Man - I am on the verge of actually hating this film. We watched a little over half of it and had no problem whatsoever turning it off. Maybe it gets better in the last 10 minutes, but I didn't see it being worth the payoff to suffer through the...
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Man - I am on the verge of actually hating this film. We watched a little over half of it and had no problem whatsoever turning it off. Maybe it gets better in the last 10 minutes, but I didn't see it being worth the payoff to suffer through the rest of the film to get there.

The camera work is decent enough, but the story felt flat to me. The characters had NONE of the charm that the old 80's TV series had.

Not that Jamie didn't try very earnestly to make Tubbs his own but still be interesting. Colin Farrell, on the other hand, managed to distill "Sonny" down to a handful of chaotic mean glares. Crocket, in the old series, was a likeable enough fellow. In this version, well... I wouldn't let him babysit a rabid dog. And while Colin tried to achieve the patented I-haven't-shaved-in-2-days-but-it's-cool look, it looked more like he was thinking about growing a handle-bar moustache, started to change his mind but then said, "screw it" - it just looked flippin' stupid on him.

Like I said before, maybe the big payoff in the last 10 minutes was great. I don't know, since this movie managed to make me hate a couple of characters that we all loved 20 years ago.

This is by far M. Night's best work since The Sixth Sense!

The casting was perfect, even though it seemed at first to be completely misfit. This turned out to be the actual characters, which I think is what helped this movie work so...
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This is by far M. Night's best work since The Sixth Sense!

The casting was perfect, even though it seemed at first to be completely misfit. This turned out to be the actual characters, which I think is what helped this movie work so well.

The story was quite interesting, however it was slowly paced at first but managed to pick up speed as it went. Unlike all of Shyamalan's other films, this one didn't have the mandatory huge twist that he likes, but did have several smaller ones throughout.

We rented this film and, sadly, like all of his other movies (and all mystery films for me, for that matter), you'll probably not need to see this one more than once or twice. The magic is simply gone. Still, this one is definitely worth that first and second viewing!

Short and sweet? It's Top Gun for the Coast Guard.

There is more to it than that, as you wind up caring more for the characters than any Tom Cruise movie. Costner does quite well in the roll, given his normal wooden acting style, and...
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Short and sweet? It's Top Gun for the Coast Guard.

There is more to it than that, as you wind up caring more for the characters than any Tom Cruise movie. Costner does quite well in the roll, given his normal wooden acting style, and Kutcher actually manages to convey some real emotion other than his normal goofball schtick. The story does get a little cliched, right down to the Bryan Adams' song over the end credits.

I did notice some color banding at the beginning of the movie that I originally was going to attribute to a bad DVD transfer, but there were several other scenes where the film quality was "gritty" which I'm assuming was for effect... so I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt on the opening sequence as well.

All in all, a passably decent (but not great) watch.

If you're really into Iron Man, you'll enjoy this movie, without a doubt.

If not, but you still like superhero flicks, it's worth your while.

If neither of the two conditions above apply to you, you might want to find...
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If you're really into Iron Man, you'll enjoy this movie, without a doubt.

If not, but you still like superhero flicks, it's worth your while.

If neither of the two conditions above apply to you, you might want to find something else to watch.

The film modernizes Iron Man's origins and brings you up to speed on Tony Stark and his many machine outfits, ultimately spending a good bit of screen-time in a variation on the original iron suit.

Mandarin as an ultimate villain and his henchmen elementals are grossly underused and Fin Fang Foom is downplayed as more of an annoying evil pet.

Still, for a first "solo" outing for Iron Man, it's not completely awful.