The Man Behind the IRONMAN

He was rude, obnoxious, and inconsiderate. He was one of those people who you love to hate but secretly admire because he was so quick-witted and cool. You wish you were him because of his success and hate yourself for it. This man is Tony Stark. Tony Stark is Ironman.

Unlike every other superhero persona, Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) wants the world to know he's Ironman. To him, this is another cool feather in his cool cap. And like Batman, Tony Stark wasn't bitten by a radioactive spider or from another planet. He relies on technology to invent Ironman: a yellow and red chrome hero that couldn't have existed in any other time frame than now.

IRONMAN as a movie is the first truly "Summer" blockbuster. The kind you can sit back, strap in, and be taken away on a high-octane, explosive, CGI-laced ride that leaves you breathless at the end. This isn't a movie where the science has to be taken apart because, quite frankly, the science doesn't make a whole lot of sense. (I.E. Stark goes "A-Team" on us and builds the Ironman suit while being captive in a cave in Afghanistan.) But, quite frankly, if I can believe that a man came climb walls like a spider, if I can believe that robots can transform into cars, this plot isn't that bad. And that's one of the reasons why IRONMAN is so much fun.

IRONMAN has all the same playfulness and action of the first SPIDERMAN and the original Chris Reeves's SUPERMAN. Most of the movie involves the comedic failures and successes of creating and perfecting Ironman's suit. There's no true super-villain for him to battle as his mission is to destroy the high-tech weapons that he (as Tony Stark) created and sold (A high-tech weaponized suit of armour destroying high-tech weapons: Can I rename this flick IRONYMAN?). But a super-villain isn't necessary here and would've cramped up the story.

As the first blockbuster of the Summer season, spend some well deserved time with the cocky yet endearing Tony Stark. I look forward to the sequel when he can face off against someone truly worthy of Ironman.

8.5 mixed drinks out of 10

HAROLD AND KUMAR 2 barely escapes with an OK

Too often comedy sequels pale in the glow of originality of the first. There are few exceptions to this rule such as NAKED GUN 2 1/2, AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME, and SHREK 2.

HAROLD AND KUMAR ESCAPES FROM GUANTANAMO BAY follows the same path as WAYNE'S WORLD 2. Same set of standby jokes told slightly different with a little more edge but essentially nothing new. This is the danger of writing a poor script with one dimensional characters. In Sequel Writing 101, the most important lesson is to write something the viewer hasn't known before about the characters. This never happens.

Where the original (HAROLD AND KUMAR GOES TO WHITE CASTLE) was a pure buddy movie cut from the same mold as the Cheech and Chong flicks or Dave Chappelle's HALF BAKED, HAROLD AND KUMAR 2 trades in it's simplicity of two guys getting the munchies for political agendas. Do I want to watch Harold and Kumar teach me about the injustices of the terrorist concentration camps or about the misjudging of races if you make general racial statements? No! That's what Michael Moore is for. I want Harold and Kumar to chase after that elusive bag of the best sticky-icky that'll give them the best high while surviving increasingly drug-induced silliness. I don't think this movie has killed the franchise...there'll probably be one last sequel. But I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't.

Still, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) emerse themselves into their characters and their play of each other makes for an entertaining movie. The sad part is that the boys were given a boring plot to make it work. And Neil Patrick Harris continues his bid of being the William Shatner of the future generation of actors as the one who re-invents himself past expiry date to make fun of himself. A bold move that has extended Shatner's career that very well could work for Harris.

For the most part, save your bucks and wait for HAROLD AND KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY to hit DVD or for it to show up on Spike or TNT where they'll replay it every two hours for a few weeks straight.

6 Doogie's riding a Unicorn out of 10

88 MINUTES of my life wasted

Predictable. Mundane. Pacing is wonky. Characters have the depth of the paper the story was written on. And ultimately the plot was WAY over thought and forced.

I have a feeling that the writers of 88 MINUTES were thinking more about plot twists as opposed to worrying about having an actual working plot to base to twists on.

The main premise of this story is as follows: A forensic psychiatrist (Al Pacino) is told he's got 88 minutes to live because of an alleged false testimony he gave YEARS ago putting a criminal who raped and killed his little sister on death row. Pacino now has only 88 minutes to find out who's on the outside trying to kill him...meanwhile, there's a serial killer on the loose who's calling card is hanging his victims upsidedown by one leg and slitting there throats (see what I mean by writer's forcing it to be original).

There literally is no saving grace in this movie. Pacino tries his best to make a bad script work as he always does but no one, short of God Himself, could save this movie.

A much better smarter and excellent real-time based movie would be 1995's NICK OF TIME starring Johnny Depp. So I recommend renting that movie before advising anyone to pay money to see 88 MINUTES.

2.5 out of 10 (I'm not even going to waste my time thinking of a clever way to rank this.)