In Theaters: Avengers: *****End Game (2019)

Avengers: End Game:  This is the most anticipated movie in some time; and it more than lives up to all the hype.  From Thanos’ “I am inevitable” to “I am Iron Man” and all the ride along the way, this movie is great.  Of course the thing about this movie is having all the characters together.  There is too much here to give a plot summary, but suffice it to say this movie entertains and appeals to Avenger fans, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy and Dr. Strange.  It has all the characters taking part in their turn.  There is a part during the major battle where all the women are going to protect the glove and it just seemed to miss as tried to make a politically correct statement.  And then of course the fumbled the glove anyway as Thanos had said, :He is inevitable.”  However that is my only complaint.  A couple of our major Avenger friends will not be coming back it appears, but there are plenty others who are ready for the continued Avenger Universe, including Peter parker and Spider man later this year.  This is a must see.  In fact it warrants going back and seeing all the Avenger movies.

Robert Downey Jr.     Tony Stark/ Iron Man
Chris Evans                Steve Rogers/ Captain America
Mark Ruffalo               Bruce Banner / Hulk
Chris Hemsworth        Thor
Scarlett Johansson     Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
Jeremy Renner            Clint Barton / Hawkeye
Paul Rudd                   Scott Lang / Ant-Man
Benedict Cumberbatch  Doctor Strange
Chadwick Boseman    T'Challa / Black Panther
Brie Larson                  Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel
Tom Holland                Peter Parker / Spider-Man
Karen Gillan                 Nebula
Zoe Saldana                Gamora
and many more
Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Here is a movie that combines two film dynasties, the Avengers and Defenders of the Galaxy.  Even with their combined strength, they still are a bit inadequate to confront Thanos (Josh Brolin voice) and his hoards.  Thanos is on a quest to retrieve the five stones with which he will have all power: The Power Stone, The Reality Stone, The Space Stone, The Time Stone and The Mind Stone.  He destroys Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) hammer in retrieving the Space Stone.  He is successful in getting three stones, but the Mind Stone is in Vision’s (Paul Bettany) forehead, and the Time Stone is kept safe by Dr. Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) deceptions.  Thanos is gathering the stones to complete his life-long task of killing half the people in the universe, and thereby eliminating hardship and hunger.    Thanos is the father of Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillam).  Gamora and Dr. Strange have the best chance of stopping Thanos.  There is a confrontation with Thanos on his home world with Iron Man ((Robert Downey Jr.), Spider Man (Tom Holland),  Star Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff),  At the same time Thor is off to forge a new hammer.  He travels with Groot (Vin Diesel voice), and Rocket (Bradley Cooper voice).  Others prepare for a confrontation on the Black Panther world of Wakanda.  They are joined by many as the attempt to destroy the Mind Stone without killing Vision.  These are: Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Chris Evans as Captain America, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Don Cheadle-War Machine, Chadwick Boseman-Black Panther, Elizabeth Olsen-Scarlet Witch, Anthony Mackie-Falcon, Sebastian Stan-Winter Soldier.  There are many more in this epic battle.  I must admit, the ending of this movie left me with a bad feeling of despair.  Thor battles hard, but with all five stones in place, Thanos has unlimited power.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****^Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

I really enjoyed this movie, and in my opinion it is one of the better movies of the summer.  The interaction between Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) really makes this film go.  Then there is the bad guy, Vulture (Michael Keaton) who just happens to be the father of Peter Parker's date to the prom, Liz (Laura Harrier).  Keaton is into dealing arms which were left behind by the aliens when they were defeated by the Avengers.  However, as the government controls a larger and larger share of these items, Vulture and his mean have to resort to stealing.  Spider-man comes upon their plot defending New York.  In the meantime Stark Enterprises downplays the reports from Spider-Man and his ability to help as a teen.  However he is the only person who can save the world from Vulture.
There was a time when Spider-Man was in the good graces of Stark Enterprises, who provided him with a fancy outfit with computer enhancement.  However after a bungle they take this away, and Spider-Man is left to his homemade suit.
Side-kick  Ned is played by Jacob Batalon and Spider-Man's aunt is played by Marisa Tomei.
I love Michael Keaton in the movies.  In this case he makes an excellent villain.  Combine that with the Stark/Avengers angle this movie is very good.

Movie Review: ***^ Captain America: Civil War

This battle has lots of violence.  It pits Avengers against Avengers, as is the plan of Zemo (Daniel Bruhl).  His family was killed in fall out from past episodes of the Avengers battling evil.  Now he wants revenge.  Fall out from Avenger heroics has lead the United Nations to want to control the Avengers.  Differences in opinion cause the initial rift between the two groups.
Zemo manipulates people and things to bring Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) and finds the secret clues to trigger his evil personality.  Captain American (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) are on a collision course.  With some new and some old Avengers taking sides.  This includes Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Ant Man (Paul Rudd), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and introducing Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman.)  Even Spider Man (Tom Holland) gets into the action.  His youth attracted Tony and I must admit his character brought humor to a movie that was really action-packed, violent and dark.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****Iron Man 3

This is the continuing sage of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), and his suits.  However his love, Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) also plays a much greater part.  Iron make takes on a terrorist who calls himself, "The Mandarin" and has been responsible for explosions around the world, explosions without bomb casings.  Turns out the evil comes from a fellow scientist Iron Man slighted some years previous.  He has developed away to regenerate limbs, but the side effects are explosions; and the recipient has an ability to generate heat.  One of Iron Man's Friends is accidentally infected with this, and is in a coma after he exploded.  Iron Man, in his anger, gives himself as a target, giving his home address.  They visit and blow his residence up, sending Iron Man into escape mode with a damaged suit.  He is helped by a boy, who sees him as Iron Man.  Back on his feet, but without his recovering suit, he tracks the evidence around these strange explosions, which lead him to The Mandarin's (Ben Kingsley) lair, who is not the lead but an actor, the scientist, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) is the bad guy, and has this power to burn people with his limbs.  Iron Man is caught.  His suit is still repairing itself.
They use this power to wrest the suit from Colonel James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and use the suit to kidnap the president.  Pepper has also been kidnapped by our villain, and he is converting her into a fire woman.  This process may kill her.  We have a situation where the Iron Man is captured, but needing to save his girlfriend, and the president.  When his suit comes back on line it is no problem.  And we discover that the suit has over a hundred different suits it can call to its assistance.  However, mad scientist fire men are hard to kill.  However girlfriends who have been changed into fire women are hard to kill too.
This movie has plenty of action.  The ending is a bit confusing, and leaves them in a spot where you wonder if there will be any more Iron Man movies.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****Sherlock Holmes (2009)

This Sherlock Holmes movie was made in 2009.  The most interesting thing about this movie are the characters, and the enmeshment between the character, Dr. Watson (Jude Law) who would like to see less of Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and get married to Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly).  However Holmes uses guilt, or dependency, or something to always keep him around.  This results in his almost being killed by a blast.  In this movie the nemesis is Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong).  Moriarty is still in the background, but a woman that intrigues Holmes, Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) is working for him.  Blackwood sets himself up as coming back from the dead, after Watson proclaims him dead.  He continues to perpetrate murders to control others and gain power.  His boldest move is an attack on Parliament with gas warfare.  Will Holmes figure things out and get there in time.  This movie has good action but as I said, more interesting characters.

Movie Review: U.S. Marshalls

US Marshalls  I must admit, I do not enjoy this movie as much as The Fugitive.  This movie would be considered a sequel to “The Fugitive” with Tommy Lee Jones in the same role, Deputy Marshall Samuel Gerard.  This movie adds a different angle to the Marshall chasing escapee scenario and that is the spy angle.  We have an individual (Wesley Snipes) who has been set up as the fall guy for an exchange of information with the Chinese that went bad.  This resulted in the murder of several agents.  Again in this movie the individual is convicted, and sent to prison by plane; however in an attempt to kill him, a fellow prisoner blows a hole in the side of the plane, causing it to crash.  However our protagonist gets away, while all of the other prisoners are accounted for.  He heads out to prove his innocence, by figuring out who set him up.  In this scenario we have a professional spy, while in “The Fugitive” you had a medical doctor, with no skills in getting away.  I think that is why I prefer the first in this series. A new member of the team with Deputy Marshall Gerard is Special Agent John Royce (Robert Downey Jr.).

Movie Review: ****^The Avengers

The Avengers in 3-D is a fun movie.  I had seen Iron Man I and II, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America.  This show adds the Black Widow and Hawkeye as well as the organizer, manipulator Nick Fury.  All of these stories come together with the brother of Thor, adopted, coming to earth with the hopes of conquest, and making people bow to him.  Of course Thor comes to stop him.  The brother has a source of mind control and takes over the mind of one of Avengers, Hawkeye, who shots arrows.

The theme of the show is you are more together than just a sum of the parts.  Each of these super heroes has a big ego, and it takes a lot for them to com together.  Bickering and fighting, they finally join together to save the world from an alien invasion.  The robot monsters are cool, especially the worm like space ships.  But cooler are the skills of the Avengers, and the Hulk tackling one of those worms is too much.  This movie was a good ride and kept me on the edge of my seat.  It was almost too much action non stop at one point, but that is just me.

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Movie Reviews: ***^Iron Man and ****Iron Man II

Both of these movies star Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man.  The first is in our home library, and the second on instant Netflix.

These movies turn my on deep down.  There is just something about Iron Man when he has his mask on, and when he lands after turning off his rockets, with that big thud, that is just cool.  Actually Tony turned me on to this story, and now that I have watched these movies, I am ready to see The Avengers.  The second video does a better job of introducing some of the Avenger characters.

I prefer the second movie, because the bad guy is so much more bad.  Jeff Bridges portrays the bad guy in the first movie,  being Tony Stark's business partner, but also trying to kill him.  He is able to compromise Tony's design, and make his own suit, but it doesn't work out for him in the end, as he doesn't have the experience.

On the other hand, Mickey Rourke  portrays the son of the original designer of the small reactor, who is seeking revenge for his father.  He makes his own suit with powers, and is a worthy opponent.  But he is defeated early, Stark's business competitor rescues him, and gives space for him to work his revenge.  He turns on the business partner, and takes control of the robots he made, which wreak havoc attempting to kill Iron Man.  Gwyneth Paltrow is great as the love interest, and Scarlett Johanssen as the lady from the Avengers.  Fun ride.

Marvel Universe

Movie Review: ****^Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows  2011 stars Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and Rachel McAdams.

This movie appealed to me.  It had an historical aspect, traveling around Europe, intellectual battle between Moriarty and Holmes, and the side characters of Dr. Watson, and Dr. Watson's new wife.   Downing plays Sherlock in such a cavalier way at times, leading Dr. Watson into danger.  It is really fun.  The plot revolves arms.  The show starts with a tragedy, the murder of Holme's girlfriend at the hands of Moriarty.  However it ends with a sudden twist.  I think it will be enjoyable to most adults.  It is intense, and youngsters might not follow all the plot twists.