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09 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy F1! Yes, there's a brand new Fantasy Formula One game! Check the rules or Enter your team by Friday night to qualify for the first race in Bahrain!

08 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Mexico are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Jordan on 1st April.

17 / 02 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The points awarded for a win have changed in the real WRC, so we've reflected the changes in our scoring too. Check the rules to see the details. Next rally is Mexico on 5th March, teams will be frozen at midnight on the night of Thursday 4th March.

16 / 02 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Sweden are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team.

31 / 01 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The new rally season is upon us - 2010 Fantasy Rally is now open! Check the rules or pick a team ready for the start on 12th Feb.

25 / 10 / 2009
Fantasy Rally: All previous years' Fantasy Rally results are online - Check the 2009 season.

02 / 08 / 2009
Reviews: Sorry, there won't be any more movie reviews for the foreseeable future. Events have overtaken me. Catch up on reviews you may have missed.

18 / 08 / 2005
Sudoku! Have a go at the online Sudoku game.

Iron Man

Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges. Directed by Jon Favreau. Story: Clangy superhero. Running Time: 2hrs 6 minutes. UK Certificate 12A.

Yay! It's the first superhero movie of the year! Iron Man is a great start to what will hopefully be a bumper superhero year.

Robert Downey Jr has had a troubled, Travolta-like career. Jailed for drug offences, he's burst back onto the scene in dark alternative masterpieces such as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and comes across as a Jack Nicholson type of character - someone you wouldn't want a beer with, but you can't help enjoying watching. His enforced absence has given him star quality, like some kind of armour-clad superhero. Hey, that's handy.

Iron Man is a Marvel comic, following such Stan Lee characters as Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four onto the big screen. Robert Downey Jr rules this one, so much so that Terrence Howard (Crash) and a strangely miscast Gwyneth Paltrow stand no chance of troubling the memory. Jeff Bridges manages to steal a little attention with his newly shiny bald bonce and the I, Robot levels of Audi product placement register a ripple but don't seriously trouble the distraction meter.

It's a brave choice for director. Jon Favreau is probably best remembered (in England at least) as Monica's rich boyfriend in Friends, but he's also directed a couple of offbeat features such as Elf and Zathura. Look out for Iron Man's driver - that's him. He does a great job here, letting Downey Jr exploit his mumbly fast-talking style and finely walk the line between objectionable twat and likeable rogue. Other items for your I-Spy book of Iron Man are comic author Stan Lee as Hugh Hefner, the spelling mistake on the Forbes cover "Tony Stark takes reigns at 21" and the uncredited cameo by Samuel L Jackson after the end credits have finished (yes, you have to sit through ALL of them to see it).

As with the best superhero movies, the story builds slowly until we're itching to see the clangy chap in the metal. When he turns up, he looks like a character from Robots, but that's OK, because he's cooool, in a Robocop kind of way. He doesn't get to revel in his new-found superhero dominance for long though, because a bad guy shows up practically immediately, who is conveniently just a little bit tougher than he is. Call me picky, but haven't we had enough superhero movies with this lazy plot device? Couldn't we have him challenged by something more inventive, like, oh I don't know, the army trying to destroy him, thinking he's a baddie? Oh hang on, they do that too. Never mind.

Iron Man is a well realised, entertainingly played superhero adventure with a proper star in the centre. It works on every level and with any luck is the beginning of a long and fun series.

I enjoyed this film: 5/5

I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 5/5

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 4/5 - We boys love the heroes.

To enjoy this film you should be: looking forward to superhero season.