Did Ozzy See This Coming?

Iron Man in a no holds barred Dick Flick. Lets get the particulars out of the way first: lots of explosions? Check. Lots of expensive cars/airplanes/motorcycles/implausible crime fighting suits? Check. Lots of time spent in the machine shop? Check. Caviler attitude outside/vulnerable and lonely inside? Check. Lots of girls/no women? Check. Hero wins at the end of the day? You bet!

Iron Man is actually Tony Stark, a genius weapons designer, billionaire, and apparent ladies man. He's a smart ass fast talking winner until his "fun-Vee" is struck by enemy fire in Afghanistan and he is taken prisoner by a generic Taliban sort of militants. Guess what? They want him to build a weapon for them, but Tony has a little change of heart in captivity thanks to his fellow captive, a generic Middle Eastern professor sort. Instead of building a bomb, he makes his Iron Man suit and he escapes. Once home again, Tony renounces the weapons trade and sets about perfecting his suit in order to really put the whoop ass on those bad guys. But wait, the real head of the evil sect is none other than his own comrade in business, Evil Dude (or Evil Duderino, if you're not into brevity). More betrayals, explosions, and of course Tony wins the war and the girl at the end. Fade to heavy metal song that might have the same title as the film.

I like Robert Downey, Jr. a lot and he does a great job in his role. He's believable, likable, and he can pull of the jack ass with a heart of gold like no one else. Jeff Bridges plays the bad guy well enough, but I (or he) might never get past Lebowski. Gweneth is the dead weight as the trusty assistant who harbours the not so secret crush on her employer. My question is, why didn't they get someone more likable? Didn't she win an Oscar at some point? Bad, bad acting.
All in all, I might watch this again on USA when it pops up there in 1-2 years. The cinematography was good, the edits well paced, the sound was not too over the top. It has Charlie Chaplin in fight mode! Retro glamour! Excellent Saturday afternoon fare.