• Tag Archives Don Cheadle

  • Canister X Movie Review #59: The Meteor Man (1993)

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    Canister X Movie Review #59: The Meteor Man (1993)

    Meteor Man
    Click Here to Order from Amazon.com

    The Meteor Man (1993)
    Written by Robert Townsend
    Directed by Robert Townsend
    Runtime 100 min.
    3.5 out of 5

    When a school teacher is accidentally struck by a strange, green glowing meteor, he is endowed with superpowers. Just in the nick of time, too, because a street gang called the Golden Lords have terrorized his neighborhood. Now, with the help of super abilities from the green shimmering rock, he’s able to take a stand for his neighborhood and what he believes in.

    I saw this movie when I was a kid. I remember seeing it at the local Pick-A-Flick and renting it. What I got was a sincere, heart-warming tale about a down-and-out neighborhood struggling to keep going while crime and violence ravaged its streets. Enter Jefferson Reed (Robert Townsend), a well-meaning and kind man who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Once the meteor gives him superpowers, he takes on the gangs and, at the behest of his own parents, also takes on the identity of Meteor Man and becomes the neighborhood’s champion.

    While not a serious superhero movie—there’s plenty of humor to go around—The Meteor Man is not all-out goofy like Blankman, and instead takes a kind of tongue-in-cheek approach to the genre while also telling a story about strength in numbers, standing up for yourself, and simply saying no to being a passive observer of evil.

    This flick is also—and I really don’t know how to phrase it so excuse me—a “black” movie, with pretty much an all-black cast. I loved that part of it and there were so many recognizable actors: Bill Cosby, James Earle Jones, Don Cheadle, Sinbad and more. It’s strange because I don’t get that sense of community and warmth from watching flicks with all-white casts. Anyway, that’s just an aside.

    The Meteor Man, also written and directed by Robert Townsend and not just starring him as the titular character, was done at a time before superheroes on the screen were all dark and serious, where there had to be non-stop action and all kinds of special effects and fancy costumes. And you know what? It totally worked.

    This movie is a memorable one because of the messages and themes running through it and I advise it to be on the serious superhero collector’s movie shelf.


    📂This entry was posted in Movie Reviews Superhero Movies 📎and tagged

  • Canister X Movie Review #47: Iron Man 3 (2013)

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    Iron Man 3 (2013)

    Iron Man 3
    Click Here to Order from Amazon.com

    Iron Man 3 (2013)
    Written by Drew Pearce and Shane Black
    Directed by Shane Black
    Runtime 130 min.
    3.5 out of 5

    An evil mastermind terrorist known as the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) is wreaking havoc via a rash of bombings, holding the world in his grip. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) gets on the case and discovers the bombings are initiated by people exposed to the Extremis program, something Stark Industries could’ve had ties to a long time ago, but chose not to. Turns out those Tony Stark knew back then are neck-deep involved with what’s going on now, have re-entered his life, and are making things complicated.

    While trying to pinpoint the location of the Mandarin, Iron Man aka Tony is also dealing with the aftermath of the Chitauri invasion of New York in The Avengers. Having trouble sleeping, he’s been spending all his time constructing various Iron Man armors to help himself cope. This brings tension to his relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), who he’s now living with and is dedicated to.

    Upon discovering the location of the Mandarin and his true identity, Iron Man and his almost-sidekick the Iron Patriot aka War Machine aka Col. James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) head up against a battalion of Extremis-infected warriors and must pull out all the stops to put an end to their reign of terror. The problem is these Extremis soldiers are so powerful that victory doesn’t seem likely.

    Can Iron Man prevail against an army as strong as he is?

    I’m not sure what to make of this movie. Sure, it was entertaining and the storyline was fine. I like the idea of making it a direct follow up to The Avengers, and showing how Tony Stark’s world—never mind the rest of the world—had been affected by the Chitauri invasion and the presence of the other Avengers.

    This flick was loaded with solid action, tough bad guys, cool tech, guns and everything else that makes an Iron Man movie a lot of fun. I just wasn’t sold on the presentation. This might be harsh, but this flick came off as the Batman Forever of the Iron Man movies. I’m all for humor in even the most serious of movies, but it seemed the jokes were either too forced or too slapstick to make me take this flick seriously. And that’s the secret with superhero movies: they need to take themselves seriously—even if they’re meant to be a comedy—otherwise they’ll never work. There was an awful lot of getting in and out of the Iron Man suits in this film, both by Tony and Rhodey, never mind Pepper getting a shot at wearing it, the President, the Extremis guy—there were so many suit changes that the novelty of watching someone don the Iron Man armor was quickly spent after the first three times.

    This film was not directed by Jon Favreau, which might have had something to do with it. Just seems this movie was weighed down with not enough Iron Man and a storyline—which was solid in and of itself—that moved slowly. I realize Tony’s aftermath and post-traumatic stress from The Avengers was the focus, but the same goal could’ve been accomplished had there been more Iron Man. I don’t necessarily mean more action—as action-filled movies that are nothing but explosions start to finish get boring after a while—but perhaps him having a love/hate relationship with the suit because being in it nearly killed him at the end of The Avengers, or maybe take the robo-injections to summon the suit to a new level because he’s trying to make himself super to be on par with guys like Captain America or Thor and have him deal with that?

    The extra scene at the end of the credits with Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) picked up on the bromance from The Avengers. A nice touch. Didn’t move the Marvel Cinematic Universe forward in any way, but was nice nevertheless.

    If you’re a Marvel movie completist, then by all means, check it out. Likewise, pick up the Blu-ray when it comes out to complete your set. For me, I think I’m going to have watch it again and perhaps I’ll warm up to it a bit more. I felt let down when I watched the first Spider-Man in 2002, but got more into it with subsequent viewings. Iron Man 3 might be one of those movies.

    Just think they could’ve done a lot more with it.


    📂This entry was posted in Movie Reviews Superhero Movies 📎and tagged

  • Canister X Movie Review #46: Iron Man 2 (2010)

    Posted on by A.P. Fuchs

    Iron Man 2 (2010)

    Iron Man 2
    Click Here to Order from Amazon.com

    Iron Man 2 (2010)
    Written by Justin Theroux
    Directed by Jon Favreau
    Runtime 124 min.
    4 out of 5

    Taking place six months after Iron Man, old shellhead is using his armor to maintain world peace and keep things right as rain for the world. Enter Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), aka Whiplash, who has a vendetta against Tony Stark and wants to see him dead for the wrong he believed Tony did to his father.

    Meanwhile, Tony’s dealing with issues of his own, namely that the very tool he’s using to keep himself alive—the arc reactor in his chest—is actually poisoning him, and time is quickly running out.

    Can Iron Man defeat a foe hellbent on grinding him to dust while also saving his own life?

    Iron Man 2 is a solid sequel. It’s not as smart as the first one, but it’s certainly not bad by any means. The idea of the arc reactor slowly killing Tony is brilliant. I mean, really, what do you do, right? Just wait it out? Unplug? Tell someone? Good stuff.

    A lot of people gave this movie grief and I don’t understand why. You got superhero action, superhero struggle, relationship tension, introduction of a new hero—War Machine (Don Cheadle, who plays James Rhodes; the part was originally played by Terrence Howard in the first movie)—and a new villain with a simple but decent origin story. Adding to that you got the breadcrumb trail that will eventually lead into The Avengers. The cool part is this subplot—complete with appearances by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson)—don’t detract from the main story. Of course, I won’t fail to mention Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, who’s an amazing actor and becomes whatever role he is assigned. I love that about him.

    As before, Robert Downey Jr. continues to amaze me as Tony Stark. He is that guy. End of story. Never thought I’d like a self-absorbed hero, but he proved me wrong.

    Anyway, back to the action: Iron Man 2 has got loads of it, right from Iron Man’s first encounter with Whiplash, to the big fight at the end where it takes Iron Man teaming up with War Machine to take out robots and a newly-armored Whiplash. What I liked was the realistic—as you can get, anyway—portrayal of what a suit of robot armor would most likely do and fight like if it was real. It was fluid, yet appropriately clunky and moved as such accordingly. The flight sequences were exciting, same with the weapons used.

    What was also good was the humor. Aside from the here’s-how-I-pee-in-the-armor joke, which I found dumb, every other bit of joking around totally worked and still maintained that this was a serious movie with a serious hero fighting a serious villain.

    What makes this third movie in Marvel’s Phase One plan great is that while it had its own self-contained story, it was part of the overall Avengers plotline. I loved how the two worked together but weren’t dependent on each other.

    Do I watch this movie when I’m going through my super flicks in my DVD and Blu-ray collection? Every time.

    A major iron thumbs up from me on this one.

    Recommended.


    📂This entry was posted in Movie Reviews Superhero Movies 📎and tagged