The week is almost over, and we didn’t get chance to talk about “Iron Man,” but we saw it Saturday and loved it. (Although, one small caveat, we saw it at the drive-in — which we love, by the way. The drive in, that is. However, we didn’t realize how much dialogue was in Iron Man. And with all the explosions and action coming through our tinny little Jeep speakers, we spent most of the movie straining to hear what was being said. So, we’d like to see it again, soon, in beautiful Dolby surround sound.)



Here’s our PopPulse recommends from the Guide, which hits newsstands Friday. This is a sneak peak, which we don’t normally do, but we’re doing now because, a., we’re too lazy to write something new; b., we doubt Jeff Vrabel, editor of the Guide, cares; c., this pertains to our Iron Man discussion:

PopPulse Recommends

Marvel Studios’ “Iron Man” made lots of cash this weekend and for good reason. It’s awesome. Really.

You don’t have to be a comic book geek to enjoy Robert Downey Jr.’s take on billionaire playboy/alcoholic/self-loathing weapons manufacturer Tony Stark, but a healthy understanding of the Marvel Comics world the character comes from will help you get all of the little in-jokes planted throughout the script. The movie works for the same reason other comic book movies haven’t (cough”FantasticFour”cough), it rewards comic book fans with its geeky minutiae while keeping it broad enough to appeal to the masses at the Cineplex.

SPOILER ALERT!

Be sure and stick around after the credits for a cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. (a long-standing group of government secret agents well known in the Marvel comic world). His appearance sets up not only an “Avengers” sequel, but a new way to produce movies: Since Marvel financed the film, and retains the rights (unlike “Spider-Man,” for instance, which is made by Sony), Iron Man can return in a sequel ... OR he could pop up in the next Hulk movie ... OR he could show up in “Captain America,” which is in pre-production now.



By taking the reigns of their properties, Marvel has the potential to create for film what it has created on paper — a “world” in which what happens to character A in movie A affects characters B through C in movies B and C.

END OF SPOILER

What this means to the average filmgoer is probably very little. If you like the trailer, you will go to the movie. If you like the movie, you will see the sequel. But for geeky film dudes like us, it means we can obsess even more of every little detail and how those details line up over multiple projects.

And after the movie is over, we can feel all superior as we say things like, “But you see, Kang the Conqueror, as referenced in this film, was also referenced in ‘The Incredible Hulk pt. 4,’ which featured a cameo by ...” Until you punch us in the face.

Shameless plug

Just a reminder, you can now listen to or download a new episode of the PopCast As always, you can either find it here or to the side of the PopPulse main.



We teamed up with Jeff Vrabel, the editor of The Guide, and Liz Farrell, who runs the Island Packet's InCrowd blog, for this half hour look at the absurdity of pop.

This week is our extra special SUMMER MOVIE EDITION!! Really, you should listen. It’s awesome.

Bad boys, what you going to do?

Word came down from Hollywood mountain this week that ABC is axing Men in Trees, the Anne Heche drama that most of you have never seen and never heard of and probably thought was cancelled in, like, 2002.

Well, no, it is on the air, however limping to the finish it might be. As one of the only persons on this planet to actually watch the show (and certainly the only dude), we took note of the fact ABC was calling it quits after two uneven seasons.

There are obviously things about it we found appealing — honestly, we will watch any show about a normal person plopped into the middle of a small town full of crazy yokels. (We’re a sucker for that format. Northern Exposure. American Gothic. Twin Peaks. Gilmore Girls. Ed. The Andy Griffith Show. We just love small town America that’s slightly tilted. We even love Doc Hollywood, which is a movie but still great.)

And we are not ashamed to admit that even though we haven’t cried since the ‘80s and are generally unfeeling about most things, we have a soft spot for romantic comedies. We watch them like a robot does. We tilt our head and furrow our brow and wonder what the fleshy people are thinking when they talk about “love” and what it means when those rivers run down their cheeks. It’s odd and perplexing, but fun to watch.

Anyway, Men in Trees started out promising and went downhill quickly, somewhere around when, by episode 6, they had turned the most interesting character — Jack, the forest ranger, think Clint Eastwood circa Dirty Harry, back when he barely spoke and never smiled — into a weepy woman declaring his love for Heche like he wanted to take her to the prom.

Seriously, can’t there be men on TV anymore? Do they all have to talk about their feelings and cry and write poems? Producers used to take years before they ruined a show by having the lead characters hook up and inevitably destroy the tension that made the show fun to begin with (see Moonlighting), Men in Trees ruined it in 5 episodes. Congratulations!

So, in honor of the death of Men in Trees, here are the five best Bad Boys ever on TV. These are guys women would want to be with and men would want to be. Think Han Solo. Think Burt Reynolds. Think Frank Sinatra.

And, no, we didn’t include soap opera characters, because we don’t watch soap operas. And we also didn’t include Bart Simpson, because he’s a cartoon character. We’re not that big of a loser.

(By the way, thanks to Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives, the bad boy is a dying art. Now bad boys shave their chests and look like models. You can read more in our new book, “1,000 Reasons Why Grey’s Anatomy is Ruining Our Life.”)

5. Joey, Friends

Part of being a bad boy (that name sounds really lame. It makes us feel all icky. How about good bad guy?) is that you have to try to hit on every woman you see, no matter how close you are and how much you think of them like a sister. Joey also gets credit for pretty much being the same whore-bag character through all the seasons of Friends, only really changing when he was spun off into a new show, and really, we don’t blame him for that. Plus he has a cool catch phrase: How you doin’?



However, he does lose points for not getting into a fight or shooting someone or having a drug problem or being a former member of the Navy Seals.

4. Dylan McKay, 90210

It would be hard to explain to these kids today, that once Luke Perry was considered a bad good guy, and he was the coolest guy on TV, and we all wanted his sideburns and Porsche, but not in that order. But, yes, it is true. Even Kelly and Brenda couldn’t stop fighting over Dylan. And Valerie. And that girl who was blown up in a car. Plus cocaine. Dylan loved cocaine. And alcohol. The ‘90s were tough.

3. The Fonz, Happy Days

Even harder to convince than Perry, trying to explain to a kid that this dude was once considered the sexiest man on TV:



In fact, in the pilot episode, Fonz had to wear a windbreaker, because the suits at ABC thought the leather jacket was TOO hard looking for family TV. Now, characters can wear the skin of a newborn baby and no one cares.

Fonz is also the poster child for completely and utterly ruining a cool character. Watch those first few seasons of Happy Days. Fonz was mysterious. Scary, even. You didn’t know what he might to do Richie Cunningham. And he always seemed to be making out with, like, 3 women in the bathroom of that burger joint, which was both cool and sort of gross. By the end, he was just some old dude living with the Cunninghams and waterskiing over sharks. It’s sad, really.

2. Sawyer, Lost

Rule No. 32 of being a TV good bad guy, a Southern accent always helps. Rule No. 45, you have to not care about any one ... for at least three seasons, until you slowly start to transform into something more manageable for the mainstream. Lost’s resident tough guy, Sawyer, once underwent torture just because he didn’t feel like telling some dudes he didn’t have asthma medication. Another time, he convinced that guy from Lord of the Rings to kidnap someone so he could steal all the guns. He also shot a dude. Two, in fact.



This season, he's not quite as bad anymore. He's been neutered. Now he's more like a big brother who sometimes talks back to mom. Not quite the same, but still cool.

1. Magnum, Magnum Pi

Magnum fulfills the five most important rules of being a good bad guy. 1. Creative facial hair is always a plus. As is chest hair. 2. A mysterious past as a military-trained assassin that is so painful the hero has turned his back on that lifestyle, although he does have the occasional flashback. 3. You have to hit on every woman who walks by, and some of the dudes too. 4. You must have a cool theme song. 5. A fast car never hurts.



Magnum might be the coolest guy ever on TV. AND HIS NAME WAS MAGNUM!! We’re not allowed to make a joke about this, but we will sit here and giggled to ourselves.

So, what do you think? Who did we leave off?