Some movie catch-up

Dear reader, fret not, for though I’ve been reading the good book of late, I still set aside time for mainstream entertainment. Here are a handful of movies I’ve caught lately. Starting off, Much Ado About Nothing is, without question, one of the silliest Shakespeare plays I’ve ever seen. This one has three parts to the silliness. First, it’s written as a comedy and it actually achieves this with some very nice dialog. Second, it has Keanu Reeves. I dare you to watch this movie without having a signature “Whoa!” go through your head at some point when brave Keanu enters stage left. While he doesn’t have much business in films of this nature, he actually didn’t detract, due entirely to the added silliness of his portrayal. Third, by far the best, and certainly the most unexpected, Michael Keaton’s bumbling constable steals the show. He really hams it up here, and it’s a real treat. Fair warning, the dialog is very much in the Shakespearian vein, but if that’s not a problem, do give it a view, it’s a lot of fun!

Speaking of fun, Iron Man 2, the second installment in the series, is pretty good. Personally, I didn’t think it stacked up to the first one, but in all fairness, the first one was really awesome. This one follows up on some of the teaser business in the first one with SHIELD and the whole Avengers business, gets a (IMO) much improved Rhodey in the form of Don Cheadle, and I have to agree with Stark’s assessment on meeting Scarlett Johansson’s character. “I want one.” Yowza. I still haven’t decided if Samuel L. Jackson has a proper place here or not. We’ll see how his character progresses in future installments, and Mickey Rourke, though a bit scary to look at, puts in a pretty solid performance here. In short, we get more tech, cool upgrades, some pretty bad-ass characters, and some excellent action and effects on top of a pretty solid script. It was fun and I’d recommend it.

Speaking of cool, Oceans from Disney Nature is a really beautiful look at the deep, brought to us by extensive filming via Disney and narrated nicely by Pierce Brosnan. The cinematography is outstanding and the critters and situations they bring to the screen are simply amazing. If you like good nature films, this one is really beautifully made and really showcases some absolutely incredible animals. Highly recommended.

Also highly recommended is Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, staring Russell Crowe. We’d kinda heard mixed rumblings about this one. “It’s dark.” “The story’s been changed.” and such.

Well, yes and no. The story part, yes, but it’s fully explained, and the dark part…not any more so than a lot of other such films. Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, and William Hurt lead a pretty excellent cast in the telling of how our hero Robin started out in the King’s army and ultimately transformed into the outlaw we all know and love from all the other movies ever made about the subject. See, that’s the story change. This gets us up to the point where most other movies about the guy start. Crowe makes a very solid Robin and Cate does a good Marian. I found this to be quite an engaging and enjoyable story and highly recommend it.