Iron Man Movie Review

I do love myself some comic book superhero movies, but with the recent treatments and flops, I feel the excitement is wanning on the classic superheroes. Iron Man I do consider of the classics, of Marvel of course. I got to admit, I was not expecting much from the movie. I was pleasantly surprised. The Premise: Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) inherited Stark Industries and is well known for his weapons. He is not just the head of the company but he can make machines and missiles himself. He goes to Afghanistan and is abducted and is shocked to found out terrorists are using his weapons. They force him to build a missile and him being the 'bad boy' he is, he builds a 'iron man' armor to fight them off, destroy the weapons and get out of there. He makes an enemy in the not-so-threatening Raza (Faran Tahir). Tony makes friends with Yinsen (Shuan Toub), who helps him with the armor but of course is a sacrificial lamb and dies, and not mentioned again.

Tony returns home three months later, determined to stop making weapons and destroy more weapons that are with the bad guys. The guy who took over the company between Tony's father and himself, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) is not so happy. Obadiah cares for Tony but not as much as about the money. He finds Tony amusing, but he considers himself the 'big boy.' Tony locks himself in his basement perfecting the Iron Man technology, worrying everyone else, while he is being locked out of the company by the board. The movie makes its research and is believeable in the context of science fiction. Most of the 'flying' and other technology is made pausable and grounded in reality. It is a 'smart' superhero movie if anything, and it doesn't shave off the fun in the process. Of course, when the movie gets to the final battle, it goes full-fledge sci-fi but I ain't spilling it, because the movie pretty much keeps you in suspense on who is the real bad guy. The terrorists don't come off completely cartoon-y or stereotypical, like I said they made their research and comes off realistic.

There is great acting from Tony's Gal Friday Pepper Potts (Gwen Paltrow), best pal Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard), and Bridges. Bridges does great in the gray area, and revels in it with a smirk. I am not crazy about Robert Downey Jr., I haven't been able to sit down through any of his movies, but he does come off charismatic here. I don't think I completely believe him in his cause, but I do see he is having fun when 'making' the Iron Man technology. I couldn't help but look at Downey's body, it looks good in this movie. He has fluctuated more than Matthew Perry from skeleton skinny to chubby strange, but his butt is not ignorable. The smart thing about the movie is that it sticks with its central characters and central plot, it doesn't try to have a b-plot, it is very universal, comes back together in a circle.

An Army of Smoky Bears

When I was growing up in the 80's, I remember seeing the commercials for the army that would say "Be! All you can be be... in the Army." Also the Smoky Bear "Only You can Prevent Forest fires." And I was like, why would I want to start a forest fire? And I don't ever see any forests around my neighborhood. As a kid, I couldn't grasp this. How did the fire start and why am I onlt the one that can prevent it if I am 4? So it is so strange to me that the slogan hasn't change since the 40's and the army slogan has change twice since. From the forgettable "Army of One" to the now weak "Army Strong." Why can't they just go back to "Be all you can be"? Well, that was just my little rant.

Scrubs Season Finale Review

"My Princess"

May 8, 2008

This is the episode that was be the first before the 4-part series finale, that was to probably be straight-t0-DVD. But now because ABC pick them up, this will serve as the season seven finale and NBC's finale. NBC dubbed it the 'Scrubs finale.' The show creator Bill Lawrence and his wife Christa Miller (Jordan) decided to make an episode that their children could watch. In this episode sightly inspired by The Princess Bride, Perry tells a story to his son Jack that was slightly inspired by events that happen that day at his job. Even though Bob Kelso retired in the last few episodes, he is magically back as the Chief of Medicine. Perhaps Cox was telling a story that happened long ago. Or Lawrence couldn't resist having Kelso as the bad guy in this one.

J.D. is the village idiot, Elliot is the princess naturally, Keith is a prince, the janitor is a Giant, Ted is a hunchback minion to evil Kelso, and Carla and Tuck are mixed into a witch named Turla. Also Lavrene ended up in the story, not named but it was her personality. The storyline revolves around Elliott and J.D. trying to save a patient/servant. The episode supposedly wraps things between Elliott and J.D. But what I like about the episode is at the end, Jordan is huddled in front of Jack's door listening to the story and wants to know if the patient survived. It was a so-so episode, with a uneven story, and the special effects were understandbly bad, but the cute ending made it all good.

Andy Bernard is a for sure for The Office Spin-Off

A Spin-off of the American "The Office" is all the rage now. Some fans, including buddytv, that a spin-off would be a terrible idea at a first glance. the premise and name have not been announced but there is a tentative premiere date of after the 2009 Super Bowl. Now, as NYE says.. Andy Bernard would be the most likely character to be spun-off. Andy is easily removable from the first show, but can survive on a new show. His character was designed as a scene stealer and Ed Helms is just great as him. NYE is correct, Andy is much like Michael, that the spin-off can have a similar dynamic. An insider says it is most likely Ed Helms. I don't know if i am looking forward to it. For example, I like "Grey's Anatomy" and was looking forward the spin-off but "Private Promise" was a big disappointment. I would had rather a "Desperate Housewives" spin-off.

New York Entertainment BlogBuddyTV
Watching the Office.com

Gay Homecoming King

Matthew Pope may be a stereotype, an openly gay male cheerleader in a high school, but he also made homecomign king. He bravely came out in freshmen year and to his mother as well. I think he is extremely brave and bright kid. I was came out in sophomore year in high school, I was 14.

Entire article with many pictures

G.I. Joe will be released on my birthday?

So far there is a big cast including Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum (above), Sienna Miller, Ray Park, Christopher Eckleston, Adewake Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. August 7, 2009. Lordy. I did watch G.I. Joe the show and had some of the toys. I loved Kristy Marx's writing of the show. Dunno if I am even going go to see the movie, as I didn't even do so for The Transformers.

IGN: Meet the Cast of G.I. Joe