Posts Tagged ‘Jon Favreau’

Short Take: Decent fun, but only mildly engaging and not altogether memorable

Director: Jon Favreau

Screenwriters: Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Steve Oedekerk; Scott Mitchell Rosenberg (comic)

Cast: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano

Length: 1h 58m

Synopsis: One day in 1873 outlaw Jake Lonergan (Craig) finds himself awaking in a desert, unaware of who he is or where he has just been. A strange device is strapped to his wrist that he can’t remove, but it would seem that it isn’t there to harm him. Stumbling into a nearby town he gets recognized and thrown in jail, sentenced to wait until local boss Dolarhyde (Ford) returns and decides what to do with him. When Dolarhyde does return he is followed shortly by strange UFOs that proceed to abduct and terrorize the townspeople. The next day Jake, Dolarhyde, and a few other survivors form a search party to find the abducted, with Jake leading the way because the device on his wrist turned out to be the only viable weapon against the inscrutable invaders. A woman named Ella (Wilde) tags along to impart knowledge about the aliens, as she has personally dealt with them before. In a toilsome search the group must find and free their lost loved ones, armed only with six-shooters and iron wills. Yippy ki yay.

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Short Take: Shows more promise in future Marvel films than in itself. Entertaining, but disjointed.

Director: Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Elf)

Screenwriter: Justin Theroux (Tropic Thunder)

Cast: Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes, Tropic Thunder), Don Cheadle (Brooklyn’s Finest, Hotel Rwanda, Ocean’s 11), Gwyneth Paltrow (Two Lovers, Iron Man), Scarlett Johansson (He’s Just Not That Into You, The Spirit, Vicky Christina Barcelona), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler, Domino, Sin City), Sam Rockwell (Everybody’s Fine, Moon, Frost/Nixon)

Length: 2 hours 4 minutes

Synopsis: Picking up where the last film left off, the film follows Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) as he struggles to overcome a number of obstacles after revealing he is Iron Man.  Stark fights to keep the U.S. government from taking the Iron Man technology while also competing with fellow arms businessman Justin Hammer (Rockwell).  However, Stark has bigger problems like Ivan Vanko (Rourke), an angry nemesis out for revenge against the Stark family, as well as the threat that the piece of machinery keeping him alive may also be slowly killing him.  On top of all this, Stark tries to cultivate his budding romance with Pepper Potts (Paltrow) while also flirting with his mysterious new personal assistant Natalie (Johansson). Read the rest of this entry »

Jon Favreau (center) gives direction to Robert Downey Jr. (left) and Don Cheadle (right). *IGN images

For those of you itching to see Iron Man 2, which opens this Friday, we suggest you take a look at a video available at movies.IGN.com that shows multiple snippets from interviews taken with the film’s various stars. Director Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlet Johansson, and Don Cheadle each share interesting nuggets of information about the film and the direction its story decided to take. For those trying to avoid spoilers, have no fear. No major plot points are given. Instead you learn things like Favreau’s intentions, such as that he tried his hardest to avoid what he called “villainitus,” which he claims is the overabundance of bad guys. After Spider-Man 3 received heavy criticism for this, it’s nice to see that Favreau and Paramount can learn from the past.

In other news…

A release date for the next Batman movie has been announced, which will reportedly be July 20th, 2012. The working title is simply Batman 3, which is expected to change once production begins. Chris Nolan is reportedly not officially signed on to direct the project, but is currently working on writing the film’s script with the help of his brother Jonah and writer David Goyer. Stars Christian Bale, Michael Caine, and Gary Oldman are expected to return.

Source: IGN.com

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A new hi-res poster was released today of the upcoming summer flick Iron Man 2.

The film brings back stars Robert Downey Jr. and Gweneth Paltrow, and brings into the fold Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson, and Garry Shandling, as well as an on-screen appearance by director Jon Favreau.

The film is currently in its post-production phase, and as you can tell by the poster it is set to release on May 7th.

Quick Opinion: The details about the film’s plot are still being kept under wraps, but it would be interesting to see if, like Batman’s The Dark Knight, the franchise chooses to take a darker turn with its second installment. Not only would moving in that direction be consistent with superhero sequels (Superman II, Batman Returns, Spider-Man 3, etc.), but it would be very telling of the times because the character of Iron Man, along with his world, is not known for having shadowy undertones.