Iron Man

Don't worry, this one is WORTH the ten bucks!

Wikipedia: "Iron Man is a 2008 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Directed by Jon Favreau, the film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and master engineer who is captured by terrorists in Afghanistan. Ordered by them to build a missile, Stark instead builds a powered exoskeleton and escapes. He then returns to the United States where he improves his armor and becomes the technologically advanced superhero, Iron Man. Gwyneth Paltrow plays his personal assistant Pepper Potts, Terrence Howard plays military liaison James Rhodes and Jeff Bridges plays the villainous Obadiah Stane.

The film's stars have signed on for two sequels, the first of them scheduled for release on April 30, 2010, and Downey also cameos as Stark in the upcoming The Incredible Hulk.

Cameos include Iron Man co-creator Stan Lee (whom Stark mistakes for Hugh Hefner at a party),^[16] and director Jon Favreau as Stark's bodyguard/chauffeur Happy Hogan.^[6] Ghostface Killah cameoed in a scene where Stark briefly stays in Dubai while returning to Afghanistan, but it was cut for pacing reasons.^[17] Audioslave and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, who provides additional guitar music for the film, has a brief cameo as a guard.^[18] Clark Gregg appears throughout the film as Agent Coulson of S.H.I.E.L.D,^[19] and Samuel L. Jackson appears as their head Nick Fury following the credits. Jim Cramer, star of CNBC's Mad Money also appeared as himself, commenting on the investment opportunities ("Sell, Sell, Sell") of Stark Industries.^[20]

Among the major trade journals, Todd McCarthy in Variety called the film an "expansively entertaining special effects extravaganza" with "fresh energy and stylistic polish",^[70] while Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film while nonetheless finding "disappointment [in] a climactic battle between different Iron Man prototypes [...] how did Tony's nemesis learn how to use the suit?"^[71] In one of the first major-daily newspaper reviews, Frank Lovece of Newsday lauded the film's "emotional truth [...] pitch-perfect casting and plausibly rendered super-science" that made it "faithful to the source material while updating it – and recognizing what's made that material so enduring isn't just the high-tech cool of a man in a metal suit, but the human condition that got him there".^[72] A.O. Scott of the New York Times called the film “ an unusually good superhero picture. Or at least — since it certainly has its problems — a superhero movie that’s good in unusual ways.”^[73]

Among the specialty press, Garth Franklin of Dark Horizons commended the "impressive sets and mechanics that combine smoothly with relatively seamless CG", and said, "Robert Downey Jr., along with director Jon Favreau [...] help this rise above formula. The result is something that, whilst hardly original or groundbreaking, is nevertheless refreshing in its earnestness to avoid dark dramatic stylings in favor of an easy-going, crowd-pleasing action movie with a sprinkle of anti-war and redemption themes".^[74] IGN's Todd Gilchrist recognized Downey as "the best thing" in a film that "functions on autopilot, providing requisite story developments and character details to fill in this default 'origin story' while the actors successfully breathe life into their otherwise conventional roles".^[75]