Movie Review: Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 starring Robert Downey, Jr.

Iron Man 2 is a sequel that works. Robert Downey returns as Tony Stark, now publicly know as Iron Man. The first film had Tony inventing Iron Man to save his life and allow his escape from terrorists who wanted to use his genius for evil, and made Tony realize that he himself had been using his genius for evil. In this film, Tony has redeemed himself by bringing peace to the world through his Iron Man persona. But there has been a cost. The same technology  that saved his life in the first film is now killing him by poisoning his body. Without a substitute, Tony will die. In the meantime, the Military Industrial Complex, personified by Sam Rockwell's character, is none too happy with what peace is doing to their business, and some elements of the government are uncomfortable not being in control of the peace keeping force. Add in Mickey Roarke as a brilliant but jealous and vengeance seeking bad guy, and the stage is set for lots of special effects laden battle scenes that look great and successfully wow the audience.

Robert Downey, Jr is great as Stark. He plays smart well, and snarky even better. Mickey Roarke looks better than he did in The Wrestler (I thought he looked like he'd had major plastic surgery in that one; now he looks much more natural) and even though here he is laden with a thick sometimes incomprehensible accent, he does most of his great acting with his expressive face and body. Gweneth Paltrow is strong enough as Pepper Potts playing a foil straight man character to Downey. Scarlett Johannson looks great but doesn't get much to do until some late martial arts scenes that look fabulous as comic book battles.

Book Review: The Killing Floor

The Killing Floor, by Lee Child.

The Killing Floor is the first book in the Jack Reacher series. Reacher is a former military policeman who now chooses the life of a hobo, randomly roaming the country in search of interesting things. He carries almost nothing with him, buys new clothes occasionally instead of washing (he disposes of the old clothes), and never plans to settle down. What he finds mostly in his search are troubles. In The Killing Floor, he is arrested in a small town in Georgia for murder. Because he has a strong alibi, he is soon helping the police to solve the murder, which in a coincidence only acceptable in popular entertainment turns out to be of his brother.

Killing Floor is a fast paced, sometimes gruesomely bloody action tale. Sometimes the details stretch the bounds of the possible, and I don't for a second believe that the bad guy's scheme would have worked in real life, but the character of Reacher is unique and interesting, and I will continue to read other books in the series.

The Jack Reacher Series:

1. Killing Floor
2. Die Trying
3. Tripwire
4. Running Blind
5. Echo Burning
6. Without Fail
7. Persuader
8. The Enemy
9. One Shot
10. The Hard Way
11. Bad Luck and Trouble
12. Nothing to Lose
13. Gone Tomorrow
14. 61 Hours

Book Review: Simple Genius

Simple Genius, by David Baldacci

Simple Genius is the third Baldacci book featuring the characters of Sean King and Michelle Maxwell.  In this one, Sean and Michelle investigate a death at a research facility located near a highly secure CIA location in Virginia.

The book begins with Michelle instigating a bar fight and getting tossed into a mental institution as a result. Michelle has some serious mental issues that are discussed at length, but unfortunately don't seem very relevant to the main plot. Much of the early part of the novel dealing with Michelle's stay in the mental facility play like a different story altogether, and could easily have been removed without much impact to the main story.

That main story begins with Sean taking a job in order to get money to pay for Michelle's hospital stay.  Sean is asked to determine if the death at the research facility is a murder or a suicide. This leads to more murders, attempted murders, kidnapping, and gunfights galore.

Michele's stay in the mental hospital not withstanding, the characters, plot and action are all interesting and absorbing until the end. In the end, though, Baldacci has one character behaving completely unbelievably and another character explain everything that was really going on. I found this very much a let down, and wish Baldacci could have shown more, and told less.

The books in the Sean King/Michelle Maxwell series are:

1. Split Second
2. Hour Game
3. Simple Genious
4. First Family