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Slops and Props at the $2 Gateway in Federal Way

This corner's advice on which film Grandpa might see

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) takes a desk job.

Ever take the family to a blockbuster IMAX opening, butter the popcorn ... and feel like asking them for a 90 Days Same As Cash financing option? You're saved. Across the street from the Commons Mall in Federal Way, they're charging $2 a movie. All day, every day.

The concessions aren't bad, either. In return for a $20 bill, this reviewer and family got popcorn, a supertanker Coke, two (2) large candies, a freebie bag of Oreos, and a dollar back. Oh, OK. Add one hot dog. Yep, you get past the ticket window for two bucks, and then you can step up to the counter for the $1 hot dog.

True, at the Gateway 8 you are looking at movies that have been on the market for a month or two. But what are a few weeks between friends? ... since we're going to see a movie that cost $100 million to make, keeping light heart and heavy wallet.

Let's take a run through the current menu at Gateway 8 Federal Way. Props and Slops are given for the Popcorn Factor only. If I was a movie buff, I wouldn't just now be seeing Iron Man 3. But grandpa said, watch the pennies and the dollars take care of themselves. Here is this corner's advice on which film Grandpa might go for.

PROPS to Pacific Rim. You can never get too much Godzilla, and in this one, humankind faces dozens of them. Why would there be so many? Aliens are up to no good, naturally. The world takes them on not with nukes, but by constructing giant robots and taking the Godzillers on hand-to-hand. HEH!

If you're going to a Godzilla-type movie at all, you want cool fights, and the more the merrier. The computer-generated imagery (CGI) is what pushes this movie solidly into Props territory - it may be the best ever put on film. The fights are beautiful to watch, they are convincing and they dial the excitement factor up to 10.

The handsome and charismatic general Idris Elba gives the movie a heart. He delivers each line with a likeable gravity, and we're not quite sure where his conflict lies. There aren't many big-name actors, and not much interesting dialogue. But we're there to see the 20-story smackdowns. Promised and delivered.

SLOPS to Now You See Me. The movie wants to be an Inception-level mystery, but scene after scene falls short. You would think that with Morgan Freeman and Jesse Eisenberg on hand, you could get some drama going, but we just never get the tension and suspense we signed up for. The magic tricks make you feel like Penn and Teller could do as much, and the stakes are boring. Will Mark Ruffalo send the grifters to jail, or will they wind up dancing away scot-free? If you can't guess, you might enjoy the film.

PROPS to R.I.P.D. Jeff Bridges has a blast with any role you give him, from the semi-angelic Starman to the villainous Obadiah in Iron Man, to the hyper-refined Tron programmer, to the sloppy gun-slingin' role in True Grit. In R.I.P.D he's as loose as a goose ("that went well, assumin' the world don't end"). Whatever mayhem erupts around him, you can't take your eyes off Bridges. A Hollywood producer once said that Jack Nicholson could play either side of The Odd Couple in different movies; Jeff Bridges could play The Man and The Dude in the same movie.

SLOPS to The Croods. The bar is set awfully high on animated features these days. This Neanderthal family steps through its encounters 1-2-3-4, as if painting in the numbers on a store-bought canvas. It might have been fun if they'd coped with outside threats, but in this movie they're just arguing with each other for an hour and a half. Does Daddy need to lighten up and stop preaching safety and security to Teenager Eep? Siiighhhhh.

You'll never see it the other way around, with the teenager realizing that Daddy has seen a few things in his day. In Croods, Daddy Gets His Comeuppance on schedule and according to the script - one written in about 1964.

PROPS to The Lone Ranger, although the title probably should have been Tonto. They say that in Pirates of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp blew away the director with his unexpected take on Captain Jack Sparrow. They decided to let him run with it.

Those of us who enjoyed Captain Jack get a big smile out of Depp's revisit of the character. Tom Wilkinson (Batman) is also very watchable as the Railroad Baron. If you're hoping for a heroic Lone Ranger, you won't get much, but if you're in the mood for Johnny Depp you'll definitely enjoy your afternoon.

SLOPS to White House Down. This reviewer's kids found the dialogue cheesy and they thought that the acting was mailed in. A movie like this needs to capture the old Die Hard tension - Please don't let him die, Please! - but this reviewer never cared one way or the other.

PROPS to Iron Man 3. If you're one of the four people in America who hasn't yet seen this one, well ... make it three. The Iron Man franchise never forgets that we're there to have fun.

This installment daringly turns the screen time over to Tony Stark. In Avengers, we heard Captain America sneer, "Take away that suit and what are you?!" Whereupon Stark fires back "Genius, billionaire, philanthropist ..." And Captain America's jaw snaps shut so fast you can hear his teeth click. Then Scarlett Johanssen lifts an eyebrow and nods, as if to say, "Gotta give you that, amigo."

In the comic books, Stark is Mister Charisma, a man who dominates any room he's in. Stark does this. The cliché is that actors shouldn't try to compete with cute children, but Tony Stark's relationship with Harley is one of the best you'll see. Who knew Robert Downey Jr. had it in him?

The suit has its moments also. A dozen civilians fall out of a burning airplane and Iron Man goes tearing down out of the sky after them. ... "How many can I carry, Jarvis?" he demands of his on-board computer. "Four," says the computer grimly. Stark goes to work like a spinal surgeon in a crisis. He calculates, on the fly, his options for saving the civilians, and the solution delights.

Tony Stark is one of the few comic book characters with no superhuman abilities, and it keeps things fun. If Silver Surfer can juggle moons in one hand, where do you go from there? The less invincible a superhero is, the better we like him. Stark has become America's favorite.

Also playing at the Gateway 8: World War Z, Man of Steel and Epic. Bring the kids, and leave the credit card at home.

GALAXY 8, showtimes, 2501 S. Gateway Center Pl., Federal Way, $2, 253.945.8230

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