Simply: I liked it a lot! I thought it was easily better than Iron Man 2 (2010), and very possibly better than Iron Man (2008) too. Having Shane Black direct this one was an inspired idea, as we’ve already seen how well he works with Robert Downey Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005). While his wit doesn’t quite equal Joss Whedon’s work in this franchise, there were a lot of great lines which Downey Jr. delivered perfectly. Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle were good again, and Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce were awesome additions. I thought the plot of this one worked quite well, and was interesting enough even without Tony Stark’s involvement. It all looked very nice, with good visual effects. One of my favourite things about it was how it continued on from the events of The Avengers (2012), and provided a nice continuation for Downey Jr.’s character. Yeah, it was just a funny, enjoyable movie with a bunch of really cool action scenes and likable characters. Also, although it hardly needs to be said for these movies by now, make sure you stay after the credits.
I’m certainly no expert on Gandhi, but I think this was an adequate biography film about him. It was a little by-the-book, not really offering all that much insight into the man himself, but still a serviceable telling of the major events in his life. Richard Attenborough’s direction was nothing special. Ben Kingsley was great though. Gandhi was a pretty amazing man, and that alone made the film worth watching, even if it wasn’t spectacular itself.
This ended up being better and funnier than I expected. It’s not as good as Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazahkstan (2006), but it was better than Brüno (2009). It was pretty much the same type of humour from Sacha Baron Cohen, so if you haven’t enjoyed his previous films, you won’t like this one. Lots of jokes intended to be offensive. And it did make me laugh a few times. It had a decent supporting cast. I wouldn’t call it some great comedy, but it’s a pleasant time-waster.
When I first heard that Martin Scorsese was making a family film, I was a bit apprehensive, just because it’s different from anything he’s done before, but I was still willing to put my trust into him. Of course, I needn’t have worried. He’s a master filmmaker and he brings us another gem here. I was happy to see him get the best director awards at the Golden Globes today. I’m actually hesitant to call it a kids film though. The lead characters are children, yeah, but I’m not sure all kids would actually like the film. It seemed very much aimed at adults too. Anyway, it was lovely. I couldn’t quite embrace it at first because I just didn’t really understand what it was. On the surface, it’s about a young boy who lives in a train station in Paris. However, it soon emerged that the whole thing was a love letter to cinema. And being a film enthusiast, I naturally loved this. I won’t spoil it, but I loved the films it made reference to. Anyway, Scorsese’s direction was brilliant and the movie looked gorgeous from the cinematography to the set design.
