This couldn’t be any cooler for those of us old enough to remember the heyday of paperback book covers.
Apparently the cast and crew of “Iron Man 3” received a copy of this poster, designed to look like a vintage paperback, once filming was complete.
Beautiful.
I thoroughly enjoyed “Iron Man 3,” although I’m not sure it tops the 2008 original, as some reviews have suggested, and it definitely doesn’t displace “The Avengers” as my favorite Marvel movie.
But “Iron Man 3” manages to do what might have been impossible: Follow a blockbuster, multi-superhero movie with a story that’s smaller in scale and personal for its protagonists. But still loaded with action and humor.
Spoilers ahead, but I’ll warn you when we get to them.
As anyone bothering to read this knows, “Iron Man 3” finds Tony Stark suffering from PTSD after the events of “The Avengers.” Even as he is paralyzed by anxiety attacks, Stark tinkers with a new type of armor and confronts a new enemy, a TV-savvy terrorist known as the Mandarin.
Along the way, we find out about some of the people that pre-Iron Man Tony Stark met and abandoned along the way, as Stark finds that his past can come back to confront him as surely as an invading alien army.
Maybe there was a little too much effort to make “Iron Man 3” a stand-alone. There was a mention of SHIELD and, yes, I enjoyed the references to the events of “The Avengers.” But I think I wished for a little more Marvel movie universe continuity. The post-credits stinger was a pleasant exception, however, to the lack of shared Marvel movie goodness. I’ll get to that in a minute.
Some fans have expressed surprise at the way the movie depicts Mandarin, Iron Man’s best-known enemy from the comics, here played by Ben Kingsley. I don’t have any qualms about the turns of the plot. The comics were the comics and the movie is the movie.
In addition to the new players, Tony’s supporting characters are all here and, for the most part, get good roles. Don Cheadle, who joined the series in “Iron Man 2” as Tony’s longtime friend James Rhodes – known as the armored hero War Machine – has what’s probably the meatiest role. Co-writer/director Shane Black – who wrote the classic action movie “Lethal Weapon,” turns a couple of sequences into a “buddy cop” movie, notably later sequences with Tony and Rhodey out of armor but still taking on the bad guys.
And there’s a lengthy and greatly enjoyable sequence in the middle of the movie when Tony teams up with a youngster played to great effect by young actor Ty Simpkins. Tony’s caustic treatment of the boy more than offsets any hint of treacle.
Random observations:
The movie did fool me (spoiler here) about the fate of Pepper Potts. For a little while.
The end credits, with scenes from all three movies set to a hard-driving tune, seem like the credits for some forgotten 70s “Iron Man” TV show.
And here’s the end-credits spoiler if you haven’t seen the movie yet: Mark Ruffalo does indeed show up as Bruce Banner. It turns out that Tony’s recounting of events that frames the movie is for the benefit of Bruce Banner. The comrades-in-science left together at the end of last year’s “The Avengers” and fans have been wanting more of the pairing. As post-credits stingers go, it was the rare instance that didn’t advance the story toward the next Marvel movie but established, like Marvel Comics always did, that this is a shared Marvel universe.
Related observation: For a comic book fan all grown up, seeing trailers for movies featuring Thor, Wolverine and Superman before an Iron Man movie is more than a little mind-boggling.
In some ways, “Iron Man 3” feels like the finale of the series. It is, in reality, the first movie in Marvel’s planned Phase 2, a series that culminates in the “Avengers” sequel in 2015. There’s a sense of finality about the movie however. If this was the last “Iron Man” movie or the last featuring Downey, it wouldn’t be a bad exit.
We’re seeing more and more from “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” now that filming has begun.
Here’s Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, also known as The Falcon, Captain America’s modern-day partner.
Here’s how the duo looked in the comics.
It’s likely The Falcon’s wings will be added in post-production, so we’ll have another glimpse to look forward to in a few months.
The movie comes out in April 2014.
“The Americans” wrapped up its first season on FX this week and I’m happy to say the early promise of the series was carried through to this year’s finale.
If you didn’t check out the show – and you really should find it online or on demand in order to be ready for the second season – you missed one of the most offbeat combinations of recent years: A Cold War espionage thriller crossed with a domestic drama about a spectacularly strained marriage.
Kerri Russell and Matthew Rhys play Elizabeth and Phillip, a married couple and parents of two kids in the greater Washington DC area in 1981.
Unknown to their own children, their friends and their new neighbor, an FBI agent played by Noah Emmerich, Elizabeth and Phillip are actually Russian spies. They operate out of a travel agency (how’s that for a moment in time?) and carry out missions like bugging Casper Weinberger’s study.
The stakes are high for these spies and their handler, the ruthless Claudia, played by “Justified’s” Margo Martindale, even though we know it wasn’t long before the Soviet Union as a threat to the United States was no longer a realistic one.
So as Elizabeth and Phillip and the feds – including a hardass Richard Thomas of “The Waltons” as the FBI boss – maneuver and kidnap and assassinate their way through what seems like ancient history, the series not only examines the relationship between the hard-edged Russell and the soft-hearted but steely Rhys and Emmerich, sympathetic as the fed carrying on a relationship with a Russian woman (the adorable Annet Mahendru as Nina) even while his marriage falls apart.
The first season ended with a gripping episode in which the cat-and-mouse game threatened to expose the spies to their FBI agent pal and cost them their lives. It left me wanting more, like any good TV series.
The surprise here is Russell, so far removed from her “Felicity” days. In “The Americans” she’s whipcord thin and looks like she’s made of coiled steel. Elizabeth is hard – justifiably so, based on her harrowing background – and dangerous. I can’t wait to see what she does next season.
It would be a fool’s errand to try to keep up with all the Marvel Comics movies in planning, in production and awaiting release.
That being said, the Daily Mail and the Interwebs were rife today with set pictures from “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” showing Cap (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johanssen) confronting SHIELD agent Jasper Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernandez) in a scene.
Looks like Black Widow is about to put the hurt on Sitwell.
I’m just not feelin’ the hair.
The movie comes out in April 2014. Less than a year!
About a year ago I wrote about and posted some pictures of the Ski-Hi Drive-In, my community’s shuttered but last remaining drive-in theater – remaining, at least, in the sense of the shell of the screen tower and dilapidated concession stand/projection booth remain in place, where two highways meet north of Muncie.
Since that time I’ve talked to the owner of the property for an upcoming story for publication in my real job. He encouraged me to go onto the property and take pictures, so I thought I would share some here.
The back of the screen tower, which greeted patrons – and now looms over passersby – is in pretty rough shape. The owner told me there was an apartment at the base of the tower that someone once lived in.
It’s not that hard to imagine – and, for me, remember – movies playing out on the big screen framed by the Hoosier night sky.
You can still make out the earthen ridges made to elevate the front ends of patron’s cars, trucks and vans.
The concession stand exterior, with the expected graffiti.
The door broken in the past few years by intruders.
The concession stand is still recognizable, but has put up with a lot of abuse from vandals, the elements and years of neglect.
I’ll update you when I know something about the fate of this once-grand old drive-in movie theater.
One day I’ll do a comprehensive list of all the mentions of my hometown, Muncie, in pop culture.
Here’s today’s Zits, by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman.
Awesome.
It’s pretty easy to talk about what movies and characters we want to see in Marvel’s cinematic Phase Two, leading up to the “Avengers” sequel in 2015.
We’re already know we’re getting “Iron Man 3” in just a few days, the “Thor” sequel this fall, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” after that. “Ant-Man” fits in there somewhere.
But what’s the spirit of what we want to see in the next set of movies?
The “this is new and exciting” feel of the original “Iron Man.” We’d seen a lot of superhero movies before 2008, but “Iron Man” was the first to create such a believable universe – the Marvel universe – of characters. You knew even before Nick Fury’s walk-on at the end that we were going to see this universe explored.
The surprise of “The Incredible Hulk.” Yes, the Hulk was better in “The Avengers.” Yes, Joss Whedon got the characters of Bruce Banner and “The Other Guy” just right. But 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk” had some great moments, including even non-Greenskin moments, especially the scene where Bruce Banner leads a pack of Thunderbolt Ross’ soldiers on a chase through the slums of a South American city. It was a very “Bourne” sequence and had little in the way of typical superhero effects. But it sure was cool. “Ant-Man” has the potential to surprise us like that.
The heart of “Captain America.” We will be lucky indeed if the “Cap” sequel or any of the other Phase Two movies have the old-fashioned heart of Joe Johnston’s original. Cap’s story could have been corny. But this “kid from Brooklyn” was heart-warming and endearing and exciting at the same time.
The spectacle of “The Avengers.” It had never been done, but Joss Whedon did it. He made a movie about a bunch of super-powered heroes that didn’t feel crowded or outlandish but had more than its share of large-scale scenes and epic battles. We need that in Phase 2. Imagine how wowed we could feel when we see The Falcon take flight in the “Cap” sequel.
The feel of “there’s a greater universe out there” of all the Phase One movies. It’s not just about loading the movies with guest stars and recurring characters. It’s implying – with greater or lesser degrees of subtlety – that there’s a bigger story lurking just around the corner from what’s happening on screen. Remember wondering how SHIELD played into all these stories? Who the heck that guy Thanos was at the end of “Avengers?” If we’re lucky, Phase Two will leave us wondering and wanting more.
Not very many days ago I wrote that I don’t want to know more about “Iron Man 3.”
It was a lie and I am a damn dirty liar.
So today the Interwebs are lit up with reports from early screenings of “Iron Man 3” that indicate the nature of the post credits – or is it mid-credits, like the Thanos scene in “The Avengers?” – stinger for “Iron Man 3.”
Yes, we’ve heard rumors that Tony Stark will suit up in a space-going armor at the end of “Iron Man 3.” All the better for Iron Man to take his place on the “Guardians of the Galaxy” team.
So … maybe.
But now we’re told that the credits scene of “Iron Man 3” gives us something we’ve wanted to see since the end of “The Avengers.”
Still want to know?
Are you sure?
Yes, at the end of “The Avengers,” Tony Stark and Bruce Banner take off together, newly found comrades in science.
We’ve wanted to see more of that duo ever since.
Early spoilers from “Iron Man 3” screenings indicate that the story of the movie, told in flashback by a traumatized Tony, is actually recounted to … Bruce Banner.
In the spoilery credits scene, Tony is talking and talking and talking and … Bruce is dozing off.
“You know, I’m not that kind of a doctor,” Banner tells Stark, who continues with his story.
Okay, so do you feel better or worse?
Paging Dr. Sidney Freedman. We need one last consultation.
Sad news today: Allan Arbus, longtime character actor best known for a recurring role as Sidney, the wry psychiatrist on “M.A.S.H.” has passed away.
Arbus, who starred in cult classics like “Greaser’s Palace,” was 95. That 1972 film was directed by Robert Downey Sr. The elder Downey also directed him in “Putney Swope.”
I remember Arbus best from “The Electric Horseman,” the Robert Redford film, besides his 12 episodes of “M.A.S.H.”
I didn’t know until I read his obit that Arbus was married, from 1941 to 1969, to photographer Diane Arbus.
Rest in peace, Mr. Arbus.
keithroysdon 