Now that Iron Man 2 has dropped upon us all, is it safe to say that it was not quite the level of awesome that it was hoped to be? Don’t get us wrong, it was a solid film, but it wasn’t exceptional. In fact, compared side by side next to its predecessor, is one really better than the other? Are they really any different, aside from the villains, both of which employ the same tactic (of stealing the “Arc Reactor Technology” embedded within Mr. Tony Stark)?

Hear us out okay. Favreau’s style and in-depth focus is definitely a strong point, however, it loses some of it’s luster when it’s practically repeated in the second film. Both films rely on a lengthy health battle concerning Stark (Arc Reactor Construction/Palladium Blood Poisoning), for the beginning half, if not two-thirds, of the film. We get a glimpse of some action mid-way to keep the normals from falling asleep in the theater (Ten Rings Terrorists/Monaco Grand Prix). Finally we get the main battle at the end, which was a bit more personal the first time around due to the Pepper Potts danger factor. Granted Potts was in danger again this time around, but it was briefly towards the end. Besides, fighting an actual human will garner more emotion from an audience versus stoic drones. Think about it, how many Storm Trooper deaths really hit you in your ticker?

Getting into the rest of the film, can we just say that the whole “Drunk Tony Stark Birthday Party” was just a step above the deplorable Jazz Dance Scene in Spiderman 3. The scene’s only savior was when Stark squared off with Lt. Colonel Rhodes. In a way, it was sloppy. Favreau & company could’ve come up with something better because, in fact, they pride themselves on it.

Our final beef has to do with the length of Sam Jackson’s screen time as Nick Fury. We’ve no problem casting Jackson in the role. The thing with his extended exposure, is that he loses some of his badass credibility. The rapport they had throughout totally took away from Fury’s mysterious, official aura. Had he been a bit more stoic, or short with Stark, things would’ve been a bit more serious and given the Avengers Initiative & S.H.I.E.L.D side-plots more gravitas.

The funny thing about all of this, is that we still dug the film. We won’t get into the specifics of Howard Stark as Walt Disney or the convenient “New Element” invented, as we understand those are parts of fiction that need not be nitpicked. We get that when it comes to sequels, the usual successful mantra is “Same, but different”, however, Iron Man 2 might be a little too formulaic for its own good. To re-iterate, this film is by no means “bad”. It’s just not much better than the first, if at all.

Image Courtesy Jorymon.com

We’re big fans of Chris Milk over here at SRO. We’re also pretty big fans of photography and how the development of the technology is further getting pushed and explored. So don’t be surprised that we’re posting this short by Chris Milk for the 42 Second Dream Film Festival. What’s a “42 Second Dream Film Festival” you ask? We’ll let them describe it to you:

In this spirit, 42Below^TM vodka has commissioned 42 of the top filmmakers in the world today to give us their 42-second visions, 42-second hearts and souls-the dreams that continue to haunt, delight and inspire them. We have assembled a team of some of the most inspiring and resonant voices of our generation to share with us a little piece of their unconscious. It may sound a bit voyeuristic, but that’s ok. A dream is a portal to one’s most inner thoughts, and we don’t know about you, but we can’t wait to see what these legends have to show us. A celebration of the creative impulse, and an excavation of the world of dreams. That, in a nutshell, is ONEDREAMRUSH.

This film festival/experiment, however sponsored by a vodka, is no joke. Here’s a list of other highlighted directors who have created something or are in the process of creating something for the festival: Chan “Cat Power” Marshall, Asia Argento, Michele Civetta, David Lynch, Rinko Kikuchi, Floria Sigismondi, Sean Lennon, Leos Carax, James Franco, & Harmony Korine, just to name a few. You know this shit is real fucked up too, when it’s “Honorary Panel” includes Werner Herzog.

As for Milk’s submission. It’s described as “a man watches his life pass before him”, captured and filmed with a Canon 5D Mark II SLR Camera. Milk covers all the big moments in what you could say is a “normal person’s life”, but what makes this work beyond the visuals, are the simple notes on the piano, and the brief yet strong images that lead your mind to wonder beyond. How the man got into those situations? What happened right before/after them? How did that moment affect him in the long run? All without seeing the man himself, but those he’s surrounded by. One might say, it’s the very essence of real art in general, that Milk creates these questions in our minds out of but a few images. See for yourself.

Yes, you read that right. Jack White’s latest musical incarnation, The Dead Weather, just teamed up with Jonathan Glazer for their first proper video. Shit comes out in two weeks and debuts all day on the Cinemax network. Once again, you read that right. Not Mtv. Cinemax!

On the verge of the July 13th (UK/Europe)/July 14th (North America) release of their debut album Horehound, The Dead Weather announce the uncensored Cinemax debut of the short “Treat Me Like Your Mother.” The groundbreaking film was directed by Jonathan Glazer, whose credits range from such highly-acclaimed feature films as Sexy Beast and Birth to award-winning music videos for Radiohead. In a rare event, the film will premiere in full in the US on Cinemax on July 11th at 9:55 pm and continue to air on all of the Cinemax multiplex channels for the following five weeks. The short will premiere in the UK on Channel 4 on July 13th at 00:10.

“It was overwhelmingly electric working with Jonathan Glazer on this project, which feels more short film than video,” said White. “I’ve never felt an intensity like I did on the set of this shoot. Absolutely violent, explosive, and poetic.”

“Theirs was a beautiful energy to tap in to,” explained Glazer. “You can’t ask for anything more.”

Model Justine Joli Makes Sure You Don’t Forget Nerdcore

A few Thursday nights back, those kind, yet clever, fellows over at Nerdcore decided to drop their annual geek-sex Calendar we’ve been fans of. Rather than just announce it online, they decided to blow it out at, of all places, a comic store. Oh, but as you should know by now, these guys do it in style and it wasn’t just some random comic store. It was Golden Apple over on Melrose in Los Angeles. And what better way to mix things up than with the classic party trick: Free Booze!

We know you weren’t there this time out, but that’s okay, as we’ve got our little tour-de-force captured for your viewing pleasure. The photos were shot raw-style, since we knew we’d take no prisoners at the bar, and didn’t want to chance a wayward breast or a geek’s glasses damaging our nice equipment. So click below and check out our journey that includes drunk models, sleazy web-hosts, oversized weapons, and a flirty Chris Gore?

Note: All links to models websites are pretty much NSFW. Ok, really NSFW. If you’re at work, don’t even click on the links. Trust us. Wait ’til you get home, it’s worth it.

Tip #1: Do your homework and know what you’re getting yourself into as far as scenery. Then make sure it works to your advantage.

For instance, as soon as we got in the joint we wished the booze was at the front instead of behind the store. Taking a look above, you can see that aside from the models, the crowd wasn’t the most generous looking of the bunch. We were prepared for this of course and in fact hoped it’d be this way, as it only made us look and seem cooler. Always a plus.

We couldn’t get to the models fast enough, and it seems they couldn’t wait for us either. That’s the 2007 Calendar cover girl Ms. Karlie Montana smiling at us. She knew what was up.

Tip #2: Just because there’s free alcohol, doesn’t mean it will be top of the line. In fact, it will most likely be the opposite.

In this case, we got kinda lucky. The drink du jour was Colt .45 the official beer of Lando Calrissian. Well played Nerdcore.

We’d like to say that this was largely covered by the mainstream media, but let’s be serious, WE got an invite. So the fare was mostly of the internet kind. As such, your behind-the-scenes crews are limited to one or two persons. Also, questions probably won’t be asked of the models. Just shots of them standing there, while the cameraman/host giggle at secret shots of cleavage.

Yes, she loves SRO. They all do.

Tip #3 Anytime you attend an event with models pimping something (moreso if they’re involved with the project) and there’s booze running through the crowd, your guaranteed to get some heavy flirting from the models. Understand that the flirting is all sorts of false. Don’t be mad or blame the models/company. Rather, just roll with it and see where it takes you.

Like our girl Karlie. She knew who the real players were in the crowd and she worked her magic like a champ. We must’ve been on our game though, as she told us “If you guys ever need a video ho, hit me up!” So there you go directors, if you need a bangin’ shorty for your next shoot, give Ms. Montana a holler. You’re all welcome.

We couldn’t help ourselves when we saw some poor souls neglect Tip #3, and get caught in the flirt trap. No joke these guys held up the meet and greet line for about 5 minutes while they chatted up JJ about god knows what. As you can see, she could barely hide her excitement. Kids, don’t be that guy in the green sweater. Even if she was fucked up enough to be into you, giving her your full attention would completely ruin any chance you may have had. Unless of course you were wearing an Affliction shirt with designer torn jeans and sporting a mullet-hawk. Trust us, we played it cool and the girl showed us her stickers. Everybody wins.

Didn’t we warn you about the internet media. This guy pretty much told every model she was the hottest and of course, the models played along, meaning homeskillet above probably got his poor hopes up and maybe even a chub every now and then. We say maybe, because we didn’t stay to verify, but we all know the truth.

This is basically a shot we kinda had to take, so it didn’t look like the previous picture was taken to make fun of the people involved. You encounter these situations from time to time, but its a necessary evil to achieve one’s goal of ridicule. Besides, it’s not like this is a bad shot or anything. It’s a great looking lady holding a giant automatic weapon. Pretty much the stuff dreams are made of. Consider this Tip #4.

The Past, Present, and Future of Nerdcore Calendars. A shot we created ourselves but should’ve dismantled afterwards, as you’ll see below. This was in contention to be our lead photo for this event, then Justine Joli rolled around and this fell all the way to the bottom of the mix. Weird huh?

It didn’t even take a minute after we rocked that shot of the calendars, that Spike TV wandered over to jock our shit. I mean, if you’re gonna steal our shit, at least wait until we’ve left or wandered a good distance away. Tip #5 If your work is the hottness, be prepared for people to jack yo shit. We got caught slippin’ and didn’t cover our tracks and this is what happened. Constant vigilance kids.

Ahh, what can we say about miss Georgia Jones. She’s got the goods. She’s a drinker. She liked us. We’ll neither confirm, nor deny that we got a nice little show from her on the sly. We’ll just say, she’s a classy gal. Besides, would you really wrong a girl with a gun like that? In fact that’s Tip #6, never wrong a nice girl with a drink in one hand and a weapon in the other. Just enjoy the view.

Tip #6: You know your time is almost up when the popular internet personalities start hitting on the models.

We don’t know if it was the booze that started this or if this is how the creator of Film Threat officially rolls. All we know is that we got way uncomfortable and all of a sudden we were on our way home. Its a good thing we had our wits about us this time and had an exit strategy already in the bag.

Tip #7: Make sure the last thing you see before you leave is something worth a damn.

In this case, Justine J was the lucky winner. Which in turn, makes us all winners. We wanna give some big ol’ props to the ladies and gents who rep Nerdcore for inviting us and hopefully not taking us off the guest list in the years to come. Do yourselves a favor kids and purchase that certain someone in your life a sweet calendar. It’s got dates if you’re into keeping track of time. It also has naked women. We’re pretty sure God is gonna buy this calendar, or at least has the hookups.

It’s Tuesday November 4th, 2008. Which means it’s time to vote kids. We won’t tell you who or what to vote for nor who or what we’re voting for. Just know that we are and you should too. If only so we don’t have to hear everyone complain then next few years about this and that. Suck it up and do something.

As a treat, Momma Maya dropped a quick video for us on the cheap ($9.95 production cost!) to get us in the mood to stand in line and wait to pick our poison. As she tells us via her blog:

Me and Blaqstarr found the image at the end from a Joy Division video and thought about the election and thats how people want you to see the world , black/ white , good/ evil, jesus/devil
for you the words are Obama vs Mc Caine for me its terror vs genocide
simple maths so we put it on at the end to show how far we’ve gone and how far we’ve come, i have to start staying at home more because i dont think i can fit through my front door anymore but i want this to do the traveling for me.

good luck! go vote! i cant , but im glad im witnessing history in the making either way ………. m.i.a>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> THANK FUCK THE FUTURES HERE!

Thank Fuck is right. Go get ‘em team.

Update: For those who care, we voted for this guy!

This is a little older, but I wanted to put this up anyways just to keep you all held over proper for the weekend. It’s an almost 9 minute clip of what it was like recording Conor Oberst in the valley of the people of the sun. Play this when you’ve got some time to yourself. Maybe as you get dressed before you go out. Or when you wind down after work. Or right before you drift off to sleep. For those of you who’ve already heard the album, watching him record “Moab” will be a little more insightful. And to those of you who haven’t stepped to the plate yet, get on it!

Just before the all out war that was the San Diego Comic-Con this year, Team SRO was able to kick things off right with the screening of another war. That being Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder. Now the film doesn’t come out for another 2 weeks, but you know we couldn’t keep our mouths tight about it. And let’s just say, that this may be Stiller’s project, but we’ll give you one good guess as to who owns this movie. We’ll give you a hint: RDJ.

Just about everything that has to do with Downey Jr.’s character is fucking solid. His tirades, his reactions, his monologues…shit, even when the man goes serious for 1.5 seconds in the film, he owns that as well. Now remember, we’re talking the best part of the movie filled with actors like Stiller himself, Jack Black, Bill Hader, Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, Matty McConaughey, and Tom Cruise. That’s how good this motherfucker is.

Oh you noticed a few names on that list you didn’t know about? Those last two especially i’d assume. If you’ve seen anything Stiller has directed recently, you should be well equipped with the knowledge of his use of cameos and stars who want to cut loose on film. Cruise’s character is like nothing we’ve seen him do before, and as outlandish as it is, it’s good to see him actually have fun on screen for once. And as for McConaughey, well, let’s just say Tivo put its marketing budget in the right place.

So what we’re saying is, go see the fuckin’ movie. Bring a lady. Bring a friend. Grab some popcorn. And leave your problems at home for this. In all seriousness, it’s everything you’d expect from seeing the previews. Nothing more, nothing less. Just a good time with your best friends Stiller and Downey Jr.

Even though we had some tough love for DCFC’s latest release Narrow Stairs, we’re still very interested to see how the boys support it in the music video realm.

In this round, we get a gem from the ever lovely Autumn de Wilde. As always, the video is a clean looking work that’s tailor made to get tons of playtime on stations that actually play music videos. We did however, notice a little pattern developing amongst the subject matter of Autumn’s videos. If you catch her shot for Rilo Kiley’s “Silver Lining“, you’ll see what we mean. Of course, rather than speculate, we decided to ask the woman herself what the deal was with all this marriage in the air:

SRO: What’s up with you and weddings as of late? Also, was this a slight nod to The Graduate as well?

Autumn de Wilde: I quit photography once, thought I should be more practical (pay my bills) so I took a job designing wedding invitations. This was around the time my marriage dissolved. So, yeah I’m kind of fascinated with weddings. Wrong choice, right choice, bravery, cowardice, private made public, betrayals, promises. The song actually takes place at a wedding… sick of obscure safe “indie” videos. Lately, I just want to tell stories to see if I can.

I’m also obsessed with The Graduate. I don’t try to hide my big influences. The Graduate, Harold and Maude, The Shining, Mean Streets, The Red Balloon, La Jetee…. there are more.

Lastly, I really love how Ben can take a moment, a brief moment and split it into a million pieces. He stops time and sits inside of it all. I wanted to try to do that in this video.

Damn, if that wasn’t a worthy answer. I really appreciate the fact that she’s kind of over the whole “obscure” video thing. One must be wary of such things at all times, especially when it comes to a mainstream band who deals with a larger fanbase. If you’re still not convinced, Wilde wrangled Lukas Haas and Beth Riesgraf to star in it as well. Watch. Listen. Appreciate.

Note: Last week, we crashed the L.A. Film Fest and got away with it. As is usually the case, we took to partying it up over writing about the films. So this week, we tell you what we saw, and why you need to get on each movie we recommend. Which is basically everything we attended, as we have impeccable taste, but you knew that.

The first film we had the pleasure of kicking things off with, was the animated wonder that is Fear(s) of the Dark. Yes it is in all black-and-whiteNot unlike the high quality release Persepolis. Watch that shit post haste if you haven’t already!, but you and I know that most French films in b/w are for the most part an unstoppable force. Fear(s) of the Dark is no exception either. And if you check out the list of contributors, it’s no surprise that we’ve got a quality product.

• Blutch
• Charles Burns
• Marie Caillou
• Pierre di Sciullo
• Jerry Kramsky
• Lorenzo Mattotti
• Richard McGuire
• Michel Pirus
• Romain Slocombe

If there’s any one name you should take careful note of, it’s Mr. Charles Burns. As his graphic novel, Black Hole is the next project in line for David Fincher.

As for the film itself, it’s a study on fear if you haven’t derived that from the title already. And with each story, it’s not that one is better than the next, what gets you is that all are equally badass. Whether it be about insects, murderers, attack dogs, or a giant “monster” each style serves their respective story so well, that you are truly left wanting more. These artists basically put on a clinic in storytelling and art that we’re ultra glad we caught on the big screen. Seek this gem out and thank us when you’ve had the pleasure.

Dirty Hands: The Art & Crimes of David Choe

Oh shit, ya heard right kids. SRO is gonna be down in Westwood all week getting our Film on. Why are we telling you this? Because not only are we forewarning you that we’re gonna put our “Film Critic” hats on and throw some cinematic opinions your way this week. We’re also giving you the chance to come down and join us for a flick or two. Oh WHAT!?!

Believe it or not, the Fest peeps hooked us up with some phat Press Badges and you know we’re out to use and abuse. And because we rock the mic right, we’ll even tell you where we’re planning to be, so you have your chance to punch, knife, shoot, bazooka, F-16, or even Hulk Smash us to your hearts desire.

And just a heads up, this is only the shit we can make, check the official site for more films and ticket availability. Trust fools.

Wednesday 6/25

Paper or Plastic 4:00 pm (Mann Festival)
The Boxer from ShanTung 9:30 pm (Regent)

Thursday 6/26

HottieBoombaLottie 3:00 pm (Landmark)
Dirty Hands: The Art & Crimes of David Choe 4:30 pm (Mann Festival)
Captain Ahab 7:00 pm (AMC Avco)
Mirageman 10:00 pm (Landmark)

Friday 6/27

Eclectic Mix 1 7:15 pm (Landmark)
Declare Independence 10:00 pm (Landmark)

Sunday 6/29

Eclectic Mix 2 7:00 pm (Landmark)