The first extended look at what should be the craziest movie of 2011

Though plenty of people I know heaped scorn on Zack Snyder for what he did with "Watchmen," considering his options with what should have probably remained an "unfilmable" funny book, I thought he did a first-rate job, even without a giant squid.

So I've been looking forward to "Sucker Punch" quite a bit. Coming in March 2011, it will be Snyder's first original idea turned into a movie. Well, as you'll see from the first full trailer below, not entirely original. The story of a teen girl who uses her imagination to escape from a mental institution owes a heck of a lot to both Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" and Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth."

That said, however, it still seems that what our heroine (Emily Browning) dreams up will be a rather amazing trip, all thankfully made in glorious 2D and somehow co-starring both Reel Fanatic fave Carla Gugino and Jon Hamm, so enjoy the trailer (which looks great full screen) and stick around for a couple more clips just silly enough to be perfect for a Thursday morning.



Of all the things that happened with Tuesday's election, none of them terribly encouraging to me, the single oddest would have to be that Californians voted for the return of Gov. Moonbeam while simultaneously rejecting Prop 19, which dealt with legalizing some marijuana use. Having used the stuff only once (on a side trip from the 2006 World Cup to Amsterdam with mi hermano) in the last 10 years or so, I really don't have any opinion either way, but I do know that this clip of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara discussing "marihuana" is nothing but funny. Enjoy.



And finally today, given how protective George Lucas is of his creations, I suspect this clip won't be around for long, but you've got to appreciate the effort that Bryan Theiss put into this mashup of Lando Calrissian and R. Kelly's "Real Talk." Nothing but awesome, and with that, I'm off to the job that somehow still pays my bills. Peace out.

Yes, I really did go see Piranha 3D

And I even kind of liked it too. Far from anything approaching high or even low art, Alexandre Aja's movie is what so many others just claim to be: A genuine B movie, chock full of gore, nudity and, best of all, humor.

It's no surprise to me, then, that the movie not only did fairly well at the box office ($10 million in week one), but also that Dimension has already announced a follow-up. In spite of its many excesses (just as a word of warning, I'm certain I didn't have to see a robotic piranha belch up a severed penis - yes, it's often that silly and gross, too), it's a really fun ride, and I'm almost certain I'll climb on board again, especially since the ending leaves open the possibility of something really wild (I won't spoil it for you.)

I have, however, and probably shouldn't admit this, committed my first bit of thievery since I was 8 years old or so. Instead of "recycling" the 3D glasses this time, I just kept them, and plan to, the next time I give in and watch a movie in 3D, simply buy a ticket for a 2D release showing at nearly the same time, then just slip in to the 3D movie. Juvenile and crooked? Sure, but charging a $3.50 or so surcharge for each 3D movie is at least as criminal, and I'd argue much more so.

But enough about my latest petty scheme, since there's some other actual good movie news out there this week, starting with easily one of my favorite directors, the Japanese animation giant Hayao Miyazaki, who, thankfully, doesn't seem ready to slow down any time soon.

In an interview with the Japanese magazine Cut, thankfully translated by the Miyazaki-obsessed portal Nausicaa.net, he hinted that though he doesn't have any directing options in the immediate future, he does plan to hopefully produce a sequel of sorts to one of my favorite of his flicks, "Porco Rosso."

If you haven't seen that magical movie about a fighter pilot who's cursed to live his life as a pig (yes, really), it really is a delight, and here's some of what Miyazaki had to say about a sequel:

"So I want to escape to "Porco Rosso: The Last Sortie". I have all its materials."
"It should be interesting."
"It is set for Spanish Civil War."
"If next two films succeed and [studio president Toshio] Suzuki-san lets me make it (Porco) while saying, 'It cannot be helped because it's a hobby of the old man', I'm happy. It's my hobby."

The most beautiful animated movies around simply the "hobby of an old man"? You gotta love that, and a "Porco Rosso" sequel set in the Spanish Civil War? Sounds like its not yet a done deal, but I can only say bring it on.

And finally today, does anyone remember the original "Spy Kids" movie? Though Robert Rodriguez's movies lost more and more of the fun in its sequels, the first movie (starring Reel Fanatic fave Carla Gugino, among others) was a perfect little bit of escapist entertainment.

Well, Rodriguez, never one to tire of an idea quickly, has now decided to launch a reboot of sorts of the "Spy Kids" franchise, this time with Jessica Alba sort of in the role started by Gugino.

This time out, Alba will play a retired spy who has been reactivated. Her character is the mother of a baby and two preteen stepchildren. This will, of course, mean casting new "Spy Kids," since the originals, Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara, are surely too old by now. The only other thing that's known so far is that the villain is known as the Time Keeper, whose goal it is to stop time.

That last bit, at least, gives me hope that this will return the series to its roots, which would be a fun turn. And Alba, of course, stars in Rodriguez's "Machete," which will cut a bloody swath through theaters beginning Sept. 3.

It's just about time for me to go to the job that still pays my bills, but I'll leave you with a clip from another movie opening that week, Anton Corbijn's "The American," starring one George Clooney. With its retro look and feel, the tale of a hitman trying to retire is one I'm certainly excited to see. Enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

Which of these crazy movie ideas are real?

Actually, I probably shouldn't spoil it, but they all are, which doesn't make them any less bizarre.

1. Anyone who's been here before (and there are apparently somehow a few of you) knows that I'll watch Carla Gugino in just about anything. And even though I enjoyed watching her play a porn star who dresses like a nun in "Women in Trouble," even I wouldn't have guessed that one of her next movies would be called "MILF."

Really? Yes, really, but no matter what you might be thinking that means (keep it clean, people), the acronym here stands for "Mothers I'd Like to Fight", and the movie, which Gugino is apparently in talks to star in, would be a revenge story about a woman who, recently released from prison, returns to the street to take care of some unfinished business.

And yes, cheap, attention-grabbing acronym aside, I'd watch that, though I'd probably buy a ticket from the machine rather than have to actually ask for one to something called "MILF." Just sayin'.

2. Anyone who's been here before also knows that David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's "The Social Network," about the invention of Facebook, is one of the movies I'm most psyched to see this fall. That said, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that in Hollywood, imitation is the most frequent substitution for inspiration, but I just really didn't think it would come quite so quickly.

Apparently at least some people who saw those YouTube and Twitter movie spoofs (I posted one here, and they're actually quite funny) didn't realize that they were meant to be a joke, because brace yourself now for the Google movie (and again, yes, really.)

According to Deadline, Ken Auletta's bestseller "Googled: The End of the World as We Know It" is being made into a feature film. The book tells "the biographical story of Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the famously private founders of Google, and their meteoric rise to becoming two of the most powerful men on the planet."

OK, that does make it sound like it could actually be pretty good, but could this please be the end of movies about computer breakthroughs (one can dream, I suppose, but since Peter Berg is actually making a movie from the game Battleship, I know it's futile.)

3. When a sentence starts with "Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy have signed up to star in a romantic comedy ...", it would probably just make me say meh, except for the sentence ends "... about the invention of the first vibrator."

Per Variety: "The period drama, titled Hysteria, centres on two doctors in Victorian London who experiment with an electrical device to treat irritable and angry women. Dancy and Jonathan Pryce will play the physicians."

That actually sounds pretty funny to me already, and just in case you were wondering if Gyllenhaal might play one of the test subjects, again, keep it clean - she's actually set to play the daughter of Pryce's character, assuming this ever gets made.

OK, enough of that. All I have left today is a picture that immediately caught my eye and Lewis Black's "review" of "Eat, Pray, Love."

First the picture. If Martin Scorsese weren't filming "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" in 3D, you could call it probably the movie I'm most psyched about for next year (actually, since it's based on a book I truly adore, it still is, but why the 3D? Sheesh.)

And even though Scorses has apparently also shortened the title from Brian Selznick's novel down to simply "Hugo Cabret," the story is still a real charmer. The book is about an orphan who lives a secret life in the wall of a Paris train station, where he gets drawn into the magical world of George Melies and his automatons. There's a lot more going on in the book, and it's all a lot of fun.

As you'll see from the first picture below, Asa Butterfield plays the titular Hugo, and Chloe Moretz is his young co-star, and if the sight of Hit Girl in period costume doesn't make you smile at least a bit, well, you probably don't smile enough. Enjoy.


And finally today, in a clip that I'd have to say is just about perfect for a Friday morning, here's Lewis Black's seriously funny "review" of "Eat Pray Love" from "The Daily Show." Black, who screams way too much for my taste, isn't always my kind of funny, but I guarantee that by the time he gets around to his "Eat, Pray, Love machete," you'll be laughing at this. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. Peace out.

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Does the anti-3-D movement finally have a champion in Zack Snyder?

I certainly hope so, because when you hear news as crazy as this, it really just drives home how much we need one.

And I suppose that when you're James Cameron, you've certainly earned the right to a little crazy, but really, can't he find anything better to with all his pull than a 3-D Black Eyed Peas concert movie? Apparently not.

According to will.i.am (and I have no idea nor care if I'm writing that right), the now-confirmed-as-evil genius is indeed using his 3-D magic for a big-screen concert flick that will follow the band around the globe. Here's what he had to say to Vibe:

“We have the biggest director because we are the biggest group on the planet. The Peas are filming it in South America. People will be able to see us in the theater with the 3-D glasses and everything. There will be a storyline that [Cameron] came up with, which will be dope.It’s a full-length film and it's based around our tour activities. We’ve toured from America and Europe, to the Middle East, South America, Asia and Africa."

Oh, there will be a storyline? Thanks for clearing that up. Sheesh.

But what is the real remedy to all this madness? It will have to be movies that make tons of money without ever touching the gimmick, and that starts, I suppose, with "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" having possibly already made a billion bucks. Not my cup of blood, but bully.

It also needs directors who, when asked to ruin their films with the simply wretched "3-D conversion," have the nards to just say no, and Zack Snyder is hopefully the man to do it.

I've always liked Snyder's movies. "300" was just a big ball of fun, and unlike most "Watchmen" fans, I had no problem at all with what he did with that funnybook masterpiece. He has a 3-D animated owl (yes, owl) flick, "Legends of the Guardians" (at least I think that's what it's called), coming out Sept. 24. But it's what come next that should be really fun.

After making two adaptations, "Sucker Punch" will be his first original live-action flick, and it will star Vanessa Hudgens as a young lady who must escape from a mental hospital to which she's been sent by her evil stepfather. And just in case that's not enough to get you hooked, this will also star Reel Fanatic fave Carla Gugino, Mad man Jon Hamm and even "Black Dynamite" himself, Michael Jai White (if you haven't seen that comic gem, take it as my rental recommendation for the day.)

And that's where his hopefully firm 3-D stance comes in. Having shot the entire movie in glorious 2-D, he's apparently under studio pressure to now "convert" it to 3-D, but as you can see from this MTV clip, he's rightly hesitant. After a little hemming and hawing about time, it's his wife and professional partner, Deb, who gives the real reason: It's just so unnecessary. Amen to that. Enjoy the clip and expect to see "Sucker Punch," hopefully only in 2-D, on March 25, 2011. Peace out.

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Vive la femme: The 10 (or 12) women I'll watch in just about anything

Actually, before we dive right into that, there's a bit of news out there that caught my eye today about what Lee Daniels' next movie will look like.

It would certainly be fun if he got to give a speech at Sunday's Oscars, but that doesn't seem too likely. In the meantime, he's been hard at work on the script for "Selma," which would of course be about the civil rights movement, and he let slip some casting to USA Today. Here's what he had to say:

"I had to do a lot of homework on the script, and I spent a lot of time writing. I feel like I'm caught up a little bit with that. I have to really start casting the movie because we're shooting it soon. The only person I've nailed in for sure is Hugh Jackman. It's all over the place."

Not exactly a natural choice for the lead for an epic about the American South, but we'll see. He's also reportedly at least eyeing Robert De Niro to play George Wallace, which would be rather amazing, when this starts shooting in May. And here's what he had to say earlier about the movie's storyline.

"It's a moment in time in Martin Luther King and LBJ's (life) around the signing of the Civil Rights. It's a snapshot of the march. It's really Lyndon Johnson's story. Martin Luther King is a part of it, but it's really the arc of a man that starts out as a racist who is forced to look at himself in the mirror and then ultimately side with King. It's really a journey of a white cat and how he sneers at tradition and against George Wallace, against everybody, says, 'Uh-uh.'"

Sounds great to me, but I can't see Hugh Jackman playing LBJ. Definitely stay tuned for more on this.

And after that today, it is indeed all about the 10 women whose name alone is probably enough to get me to buy a ticket to just about any movie they make. As is usually the case here, this list actually goes to 12, but I cut off the last two in an act of cruelty mostly due to my lack of time. Those two victims were Anna Kendrick and Audrey Tautou.

So, without any further ado, here goes, in only alphabetical order:

Connie Britton

Though she's done a lot of great TV work through the years, including roles on "Spin City" and "The West Wing," Connie Britton really didn't catch my eye until she stepped into the role of Tami Taylor on "Friday Night Lights," but her impact there was immediate. The show is at its best off the football field when it deals with little moments of everyday life, and the best of those are between Britton and Kyle Chandler's Coach Taylor. It will be a shame to lose her when the show, probably rightly, goes off the air after five seasons, but keep an eye out for her in, because I suppose everyone's gotta eat, the "Nightmare on Elm Street" remake. Yes, really.

Penelope Cruz

Though she can and does play all kinds of roles, I like my Penelope Cruz with two caveats: In Spanish and in a role where she's allowed to be funny. She just seems a lot more natural and at home in her native tongue, and as Woody Allen with "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and Pedro Almodovar with, well, many flicks, know, she's just an extremely gifted comedienne. Keep an eye out for her next in two movies that will certainly put my "see them in anything" statement to the test: "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and "Sex in the City 2."

Lauren Graham

OK, anyone who's been here before knows I have a much-more-than-healthy obsession with "Gilmore Girls," and though the show itself had many charms, the attraction is due almost entirely to Lauren Graham. Judging from the almost shockingly good premiere of "Parenthood," no matter what happens to that show, we do know she'll attack the new, somewhat similar role (a single mother again, though divorced this time, and living back at home with her two teen youngins) with the same heart and humor she gave to Lorelai Gilmore. Graham, rather amazingly, has never really managed to find much of a career on the big screen, so here's hoping "Parenthood" gets a solid five-year run or so.

Carla Gugino

It took me a few minutes to remember where I first noticed Carla Gugino, and it was indeed in those extremely silly "Spy Kids" movies, the first of which, at least, is nothing but fun. And that's how I'd describe Gugino overall too, though she's certainly had her share of serious roles too. I really wish "Karen Sisco" had gotten more than the 10-episode or so run it did, because she was great as Elmore Leonard's best character (though J-Lo was also perfect in the same role in "Out of Sight.") For one really good Gugino movie that not many people at all have seen, try "The Lookout," a little heist movie of sorts also starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels. As for future projects, she should be wild in Zach Snyder's "Sucker Punch," set to come out next year.

Taraji P. Henson

Since it's Oscars week, let's start with one of the most egregious snubs of all time: Though I was happy Taraji P. Henson was nominated for her work in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (pretty much a crap film, though), it was overdue, because she was much, much better as Shug in "Hustle & Flow," in which the sheer desperation in her eyes was burned into just about every frame she stepped into. She was also the only funny person in Joe Carnahan's "Smokin' Aces," no small feat given just how bad that flick was. As seems to be a rite of passage for every great black actress, she's gotten a leading role in a Tyler Perry movie, the mostly satisfying "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," but here's hoping she doesn't now get pigeonholed into these high-drama kinda roles. Unfortunately, among her future roles will be as Jaden Smith's mother in quite possibly the most unnecessary remake of all time, the upcoming "Karate Kid."

Catherine Keener

Actually, if I had done this in order of preference, I think Catherine Keener would have topped the list. For proof of just how quickly she can take over a scene, look no further than Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are" (out on DVD this week, I believe). The best part of that rather amazing flick is probably the opening 20 minutes, and what really makes it is the look of love on Keener's face as young Max Records tells her that story about vampires who eat buildings. My two favorite Keener flicks so far are "Walking and Talking" and "Lovely and Amazing," both directed by Nicole Holofcener, still one of the very few directors smart enough to put Keener in a lead role, as she did again last year with "Please Give," which is going in my Netflix queue right now if it's available.

Melissa Leo

OK, I do have a big bias toward anything about and made in Baltimore, but I assure you Melissa Leo and the "The Wire" star soon to appear on this list earned their spots properly. Leo indeed came to everyone's attention as wise-cracking detective Kay Howard on "Homicide," and will thankfully be reunited with David Simon when his New Orleans series, "Treme," hits HBO in April (when I'll have to bite the bullet and reup too.) She had the role of a lifetime with "Frozen River," and I don't think I'll ever forget the fierce but wounded pride she brought to that role. Also keep an eye out for her fairly soon in David O. Russell's "The Fighter."

Laura Linney

If you put a gun to my head and demanded I name my 10 favorite flicks (though I'm really not sure why anyone would do that), I can guarantee you that "You Can Count on Me" would make the cut every time. No movie better captures the dynamic of a truly fractured family, while at the same time capturing perfectly the appeal of Laura Linney. If I had to pick one word that binds together her work here and in great flicks like "The Savages" and "The Squid and the Whale," I think it would be empathy, because she just has a natural gift for making you care instantly about all the characters she plays. If you get Showtime (which I don't), keep an eye out for her soon with Precious herself, Gabby Sidibe, in the series "The Big C," and she'll also appear in "You Can Count on Me" co-star Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut, "Sympathy for Delicious."

Helen Mirren

Just how good was Helen Mirren on "Prime Suspect"? Well, when, among its many just fabulously bad ideas, NBC was actually eyeing a remake of the sublime British police procedural, they were foiled by only one fact: It was impossible to find an actress capable of filling the role of Jane Tennyson. And indeed it is. The journey that Mirren took through all seven incarnations (I believe) of "Prime Suspect" was nothing anything short of riveting, and rather amazingly, the best of all was the finale, "The Final Act." Picking just one or two great Mirren roles is the definition of a fool's errand, but two I keep going back to again and again are "The Madness of King George," in which she was just the perfect foil for the late, great Nigel Hawthorne, and "Some Mother's Son," still the best of all the '90s IRA movies, which is somehow still not available on DVD (a genuine crime, that.)

Amy Ryan

Like Melissa Leo, Amy Ryan first caught my eye walking the beat in Baltimore, playing the key role of "Beadie" Russell on season two of "The Wire." Since then, she's delivered a truly harrowing performance in "Gone Baby Gone" and was just perfectly cast as the new HR director on "The Office" and the only character as goofy as Michael Scott. She'll be on the big screen very soon (perhaps as soon as next week) with Matt Damon in "The Green Zone," but I'm much more excited that she's been cast along with Paul Giamatti in director (and fellow "The Wire" star) Thomas McCarthy's "Win Win," which will be about a homeless teenager who gets welcomed into a family's home and joins the high school wrestling team. I'm probably not doing that plot summary justice, but trust me, it's gonna be great.

And this has certainly gone on long enough, but I'll leave you with a clip from tonight's long-anticipated episode of "The Office," which will at least be the beginning of the birth of Pam and Jim's baby (it's a two-part episode, so I'd imagine we might have to wait until next week to see the little rugrat.) Keep your ears tuned for the words "Burning Man portapotty," and please feel free to add the names of any actresses who you too will watch in just about anything. Peace out.

DVD review: Is "Women in Trouble" worth any of yours?

The first big questions that popped into my head when I heard of the movie "Women in Trouble" were who in the world is Sebastian Gutierrez, and how in the world did he get Carla Gugino, Connie Britton, Adrianne Palicki, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Marley Shelton to all star in his movie?

And, more amazingly, how did he get them to play a pregnant porn star, two call girls and a stewardess about to join the mile high club in an airplane toilet, among other colorful characters? Well, having watched this, I'm still not sure how he managed to pull any of it off, but I can tell you that what he came up with is a little indie comedy that borrows extremely liberally from Pedro Almodovar and Robert Altman.

Fitting the campy style of humor that Gutierrez's movie thrives on, "Women in Trouble" opens with a shot of Carla Gugino in a nun's habit, looking solemn, and it's only as we slowly pan out that we find she is, in fact, a porn star acting out a scene. And at its best, his very dialogue-heavy flick straddles the line between funny and simply tasteless, occasionally finding time to squeeze in some genuine moments of humanity for its very talented, almost all-female cast.

On the seamier side, Gugino plays a porn star who finds out as the movie opens that she is pregnant. Adrianne Palicki, who's best known so far for playing Tyra on "Friday Night Lights," plays one of her co-stars who also dabbles in prostitution, and Emanuelle Chriqui is a fellow hooker who throws Palicki's character work when ever she encounters jobs that requires two women.

Into this mix throw Connie Britton as a very high-strung woman who carries around a big family secret she's keeping from her sister, who's having an affair with the husband of her psychiatrist, and you get the idea that Gutierrez has a taste for drama, and piles it on pretty high throughout.

He attempts to weave the stories of these women together in the style of the late, great Robert Altman, but too often uses the most contrived tricks to accomplish it. It's cringeworthy as Gugino's and Britton's characters come together, yes, as they get trapped in an elevator (though, on the most piggish of levels, they both look great as they strip down to their undies in an attempt to beat the heat.)

And like Pedro Almodovar, Gutierrez does have an ear for writing colorful characters for women, though you still have to wonder how much he actually values them when - many times more than once - his camera stops for several seconds on the ample decolletage of one of his assembled beauties.

That said, his screenplay does mine his often seamy subject matter for some genuine humor, at its best in Palicki's character's tendency to blurt out malapropisms (I won't tell you exactly how it comes up, but be sure to look for for the words "immortal whore" - and try not to laugh out loud when you hear them.) He's just as prone, however, to just plunge right through any semblance of taste, as when the same character delivers a speech about her dog and cunnilingus (I'm not making that up, and I won't tell you any more about that to spoil it either.)

But he does manage to write some genuinely moving moments for his best two stars, Gugino and Britton, who for my money match feminine beauty with exceptional acting skills more than any other two women working today with the exception of perhaps Helen Mirren and Laura Linney. It's in moments like this that you can see just how he managed to lure so many great actresses to take part in this madness and, amazingly, to even talk Gugino into starring in a sequel about the further adventures of her character, Electra Luxx.

As far as DVD extras go, they're truly minimal here, consisting of only a "behind the scenes" feature that is actually only Gugino and Palicki riffing on whether or not they're wearing panties (funny enough in itself), a teaser trailer featuring all the ladies cavorting in a swimming pool (which does at least fit the spirit of this) and "deleted scenes" that are actually just five speeches that various minor characters make to the psychiatrist (though, amusingly, that does include Elizabeth Berkeley, somehow.)

Overall, "Women in Trouble" is the definition of a mixed bag, but clocking in at only 84 minutes or so, it's a genuinely diverting little movie that's well worth a rental if you take your humor with a much larger than usual slice of talented beauties.

P.S.: For anyone who happened to end up here by mistake because the word "porn" appears in this review a few times, my apologies - I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere for that.

A Thursday report just chock full of good movie news

There really is just a ton of news out there this morning about filmmakers and actors I like, so let's just jump right into it.

First up, in perhaps the biggest and best of it all, Kathryn Bigelow is set to reunite with "The Hurt Locker" scribe Mark Boal for "Triple Frontier," which is described as a "Traffic"-like drug parable set in the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, and Bigelow says the film will use the same "raw and visceral visual style" as "The Hurt Locker."

Except for the "Traffic" reference (I can really think of very few movies that are more overrated than that one), that all sounds great to me. It's a perfectly gritty subject for her, and if I were still a betting man, I think there's been a groundswell of activity behind "The Hurt Locker" that just might bring it the big Oscar prize on March 7, which would be just fine with me (though, of course, I'm still standing behind Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," which I've seen four times now.)

And in a related note, Jeremy Renner, also an Oscar nominee for his performance in "The Hurt Locker," has set up his next project, and being a devoted fan of all things Baltimore, it certainly sounds intriguing to me. To be directed by James McTeigue of "V for Vendetta" and star Renner and Ewan McGregor, "Raven" is sort of based on Edgar Allen Poe's poem, but set in 1850's Baltimore with a serial killer's crimes mirroring Poe's work (and it damn well better be shot in 2010 Baltimore, too.) Renner probably won't win on Oscar night, but as far as male performers go, he and Christoph Waltz (who we'll hear about in just a few paragraphs) certainly had the "breakthrough" performances of 2009, and he's definitely got my attention.

Duncan Jones garnering stellar cast for next flick

I've somehow managed to once again con my way into a press pass to the upcoming Atlanta Film Festival 365, and if they screen even one movie as good as Duncan Jones' debut "Moon," which I squeezed into there last year, it will be well worth the trip.

So it's certainly good news that Jeffrey Wright has now signed for Jones' next flick, "Source Code," joining the already-announced Jake Gyllenhaal, Vera Farmiga and Michelle Monaghan.

Best as I can tell, the flick is a sci-fi thriller involving time continuums in some way. Gyllenhaal is, of course, the main star, who's investigating a train bombing and finds himself in the body of one of the victims, reliving the incident until he can find out who's behind it. Farmiga will play Gyllenhaal's handler, and Monaghan a woman on the train with whom the man he becomes is romantically involved. All I know about Wright's involvement is that he plays a helicopter pilot of some kind, but I do know that with this director and cast, this is one I'll definitely be keeping my eyes on.

Cobain biopic in the works

Just about the last thing the world needs is another musician biopic, but I think I'd certainly at least turn out for one about Kurt Cobain. In fact, I can't believe this hasn't been done already.

Oren Moverman, director of "The Messenger" (which I haven't seen yet, but everyone tells me I should), is about to sign on to direct and rewrite David Benoiff's script for the project, using as at least a partial source Charles R. Cross' 2001 biography, "Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain."

No word yet on who would play Cobain, but I'd have to say Jared Leto, assuming he isn't just way too strung out by now, would be a natural, or maybe Billy Crudup. And as to why I'd want to see this, well, Cobain's certainly a fascinating subject, and I can still remember when my roomie at the time, Cory, told me what had happened to him. We had just seen the Breeders open for Nirvana about six months earlier at Atlanta's now-defunct Omni. A real bummer, but this seems to be in the right hands, and could make for a really compelling flick.

Waltz sets next project as another mean bastard

I've been hearing talk lately that Christopher Plummer, nominated for "The Last Station," just might pull the upset on Oscar night and nab the Best Supporting Actor award that everyone has been assuming would go to Christoph Waltz for his work as the Jew hunter Hans Landa in "Inglourious Basterds."

If that's the case, it would be a genuine travesty, because anyone who's seen QT's flick (and if you somehow haven't, why the heck not?) knows, he just takes over every scene he's in, and you can't take your eyes off him.

We'll just have to wait and see how that all turns out, but in the meantime comes word that he's in talks to star in "Water for Elephants" with Reese Witherspoon and a certain vampire dude you may have heard of named Robert Pattinson.

Based on the novel by Sara Gruen and to be directed by Francis Lawrence of "I am Legend," the story is about a Depression-era love triangle between a veterinary student (Pattinson) who joins a travelling circus and falls for the star performer (Witherspoon). Waltz would play the third angle, Witherspoon's husband, described as "a dangerous paranoid schizophrenic animal trainer who is as mean to his wife as he is to the circus creatures."

I'll watch Mr. Waltz in just about anything at this point - he's in Michel Gondry's upcoming "Green Hornet" with Seth Rogen, too, but I'd put my money on this flick being finished first - and especially in something that sounds this intriguing.

Carla Gugino set to run "Faster" with the Rock

You know, I really have no beef whatsoever with Dwayne Johnson. I'm sure he's a perfectly nice guy, but I'm not sure I've ever seen one of his movies. That said, putting the simply stunning (and just as talented) Carla Gugino in one of his flicks just might be enough to get me to buy a ticket.

She's come aboard the revenge thriller "Faster," being directed by George Tillman Jr., who made the mostly entertaining Biggie biopic "Notorious", and also starring The Rock, Billy Bob Thornton, Maggie Grace and Moon Bloodgood.

So, what's it about? Well, apparently, The Rock is an ex-con bent on avenging the death of his brother, murdered 10 years earlier when the two were double-crossed during a heist. Gugino will play the detective in charge of the investigation of the killing.

On second thought, I really can't see any way I will go see this, but I just really like Carla Gugino, so I'm just passing the news along 'Nuff said on that.

Whedon and Spurlock to harass poor Comic Con-goers
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I'm not sure why, but I just can't stand to even look at, much less listen to, Morgan Spurlock. I think it's because I also can't stand documentaries in which the filmmaker feels the need to make himself the star - exactly the wrong approach in my book - and no one except for maybe Michael Moore does this more than Spurlock. And, for that matter, Moore is just a much better filmmaker.

Now, however, it seems that Spurlock and Joss Whedon (because, with "Dollhouse" canceled I guess he just has nothing better to do) are teaming up to make a documentary about Comic Con, which I'd love to attend some day.

The duo will apparently follow their poor victims for three months leading up to this year's mega-geekfest in San Diego. I can't imagine anything good coming from any of this, but I've been wrong at least once before (and probably already today), so maybe I am about this too.

Whew. That certainly went on a lot longer than I intended when I woke up this morning, so anyone who actually made it this far deserves a reward. I'm not sure that the latest weekly installment of "Alice In Wonderland" featurettes really qualifies, but they've at least managed to keep them all entertaining, and there just something soothing about watching Helena Bonham Carter with the Red Queen's enormous head calling for a pig to rest her feet on. Enjoy, and have a perfectly enjoyable Thursday. Peace out.

Zombie attack? They're on it ... plus Quentin Tarantino's favorite movies

I've often wondered what would really happen if the world were attacked by zombies, especially when it helps me to avoid doing some truly thankless task at work, but I had no idea people could get paid for such flights of fancy. I'm in entirely the wrong business.

Some researchers in Canada, according to the BBC, have actually carried out a "mathematical exercise" to conclude that, as any zombie movie fan knows well, "If zombies actually existed, an attack by them would lead to the collapse of civilisation unless dealt with quickly and aggressively."

Well, I'm glad we cleared that up. There's so many things to like about this, but I think my favorite might be that for their book, "Infectious Diseases Modelling Research Progress" (get thee to Amazon right now), they gave the living a chance by only using "classic, slow-moving zombies as our opponents rather than the nimble, intelligent creatures portrayed in some recent films."

Whew! So, what's their conclusion? Humanity's only hope is to "hit them [the undead] hard and hit them often. It's imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly or else ... we are all in a great deal of trouble."

I really wish I had the ability to make this stuff up, but just in case it all has you actually worried, they finished with this reassuring thought well reinforced by zombie movies of all kinds: "My understanding of zombie biology is that if you manage to decapitate a zombie then it's dead forever. So perhaps they are being a little over-pessimistic when they conclude that zombies might take over a city in three or four days."

OK, as fun as that was, enough, because there's some actual movie news out there today, plus a couple of fun videos at the finish.

First up is word of a remake that doesn't immediately make me want to vomit, at least partly because I've never seen the original it will be based on.

If you haven't seen director Michael Davis' "Shoot 'Em Up," you've missed one of the most fun movies I've seen in the past five years or so. Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti star in the bullet ballet that most often plays out like a Looney Tunes cartoon, and there are very few rentals I can recommend higher.

Now it seems that Davis has set his sights on a remake of "Outland," a 1981 sci-fi movie starring Sean Connery that, like I said, I've never seen. Every description I've seen says it's essentially "High Noon" in space, with Connery's character sent to investigate the mysterious deaths of laborers at a mining colony on one of Jupiter's moons.

With "Moon" already one of my favorites this year, and "District 9" (which I'll be seeing this weekend, along with QT's "Inglourious Basterds") getting nothing but raves, it seems we're really in a good place for big-screen sci-fi right now, and to this new addition I can only say bring it on.

Beyond that today, there are just a couple of casting nuggets out there that make projects I was sure to tune in for anyway just that much cooler.

When "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" veteran Jane Espenson was named an executive producer of Syfy (queer, queer, queer!) network's upcoming "Battlestar Galactica" prequel "Caprica," I suppose it was inevitable that she would bring some old friends along with her.

According to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, the first "Buffy" player to join the fold will be by far the coolest, James Marsters, aka Spike. Marsters will play a dangerous terrorist leader by the name of Barnabus Greeley in a minimum of three episodes. Here's his rather pithy character description: "Driven by desires both moralistic and carnal, Barnabus is as lethal as he is unpredictable."

That's more than enough to have me tuning in when this finally hits Syfy on Jan. 22.

In even better casting news, it seems that Don Draper himself, Jon Hamm, has joined the cast of "Watchmen" director Zack Snyder's first original work, "Sucker Punch." He joins, among others, Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish and (huzzah!) Carla Gugino in the 1950s-set tale of a girl (Browning) confined to a mental institution by her stepfather, who intends to have her lobotomized in five days. She and her friends enter an alternate reality where they begin planning an escape.

No details for Hamm's character are known except this: His name is High Roller. The movie is set to come out March 25, 2011.

And speaking of "Mad Men," which I hadn't yet, I thought the season three premiere was just sensational. The Ken vs. Pete storyline should be great, and that "Can I ask you a question?" moment between Don and poor Sal was just priceless.

OK, after all that, all I have left is two videos, the first of which is just the perfect cure for any kind of workaday blues. I'm an ardent fan of cursing, probably too much so in my own vocabulary, but especially in the movies, and no character has done it better in many years than Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker in "In the Loop." Definitely see Armando Ianucci's razor-sharp satire as soon as you can, but in the meantime, enjoy this highlight reel of some of Tucker's choicest barbs, courtesy of Empire.



And finally today, in honor of "Inglourious Basterds," here's Quentin Tarantino offering his 20 favorite movies that have come out since he started making movies in 1992. I don't want to spoil it for you, but two definite highlights are his passionate defense of Jan de Bont's "Speed" and the inclusion of the seriously funny "Friday." Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

Steven Soderbergh's porn movie? Well, not quite ...

Am I really the only person who saw the news footage of folks "tea-bagging" yesterday and just thought how much funnier - and about as equally effective - it would have been using the John Waters definition? Just saying.

And in that spirit, in movie news that's not nearly as salacious as some might be thinking, the first trailer for Steven Soderbergh's movie starring porn star Sasha Grey as a rather high-priced call girl - "The Girlfriend Experience" - has hit, and it looks like it has been made with the clinical detachment that has marked even his best flicks. (And if you want to see some of her work, well, this is the Internet, so I suppose that wouldn't be too hard to accomplish. Since this is a family-friendly site, I've simply included her picture.)

For me, his style works when he's using it in the pursuit of cool, since "Out of Sight" and "The Limey" are just two nearly perfect little flicks. But it can also go way wrong when it has no leash. Witness "Che." Or, for your sake, take my advice and don't.

When I was in New York with my family at the end of last year, I somehow got it into my head that watching all five hours or so of "Che" parts one and two in one day would be entertaining, and somehow also duped my brother into going with me.

Man, was that painful to watch. It's a movie that's much easier to admire, for me, than it ever was to enjoy. For EXTREMELY long chunks, especially during the second part that takes place in Bolivia, it's essentially a training film in guerilla warfare, filmed in thorough detail with tons of precision but scant passion, even with the great Benicio del Toro in the titular role.

Oh well, I digress quite a bit. Here's the trailer for his new flick, which is set to have what I assume will be a rather limited release May 22:



Errol Morris goes narrative

And in surprising news about a director who never lacks passion for his subjects, documentary maker Errol Morris is jumping into narrative features with a tale about cryogenics, which would seem to be right up his alley.

He's perhaps best known for the Robert McNamara documentary "Fog of War," but my favorite Morris flicks are just studies in extreme oddity like the creepy "Mr. Death" and, even better, "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control." And what he comes up with for this dark comedy being written by Zach Helm should fit in with those characters just fine.

Inspired by both Robert F. Nelson's memoir "We Froze the First Man" and a story that aired on NPR's "This American Life" this week titled "You're as Cold as Ice," the true story centers on Nelson, a TV repairman who in the 1960s joined a group of enthusiasts who believed they could cheat death with a new technology: cryonics. But freezing dead people so scientists could reanimate them in the future turned out to be harder than Nelson thought.

If this all works out, it might just add up to the oddest thing from Errol Morris yet: A movie that might even reach theaters in my little corner of the world!

A glimpse of "The Hurt Locker"

Remember Kathryn Bigelow? She made a quick splash with the Keanu Reeves flick "Point Break" in 1991 and then, of course, tried to end the world with "End of Days," but instead just about ended her movie-directing career (to be fair, she did direct three episodes of easily one of my favorite TV shows, "Homicide," and even one of the short-lived and much-underappreciated "Out of Sight" TV version of sorts "Karen Sisco" with the always-welcome Carla Gugino.)

And now she's back with an Iraq war movie (another one?) that promises perhaps the same level of action of her early flicks on a much less grand scale.

Although I enjoyed "In the Valley of Elah" quite a bit and wanted to like Kimberly Pierce's "Stop-Loss" a lot more than I actually did, I don't think there's been an Iraq war movie yet that's managed to catch on with the moviegoing public. Bigelow's flick, however, just might be the first to break that mold, since "The Hurt Locker" seems to simply focus on the lives of the members of an elite Army bomb squad operating in Iraq and let you bring your own politics into the action.

Here's the trailer for the flick starring Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie, which is set to open in at least a few corners of the world at the end of June.



And in a quick thought about TV, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the premiere episode of "Parks and Recreation," even if it does crib most of its style directly from "The Office." It just seems to be infused, at least so far, with the right mix of genuine spirit and just thoroughly mocking it, and I certainly liked Amy Poehler's character a whole lot more than any she's played since that crazy RA in "Undeclared."

Here's hoping the show just gets funnier, because I thought that, even with the double "Office" episodes last week, it was the best thing in NBC's Thursday night lineup. And here's about two-and-a-half minutes or so of what you'll see on tonight's episode, "Canvassing," and as a bonus, more footage of "The Office" crew playing soccer. Priceless. Peace out.

What's going to happen under "Friday Night Lights"

"The Dark Knight" has, thankfully, knocked the wretched "Spider-Man 3" from the perch of opening-weekend champ with a take of $155 million, but in its shadow another Hayao Miyazaki movie (huzzah!) has also apparently opened in Japan to strong box office numbers.

"Ponyo on a Cliff By the Sea," which is about a five-year old boy, Sosuke, and the Princess goldfish, Ponyo, who wants to become human, had scored 83 percent of the first day total of Miyazaki's 2001 megahit "Spirited Away" as of 3 p.m. Saturday. "Spirited" went on to earn $284 million in Japan - an all-time BO record for the Japanese market. Here's hoping "Ponyo" gets an American release very soon, with or without the usual English dubbing that goes with the Western versions of his flicks.

And, in one more bit of movie news before we dive into "Friday Night Lights," it seems that if Wes Anderson ever does manage to make his first animated flick - based on the Roald Dahl work "Fantastic Mr. Fox" - Jarvis Cocker of Pulp fame will be doing much of the music (and, just for the record, the IMDB does indeed have a November 2009 release date set for "Mr. Fox.") I like Jarvis Cocker even more than I do slightly twisted movies for kids, and Pulp's "Different Class" is a record I just keep going back to again and again, so that should just be tons of fun.

From here on out, however, I promise it's all about "Friday Night Lights." To find out more than was recently revealed by TV scribe Michael Ausiello, unless you have DirecTV, you'll have to wait until January or so, but here's what we know so far, with some commentary from me. As far as current, hour-long serials go, I'd put "Friday Night Lights" behind only "Battlestar Galactica" and "Mad Men," so here's hoping they don't just completely screw it up before I get to see it again.

Here goes:

* It's already been revealed that Tim Street and Smash Williams will be fazed out in the first four episodes or so (since they're not in high school, after all), but now comes news that Tim Riggins, Tyra Collette, Lyla Garrity and Matt Saracen will all be graduating seniors when the show returns. Is it just me, or wasn't Matt at some point younger than all the others? I would have assumed this makes Landry and Julie seniors too, since I thought they were in the same grade as Saracen, but perhaps not.

* In dishier news, once the new school year starts, Tim and Lyla will once again be a couple, but Tyra and Landry will not. I have a feeling that Tyra and Landry will be together again by the end of the season (if it gets another full run), but it only makes sense that - for now at least - she would break his heart once again (and that cute geek girl that Landry dumped for her - Brea Grant - will be Hiro's new sidekick on the new season of "Heroes," so a hearty huzzah to that!)

* Tami Taylor, played by the simply fantastic Connie Britton, will get a serious boost in pay when she goes from guidance counselor to principal of Dillon High. Doesn't sound terribly realistic to me, but that should still make for some real tension on the Taylor homefront and for some great TV.

* A new hot-shot, freshman quarterback named J.D. McCoy will challenge Saracen for the starting job. I'd imagine that, with so many of the regulars graduating this year, he'll be the first of a big new wave of characters if the show is going to have a life beyond this year. Going in the opposite direction, "Gilmore Girls" veteran Matt Czuchry (Chris, the rival for Lyla's affections) and Benny Ciaramello (Santiago) will not be back.

So there you have it. Even if I do have to wait quite a long time to see this on NBC again, I'm glad to hear that the creators are still putting a lot time into one of my favorite shows.

And we'll close with something that's sure to brighten up even the dreariest of Mondays. The "Watchmen" trailer that preceded "The Dark Knight" was easily the best of the bunch, and even better is this Varga-esque painting of Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter by artist James Jean that turned up on Aintitcool.com. It had the ring of something rather exclusive, but since my love for Carla Gugino knows no bounds, I decided to swipe it anyway and share it here. Peace out.

Keep your dirty mitts off of "Rosemary's Baby"!

Be warned at the outset: All the news today has something, good or really, really bad, to do with Michael Bay. As my only other warning, I'll just say I promised myself a few months ago I would stop writing about thoroughly unnecessary remakes both because there's just so damn many of them and because it can't do anything good for my blood pressure.

But thanks to the aforementioned Mr. Bay and his company, Platinum Dunes (even that name sucks!), I now have to break that promise. I didn't realize until this morning that it isn't just a company, but instead some kind of vast conspiracy out to ruin many of the things cinematic that I hold dear.

So, before I get consumed with rage, let me just lay it out there: Thanks to the enterprising folks at Shock Till You Drop, I woke up this morning to this new possible spawn of Satan: A remake of "Rosemary's Baby."

I'll give you a second to mull that over. Swear if you want to. Virtually nothing offends me at this point.

Platinum Dunes has staked its still-declining reputation (if you can even call it that) on such horror remakes ("Friday the 13th," "Nightmare of Elm Street" and, yes, even "The Birds" are all in the pipeline, and they've already taken down "Amityville Horror," "The Hitcher" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" - remember I'm just the messenger.) I could dismiss just about all of those except "The Birds" with a shrug, but when it comes to "Rosemary's Baby," well, now it's personal.

I realize I'm probably far from alone here, but Roman Polanski's fun flick really represents for me two things: Both my single favorite horror movie of all time and a crash course in what used to be great about horror flicks (atmosphere, suspense and an actually riveting storyline, imagine that.)

What has replaced those ingredients of late? Well, first there was the slew of torture chic flicks, which apparently (and thankfully) seems to have bottomed out with "Captivity." If the next trend is simply to steal every idea you can find, I can only call that a lateral move at best.

There has been one nearly sensational horror movie I've seen of late, J.A. Bayona's "The Orphanage." I obviously fear, however, that this one pure drop can do little to stop the rapidly filling bucket of bad blood.

And now in better news ...

Whew! Let me make sure all the bile's out of my system before continuing.

Another thing that makes the above story so sad is that, when they actually bother, Bay and company can still come up with projects that don't make me vomit in my own mouth. (And for the record, I really thought "Transformers" was a heck of a lot of fun.)

I found the first mention this morning of a horror flick of a different sort (meaning at least from an original concept) that Platinum Dunes is producing for writer/director David S. Goyer. In what could be described as an odd twist on "The Exorcist," Goyer's "Unborn" tells the tale of a Jewish girl tormented by the soul of a boy who died in the Holocaust.

Should the Holocaust be off limits for such fare? Perhaps, but I'm relatively confident that Goyer, who co-wrote both "Batman Begins" and the upcoming "Dark Knight," can come up with something at least slightly tasteful and thoroughly entertaining. And besides, it's rapidly attracting a four-star cast.

Odette Yustman (Beth McIntyre for anyone who saw "Cloverfield") will play the tormented youth, and it just gets better from there. Carla Gugino. who I'd probably enjoy watch eating crackers, will play her mother, and, believe it not, Gary Oldman as a rabbi and "The Wire" alum Idris Elba as a priest will be performing the exorcism.

So, is there still hope out there for horror? Not much, but projects like "Unborn" make me think there just might be a glimmer. Peace out.

"American Gangster:" American classic

Anyone who visits here from time to time already knows that I often get way too excited about movies, way too long before they even approach the multiplex.

Why? Well, first because I just love reading and writing about movies, but second because, when I manage to believe all the hype I do my minuscule part to create, it makes it just that much more sweet when it turns out to be true.

It happened once this summer with "Ratatouille," which was even better than I could have imagined. And now it's happened with "American Gangster," a flick which it seems like I've been excited about for three years now and is so good that it's knocked Brad Bird's delightful movie right out of the top spot.

I tell you all that as a lead-in to this warning: This won't be a review as much as a rave, because I loved just about every minute of Ridley Scott's best movie yet (and I say that as someone who hasn't always liked his movies as much as the rest of the world; "Blade Runner" is just as good as everyone claims it is, but "Gladiator" was average at best in my book.)

So, what's so great about "American Gangster," for the few people out there who haven't seen it yet (it took in a rather whopping $46.3 million at the box office in week one.)

What I liked most was the pacing. As we're introduced to the slowly converging paths of heroin kingpin Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) and do-gooder cop Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), Scott wisely keeps the scenes to no more than a couple of minutes each, and moves fluidly between the two worlds. Until the inevitable bullet barrage that brings it all crashing down, Scott never resorts to the shaky jump-cuts that the kids who have followed him use to substitute for real urgency, instead just letting the story unfold at it own pace. The final effect, while not quite - as Washington Post critic Stephen Hunter said - making its 2:20 seem like 40 minutes, is still a rousing tale very well told.

And just as much credit for that goes to screenwriter Steven Zaillian, who has worked with Scott previously on "Hannibal" and also managed long ago to write and direct another of my favorite movies, "Searching for Bobby Fischer." He and Scott make it clear through their actions rather than any way-too-wordy speeches that what bonds Lucas and Roberts is their moral code, even if they use that to rather different ends. It's what makes the ending, which still manages to be a bit jarring, easier to swallow.

But no great American gangster flick (and yes, I will go so far to put this one in the same arena with the first two "Godfather" movies or any of the great '30s movies and believe it will be able to hold its own) would be complete without its own "Is this the end of Rico?" moment. Scott's is admittedly rather cheesy, but it just worked for me. Spoiler alert: If you haven't seen the movie, skip this sentence: For Lucas' character, being cuffed on the steps of his church, with his family being herded back inside so they won't have to watch, is just as ignominious an end as dying in the gutter.

Before I end this admittedly one-sided love letter to "American Gangster," a word or two about the casting is in order. At its center this is a very elaborately constructed movie about two men, and they will indeed square off again in February on Oscar night. By a nose, I'd have to give the edge to Denzel, who will certainly be taking home the first Best Actor statue he deserves, rather than awarded to make up for past omissions.

But the supporting cast as well was full of pleasant surprises. Idris Elba of "The Wire" makes an early appearance as one of Frank's rivals, and another HBO vet, John Hawkes, who played Sol Star on "Deadwood," is here as one Roberts' key recruits in his anti-drug crusade. Others who make the most of little screen time (and who I always like to see) include Jon Polito, Carla Gugino, Joe Morton (wearing the world's cheesiest wig) and, in one of his best appearances outside of the movies of Spike Lee, Roger Guenveur Smith as Lucas' cousin and connection to the heroin that would build his empire.

Actors who have for years now only annoyed me on the big screen, Cuba Gooding Jr. and T.I., also manage to turn in solid performances (perhaps a fork in the road and a return to the right direction for Mr. Gooding, who is sensational as rival gangster Nicky Barnes.) And finally, a word of apology to Ruby Dee, who plays Lucas' mother: I thought you had died shortly after your husband, the great Ossie Davis, as happens with so many devoted couples, but I was certainly happy to find out I was wrong this time.

If none of this convinces you to go see this one, there's probably nothing else I can say, so I'll just cut this off and head out to see "Into the Wild." Peace out.

Whedon's "Serenity" gets royal treatment on DVD

I have to confess that I tried to watch Danny Boyle's "Sunshine" this past weekend and just didn't get it. I did stay through the whole movie, of course, but it just seemed to have little point or reason to exist at all (and I'm perfectly willing to concede that perhaps it all just went right over my head.)

It's the first Danny Boyle movie I've even mildly disliked, so I can definitely give him a pass and eagerly await his next move, especially when it's something as crazy as "Slumdog Millionaire," about an illiterate Hindi kid who conspires to get on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" to win the girl of his dreams. That should just be tons of fun.

But back to "Sunshine." I certainly think the big screen needs more intelligent science fiction, so I'm glad Boyle took a stab at it, but there have been much better examples of it in recent years. Alfonso Cuaron's "Children of Men" was my second-favorite movie of 2006, behind only Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth." And before that, of course, there was Joss Whedon's "Serenity," which gets the grand treatment it deserves this week on DVD.

"Serenity," based on Whedon's one-season-only "Firefly" (honestly, you folks who run the Sci-Fi Channel, is there anything better you could do than throw the money at Whedon to revive this show on your network? Just do it already.) What this space Western had, along with the smarts, was a lot of laughs. Even if his character was directly cribbed from Han Solo, Nathan Fillion makes Capt. Mal Reynolds his own and leaves a lasting impression.

For anyone who hasn't seen this one yet (and if you haven't, really, for shame!), it picks up the "Firefly" story with River Tam (Summer Glau) as the focus. The collector's edition claims to include more than 30 minutes of bonus features, including extended scenes, "Take a Walk on Serenity" featurette, "A Filmmaker's Journey" featurette with Mr. Whedon, "The Green Clan" featurette with cinematographer Jack Green, "Sci-Fi Inside: Serenity," an "in-depth look at the film and TV show hosted by cast member Adam Baldwin, and a commentary with Whedon, Fillion, Baldwin, Glau and Ron Glass.

As far as intelligent sci-fi with heart goes, I really can't recommend anything higher than "Serenity."

Other picks this week:

The Lives of Others
It seems like I've been waiting years to see the movie that somehow managed to beat out "Pan's Labyrinth" for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar, and now I'll finally get to. There's a listing on the IMDB for a "Lives of Others" coming in 2010, so I can only imagine there's some crap American remake coming soon, but do yourself a favor and watch this drama about the German Stasi police instead.

South Park: Season 10
I'll keep springing for "South Park" until it stops being bitingly funny, and that hasn't come to pass yet. Highlights of this tenth season include the two-part "Cartoon Wars," in which Trey Parker and Matt Stone declare war on Fox's "Family Guy" with help from Eric Cartman, and "TSST," in which a "dog whisperer" is brought in to try and curb Cartman's erratic behavior.

Pusan pays tribute to Yang

Edward Yang may not have made many movies in his short life (only eight, to be precise), but he did manage to craft easily one of my favorite in the sublime "Yi Yi."

And now he's getting an extremely fitting posthumous honor from the Pusan Film Festival, which will name him the Asian Filmmaker of the Year. Huzzah indeed!

Egoyan unleashes 'Adoration'

The world is certainly a better place with more Atom Egoyan in it, especially when he comes up with something as odd as this.

Egoyan has announced his next project will be called "Adoration." With filming beginning in Toronto in September, it will be about teems navigating "this brave new world and how people can invent themselves, or re-invent themselves, through technology." It will star Scott Speedman, Rachel Blanchard, Devon Bostick and, of course, Egoyan's wife, Arsinee Khanjian. Definitely keep your eyes on this one.

Carla Gugino makes a Righteous Kill

With "The Spirit" and now this, Carla Gugino has been on a real roll lately, and I can't think of anyone more deserving.

Her latest coup is the leading female role in "Righteous Kill," the Jon Avnet crime drama that teams up Robert De Niro and Al Pacino as New York cops chasing a serial killer. Gugino will play a crime-scene investigator who starts knocking boots with De Niro's character, apparently.

Sounds like a pretty blase story with, frankly, two actors who have been coasting for years now, but just about anything can go down a lot sweeter with a little Carla Gugino mixed in. And now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go to work. Peace out.

Can there be too many beautiful women in one movie?

Though there were many charms to Pedro Almodovar's "Volver," I have to say the one that has lingered longest in my mind is that scene of Penelope Cruz singing at the restaurant. Just an incredibly beautiful woman singing an almost equally beautiful song.

And so any news of her being cast in a grand musical is certainly welcome to me, especially joining a cast and project as grand as this.

Apparently, the lovely Ms. Cruz, Javier Bardem and Marion Cotillard (star of the Edith Piaf flick "La Vie en Rose," which I have yet to see), are all in negotiations to join director Rob Marshall's take on the Broadway musical "Nine." And, apparently because he can get whoever he wants for this, Mr. Marshall is also courting Sophia Loren and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Now, I saw quite a few Broadway musicals in my youth (and, though I probably shouldn't admit it, the thoroughly silly "The Wiz" remains my favorite), but I have to confess I know nothing about "Nine" except that it's based on the Federico Fellini movie "8 1/2."

Bardem just got the offer to play director Guido Contini, who experiences a creative and personal crisis as he tries to balance all the women in his life. That includes his wife (Cotillard), mistress (Cruz), his film-star muse (Zeta-Jones), agent and even his mother (Loren), who appears as a ghost.

Put that many beautiful women in one movie and you've got my attention, and I thoroughly enjoyed Marshall's "Chicago" adaptation, so I'll definitely be keeping my eyes on this.

Movie-to-TV love for Buffy

There are few things I love to waste time with more than lists, and this one from IGN is pretty darn good. I guess with "The Simpsons" and tons of other flicks out there now it would have been much simpler to go TV-to-movie, but the folks at IGN have gone the reverse route with some interesting results.

I won't give away the whole thing, but as the headline suggests, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" took the top prize (beating out "M*A*S*H"!), and the short-lived but beloved (at least by me) "Karen Sisco" with Carla Gugino even made the list at No. 8.

Now, a word in defense of "Buffy" for anyone who just can't imagine it deserves to be ahead of "M*A*S*H." I don't think the IGN folks are really saying "Buffy" was a better show than "M*A*S*H," but instead that the distance between the source material and what Joss Whedon made of the TV show was the most impressive turnaround, and I would certainly have to agree with that.

One more quick note about TV: I don't know how this slipped by me for so long, but apparently two of my favorite TV performers are nominated in the Supporting Actor in a Comedy category. Both Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute on "The Office" and Neil Patrick Harris as Barney on "How I Met Your Mother" just make me laugh out loud, so it's nice to see the recognition. Though I won't bother to tune in for the broadcast in September, especially with Ryan Seacrest as the host, I'd love to see either of them win over Kevin Dillon and Jeremy Piven from "Entourage" or Duckie from "Two and a Half Men."

Get some Dewey Cox swag

Though I hesitate to suggest anyone give out their e-mail addresses to get yet more garbage, this is one case where that might just pay off. At the Sony site here for "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," they ask for your e-mail address, to get some kind of Sony newsletter, but then your snail mail address with the promise of some Dewey Cox swag. I took the plunge, so hopefully there will be a Dewey Cox T-shirt that I can fit into in my near future.

A quick word of praise for "Rocket Science"

As I mentioned yesterday, I managed to see two high-school flicks while in Minneapolis to see my brother, the sublime "Superbad" and the not-quite-as-good but still worthy "Rocket Science."

I think the latter could well be the summertime indie sleeper we haven't seen yet this year (I was hoping that would be Adrienne Shelly's "Waitress," but that never really caught fire.) "Rocket Science" is the first fictional flick from documentary maker Jeffrey Blitz, who brought us "Spellbound."

Well, sort of fictional, I guess, since the endearing lead character, Hal Hefner, is apparently based on Blitz's experience growing up in New Jersey. In the flick, Hefner is a stuttering mess of a kid who lugs a big suitcase with him to school each day, and he's played with lots of charm by newcomer Reese Thompson. Despite his speech impediment, Hal is recruited by Ginny (Anna Kendrick, a Tony nominee in 1998 for "High Society"), a competitive classmate with a penchant for underdogs, to be her new partner on the debating team.

Much of the movie's magic comes from watching Hal try to actually speak in front of a crowd while at the same time awkwardly pitching woo at his new muse. If anything, the movie piles on a little too much contrived quirk (especially in the Hefner's Korean neighbors), but it has enough spirit to overcome that and succeed as a late-summer charmer. Go see it if you can.

A trailer that ... rocks?

I know it's not nice to be mean to the elderly, but when they insist on prancing around on stage like Mick Jagger does, aren't they asking for it?

I've been down on the idea of Scorsese doing a Rolling Stones doco since I first heard about it for that exact reason: Watching them on stage is simply painful. I saw them at RFK Stadium in DC in 1989 (or maybe 1990) with the fantastic Living Colour because I assumed that would be one of the last chances to ever see them. And, though they definitely rocked the house, it probably should have been.

Judging from this trailer for "Shine a Light," however, maybe I should give the flick a chance when it comes out next spring. Mick does indeed still make me want to hurl, but it still seems to have much of the style of Scorsese's best rock docs. Enjoy, and have an entirely suckfree Tuesday. peace out.