Iron Man 2

Was it as good as the first one? No. Was it worth watching? Yes, definitely-it was very entertaining. The problem is that villain was not particularly scary. Yes, Mickey Rourke was very good and owned each scene he was in but I was never concerned that Iron man might be in trouble-not like the first one, where he really got knocked around and beat up. Yes, he's dying in this one, but once that little problem is solved, it's full speed ahead. I liked the part about showing Rhodes as betraying Stark (while thinking he's doing the right thing) but it was still a little weak. And to be honest, the action scenes were the weakest part of the movie-it's much more fun listening the Robert Downey Jr flirt with Gwyneth Paltrow, in an updated version of His Girl Friday or Bringing Up Baby. I have to give full props to Scarlett Johannsen, though. When I heard she was cast as the Black Widow, a chill went down my spine. I love the Black Widow (once she got out of the 60's and became a more modern hero). She was tough, strong and smart. She knew what she was doing, most of the time, and she lead a group of superheroes sometime in the 70's. A tough, smart, independent woman-played by Scarlett Johannsen? And yet, she pulled it off. Once she put on the costume, she kicked ass. She was strong, tough and smart. So, kudos to you Ms Johanssen. I didn't think you could do justice to one of my favorite characters and proved me wrong. No, what's all this about the Avengers movie taking on the Skrull=Kree War? Be still my heart.

The Seven Samurai, Akira

I'll just say it up front: I hated both these movies. The Seven Samurai is 3 1/2 hours long! I supposed it's partially my fault, for thinking it would be a thinking, fun action movie (like Yojimbo) or even more action oriented then Throne of Blood. Instead I found it extremely long a not a little tedious. The main character says at the beginning that the samurai always fight and pay the price with no thanks and it takes 3 1/2 hours to prove that to be true. Oh God, it was boring. I much prefer The Magnificent Seven, but maybe that's just me. Akira (or maybe it was Ikiru) is better, in that while not much happens, it took a much shorter time to get to the point and it's point was far more poignant. A middle-level bureaucrat discovers he is dying. He goes out on the town with a young, female colleague and then goes home to his family, who, he finds out, he cannot tell of his illness, mainly because they're cold and uncaring. And then we go to his funeral-and find that he spent the last months of his life (when no one knew he was ill) trying to get a park built in a small village. He pestered everyone to get it done, although pestered is not quite the word for his humble persistence. And this was his triumph-this lovely park in a small village, where there had previously been what looked like a dump. It's clear at his funeral that no one understood why he was trying to hard to get the park built or why it was important-but when the women of the village come to pay their respects, it's clear how much he and the park mean to them. His fellow bureaucrats vow to be more like him but in the end, it seems they are destined not to change. Did I like it? Not really-I think I appreciated it's point more than the actual movie.