Iron Man 3 2013 9 out of 10

Iron Man 3 2013   9 out of 10

Iron Man 3 was the first of the post Avengers solo movies and the 3rd in the Iron Man series.  The Avengers was so good that these individual films now have a lot more to live up to.....Expectations have been raised.  Iron Man 3 once again stars  Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark (AKA Iron Man)   in a role that he was obviously meant to play and again he doesn't disappoint in both being cocky and self absorbed and yet still being a hero when needed.  The suporting cast which included Ben Kingsley, Guy Pierce, Don Cheadle and Gwyneth Paltrow were all excellent.  I especially enjoyed  Ben Kingsley's performance

 The plot of the film was very interesting. It basically deals with Tony Stark  dealing with the fact that post Avengers the world is a lot bigger and scarier than he thought.  Tony Stark has to deal with his own internal struggle over the events that took place in the epic Avengers movie while dealing with a new villain The Mandarin.  I thought the film did a great job of scaling back a bit from the finale of Avengers and telling a more personal story while still being exciting and entertaining.  Marvel has realy done a great job in now tying together all of the Avengers characters into the same cinematic universe and Iron Man 3 just makes you hungry for more ---which we will soon get in the form of Thor and Captain America sequels while we wait for Avengers 2.

Here is a blog I did with pictures from Innoventions at Disneyland that has Iron Man 3 suits

http://braddisneylandblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/iron-man-3-promo-at-innoventions.html

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows 2011 7 out of 10

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows    7 out of 10

I liked this sequel, but didn't love it as much as the original .  It had all the big action scenes of its predecessor and some elements especially in the interaction between Holmes and Watson.  But it almost felt to far removed from the original Sherlock Holmes that I came to love from the books and old movies.  Where I felt it was an interesting take on Holmes the first time around this time it just felt odd.  My wife commented that she felt like Robert Downey Jr. was trying to hard to be Johnny Depp, which I felt was a good point.  This Holmes at times felt like he was just trying too hard to be weird instead of just quirky and interesting.   This movie focused entirely on his battle with his fabled nemesis  and as a result lost some of what made all the Sherlock Holmes mysteries so good --which was the mysteries themselves and how he solved them.   It still had elements of that, but was mainly  a battle of good vs evil with big special effects.

One side note...I did love the addition of Sherlock Holmes brother as played by Stephen Fry.

Check it out here..

..

The Avengers 2012 10 out of 10

.

The Avengers was everything a superhero movie should be.  Exciting, thrilling and action packed.  The perfect mix of comedy and action.  The movie had a clever and witty script.  The movies verbal fights were  just as good as the physical fights.  This movie was a perfect example of  the sum of its parts being more than the parts themselves.  None of the these characters on their own were this good.   The original Hulk movie was a disaster.....Iron Man was surprisingly good as was Captain Americam but not at this level....Thor was a dud ( at least when he was on earth).   I would never go and see a Hawkeye movie or Nick Fury or Black Widow, but somehow put them all together and it makes the best superhero sandwich to ever hit the screen.  I don't consider myself a comic book fan....but I'm a devoted follower of the director of The Avengers.   I love everything he has put on the small screen.  Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dr, Horrible and Dollhouse were all great.  Whedon took everything he learned from making those shows concerning the group dynamics of those shows characters and blended it somehow just right,  Flawed good guys that can be bad at times, fighting each other and then banding together for a common goal.

The Avengers success is all about balance...it was all about the right mix of ingredients that make the recipe for success just right.  Someone in Hollywood got it right in hiring Whedon to shepherd this movie.   Just like the people that put the trust in the Lord of the Rings movies in the hands of the guy that made Dead Alive and Bad Taste.  Whoever decided to give this group of superheroes in the capable hands of the guy that made Buffy was a genius

 After seeing The Avengers I can't imagine them going back to doing solo movies again.  The scope and scale of The Avengers was well beyond the other solo films

Zodiac 2007 6 out of 10

A solid movie about the true story of the Zodiac killer.  Generally good acting with the exception of   dorky Jake   Gyllenhaal    who wanders around looking half retarded and confused all the time.    The story is interesting –as it follows the newspapers involvement and the police departments search for the killer.  Although the film was good –its true  life  basis hindered it from being a truly exciting and entertaining movie. 

It kind of left me unsatisfied---The story itself was interesting –but would probably be better as a documentary style A&E  crime story ---rather than a feature film.

My Facebook movie page is here

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brads-Super-Fantastic-Terrific-Page-of-Movies/178708865473822