It's Wednesday again, and you know what that means, right? Right!  It's time for another sojourn into the Marvel Cinematic Universe!  This week's trip takes us to 2010's " Iron Man 2 "... Tony Stark discovers that the miniature arc reactor that's keeping him alive is actually slowly killing him.  Growing reckless and more morose as he contemplates dying, he searches for an alternative. Meanwhile, a ghost from his father's past comes forth with the intention of getting revenge for the sins of the father... While I wouldn't say that " Iron Man 2 " is as good as the first one, it is still a fairly solid movie for the franchise.  You can see that the actual building blocks of the MCU are starting to be put in place before the big team-up movie, " The Avengers ".  I loved that the story is much more character based than action based than many comic book movies- and deals with some pretty serious themes, such as facing our ...

If there was one superhero movie that fans will say revolutionized the genre, it'd be 2008's " Iron Man "- the movie that gave birth to the idea of a shared universe for multiple comic franchises... The MCU itself. Billionaire Tony Stark is young, cocky, and arrogant- earning billions off the weapons he designs.  But a chilling encounter with a terrorist group being supplied with weapons his company makes leads him to become more than he was... to become... "Iron Man"... This is a great origin story- not just for Iron Man, but for the MCU.  It's in keeping with the style you'd find in comics throughout the ages, while being fresh and invigorating.  A nice solid cornerstone on which to build the juggernaut that would become the MCU. I really enjoyed the characters.  Tony, Happy, Pepper, Rhodey are engaging and entertaining.  They have the comic book style of humor, while also containing depth and complexity.  Unfortunately, the villain- in th...

My fetish, with the end of the world continues. Can't get enough of it! Haha. There are some serious motherfuckers in this flick I tell you! And Kate Winslet . The only thing I've seen her in, other than Titanic. Haha. It's the end of the world via weird unknown disease. It builds up beautifully, kills a whole bunch of people and actually ends our current way of life. Did I dig it? To me, it was a steroid injected version of the movie Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman , Morgan Freeman....wait..another group of badassed motherfuckers...Contagion being a more global version. I truly think, without a cast like in Contagion OR Outbreak, the movies would not have worked as well. This is where I step outside our Basement B-movie crawlspace and salute the big name actors. I've said in the past that, because of the style of movies we watch, acting is never an issue. Contagion proves me wrong and, come to think of it, so did Outbreak. That's right. I was wrong. Witho...

Steven Soderbergh's new film Contagion looks to be the scariest kind of horror film -- the kind that can happen. The movie, which hits theatres in September, is about a worldwide viral outbreak told from the POV of a variety of characters. It looks to be pretty heavy stuff played out by a first-rate director and talented cast, which includes Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet (left) and Jude Law. I know we've pretty much had it with Hollywood films here in The Basement, but this looks pretty solid. It's an original story based on timely events and that scene where Damon learns his wife has died really packs a punch. I don't know if I will rush out to see Contagion, but I will watch it eventually. Give the preview a gander, and sound off if yah please.