(No) Fear of a Shane Black Planet: The Iron Man 3 Auteur's Career, Reconsidered

Netflix this underseen gem and you'll long for the days when studios would spend big bucks on a profane, R-rated action thriller that repeatedly puts a child in jeopardy. (Yvonne Zima, who played Davis's eight-year-old moppet, is now a 24-year-old beauty; IMDB lists her among Iron Man 3's cast.) Crisply shot by Renny Harlin, fresh off the implosion of his other would-be blockbuster with then-wife Davis, Cutthroat Island, the flick more than delivers the trashy goods. Jackson appears to enjoy himself way more in this movie than in any of his later appearances as Nick Fury, perhaps because the array of plaid trousers, turtlenecks, and golf caps he sports seems to have come from his actual closet.

The villains are American spooks aiming to stage--that is, commit--a terror attack to justify a funding boost. "I've no idea how to fake killing 4,000 people, so we're just going to have to do it for real," big-bad Patrick Malahide explains. "They'll blame it on the Muslims, naturally." 1996, people.

Last Action Hero.

Details

Also read our Iron Man 3 review.

Iron Man 3
Directed by Shane Black
Walt Disney Pictures
Opens May 3

Related Content

• It's Shtick and Explosions for the Great Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man 3
  April 24, 2013
• What Is a Movie Critic's Job in the Summer of Comic Books? A Discussion
  May 1, 2013
• G.I. Joe: Retaliation's a Battle of Dumb Pleasures Versus Your Higher Brain Function
  March 27, 2013
• Die Hard's Latest Breaks New Ground in Incoherence and Stupidity
  February 13, 2013
• A Good Day to Die Hard, and to Die Alone
  February 13, 2013

More About

• Iron Man 3
• Shane Black
• Martin Riggs
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Movie Stars

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005)

Come back, Shane! We've missed you! Black's old pal and champion Joel Silver got Warner Bros. to pony up the $15 million he needed for his directorial debut, a brilliantly funny and self-aware caper thriller/Hollywood satire with yet another inspired pairing of leads: Robert Downey Jr., three years pre-Iron Man, as a petty thief who stumbles into a movie audition, and a top-of-his-game Val Kilmer as a private eye named Gay Perry. Heartbreaker Michelle Monaghan is in the mix, too, as a childhood pal of Downey Jr.'s now in Hollywood watching the last flickers of her dreams of stardom fade.

Black keeps the convoluted mystery almost clear, his dialogue has never been sharper, and there's a playful quality to the set pieces that remind us, deep into the high-Bay epoch of incoherent action filmmaking, that action scenes are supposed to wake us up, not wear us out. Best of all, in his third film to feature a private detective, Black finally goes the first-person narration route. The way Downey Jr. bites into these lines will make you wonder why it took him and Black eight years to make another film together.

Also read our Iron Man 3 review.

Follow @VoiceFilmClub