When it comes to the sequel of a beloved summer box office hit, perhaps the most we can hope for is this: That a reasonable person might argue that the second one is better than the first.

No, I don’t personally think Iron Man 2 is better than Iron Man. But it’s not an outlandish perspective. And that’s saying a lot.

Of course, the success of Iron Man begins and ends with Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, the billionaire playboy/inventor who dons the titanium suit and becomes a one-man militia. Once again, Downey Jr. brings his own brand of antic charm to the role. He’s a cut-up, a renegade, a narcissist. But he has a brooding neediness, too, that makes him a worthy romantic hero.

The person who’s doing the swooning in this case is Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts, although she’s a little less dewy-eyed and a little more take-charge this time around (Stark has appointed her CEO of Stark Industries.)

Paltrow has taken a break from acting to raise her children, and I’d forgotten what a good leading lady...

The producers of the upcoming The A-Team are probably looking over their shoulders right about now.

That’s because The Losers has the in-your-face blend of action, tongue-in-cheek humor, and male bonding that The A-Team will undoubtedly be striving for. And I have a hard time believing they can do it any better.

It helps that the cast is stellar. It’s time for Gerard Butler to move over and let Jeffrey Dean Morgan take his rightful place as America’s favorite rough-hewn, cigar-chomping man-hero. Morgan is sexy, a little grizzly, and likeable (sorry Gerard.) Plus, Javier Bardem can always fill in in a pinch if Morgan’s unable to do any publicity. (Are those guys separated at birth or what?)

Morgan plays Clay, the leader of a motley crew of CIA special ops agents. A la the A-Team, they all have a role to play: Jensen (Chris Evans) is the live-wire computer hacker; Pooch (Columbus Short) can hijack anything that moves; Cougar (Oscar Jaenada) is a sharp shooter; and...

Everyone (including me) who hears about the premise of The Joneses—a picture perfect fake family moves into a tony neighborhood as part of a stealth marketing plan—says the same thing: What a clever concept!

But the more you think about—the premise isn’t all that clever. What? We live in a consumerist culture? We want to keep up with the (literal) Joneses? When the cliché is built into the title, you have to go beyond the cliché to produce satire. The Joneses doesn’t—it can’t.

Still, I can’t say I wasn’t entertained, not because The Joneses shines some probing light on our social mores, but because it is carried off with a certain measure of wit and style.

“He who dies with the most toys wins!” says Steve Jones (David Duchovny) to  his golf buddies, who slap him on the back chummily.

He’s the fake husband/father in this family and a newbie to the marketing firm. He’s so new, in fact, that  he develops feelings (of a matrimonial nature) toward his icy fake wife Kate (Demi Moore)...

Lolita alert! Dakota Fanning—yes, the pixieish little girl from I Am Sam and Charlotte's Web—plays the sexed up, drug snorting, crotch grabbing lead singer of the The Runaways, the groundbreaking all-girl rock band that gave Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and Lita Ford their start. She's good—the whole cast is—but to quote the great Valerie Cherish: "I don't want to see that!"

Of course, exploiting teen-girl sexuality is the whole point. As the film starts, we meet Joan Jett (Stewart, all slouchy and boyish in leather pants and a shag cut) who plays guitar and wants to start an all-girl band. She corners would-be rock impresario Kim Fowley (the fabulously manic Michael Shannon) and he's taken with the idea, but feels the group is missing one key component: A hot blond lead singer.

Enter Cherie Curry (Fanning), a self-possessed misfit with a flightly mom and an alcoholic father, who favors platform heels and Ziggy Stardust eye makeup. Jett and Fowley spot her at a nightclub.

"Can you sing?" Fowley asks. "Say yes...