Iron Man

Whoa, movie overload!! Blame Netflix.

IRON MAN starring Robert Downey, Jr., Terrence Howard, and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Pretty good movie. Definitely not BATMAN good, but better than any SUPERMAN movie I've ever seen. It was probably up there with the X-MEN movies, but not as much cheese.

Again, like BATMAN, it felt like a good movie, as opposed to being just a good superhero movie. That's probably why I'd rank it a little ahead of X-MEN. Plus, it's just one guy instead of an ensemble cast of Halle Berry not showing us her t!tt!es. If she would just MONSTER'S BALL it a little more often, I'd put the X-MEN series above THE DARK KNIGHT. Nah, just kidding. I think. She should just go into porn already. LICKING MONSTER BALLS or something like that. Little off-track there...

IRON MAN succeeds because of Robert Downey, Jr. I guess there was a reason why everyone hung on to him even when he was druggin' out and f@ckin' up. Funny how that works. Would anyone have cared if he was the crackhead version of Jason Scott Lee? $hit, I saw RAPA NUI. They should.

Hands down, Downey can act. I'm beginning to recognize the skills. TROPIC THUNDER, IRON MAN. The guy's on a roll. He made Tony Stark likeable as the maverick/playboy billionaire genius.

What I like about superhero movies is that you get to find out the background of how they became the superhero. I don't know. I just find it interesting. Do I care about my students' backgrounds? HELL, NO!! But I find these fictional characters a wee bit interesting. Probably BECAUSE they're not real.

Brief rundown. Stark's company makes weapons of destruction. He gets caught by the bad guys who want him to make more weapons for them. He narrowly escapes by creating an Iron Man prototype instead. Then, he realizes that he shouldn't be making weapons anymore, but decides to use Iron Man to fight crime or, at least in this particular movie, his Iron Man wannabe company partner.

The usual war/superhero action ensues. Lots of things blowing up. Lots of high tech stuff. Lots of metal. Not really iron though.

Terrence Howard was believable. Gwyneth was, too, until she pulled a Brad Pitt in SEVEN "What's in the box??!!" scene towards the end. Other than that, Downey stole the show and the movie was pretty entertaining. Not bad at all. No DARK KNIGHT though.

Basically, a guy movie. At one point, I thought I was watching WALL*E: FIRST BLOOD. AVENGERS is the next movie 'cause if you watch past the credits, they give you a quickie preview. I give this movie two pieces of metal shaped like mini-Cadbury eggs connected by a cord that also connects to a little power pack that can be operated by double A batteries which enables these bullet-shaped eggs to vibrate at different speeds. Ideally, these eggs should be waterproof, too. For what, I have no idea...