And to think it all started with him dumping a slushie on Anthony Michael Hall from the second floor of a mall: "Iron Man"

Remember? "Weird Science?" Downey was one of the high school punks. "This party's lame, Max!" Or maybe you preferred his turn in "Back to School?" "I don't think so, Osborne!" Those were the days. Before those nasty drugs.

Robert Downey Jr. still is one crazy cat, and I love him. If you haven't seen "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang," do so. And I still need to see "Tropic Thunder." While waiting for that DVD -- and because I was in the mood for popcorn fare while my wife was away -- I watched "Iron Man" again over the weekend. Consider it the sunnier cousin to the major drag of "The Dark Knight" (which was good but not exactly cheery).

To recap: Downey is Tony Stark, super-rich weapons manufacturer. He gets captured in Afghanistan and has a electromagnet installed in his chest to keep the shrapnel away from his heart. Instead of building a super-cool missile system as his captors demand, he fashions an iron suit with all sorts of weapons and then escapes.

Back home, he realizes he should do more to make the world better and builds a better suit. Alas, his company's other boss (Jeff Bridges, with no hair on his head but too much on his chin) isn't a fan on the new Tony, and things get ugly when another iron guy shows up. As the deputy in "No Country for Old Men" would say, "Whoa, differences!"

Aiding Stark are his loyal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow, looking good as a redhead ... those legs, woof) and a military dude (Terrence Howard, doing as much as he can with a light role). But the real show here is Downey, who knocks the genius playboy schtick out of the park and does .... OK when he gets religion. I mean, I understand his change of heart given his captivity and what he saw. But Downey always will be more convincing as a cocky smart-ass.

As for the whiz-bang, "Iron Man" delivers one really good sequence with our hero fending off a couple of jets and taking out a terrorist camp. That battle with the first suit is kind of cool, too. But the big climax isn't all that great. It's just a couple of tin men bonking each other on city streets, and no amount of Downey and Bridges talkihg trash through their faceplates can compensate for a general lack of emotion there.

Still, not bad for a comic book movie, and not infernally long, either, which was nice. I would have trimmed 15-20 minutes to keep things more zippy, but no real harm. And Bridges wasn't a bad villian, although he would have been better without that ridiculous beard. I can understand the shaved head -- he apparently always wanted to do that -- but all that crap on his chin? Dude, I can't abide ...