Criticature: "Darkman" - 9/22/10

I remember the first time I saw an ad for “Darkman”. I was about…oh, say 10 or 11? Granted, the comics I was reading at the time were about four or five years older than I was, but it was during this time, flipping through dog-eared copies of Alien spin-offs, that I first set my impressionable eyes on the Struzan-esque image of Peyton Westlake, in relief against a wall of industrial flame and shadow.

Review: "Iron Man 2" - 5/17/10

"Eat this, Andretti."

It’s amazing the way one churlish grin from Downey Jr. telegraphs to the rest of us to leave our spidey senses and batarangs at home. But I guess, for an actor who’s as disarmingly impish as he is, it comes with territory where you’ve had to see how bad things will get before you can see how good they are. So with one wise little wink and a nod from our man, and you know that to expect the same serious sensibilities to which most other franchises have attached to themselves would be asking a bit too much. It’s a refreshing fact that most of us appreciate about the first installment of John Favreau’s take on the prodigal entrepreneur turned mechanized wonder.

Review: "Kick-Ass" 4/19/10

Go Ninja, go ninja, GO!

No doubt you’ve gotten your senses (if not your ass) kicked by the viral ad campaign that’s been sweeping every which way in the last few months. And if you’ve caught any of the red-band chaff then you know that the movie’s allure pretty much hinges on its extreme violence, a decidedly uncharacteristic attribute of the men-in-tights genre. In that vein, think of this as the schlocky Clockwork Orange of superhero films, except where Alex DeLarge was essentially the rapist version of Dennis the Menace, Dave Lizewski—a naïve boy wonder who decides he’s had enough of the dull life and suits up to kick ass—is kind of like a masochistic Michael Cera who has a hard time keeping it in his pants. Which is good for us. Because it’s funny. I think...