Iron Man 2

I haven’t read any of the reviews yet, since I was avoiding them before seeing the film tonight, but the word was that the sequel to one of the best comic book movies ever made was not so hot.  

Wrong.

I think it’s twice as good as the last one.  It had every thing I liked about the first film plus the best act three in a comic book movie ever.  

First of all, it’s an amazing ensemble of actors, let alone a cast this talented for a summer superhero popcorn film.  Robert Downey Jr. continues to dazzle as Tony Stark.  It boggles the mind to think of anyone but him in the role.  Scarlett Johanson continues to the one of the sexiest women in the movies, and delvers a great performance as Black Widow.  She has a great action set piece and I look forward to her as the Marvel movie franchise expands.  No one can object to an actor as good as Don Cheadle stepping into the role, but I do wonder what Terence would have done.  Sam Rockwell brings tons of imagination to would could be a flat role as rival industrialist Hammer.  Sam Jackson is Sam Jackson.  He’s not PULP FICTION level intense, but still a pleasure to watch.  Gwyneth Paltrow is surprisingly sexy and continues her solid work from the last film.  Like Jackson, Mickey Rourke has done more intense work in dramas, but still very good.  Last but not least, Agent Carlsen is solid as a rock.  

The action is fast and imaginative, it still has cool science stuff in it, but the real discovery here is building an act with with sufficient credible threats and action levels to give the film a big finish.  

Also, better music cues in this film than the last one.

I can’t wait to see BATMAN 3.  And what Matthew Vaughan does with X MEN:  FIRST CLASS.  Because right now, IRON MAN 2 has the crown.

The Arizona Immigration Law: Politics over Policy

Never let bad policy get in the way of good politics. That’s the cynical motto of the growing class of political copycats bent on replicating Arizona’s controversial new immigration law in other states, including California.

Arizona’s law, SB 1070, requires local police to act as federal immigration agents. Now police officers in Arizona can detain someone if there is a "reasonable suspicion" that she’s an illegal immigrant.

Despite a broad, national backlash, the urge to score political points on the fringe seems irresistible. Last week, a California Assembly candidate promised to introduce an Arizona-style immigration law if he’s elected. And in ten more states–Georgia, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, Ohio, Missouri, South Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, and Maryland–politicians looking for a boost have called for laws that would mirror Arizona’s law.

California cannot afford an Arizona-style immigration law. It is bad policy and the worst kind of politics.

Protecting public safety was supposedly a main justification for Arizona’s law. As a career prosecutor for nearly two decades, I can tell you that transforming our local police officers into immigration agents will seriously harm our crime-fighting efforts. We have the nation’s largest population of immigrants, with nearly 10 million California residents born abroad. If they don’t report crimes, for fear of being interrogated about their immigration status, crimes will go unsolved and criminals will walk free among us. I’ve personally prosecuted hundreds of serious and violent crimes–robberies, murders, and rapes–where the case depended on an immigrant who was scared to come forward, but, because they did, we got a conviction.

We need to encourage, not discourage, people to report violent crimes. In every community, there are predators who literally stalk immigrants precisely because they count on them to "keep quiet" if they’re victimized. In domestic violence cases, abusers routinely threaten their spouses that they’ll "turn them over to immigration" if they report the abuse. Other criminals rob their neighbors, scam people out of their homes, and sexually abuse children, counting on the fear of police to keep victims from reporting the crimes. Turning police officers into immigration agents will only push them further into the shadows and make them reliably easy victims for criminals.

But, of course, the predators don’t stop there. The same people who victimize immigrants quickly turn their attention to other victims, as well — citizens, bystanders, and others. Ultimately, then, it is our community that wins when people report crime, and ours that loses when they don’t.

We also can’t afford to divert scarce local law enforcement resources to enforcing federal immigration laws. Law enforcement budgets have been cut to the bone across California; many cities are laying-off police officers, firefighters, and prosecutors. We need to focus every resource on fighting violent crimes. We don’t have extra officers–or local tax dollars–available to moonlight as immigration patrol, which is a federal responsibility.

There’s no doubt that the federal government needs to pass meaningful immigration reform and that we have a serious illegal immigration problem in California, but "politics now, think later" measures like SB 1070 aren’t the solution.