Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things

Sherlock Holmes is Guy Ritchie’s latest film. Detective Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and his stalwart partner Watson (Jude Law) engage in a battle of wits and brawn with a nemesis whose plot is a threat to all of England. Sherlock Holmes opens on Christmas Day 2009.

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It’s nearly year-end and Entertainment Weekly has a list of its own — The 25 Entertainers of the Year. Neil Patrick Harris, or more famously known as NPH kicks off the list at number 25. At the top of the list is Robert Downey Jr.

While musicians like Leona Lewis, Katy Perry and Coldplay have kept us entertained all year long, you would have never guessed who’s at number 20, or more specifically — what.

You can check out the full list over here. Below are some which I have specifically picked from the list.

1. Robert Downey Jr.
2. Tina Fey
3. Cast and Crew of The Dark Knight
4. The Gossip Girls
6. Lil Wayne
8. The Women of Sex And The City
9. The Jonas Brothers
11. Meryl Streep
14. Wall-E
15. Coldplay
16. Elizabeth Banks
18. Kid Rock
20. Facebook
21. Katy Perry
23. Michael Phelps
24. Leona Lewis
25. Neil Patrick Harris

Who’s your favorite pick? Who’s your favorite entertainer of the year?

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Great news! According to Variety, Robert Downey Jr. will not only be reprising his role as Tony Stark in two upcoming Iron Man movies but he will be acting in the upcoming superhero movie, "The Avengers" as well. Iron Man director Jon Favreau will also be directing Iron Man 2 which is slated to be released on May 7, 2010 and The Avengers which has a release date of July 15, 2011.

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The Soloist stars Robert Downey Jr. as a journalist who befriends a homeless Julliard trained musician (played by Jamie Foxx), while looking for a new article for the paper. And a unique friendship that could change their lives.

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After checking out my Leslie Bibb Is Hotter Than Iron Man post, Parisa Vahdatinia of Current TV has emailed me a video of Leslie Bibb.

Leslie looks really adorable in it! Check it out: -

Thanks, Parisa!

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Iron Man is a superhero movie based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Iron Man directed by Jon Favreau. The film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man, Terrence Howard as Lt. Colonel James Rhodes, Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane a.k.a. Iron Monger and Gwyneth Paltrow as Tony Stark’s hot personal assistant, Pepper Potts.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The first prototype of Iron Man

Iron Man stars Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) as a billionaire industrialist whose core business is making weapons. While testing Stark Industries’ latest missile creation called "The Jericho" in Afghanistan, he is kidnapped by a ruthless Middle Eastern terrorist organization who called themselves "Ten Rings".

The film then goes back 36 hours earlier to show what happens before Stark’s journey in Afghanistan, which includes a one-night stand with a reporter named Christine Everhart (Leslie Bibb).

Back to the future, though critically injured and almost die, Stark is saved by Yinsen (Shaun Toub), a mysterious stranger who comes to his rescue. Miraculously, Yinsen is multilingual and knows many languages, from Arab to Urdu to Mongolian. Yinsen uses an electromagnet which keeps the shrapnel from piercing Stark’s heart.

As the terrorists of "Ten Rings" enters the cave Stark and Yinsen are hiding, they both surrender and Stark is forced to create "The Jericho" missile for them. As Yinsen persuades Stark to find a way out of there, Stark first creates a very technologically-advanced heart for himself before building the rest of Iron Man. When the leader of Ten Rings suspects Stark is not working on "The Jericho" missile, he almost kills Yinsen whose life is only spared as Stark undoubtedly tells the terrorist leader that he needs Yinsen as he is a good assistant. Stark manages to create the ultimate bulletproof suit of power armor, complete with pacemaker and flamethrowers and releases himself from his captor but Yinsen dies in the process while trying to help Stark to buy time.

However, since the Iron Man suit is the first creation, it fails after flying in midair and crashed onto a desert with the Iron Man suit fall apart into a thousand pieces only to have Lt. Colonel James Rhodes (Terrence Howard) to rescue Stark.

Now back at the States, his partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) and especially his personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) is extremely happy to see him alive and kicking. When Potts insists to bring Stark to the hospital for checkup, all Stark wants is a Burger King’s Cheeseburger and to call for an immediate press conference. In the press conference, Stark requests all the reporters to sit down while he eats his cheeseburger. He immediately announces the shut down of Stark Industries weapon manufacturing to which his partner, Stane strongly disapproves.

Back at home, Stark builds a more advanced heart for himself and gets Potts to replace his "old" heart which he tells Potts to throw and burn it. Stark improves his armor and becomes the technologically advanced superhero Iron Man. After numerous testings, his advanced armor suit ends up in gold with red paint. Almost immediately, Stark puts in his latest Iron Man suit, flies to Gulmira, Afghanistan and kills the terrorists who at that point of time are kidnapping women and children and killing men.

The improved Iron Man in gold and red

Meanwhile, the Ten Rings terrorists manage to find pieces of armor left by Stark. The leader of Ten Rings, Raza (Faran Tahir) is seen meeting Stane in discussion of the remained of the armor suits found in the desert. Despite being the man who sells weapons to Ten Rings, Stane orders his men to finish off the remainders of the terrorists and left the place with the armor suit.

Back in United States, Stane gathers a group of scientists to build a more advanced Iron Man called Iron Monger. The only thing missing is the way too technological-advanced heart that Stark has built for himself. So, Stane uses a disapproved highly-advanced sound wave weapon to temporarily immobilize Stark in order to grab his heart.

Stark is lucky as his assistant, Potts has kept his "old" heart in a properly framed glass which simply says “Stark has a heart”. He struggles to reach the framed glass but his robotic assistant lends him a hand.

The fight between Iron Man and Iron Monger then pursues but not for long before the film ends with Tony Stark at a press conference revealing himself as the Iron Man.

Overall, the movie is awesome and is possibly the best-ever film adapted from a comic book. Funny, smart and properly plotted, this is probably the best movie so far for the 2008 movies.

My ratings: 8 out of 10.

P/S: Do look out for Stan Lee’s cameo appearance in the movie.

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Tropic Thunder, directed and acted by Ben Stiller, is a movie about film crew struggling against Murphy’s Law during the production of a big budget war film. Also starring Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr. and Steve Coogan.

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Iron Man is definitely one of the most anticipated movies in 2008.

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