Iron Man 3 - the review

Threequels - always a tricky hurdle to overcome, but the good news is Marvel pulled off a master stroke hiring Shane Black to co script and direct Iron Man 3. King of the blockbuster script, his work on Lethal Weapon and Long Kiss Goodnight injected a freshness to the action genre that many scribes tried to emulate.

Back in the days when Robert Downey Jnr was almost unemployable, Joel Silver gave Black a few million dollars to write and direct Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It was witty, exciting and proved RDJ was a great leading man.

Fast forward to 2013 and the boys are back doing what they do best, creating fun, witty, intelligent, exciting cinema.

By now you know the plot for IM3. Tony Stark (RDJ) can't sleep. Terrorist The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) is wreaking havoc. Newcomer Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) is a smug entrepreneur keen on mucking about with Extremis, a scientific theory about regeneration, and Jim Rhodes (Don Cheadle) looks like Captain America in an Iron Man suit as government backed defender the Iron Patriot.

When Stark's chauffeur/security head Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is left hospital bound after a Mandarin attack, Stark promises revenge, gives his home address and is amazed when helicopters turn up and level the place. Oh and Gwyneth Paltrow and Rebecca Hall trade dirty looks at one another as Stark's gf and ex respectively.

The second act sees Stark stripped of his suit, teamed up with a smart kid whose snappy repertoire is a perfect match for Tony, and then all hell breaks loose in small town America.

Thanks to a great twist, IM3 takes a sharp left hand turn before the inevitable whiz whiz bang bang finale with dozens of Iron Man suits and explosions.

The last 20 minutes is fun but overkill. However, the closing titles are a supercharged flash frame orgy of clips set to Brian Tyler's hip retro theme. One of the best things about the film.

Yes, there's a credit cookie, so stay for that, and despite a sense of finality about the closing scenes, I'd be amazed if Stark and company didn't return in a few years.

8/10

Lockout review

So many good films are the result of luck. Having the right cast, script, direction, editing and effects are important, but if all the ingredients don't gel, viewers will be disappointed.
Lockout, the new sci-fi action thriller from writer producer Luc Besson has a lot going for it. Guy Pearce is splendid as wise-cracking, world-weary Snow, while Maggie Grace is a sexy heroine.
The plot sees a framed Snow sent to rescue her from a maximum security jail in space. (She's the US President's daughter, so naturally a fine bargaining chip for the thawed out inmates).
Vincent Regan and Joseph Gilgun are well cast as the Scots villains and there are many well staged set pieces.
However, there are some scenes, such as a bike chase in the first act and a parachute landing in the third that are poorly executed.
There's also a lack of closure regarding one key villain and an annoying mcguffin that is either left open for a sequel or just exploiting the same idea of the Rabbit's Foot from Mission Impossible 3. Aka the writers think the contents of a memory card just aren't that important to explore in the closing minutes.
With a better editor Lockout could have been a classic, but while it fails on a few levels, Pearce and Grace ensure it's not a complete waste of time.