Iron Man 3 (2013)

“My armor was never a distraction or a hobby, it was a cocoon, and now I'm a changed man. You can take away my house, all my tricks and toys, but one thing you can't take away - I am Iron Man.”

            Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) reflects on where his life is presently at. To look at where his life is now Tony looks back to a time thirteen years previous when he was in Bern, Switzerland for New Years Eve. At the time he was Tony Stark the billionaire playboy without a care in the world with a girl on his arm to take back to her room for the night. On the way up to the girl’s room he is stopped by a crippled messing looking man named Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). Aldrich is a scientist and wants to work with Tony on a project. Tony is just thinking how he is getting lucky that night with the girl Maya he is with and in a very dick move he tells Aldrich to meet him on the roof in five minutes with no intention of going up.

            In her room, Maya tries to explain to Tony how she is working on limb and tissue regeneration (*at least that is what I think it is*). Tony listens for a little bit and then leads Maya right to the bed as she is trying to explain that the process still has some things to be worked out. Almost as soon as she says that her plant she is testing her experiment on blows up in one small part.

            Back in the present Tony is having a hard time dealing with his experience fighting off an alien attack in New York as part of the Avengers. He is having trouble sleeping and functioning normally. Tony gets a call from Happy (Jon Favreau) that there is a man in the office who has come to speak to Pepper about one of his inventions. Happy is not technologically savvy so he cannot get the man on camera but Tony is not worried. The man speaking to Pepper is a totally new and majorly improved Aldrich Killian. Aldrich created new technology that can project the brain and its thoughts into the air much like Tony can do with his machines and the computer. 

            A new villain comes up in the form of a man called The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley). He has high jacked American TV feeds and threatened to blow buildings or anything relating to Asian culture in America. Happy has followed security guards from Aldrich’s team to Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Unfortunately that is one of the sites that The Mandarin has chosen to target. Happy is injured but the one guard walks out of the rubble looking like he is caught on fire and all his limbs and other injuries heal instantly. Tony takes this attack personally because of Happy. To the news and to the world he gives The Mandarin his address and tells the criminal to come and get him instead of other people.

            Well needless to say that Tony is attacked. His house is blown to pieces and Pepper has been kidnapped. Before all the chaos he had set Jarvis to send him to Tennessee to check out a story. Jarvis takes Tony to Tennessee. The suit is ten kinds of messed up and needs to be fixed. He sets up shop in the garage of a home where a little boy lives. Through the boy and some of the locals he finds out about the story he was seeking. A building was blown up by a man and five other people were killed. The five that were killed their outlines are on the walls. Tony notices this and figures out the supposed killer walked away he did not blow up. Some further digging and he finds Aldrich’s experiment with Maya’s technology that she had been experimenting with. The tests did not work because all the people ran hot and blew up.

            The Mandarin makes another broadcast. The government thinks they have an exact location in the Middle East so they send James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) who has become known as the Iron Patriot since he stole one of Tony’s Iron Man suits. The location is false. Tony is able to track the real location down to a mansion in Florida. He finds the man calling himself The Mandarin is not really who he claims to be and the real Mandarin is more deadly and hell bent on getting back at Tony and Iron Man.

            I liked Iron Man 3 more than Iron Man 2 even the first Iron Man. I liked the trickery of The Mandarin as a dummy for someone else and their agenda. I felt there was more of a story here and also that Tony was not as much of an ass like he was really focused on other people instead of himself. I guess working the Avengers pulled his head out of his ass. Since the story was good I did not mind that the length it felt like it did not drag like the other two. I have to throw this out there that Guy Pearce makes an incredibly hot and awesome villain. I have had a thing for Pearce for about twelve years ever since I first watched him in Memento. Anyway, Iron Man 3 is my favorite out of the Iron Man trilogy. It is the only one of them that I would not mind watching again.  

            Bonus: The Marvel One- Shot: Agent Carter is an extra feature on the Iron Man 3 Blu Ray/DVD. If you are insane and are not convinced of how incredible the character of Agent Peggy Carter and how fucking amazing Hayley Atwell is as the character you need to watch this One Shot. The woman (and I am talking about both character and actress here) is badest of all bad asses. She is the HBIC. If you are already an Agent Carter fan and have not seen this you will be drooling over Peggy/Hayley and jumping out of your seat in excitement. (You can watch the One-Shot here)

            This has been your daily Agent Carter PSA… now go watch the damn show! 

Factory Girl (2006)

“I wonder if people are going to remember us?”
“What, when we're dead?”
“Yeah.”

            Unfortunately people still do remember Andy Warhol and his art. I am one person who absolutely despises Warhol. I am an Art History major so I know about him I am not just saying this because his works are completely unappealing. I understand that in the 1960s products were becoming massed produced and that was what his Campbell Soup painting and his stacked boxes was about; other artists were doing the same thing at this time as well this was not just Warhol doing it. One thing that I cannot for the life of me stand is that he is so famous for his Marilyn Monroe prints and several others when he used photographs taken other photographers. His car accident works are his own he took those pictures those are fine. People just make too much of a big deal out of Andy Warhol and I believe because of him they expect all artist to be out of the minds and weird. Now I know some oddball artistic people but not as oddball as Warhol. He built his own legend by attracting so much attention to himself and for being so weird.

            So why on earth am I ranting like a lunatic against Andy Warhol? Factory Girl is based on the story of Edie Sedgwick, a socialite and artist herself who became Warhol’s muse in the 1960s.  I have heard about Sedgwick before from learning about Warhol but I had never seen any of his films or knew too much about her before this movie.

            Edie (Sienna Miller) had been introduced to Warhol (Guy Pearce) in the mid 1960s as one artist to another. The artist likes her beauty and her little quirks. He puts in a few of his films and she becomes a hit. But Edie is most synonymous with Warhol’s “Factory” where he gathers all kinds of odd people around him and creates his works and films.

            Edie and Andy are just friends but he begins to ignore her and rejects her once she meets a musician named Billy Quinn (Hayden Christiansen). She loves Billy who begs her to get away from Andy and his Factory and go away with him but she cannot she has almost an addiction to her friendship with Andy. Once Andy rejects her, Edie’s life spirals out of control. She took speed to keep up with everyone but it turned into an addiction that nearly ruins her and in the end kills her. Her father has cut her off leaving her without any money.

            In 1970 Edie went back to California where she had lived before she moved to New York and got clean until she died of a prescription drug overdose mixed with alcohol. Edie Sedgwick was twenty-eight years old when she died.

            The cast was not bad at all. I have only ever seen the real Edie Sedgwick in pictures so I cannot say how accurate Sienna Miller was in her depiction. From other reviews Miller did a pretty good job. Guy Pearce was amazing as Andy Warhol. It was so creepy in how accurate he was. I cannot even imagine how many hours of footage he watch of the artist… I would have gone batshit if I had to do that! Hayden Christiansen was supposed to be Bob Dylan who was in a relationship with Sedgwick but the singer was going to sue if they made the character him because the movie made it look like he drove her to almost kill herself. Jimmy Fallon was not in the movie too much and I forget his character really. His character was the one who introduced Sedgwick and Warhol and then he turned into a jerk.

            Factory Girl was an interesting movie for the fact that it was very artistically made. The story of Edie Sedgwick is interesting and very sad. When the movie was finished I hated Andy Warhol even more. I only really recommend seeing the movie if you like Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick otherwise do not even bother. 

Death Defying Acts (2007)

Death Defying Acts is a movie I caught a part of on TV one day. It did not look bad especially because it involved Houdini and the guy is pretty interesting to learn about. I knew of course without having seen the whole thing that the movie was mostly fictitious but, hey, movies like these are based on some kind of truths. And how could I pass up an opportunity to see two of the hottest people in Hollywood in the lead roles Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta- Jones? I could not so I watched it and found that the film felt short and was a bit boring.

            Famous magician Harry Houdini (Pearce) is on a tour of Britain. For the past few years he has been trying to conduct a scientific experiment to see if the supernatural does really exist and is not fake. He sends out a newsreel letting everyone know that he will be holding auditions of sorts to see if anyone is the real deal. An entertainer at a local theater named Mary McGarvie (Zeta-Jones) has an act with her daughter Benji (Saoirse Ronan) where she claims she can make contact with the dead. What they really do is scope out people, Benji sometimes steals a little something off their person, and Mary goes to the library to check out the papers with details of the dead person. Mary and Benjo hear about Houdini’s challenge and they decide to go for it even though they know they are not the real deal.

            Mary pretends to be a maid in the hotel the magician is staying in to get into his room to find out some information about him. Benjo goes to the theater to his dressing but she is caught. Houdini talks to her and gives her tickets to the show. A few days later Mary “auditions” for Houdini and is assigned the challenge he has set. He mostly hires her because of the close resemblance to his mother with whom he is trying to contact since he was very close to her.

   

            The magician and the fake psychic get closer and closer and they lose sight of what they have really come together to do. Benji is the one who wants to stay on target with the whole thing and Houdini’s manager suspects they are phonies. Anyway, Houdini and Mary have an affair and then he leaves.

            Not really to brag about. There is only one of the magician’s tricks that are shown and it was the one where he unlocks himself from a water tank.

            Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta- Jones were really got together I would love to see them in another film together. I think they looked absolutely fabulous in the 1920s style clothing especially Zeta- Jones she looked gorgeous in several scenes. 

            Death Defying Acts is an alright movie, I was not terribly impressed. In several reviews I have read the reviewers compare this movie to The Prestige and The Illusionist. I hate to do that because the movies are all so different and I think Death Defying Acts was more about the man and a love story than it was about the magician’s magic tricks while the other two were more about the magic. I think this where the film falls flat and is boring because it is more of a love story. Only sit through the movie if you like Guy Pearce and/or Catherine Zeta- Jones

LA Confidential (1997)

“Come to Los Angeles! The sun shines bright, the beaches are wide and inviting, and the orange groves stretch as far as the eye can see. There are jobs aplenty, and land is cheap. Every working man can have his own house, and inside every house, a happy, all-American family. You can have all this, and who knows... you could even be discovered, become a movie star... or at least see one. Life is good in Los Angeles... it's paradise on Earth." Ha ha ha ha. That's what they tell you, anyway.”

            The first time I saw LA Confidential was years ago. I do not know what made me sit through this film or how I saw it but I can remember loving it. I loved it even before I loved old Hollywood. LA Confidential has a fantastic cast, a great mystery, and amazing direction and writing.

            Hollywood at this time was a tough place. Hollywood was still attracting the young and hopeful trying to make it in the movies but it was not all sweet and happy like the movies and advertisements depicted. The LAPD has their hands full with vice and crime cases every day. The film starts off around Christmas time. As Bud White (Russell Crow) and his partner Dick Stensland are on their way back to the station from getting drinks for an office party, Bud gets into it with a parole violator for beating his wife and he sees a woman who may have been beaten but she has not she has just gotten a nose job. Stensland just sits in the back and drinks.

            At the police station there is a new officer named Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) who is trying to prove himself and be the best cop on the force. The head detective Dudley Smith tells him that he will never go anywhere if he is not violent and willing to be corrupt to get the bad guy like the other officers. But Exley’s chance comes when there is a brawl between police officers and prisoners. A few officers including Stensland beat prisoners who were supposed to have hurt two other officers. The case is brought all the way to the top to the DA and the head of the department. The story has gotten out to the newspapers and the LAPD has been disgraced. Exley is brought in as a witness and he is willing to testify as a material witness in court. He also says that Stensland should be made an example of and kicked off the force and that Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) who was also involved in the fight should be pulled off a show he is the technical advisor for and work for vice. The DA and others agree that should happen and Exley is promoted to Detective Lieutenant.

            A few days after Exley is promoted, Stensland fired, and Jack demoted there is a homicide at a small café called The Night Owl. Stensland was one of the people murdered in what looks like a robbery gone wrong. The more Exley, White, and Vincennes dig into the case and things connected to it the more their lives become endangered. The case winds up dealing with very corrupt cops all the way up to the top, hookers made to look like famous actresses, and much, much more.

            The cast is awesome they were perfect in their roles. Jack Vincennes is a big headed because he gets to work on a TV show and meet all these famous people. Even his arrests are staged and dramatic. Kevin Spacey was excellent especially when his character becomes a bit humbled as he works his Vice case. Guy Pearce no matter what type of character he is just hot. I liked how his character kept digging and did not let the case go he knew it was bigger than what it appeared. Russell Crow just annoys me and his character Bud annoyed me to no end. Bud is the hotheaded cop who is quick to beat someone up without question. His only good parts were with Kim Basinger who is a hooker named Lynn Bracken made to look like Veronica Lake. I have not seen Basinger in too many movies but I really like her in this. Danny DeVito played Sid Hudgens a gossip magazine writer who gets tips from and gives them to Jack.

            Curtis Hanson directed the movie. I liked his direction very much he did a fabulous job capturing 1950s Hollywood, the corruptness of the police force, and all the stories of the characters.

            LA Confidential is an incredible movie. It is one of those movies I can watch over and over again and just never get sick of. The unraveling of the story is great and the action and mystery do not let up until the very end. 

The King's Speech



“If I'm King, where's my power? Can I form a government? Can I levy a tax, declare a war? No! And yet I am the seat of all authority. Why? Because the nation believes that when I speak, I speak for them. But I can't speak.”

            The King’s Speech is one of the better movies to have come out within the past few years. It is very well acted, directed, and written.

            Assuming you know your history and you know somewhat of the history of the Royal Family you will know most of the story. If you do not: King George VI came to the throne after his brother King Edward abdicated in order to marry an American woman who was twice divorced. George’s wife is the Queen Mother Elizabeth and her daughter is Queen Elizabeth mother of Prince Charles and grandmother to Princes William and Harry.

            George (or “Bertie” as he is often called) has a very huge obstacle to overcome: he as an almost debilitating stammer. He does not like to speak in public because the more he thinks about his speech the more nervous he gets the more he stammers. All his life he has been seeing speech therapists and specialists but no one has been able to help him. Elizabeth has heard from someone about a man named Lionel Logue who is a speech specialist. She goes to him as a last hope for her husband. She does not immediately tell Lionel who she and her husband are but eventually she has to tell him.

            When George and Lionel first meet it is the beginning of what will become a very long and trying relationship.

            The movie is very well done. The story is so good. I knew what would happen but I was nervous and kind of on an edge for George with all he had to go through and what he was trying to overcome. Colin Firth deserved to win the Academy Award for Best Actor he was so wonderful. He looks like he could have been a king or a royal back in the 1930s and 1940s. Helena Bonham Carter is always amazing even though she was not in the movie a whole lot. It was nice to see that George had strong support and love from his wife. Bonham Carter and Firth made a nice pair. Guy Pearce plays Edward and he is just an awesome actor and so good looking. Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue was perfect.

            The King’s Speech deserved to win the Academy Awards that won. You can tell the care and quality that went into making this movie. The cast down to the supporting actors were perfect. The script was great it mixed struggle and (not so much) drama with a good amount of humor. The King’s Speech is a movie to sit through and watch especially if you like historical based stories or are just looking for a good story.