Listen to the Lion

Iron Man: not too bad

I went to see Iron Man at the good theater last night (Sunday) to catch their last showing at 10:20 p.m. I often go to that theater at that time because the chances of having to share a space with cell-phone-using, can't-shut-up riff-raff are minimized. And because I always go to movies alone.

But since it was opening weekend, there were still quite a few people there. Lots of low-level chatter, not enough for me to go off on someone but really annoying when you think that these people paid $10.25 to not watch something.

The movie was OK. Judging it against Batman Begins (A+) and Spiderman (A-), it's a solid B.

Robert Downey Jr. is great, tossing off some great lines under his breath like, I think, no one else can manage now that Peter O'Toole is 97, or however old he is.

Terence Howard and Gwyneth Paltrow are fine, but needed more lines/more interesting parts. As proof of this, I offer the fact that the warmest relationships Stark develops are with a robot arm and his computer's operating system.

The villain is lame, and the climactic action sequence is not that great. Most of the cool shots of the Iron Man in action are in the trailers.

Other than that, it wasn't too bad.

Once at the Oscars

Not much to comment on about the Oscars Sunday night. Without question, Cate Blanchett should have won the supporting actress award for playing Bob Dylan in I'm Not There.

And No Country for Old Men, rightly, won for best picture, director(s), adapted screenplay and supporting actor and should have won for its cinematography, which was by far the best I've seen in as long as I can remember. (There Will Be Blood, which won, looked great too, to be fair.)

The one thing that made me glad I watched was the duo of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from Once. They performed "Falling Slowly," which was nominated for best song, and soon thereafter won.

Both were so happy, and Hansard's acceptace speech was the definition of gratitude. Irglova got cut off by the music leading to a commercial, but Jon Stewart, in a truly classy move, brought her back out after the break and gave her all the time she wanted.

No Country and Once were my two favorite films of 2007, one dark and bleak, the other hopeful and real.

Here's my June 6, 2007 column for the Baltimore Examiner written a day or two after I saw Once.

Being There with Barack

Some thoughts on Barack Obama, whom I have officially endorsed for the Democrat nomination, and his resemblance to a great Peter Sellers character.

Thoughts on Heath Ledger and Tom Brady

My Examiner column written a day or two after Heath Ledger died.

No Country for Old Men

A review of the Coen Brothers' latest masterpiece, with a comment on the Led Zeppelin reunion thrown in.

Here's another great review of No Country that I found.

Bad ideas, bad movies

These three movies were really, really bad, and not just because they could have been written by your average DailyKos poster.

Who is John Galt?

If you've read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, you know the answer to that. If you haven't read it, you probably should.

But first, read my Examiner column about it.

Gore and Moore

Here's my take on both Live Earth and Sicko, from the Baltimore Examiner.

Once - the best film so far this year

A Baltimore Examiner piece on Once, a really great film starring Glen Hansard of the Frames, with a little on Van Morrison's third "best of" collection.

More on "300"

A longer take on 300, from my Examiner column.