I had high expectations for this movie. While it is definitely a good film, it still did not fully reach those expectations.
For those of you unaware of this movie's premise (it was based off a Steven King book and a 1987 film adaptation of the book) a man who has been blacklisted and can't get a job, finds nowhere to turn but a game show where a man is hunted by people wanting to kill him for 30 days. This premise seems like a perfect fit for director/co-writer Edgar Wright, whose fortes are action and satire. He mostly succeeds but strangely the film feels too restrained, lacking Wright's usual touch.
There is a lot to really like about this film. Glen Powell is fantastic in the main role, giving a real charismatic charm to the main character here. He is both a lot of fun to watch and this role and quite likable. Though the visuals never fully utilize the sci-fi setting (in the way you think Wright would), this is a consistently handsome looking movie. The action scenes are excellent, being a lot of fun and very exciting. For the most part this movie does a good job of mixing its political and social commentary in with mainstream entertainment (though a couple scenes can be too on the nose and preachy). There are some moments of genuinely good commentary.
Oddly for an Edgar Wright film, a lot of the comedy simply falls flat. Despite seeing this in a theater with an audience no one laughed at even one of the comedic moments. These comedic moments felt oddly restrained and often times quite forced. The main problem with this movie though is in a very messy last act, which is full of contrivances that don't make much logical sense and seem to exist only so the movie can reach the desired ending. This desired ending is nowhere near as satisfying as it should be, due to it not feeling earned.
There is a lot to like about this film, yet it never lives up to its true potential.
Hello my friends and welcome back for another service of Cowboy Church.
Today’s musical selection begins with the King of the Cowboys and The Queen of the West, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans with Jesus in the Morning. This song reminds us that we are not only to leave a small part of the day with Jesus as our focus but all day long as well as everyday. We should wake up each morning with Jesus on our mind and go to bed each night the same way. While few of us will succeed with this every day, we will find that each day we do it will be an enriching day that will makes us grow as a person. This song comes from Roy and Dale’s 1973 gospel album, In the Sweet By and By.
This is followed by Patty Loveless with Diamond in my Crown. This comes from her 2009 gospel album, Mountain Soul II.
Afterwards is Red Sovine with Cast Thy Bread Upon the Water.
Then comes The Sons of the Pioneers with their 1937 recording of Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. . This hymn began with a man named Anthony Showalter. As a fan of gospel music and an elder in a Presbyterian church, he held many "singing schools" at various churches in the south. One day he received two letters from former students who were struggling after their wives had passed. To respond to these letters, Showalter consulted scripture. He came across Deuteronomy 33:27, "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." After reading this verse lyrics for a song chorus went through his head and he wrote down, "“Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms; Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.” After using this in the letters to his former students he sent this chorus to his friend hymnist, Elisha Hoffman. In the letter he also wrote, “Here is the chorus for a good hymn from Deuteronomy 33:27, but I can’t come up with the verses.” Hoffman then wrote the rest of the lyrics to which Showalter put to music. The hymn was published in 1887.
Next comes Washington Phillips with his 1929 recording of The Church Needs Good Deacons.
Following is Megan Fowler with Jesus Paid it All. Elvina Hall wrote the words to this hymn on the flyleaf of her hymn book and handed it to her pastor. Meanwhile the church's organist John Grape handed the pastor a new piece of music he had just written. Noticing that the poem and the music fit together perfectly, the pastor put the two together and the hymn was born. The hymn came to be in 1865. This recording comes from Megan's 2017 album, Tune My Heart. Megan is a very talented and lovely country singer that has as of yet not received the attention she deserves.
Today's musical selection closes with Johnny Cash with This Train is Bound for Glory. This wonderful recording comes from John's 1979 album; A Believer Sings the Truth. This was a double length gospel album and Columbia Records felt that such an album from John could never be successful. However, Columbia allowed John to release the album on its own and it was successful earning a spot in the Country Top 50. A shorter version of the album called I Believe would be released in 1984, which would feature a select few songs from the double album. A Believer Sings the Truth would not find its way to CD until 2012.
Now for a sermon from Al Green.
Now for today's movie, Cattle Thief (1936) starring Ken Maynard.
Movie Age, 1931
Psalm 91
1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. 5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, 6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. 7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. 8 You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, 10 no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 “Because he[b] loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15 He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for another service of Cowboy Church. Happy Trails to you until we meet again.
Hello, my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again, it is time for some classic cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection begins with Felix the Cat in Bold King Cole (1936). The Van Beuren cartoon studio never enjoyed the success of Disney, Warner Brothers, Walter Lantz or the Fleischer Brothers. One of the main reasons for this was that they lacked strong starring characters that would stay in the minds of movie goers. To try to get some of the success other cartoon studios had, studio boss Amadee J. Van Bueren in 1934 decided to hire Burt Gillett away from Disney and have Gillett supervise all the studio's output. Gillett had been the director of Disney's The Three Little Pigs (1933), the most popular cartoon of the era. Gillett clashed with many of the old hand, who felt a certain amount of resentment towards him. In 1936 Gillett decided to purchase the rights to two popular properties in order to give the studio stronger starring characters (something they were still lacking). One of these was Fontaine Fox's comic strip Toonerville Trolly and the other was Felix the Cat, who had been a major animated cartoon star during the silent era. Three new cartoons were made with Felix, of which I feel Bold King Cole is the strongest. This film has a wonderful sense of atmosphere and a delightfully clever story. However, purchasing these properties all proved to be for naught. The Disney studio left their previous distributor United Artists and found a new distributor in RKO. Unfortunately for Van Beuren RKO was also the distributor of the Van Beuren cartoons. With the Disney cartoons RKO had no further use for the Van Beuren ones and this would mark the end of the Van Beuren studio.
Next comes the Terry Toons short, Pick-necking (1933).
Now for the Mickey Mouse Works cartoon, Mickey's Mix-Up (2000). This cartoon would later air as part of the House of Mouse episode, The Mouse Who Came to Dinner (2001). The short really benefits from a very strong ending gag.
Next is the Terry Toons short, Swooning the Swooners (1945). This film was written by John Foster. As well as writing plenty of Terry Toons cartoons, Foster also directed plenty of them. Studio head Paul Terry would sate about John Foster, "John Foster was the best, the most brilliant. They say if you can take a little out of this and a little out of that it's called research. But if you take a big bite out of one thing, that's plagiarism and you're a thief. So, we used to have a saying, John Foster and I, 'Never steal more than you can carry.'" Director Connie Rasinski began working on Terry Toons shorts in the 1930's and would continue to do so through the 1960's. About Rasinski Terry stated, "He came to work when it was Terry, Moser and Coffman. An old friend of mine named Litchfeild, who was a painter, passed away, and his wife sent this kid over to get a job, and I gave him a job. And that's Connie. Connie, who came to work for me as a kid, developed rapidly and he was with me for practically all his life. He was fat and everything he drew was chubby and round and well fed."
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Now for an old Stop Motion short that is not creepy at all, Dolly Daisy in Hearts and Flowers (1930). Also, the poor kid who just gets run over by two cars. There are no words that can describe just what you are about to watch here.
Next comes Porky Pig in Porky's Prize Pony (1941). In this cartoon, Porky sings We're in The Money with modified lyrics. This song was written by Al Dublin and Harry Warren for the movie, Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). Since that was a Warner Brothers movie, this song appears in many classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts.
Now for the Walter Lantz produced Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, Kings Up (1934). One of the animators on this film is future legendary cartoon director, Tex Avery (credited as Fred Avery). Tex Avery later remembered how he came to work at Walter Lantz studio and found himself as an animator. "I met a fella who knew a girl who was head of the inking and painting at Walter Lantz's, so I inked and painted for a while. . .. Then I worked up into inbetweens, then about that time Disney raided the whole West Coast for talent. And the three quarters of us who were left knew nothing of animation. We had just been inbetweening." Taking this into account, despite the flaws, it is impressive how much of the animation actually works.
Today's cartoon selection ends with The Simpsons in The Art Museum (1988). This is one of the short Simpsons cartoons for The Tracey Ullman Show, before the cartoon family got their own TV show.
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry.
Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin.
This film follows the true story of Sarah Rector, a young 11-year-old black girl, who is given a plot of land that she believes God is telling her oil is on. When she hires a company to check for if there is oil on her land, they try to swindle her out of her land.
What makes this movie work is that it shows us the ugly side of humanity, while still remaining hopefully about the future. The film never sugarcoats when it comes to racism and human greed. We see the absolute worst of both of them here and some of these scenes can be heartbreaking to watch. Yet this is a movie about how sometimes human decency and kindness can sometimes overcome hatred and greed. We may know that this may not always be the case but knowing it can happen sometimes gives us hope, especially as sadly this kind of hatred and can sadly still exist.
This movie also benefits from some strong concise storytelling that doesn't waster a moment, as well as some strong acting. While Zachary Levi gives one of his better performances here, it is young Naya Desir-Johnson as the titular character who steals the show. She is so charming, likable and completely believable here that she makes the whole movie work very well.
I will say though that this movie is very predictable and it is very often that you can see exactly where it is going. There are no surprises in the whole movie.
This animated movie from France and Belgium is one of my favorite movies of the year.
This movie falls a little girl from her birth to three years old, with the girl narrating the story for us.
From this simple premise comes one of the smartest and most insightful films, I have seen in quite a while. Telling this story directly from the point of view from such a young child proved to be a brilliant idea. When you are a child, everything is new to you and because of this, the joyous moments feel more joyful, and the sad moments feel sadder. Very early on, this movie puts us directly in this state of mind. We feel these emotions in that exact same way. There are times when this movie makes us feel the greatest joy at the absolute simplicist of moments such as running through the flowers on a spring day or feeling rain fall down upon you or seeing the ocean. At the same time, you feel great sorrow over the idea of someone you love having to leave. This is one of the most emotional rides I have had in a movie theatre in a long time. All of this is helped by a gorgeous art style that captures how beautiful the world can look to us when we are that young.
Even if this movie focuses on a young child, its insights into life are very important to anyone any age. It talks about how nothing and no one is truly lost if they live on in our memories. This is a very real and insightful message that helps us with the painful emotions we experience without sugarcoating anything. The message is also told to us in a very intelligent and insightful way, with some truly well-written dialogue.
As smart and mature as this movie is, it is not one of those artsy animated films that can only be enjoyed by adults. This film is completely approachable to a child of any age, and it is never too early to introduce them to a great work of art.
If you watch this film in theaters, it will be accompanied by a short film, titled Éiru, from the Irish animation studio, Cartoon Saloon. This is a delightful short film that is well written, very creative and full of fantastic artwork.
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is a must see for fans of mature, smart and insightful animated films. It is a pure masterpiece.
This movie is quite a departure for this franchise. One of the predators is actually this film's protagonist and there are virtually no horror elements to be found. Despite this the movie is actually quite good. Though there are more characters in here, the majority of the movie focuses specifically on two characters. These two characters are very likable and very well defined. While the movie shows their flaws, we like them and root for them right from the start. The relationship between these two characters is also quite well defined. We feel these characters' relationship growing over the course of the film and see the ways they change each other for the better. This all happens at a very believable pace. Caring for these characters makes it so that the emotional moments hit just right. The movie also benefits from some fantastic visuals that look incredible on a Dolby or IMAX screen. These visuals really help this setting come to life and make it feel like we have fully entered this sci-fi world. There are also plenty of truly great action scenes.
Unfortunately, the humor falls flat almost consistently. Likewise, the film is very predictable at times.
Many writings on Buster Keaton tend to focus on his silent movie work. It is very easy to see why. During the silent era, Buster enjoyed the most creative freedom over his films. It was also during this time that Buster released what are considered his greatest masterpieces. However, Buster had a much longer career, and one should not overlook his sound films. Even if his sound films never reached the heights of his silent work, there are moments of Keaton brilliance found in them.
This is why I greatly appreciate Jim Kline's book, The Complete Films of Buster Keaton. As the title states, this book covers every single film Buster Keaton ever made ranging from The Butcher Boy (1917) to The Scribe (1966). After an introduction giving an overview of Buster's career, this book adopts a very simple format. It goes over each film individually and in order. For each film Kline provides a list of credits, a story synopsis, his own personal opinion on the film and some background information. All this makes for a fun, easy and approachable read. While I greatly enjoyed reading about the all the classic silent films here, it was the looks at the underdiscussed talkie films that made me love this book. Though very well-written everything he has to say about the silent films has also been said in other books. However, to read such well-written reviews of such little discussed films from the career of one of the movies' finest comedic talents is truly fascinating. I especially enjoyed his reviews of Buster's shorts for Colombia, where Three Stooges director/producer Jules White gave Buster material more fitting of the Stooges (though as us Stooge lovers know, White was hardly the Stooges' best director). However with his writings about Buster’s silent era work, I enjoyed what the author had to say about the early shorts he made with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle as he gives great insight into how both comedians' personal styles came together to create these films.
One thing you can't hold against this book is that there has been a lot of research done since it was written, therefore film buffs may know more about Buster's most popular films than is said here.
This is a delightful read for any fan of classic movie comedy.
Hello, my friends and welcome back for another service of Cowboy Church.
Today's musical selection begins with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans singing, Sweet Hour of Prayer. The words of this hymn are believed to have come from William W. Walford, a blind preacher from Warwickshire, England. It is believed that when fellow minister and friend, Thomas Salmon visited him in 1842, he asked Salmon to write down the words of a poem he had written about prayer. When Salmon was in the United States, three years later, he showed the poem to an editor of The New York Observer. It was then printed in an issue dated September 13, 1845. In 1861, William Bradbury would write the music for this hymn. Bradbury had also written the music for such Hymns as Just as I Am, He Leadeth Me and The Solid Rock. This recording of the hymn was the title track of Roy and Dale's 1957 gospel album.
This is followed by Jean Shepard with Where No One Stands Alone. This song was written by Mosie Lister, one of the most influential and important gospel songwriters of the 1950's. Mosie was also one of the founding members of the gospel singing group, The Statesmen Quartet. Not long afterwards he left the band and performing to concentrate on songwriting and that is when he wrote many of his finest compositions, including this one.
Afterwards is Patty Loveless with You Burned the Bridge. This recording comes from her 2009 gospel album, Mountain Soul II.
Then is The Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis with Too Much to Gain to Lose.
Next is the Sons of the Pioneers with their 1937 recording of Heavenly Airplane. This song was written by Bob Nolan, one of the founding members of the group and one of my favorite songwriters. Bob also has the lead vocals on this song. Hugh Farr's fiddle playing here is truly wonderful. This recording was done when Roy Rogers was still a member of the group before embarking on his solo career.
Afterwards is Washington Phillips with his 1927 recording of Paul and Silas in Jail.
It is hard to believe that a song like The Man Comes Around was so late in Johnny Cash's career. Most of the time singer/songwriters don't release and certainly don't write their best music in their sixth decade, but as all music fans know Johnny was one of the rare artists with such a long career, who left this world at the top of his game musically. At this time John was on fire for the lord. No longer was he the wild crazy man he had been in the 1950's and 60's, instead by this time he had become a true man of God, and wanted to do all he could for the lord before he passed away. He knew he had wasted too much of his life being controlled by sin and finally wanted to be a servant to God instead of to his own fleshly desires. At this time he was also seeing a musically resurgence, where he was more popular than ever and young audiences were embracing his new music just as much as they did any younger artist of their generation. What he wanted to do was to create a modern day gospel song that would speak directly to this younger audience and The Man Comes Around more than fit that bill. Because this song was so near and dear to him he spent more time writing it than any other song he had composed. In his book, Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon, Pastor Greg Laurie wrote "Personally I think it is the strongest song Johnny ever wrote. It is both biblical and personal, powerful and poetic."
Today's musical selection ends with Anne Wilson with Still Do. This comes from Still Do. This song is from her 2025 album, Stars.
Now for a message from S.M. Lockridge.
Now for the Red Ryder movie, Vigilantes of Boomtown (1947).
Psalm 46
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth. A song.
1God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see what the LORD has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for another service of Cowboy Church. Happy trails to you until we meet again.
Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection starts with a delightful early Mickey Mouse short, The Gorilla Mystery (1930). This short film was somewhat spoofing the 1925 play The Gorilla which also involved a dark house and a sinister gorilla. This play had been made into a silent feature film, The Gorilla (1927). The same year as this cartoon was released a talkie remake, The Gorilla (1930). A more comedic approach to this story was the later Ritz Brothers feature, The Gorilla (1939). The gorilla used in this Mickey cartoon (according to studio documentation) is the same one who would appear in the future Mickey Mouse shorts, Mickey's Mechanical Man (1933) and The Pet Store (1933). This movie benefits from some great atmospheric touches that show just how advanced the Disney studio was even at this point. Those of you who have seen the Mickey Mouse short film, Get a Horse (2013), should note that that Mickey's shout of "Minnie" in this cartoon was reused in that film. Mickey's cry of "Bring her back Mr. Ingagi" is a reference to the movie, Ingagi (1930), which also featured an evil gorilla.
Up next is the Terry Toons cartoon, A Truckload of Trouble (1949). I really like the three main characters in this short and wish they could have been used in more cartoons.
Now for the Aesop's Sound Fables cartoon, Foolish Follies (1930). The following is a review from an issue of Motion Picture News, "Van Beuren's stock of pen and ink animal characters provoke a load of laughter with their version of 'Foolish Follies' on the stage of the Casino, where they burlesque the more popular types of vaude acts. Running time, 6 minutes. Good stuff for heavy feature."
Next is the early Porky Pig cartoon, Plane Dippy (1936). This is the film in which we learn Porky's full name, Porky Cornelius Washington Otis Lincoln Abner Aloysius Casper Jefferson Philbert Horatius Narcissus Pig. I'm sure you all will memorize that name. As well as Porky this film also has some other characters that also premiered in the Merrie Melodies cartoon, I Haven't Got A Hat (1935) such as Little Kitty (who plays an important role here). Comic fans may also notice that the character of Professor Blotz looks extremely similar to a character from the Mickey Mouse comic strip, Professor Ecks. Though this movie is directed by Tex Avery, don't except the pure insanity of his later cartoons, as this was still early in his directorial career and he hadn't fully developed his style yet. Still this cartoon has many very funny gags in it, I especially love Porky writing his name. The following is an exhibitor's review from the Motion Picture Herald, "PLANE DIPPY: Looney Tune—This is a very comical cartoon. Above the average.—Paul J. Pope, Avon Theatre, Geneva, Ala., Small Town and Rural Patronage."
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Now for a silent classic, Mutt and Jeff in The Globe Trotters (1926). The more of these Mutt and Jeff cartoons I watch, the more I am convinced that they are some of the best cartoons of the silent era.
Motion Picture News, 1917
Now we join Andy Panda in Crow Crazy (1945). This is the first of two cartoons to feature Andy's dog Milo. The other was Mousie Come Home (1946). Andy would have different dogs in other cartoons, but I think Milo is the most memorable.
Now for Dudley Do-Right in The Centaur (1969).
Today's cartoon selection ends with The Simpsons in Jumping Bart (1987). This is one of the shorts made for The Tracey Ullman Show before the animated family received their own TV show.
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for another selection of animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry.
Resources Used
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History by J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein.
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
A flawed movie that works because of a masterful performance by Jennifer Lawrence.
Jennifer Lawrence truly shines in the role of a woman who is having a mental breakdown after having a baby. She is absolutely incredible here. This is one of those performances in which you forget you are watching an actress or a fictional character. All you see is a real person on the screen. And though sometimes I found myself getting angry at the character's actions (she can be selfish and downright cruel), I could feel the authenticity in every one of these moments. Though Lawrence has always been a very strong actress, this movie shows the depth and maturity she is capable of. Robert Pattinson and Sissy Spacek (a personal favorite actress of mine) are great as well, but this movie is Jennifer Lawrence's time to shine. And shine she does.
I am also greatly impressed with the very cinematic way this movie is told. The rural setting and the way this setting is shot and often lingered on, greatly enhances the feeling of isolation. Meanwhile the soundtrack is very effectively used. There are moments that are almost silent and moments that are deafeningly loud, both of which are used masterfully to put us in the mindset of the main character.
However, this movie is relentlessly depressing. While there have been many great sad movies most of them have at least a few moments that relieve you from the sadness or offer a faint glimmer of hope. That is not here at all. We simply see our main character fall further and further down the rabbit hole of misery. Many of the ways this is done feel completely unnecessary. Did we really need the whole subplot about the dog or having her husband cheat on her, when the focus of this movie is on the effect motherhood has on her? These subplots only exist to tie her down with even more misery. It gets to the point fairly early on, when it is easy to become fed up with the misery this movie constantly heaps on its characters that we simply find ourselves wanting this movie to just end. This can make this movie feel much longer than it actually is.
This movie is also brought down by the use of unnecessary symbolism and avant-garde visuals. This is a film that works best when it tells its story and a more realistic and relatable fashion. The more abstract and artsy scenes seem to be too much in contrast with the majority of the film.
This is a very flawed movie but also one that is held down by a truly great lead performance.
Iron Man 3 was the first of the live action Iron Man movies (not counting The Avengers (2012)) to be directed by someone other than Jon Favreau (though he still served as an executive producer and played the character of Happy). The director instead would be Shane Black. Shane Black had made his directorial debut with another movie starring Robert Downey Jr., Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005). His other directorial effortThe Nice Guys (2016), The Predator (2018) and Play Dirty (2025). Before becoming a director, he worked as a writer on such movies as Lethal Weapon (1987), The Monster Squad (1987), Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), The Last Boy Scout (1991) and Last Action Hero (1993). About taking over this film series Black stated, "truthfully, the way to go about doing a part 3, if you're ever in that position, as I'm lucky enough to be, is to find a way that the first two weren't done yet. You have to find a way to make sure that the story that's emerging is still ongoing and, by the time you've finished 3, will be something resembling the culmination of a trilogy. It's about, 'How has the story not yet been completely told?,' and I think we're getting there. I think we've really found ways to make this feel organic and new, based on what's come before, and that's what I'm happy about."
In this film, Tony Stark finds himself during with strong PTSD after the events of The Avengers. He is having bad anxiety attacks and is having trouble sleeping. Meanwhile a terrorist known as the Mandarin is supposedly behind a series of bombings. When Tony investigates, he discovers that there might be more going on here than meets the eye.
This is one of the most underrated MCU films. It is rarely listed when people talk about the best Marvel movies, however it is truly excellent.
Like many of the best superhero movies, this functions as a character study first and foremost. Tony Stark feels even more real and human here than in the other MCU films. After two solo movies and one Avengers film, it is amazing that the filmmakers were able to find a new side to Tony to explore here. Exploring the character's anxieties and unhealthy obsession with control is a great route to go here. The way the film deals with these sides to him are incredibly well done. It feels very real, giving a strong weight to this superhero film. This vulnerability is increased by having Tony separated from his Iron Man suit for the majority of the film. The movie feels like a real-world drama at many times with a few comic book style embellishments and this is the secret to why it is so effective.
This movie's story is also quite refreshing. It is rare to find a 21st century action packed Hollywood blockbuster that is not completely predictable. Yet this movie has some very clever twists and turns that initially took me by surprise. The film does a great job of building clear expectations and then completely subverting them in very intelligent ways.
Though the action is not the focus here, the action scenes are excellent, living up to the high standards laid in place by the previous films. This action scenes are quite exciting and often feel larger than life.
The movie does have some flaws though. The pacing is off at times. Certain scenes go on too long, while some plot points and subplots are quite rushed. The humor can also fall quite flat at times (though there are a couple really funny moments here) and is not always in tune with the more serious tone of much of the movie.
These flaws though are very well drowned out by all the elements that are truly great here.
About how this movie ended up taking place around Christmas Shane Black stated, "Well it just sort of evolved oddly enough in Iron Man 3, because I had resisted it. It was [co-screenwriter] Drew [Pearce] who taught me... I think it's a sense of if you're doing something on an interesting scale that involves an entire universe of characters, one way to unite them is to have them all undergo a common experience. There's something at Christmas that unites everybody and it already sets a stage within the stage, that wherever you are, you're experiencing this world together. I think that also there's something just pleasing about it to me. I mean I did LETHAL WEAPON back in '87 and Joe liked it so much he put Die Hard at Christmas and there was some fun to that. So, look, you don't have to do every film that way." He would add "It's a time of reckoning for a lot of people, when you take stock of how you got to where you are now and lonely people are lonelier at Christmas and you tend to notice things more acutely, I think."
This film was a major box office success grossing $1.266 billion worldwide. The movie outgrossed Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2010) combined. It would be the second highest grossing movie of 2013 with Disney's Frozen being the top film. Critical reviews were mostly positive, though not as glowing as was the case for the first Iron Man.
This movie has a very familiar storyline about a man who comes from a family of criminals. He wants to break away from his family's criminal ways because he is going to get married and have kids. However, his fiancée is killed in a botched robbery that he believes his family is responsible for. He seeks revenge on those who he believes killed his fiancée. We have seen this type of story many times before and that can make it to where this film will blend in with similar ones in our minds. However, this does not mean it can't be well told.
There is quite a bit to like here actually. Our main character is quite a good one. He is a character that we at first really like and root for. However, as his darker side comes out, our feelings towards him become more complicated. His moral decline is presented in a completely believable and gradual way. With this the movie does a great job of showing us how a seemingly good guy can have a monster living inside. This is all helped by an excellent lead performance by Billy Magnussen. The movie is also full of some really effective action scenes and some surprisingly good twists and turns.
I could have done without this film's opening scene where the main character hunts and kills a deer. He then very graphically cuts the deer up into meat. As a vegetarian and strong believer in animal rights I have always been very uncomfortable with these overly gory animal scenes. Beyond this though the scene is simply pointless in the context of the movie.
This may be overly familiar, but it is quite good for what it is.
For those of us who love classic comedy, Hal Roach is a legendary name. He produced many classic films starring the likes of Laurel and Hardy, Harold Lloyd, the Our Gang kids (also known as The Little Rascals), Charley Chase and plenty more. All these years later these films stand as some of the greatest comedies of all time. So of course, for us any book about Hal Roach makes for essential reading. However, this book stands as one of the best books about the subject. This is because it not only gives us a historical overview of one of the best comedy studios of all time, but it also gives us the most vivid portrait of Hal Roach as a person available.
Author Craig Calman is a comedy filmmaker himself who discovered the work of Hal Roach at a very young age becoming enamored with the films of Laurel and Hardy. Little did he dream as that young kid that one day he would meet the producer of those classic Laurel and Hardy films. At the age of twenty he went out on a limb and tried to contact Hal Roach, when working on a term paper. This resulted in a decades long friendship. This book is the result of that friendship. Much of the book is filled with quotes from Hal Roach. Because of this we not only get a view of how films were made at the Hal Roach Studio but also insights into Hal Roach viewed comedy and filmmaking. His views on comedy are quite revealing from him speaking about taking children into consideration but never making films only for them to him talking about how he believed that comedies should not exceed forty-five minutes (though he would make feature length comedies out of necessity). He even speaks about others in the comedy field from Mack Sennett to Benny Hill. While I may not agree on some of those comments, they do say a lot about his approach to comedy and how it differed from others. Even the times when Roach's memory proved to be faulty, what he remembers about his own work says a lot about the way he viewed his career and the various films he worked on.
Though by design this book cannot go into as much detail about individual films as Randy Skretvedt's Laurel and Hardy books or Leonard Maltin and Richard W. Bann's book about Our Gang, it still gives a very nice historical overview of the work from this movie studio. Probably most valuable is that for each year of the studio's existence, Calman provides a list of how many films were made with each of the studio's comedy stars as well as how many dramatic features or special productions were made for each year. Calman as well as using his personal experience with Hal Roach also digs into studio documentation and old movie magazines to create an even greater dig into the history of these films.
Also unlike many histories of the Hal Roach Studio, this book does not neglect the studio's later involvement in TV. This includes both TV shows made by the studio and those that used the studio's resources for filming (did you know The Abbott and Costello Show was filmed there?).
This book is a must have for any fan of classic comedy.
