So now you like the bird?
Here's how I wound up eating dinner at Shake Shack two days in a row:
Although, as today's weather proves, actual summer is still over a month away, our good friends in Hollywood, California, USA, have begun kicking things off in the first weekend in May, so that's when the summer movie season begins, unless of course the movie kicking things off is Kingdom of Heaven, in which case everyone agrees to wait a few more weeks. But this year, they had Iron Man 2, so it was safe to go out to the movies, with Marisa and Maggie and Kyle and Katie and Kate and Allison and Cossar and Sara and Rebecca and Jillian and Nathaniel and Jon and Amanda. So that was pretty awesome, even though the sheer number of people meant that I barely talked to some of them. The movie itself is a lot of fun; my expectations had been tempered by the combination of mixed-positive early reviews (as opposed to the original's wildly positive notices) and the fact that the first one, while thoroughly enjoyable, is not up to the level of the best Batman/Spider-Man/X-Men movies for me. Neither, for that matter, is Iron Man 2, but I couldn't really figure any way that the sequel is inferior to the original except for lacking the shock of a new Robert Downey Jr. superhero (and, as Nathaniel pointed out, some of us were paying attention to Downey well before Iron Man, and that performance is much less of a shock if you've seen Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Zodiac, among others).
The story of Iron Man 2 is far less propulsive and intense than the likes of The Dark Knight or X2, certainly, and proceeds in fits and starts, but that's absolutely true of the first movie, too -- and when it does arrive at an action sequence, Iron Man 2 does that stuff better than the first film, without letting it overwhelm the rest of the movie (the action is better, yes, but there's not really much more of it, percentage-wise). Like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies, this is a series where the hero really is more important than the bad guys he fights. Moreover, Jon Favreau seems far more interested in characters than story, which suits me fine. There are a lot of characters in Iron Man 2 -- pretty much everyone from the first movie plus Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell as new villains and Scarlett Johansson and a bigger part for Sam Jackson's Nick Fury -- but it's not like Spider-Man 3, where the filmmakers set up a bunch of interesting characters and situations only to fail to actually tie them together in a meaningful or coherent way. Favreau obviously loves his actors, and his movie is surprisingly talky, in an entertaining and playful sort of way. So much of the fun of the movie has to do not with awesome fights or stunts (though, again, that stuff is done well) but with people actually talking to each other. Downey and Gwyneth Paltrow; Downey and Jackson; Rourke and Rockwell; actually, anyone and Rockwell. If nothing else, I might've enjoyed Iron Man 2 more than its predecessor because Sam Rockwell is so awesome. There are scenes that could have easily been perfunctory, short, or cut, where Favreau just lets Rockwell go, and it is a delight (also a delight: hearing Jon, Nathaniel, and Jillian around me, also cracking up at his pure Rockwellosity).
I guess I can see why the reviews have been a little more cautious than they were two years ago: part of the critical appeal for Iron Man, I think, was that it was a comic book movie that wasn't necessarily made for the comic-book audience (in a good way, obviously). Iron Man 2 is a little more comic-booky: weirder, more complicated, a few more nerdy references that the Ziegfeld crowd ate up. Critics don't get to crow about the novelty of its grown-up approach this time, and Downey had been pretty visible over the past few years, and he's not the only funny one this time. In short, maybe it's too fun?
Anyway, in conjunction with faux-summer, it made sense to go to Shake Shack after the movie, assuming we could make it there before it closed, which we could. An excellent end to an excellent evening.
Then, the next day, Marisa and I had plans to meet up with Rob, Sabrina, and my sister after their Mets game but before Rob hopped a flight. But first, the two of us went to see Babies. I don't really know how to evaluate this movie. It's just clips of babies for eighty minutes, four specific babies from birth to around about their first steps. Obviously, babies are adorable and sometimes they do hilarious stuff. I appreciated the lack of narration, or much information at all, really. You're just watching these babies do baby stuff. I liked it more than March of the Penguins because no one tried to impose any personalities on the babies. They just baby it up. I also liked it more than the similarly Mother's Day-targeted Mother and Child, which I saw and reviewed in brief for my column and may review in full later this week.
Post-babies we met up with Rob and a whole crew of Saratoga kids, and the Saratogians were going to go out to dinner with a bunch of people we didn't really know, and Rob needed to stay with us in Brooklyn for easier airport access and didn't want to stay out super late. He had also just been at CitiShea, which has its own Shake Shack, but with a line that apparently stretches longer than the line to actually enter the stadium. So Rob asked if maybe the three of us could go to this Shake Shack he's heard so much about. Who were we to refuse him? So once again, we headed over to Shake Shack, except this time it was colder and windier, but it still wasn't as uncomfortable as when we went in the rain last year, so even though the Red Velvet custard wasn't available for shakes, it was a resounding success. That I need to make myself not repeat for at least a month. Because come on.
Shake Shack nights:
More at Marisa's.
Although, as today's weather proves, actual summer is still over a month away, our good friends in Hollywood, California, USA, have begun kicking things off in the first weekend in May, so that's when the summer movie season begins, unless of course the movie kicking things off is Kingdom of Heaven, in which case everyone agrees to wait a few more weeks. But this year, they had Iron Man 2, so it was safe to go out to the movies, with Marisa and Maggie and Kyle and Katie and Kate and Allison and Cossar and Sara and Rebecca and Jillian and Nathaniel and Jon and Amanda. So that was pretty awesome, even though the sheer number of people meant that I barely talked to some of them. The movie itself is a lot of fun; my expectations had been tempered by the combination of mixed-positive early reviews (as opposed to the original's wildly positive notices) and the fact that the first one, while thoroughly enjoyable, is not up to the level of the best Batman/Spider-Man/X-Men movies for me. Neither, for that matter, is Iron Man 2, but I couldn't really figure any way that the sequel is inferior to the original except for lacking the shock of a new Robert Downey Jr. superhero (and, as Nathaniel pointed out, some of us were paying attention to Downey well before Iron Man, and that performance is much less of a shock if you've seen Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Zodiac, among others).
The story of Iron Man 2 is far less propulsive and intense than the likes of The Dark Knight or X2, certainly, and proceeds in fits and starts, but that's absolutely true of the first movie, too -- and when it does arrive at an action sequence, Iron Man 2 does that stuff better than the first film, without letting it overwhelm the rest of the movie (the action is better, yes, but there's not really much more of it, percentage-wise). Like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies, this is a series where the hero really is more important than the bad guys he fights. Moreover, Jon Favreau seems far more interested in characters than story, which suits me fine. There are a lot of characters in Iron Man 2 -- pretty much everyone from the first movie plus Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell as new villains and Scarlett Johansson and a bigger part for Sam Jackson's Nick Fury -- but it's not like Spider-Man 3, where the filmmakers set up a bunch of interesting characters and situations only to fail to actually tie them together in a meaningful or coherent way. Favreau obviously loves his actors, and his movie is surprisingly talky, in an entertaining and playful sort of way. So much of the fun of the movie has to do not with awesome fights or stunts (though, again, that stuff is done well) but with people actually talking to each other. Downey and Gwyneth Paltrow; Downey and Jackson; Rourke and Rockwell; actually, anyone and Rockwell. If nothing else, I might've enjoyed Iron Man 2 more than its predecessor because Sam Rockwell is so awesome. There are scenes that could have easily been perfunctory, short, or cut, where Favreau just lets Rockwell go, and it is a delight (also a delight: hearing Jon, Nathaniel, and Jillian around me, also cracking up at his pure Rockwellosity).
I guess I can see why the reviews have been a little more cautious than they were two years ago: part of the critical appeal for Iron Man, I think, was that it was a comic book movie that wasn't necessarily made for the comic-book audience (in a good way, obviously). Iron Man 2 is a little more comic-booky: weirder, more complicated, a few more nerdy references that the Ziegfeld crowd ate up. Critics don't get to crow about the novelty of its grown-up approach this time, and Downey had been pretty visible over the past few years, and he's not the only funny one this time. In short, maybe it's too fun?
Anyway, in conjunction with faux-summer, it made sense to go to Shake Shack after the movie, assuming we could make it there before it closed, which we could. An excellent end to an excellent evening.
Then, the next day, Marisa and I had plans to meet up with Rob, Sabrina, and my sister after their Mets game but before Rob hopped a flight. But first, the two of us went to see Babies. I don't really know how to evaluate this movie. It's just clips of babies for eighty minutes, four specific babies from birth to around about their first steps. Obviously, babies are adorable and sometimes they do hilarious stuff. I appreciated the lack of narration, or much information at all, really. You're just watching these babies do baby stuff. I liked it more than March of the Penguins because no one tried to impose any personalities on the babies. They just baby it up. I also liked it more than the similarly Mother's Day-targeted Mother and Child, which I saw and reviewed in brief for my column and may review in full later this week.
Post-babies we met up with Rob and a whole crew of Saratoga kids, and the Saratogians were going to go out to dinner with a bunch of people we didn't really know, and Rob needed to stay with us in Brooklyn for easier airport access and didn't want to stay out super late. He had also just been at CitiShea, which has its own Shake Shack, but with a line that apparently stretches longer than the line to actually enter the stadium. So Rob asked if maybe the three of us could go to this Shake Shack he's heard so much about. Who were we to refuse him? So once again, we headed over to Shake Shack, except this time it was colder and windier, but it still wasn't as uncomfortable as when we went in the rain last year, so even though the Red Velvet custard wasn't available for shakes, it was a resounding success. That I need to make myself not repeat for at least a month. Because come on.
Shake Shack nights:
More at Marisa's.