Monday, May 5, 2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 9 With help, Madge delivers By SASHA RESENDE brass sound effects over Daily Arts Writer Timbaland's pulsating beats add to this effect, creating a Madge isn't ready to give song you can shake your ass up her rightly-earned Queen to on a night out at Rick's of Pop crown - or the uber- or on an otherwise boring sexualized superstar image drive to work. The song is that propelled her to fame. a happy medium between This is plainly evident on Madge's trepid experimen- the cover of Hard Candy, the tations with urban beats 11th studio and her desire to stay true album of to her pop-queen roots. her two- Her reported second and-a-half Madonna single, "Give It 2 Me," stays decade- true to the classic dance long career, Hard Candy beats that made her a star. which fea- Warner Brothers Over a classic, semi-disco tures the wavelength, Madonna plays mother of up her overtly sexual image three straddling for the - as if it wasn't apparent camera with a classic come- enough in the track's title hither look. While Madon- - singing that she's "Got na's propensity for pushing no boundaries and no lim- boundaries - both sexual its / If there's excitement, and cultural put me in it / W - remains If it's against entrenched, M adonna's the law, arrest her latest me / If you endeavor latest turns up can handle proves that it, undress her beats are the heat me." How- more mallea- ever, the song ble. Enlisting unsuccess- the help of the fully attempts current hip-hop demigods- to visit the contemporary namely 'Timbaland, Justin music realm when the sing- Timberlake, Kanye West er robotically tells her lis- and Pharrell Williams-she teners to "get stupid." The produces an album with a only person who sounds slick urban sensibility that stupid is the 49-year-old centers on her pop-dance performer, who resembles roots. Although Hard Candy an almost eager-to-please proves Madonna's ability mother reverberating the to adopt a modern feel, the latest "hip" lingo in order to record fails to distinguish appeal to her increasingly the pop icon from the other younger audience. tart-stars currently gyrat- One of the album's argu- ing their way through Top ably better tracks is "Heart- 40 radio. beat," a Neptunes-produced By including a variety of homage to the beats of the movers and shakers on her '80s. The song plays as a new album, Hard Candy is mishmash of Cyndi Lauper- a decidedly un-Madonna esque tunes, occasionally record. The disc's first sin- sliced with the pulsating, gle, the overplayed "4 Min- heartbeat-like beat that utes," features Madonna in gives the song its title. The a supporting role to Tim- song returns to the contem- baland's tight bass beats porary in its bridge when and Timberlake's slick 'n' Madge suggestively articu- smoothlines. The songplays lates how her "booty get as a mix between marching down like," clearly attempt- band fanfare and late-night ing to pull off her best Gwen clubbing shenanigans. The See CANDY, Page 10 "Talk to the hand." A hero to cheer for New superhero proves to be more than just another masked crusader By ANDREW LAPIN Daily Arts Writer As a comic-book superhero, Iron Man is underwhelm- ing. He's an awkward* mishmash of Batman's technological smarts Iron Man and Superman's near- total invulnerabil- At Quality16 ity and flight powers, and Showcase with no distinguishing Paramount features except for the ability to blow stuff up. This is what makes the "Iron Man" movie such a pleasant surprise: Rather than being a simple rehash of every other superhero movie, it proves that there can be more to the genre than explosions and neon- colored costumes (although both are here in full force as well). Much of the credit should be given to the great Robert Downey, Jr. ("Zodiac"), who plays the hero Tony Stark with biting wit and sarcasm. He proves that it's not necessary for every non-costumed alter ego to be so brooding and serious all the time (cough cough, Bruce Wayne). Stark is an incredibly wealthy weapons dealer who can invent different bombs and rockets in no time flat, but prefers to spend his days driving fancy cars and hooking up with random women in his Malibu mansion. He's a believable playboy in a field dominated by over- the-top dramatic superheroes. As the film opens, Stark is cruis- ing through Afghanistan with the US Army, having just given them a pre- sentation on his latest weapon. In a twisted bit of irony, though, terrorists are able to take out his escorts by using his own weapons against him. Cap- tured by a group of Arabian war nuts, he is forced to build them a destruc- tive weapon of their own. Instead, he turns the tables and creates a robotic suit outfitted with jetpacks and rocket launchers that he uses to escape their confines. When he returns to the Unit- ed States, he perfects the suit's design and decides to only use its powers for good. There are actually very little scenes in the movie of Iron Man fighting crime and doing normal superhero things. Director Jon Favreau ("Elf") takes a different approach by making the film much more character-driven, focusing on the interactions between Stark and his cohorts. The excellent supporting cast includes Terrence Howard ("Hustle & Flow") as Stark's close friend and pilot, Gwenyth Pal- trow ("Running With Scissors") as his assistant and possible love interest and Jeff Bridges ("Surf's Up") as a bullish fellow executive at Stark Industries. Favreau makes a risky decision by relying heavily on improvisation for most of the dialogue scenes, but the effect usually works and allows the movie to break away from the rigid constraints of special effects shots. Like a diamond, Iron Man is appar- ently so powerful that he can only be damaged by another, larger Iron Man. Unfortunately, the film can't claim to be quite as flawless. Downey struggles when he's asked to play any emotion other than quirky, and the pseudo-romance scenes between him and Paltrow tend to fall flat. The vil- lains in this film are too generic to be memorable, and their actions are easily predicted, ruining much of the suspense. But does any of that really matter when the rest of the film is so much fun? Enjoy "Iron Man" for what it is: a few big explosions followed by a gripping dissection of the man behind the iron mask.