The Plot: While in captivity, industralist Tony Stark (Downey) creates a high-tech suit of armor which he first uses to fight his way to freedom, and then to prevent a dark-minded scientific genius from carrying out his nefarious plot against humankind.

THE BUZZ: After 15+ years in development, the comic hero first based on Howard Hughes is refashioned as a contemporary industrialist whose technology is being used in the Middle Eastern war effort. (Funny, we can't compare him to any present-day eccentrics, just a list of bad guys come to mind.) Director Jon Favreau was the first name talent associated with project, and any doubt as to his ability to bring in a polished, smart-looking film should have been erased by not only the principal cast he got to sign on, but also his plan for the first film of a proposed trilogy (we hear Downey, Paltrow, and Howard signed 3-picture deals). Here's what we know: Stark is taken prisoner is Afghanistan, and that's where he builds the suit; both the grey suit and the red and gold suit will appear; Stark's alcoholism won't be addressed during the first go-round. And a note to old-school comics fans: It's kind of cool that Stark's old split book counterpart, Steve Rogers (a.k.a Captain America) was greenlighted soon after IM began pre-production. While that project seems to be languishing in development-heck, we imagine IM's initial returns might help get the red, white, and blue balls rolling.

The Plot: A shy boy growing up in a sheltered British community makes an unlikely collaborative partnered in his rough-and-tough schoolmate in his attempt to film his own shot-by-shot version of Rambo: First Blood.

THE BUZZ: After winning over the crowds at Sundance and nestling in the deep pockets of Paramount's indie lable, Jennings latest opus proves to be much less ambitious than his last project and is poised to be this year's Little Miss Sunshine -- although it looks more like this year's Billy Elliot on Human Growth Hormone. Really though, we saw this at the Seattle Film Festival (last year, ahem) and were pulled into a nostalgic haze by the film and the performances of its two young leads. Then again, it could have been all that opening-night champagne ...

The Plot: Speed Racer (Hirsch), a skilled young car driver who belongs to a family of gearheads, is blackmailed by the head of the nefarious corporation Royalton Industries to participate in The Crucible -- the annual cross-country rally that claimed his brother's life years ago. Behind the wheel of the Mach 5, his father's greatest invention, Speed goes head-to-head with his chief rival, the mysterious-yet-familiar Racer X (Fox).

THE BUZZ: In an earlier iteration of this project, Vince Vaughn was attached; in another Alfonso Cuarón was set to direct Johnny Depp as the man behind the wheel of the Mach 5 ... The main question mark here is whether Andy Wachowski and his still-a-man brother Larry can make a family film that they themselves would go see? (Our answer: of course, since there's no pressure for the plot to make a shred of sense.) We're definitely not worried about cool visuals, but there a lot of writers present here.

The Plot: A band of criminals find refuge in a secluded country inn, fully unaware of the nightmare that will greet them this evening.

THE BUZZ: French director Xavier Gens is having a tough time with his movies in the States; first he was kind of fired from his last offering and then Frontière(s) was quietly dropped from the roster of the second HorrorFest because of MPAA-related issues (the ratings board wasn't keen on the movie's level of violence). But now After Dark Films is giving the movie a tiny theatrical release before it hits the DVD market of May 13, so you have two chances to see some Hostel-like sadism complete with a pregnant felon as a lead character, a gnarly troupe of Nazis ensconced inside the primary set piece, and, from what we hear, plenty of unnecessary, ill-handled political commentary about the collapse of the French government and its ideology. Maybe we'll stay home and read some more of The Stranger this week...

The Plot: A look at what happens -- and also what could have happened -- after best friends Phillip (Lie) and Erik (Klouman-Høiner) drop their respective manuscripts into the same mailbox, both of them hoping their first novels will be picked up for publication.

THE BUZZ: Norwegian Joachim Trier's first film has impressed the harshest critics and has been called one of the best movies about making art in some time. Twitch Film says: "... Trier proves himself remarkably adept at moving between moods, flitting easily between comedy, romance and tragedy - simply refusing to delineate these different elements into neat little compartments because this is simply not how life happens." Read the rest of their review here and watch the trailer over here

The Plot: Hit man Brand Hauser (Cusack) is deployed to the nation of Turaqistan to off an oil minister who is interfering in U.S. interests in the region. Keeping his eyes on his target proves difficult for Hauser since he has to work undercover planning the nuptials of an Turaqi pop star (Duff) and contending with the affections of a left-wing journalist (Tomei).

THE BUZZ: Few reviewers have anything polite to say about this John Cusack pet project that finds the star taking his first screenplay credit since High Fidelity. I have to admit I'm surprised at the story's apparent lack of subtlety in its attempt to satirize U.S. interests in the Middle East (Dan Aykroyd riffs on the Vice President) and celebrity obsession (Ms. Duff's character's name is the cringe inducing "Yonica Babyyeah"). Didn't someone suggest a less hammy approach here? Try to endure the trailer while keeping in mind the nearly two-hour run time. Distributor First Look, which recently went through an exec shuffle, just fumbled Bill several weeks ago, and their luck probably won't turn around this time; maybe they should rush an Aqua Teen Hunger Force sequel into production.

The Plot: Set four years after we last saw the ladies, Carrie (Parker), Samantha (Cattrall), Miranda (Nixon), and Charlotte (Davis) negotiate their friendships, romances, and careers in New York City. At the center of it all is Carrie's pending nuptials to Mr. Big (Noth) ...

THE BUZZ: Sorry if this is obscure (or annoying) but if there's one thing Strangers with Candy the movie taught me, it's this: Don't watch the big-screen versions of your favorite television shows in theaters; experience them at home on DVD, either alone or with your pals -- however you watched the show itself. There's something in a transfer such as this that numbs the overall experience. Yes, we're excited for Carrie & Co. to strut the streets of NYC again (and we're glad that SJP and KC are BFFs, or at least acting like it), but we see no reason to pick out a cute theater-going outfit when you can relax at home in your matched separates by Bitten, surrounded by your own personal Stanford Blatches and/or Steve Bradys, sipping on a Fanta Orange and cough syrup cocktail, waiting to see how the gals look in close-ups ...

Now that Yahoo has the first trailer online, we can start to confirm what we've thought all along -- but we didn't think that Cynthia Nixon would be the one to appear as though she had the most work done since 2004.

The Plot: A down-and-out Tae Kwon Do instructor looks to turn his life around by going on a pilgrimage with his buddy (Hill) and two of his students to see his hero, the martial arts legend Chuck "The Truck" Wallace (Best), at a kung-fu convention.

THE BUZZ: It looks like Judd Apatow and his crew might have some competition this year in the form of dynamic writing/acting duo Danny McBride and Ben Best, and their director pal Jody Hill. The trio is being nursed by Will Ferrell and his development partner Adam McKay; their Gary Sanchez Productions is behind the team's HBO pilot East Bound and Down, a sports comedy (Will Ferrel? Sports? Comedy? Go figure.) that should hit the air later this year. Back to Foot Fist ... the indie was shot in 19 days and reportedly has a home-video feel at times, and taste-making reviewers dug it at last year's Sundance Film Festival, though we're unsure why the marketing plan for this one is slow to roll out. It should have been on FunnyOrDie months ago. All reviewers question whether audiences will embrace McBride's caustic, in-your-face performance as a Tae Kwon Do instructor who isn't afraid to attack a 7-year-old kid.