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Fun Movies Reviews

Movie Review – Iron Man 3

First things first, I love comic book movies. So before you read my review, realize that. The other thing to realize about my movie reviews is that I am a pretty easy critic, if you can make me forget what is going on and keep me entertained for a few hours and tell a cohesive story I am probably going to like your movie. I usually know enough about a movie before I go see it that I typically don’t go to a movie unless I am pretty sure I am going to like it (especially comic book movies).

Iron Man 3 follows Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) shortly after the events of The Avengers. We find Tony haunted by what he has experienced, unable to sleep, and nervously creating Iron Man mark after mark. When we last saw him in The Avengers the suit was at Mark 8, by the time we catch up with Tony here he is already on Mark 42. Tony’s relationship has also become strained with Pepper Potter (Gweneth Paltrow) who is struggling to understand what is going on with Tony. Add to the mix 2 figures from Tony’s past and you have a recipe for conflict.

This Iron Man features more of Tony than previous movies, which I think was a smart move because the Iron Man movies set the tone for the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so if Iron Man sets the tone of going bigger by blowing more stuff up then the rest of the movies get pigeonholed into that mold. In this movie they do a really good job focusing on what drives people to do what they do. Is it fear? Is it love? Is it loyalty to a friend? Is it the desire for power? One interesting thing that drew my attention was how someone can make a ridiculously bad decision, a terrible decision, because they love someone so much and want a better life for them.

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of action for all the action fans out there. One of my favorite action scenes (I’m not spoiling anything because this is in the trailers) is the final battle where all the suits are involved in fighting the Extremis soldiers.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the twist, don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil it. A lot of the fanboys were really disappointed with the twist and with the information that they were given I can understand that. However, after seeing the movie and the motivation behind the different characters, the twist really does make sense. Because the key method of operation for one particular character was to operate in anonymity and that is why things were set up the way they were.

One review that I read said that Iron Man 3 was better than The Avengers, but I would have to disagree. I was one of the many people who said that The Avengers was a 5 star out of 5. I think Iron Man 3 is a great movie, just not a 5 star movie. Overall, I would give Iron Man 3 3.5 stars out of 5.

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Movies

Movie Review: Love Happens – Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston, Judy Greer & Dan Fogler

love-happens_poster-337x500In Love Happens Burke (Aaron Eckhart) has made lemonade out of lemons by writing a book about how to cope with losing a loved one after his wife dies in a car accident.  The movie picks up roughly 3 years after the loss of his wife.  He is on a seminar tour that brings him back to his old home town of Seattle, Washington (a place where he does not want to be I might add) where he meets Eloise (Jennifer Aniston) a flower shop owner who leaves random large words behind the hotel art that brushes him off by pretending to be deaf.  Throughout the course of the movie Eloise forces Burke to come to grips with his lemons and a romance blooms.

I really liked this movie.  Aaron Eckhart & Jennifer Aniston had really good on screen chemistry and the storyline was put together very well.  There were points in the movie that I thought conversation would have gone quite different in real life, but the raw emotion displayed by Eckhart is refreshingly good.  I was also pleasantly surprised that for a romance there was no skin shown.  Dan Fogler provides a great supporting role as Burke’s agent (Lane) and makes things light when necessary but you can tell from the way Burke and Lane interact that they have a lot of history and Lane really is looking out for Burke and wants the best for him as evidenced by a last minute meeting before the executive meeting that he has been trying to setup for Burke.  Judy Greer brings a solid performance in her usual role as second chair.  In Love Happens I would like to see Judy Greer in a leading role, she is funny enough and a solid enough actress that I think she would be able to pull off a leading role.  Time will tell though, if she does though, you heard it here first.  Finally, Martin Sheen plays the ex-Marine father of Burke’s deceased wife and he knocks it out of the park.  I don’t want to give too much story away otherwise I would tell you how, I can say that there is a reason he has been in the business as long as he has.

Grade: B+

Notable Movies for each actor/actress: (I’m going to try listing movies I think are worth seeing, please let me know if you find it useful)

Aaron Eckhart:

Jennifer Aniston:

Dan Fogler:

Judy Greer:

Martin Sheen (as of this writing he has 218 movies and tv appearances on imdb.com but I haven’t seen a lot of the movies, I have mostly seen him on TV):

  • The American President
  • Spawn – kind of a dark movie, but a comic book movie nonetheless, not sure I should recommend it because they only list the unrated director’s cut which I can only imagine is very dark.

Please let me know by adding a comment if you found this review helpful or if you would like me to change the way I do reviews.  Also, if you did like the review, please use the share links below to share this blog entry on Facebook, Twitter, etc…

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Movies

Movie Review: Julie & Julia – Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, & Chris Messina

julie_and_julia_ver2_xlgDo you like to cook?  So do Julie Powell (Amy Adams) and Julia Child (Meryl Streep).  Julie & Julia is “based on two true stories” and follows the lives of two women who as Julia Child “love to eat”.  In parallel it follows the lives of Julia Child who is forced to find something to do while her diplomat husband is posted in Paris and Julie Powell who is a cubicle dwelling phone operator in New York who by day answers phone calls in the aftermath of 9/11 that feels her life is going nowhere and she needs to do something to add meaning.  As part of following the two women and their adventures the movie chronicles the lives shared with their husbands and really shows a parallel between the husbands as well played by Stanley Tucci & Chris Messina.

There are several laugh out loud moments in this movie which was exactly what my wife and I needed as we watched it.  One of the best things about the movie for me was the interaction with the husbands and how they were just great guys.  In this movie they also explore the inevitable “make it or break it point” that comes with doing anything of value and how anything worth doing is worth pushing through that point and persevering.

Grade: B+

Notable Movies: (I’m going to try listing movies I think are worth seeing, please let me know if you find it useful)

Meryl Streep:

Amy Adams:

Stanley Tucci:

Chris Messina:

Please let me know by adding a comment if you found this review helpful or if you would like me to change the way I do reviews.  Also, if you did like the review, please use the share links below to share this blog entry on Facebook, Twitter, etc…