Wednesday clip show: Will there be anything good on TV this fall?

Actually, before we get into any of that, just a bit of movie news, because anyone who's been here before knows that "The Other Guys" was my favorite comedy of 2010, and now comes word that stars Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg will be teaming up again.

This time out it will be for something called "Turkey Bowl," a Warner Brothers comedy in which they will play rival football coaches of small-town teams whose big showdown is a Thanksgiving Day game.

Sounds like pretty typical Ferrell sports-related fare and a chance for Marky Mark to shout a whole lot, but out of love for "The Other Guys," I'll probably spring for a matinee ticket for that.

And now rather quickly on to the clips today, since I'm already behind (it is Wednesday, after all), starting with a couple of movie clips and then, as promised, a look at some of what's coming to TVs this fall (and a warning, even though Zooey Deschanel appears, it isn't all pretty).

First up comes the first trailer I've seen for "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn," the first, I believe, in at least a planned trilogy and set to come out just in time for Christmas. This is just a teaser, but it does raise hopes that Steven Spielberg has indeed come up with a pretty grand adventure for the young Belgian detective, but I have at least one quibble: Does the kid at the end of this clip look anything like the beloved cartoon character created by Hergé? I think not. Enjoy the clip, anyway.



I have to say, of all the wide-release offerings coming this summer, I think J.J. Abrams' "Super 8" has risen to the top for me. Perhaps its clever marketing or I'm must feeling nostalgic for some good, old-fashioned '80s-style (dare I say Spielbergian?) fun. Anyways, enjoy this clip from the movie, which sets up the big crash that unleashes ... well, I don't know, but I can't wait to find out on June 10. Enjoy.



OK, moving on to TV, I try against steep odds to remain optimistic, so let's start with the good and work our way down. Keeping with J.J. Abrams, though he's not directing the pilot, his Bad Robot company is behind Fox's "Alcatraz," starring Jorge Garcia, Sam Neill and somehow Parminder Nagra of "Bend It Like Beckham," too. As you'll see from this promo clip, it involves the titular prison, time travel and some really bad dudes. Sounds like the perfect mix for escapist TV, so I'm in. Enjoy the promo.



I haven't watched "Napoleon Dynamite" for years, but I'm fairly confident that in movie form, at least, it will stand up over time. As an animated series? Not so sure. I have, however, given up on almost all animated offerings now on TV ("South Park" is the lone holdout, but I don't think I'll ever really be able to quit that), so there's a potential hole to fill. Anyways, as you'll see from this Fox promo clip (didn't realize until now that it's all Fox today), all the original cast members return for this, so I guess everyone needed the work. Enjoy the clip, and then stick around for something that never, never should have happened to poor Zooey Deschanel.



OK, instead of saving the best last, I've just put the worst off as long as I could (and hey, I did suffer through a Helen Mirren-less "Prime Suspect" clip, too, but I spared you that). If you told me Zooey Deschanel would be getting her own sitcom and that her character would sing a lot, I'd be hooked. Until I saw this. It just looks excruciatingly (sp?) awful, even though she's a game player in it. "Enjoy" this promo clip for the upcoming Fox show "New Girl," and have a perfectly endurable Wednesday. Peace out.

Men of the year: My favorite male movie performances of 2010

I waited to compile this list until seeing "Black Swan" and "The Fighter" as a truly odd double feature last Saturday, and that day yielded one entry here I expected and one that caught me by surprise.

It's still dangerous to do it before The Dude surely abides this week in "True Grit" and without having seen the performance of Oscar favorite (if I'm reading the cards right) Colin Firth in "The King's Speech," but I'm fairly confident that with those two exceptions I've seen most of the best movies of 2010, so here goes: My favorite male performances of 2010, in order only of release date until the very end, for which I've saved my vote for the best.

Leonardo DiCaprio, "Shutter Island": Sure, Leo played pretty much the same constantly stressed out character in both this and "Inception" this year, but he was better here as FBI agent Teddy Daniels in this flick based on the Dennis Lehane novel, which is so good that it will likely end up on my overall best movies of 2010 list, too.

Ricardo Darin, "The Secret in Their Eyes": In this Argentinian film noir, Darin's character undergoes a rather epic journey, returning to both the scene of a brutal crime from his career as a legal inspector and reuniting with an unrequited but still smoldering love, and his performance carries us every step along the way.

John Hawkes, "Winter's Bone": The key to this Debra Granik movie, another film noir of sorts and, like "The Secret in Their Eyes," also shown this year by the Macon Film Guild, is the mysterious motivations of all the characters Jennifer Lawrence's Rhee Dolly encounters while searching for her missing father - and the most important of those is Hawkes' Teardrop (yes, really), who plays his cards close until the end and makes this my vote for the best movie of 2010.

Steve Carell, "Despicable Me": Can a voice-only performance really be one of the best of the year? When it's as good as Carell's as the criminal mastermind with a heart Gru, absolutely, and besides, even though "Toy Story 3" will rightly get most of the animated kudos this year, this was just a thoroughly charming flick.

Kevin Kline, "The Extra Man": I was expecting the worst from Kline in this, and so was that much more pleasantly surprised by how restrained he was as the "gentleman" Henry Harrison, whose sole job is squiring wealthy widows around NYC. Both Kline's performance and the movie overall, out now on DVD, are winning portraits of the kind of eccentric New York that's now all too rare.

Kieran Culkin, "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World": Comedy rarely gets is just due in awards season, and for my money, no one was funnier this year than Culkin as Scott Pilgrim's gay roommate who constantly pops up to provide a snarky commentary of sorts in the best movie that virtually no one saw in 2010.

Kodi Smit-McPhee, "Let Me In": Matt Reeves' "Let Me in" would have been a completely soulless remake of the clearly superior vampire movie "Let the Right One In" if it weren't for the performances of the two kids at the story's core. McPhee and Chloe Moretz draw us deep into the doomed world of young Owen and Abby and, against steep odds, improve on the performances of the kids in the original movie.

Vincent Cassel, "Black Swan": The two things that surprised me about Darren Aronofsky's movie is just how much of a B-movie schlockfest it really is (albeit about the ballet, of course), and just how good Vincent Cassel is as the ballet director who expertly manipulates his young dancers, never with overt menace but an equally dangerous charm.

Christian Bale, "The Fighter": Bale's extreme measures - and weight fluctuation - to get into his roles would be easy to mock if there clearly weren't more than madness to his method. Here, he's on the very gaunt side as Dicky Eklund, the crack-addicted brother of Mark Wahlberg's titular "Fighter" and the main thing that helps David O. Russell's movie rise above the pack of standard sports underdog flicks.

James Franco, "127 Hours": As I said, the best for last, and this year it's by a pretty wide margin. As Sam Rockwell did last year in the seriously smart sci-fi flick "Moon," Franco dominated almost every frame of Danny Boyle's movie, and never once lets the viewer get bored of watching him. From the exuberance of the beginning of Aron Ralston's perfect day to the extreme desperation of being trapped under a rock for the titular "127 Hours," Franco takes us along every inch of this often very hard to watch journey, making the payoff all the more rewarding at the finish. Just an all-around excellent performance.

And there you have it. Please feel free to let me know of any I may have snubbed (in the honorable mention, I've already got Christopher Plummer in "The Last Station", Michael Nyqvist in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"/"The Girl Who Played With Fire" and George Clooney in "The American"), and have a perfectly endurable Monday. Peace out.

The single movie I'm most looking forward to for the rest of this year

First off, happy Thanksgiving to all, and how better to start the day than with a collection of turkeys?

Fandango surveyed its visitors to get the fans' picks for the 10 worst movies of 2010 so far,and I guess I should at least be thankful that I've only taken the time to watch one of these. First the list, and then my bone to pick with one of the picks.

1. VAMPIRES SUCK
2. CATS & DOGS: THE REVENGE OF KITTY GALORE
3. THE LAST AIRBENDER
4. MARMADUKE
5. THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE
6. THE BACK-UP PLAN
7. SKYLINE
8. FURRY VENGEANCE
9. JONAH HEX
10. PRINCE OF PERSIA

So, which one doesn't belong there? I have to admit that I kind of liked M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender." Now, it certainly had almost nothing at all to with the source material from which it sprang, but as a standalone work, it's actually pretty entertaining.

For a remake that took a much bigger crap on the original work from which it sprang, I'd certainly substitute Matt Reeves' "Let Me In" on this list. Just sayin'.

But enough of that. It's a holiday, right, and easily one of the best ones of the year (even if I have to work ... nards), so let's keep it positive from here on out.

This being fall and all, there will surely be some fascinating flicks to wrap up the year. "127 Hours" and "Black Swan" are certainly two mind trips I'm ready to take, and I've only heard sensational things so far about Marky Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale in David O. Russell's "The Fighter."

The single movie I'm most looking to for the rest of the year, however, has to be the Coen brothers' take on "True Grit" (which is also a great and very funny novel by Charles Portis.)

A remake? Sure, but I still have extremely high hopes. One of the very best things about the Coens' flicks is their extremely strong sense of place, and especially in their last visit to the American West with "No Country for Old Men."

And besides, The Dude as Rooster Cogburn, hunting down Josh Brolin? This should be nothing but extremely cool, so keep an eye out for it Dec. 22, and for now enjoy these three fairly similar but still all worth watching TV spots for the flick, and of course, have a happy, happy Thanksgiving! Peace out.

A cool Wednesday cache of clips

Before we get in to that, however, there are some bits of good news out there this morning, and it all starts with "Chuck."

With the still fairly great spy comedy premiering in the fall this year, I just assumed that a full fourth season had already been booked, but silly me. It apparently had to earn that right, and NBC has just announced that that will indeed happen (along with, unfortunately, a full season of "Outsourced" - who the hell watches this crap? And if this means something bad for the return of "Parks and Recreation," well, I of course won't be able to do anything about that, but I will be rather friggin pissed about it.)

As for "Chuck," this season had gotten off to a bit of a rough start in my book, with the show really unsure how to deal with Chuck and Sarah as a couple, but Monday's episode with Casey's "funeral" was a real winner, so here's hoping the show is back on track for its full 22-season run.

In movie news, if you didn't see Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer," I highly recommend a rental. It was a whipsmart political thriller until the ending is wrapped up way too neatly, and any movie that has that much Ms. Cross - a.k.a. Olivia Williams - definitely can't be all bad.

And now comes word that he's assembled a first-rate cast for his next directing project, "God of Carnage." John C. Reilly, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet will play the leads in the movie based on the Tony award-winning play by Yasmina Reza, about two sets of parents who meet after their kids brawl in the schoolyard, and they get along worse than the kids did.

Reilly will play Michael, the role originated onstage by James Gandolfini, and Foster plays his wife, so by force I would have to assume Waltz and Winslet (what a pair) play the other couple. Filming for this begins in January in Paris, so definitely keep your eyes on it.

And finally, before we dive into the clips today, it seems that Ben Affleck may be closing in on his directorial followup to "The Town."

Speaking of that flick, I know I'm in the minority, but the more time and space I get removed from it, the more it just leaves me cold. Sure, an expertly directed crime thriller with a great cast in top gear, but the story was just so familiar to the point of being tired.

But I digress a bit. Despite my unheard reservations about "The Town," Affleck found himself more than a bit of a hot property after its release, being courted for and turning down the next "Superman" flick (which went to Zack Snyder) and a movie called "Tales from the Gangster Squad," about the police force who cracked down on Jewish mobsters in 1940s Hollywood.

Now, however, he seems to be circling something that he's actually interested in, and thankfully it would pull him out of his Boston crime rut. Warner Bros. wants him to direct a movie based on the Ken Grimwood novel "Replay," about a 45-year-old man who has a fatal heart attack while trying to prevent the murder of a jogger in New York's Central Park. Instead of dying, however, he is stuck in a "replay" of his life beginning at age 18 in Brooklyn. With his knowledge of the future, he changes his life and builds a financial empire, only to die again at age 45. The "replay" continues, however, as he and the murdered jogger fall in love and struggle to break the cycle of their repeating lives.

Despite the rather "Groundhog Day" nature of its premise, that actually sounds pretty intriguing, and despite my reservations about "The Town," Affleck is a genuinely great director in the making, so stay tuned for more on this as soon as I find it.

OK, getting into the clips today, where in the world else would you start than with the teaser trailer for what could quite possibly be the funniest movie of 2011, Greg Mottola's "Paul." As you'll see from the trailer, it stars dynamic duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two geeks on their way to Comic-Con in a Winnebago when they - naturally - encounter the titular extraterrestrial, voiced by Seth Rogen. With "The Daytrippers," "Superbad" and "Adventureland" under his belt, Mottola has yet to direct a movie I didn't like quite a bit, so enjoy the trailer, and definitely keep an eye out for this to come out March 18.



It seems like forever since Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu last directed a movie, and it has indeed been four years since "Babel," which I loved almost unconditionally, though I know many people who didn't. Soon to come out will be his new flick, "Biutiful," starring one Javier Bardem. Here's the synopsis, courtesy of The Playlist:

Biutiful is a love story between a father and his children. This is the journey of Uxbal, a conflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona. His livelihood is earned out of bounds, his sacrifices for his children know no bounds. Like life itself, this is a circular tale that ends where it begins. As fate encircles him and thresholds are crossed, a dim, redemptive road brightens, illuminating the inheritances bestowed from father to child, and the paternal guiding hand that navigates life's corridors, whether bright, bad - or biutiful.

Rather heady stuff that. Enjoy this, the first full trailer I know of, and keep an eye out for this in surely limited release starting Dec. 29.


Biutiful Trailer
Uploaded by ThePlaylist. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

The first trailer for David O. Russell's "The Fighter" really didn't seem to promise much more than an average sports underdog flick starring Mark Wahlberg, but Sunday's fuller look that came with the finale of "Mad Men" (I miss it already!), had a lot more of Amy Adams and Christian Bale in it, and just made it look like a much more intriguing flick. Here's a look, and keep an eye out for the movie itself Dec. 10.



So, what can fill the Sunday void left by "Mad Men"? Well, nothing really, but "Sherlock," coming to PBS' Masterpiece Theatre (or whatever the heck its called now) for three installments beginning this Sunday, should at least be small solace, and I'll definitely be tuning in. As you'll see from the promo below, someone named Benedict Cumberbatch (yes, really) plays Sherlock himself, and the great Martin Freeman (of the UK "Office" fame and apparently the new Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit") plays Watson. Enjoy the clip, definitely tune in for this, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

For Thursday, a very large cache of clips

Anyone who's been here before knows that I love trailers, good bad and otherwise. I almost never arrive to a movie late enough to miss them.

So, I've spent so far an hour or so of my morning watching some (hey, it was from 6-7 a.m., so what more productive thing was I really supposed to be doing?), and here are the best eight or so clips I could find.

Actually, it starts today not with a trailer, but with what purport to be the first 10 minutes of "Easy A," and having watched this through once (and laughed out loud several times), I believe it to be genuine. Not everyone will want to have the first 10 minutes of a movie revealed, but hey, it's not like there are any real secrets here. All it reveals is that, in case you didn't know already, "Easy A" is going to make a genuine star of natural comedienne Emma Stone. Enjoy.



OK, now on to some actual trailers, and this being fall, there are some real heavy hitters (pun fully intended for the first one) coming. First up comes the first trailer I know of for David O. Russell's (remember him?) "The Fighter." Russell's first feature film since "I Heart Huckabees" in 2004 stars Markie Mark Wahlberg as boxer "Irish" Micky Ward and Christian Bale as the brother who trained him before he went pro in the early 1980's. It indeed looks like a pretty typical sports underdog tale, but with Amy Adams and Melissa Leo also starring in this, I'm hoping for much more when it opens wide Dec. 17. Enjoy.



Next up comes one that I haven't heard too much about, but since it comes from "The Lives of Others" director Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck, it should be a real winner. As you'll see from the trailer, Johnny Depp plays the titular "The Tourist", who gets framed for murder and all kinds of other juicy stuff after a perhaps-not-chance encounter with Angelina Jolie on a train. The moral clearly seems to be that, even if you're Johnny Depp, always be suspicious when an insanely beautiful woman strikes up a conversation with you. Enjoy the trailer, and keep an eye out for the movie Dec. 10.

Anyone who's been here before also knows that, although I didn't bother to see his last movie, "Why Did I Get Married Too?", I have a whole of time for Tyler Perry. His previous movie, "I Can Do All Bad All By Myself" with Taraji P. Henson, was very entertaining, thanks in large part to a small turn by Gladys Knight (yes, really). For his next movie, due out Nov. 5, he will for the first time adapt the work of someone else, here the play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf" by Ntozake Shange. The story, which is about nothing less than existence from the perspective of 20 nameless black women, is an ambitious undertaking, and I'll be sure to see it on the opening weekend for curiosity if nothing else. As you'll see below, it boasts a strong cast, with Phylicia Rashad, Kimberly Elise, Thandie Newton, Whoopi Goldberg, Loretta Devine, Anika Noni Rose, Janet Jackson and even Macy Gray. Enjoy the trailer.



Still with me? Then here's some more. Danny Boyle's "127 Hours," about the titular amount of time climber Aron Ralston (to be played by James Franco) spent trapped under a boulder in a Utah valley, is reportedly so intense that it caused several fainting spells and possibly a seizure too in Toronto. While the latter is certainly unfortunate, that doesn't make me any less excited to see this when it finally comes out Nov. 5. Enjoy the clip below, which features Franco, Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara.



OK, we're in the homestretch now. After reading yet another rave review of "Let Me In," the still thoroughly unnecessary English-language remake of the sublime "Let the Right One In," this one at Collider.com, I've now given in to the very real possibility that Matt Reeves has really come up with something fairly great here. Below are eight clips from the movie starring Hit-Girl Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee and set to come out Oct. 1. I think they'll make a bit of a believer in you, too. Enjoy.



I buried this one more than a bit because, after the disaster that was the interactive trailer for "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" (which, as several people pointed out to me, played the most annoying music even without clicking on it), I'm really not sold on the concept. You can judge for yourself, however, with this interactive trailer for David Fincher's "The Social Network," which I'm really looking forward to seeing when it comes out Oct. 1. The "interactive" comes because if you click on the trailer while its playing, it pops up little windows with facts and links you can follow about the movie. More than a little annoying to me, but enjoy if you do.



And where better to wrap things up today than with a genuine oddity? This bit of animation apparently springs from a question Fincher asked Werner Herzog as Herzog was in Toronto promoting "My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?". As you'll see below, Herzog apparently witnessed Joaquin Phoenix getting into a doozy of a car accident, and then rescued him from it. Enjoy, and have a perfectly bearable Thursday. Peace out.

OK, maybe I will go see "The Other Guys"

Before I get into any of that, think: What's the best possible news you could hear about the return of "Glee" to make it even better than the wickedly funny/cheesy/outright entertaining show already is?

Well, how about Sue Sylvester's mom? In what, even if you don't watch the show you'll have to concede is rather genius casting, Carol Burnett will play the nazi-hunting mother of Jane Lynch's cheerleading coach/bully extraordinaire on a November episode of the Fox show. The only possibly bad news there? In the place where I first saw this, in Michael Ausiello's Entertainment Weekly column, it was pretty clear this will be for only one episode. Oh well.

And the baseball season may well have ended for the Orioles in, well, the second week of April or so, but my favorite team of lovable losers is now 2-0 under new manager Buck Showalter and are now guaranteed to win their fifth series of the year (out of 35, yes, but always look on the bright side of life.) As I heard some dude on ESPN radio say, and though of course I couldn't see him, it seemed to be with a straight face, "here come the Orioles," so watch out.

In their honor, here's a picture I found this morning of Philip Seymour Hoffman as A's manager Art Howe in the upcoming flick "Moneyball" that just made me smile. The flick itself is directed by Bennett Miller from the Michael Lewis book about general manager Billy Beane, who kept the team's payroll low and its winning percentage high (as opposed to the Orioles, who, oh well ...) One Brad Pitt is set to play Beane, who often clashed with Howe on the direction the team was taking. Anyways, this flick is one I'm definitely looking forward to. Here's the pic, which gets bigger if you click on it:


OK, finally on to the main event, I suppose. Although I managed to give up smoking long ago (and was never terribly good at it anyway), I still have plenty of bad habits, and the worst of them all just might be Will Ferrell movies. I haven't quite seen them all (I managed to just say no to whatever that basketball flick was called), but it's definitely well more than half, and I really can't explain why.

There all universally pretty stupid, but sometimes very funny too. An example: That "Stepbrothers" flick with John C. Reilly was a hoot. Yes, really. So, while I was at first at least trying to resist seeing his new flick directed by Adam McKay, "The Other Guys," it looks like it has enough going for it to make me spring for a matinee or so (though not this week, because I have to work six days and on my day off, I'm gonna see "The Kids Are All Right" instead, since that has one week at best to survive around here.)

The upside: Steve Coogan is not only in it, but is apparently the big bad, and I'll watch him in just about anything. Markie Mark and Samuel L. Jackson should also be very funny.

The downside: If it's bad, it will just be a 90-minute SNL sketch, and I already made that mistake once this year already with the not-even-for-90-seconds-funny "MacGruber" (yes, I see far too many movies.)

Anyways, if you happen to see this this weekend, please feel free to let me know if it was any good, and in the meantime, enjoy this mysteriously bleeped, four-minute clip of footage screened at Comic-Con, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Just how long can "Watchmen" really get?

You know, I think I'm almost alone here, but I almost unconditionally loved what Zack Snyder did with "Watchmen".

Now, of course, there are always going to be complaints from fans of the funny book by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons about what was left out, and it seem that Snyder has now taken just about all of those complaints to heart.

After a director's cut, which I bought, that clocks in at a you-would-think-long-enough 178 minutes or so, he's now about to release "Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut" on Nov. 3, which will run for what you would have to hope would be an exhaustive 3 hours and 35 minutes. Whew.

I'm not enough of a sucker to buy this again, especially since my company is offering us furloughs as the latest incentive to keep working there, but I do think I'll at least rent it, because it does seem to be just about as close to the graphic novel on screen in its entirety as we're gonna get (though I know I'm being naive here, and there will surely be an "Ultimate, Ultimate" edition coming sometime soon.)

In this new version, "Tales of the Black Freighter" will be interwoven into the movie, as it should be, but Hollis Mason's autobiography, "Under the Hood," will only be available as a standalone extra. Perhaps coolest of all in the extras will the entire motion comic, which I'd really like to see.

Anyways, call me a sucker if you want, but I think I can spare three-and-a-half-hours or so of my life for what has apparently turned into "Watchmen: The Miniseries".

Two doses of "News of the Weird"

With apologies to Chuck Shepherd, whose News of the Weird we publish most Fridays in the Telegraph, as far as movie news of sorts it doesn't get much weirder than these next two tidbits.

After, and I never would have guessed there were this many, FOUR direct-to-DVD sequels, it seems that "Bring It On" is about to get yet another life on stage as a musical. And no, I'm not making that up.

Now, I will admit that I'm a big fan of the original with Kirsten Dunst, Gabrielle Union and Eliza Dushku, and I've even sat through most of some kind of sequel with both Hayden Panettiere and Beyonce's sister in it on a Saturday afternoon, but I can't imagine any scenario in which I'd pay Broadway prices for another dose. However, if a touring company brings this to Macon's Opera House someday, I have to admit I'd at least be curious.

And in possibly even odder news, Werner Herzog, whose most recent flick was a new take on Abel Ferrera's "Bad Lieutenant" (because Lord knows the world needed that), is now offering classes in "guerilla filmmaking" for $1,450 a weekend.

If I somehow had $1,450 to blow through and was in Los Angeles from Jan. 8-10, I actually bet this would be a lot of fun, especially since he's describing it with typical bravado:

"The Rogue Film School is not for the faint-hearted; it is for those who have travelled on foot, who have worked as bouncers in sex clubs or as wardens in a lunatic asylum, for those who are willing to learn about lock-picking or forging shooting permits in countries not favoring their projects. In short: it is for those who have a sense for poetry. For those who are pilgrims. For those who can tell a story to four-year-old children and hold their attention. For those who have a fire burning within. For those who have a dream."

The beginning of the end for Jay Leno?

Actually, I'm well aware that he's probably indestructible at this point, but it's still interesting to see how he fared with the key 18-49 demographic on Monday night, one week after his big debut. Here are the numbers:

6.5 House
4.6 Big Bang Theory
4.4 Two and a Half Men
4.3 CSI Miami
4.1 Dancing With The Stars
3.5 How I Met Your Mother
3.2 Accidentally On Purpose
2.7 Heroes
2.3 Castle
1.8 The Jay Leno Show
1.2 One Tree Hill
1.1 Gossip Girl

Now, I will admit that I watch "Gossip Girl" as exactly the kind of mindless fluff I need on a Monday night, so I certainly think it's great that Jay not only finished dead last among the shows from the big four networks, but also just barely managed to beat the CW's two offerings. Predictably pathetic. Please keep tuning out!

Fincher's "Facebook" takes shape

Most of this was already pretty well known, I think, but Columbia Pictures has now confirmed the cast for David Fincher's flick "The Social Network," written by Aaron Sorkin and based on the rise of Facebook (which I'm on, somehow.)

In the principal cast, Jesse Eisenberg will play Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Justin Timberlake will play Napster co-founder and Facebook founding president Sean Parker, and someone I've never heard of named Andrew Garfield will play Eduardo Saverin, the Facebook co-founder who fell out with Zuckerberg over money.

Why should anyone care about any of this? Well, I find the subject kind of fascinating, and I've been rewatching a lot of "Sports Night" lately, which is proof that Aaron Sorkin is an extremely witty guy when he gets things right (and, in its own little way, I think "Sports Night" just might be better than "The West Wing" - blasphemy, I know.)

Steve Coogan alert

I normally wouldn't care one lick about any early news about a Will Ferrell/Adam Mckay comedy, but when you cast Steve Coogan, who would certainly have to be in the discussion if you were actually to try and pick the funniest man on Earth, you've got my ear.

Actually, the whole premise of "The Other Guys" sounds pretty funny. The Rock and Samuel L. Jackson will play supercops who constantly show up a pair of bumbling co-workers to be played by Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. I wasn't sold, however, until I saw that the great Mr. Coogan has been cast as the arch villain of the piece.

For the best doses of Coogan I can recommend on DVD, try "24-Hour Party People" and "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story."

Has Diablo Cody lost "it"?

Now, I'm really not someone to kick people when their down (except for maybe Jay Leno), and I admittedly haven't yet seen "Jennifer's Body" (and I'm not sure I will), but if this really is Diablo Cody's next writing project I think the "Juno" scribe has really hit a wall.

It seems she's not set her sights on "Sweet Valley High," the series of novels about (and I'm going on what the trades say here, not having actually read any of them) a set of identical twins "with dissimilar personalities - the sensitive and practical Elizabeth and the flighty and boy-crazy Jessica - in the fictional town of Sweet Valley."

My God does that sound awful, so if you made it this far you certainly deserve a reward. Ricky Gervais' new film, "The Invention of Lying," doesn't open until next week, unfortunately, but here's an odd bit of marketing that only he could come up with. This clip is seven minutes long (and this is only part one), but I guarantee that if you let it get started for a couple of minutes you'll laugh out loud as Gervais' comedy compadre and punching bag Karl Pilkington tries to first review the flick and then offers his rather unique ideas for marketing it. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

Can Johnny Depp rescue movies for adults?

Before I jump into gangsters or anything about Johnny Depp, there are at least three news nuggets that just thoroughly intrigue me today, so here goes:

* With Amy Adams now set to star opposite Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale in David O. Russell's "The Fighter," you can now count it as one of the movies I'm most looking forward to for 2010. The drama revolves around the life of boxer "Irish" Mickey Ward (Wahlberg) and his trainer-brother Dick Eklund (Bale), chronicling their early days in Lowell, Mass., through Eklund's battle with drugs and Ward's eventual world championship in London. Adams, who makes absolutely everything she's in a little better, will play Charlene, a "tough, gritty" (well, I can't really see that) bartender who ends up dating Mickey.

The movie begins shooting next month in Lowell, and is there anyone you could make this sound any better? Sure, add Melissa Leo as Mickey's mother. Now I'm hooked.

* You know, I really should have more faith in Matt Reeves. I thoroughly enjoyed "Cloverfield," even though I expected going in to hate it, so maybe there's hope he won't make a mockery of "Let the Right One In," my single favorite movie of 2008, with his completely unnecessary remake, now called "Let Me In" (because, I suppose, the original just had too many words.)

I still can't see any reason to do this, and transport the movie to Colorado, but Reeves does at least seem to be a genuine fan of the material. As he told The Los Angeles Times about reading the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist:

"I was just hooked. I was so taken with the story and I had a very personal reaction. It reminded me a lot of my childhood, with the metaphor that the hard times of your pre-adolescent, early adolescent moment, that painful experience is a horror."

OK, fair enough. In the interview, he also disclosed that one extremely essential thing will remain the same. Oscar, the boy who becomes intrigue with the pale young girl who moves in next door, is 12 YEARS OLD, and therefore way too young to be played by Zac Efron.

Like I said, I'm still solidly against all this, but I have to admit it's getting me at least a little intrigued.

* When I heard that Duncan Jones, who directed easily one of my favorite flicks of this year with the traditional sci-fi tale "Moon," was going to next direct a submarine flick, you could call me rather psyched. Well, not so fast ...

Instead of "Escape from the Deep," he's apparently already working on something called "Mute," which he describes as a "thriller-mystery." Set in various locations around Berlin (Germany, not, oddly enough, the Eastern Shore of Maryland), it's about a woman whose disappearance causes a mystery for her partner, a mute bartender. When she disappears, he has to go up against the city's gangsters.

Excellent. And if you haven't seen "Moon" yet, do it as soon as you can on DVD (though no release date has been set yet), because Sam Rockwell is just amazing.

And speaking of gangsters and something amazing, if I may finally get to what should have been the lead, it really looks like Johnny Depp is walking right into a bear trap, as impossible as that seems.

I mean, really, what could be more all-American for the Fourth of July than a Michael Mann flick starring Depp as John Dillinger, Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the law man who doggedly pursued him, and Marion Cotillard as Dillinger's mol, Billie Frechette? Well, apparently a lot of things.

Trying to figure out if I could squeeze in a screening of "Public Enemies" on Thursday afternoon before I have to go to work (thanks to the glorious 11 a.m. movie, I think I can), I found something rather shocking (at least to me.)

At our two local multiplexes (the third, rather sorrily, doesn't even have Wednesday showtimes up yet), Mann's flick is getting a total of 12 showtimes daily. Fair enough, right? Well, not really, because the also-opening "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" gets 25 (thanks to 3-D), and even more egregiously, the holdover "Transformers" flick gets 24. Where's the justice in that?

I suppose it's what you get when you release a possibly Oscar-caliber flick (actually, with 10 finalists, I'd call it a mortal lock) in July. Given the way the deck is stacked, I'd have to predict "Public Enemies" will finish third this week, and be lucky to pull in $50 million, even with the holiday bounce. Mind you, I certainly want to be wrong.

The much bigger problem, as EW highlighted a few weeks ago, is that movies for adults have pretty much disappeared from mainstream theaters. I suppose "The Hangover" sort of counts, and "Star Trek" certainly appeals to all ages, but "Public Enemies" should just be a timeless tale that deserves a wide audience. Having watched the trailer several times now, I can assure you that, yes, there really is something therapeutic about watching Johnny Depp wield a Tommy Gun.

But, enough preaching for a Tuesday morning. Here's hoping I'm wrong, and Michael Mann's flick just does bonkers box office. Peace out.

Does Ben Kingsley really deserve this?

I love looking at the Razzies list each year because, even though it's done with a spirit too mean even for me, it reassures me that - despite much evidence to the contrary - I don't see every movie that comes out, just almost every one.

In fact, the only movies on this list that I saw last year were M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." I can't see any reason for Indy to be here, and now that I look back on it, I had a lot of fun watching M. Night's flick too.

Now, I'm not saying it's not bad, but I conditionally recommend renting it if you - like me - enjoy laughing at just how bad a movie can be. Just a taste: When Marky Mark and his entourage come upon a house full of infected folks who aren't in a particularly good mood, he actually sings a Doobie Brothers tune through a crack in the door to soothe them. I can't make this stuff up.

The only other beef I could possibly have with this list is the inclusion of Sir Ben Kingsley, but I guess after appearing in "The Love Guru" he only has himself to blame. "The Wackness," however is one that's near the top of my Netflix queue right now, and I'm really looking forward to it. Anyways, after seeing who actually gets the Oscar nominations this morning, enjoy these for a good laugh, and scroll to the end for a visit from Dr. Manhattan!

Worst Picture
* Disaster Movie
* The Happening
* The Hottie and the Nottie
* In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
* The Love Guru
* Meet the Spartans

Worst Actor
* Larry the Cable Guy, Witless Protection
* Eddie Murphy, Meet Dave
* Mike Myers, The Love Guru
* Al Pacino, 88 Minutes and Righteous Kill
* Mark Wahlberg, The Happening and Max Payne

Worst Actress
* Jessica Alba, The Eye and The Love Guru
* The cast of The Women (Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Meg Ryan)
* Cameron Diaz, What Happens in Vegas
* Paris Hilton, The Hottie and the Nottie
* Kate Hudson, Fool's Gold and My Best Friend's Girl

Worst Supporting Actor* Uwe Boll (as himself), Uwe Boll's Postal
* Pierce Brosnan, Mamma Mai!
* Ben Kingsley, The Love Guru and The Wackness
* Burt Reynolds, Deal and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
* Verne Troyer, The Love Guru and Uwe Boll's Postal

Worst Supporting Actress
* Carmen Electra, Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans
* Paris Hilton, Repo: The Genetic Opera
* Kim Kardashian, Disaster Movie
* Jenny McCarthy, Witless Protection
* Leelee Sobieski, 88 Minutes and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale

Worst Screen Couple
* Uwe Boll and Any Actor, Camera or Screenplay
* Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher, What Happens in Vegas
* Paris Hilton and either Christin Lakin or Joel David Moore, The Hottie and the Nottie
* Larry the Cable Guy and Jenny McCarthy, Witless Protection
* Eddie Murphy and Eddie Murphy, Meet Dave

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel
* The Day the Earth Blowed Up Real Good
* Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans
* Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
* Speed Racer
* The Clone Wars

Worst Director
* Uwe Boll, 1968: Tunnel Rats, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale and Uwe Boll's Postal
* Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans
* Tom Putnam, The Hottie and the Nottie
* Marco Schnabel, The Love Guru
* M. Night Shyamalan, The Happening

Worst Screenplay* Disaster Movie and Meet the Spartans
* The Happening
* The Hottie and the Nottie
* In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
* The Love Guru

Worst Career Achievement Razzie
* Uwe Boll

A visit from Dr. Manhattan

There's not much I can say about this except that 1) the good Dr. looks more than a little odd in his navy blue tighty-whities, and 2) I'm so happy that "Watchmen" is coming out so early in the year (in early March.) This fairly clever bit of viral marketing went up on this Watchmen site today, and it's here for you to enjoy too. Peace out.