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"Iron Man 2" has already been announced for April, 2010. If you stayed until the end of the credit of "Iron Man" (as I told you to) you would have seen a scene that gives an idea of a new character and clue of a possible stroyline for the sequel. Or maybe the "threequel", since that's already in the works as well.

Also, Jonah Hill, who's been in "Evan Almighty" and "Horton Hears a Who!", was supposed to be in next year's "Transformers 2." But I hear that he's dropped out of that movie, in which he was going to play a friend of Shia LaBeouf's character.

More sequel/threequel news: "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" opens Friday. Now comes word that Prince Caspian will be in the third "Narnia" film, but none of the kids will be. I haven't read the books but apparently the children are only in two of the books, the first two that have been made into movies. I'm not sure how successful any of the films without the kids will be.  

After months and months of trailers and stories about "Speed Racer" I was really looking forward to a great movie. Unfortunately I walked out of the theater the other night surprisingly disappointed.

"Speed Racer" stars Emile Hirsch, who plays Speed. We see him as a young boy who only cares about one thing: car racing. When he grows up he gets an offer to drive for the #1 racing team in the World Racing League. But he turns it down and so the evil owner of the team tries to destroy Speed and his family.

Of course, the movie is based of the cult TV cartoon on the 1960's. I haven't seen any of the cartoons so I can't say if this story followed those old stories or not. I do know that most of the characters are from the TV show, including Speed's family, his girlfriend Trixie (played by Christina Ricci) and the family pet - Chimp Chimp.

The Wachowski Brothers, who produced and directed the Matrix Trilogy, do an excellent job with the special effects. They create an amazing science fiction racing world of colors and action. As you might guess, most of the movie was shot with green screen.

But the story is pretty basic and even though the racing scenes are cool, there are just too many of them. The action actually gets "boring" after awhile.

"Speed Racer" is 134 minutes long. At least a half-hour could have been edited-out and the movie would have been better. In fact, most of the scenes involving Speed's little brother, Spritle, and Chimp Chimp could have been left out. None of them are funny. In fact there are practically no laughs in the entire movie, strange for what is suppsed to be the first big Family Film of the summer.  

The acting is o.k....but no one, even stars such as Susan Sarandon, John Goodman or Matthew Fox, really stands out.

"Speed Racer" is rated PG. There is the use of a three letter word several times that I didn't expect. Younger kids, especially boys, will probably enjoy it, except since the movie is so long they'll likely get bored.

On The Official Kid Critic Report Card, "Speed Racer" gets a C+. There's no reason to race to the theater to see it. My suggestion: wait until it comes out in a drive-in near you in the summer as the second part of a double-feature with a new family film that's really worth seeing.  

The first big film of the Summer Movie Season is here and it's a good one.

"Iron Man" is based on the popular Marvel comic book. It stars Robert Downey, Jr., who plays Tony Stark, a rich guy who owns and runs a company that makes weapons used in wars. On a trip to Afghanistan he gets injured during an attack by enemy soldiers and is captured.

To escape, Tony makes a superhero suit, and when he gets back to the U.S. he realizes that he should change his life and start doing good. But others at the company, especially his business partner (played by Jeff Bridges) don't agree.

There's plenty of great action scenes in "Iron Man", but there's a little too much set-up time before the action heats-up. It's about 45 minutes into the film before we get to see Tony in the first "Iron Man" suit.

The last movie I saw Downey, Jr. in was "The Shaggy Dog", and he was one of the best things in that film. He's also very good here, though, I'll admit, when I first heard that he was playing "Iron Man" I didn't think he was a great choice.

The supporting cast of Bridges, Gwenyth Paltrow and Terrence Howard are all very good, and there are cameos by Stan Lee (who created the Iron Man character) and Jon Favreau, who directed the film.

"Iron Man" has some funny parts and the story is well done. But the violence is very heavy, especially in the early war scenes. So, parents be careful. I wouldn't recommend children under eight years old seeing this film.

On The Official Kid Critic Report Card, "Iron Man" Gets a B.

And, as always, remember to stay until the credits are over. There's an extra scene that gets you ready for the sequel.

From the people who brought us last year's "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" comes another bad family film.

"Nim's Island" stars Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin. She plays Nim, an 11-year old girl who lives on a secret island with her father (played by Gerard Butler) and her sea animal friends, including a sea lion named Selkie and a lizard named Fred.

Nim's dad is a marine biologist. He takes a trip on his boat in search of some new plankton and gets lost in a storm, leaving Nim alone on the island.

Jodie Foster plays an author who writes a series of popular books that star Alex Rover, a kind of Indiana Jones character. But the writer (whose name is Alexandra Rover) is nothing like the hero of her books. But when Nim asks her in an e-mail to come and help her since she's all alone and worried about her father, the author must overcome her fears and try to be a real-life hero.

There are a lot of problems with "Nim's Island". First of all the movie is supposed to be an adventure/comedy...but neither the plot nor any of the characters are very funny. Jodie Foster is a very good actress...but she's terrible doing all the physical comedy her role requires. And much of the blame also has to go to the writers of the script...who put her in several awkward and embarrassing scenes.

The story is not very believable and there are too many plot points. In the middle of the movie the island gets invaded...not by pirates...but by tourists. But that story line doesn't really go anywhere. Another major mistake was the decision to have Butler play two roles: the father AND Alex Rover. They should have simply hired another actor.

I'm a big Abigail Breslin fan but she delivered much better performances recently in "No Reservations" and "The Ultimate Gift" than she does here.

"Nim's Island" is rated PG for some mild, rude humor. The movie is geared toward young girls who might dream of living on an island with their dad and funny animals and not have to go to school. After seeing this movie they'll probably dream of something else.

On The Official Kid Critic Report Card, "Nim's Island" gets a D. 

Both the trailers and the poster showed scenes that didn't make the final movie. It seems like the producers were making changes right up to the last minute. They should have made more.  

Dr. Seuss has entertained kids and adults for generations. Now 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios have teamed-up to make one of his classics - "Horton Hears a Who!" into a movie.

Jim Carrey plays Horton, who lives in the jungle of Newl with all of his animal friends. One day a speck floats by Horton and he thinks he hears people on it talking. And it turns out that he's right. So Horton saves the speck and all the people of Whoville from disaster and decides it's his job to protect them.

Horton tries talking to the Whos, and eventually makes contact with the mayor, who's voiced by Steve Carell. At first the mayor doesn't believe what Horton is telling him - that they all live on a tiny speck that is stuck on a clover - but after he notices strange things happening to Whoville he realizes that Horton is right. But the rest of the Whos think the mayor is a nut.

In the meantime, a mean kangaroo (played by Carol Burnett) doesn't believe Horton and thinks he should stop protecting the speck. She convinces all the animals that Horton is a nut. So it's up to both of the heroes to prove to everyone that they are right.

The voice work in "Horton Hears a Who!" is very good. I'm glad Jim Carrey used his real voice and didn't do some stuffy elephant voice like others have done in the past for Horton. The animation is great. The Blue Sky animators are some of the best in the business.

The story is familiar to most people, but the producers have made a few changes to make it interesting. There aren't a lot of big laughs in the movie, but that's o.k. "Horton Hears a Who!", like most Dr. Seuss stories, is about the message, and it's delivered in a sweet and touching way.

As you would expect "Horton" is rated G. It's safe for all ages. 

On The Official Kid Critic Report Card, "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who" gets a B+.

Dr. Seuss' wife had to approve the making of the film and the final result. I'm sure she and Dr. Seuss himself are very proud.