Roger Ebert Movie Review

Weekend Box Office: May 2-4, 2008

Iron Man tops the box office with $98.6 million

Daily Box Office: Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Iron Man tops Wednesday's box office with $5.7 million

By Roger Ebert David Mamet's "Redbelt" assembles all the elements for a great Mamet film, but they're still spread out on the shop floor. It never really pulls itself together into the convincing, focused drama it promises, yet it kept me involved right up until the final scenes, which piled on developments almost recklessly. So gifted is Mamet as a writer and director that he can fascinate us even when he's pulling rabbits out of an empty hat.

Son of Rambow / *** (PG-13)

"Son of Rambow" (PG-13, 96 minutes). Two 11-year-olds in 1980s England are inspired by a pirated copy of "First Blood" to make their own home video portrait of Rambo. Will (Bill Milner) performs death-defying stunts, Lee (Will Poulter) mans the video camera, and they're inspired by the arrival of a misfit French exchange student (Jules Sitruk). Meanwhile, there's trouble at home; Will's family belongs to a strict religious sect, and his mom has collected a suitor who covets the role of his father. A gentle fantasy, where even the (considerable) violence is softened. Never quite in focus, but sweet enough, and the young actors have charm. Rating: Three stars.

America the Beautiful / *** (R)

By Roger Ebert The documentary "America the Beautiful" is not shrill or alarmist, nor does it strain to shock us. Darryl Roberts, its director and narrator, speaks mostly in a pleasant, low-key voice. But the film is pulsing with barely suppressed rage, and by the end, I shared it. It's about a culture "saturated with the perfect," in which women are taught to seek an impossible physical ideal, and men to worship it.

Speed Racer / *1/2 (PG)

By Jim Emerson, editor Evil is not a primary color. That is the point of the Wachowski brothers' video-arcade treatment of "Speed Racer," insofar as one can be determined. Blue, you can trust. Red and yellow, black and white -- they're all decent visible wavelengths. It's purple you have to watch out for.

Iron Man / *** (PG-13)

by Jim Emerson, editor The world needs another comic book movie like it needs another Bush administration, but if we must have one more (and the Evil Marketing Geniuses at Marvel MegaIndustries will do their utmost to ensure that we always will), "Iron Man" is a swell one to have. Not only is it a good comic book movie (smart and stupid, stirring and silly, intimate and spectacular), it's winning enough to engage even those who've never cared much for comic books or the movies they spawn. Like me.

Standard Operating Procedure / **** (R)

By Roger Ebert Errol Morris' "Standard Operating Procedure," based on the infamous prison torture photographs from Abu Ghraib, is completely unlike anything I was expecting from such a film -- more disturbing, analytical and morose. This is not a "political" film nor yet another screed about the Bush administration or the war in Iraq. It is driven simply, powerfully, by the desire to understand those photographs.

Last Year at Marienbad / **** (No rating)

By Roger Ebert How clearly I recall standing in the rain outside the Co-Ed Theater near the campus of the University of Illinois, waiting to see "Last Year at Marienbad." On those lonely sidewalks, in that endless night, how long did we wait there? And was it the first time we waited in that line, to enter the old theater with its columns, its aisles, its rows of seats -- or did we see the same film here last year?

Great Movie: Johnny Guitar (1954)

By Roger Ebert Nicholas Ray's "Johnny Guitar" (1954) is surely one of the most blatant psychosexual melodramas ever to disguise itself in that most commodious of genres, the Western. Consider: No money was lavished on the production. The action centers on a two-story saloon "outside town," but we never even see "town," except for a bank facade and interior set. So sparse are the settings that although the central character (Joan Crawford) plays the tavern owner and goes through a spectacular costume charge, we never see her boudoir -- she only appears on a balcony above the main floor, having presumably emerged from the sacred inner temple.

Movie Answer Man: Pimples like us

Q. In real life, teenagers have acne. How come Hollywood expects us to believe that teenage actors and actresses without acne are realistic? And of course, teenagers in films also are often played by actors in their 20s who have perfect haircuts and expensive clothes, two other things that the majority of real-life teenagers don't usually have, do they? I think of Tom Cruise in "Risky Business," for example. Nelson Kane, Charlottesville, Va. A. The movies have historically idealized the look of characters, and movie stars in general look much better (or worse) than the rest of us. True, if you get a teenager with acne in the movies, it's usually in a cutaway designed to get a quick laugh. Although I can't remember acne, Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) of "Juno" looked more realistic in general than most movie teenagers, and that certainly includes his wardrobe.