Due Date (2010)

A basic road trip movie made by a director (Todd Phillips) who has a lot of experience making road trip movies. But this one was better than most because of the great performances by the two leads.

Peter (Robert Downey Jr.) is an uptight yuppie who arrives at the airport to make it home in time for his wife to give birth. He's casually making his way in when Ethan (Zach Galifianakis) runs into him...literally. Once they both are kicked off the plane for making "terrorist" threats, they have to embark on a car ride from Atlanta to L.A. in order to make it for the childbirth. Along the way, shit goes down. Car accidents, Western Union beatdowns, an appearance from Ray, and a dog. And Ethan just can get on Peter's good side. Every time he tries, it just doesn't work out. It eventually doesn't become a question of when they'll make it to California, but if they can even stay alive.

Zach Galifianakis is almost always funny, and Robert Downey Jr. is a great actor. These two actors together had a great rapport, but it wasn't a complete match. They definitely had their moments though. Ethan's going to L.A. to get on "Two and a Half Men," and his obsession is hilarious. He even has a superfan website that, yes, actually exists. RDJ's best quality in this is his ability to keep such a straight face in the midst of shenanigans. A good movie that's funnier than you think. Grade: B+

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.

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Fun, action-packed, British...those are some of the words that can describe this latest Sherlock Holmes foray. In the end, there may not have been a whole lot of substance to it, but it was still a fun time.

Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a bit of an eccentric while also being a genius in the process. He has the ability to see 5 moves ahead of any foe that gets in his way. While chasing after Lord Blackwood (terrific character actor Mark Strong), who uses the black arts to "sacrifice" his victims, Holmes and Dr. Watson (Jude Law) use their intellect and wit to get passed anyone who stands in there way. After initially capturing Blackwood, the dark Lord escapes his hanging and is now terrorizing the British government and citizens all over again. Now, Holmes is the one who is a few steps behind and needs to play catch-up before Blackwood proceeds to kill all of Parliament.

Guy Ritchie's directing style seemed to get lost at times in this movie, but that was to be expected. My one problem with this movie is that I wish there was more focus on the detective work Holmes and Watson do as opposed to the fighting and chase scenes. Not to say that those were bad, quite the opposite actually, but if they would have gone just a bit into how they got from here to there to get the bad guys, it would have been better for me. Still a fun ride.