Iron Man 2 (2010)

Was this as good as the first one? Absolutely not. But I still had fun watching this. Robert Downey, Jr. is great as Tony Stark, no matter how good or bad the movie.

Now that the world knows that Tony Stark is the Iron Man, they know to avoid him. However, even with international crime down by a substantial margin, Congress calls Mr. Stark in for a subcommittee hearing to try and get him to turn over the iron man suit to the US Army. Tony refuses saying that the technology for people other than himself to make a suit similar is still years away. In Russia, Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) sees the hearing and decides he needs to get revenge on Stark because Vanko's and Tony's fathers worked together before a rift was created. In 6 months time, Vanko creates a machine crudely similar to the Iron Man and gets into an epic battle with Tony in Monacco. After seeing this, Congress demands the suit and gives the contract to make more to Stark's rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell). After that, Tony goes into a tailspin and doesn't know what to do. One thing is for sure, he needs to stop Hammer from completing his project. But now that he's gone off the deep end, can he hold it together long enough to stop him.

This was a fun movie. The substance was there for a great sequel, but it was not executed as well as it should have been. Everything moved so fast from Point A to B to C in what seemed like no time. It was visually pleasing though. As for Rourke, his Russian accent was OK. There were times I believed it, and other times it seemed forced. Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson and Don Cheadle were all great additions to the cast, but my favorite may have been Garry Shandling as the Senator who had it out for Stark. All in all, fun but not as good as the first.

Killshot (2009)

Sometimes great acting can benefit a movie, sometimes it can't. This movie was the latter. While the actors gave some solid performances, the story was old and predictable.

Diane Lane and Thomas Jane play a newly separated husband and wife. Mickey Rourke and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play a newly "married" duo of killers. One day, there paths cross and now Lane and Jane are on the run because Rourke's hitman is so deadly, no one who sees his face ever lives. Gordon-Levitt plays his hot shot new partner who just doesn't shut up. It's a cat and mouse game and I guarantee you already know who wins.

Strong performances all around, mostly by Rourke and Gordon-Levitt (he is fastly becoming one of my favorite actors). But the story is so jaded and loses the viewers interest so fast that I figured out the whole movie within 15 minutes.

The Wrestler (2008)

This is THE movie of 2008. Not only did it bring Mickey Rourke back into the mainstream, but it is an all-around terrific movie. It shows everything. It has emotion, it has heartbreak, it has triumphs and it has let-downs.

Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Rourke) is a down and out wrestler who is constantly trying to relive his glory days from the 1980s. Think Hulk Hogan and Jake "the Snake" Roberts individual stories combined and you have Randy. Shot in a grainy, almost documentary style, the movie follows Randy as he lives his bare-bones lifestyle of working part time at a grocery store and wrestling on the weekends in half-filled YMCAs and high school gymnasiums. He is definitely passed his prime, but can't do anything else with his life. A great complement is Marisa Tomei playing Cassidy/Pam, the stripper who is also passed her prime. With his assumed relationship with Cassidy and his painfully broken one with his daughter, played by Evan Rachel Wood, Randy has only one thing he knows he does right, and that is wrestling.

This movie also got pro wrestling just right and finally makes it appear legitimate in film. Between the painkillers, the steroids, but especially the backstage camaraderie. This movie should be the end all, be all of wrestling movies and deserves a spot as one of the greatest sports movies ever made.