Jonah –

Iron Man was a welcome exception.

Spoiler below the jump.

Iron Man made strides in terms of Hollywood’s ability, post True Lies, to depict Islamic jihadists as unambiguously bad guys and not would-be goatherders radicalized by Bush’s refusal to sign Kyoto. But don’t forget that the main bad guy in that movie was still a corporate fat cat. It’s like they’re trying really hard — but not quite getting there. (On the other hand, I’ve heard good things about The Hurt Locker. I haven’t seen it because the presence of an infant in my apartment has curtailed my ability to go out to the movies. On the rare occasion we’re able to leave the wee one with a set of grands, it has to be a compromise choice, i.e. we’re not seeing The Hurt Locker OR The Proposal.)

Similarly I seem to recall that there have been a few movies that have tried to make action heroes out of U.N. operatives (stop laughing!).

My favorite in this genre will always be the first Street Fighter movie, where they turned Guile — an Air Force captain in the video game — into a U.N. guy and dressed him in a comical blueberry beret. This wasn’t done for political reasons, as far as I can tell, but because the producers bagged Jean-Claude Van Damme early in the process and needed Guile to speak with a Belgian accent.