Iron Man A Movie Review	MPAA Rated - PG-13 It's 2:06 Long A Review by The Dude on the Right

Damn, I just loved this movie.

So Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark, and he’s got the cute assistant, "Pepper" Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Tony is the mastermind behind many weapons for the military and his company, Stark Industries, has made him the superstar of weapon’s design. He’s popular with the ladies, has maybe the coolest house and coolest jet ever, and would rather be at a craps table in Las Vegas than at an awards ceremony in his honor. In Afghanistan for the demonstration of his latest weapon, his security detail gets ambushed, Tony gets captured, and the bad guys want Tony to recreate his latest weapon so that they can have one for their own. But Tony, with the help of fellow prisoner Yinsen (Shaun Toub), builds the first Iron Man prototype, also learns that his weapons are falling into the wrong hands, and from Yinsen realizes that maybe there are better things to be doing with his life than building weapons.

So Tony escapes his captors, finds himself back in California with his chest-implanted energy source, and announces he is done designing weapons, much to the dismay of Obadih (Jeff Bridges), his right-hand business partner, and giving stock dude Jim Cramer, in a fantastic cameo, great material for his "Mad Money" show, analyzing the fictional Stark Industries corporation. But Tony sees a vision for his Iron Man suit, namely in the name of doing good, builds a perfected version, but doesn’t realize until later that there are those around him trying to undermine, and sure, kill him. Of course this leads to the climactic battle with someone he thought he could trust, and if you like the movie, also leads you to sitting through the credits to see the set-up for the next "Iron Man" movie (yes, sit through the credits, all of them, and don't give up when you are thinking "Do I really care who the best boy was?").

Now as much as I like the thought of just getting bit by a spider to get superpowers, I think what has always drawn me to characters like Batman, and now this version of Iron Man (the comic book version, at least from the Marvel bio I read, is a lot more complicated), is the fact that without their suits they are totally vulnerable and their reasons for being superheroes has more to do with the mental and technical prowess rather than being lucky enough to be on a planet with a yellow sun.

Some people might be a little frustrated with "Iron Man" because there is an awful lot of set-up (even when Tony is making the prototype version) before we get to see Iron Man in his full glory, in a fantastic scene where he saves a town from the ravages of the warlords, but I found most of it fascinating, especially since I had no idea the back-story how Tony Stark became Iron Man. I also pretty much loved every performance. When the project was announced and people were told Robert Downey Jr. was going to be Tony there was a lot of wondering if it would work, but for this movie version of the character I found him fantastic. I liked Gwyneth Paltrow as the assistant torn between wanting to sleep with Tony, yet knowing she can do more for Tony by not going there, and who knew Jeff Bridges could be such a good villain?  Watch out for the Stan Lee cameo because it’s pretty funny, and I even liked Terrence Howard as Tony’s military buddy, Jim Rhodes, having to sometimes clean up some of Tony’s messes.

I almost hate to give "Iron Man" 5 stars out of 5 because that leaves no room for the sequel to get a higher rating if I like it more. But I’ve got to compare it to something similar, for me that is the "Spider-Man" franchise, and with that I’m leaving my rating at 5 stars. "Iron Man" is a little more adult than "Spider-Man," I guess mostly because Tony Stark is the cool, hip, womanizer businessman, whereas Peter Parker is a nerd, but that’s okay, our superheroes have to come from all walks of life, don’t they?

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!

Oh yea, one last thing, I know Robert Downey Jr. didn’t actually get a hole drilled in his chest and have a tin-can implanted in it, though the visual effect in the movie was that good, I’m just dying to see if someone rattles of an e-mail comment calling me a moron without getting to the bottom of this review. That and it sounded like a funner opening paragraph. L8R!