Man of Iron

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is Iron Man, in Iron Man III, with or without the eponymous battle suit. Faced with the challenge of the unknown Mandarin, Tony Stark must save Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), right hand man  James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and the entire US leadership - after challenging the Mandarin to open combat. The journey takes Tony Stark to faraway Tennessee and the combat between the once-spurned villian Adrian Killiach (Guy Pearce) and his nefarious scheme, and our superhero, is as intense as it has ever been in the Iron Man franchise. Iron Man III delivers, and delivers well, and for some reason trails off with Mark Ruffalo and the promise of more to come

13.5/20

Live by the Sword

Its been a while since the Wolverine was a lanky young hacker in Swordfish. Gabriel Shear (John Travolta) wants a job done – and the incentives for down-and-out Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman) are many – but, primarily, the possibility of reunion with his daughter. So Stanley gets called in – with cyber-crime enforcers hot on his trail, but never quite there – as Gabriel like his idol Houdini continues to keep one ahead of his pursuers, for most of the movie. However, is this yet another morality tale or do Gabriel and Ginger (Halle Berry) and the crew eventally pull off one of the largest cyber-robberies in history? Swordfish is a guns-and-chases copybook old school thriller that, while not quite edge-of-the-seat, is not a throwaway movie either

11/20

Iron Age - Part II

Director Jon Favreau clearly realizes that he has a good (read lucrative) thing going, and wants to keep his powder dry for later installments, as far as Iron Man 2– the second installment of the irrepressible Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark aka Iron Man, is concerned. This superhero clearly differentiates himself from the rest of the save-the-world pack on two counts (a) his identity is out in the open (b) he is singularly immodest. With a cast that clearly “trades up” from the first installment, Iron Man II runs through Tony’s idiosyncratic jaunts, in particular handing over the Stark empire to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) on what appears to be a whim, and an impulsive participation in the Monaco GP that reveals potential supervillian Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke). Lt Col James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) brings the voice of reason, the Hammer empire headed by the unscrupulous Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) is all about bare-knuckles corporate rivalry, and Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson) ups the glamour quotient substantially. Endnote – this movie keeps you wholesomely entertained, and waiting for more from Tony Stark. Mission accomplished for now
13/20

Dark, Dark Continent

One point of commonality of Hotel Rwanda with Blood Diamond is the profiteer, utterly circumspect about business malpractice, and then somehow suitably converted by the sheer force of events. However, while the second is fairly narrow in its focus on characters, the former draws up a wider canvas on the genocide and its antecedents. Don Cheadle intersperses an otherwise good performance with great moments - witness the scene where his frustration with his tie breaks into the larger anomie with what he has seen that morning on the road. Africa at least in pockets has not changed much from Joseph Conrad's the Horror, The Horror... we should be thankful for India and its polity, I suppose, where the incessant chaos does not (by and large) cascade into large-scale insanity! On the movie - the performance to watch for is that of Sophie Okonedo who from a comfortable existence is metamorphosed by the turn of events into the very epitome of distraughtness. An important movie on an important topic. Worthy of noting that the genocide in Rwanda possibly claimed a million lives, while the one at Srebenicza that received as much if not more press, claimed about eight thousand. Yes they are Africans after all, dude