Movie Review :Iron Man, Made of Honor

Just two movies coming out this weekend, but they’re both getting a lot of airtime as far as previews go. If you didn’t know that “Iron Man” and “Made of Honor” were the movies releasing tomorrow, I’m not sure what you were doing for the past few weeks. It’s like no matter where I look, there’s Robert Downey, Jr. and Patrick Dempsey, shilling their films.

Iron Man

The latest in comic-book movies finds Robert Downey, Jr. creating a one-man army whose uniform gets better and better as the film goes on. By the third or fourth version he’s flying through the sky. The suit begins as a way to escape captivity, but evolves into a crime-fighting machine.

In “Iron Man”, Downey plays businessman Tony Stark who makes his money selling ideas to the military industry. Of creating the character, Stan Lee said, “I’m gonna make him the kind of guy that normally young people hate.” The comic book was set in the 1963, when America was at war with Vietnam and Communism, and Stark was the proud capitalist businessman who moonlighted as Iron Man. For a great political commentary of the whole idea of capitalist as hero, check out this Slate article. I never read the comic books, so it makes me want to see how bad Tony Stark really is.

Made of Honor

Romantic comedies follow one of three plotlines: (1) crazy love triangle, (2) boy and girl fall madly in love, but must be separated for one reason or another before finding each other again, and (3) friends become lovers. Typically, in the third variety, one friend realizes he loves the other just one minute too late, and the other friend has already moved on, giving up on her life-long dreams of romance with the first friend in the minute just before. And that’s what we seem to have here with “Made of Honor”. While I like the cast (Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan), the plot seems like a poor twist on the old friends become lovers story. And the critics agree. With a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it seems that movie was almost universally panned. But I’m sure Dempsey still makes for good eye candy for an hour and a half.

“Iron Man” Trailer