'Iron Man'

3 1/2 stars = Very good
Ratings explained

For anyone who ever lamented the villain being so much more fun than the superhero: Meet Tony Stark.

Played by Robert Downey Jr., he's a billionaire industrialist playboy with sports cars, designer suits and a snarky, dismissive sense of humor. Basically, he's a jerk -- till he's captured on the front lines in Afghanistan and observes that his Stark Enterprise is arming the bad guys.

Along with changing his world view, his captivity is the mother of invention for "the suit," which he'll use to break out of the cave and ultimately become one of Marvel's best outfitted heroes -- much to the dismay of Stark stockholders and villainous company president Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges).

Far from an empty suit, Downey is a dashing lead in a knock-out film that crackles with humor, action, romance and timely military-industrial intrigue.

The extras are plentiful, with hours of featurettes that go into great detail about the "Iron Man" mythology with Stan Lee ("I had Howard Hughes in mind"), the making of the two suits and the colorful casting. "[Downey] wasn't the most obvious choice ...," Favreau says, "it was a lot of freedom to cast the best person."

Downey -- who is ripped, by the way, for a 41-year-old guy -- sums it up, saying, "What a cool suit, what a great crew, what a blast."

-- Scott Mervis, Weekend Mag editor

'Taxi to the Dark Side'

4 stars = Outstanding
Ratings explained

When the history of "The War on Terror" is finally told in all of its moral duplicity and stunning inhumanity, Alex Gibney's documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" will provide much of that sad narrative's soundtrack. In December 2002, an apolitical Afghan cab driver named Dilawar was accused of aiding a rocket attack against American soldiers. He was handed over to the occupying American military by the terrorists themselves. They understood that military intelligence was lumbering, gullible and morally obtuse.

Dilawar was confined to Bagram Air Force Base, where he died two days into the kind of interrogation the world invented war crimes tribunals to address. Gibney interviews Dilawar's interrogators, examines how the civilian architects of the military's interrogation policy turned a blind eye to its moral implications and how what happened at Bagram and Guantanamo Bay prisons became the blueprint for what would eventually happen at Abu Ghraib.

"Taxi to the Dark Side" is as much an expose of Dilawar's torture as it is an indictment of the American character for allowing the likes of Vice President Dick Cheney to transform us into a nation that tolerates inhumanity against others for the sake of our "security." The DVD comes packed with special features including long outtakes and extended interviews.

It is impossible to watch "Taxi to the Dark Side" without a sense of mounting rage against the Bush administration for leading the nation down the slickest of slippery slopes. Viewers will be thoroughly appalled.

-- Tony Norman, Post-Gazette staff writer

'Forgetting Sarah Marshall'

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

Jason Segel lived a variation of the naked breakup that launches the romcom "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." But in an extra on the collector's edition, Segel recounts waking up the next morning after the split and heading for his ex-girlfriend's apartment with flowers and then calling her every 15 minutes.

The three-disc set has almost every extra you can imagine, from an unrated version of the movie to deleted scenes (including a horseback riding interlude that makes Sarah Marshall even more unlikable), video diaries and auditions, including Russell Brand's. It's clear why the role, originally conceived as a high-brow British author, was rewritten to a rocker, to suit the hilarious, quick-witted Brit.

"Forgetting" is an R-rated romantic comedy, written by Segel, directed by first-timer Nicholas Stoller and produced by Judd Apatow. Segel is a musician whose actress-girlfriend (Kristen Bell) breaks up with him. When a series of one-night stands fail to help him forget Sarah Marshall, he heads for Hawaii, only to discover she's there with a sexy Brit.

It's very much deserving of its rating but is sweet, thanks to Segel. He sings and plays piano, imitates Tom Waits on the extras, weeps, does full-frontal nudity (briefly), and plays with puppets in cool, creative way.

-- Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette movie editor

Also new this week

• "Lewis Black's Root of All Evil": The comedian presides over such debates as "Weed vs. Beer, "Paris Hilton vs. Dick Cheney" and "American Idol vs. High School" in the first season of Comedy Central mock lawyer show. Joining him are the likes of Andrew Daly, Greg Giraldo, Andy Kindler, Kathleen Madigan, Patton Oswalt and Paul Tompkins.

• "Lou Reed's Berlin": Julian Schnabel directed this concert film of Reed performing his classic 1973 album, "Berlin," dubbed a tragic rock opera, in December 2006 at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn. He's accompanied by a seven-piece orchestra, featuring guitarist Steve Hunter, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. The DVD comes with a Q&A with Schnabel.

• "Bigger, Stronger, Faster": Chris Bell documentary, nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, has been called " 'Super Size Me' on Steroids."

• "Mostly Ghostly": Direct-to-DVD film from R.L. Stine ("Goosebumps") about an 11-year-old who makes a deal with the ghosts in his house.

• Music: "U2: Live at Red Rocks -- Under a Blood Red Sky."