41/50x2: Domino

I love when Keira Knightley does movies that are not period pieces. I enjoy her, and she is one of those extremely skinny looking girls I actually think is good looking - yet, I still think she should eat a sandwich.

Anyway, here Knightley stars as Domino Harvey the titular character in Domino. She is a former model living in LA that notices an ad in the newspaper about bounty hunting - so she heads to take a class from Ed Moseby (Mickey Rourke) and bail bondsman, Claremont Williams (Delroy Lindo).

This is one of those films where a bunch of things happen and three different groups of people end up in the same place with guns pointing at each other.

Apparently, a DMV employee who is also the mistress of Williams, Lateesha (Mo'Nique) is trying to secure $300,000 to help her granddaughter Micah receive a surgery.

Her and two of her friends look to rob a billionaire, Drake Bishop (Dabney Coleman) of $10 million to help pay for the surgery.

The entire film is told in flashback because Domino has been arrested by the FBI and is retelling her account of the situation to FBI agent Taryn Mills (Lucy Liu).

This wasn't the greatest of films - sure a pretty decent ride, but not amazing. The funniest part of the film was when a tv crew led by Mark Heiss (Christopher Walken) follow the group of bounty hunters around for a television reality series. And the hosts of the show are former 90210 actors Brian Austin Green and Ian Ziering.

Grade:

15/50: The Wrestler

So, this film was called the return or resurrection of Mickey Rourke. I decided to look up Mickey Rourke's previous films to see what he was returning to - because I had always heard the name, but never could place him in a movie. The lone movie (besides 91/2 Weeks which I have not seen yet) that I have seen Mickey Rourke in before the explosion of films he has been doing - Double Team (you know, with Dennis Rodman.....crazy).

Anyway, that really had no significance on my reaction to The Wrestler only that I wanted to see where he was coming from in his past.

Rourke stars as Randy, a professional wrestler, and probably one of the best known for his time. As the years wear on, Randy continues his wrestling gig - albeit in much smaller venues, but he continues to be the draw for the crowd.

It becomes apparent that Randy has nothing else going for him in his life except wrestling. After an injury knocks him out for awhile - and doctors tell him he should never wrestle again or it could kill him - Randy begins to reach out to the two people in his life that he cares about.

First, a stripper named Cassidy (Marisa Tomei) who has shown him kindness over the years and he has gotten to know - at least he thought he had. After she helps him out on a few things and he buys her a drink he shows her that he is falling for her - something that she is unable to reciprocate.

Second, his estranged daughter, Stephanie (Evan Rachel Wood). She is a student that has written Randy out of her life because he has never been there for her in the past. He does his best to repair the damage that he has caused - and for awhile it appears to be working.

There is just one thing that is still missing in his life - his love for wrestling. And with a rematch 20 years in the making with The Ayatollah looming, Randy must make the decision to return to what he loves the most, but risk his life - or hope that the relationships he has created are enough.

This was a pretty good movie, but I don't feel it was as good as I was expecting thanks to all of the hype from the Oscars a year ago. I am sure if I was a wrestling fan that I would have felt a little bit more for the film, but I am not.

I do believe that all three of the main characters did amazing jobs in their roles. Tomei was great and Wood was a definite surprise (I don't remember seeing her in too many things that I have come across).

As for Rourke, well this is definitely the return he needed as he has exploded onto the scene as of late. I just can't remember for the life of me where he is returning from. Guess I missed something.

Grade:

Iron Man 2

OK, this is pretty weird that I am debuting an entirely new website design and name to the site - "Kano's Lay-Z-Boy Theater". The name of this site derives my inability to get to the theater anymore.

But, for my first post on this newly revamped site I, ironically, will be posting a review of a movie I saw in the actual theater - Iron Man 2.

Iron Man sort of came out of nowhere a few years ago, and was a huge surprise hit in the same summer that brought us The Dark Knight. Iron Man I was not able to see in the theater, but was able to check out on its arrival on DVD and I found it very entertaining - sort of the anti-Dark Knight as it wasn't dark at all and most of its appeal came from its humor and leading man - Robert Downey, Jr.

Well, Tony Stark (Downey, Jr.) returns as a huge phenomenon to the adoring public, however, he continues to battle the same health issues from the first movie - and his suit only appears to be causing his health more damage.

This time around the characters are aplenty as we are introduced to Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), a competitor of Stark Industries; Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), the main villain of the film; and Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson), who we know as Black Widow. Also around are Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) - who took over for Terrence Howard.

I have to admit that in the past (older Batman films, Spiderman 3) I have always been against the inclusion of so many characters, but in this film it really didn't hurt too much. There was a lot going on in the film, but for the most part it worked.

My main complaint would be in the finale. There was such a major buildup for the final fight that was sort of let down by how brief the ending became.

Another huge part of this movie was the continued recruitment of Stark to possibly join Fury's Avengers team. I am pretty interested in seeing that film as long as it is done correctly - again the more characters in a film sometimes takes away from the actual story telling.

On a side note: I remember during the showing of this film thinking to myself that I could take a hit in the man department because, honestly, I found Paltrow to be much better looking that Johansson. I am not sure what it was, but she really stood out to me - much more than she did in the first film.

Finally - I am sure most of you have heard about this already, but make sure to stick around until after the credits for a little extra does of fun.

Grade: