First up this summer, I saw Marvel's Iron Man, directed by Jon Favereu. I didn't think he was such a weird choice for helming this, and he does a fine job. He knows comedy (Swingers, Made), and proved he can capture a kid's (and adult's) attention with Elf.
This was your basic superhero film done right. The first half is all origin story leading to the Tony Stark learning how to be a hero and beating the big bad at the end. It was funny, the pacing worked despite a 2 hour run time, and had some fun action scenes.
As much as I love origin stories, I'm also tired of them. Spiderman 2 and X2 both surpassed their predecessors, and I'm pretty sure The Dark Knight will as well. In any case, this film worked for me and you need a good origin tale after all to get to a sequel.
Rating: 3.5 (out of 5)
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Okay, I really liked the first Harold and Kumar movie. It had plenty of funny moments, cameos, and characters. It took the basic stoner movie concept and improved it, in my opinion, by not making the main characters goofy/dumb/moronic, but rather smart ethnic stoners.
Maybe it was the simple "we're stoned, let's get White Castle and see what kind of crazy adventures happen along the way" premise that was appealing but the sequel just seemed too "epic" for lack of a better word. The whole beginning where they are arrested and thought as terrorists is pretty damn hilarious, but once they escape prison some of the adventures are pretty out-there. This is a comedy, no need to amp it up like a summer action movie. Then again, they did ride a cheetah in the first one. There are plenty of good parts that make this worth seeing, especially Rob Corddy's insanely over-the-top, racist Homeland Security agent. All in all, Harold and Kumar Escape Guantanamo Bay was funny. I'm just curious if it gets better a 2nd time, or worse.
Rating: 2.5 grape sodas (out of 5)
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