Movie review: The Losers

Much like The A-Team, The Losers are a black ops team that has been betrayed. However, The Losers are a CIA black ops team and they are left for dead after an operation that would have required them to kill children. (Again, like The A-Team, they have a soft spot for the kiddies.) Now living in Bolivia, a strange woman brings the group back together with promises of revenge against Max, the mysterious voice that sent them to their doom, as well as a promise to give them back their lives.

Despite making tons of comparisons to The A-Team, I found myself enjoying the flick. Both my husband and I felt that Chris Evans as Jensen was the best of the bunch. There isn't a lot I can say about the movie without giving away spoilers so I'll leave it at this: If you are a fan of action movies like Die Hard, you'll definitely enjoy this one. While there are a lot of fight scenes, this isn't the movie to watch if you're just looking for explosions. The awesomeness comes from the mixture of comedy and action. Enjoy them both and you'll have a great time watching this.

Movie review: Iron Man 2

Our original plan was to see Iron Man 2 at the local drive-in. Unfortunately, a major storm rolled through the area and forced us inside. The movie was still really good.

Tony Stark, now publicly known to be Iron Man, has brought peace to many places in the world. Yet he still has a lot of enemies. The US government believes the Iron Man suit is a weapon and should be under their control. Tony disagrees and refuses to hand over his property. Meanwhile, Ivan Vanko, a Russian man whose father was wronged by Tony's father, is working on a suit of his own. He plans to avenge his father by killing Tony Stark. At the same time, the reactor that is keeping Tony alive is also slowly poisoning him. Never a dull moment for Iron Man.

First off, I'd like to address the major casting change. Rhodey, Tony's best friend, is no longer played by Terrence Howard. Don Cheadle has stepped into those military shoes. I was a little apprehensive when I heard the news. However, my misgivings were misplaced. Cheadle is amazing as Rhodey. In my opinion, he should have had the role from the very beginning.

Now down to the meat and bones of it. I'm not nearly as big a comic book fan as my husband is. While I usually enjoy a good action flick, I look to him to see whether the team has stayed true to the comic. The Iron Man team has done an awesome job and I really wish they could do all of the Marvel films. It would suck to have an awesome Iron Man movie but then have an awful Thor movie then try to smush them all together into the Avengers movie. (By the way, there are a few nods to other heroes...keep an eye out for them!)

So...go and see it. You won't be disappointed. Except maybe in Mickey Rourke.

Movie review: Iron Man

My husband, my daughter and I went to see Iron Man on Saturday. At first, I was worried about whether or not my 6-year old would enjoy the movie. She liked Transformers but it was too loud for her and I was concerned that this movie would have the same problem. Luckily, it did not and she had a great time. For those of you that live under a rock, here is the basic plot. Tony Stark is the billionaire owner of Stark Industries, a company that mostly makes weapons for the United States government. He truly believes that his weapons are protecting people by removing terrorist threats. After a demonstration of one of his new technologies, his transport is attacked and he winds up being kidnapped. During his captivity, he finds out that his weapons are being used by the terrorists. The terrorists force him to replicate his newest weapon. Instead, he creates a huge iron suit so he can escape. Once he is back home, he tries his best to change his company into a more responsible entity. However, the board of directors overrules him and forces him into vigilantism. He creates a new, better robotic suit, transforming into the superhero, Iron Man.

In my opinion, the movie was wonderful. Robert Downey Jr. was the perfect choice to be Tony Stark. I even liked some of the small changes they made to the characters. Of course, there are some people that would nitpick at the choice of villain for the movie. On the contrary, I think that it was a really good decision since this movie needed to establish Tony Stark and his motives for becoming Iron Man. He isn't like Spiderman or Batman where most people are at least vaguely familiar with the character. There needed to be a villain that wouldn't overshadow the transformation of Tony Stark the businessman to Tony Stark the superhero.

I hope that everyone stayed to watch the scene after the credits. All I will say is that I am very excited for the future of the franchise and some of the other Marvel franchises.