While few would consider Robert Downey Jr. to be Hollywood’s finest actor, it’s hard to deny the man’s effortless charm onscreen – a quality enhanced by his off-screen fiascos over the years.

In Iron Man, one of the best superhero movies to come out this summer, Downey has found his perfect role as Tony Stark, an inventor-cum-playboy billionaire who seems to care little about the world.  The movie opens as Stark is driven in a heavily armed military vehicle across the barren landscape of Afghanistan, joking around with a bunch of US soldiers to the tune of Back In Black.

Downey seems to revel in scenes like that.  This is a man who, in movies such as Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Zodiac (both deathly boring in my opinion with the exception of his interesting acting) has been delivering lines like no one has ever done before, turning flippancy and smugness into an art form.

Blah blah blah, I could talk all day about the movie, but I think it’s best left for you to actually watch it.  I would just go so far as saying that this is the stuff 10-year old boys actually dream of.  Downey is totally awesome onscreen, – and even the spectacular special effects and explosive action sequences which are normally the highlights of superheo movies pale in comparison to his acerbic wit.