Iron Man

So what do you expect from a big summer superhero action movie, of which this is the first of 2008? Action, of course, but you might also wish for wit, an appealing character or two, some funny situations and some real ones (just to set off the unreal stuff that’s bound to happen in a comic book movie), an intelligent script (within the limits of the genre), and maybe even some attention ... Read more »

Iron Man 2

We get off to a real bad start here with Tony Stark doing his Steve Jobs impersonation at “Starkland” or some such shit, jetting in with his ego pinned to his sleeve to the roars of the adoring crowd. Exactly like an Apple new-product rollout, except of course that the screaming fans here are pretty instead of pimply, and that Tony’s narcissism is not equal to Steve’s. (Whose possibly ... Read more »

Iron Sky

In 1947 Robert A. Heinlein published Rocket Ship Galileo. It was his second novel, and the first of his classic juveniles. It was also probably the weakest of his novels. The story concerned three teenaged boys and the Nobel Prize-winning uncle of one of them, who build a revolutionary new rocket and take it to the moon. (If the story sounds a little familiar, ... Read more »

Irrational Man

Woody Allen’s film-of-the-year this time around is about a murder, but since it’s Woody, there is a different slant to it. Joaquin Phoenix is a deeply depressed and disillusioned philosophy professor newly arrived at a small college in Rhode Island. Emma Stone is one of his students who quickly falls in love with him. It’s all pretty damn dry for the first twenty minutes or so. Watching a ... Read more »

Irresistible

Something weird is happening in the house artist Susan Sarandon shares with Sam Neill. Toys are going missing, an owl vase is full of wasps, things are getting moved around. She suspects Emily Blunt, Sam’s co-worker. She is soon driven slightly around the bend, breaking into Emily’s home looking for proof. A restraining order is issued. Then …

I’m trying to think of a movie where ... Read more »

Is Anybody There?

Michael Caine loves to work, all the time. Sometimes this leads him into projects he might have better left alone. This might be one of them. I say might, because we bailed out at about the halfway mark. It’s not that the movie was awful, or that Caine’s performance was bad; offhand, I can’t think of a bad performance by Maurice Micklewhite (his real name, and as good a reason for changing ... Read more »

The Island

Starts out looking like a jazzed-up version of THX-1138: A sterile, spotless, soulless environment, everybody dressed alike. But something is obviously going on.

SPOILER WARNING

These people are clones, grown to replace the organs of rich people or to act as surrogate mothers for women too queasy to go through pregnancy. ... Read more »

Island of Lost Souls

The island in question is that of Dr. Moreau, created by H.G Wells in 1896. I was expecting a shoddy creature-feature, of the sort we’ve been watching a few of lately, but I was surprised. This is a well-written, well-mounted production. The photography is first-rate, with wonderful use of shadows. Some entire scenes are shot with faces in shadow, like in the newsroom in Read more »

Island of Love

You could see this as The Music Man, Part II. Except that there’s no singing and dancing, the setting is the Greek islands instead of Ioway, there’s no boys’ band, it’s in the late 20th century and not the early part, and … okay, all it has in common with that film is Robert Preston and a big scam. Actually, not so much Preston as Professor Harold Hill. It’s the ... Read more »

Isle of Dogs

Isle of Dogs (2018) (USA, Germany) Wes Anderson is one of my favorite directors. He’s got a distinctive style that is a little hard to define, but you know it when you see it. I thought The Grand Budapest Hotel was a masterpiece, and Moonrise Kingdom was not far behind. But he is a fan of stop-motion animation, and while I don’t dislike ... Read more »