Iron Man

Robert Downey Jr. stars as Tony Stark, a self-absorbed munitions tycoon who is kidnapped by enemy weapons dealers and creates new-millennial armor that turns him into a superhero. Director Jon Favreau and two teams of screenwriters root Iron Man's high-flying derring-do in a change of heart that clicks first emotionally, then comedically and ultimately in both ways. Stark gains a novel slant on life that makes him see everyone from a fresh angle, including three close associates: his right-hand gal, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow)

Orioles center fielder Adam Jones has a short and a long-term goal when it comes to getting in the lineup: He expects to play in all 162 this year. And he wants to chase down Cal Ripken Jr.'s streak. OK, he's kidding about one of them. "I'm gonna play 162. I have no choice. That's what they signed me for," said Jones, who signed an $85.5 million, six-year contract extension in May and has played in all 138 games this season. Jones pointed out that fellow outfielder, Nick Markakis, missed just five games in the first three seasons of his contract extension (before being sidelined for nearly six weeks this year due to wrist surgery)

This year, the summer season starts not on Memorial Day, and not the week before, but on Mother's Day weekend. It starts when "Iron Man 2" says it does: May 7. When you have a franchise as beloved and potent as this one, you get to set the terms of engagement. Director Jon Favreau and his new screenwriter, Justin Theroux, have tried hard not to squander audiences' loyalty to the wicked-smart superhero Robert Downey Jr. introduced in the first "Iron Man." Mistrust of government, turmoil in Russia, corporate espionage — all the elements of our daily headlines are given a cheeky spin in the new adventures of our favorite shellhead.

Early reviews for "The Avengers" movie are in, and the adaptation of comic book super-heroes appears to promise non-stop action, surrounding sub-plots of intrugue. I always considered the Marvel grab bag as B-list superheroes, trailing well behind Batman and Superman. But the group, which includes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America, has developed into movie powerhouse. Here are excerpts from some reviews of the movie, which will be widely released Friday. -- Chicago Tribune: Seeing it in 2-D, the movie played well enough.

Mickey Rourke (and has any actor ever been more qualified to play a supervillain than this guy?) gets to play big-time baddie Ivan Vanko, better known to the world as the ultra-nasty Whiplash. Proving that the Cold War isn't really dead, Vanko is a Russian who doesn't take it lying down when Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) reveals his secret identity to the world and brags about how great his Iron Man is. So he creates an iron suit of his own, and it's one nasty piece of business. And unlike Stark, he's not interested in being a force for good.

For Cal Ripken, Opening Day figured to be difficult emotionally. The last thing anyone expected was that it would be difficult physically, too.Ripken bowed his head, shifting his weight from one leg to the other during the moment of silence and video tribute to his late father, Cal Ripken Sr. The Orioles unveiled an orange "7" in the third base coach's box in memory of Senior. And then the game began, the 18th opener of Junior's Hall of Fame career.Who could have imagined that he would be removed due to injury for the first time that anyone could remember?

SunSpot Hear their words and see the pictures on video. Go to www.sunspot.net and look for SunSpot's Baseball Preview 2001 coverage.

A three-time private schools state and Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association champion, Mount St. Joseph's Mack Lewnes defeated Ohio State champ Dave Rella of Walsh Jesuit (Ohio), 8-7, for the title in last weekend's prestigious Iron Man Tournament at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. In winning an event that is considered the nation's second-most difficult invitational, the three-time first-team All-Metro senior became the nation's undisputed No. 1-ranked 160-pounder. Lewnes had edged the Penn State-bound Rella, 4-3, in a match last season, yet the Ohio wrestler entered their matchup rated No. 1 in two national polls while Lewnes was top-ranked in a third.

A few people left yesterday's Opening Day game a little early to attend the unveiling of a bronze monument to the "Iron Man."A ceremony was held last evening at the Ripken Museum in Aberdeen to unveil a 915-pound statue of Orioles third baseman vTC Cal Ripken Jr. Three generations of the Ripken family, including his mother and father, were on hand along with Gov. Parris N. Glendening and local politicians as residents got their first look at the monument.Sculpted...

THE FACTS of Cal Ripken's final days as a player surprise us only because they command our attention in a moment of consuming grief and anxiety. Looking ahead to next year already, we wonder what can replace the man's name in an Orioles box score. Even when the team fared poorly, the Ripken watch sustained us. "How'd Cal do?" we'd ask ourselves over the morning paper. Even in these trying days, when he has been 0-for-October, that ritual glance over the coffee started the day. We know another star will rise, but the absence of "Ripken" in the lineup can't be replaced.

Stan Lee is one proud father these days. You'd be proud, too, if your progeny included Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor and the Fantastic Four — characters whose films routinely bring in a few hundred million dollars at the movie box office. Not that Lee has much to do with the movies themselves: His connection is restricted to a largely honorary executive-producer credit and a cameo in each film — as a swinging Hugh Hefner-type in "Iron Man," mailman Willie Limpkin in "Fantastic Four," an Army general in this summer's "Captain America.

Here's the difference between Paul Day and the rest of the world: Where most people see a broken-down ATV on the side of an interstate, Day sees a Transformer. Not only does he see it, but he turns it into one. Which is why, unlike the average citizen, he's an award-winning creator of superhero costumes. "Yeah, I found parts of Bumblebee on the side of I-95," says Day, 45, whose take on the most outgoing of the Transformers, that alien race that can turn themselves into motor vehicles, won 2009's inaugural Baltimore Comic-Con costume contest.

The Orioles' Ernie Tyler never thought of himself as special. He once described himself as "the little old guy who runs back and forth getting the foul balls. " But he was more than that, said Orioles' players and managers whose lives he touched in his 51 years as umpires attendant for the club. Tyler, 86, died Thursday of complications from a brain tumor. "Ernie was a wonderful man who will bypass everything and go straight to heaven," said Andy Etchebarren, former Orioles catcher.

Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr. announced a nationwide education challenge Tuesday that is geared toward helping students knock their math skills out of the park. Through his organization, Ripken Baseball, the Baltimore "Iron Man" launched a Grand Slam Math Challenge, which will ask students in grades kindergarten through 12 in every state to play the online and board game TiViTz to improve their math skills. Ripken said Tuesday that he was inspired to launch the challenge — which uses math skills on a video baseball field — by the youths in his Ripken Baseball program.

It's hard to believe, but the fresh-faced kid who burst into the Orioles lineup in 1982, caught the final out of the World Series in 1983 and broke Lou Gehrig's supposedly unbreakable consecutive games record in 1995 has reached the half-century mark. Cal Ripken Jr. turns 50 on Tuesday, so we thought it was a perfect time to sit down with him and talk about his great career, his reaction to the Big 5-0 and his plans for the future. This is the first in an occasional series of one-on-one interviews conducted by Peter Schmuck with some of Maryland's most talked-about sports figures.

One of the marks of an artist is his or her ability to take something that we think we know inside and out and then show it to us in such a way that we see it in a totally different light. The great artists also often evoke a deep emotional response in us as part of that process. Ken Burns, public television's documentary filmmaker laureate, does that with Baltimore Orioles legend Cal Ripken in his new production, "The Tenth Inning," set to premiere Sept. 28 and 29 on PBS. Burns and his co-director, Lynn Novick, showed clips from the new film and fielded questions from staffers at The Baltimore Sun last week.

The soccer player known as "Goose" at Loyola College is now called "Iron Man" by the Baltimore Bays.Jeff Nattans has played every minute of every game as a defender with the Bays this year, heading into tonight's season finale. He has compiled 1,384 minutes of playing time. That is 200 minutes, or 2 1/4 games, more than the closest teammate."I haven't taken him out because he is a very stable player," Bays head coach Kevin Healey said. "It's all due to him playing consistently and his conditioning."

Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" stunningly portrays warring forces in a glittering skyscraper city. It arrives at the Senator on Friday, just in time to restore moviegoers' faith in epic movies. This "complete" version of Lang's silent sci-fi extravaganza restores all of its subplots and nearly all of its surging imagery. With Gottfried Huppertz's soaring romantic score heard in full for the first time, "Metropolis" offers an engulfing audiovisual experience. It leaves you shaking your head in wonder and disbelief.

"A passable knockoff": That's how the man in the Iron Man mask, the obscenely rich but heartsick industrialist played by Robert Downey Jr., characterizes the electro-weaponry wielded by his Slavic adversary (Mickey Rourke) in "Iron Man 2." Much of this scattershot sequel to the 2008 smash feels like a passable knockoff as well. Here and there, director Jon Favreau's diversion takes us back to the considerable satisfactions of the first "Iron Man," whether in action mode, such as a nifty vivisection of metallic villainous drones (provoking the sole round of applause at the Tuesday night screening I saw)