Cinemas - starting this week - 2/5/08

May 2 2008 by Michael Green, Flintshire Chronicle

IRON MAN (12A) (All major cinemas)

FIRST of the year’s blockbusters will be hoping to launch a new franchise with the intriguing prospect of Robert Downey Jr starring as Marvel Comics’ superhero Iron Man.

One can’t help wondering if Marvel will have a superhero left soon who hasn’t made the transition to the big screen and they must be concerned that most of the series have already died a death.

Early reports suggest Iron Man falls short of the heights of X-Men 2 and Spider-Man 2 but is decidedly superior to the likes of the Fantastic Four or Elektra movies.

And the reason why it has been gaining favourable comments seems almost entirely due to the performance of Downey Jr as billionaire inventor Tony Stark who creates the Iron Man body armour under somewhat stressful conditions.

Downey Jr’s casting raised almost as many eyebrows as the announcement of Michael Keaton as Batman back in the late 80s but his charisma, charm and natural way with a humorous line make it one of the best performances yet in a comic book movie.

Stark is first seen as your typical playboy, comfortable in plush surroundings being courted by scores of beautiful women and quite happy to be the head of an arms manufacturing company.

His attitude changes when he is kidnapped by a bunch of Afghan bad guys who imprison him and force him to build them a new high-tech missile system. Instead, he sneakily builds himself body armour that is indestructible and can fly, giving him a means of escape.

When Stark gets home, he discovers villainous Jeff Bridges staging a take over of his company, having ordered a hit on his boss after authorising the sale of weapons to the very bad guys who abducted our hero.

When Bridges figures out how Stark has been spending his time, he decides to build himself an even bigger robotic suit and it is the clash of these titans which forms the climax to the picture.

The real question, though, is whether popcorn audiences will take to a film carried by two middle aged actors sufficiently to warrant an Iron Man 2.

STAR RATING: ***

MADE OF HONOUR (12A) ( All major cinemas)

PATRICK Dempsey first caught the eye during the 80s when he found himself on the fringes of the Brat Pack - trouble was, as engaging a personality as he was, he just couldn’t find himself a hit movie.

After the 1991 disaster that was Mobsters, he was relegated from leading man status to supporting actor and largely stayed that way until the turn of the century.

An eye-catching role in the under-rated Reese Witherspoon vehicle Sweet Home Alabama in 2002 signalled something of a return to form but it was getting the starring role in the medical series Grey’s Anatomy that really completed his rehab.

Last year, he was lucky enough to get the leading man role in the sublime Enchanted and now he is back as the lead in his own rom com – albeit it one that echoes everything from My Best Friend’s Wedding to 27 Dresses.

His character has Michelle Monaghan for a best friend - a best friend he only realises he is madly in love with when she goes away for a while. When she returns, he is ready to pop the question - but she arrives with her own fiance in tow and wants Dempsey to be her maid of honour!

The message, therefore, is – don’t go see this movie for the story. But Dempsey is back to winning ways and Monaghan remains one of the screen’s most unsung beauties.

STAR RATING: **

NIM’S ISLAND (U) (All major cinemas)

HOME Alone on a desert island seems to be the shorthand description of this family adventure which is based on Wendy Orr’s best-selling novel.

Abigail Breslin – looking nothing at all like Little Miss Sunshine – lives on said island with her obsessive marine biologist father Gerard Butler and they enjoy an idyllic existence, complete with internet access!

But when dad goes missing during a storm, Breslin ends up alone on the island and sends out an online plea for help which is picked up by reclusive San Francisco author Jodie Foster who overcomes her own demons to try to help the 12 year old.

STAR RATING: ***

P2 (18) (All major cinemas)

INTELLIGENT slasher movie is all too often a contradiction in terms but this unseasonal Christmas thriller benefits from two splendid actors in the roles of psycho and victim.

Wes Bentley hasn’t really fulfilled the potential he showed early on with American Beauty but he is effective here as the overnight parking lot attendant with a screw loose.

And Rachel Nichols was superb in the latter days of the TV series Alias and is similarly feisty here as the business woman who works late in the office on Christmas Eve and finds herself locked in the parking lot - with only Bentley’s nutter for company.

STAR RATING: ***

JOY DIVISION (15) (All major cinemas)

IF YOU thought Anton Corbijn’s fictionalised account of the tragically brief life of Ian Curtis, Control, said all there was to say about the influential Manchester band Joy Division, think again.

Documentary makers Grant Gee and Jon Savage use accounts from the people who knew, worked with and loved Curtis to tell the band’s story and illustrate its legacy. They include Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Tony Wilson before his death.

STAR RATING: ***