We saw this three weeks ago and I think we liked it. Iron Man's alter-ego Tony Stark is at his most vulnerable, literally and figuratively, now that he admits he loves his aide Pepper Potts plus he keeps having problems with that metal suit. Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, playing Stark and Potts with possibly more nuance than before, were both last blogged in The Avengers. Don Cheadle (most recently in Flight) returns as Colonel James Rhodes and Jon Favreau gives up the director's chair (last directed Cowboys & Aliens) to Shane Black but appears as Potts' amusingly fussy security chief Happy Hogan (Favreau's most recent acting gig was People Like Us). Ben Kingsley's (last in these pages in The Dictator) villain is also something to watch, from his "You will neverrrr seeeee meeee coming" in the trailer, to the middle of the movie when more is revealed. But there are at least as many outstanding action scenes as there are dramatic ones. As it should be.
Shane Black wrote the first Lethal Weapon (1987) (he submitted it in 1984 at the age of 22), co-wrote Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), directed and adapted the screenplay for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) which also starred Downey, and earned $4 million for writing Renny Harlin's The Long Kiss Goodnight ( I didn't see it). Apparently one of his trademarks is movies set at Christmastime and this is no exception. Drew Pearce (probably no relation to Guy Pearce (last in Prometheus), who appears as Aldrich Killian) makes his feature debut sharing screenplay duties with Black.
I turned my head to whisper something to Jack and missed the mandatory Marvel movie Stan Lee cameo. He didn't have a line this time. Watching it here ahead of time is no spoiler.
The exciting music by composer Brian Tyler (91 credits and I've never heard of him--it can happen) can be heard by starting here and following up numerically from links on the right side of the page.
Though doubtless better on the big screen, it's not high art either (78% from critics and 83 from audiences on rottentomatoes) and can wait for high quality home viewing. Oh, and I don't need to tell you to wait for a bonus scene after the credits, do I?
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