SUPERHERO IRON MAN (12A) 125min em
The mighty world of Marvel superheroes continues to receive the big screen treatment with this blockbuster adaptation of just about the last of the comic book publisher’s original creations from the 19605 (Matthew Vaughn’s forthcoming shot at Thor notwithstanding). Directed by Jon Favreau and starring Robert Downey Jr (both fans of the comics), it’s a smart update of the title that remains faithful to its spirit and maintains a perfectly poised balancing act between taking the fantastical material seriously and treating it with a knowing sense of humour.
Working from a script co-written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (who penned the Oscar-nominated Children of Men), Favreau focuses on the original story of Iron Man and his human alter ego, the billionaire weapons manufacturer and playboy Tony Stark. During a trip to the Middle East Stark is kidnapped by Afghan insurgents (it was Vietnamese communists in the comic) and forced by them to assemble a state-of-the-art missile system from captured Stark Industries ordinance.
What he actually makes is a suit of hi-tech armour complete with super strength and jet-powered boots. But although he uses it to escape his captors, the first hand experience of seeing the destruction wrought by his company's products prompts Stark to renounce munitions manufacture and instead use his super-powered outfit to right his wrongs. That change of heart, however, doesn’t go down well with Stark’s nefarious business partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), who’s keen to exploit the new and potentially lethal technology.
Updated to the present day, the film locates Tony Stark/Iron Man’s story of professional irresponsibility and personal redemption firmly within the context of the war on terror. It’s a perfect setting for Marvel Comics’ most morally ambiguous character, although the film doesn’t labour its political point too much. Instead, it provides plenty of spectacle - most impressively Iron Man’s climactic battle with another and bigger invulnerable tin man — game performances from a cast that also includes Gwyneth Paltrow and Terrence Howard, and a constantly amusing line in offbeat humour cooked up by those swingers Favreau and Downey Jr. (Jack Davis)
I Out now on general release.
50 THE LIST 8—22 May 2008
FANTASY/ADVENTURE SPEED RACER
ma. 7,.
Having taken a break from directing since completing The Matrix trilogy five years ago. the Wachowski brothers (who wrote and produced but didn't direct their last film. the abysmal V for Vendetta) are back in the driving seat with this sci-fl sports movie targeted at a younger audience than their cyberpunk opus. It’s a live action though CG-heavy adaptation of a 19605 Japanese television anime about a futuristic family of race car designer-drivers that was dubbed into English and became a popular with American kids. little Andy and Larry Wachowski included.
The Wachowskis version casts Emile Hirsch (last seen in a very different kind of film. Sean Penn’s outdoors drama Into the Wild) as the titular teen hero. Susan Sarandon and John Goodman as mom and pop Racer. and Christina Ricci as Speed's spunky girlfriend Trixie. The rudimentary story pits this all-American family of auto freaks against a race-rigging British corporate fat cat named Royalton (Roger Allam), and the film's message is: business bad. family good. winning best of all.
Not that any of it really matters in a film that's spectacle-driven. With the cast acting within and playing second fiddle to an otherwise fully computer- generated world. one wonders why the Wachowskis bothered at all with the human element. The cartoon styling and retro look are immaculately conceived. and the race sequences are migraine-inducing, stomach- churning thrill-rides that handle like the video games the film is indebted to. That said. Speed Racer nevertheless suffers — as did The Matrix franchise — from far too many longueurs. which are likely to leave the target audience bored. (Jack Davis)
I General release from Fri 9 May.
HORROR OUTPOST (18) 89min 0.. -
HORROR/ADVENTURE DOOMS (18) 108min “is is-
In Neil Marshall's derivative. dystopian fantasy. Scotland 50 years on is a no- man's land ravaged by disease. cut off from England by a rebuilt Hadrian's Wall, and presided over by streetwise gangs of cannibals driving customised cars and motorbikes. Dispatched by the government onto the streets of deepest. darkest Glasgow to search for signs of human life. one-eyed super-soldier Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) embarks on an adventure which borrows shamelessly from Mad Max. Escape from New York and other 803 actioneers.
While gravel-voiced political smoothie David O'Hara and paternal ally Bob Hoskins wait nervously in a London under siege from plague- ridden zombies, Sinclair and her fearless team take on Glasgow's largely cannibal population.
After Dog Soldiers and The Descent. writer/director Marshall has a track record for breathing fresh life into tired fantasy genres. but he overplays his doomsday scenario by stealing too heavily from highly recognisable films. And 805 in-jokes are fine, but it's sheer camp self-indulgence to feature so prominently tracks like Fine Young Cannibals' ‘Good Thing' and Frankie Goes to Hollywood's ‘Two Tribes’.
Larger filmed on South African locations. Doomsday eventually shakes off its many influences and rises to a well-staged if dramatically irrelevant car-chase finale. Marshall's film may well provide a few guilty pleasures for jaded action fans bored with computer-generated effects. but non-genre fans will find Doosmsday about as subtle as a nail-encrusted club in the face. (Eddie Harrison)
I General release from Fri 9 May.
Beefy mercenary DC (Ray Stevenson) has just made a bad decision. He's taken a job from shadowy businessman Hunt (Julian Wadham). DC and his band of professional soldiers have to get Hunt into an abandoned bunker in an Eastern European war zone. let him look around. and then get him out again. The trouble is the Simon Wiesenthal Center hasn't had much of an impact in the area. because there are brutal undead Nazi soldiers all over the place.
Filmed in Glasgow's Film City Studios and on location in Dumfries. Outpost is an impressively pared down genre flick which borrows from the best. most notably John Carpenter (The Thing, The Fog). Debut feature director Steve Barker clearly knows what he is doing. After a slow and detailed build-up in the first half. he opens the door on some really merciless carnage as the soldiers are picked off one by one. It‘s enough to make a degenerate schoolboy happy.
As with any low budget horror there are plot holes as open as a fresh wound. plus some fairly risible dialogue and performances. but Outpost looks great (it was shot on film. something of a rarity for modern day horror movies) and is the first of a roster of features to be produced by Glasgow-based company Black Camel. If this is the quality benchmark they are starting with. they are clearly on to a good thing. If this is your bag, you won't be disappointed. (Paul Dale)
I Selected release from Fri 16 May. See interview, page 52.