filmfan's diary

Iron Man and Forgetting Sarah Marshall - reviews

Iron Man is all it’s cracked up to be. The first Marvel superhero movie made without the help of a big studio has everything you'd expect - action, explosions, humour, romance, villains and a guy in a metal suit. If you've seen any of the trailers, you'll know that the story follows Tony Stark, a weapons dealer who has inherited his dad's arms-dealing empire. After a presentation in Afghanistan leads to his capture, Stark is forced to build a WMD for his captors, something which is against his pro-American beliefs. But he doesn't build the WMD; instead he turns himself into one, a flame-throwing, bullet-proof metal man, in his attempt to escape.

The success of Iron Man (it made £5.4 million in its opening three days in the UK, and took $104.2m (£52m) at the US box office over its three-day opening run) is arguably down to Robert Downey Jr. As Tony Stark he's a charming, arrogant, funny and flawed man. The fact that superhero movies (and their sequels, with Iron Man 2 already pencilled in for 2010) often do well shouldn't detract from his performance.

Villain-wise, Stark must fight his captors from Afghanistan, and someone much closer to home. Action-wise, there is a great sequence of Stark developing his hi-tech suit, tonnes of fight sequences and even Iron Man versus some fighter jets!

The rest of the cast is great, with Gwyneth Paltrow as Stark's Personal Assistant/love interest Pepper Potts, Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes Stark's Army Liaison and Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane, Stark's mentor and business partner.

As expected, the visual effects are top-notch, as is the soundtrack. It has an open-ended plot, with plenty of scope for the sequels and other Marvel superhero movies already in the pipeline.

If you take nothing else from this review, then take this - stay until after all the credits. There is another scene which is excellent and well worth the wait for all comic-move fans.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a Judd Apatow movie. So if you liked Knocked Up, etc you will probably love this. It stars Jason Segel (who also wrote the script) as Peter, a soundtrack composer who’s in a long-term relationship with a TV star. Or at least he was. After she dumps him, he goes to Hawaii to get away from all the stuff that reminds him of her. Problem is, she’s at the same resort – and she’s with her new boyfriend. If you like the sound of that so far then here’s the bit that might throw you. The new boyfriend is an arrogant British sex-addict & rock star played by, who else? Russell Brand. If that’s lost your interest then please reconsider. FSM is a great laugh, with plenty of feelings stuff too. Boasting a great cast, including – Jonah Hill (Superbad, Knocked Up), Paul Rudd (Anchorman, Knocked Up), Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars) and Mila Kunis  (That 70s Show, Family Guy’s Meg) Forgetting Sarah Marshall is another cracking comedy, and a welcome break from summer heat and deadlines. It’s a funny date movie, only with unnecessary nudity and puppets. What’s not to love?