“Toy Story 3” and “Inception” I liked. That is all.
By the way, how was “Iron Man” “subversive”? Robert Downey wasn’t an obvious choice, but he played the guy exactly as you’d expect after hearing Robert Downey, Jr. was cast. Not the standard superhero-type, but a perfect celebrity-type, and from what I understand the Iron Man guy is a, in fact, a playboy-magnate-man of the world. What would you expect, really, for superheroes to act like if they actually existed (and didn’t have alter-egos)? Pretty much like him, I’d think.
You can say that’s all fine, but it’s not the stereotype. Based on who, exactly? George Reeves? It’s been a while. In recent memory we have Michael Keaton—of ‘89 “Batman” fame and the bridge between the old “Superman” era and the current craze ignited by “X-Men” and “Spiderman”—not exactly the anti-Downey, Jr.
What it comes down to, methinks, is that people were surprised when they first heard who would play Iron Man. Once in the theater, though, everyone felt it was perfect. Compare to Johnny Depp in “Pirates of the Carribean”—a genuinely subversive performance—and, Lord, what a difference. In that case, you might have questioned it going in, but once in the theater, you say, “What the hell is going on? Is he drunk? Is he gay?” That’s a big difference.
To Le Chien; Sorry, but The Book of Eli absolutely sucked.
(I borrowed the DVD from a relative who loved it - go figure.)
I find myself hunting more and more old titles from Amazon.
Iron Man was subversive in the sense that the hero was a Randian type billionaire industrialist, roles normally reserved for villains a la Green Goblin from Spider-Man.