IRON MAN 3

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley,

Director: Shane Black

Running time: 130 mins.

This is quite an extravagant ‘heavy metal’ finale to the Iron Man franchise, with a terrifically quirky post-credits ending (don’t race out for your bus before seeing it).

The metal geezer trilogy concludes with our favourite ferrous fellow Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) facing up to quite a baddie, in the form of a bearded, oriental terrorist without mercy. He is revealed via his threatening broadcasts as the Mandarin (a sublime turn from Sir Ben Kingsley), who annoys Stark to such an extent that the latter lays down a (didn’t quite think this through-type) challenge where he rather foolishly reveals the precise whereabouts of his ultra-funky lab/domain, and a request for weaponised handbags at dawn.

Responding with minimum hesitation and maximum force is Aldrich Killian (the splendid Guy Pearce), a scientific entrepreneur who some years earlier attempted to introduce Stark to his mind-boggling new invention, but to which our Tone failed to respond, thus igniting Killian’s ire.

Things begin to escalate as the Mandarin manipulates access to the entire world’s television networks in the process teasing the US President to answer his phone when Mandy calls, or he’ll murder an American hostage live on the telly.

The technology on offer here is boundless (just check the credits at the end while you’re waiting for the additional scene) - you’ll be staggered at the amount of digital technicians who picked up their pay on this spectacular outing. CGI generated images run riot with Iron Men call-and-command armour suits flying to fit their owners, and gadgets that display holograms, all in a cinema feeding frenzy.

Downey uses his offbeat persona to good effect, adding a layer of honesty and sensitivity alongside his normal smug knowingness to the Stark character. This plus a magnificent twist to the villain persona makes ‘Three’ a great deal more approachable than the previous two outings.

DEADFALL

Cast: Eric Bana, Charlie Hunnam, Olivia Wilde, Kris Kristofferson, Sissy Spacek

Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky

Running time: 94 minutes

One way or another, just about every character in Deadfall endures a violent infliction. This is an under-written thriller set in the blizzard condition of the woods in Michigan. Two disreputable siblings, Addison (Eric Bana) and his younger sister Liza (Olivia Wilde), head into a snowy forest following a post-robbery car crash, and decide to go their separate ways albeit temporarily, in an attempt to divert the pursuance of the local police force as they strive to cross the border.

Addison sets off on a trudge across the snow, while Liza hitches a life from Jay (Charlie Hunnam), an ex-boxer who has just been released from prison, and in the initial hours of freedom has found himself in even more trouble as he can’t seem to keep his lethal hands to himself. The heroes and villains all share a common difficulty apart from guns and crashing snowmobiles: paternal issues. Addison and Liza are very close, and that intimacy is rooted in the way he apparently protected her from their reportedly loathesome father. Meanwhile, Jay has endured some grief with his own old man and former boxing coach, Chet (Kris Kristofferson). This apparently has been simmering since the pugilistic offspring could only muster a silver medal at the Beijing Olympics.

Back to Addison – on his travels he rescues a butalised woman and her two children, all three of whom have been forced out of the family cabin by another pesky patriarch. Hanna (Kate Mara), a police officer and victim of horrendous misogyny from her own father, the local sheriff (Treat Williams). His clueless deputies appear to have picked up all their knowledge and awareness of police procedure, which is close to nothing.

They’re not all hopeless cases, however. In addition to Hanna, we have June (Sissy Spacek), Jay's kind mum. Even Liza, a serial seductress, is teetering on the edge of decency — although it's hard to believe that thick witted, torn-faced Jay is going to be the man to save her. The film’s violence is fairly gruesome, and the tale seems headed for sitcom cliché territory as all the major characters sit down at the kitchen table for Thanksgiving dinner at June and Chet's farmhouse.

However, din-dins goes pear-shaped, as indeed does Addison's behaviour — as well as Bana's acting going bananas — with the scene developing into sheer madness. His character had at times intimated some slender potential for decency, but the goose is cooked for everyone when the red wine appears to turn his psychometer reading up to 11.