Iron Man

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.

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.

A half-century after it was made, movies still don't come any worse than Plan 9 From Outer Space, Edward D. Wood Jr.'s grade-Z sci-fi opus about aliens looking to take over the Earth by raising the dead and having them ... well, having them do something that will put us all in our place. (The movie's a little sketchy on the details.) Tomorrow at 2 p.m., the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Southeast Anchor branch, 3601 Eastern Ave., will celebrate Plan 9's golden anniversary with a free screening of the film, as well as an appearance by Maryland's own Conrad Brooks, who played a policeman in the movie.

Smart move to sit The Dallas Cowboys' Tony Romo wants to try to play with that pinkie on his throwing hand that he broke on Sunday. So how much do you think that phone call from Romo's boyhood idol, Brett Favre, had to do with all this? It's admirable that Romo wants to show he can play with pain the way that the NFL's own iron man has over the course of 258 regular-season games, but the Cowboys need to be concerned that Romo doesn't aggravate the injury so badly that he requires surgery and is out for the season.

DVD "Iron Man": In the comic books, poor clunky Iron Man is a B-list superhero at best. But in the hands of director Jon Favreau and actor Robert Downey Jr., the story of the jaded industrialist turned mechanical do-gooder soars to new heights, finally putting the rust bucket in league with marquee heroes like Spider-Man and Batman. The quick-witted Iron Man is a refreshing change of pace for the normally dreary superhero genre. In stores Tuesday. TV "Little Britain USA": Finally, a British import that hasn't been watered down.

Capsules by Michael Sragow or Chris Kaltenbach, unless noted. Full reviews are at baltimoresun.com/movies. Baby Mama: Tina Fey inhabits what should be her comfort zone as a career woman who decides to use a surrogate to have a baby and ends up with raucous, declasse Amy Poehler. As the movie makes its way toward its denouement that leaves everyone happy-ever-after, the film feels emptier than your typical successful high-concept comedy. Part of the problem is the center will not hold: The TV stars are outmatched by a strong supporting cast (Greg Kinnear, Maura Tierney, Holland Taylor, Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver and more)

Superman. Batman. Spider-Man. X-Men. And now Iron Man. Big-time movie franchises all, major-league moneymakers that have their fans lining up around the block for more. But what about Wonder Woman? The Flash? Thor? Captain America? What's keeping them off the big screen? "Mainly, it's because we can only do so many at one time," offers 20th-century mythmaker supreme Stan Lee, creator of Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man and a bunch of other superhero franchises-in-waiting. Maybe. But the truth is more complicated than that, having to do with a host of factors ranging from popularity to casting, from special effects to scriptwriting, from fulfilling fans' expectations to striking while the superhero iron is hot. At the moment, superhero movies are being churned out like widgets on an assembly line.

Look closely at the top summer movies and notice the special effects they're having on the perception of age. At 65, Harrison Ford is saving the world again in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and, yes, that's gray hair underneath his beat-up fedora. In Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. flies across the ocean in a metal suit and, just as incredibly, demonstrates a superhero can be a 43-year-old guy with crow's feet. All the fun stuff in Sex and the City - the high heels, designer handbags, fancy cocktails and steamy passions - is reserved for actresses of a certain age and income level.