Director: Jon Favreau

Writer: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway (Screenplay) Stan Lee, Don Heck, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby (Characters)

Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb, Shaun Toub, Faran Tahir

Plot: After being held captive in an Afghan cave, billionaire engineer Tony Stark creates a unique weaponized suit of armor to fight evil.

Tagline – Heroes aren’t born. They’re built

Runtime: 2 Hours 6 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict:  Great Start to the Franchise

Story: Iron Man starts as billionaire engineer Tony Stark (Downey Jr) is captured on a routine weapon visit to Afghanistan showing off his latest weapon, his capturer wants him to build a new weapon, but Tony was injured and is in shock at the number of weapons from his company they have.

Tony builds a suit which he will use to escape and save his own life, one which could be used to fight evil, he becomes Iron Man. His long-time friend Rhodey (Howard) is impressed with his new toy, and his partner Obadiah Stane (Bridges) wants to use the weapon to continue the war effort. Tony will have to learn the position he is know in the world to learn to protect it.

Thoughts on Iron Man

Characters – Tony Stark is a billionaire playboy engineer who has been developing the latest weapons to defend the home land, he looks down on most the people he meets including the soldiers showing around the warzone. He gets captured and designs a weapon that sees him escape, he makes himself Iron Man which will keep him alive, which sees him looking at life through different eyes, where he doesn’t want to supply weapons in conflict. Rhodey is the military best friend of Tony’s he uses the weapons created to help his men, he can get tired of Tony’s partying lifestyle. Obadiah Stane ran Stark enterprise after Tony’s parents death, he has mentored Tony in business, but is left with a difficult decision after Tony’s decision to stop making weapons. Pepper Potts is Tony’s assistant, she handles the affairs while he gets on with his business.

Performances – Robert Downey Jr is fantastic in the leading role, we can believe his confidence and cocky nature that he is showing through the film. Terrence Howard is playing a more grounded character, he would go onto be replaced in this role, he just doesn’t have the complete opposite against that Robert brings. Jeff Bridges is strong as the villainous businessman who is controlled by greed. Gwyneth Paltrow does a solid job as Pepper, where she is going to become a character we get to know through the franchise.

Story – The story shows us how Tony Stark went from businessman to Iron Man after learning the cost of his weapons which are being used on both sides of the war and must stop the man running his family’s company into the ground with these action. For origin stories we get to see the change in Tony’s mentality over the course of the story which is what will make somebody a hero. We don’t get the completely over the top destruction, with most of the fight scenes blending into the story where we see Tony learning how to control his suit. We get the first steps into the Marvel Cinematic Universe which brings the franchise to life with this just needing to give the hero an early villain that will make him a new hero in the world.

Action/Sci-Fi – The action in this film comes war sequences and how Tony learns about his suits capabilities, the first mission shows what we are going to see in the future. The sci-fi elements in this film comes from how the suit is created to keep Tony alive and the new levels of technology involved.

Settings – The film takes us to a couple of locations, Miami where Tony lives shows his playboy lifestyle, the Afghan locations show how the war is being fought with the two different sides and the same weapons.

Special Effects – The effects used in this film show us the scale of what Tony will have do to survive, we have the idea of his heart that never looks out of place.

Scene of the Movie – Iron Man’s first mission.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – Rhodey isn’t the most interesting character in this film.

Final Thoughts – This is a wonderful beginning to the franchise which would go onto change how cinema is experienced, it has the origin of an unknown character to the casual fans of comic book movies, which works for laughs and action, without being a comedy.

Overall: Fun, entertaining and enjoyable.

Rating

Director: Isaac Gabaeff

Writer: Alex Greenfield, Ben Powell (Screenplay)

Starring: Brooke Butler, Cleo Berry, Cynthia Murell, Dean Geyer, Meagan Holder, Mitchel Musso

Plot: After an all-night graduation beach party, a group of hung-over twenty-somethings awake to a beating sun, and a seemingly carnivorous beach that devours anything with a heartbeat that touches the sand.

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

Verdict: Nice Idea, Terrible Script

Story: The Sand starts when graduates Kaylee (Butler), Gilbert (Berry), Ronnie (Murell), Jonah (Geyer), Chanda (Holder), Mitch (Musso) and others have an all-night beach party the hangover is going to be the least of their worries.

The friends find themselves trapped on the whatever they can to avoid the sand which devours anything with a heartbeat that touches it, now the friends must figure out how to get off the beach before they can become victims of whatever is in the sand.

Thoughts on The Sand

Characters – College students, well we love them being the characters in horror films because even with their education they shouldn’t make panic filled decisions. Kaylee is the smartest and most responsible of the students who is looking forward to her final exams, Gilbert the big guy who gets wedge in a trash can, that is about his character rounded up, Ronnie is the one that just shouts out what could be causing the sand to react the way it is, we don’t really learn too much about any of these characters to be honest.

Performance – Looking at the performances you can’t help but laugh because due to the awfully written script the actors don’t stand a chance in this film, the reactions from all are terrible, one character says they are in 1000x more pain than a jellyfish sting and it sounds just like they kicked their toe. The performance all around are terrible and you can’t see a single good thing about them.

Story – After trashing the script and performances this part will be strange, I did like the idea of the group of friends trapped on the beach with something waiting to eat them in the most painful way possible. I feel this compares to the Creepshow short with the friends trapped on the wooden island with the blob dissolving anything that comes into the water. The problem with the story comes from the characters involved who don’t make normal decisions, the logical ones are clear here and nobody bothers to take any of them one.

Horror/Sci-Fi – The horror does come from the fate the students will face if they touch the sand which dissolves anyone that touches it. The sci-fi side comes from just what could be in the sand is not of this world.

Settings – The beach does make for a wonderful setting for this film because it is a normal location people go to and the new threat adds to something people could experience there.

Special Effects – This is a low budget film so the CGI isn’t going to be great and you can see it through ever scene it is used in.

Scene of the Movie – Barrel of laughs.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The dialogue between the characters is so bad, it is either you slept with my boyfriend or is X alright just after they are dissolved.

Final Thoughts – This film does have a good concept but it fails to use this idea to the full extent due to awful performance and dialogue between the characters.

Overall: Fails to use what is has, to become great.

Rating