There are almost as many concepts floating around in Iron Man 3 as there are suits of armor.  The only difference is that the armors have a clearly defined purpose.  In an attempt to bring Tony Stark back to basics, his latest outing is a strangely bloated affair that still manages to be an incredibly fun thanks to the hilarious comedy and exhilarating action.  Without question, it’s the funniest and most exciting of the trilogy, but it’s also surrounded by a host of underdeveloped ideas relating to notions of desperation, augmentation, and obfuscation, not to mention the aftershock of The Avengers.  Like riding in one of the Iron Man suits, it’s a bumpy but highly enjoyable ride.

Entitlement is a central facet of the American Dream. If you work hard, you should be rewarded. We believe we live in a meritocracy despite all evidence to the contrary. In some walks of life, you can get out what you put in. It’s a truth in exercise, and it’s mostly been a truth for the films of Michael Bay. He is a director completely without subtlety and grace, and is one of the most financially successful directors in American history. His films are cinematic excess in their purest form; indifferent to story and character, they have disgustingly large budgets pumped in and grandiose spectacle pumped out. His new film, Pain & Gain, may not have the funds of his recent blockbusters, but it wholeheartedly shares the cocky and reckless spirit of his controversial oeuvre. Sympathetic to his meathead protagonists, Bay has crafted a picture that is energetic, fun, and almost too large for life.

After the worldwide success of Joss Whedon‘s The Avengers, writer-director Shane Black stepped into an almost unwinnable situation helming Iron Man 3.  While he would have Marvel’s biggest star, Robert Downey Jr., he wouldn’t be able to call on the rest of the Marvel universe for help, and fan expectations for the third installment were sky high.  But even though the cards were stacked against him, I’m happy to report that Iron Man 3 is a rousing success.  Not only is Black’s script fantastic and laugh out loud funny, he’s also crafted some amazing action set pieces and created a villain that everyone will be talking about.  Continued after the jump.

During our recent set visit to Pixar Animation Studios for Monsters University, we were treated to the first 40 minutes of footage from the film.  This first act had the task of reintroducing audiences to younger – and less mature – versions of Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal) and James “Sulley” Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman).  The majority of this time was spent allowing viewers to acclimate themselves to these new looks at familiar characters; it isn’t until nearly the end of the first act that a host of new characters are introduced by their names and individually bizarre personality traits.  While I had some reservations about a Monsters, Inc. prequel heading into the visit, this footage preview turned me right around and got me excited for the full film; I can’t wait to see it!  Hit the jump for more and be aware that spoilers follow.

The Sundance Channel just finished its 8-episode miniseries run of Jane Campion‘s ponderous, occasionally difficult and sometimes beyond fantastic Top of the Lake (now streaming on Netflix), and is putting its first original series, the equally fascinating Rectify, in the show’s former timeslot.  Rectify, created by actor Ray McKinnon (Deadwood) and from the producers of Breaking Bad, is the story of a man released from prison after 19 years on Death Row after new DNA evidence exonerates him for the crime of raping and murdering his teenage girlfriend, which he confessed to at the time.  He returns to his Paulie, Georgia, town to reunite with his family, attempting to find a new life for himself in a world he hasn’t seen for 20 years, while facing down small town politics.  Hit the jump for more on Rectify, and why you should absolutely tune in.

It ain’t easy taking a popular cult film and adapting it into a successful TV series (emphasis on successful), but the advent of alternative digital platforms such as Netflix and Hulu are opening up more possibilities.  Enter Amazon and it’s Zombieland series pilot.  The series comes from Zombieland screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and stars Tyler Ross (Milkshake) as Columbus, Maiara Walsh (Switched at Birth) as Wichita, Izabela Vidovic (Help for the Holidays) as Little Rock, and Kirk Ward (Fully Loaded) as Tallahassee.  Reese and Wernick are hoping for a 13-episode first season, but if this pilot is any indication, then they’ll be struggling to abide by Rule #33: Keep Hope Alive.  Hit the jump for my review.

Today, Netflix released all 13 episodes of its new original horror series Hemlock Grove, based on the novel of the same name by Brian McGreevy and produced by Eli Roth.  After the critical success of the subscription platform’s House of Cards series, it’s easy to see why viewers would be excited for the next offering.  Hemlock Grove though is worlds away from House of Cards, and while many outlets have slammed the series as being practically unwatchable, I actually have to give it credit for a few things despite its larger flaws.  Put it in the category of “guilty pleasure.”  And, actually, it manages to have a little something for everyone, even those who aren’t horror genre fans.  Hit the jump for more.

While I’m a fan of the wackier side of sci-fi shows airing on the SyFy network (Eureka, Warehouse 13), the more dramatic actioner Continuum came as a welcome surprise.  Focusing on a futuristic cop – Protector Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols) – who finds herself thrown back in time 65 years to our present day, Continuum explores what happens to the future when events are changed in the past.  The series, created by Simon Barry, could easily have fallen victim to anachronistic gags and time-travel tropes.  Instead, smart writing, fast-paced action and an increasingly complicated plot make Continuum a show worthy of binge watching in a weekend.

Hit the jump for my review of season one of Continuum on Blu-ray.

When science fiction wants to present thoughtful subtext, it can’t go broad.  The freedom to construct a world has to come down to precise themes.  The world can be derivative (or “inspired by” if you want to be charitable), and the themes can be universal, but they have to be cohesive.  In casting a wide net for influences, Joseph Kosinski‘s Oblivion mashes-up the ideas from better movies, and doesn’t put them towards abstraction or ambiguity, but towards ambivalence.  The film is more concerned with its gorgeous visuals and rousing score while the emotions become lost in a shuffle of reveals and fragmented ideas.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were a cinematic match made in heaven.  The duo began collaborating on movies in 1939, and worked together off and on for over three decades.  Though their films were credited to both as the writers, directors and producers, Powell was more of the director of the two, while Pressburger was the writer.  Though their works have been spotlighted by the Criterion collection since they started making laserdiscs, they are the sort of filmmakers that will never be as well known as David Lean or Danny Boyle, but are arguably among the best – if not the best – filmmakers that England ever produced.  1943’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a strong contender for their greatest film.  Criterion has just released it on Blu-ray and our review follows after the jump.

Reading the description of a film–and I’m not just talking the marketing spin, but even an honest informative blurb–oftentimes results in false preconceptions about a movie.  That Obscure Object of Desire is just such a film.  “Consumed by his obsessive desire to possess her, his feelings progressively change from overflowing passion to a self-destructive hatred,” inspires visions in tone (if not in content) along the lines of Fatal Attraction.  Not so.

That having been said, such preconceptions did not destroy my enjoyment of the film at all.

[This is a re-post of my review from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.  Disconnect opens today in limited release.]

Modern technology has radically changed the way we interact socially. Go stand in a line, and I guarantee at least a few people will have whipped out their smartphones and are happily ignoring the world around them. We don’t call anymore; we text as if that were the same as a discussion. As author, psychologist, and MIT professor Sherry Turkle recently noted in a New York Times editorial this past April, “we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.” Henry Alex Rubin‘s Disconnect ignores this contemporary issue, and sacrifices worthwhile social commentary for mere cautionary tales. Disconnect has all the dramatic weight of a driver’s education video, but then pads its thin plots with three loosely-connected narratives, two of which feature character actions so ludicrous that the movie becomes almost completely disconnected from reality.

Football may currently be the most popular sport in America, but baseball will always be “America’s Pastime”.  It was our first widely popular sport, and it contained both the best of our abilities and the worst of our perceptions.  Segregation in baseball was never official.  It was an unwritten rule agreed upon by the owners and “enforced” by the commissioner.  Baseball, in its rules, is a pure sport, but in its practice, was tainted by institutional racism.  Jackie Robinson didn’t just break the color barrier in a sport; he completed the greatness of America’s Pastime. He is a transformative figure, and in 42, writer-director Brian Helgeland pays complete and utter devotion to Robinson’s legend.  Strangely, despite his attempt to paint Robinson’s accomplishment as a mythic battle between good and evil, the story never feels larger than a TV movie.

[This is a re-post of my review from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.  The Place Beyond the Pines opens tomorrow in wide release.]

Writer-director Derek Cianfrance‘s The Place Beyond the Pines is a rich, multi-layered narrative dripping with fatalism, guilt, honor, and no easy answers. It is an epic family saga that defies easy explanation, and rebels against the structure of a traditional narrative. His gripping tale shows split-second connections that last lifetimes, and old sins that reach across generations. Cianfrance has created a remarkable work that reaches a grand ambition with an intimate tale. And I have to tell you why it works without divulging the twists and turns of its razor-sharp script.

The line between opinion and truth on news outlets has been getting awfully blurry lately.  As corporations dictate the commentaries and presumptions delivered by major media outlets, journalistic integrity seems like a thing of the past.  It’s amidst this cloudy backdrop of subjective news sources that Touchstone releases the Blu-ray of Michael Mann’s critically-acclaimed 1999 drama The Insider – a film that examines the perils of allowing corporations to control the news.  The film, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, resonates today more than ever as it pulls back the curtain on contemporary journalism and the sleaziness of the tobacco industry.  More on Touchstone’s Blu-ray of The Insider after the jump.