Iron Man 2: Now with more AC/DC

Iron Man 2 is a solid movie, no doubt about it.

If the first Iron Man was an AC/DC tour, Iron Man 2 would be more like an AC/DC reunion tour. It's the same songs again, but it still rocks hard.

The entire cast has returned, except for Terrence "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp" Howard, who left due to a fallout with Marvel for unknown reasons coughMONEYcough. He is replaced with Don Cheadle.

The plot is like the first. Tony Stark has a neat toy, someone else wants his neat toy and tries to build a better toy which Tony promptly pounds into rubble. This time around it is Justin Hammer (played by Sam Rockwell) who is the dime store version of Stark. Hammer employs tattooed Russian psycho Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) after he sees him in action with some electric whips. Needless to say, hijinks ensue.

I think the point where Robert Downey ends and Tony Stark begins is starting to blur like my vision when I'm drunk. If there is any fault in Downey's portrayal of Tony Stark, is that he is a little too accurate with his narcissism and cleverness.

Gwyneth Paltrow still does a good job as Pepper Pots, the anchor that keeps Stark from drifting in a haze.

Don Cheadle, who had the toughest role of all, stepping into the shoes of another actor, did great. He fit in pretty seamlessly and his opening dialogue was awesome.

Sam Rockwell takes his performance as a third rate weapons mogul and knocks it out of the park. His every motion, every word, is like someone took a pound of Robert Downey and cut it with baby laxative.

Scarlett Johansson... well, to quote Tony Stark, "I want one!"

I could go on about the cast -- talk about how fantastic Samuel L. Jackson was, or how bad-ass Micky Rourke looked covered in Russian prison tats, or even how great Jon Favreau was as Happy, the hapless bodyguard -- but I would just be babbling about how great they all were.

Speaking of Favreau, he really did a bang-up job with the directing. A lot of people forget that the best part of an action movie is the comedy, but this movie had it in big honking spades, thanks to Jon.

The franchise is not without its faults: the plot was a replica of the first one but with more robots and less terrorists; AC/DC is a wonderful band, but using them as musical back bone is annoying; and if I see one more Iron Man ad that isn't for the movie, I am going to buy an Audi Spyder just so I can crash it into a 7-11.

The movie is 4 stars all the way. Go see it.