Robin Hood Begins

If you are expecting a swashbuckling Errol Flynn, a debonaire Douglas Fairbanks, an assortment of singing animals from around the globe, or a Bryan Adams ballad you are shit out of luck. However, what Ridley Scott offers the audience in his 2010 installment of Robin Hood is (overall) enjoyable.

The movie begins on an opaque day, with arrows flying towards a French castle during the Third Crusade, as England is reeling from their devastating losses of life. Well, the movie actually begins with medieval "Tusken Raiders" ambushing the Lady Marion (Cate Blanchett)and her hometown of Nottingham in the dead of the night. Nevertheless, what is not known at this point in the movie is that Robin Longstride, played very Irishly by Ridley Scott's wonderboy Russell Crowe, has yet to become (who English folklore commonly refer to as)Robin Hood. This film is what would be referred to as a prequel.

Screenwriter, Bryan Helgeland has intertwined many (somewhat) confusing story lines into the movie with a copious amount of characters; it is obviously presumed that the audience should know in advance a majority of them. However, the characters are brilliantly cast starting with Robin's (soon to be) Merry Men; Little John, played by Canadian cyborg Kevin Durand; Will Scarlet, played by Scott Grimes; and Allan A'Dayle, played by Great Big Sea's frontman Alan Doyle (undoubtedly got the role due to his ability to play the mandolin and being rock buds with Mr. Crowe). Comical moments are contributed by The Merry Men and Friar Tuck (Mark Addy)who provides humorous lines like "if I were not a Friar, I would surely be the town drunkard". The main antagonist is a spiteful man named Godfrey...Godfrey? Yes Godfrey, not the Sheriff of Nottingham or even King John. Godfrey, played by Mark Strong, is King John's henchman with alterior motives.

During the film, Scott wonderfully juxtaposes the picturesque Nottingham forest shots to the the tension felt by the citizens of England who believe they are being fleeced by the newly appointed King John. In fact, up until the final fight scene (which I will get into), Scott has constructed a nearly perfectly fluent film. Occasionally the score, done by German composer Marc Streitenfeld (Scott's new Hans Zimmer), seems a little out of context; however, we do get to hear the obligatory mezzo-soprano wailing in the background that we are used to in this genre of movie.

The film took a turn for the worse after a crowd pleasing inspirational speech (by Robin) that would even make (the Scottish) William Wallace proud. I do not know whether Scott felt obliged to throw in a final fight scene to please his producers or whether he just wanted to get his rocks off but the 15 minute battle on the south of England was one of the most unnecessary, uninspired, and anti-climactic fight scenes I have seen in recent memory. When the supposed leader of the English army first identifies the armada of French approaching on the English Channel he remarks, "that's a lot of French". Well, it certainly was, it certainly was.

6/10 (see it, but if you have to take a pee break wait for the fight scene...I wish I had)

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"Iron Man 2"

With an opening weekend of just over $128 million in sales, Iron Man 2 eclipsed it's predecessor by $28 million. However, where Iron Man 2 makes up in sales, it lacks in ingenuity.

Robert Downey Jr. returns as Tony Stark the boyishly narcissistic CEO of the military contracting company, Stark Industries and Gwyneth Paltrow, his reluctant assistant, returns as Pepper Potts. Unfortunately, other than the director Jon Favreau (in a supporting role), Downey Jr. and Paltrow are the only two carry overs from the first installment. This is significant as Don Cheadle now replaces Terrance Howard as Stark's confidant, Lt. Colonel James Rhodes/War Machine. Unfortunately, Cheadle's acting makes certain scenes in Iron Man 2 laughable (when they are not supposed to be). During Stark's birthday party (donning the Iron Man suit sans helmet) an inebriated Stark's is confronted by Rhodes and who has just broken into Stark's secure basement suite that contains all the "spare" Iron Man uniforms and thrown on the "War Machine" version. The two suit bearing warriors precede to throw each other around Stark's mansion while an aghast crowd watches in disbelief, even though they seemed to be enjoying the boozed up billionaire exploding watermelons over their heads five minutes previous to the confrontation. This fight scene could have been enjoyable if it wasn't paused every seven seconds with the obligatory "Tony, you have to stop this!" said by Rhodes. If Paramount had swallowed its pride and paid the man (Terrance Howard) his money, I believe this would have been a much more enjoyable scene and even movie.

However, it was not all doom, gloom, and bad Don Cheadle quotes. The chemistry between Downey Jr. and Paltrow has obviously carried over from the first installment and is quite enjoyable to watch. Sam Rockwell as rival weapons manufacturer Justin Hammer is phenomenal as always; Mickey Rourke as Stark's primary antagonist, Ivan Vanko, is enjoyable with his constant Russian snickers; and Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff the undercover spy from S.H.I.E.L.D. is not only aesthetically wonderful but definitely fit perfectly into her leather suit errr role.

The cast as an ensemble was excellent (other than Cheadle); however, Favreau took away from the believabilty that was present in the first. Unlike the first Iron Man where Favreau mixed in the right amount of humor with the right amount of drama and action, he barrages the viewer with an overabundance of uneccessary action/fight scenes. Despite its weaknesses, Iron Man 2 is worth watching in theaters once, if not only for Downey Jr., Johansson, and Stan Lee's "Where's Waldo" impression that he seems to be doing in all the new breed of Marvel produced movies.

6/10 (see it)

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