Word: downey
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...This notion of self-made heroism is the theme of the first two blockbuster movies of the summer season. We saw it last weekend when Iron Man, the one where arms merchant Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) builds himself a heart, opened to $102 million at the domestic box office last weekend. Now comes Speed Racer, based on the '60s Japanese animated TV series, Mach GoGoGo. It's the new sound-and-light show from brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski, who in 1999 stamped the template for high-IQ effects entertainment with The Matrix. I don't think...
...Like the Downey film, Speed Racer is plenty satisfying in traditional action-movie terms. It boasts enough auto-erotic car-nage to make Grand Theft Auto IV seem, by comparison, like a junkyard jalopy. Beyond that, there's the edifying display of people taking control of their own destinies by building beautiful, useful machines. The heroes of Speed Racer and Iron Man could be the garage geeks who paved Silicon Valley with cybergold; or Hollywood's visual-effects alchemists, translating their fantasies into pixels to create gorgeous movies like these. Iron Man and Speed Racer are tributes to practical ingenuity...
Zillionaire industrialist Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is a man without a heart--until he has to create a device to protect his own. Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) has a sweet gawkiness about him--until he gets behind a wheel. Not only do these heroes find the answers from within themselves, but they also build the solutions into themselves. The technology they create and maneuver helps them win because it's intrinsic: it's their heart, their brain...
...Downey's the best. In movies he's usually been the skeptical observer in a supporting role (perhaps because his drug history has made producers reluctant to cast him in the lead). He's Irony Man, standing off to the side, undercutting the hero's big dreams or rash motives with a sardonic critique delivered at lightning speed - no mumbling or pauses for him.) He sometimes seems to be in his own movie, one that's smarter and faster than the one he's been signed for. But having been entrusted to carry Iron Man, Downey sets the pace, establishes...
...this one anyway, knows that there's an American style - best displayed in the big, smart, kid-friendly epic - that few other cinemas even aspire to, and none can touch. When it works, as it does here, it rekindles even a cynic's movie love. So cheers to Downey, Favreau and the Iron Man production company. They don't call it Marvel for nothing...