May movie reviews

IRON MAN. Robert Downey Jr plays a brilliant scientist who has used his genius to become a wealthy weapons inventor and dealer. One day he gets kidnapped by the Taliban. His experience in captivity helps him see what his livelihood actually does to innocent people. So once he escapes and gets back home, he experiments making himself a superhero so he can fight evil. The story is typical of the comic-book-to-movie genre, and only Robert Downey Jr. saves it from being ordinary. His quips save the day. The movie is reasonably amusing and fun to watch, but no BATMAN BEGINS, in my opinion. It is a good example of the genre, I guess, but most movies based on comic books aren’t my thing.

SEX AND THE CITY. Follow up to the hit HBO show. Now the women are in their 40s, and the movie is more about their relationships than sex or the quest for love. Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte are still with the same guys (Big, Steve, Harry and whatever that hunky guy’s name is). It’s not nearly as funny as the show could be (Samantha just doesn’t have those zingers to say), and I thought the early part was slow going. Still, it won me over by the end. If you need to see the ups and downs of how Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha are doing 5 years later, this is the movie for you. I can’t imagine any one else being all that interested. It's rather melodramatic.

SMART PEOPLE. Dennis Quaid is a pretentious English lit professor, widowed and living with his equally pretentious (and driven) teenage daughter (Ellen Page, in a somewhat JUNO-like role). He is very prickly and emotionally unavailable. His loser stepbrother (Thomas Haden Church) shows up and ends up moving into the home in spite of the professor's wishes. One day the Professor ends up in the hospital and meets a former student (Sarah Jessica Parker), who is now a doctor. They very tentatively move toward a relationship, although he is really bad at it, apparently having lost all his charm and social skills since his wife died. This is a reasonably predictable movie, ordinary people just trying to make it through life, with some romance and some comedy, but I found it very enjoyable.

REDBELT. This film stars Chiwetel Ejiofer as the owner and instructor at a jiujutsu academy in Los Angeles. His brother-in-law is involved in promoting championship fights. He and his wife are struggling, but he doesn’t believe in competition, and so won't fight for money. Also moving the plot along are a cop who is down on his luck, an attorney that is struggling with past trauma, and an aging action movie star. Written and directed by David Mamet, who is not one of my favorite filmmakers. And I am certainly not interested in mixed martial arts. Still, the movie kept me interested, so if you like one or the other, this might be a movie for you.

PRICELESS. French movie starring Audrey Tautou (AMELIE). Generally, she is all about sleeping with rich old men for their money. Living an extravagant lifestyle seems to be her goal in life. Her current geezer falls asleep on her, and she goes down to the hotel bar to get a drink. Through a misunderstanding she thinks the bartender is another rich guest, and they have a little fling. A year later, they meet again, and when she realizes he is not wealthy, she doesn't want to have anything to do with him. But eventually, out of friendship, she gives him advice on how to scam rich old women like she is scamming rich old men. But of course they will eventually fall for each other. I think this movie is supposed to be all frothy and light-hearted and amusing, but really, what they are doing is rather distasteful and hurtful, and I didn't really get into it.