepared. You are not dealing with an actor who’s not going to have an opinion.”