In honor of the late Sidney Lumet: Free movies!

Before we get into any of that, and afterwards some other video treasures, you really can't do much better for extremely funny news than those wacky Chinese.

It seems that, upset with how the country has been portrayed in recent movies, whoever controls such things in China has come up with a novel solution: Ban time travel in movies and TV. Take a second to let that sink in.

Here's what film critic Raymond Zhou Liming had to say, apparently in support of this madness:

“The rationale [for the time travel ban] is that whatever isn’t possible in the real world belongs to superstition."

Well, with logic that solid, it's really hard to argue. Here's a bit more from Zhou, via the Hollywood Reporter:

“Most time travel content that I’ve seen (in literature and theater, that is) is actually not heavy on science, but an excuse to comment on current affairs."

Fair enough, I guess. If I had the power, though, I'd ban something really harmful, like movies with too many endings. Now that would be movie justice.

OK, now on the videos, first two from Sidney Lumet, then two more that I guarantee it's well worth sticking around for. When Sidney Lumet died recently, we lost one of our truly great directors, and if they were all online in their entirety (and I could find them), I could easily post 10-20 of his movies. Heck, I even really, really like "The Wiz."

For the sake of efficiency, however, let's just stick to two, one of his first and his very last. First up comes "12 Angry Men," a movie we all surely had to watch in grade school, and still one of the finest legal dramas ever made. The flick starred Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, E. G. Marshall, Martin Balsam, Jack Warden, John Fiedler, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec and Robert Webber, and here (if I'm not mistaken - I didn't have time to watch the whole thing) is the movie in its entirety. Enjoy.



Next up comes Lumet's last movie, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," a little crime drama that proves he was on top of his game until the very end. The 2007 movie starred Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney and even Amy Ryan. It's a pretty superb flick all around, but if you're going to watch any of this at work, please be warned: Marisa Tomei, as she has fairly often recently, gets naked early and often in "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," so don't say I didn't warn you. Enjoy the movie.



After that today, I just have two more clips that caught my eye this morning, starting (where else) with Larry David and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." As you'll see from this behind-the-scenes teaser for season eight, Ricky Gervais, Michael J. Fox and even Bill Buckner are all set to appear, and the Fox stuff looks particularly funny in the true Larry way. We have to wait, unfortunately, until July 10 to see the show move to New York, but enjoy this clip now.



And to wrap things up today, courtesy of Screen Rant and to get you in the mood for summer, here is the ultimate summer movie trailer. An example of film editing at its finest, it manages to pull together clips from "Thor," "Cowboys and Aliens," "X-Men: First Class," "The Hangover Part II," "Cars 2" and others for one simply awesome trailer. In fact, it's nearly guaranteed that these three minutes or so are probably better than many of the movies they feature. Enjoy, and have a perfectly endurable Wednesday. Peace out.

"Kick-Ass 2": Not sure I believe it, but why not?

Where better to start today than with a rumor about easily one of my favorite movies of 2010 so far, especially when it's such a juicy one.

While I can't aesthetically call "Kick-Ass" a "great" movie, which certainly means something different to every person who chooses to bestow it on a flick, I can say that it's by a pretty wide margin the funnest movie I've seen this year, and that goes a long way in my little corner of the world.

Now, I understand that the often very bloody antics of a 13-year-old superhero of sorts named Hit-Girl (the simply excellent Chloe Moretz) isn't for everyone, but I still couldn't understand how so many people skipped this during it's spring theatrical run (it only made $48 million in its domestic box office run, and about the same amount overseas.)

DVD sales and rentals, however, have been considerably better, which leads us to the claim that got me so geeked up this morning: Mark Millar, writer of the Kick-Ass funny book, has said on the UK's Radio 5 that a "Kick-Ass 2" has been greenlit and will go ahead based on his follow-up comic (courtesy of AICN for the head's up.)

Now, from all I've read, Millar says a lot of things, but here's hoping this bit at least turns out to be true, because "Kick-Ass 2"? To that, I can only say bring it on!

And after that bit of possible fantasy, here's some much more serious news about two very interesting flicks, one about to start and one that's already finished.

Anyone who's been here before knows that there are very few genres of movies that I like more than the American political movie, the kind that gets at the meat of campaigning in what we still like to think of as a civil society.

George Clooney, who stars in "The American," which hits theaters today (and I'll be seeing tomorrow), will next move back into the director's chair for "Farragut North," an adaptation of Beau Willimon's play, and he's apparently lining up a fantastic cast.

According to Vulture, "the story is set in Des Moines, Iowa, just weeks before the state's Democratic caucuses officially commence; it follows the exploits of a twenty-something presidential campaign spinmeister/wunderkind named Stephen Myers, and the dirty pool he plays to get his candidate the nomination against a rival senator."

As for the cast, Clooney has apparently reached out to Chris Pine, a.k.a. the new Captain Kirk, to re-create the lead role he played in a L.A. stage production of the play last fall. Already set are Philip Seymour Hoffman as Myers' boss on the campaign trail and, even better, Paul Giamatti as the campaign manager of a rival candidate. Offers are apparently also out to Evan Rachel Wood to play a teen campaign staffer and Marisa Tomei to play a probing journalist.

Shooting is set to begin in February, so I'd guess you can put this on the list of movies I'll be amped to see about this time or a little later next year.

And as for movies coming out a lot sooner in at least some corner of the world, can anyone remember the last time John Sayles directed a movie? It was "Honeydripper" in 2007, and though I almost completely hated that flick, the man has made many, many more that I love, so any news of a new Sayles flick is welcome around here (if I had to pick two of his movies I like the best, they would be "Passion Fish" and "Lone Star".)

The director heads to the Toronto International Film Festival this year with a new movie, "Amigo," a fictionalized account of the Philippines-American War at the turn of the 20th century, based on his unpublished, 1,000 page novel on the same subject, "Some Time in the Sun."

The film stars Joel Torre, Garret Dillahunt, Sayles regular Chris Cooper, DJ Qualls, Rio Locsin, Ronnie Lazaro and Bembol Roco, and according to The Playlist, here's what it's about:

The film revolves around the occupation by a squad of U.S. soldiers of a small, rural village. Headed by a respected elder, whom the Yankees refer to as “Amigo,” the villagers are forced to deal with this foreign presence as rules are set, curfews introduced and small attempts at democracy initiated. But the most significant tension in the film lies in the village’s relationship with a rebel group leading the resistance to the occupation. Amigo’s brother is the rebel leader, and his son runs off to join them, so he constantly finds himself torn between balancing what is right for the village and what this means to his family.

Juicy stuff that, and when he's on his game, Sayles is just an epicly good storyteller, so keep an eye out for this one hopefully soon. In the meantime, here's the trailer. Enjoy.



OK, after that today, all I have is a couple of clips, courtesy of MTV, from flicks I'm really looking forward to this fall. Admittedly, they're not the most exciting stuff, but I still think the movies they're culled from will be well worth watching.

First up comes "It's Kind of a Funny Story," from directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, which comes out Oct. 5 (I believe) and which you can list as the single movie I'm most looking forward to for this fall. It stars Keir Gilchrist as a teen who checks himself into a mental hospital only to find himself housed in the adult ward, where he meets Zach Galifianakis and, I'd have to presume, a host of other colorful characters. Enjoy this short clip from the flick.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

And finally today, though I haven't read the book by Kazuo Ishiguro, I'm really looking forward to Mark Romanek's "Never Let Me Go," coming to at least some American cities Sept. 15, because it just looks thoroughly creepy in all the best ways. The flick, starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield is, as best as I can tell, about students at an English boarding school who are part of some kind of truly odd social experiment. If I knew more than that I'm still not sure I would reveal it, because I think people, including me, should always be surprised by movies. Anyways, enjoy this short clip featuring Reel Fanatic fave Mulligan and Knightley, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

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.

My (and only my) best movies of the decade: The 2005 edition

It's kind of amazing (at least to me) and - depending on how you look at it - perhaps kind of depressing that I've been actually been doing this since 2005, but I still like writing it and I hope at least a few people enjoy reading it.

So I, of course, did a Top 10 for that year at the time, but have decided not to look at it before doing this so that doesn't influence what I'm thinking now.

And before I dive into this, a quick word about two movies that almost made the final 10 but just missed the cut. First, Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain." Just for the record, its absence here has NOTHING at all to do with its subject matter. Lee's movie is indeed both a beautiful piece of work about the agony of hidden love and a great portrait of the American West. And if this list went to 11 or 12, you'd see it below.

Secondly, there are few Saturday afternoon movies I love more than Malcolm D, Lee's "Roll Bounce." Silly? Sure. But I defy you to watch this roller skating flick starring still-somewhat-Lil Bow Wow (yes, really) and not a have a big smile on your face by the end.

And finally, before I get to the main event, here are the other movies that garnered honorable mention for 2005: "Millions," "Oldboy," "Palindromes," "Mysterious Skin," "Howl's Moving Castle," "Broken Flowers," "The Constant Gardener," "Green Street Hooligans," "Wallace and Gromit in the Case of the Were-Rabbit," "Breakfast on Pluto," "Pride and Prejudice," "Walk the Line," "The Boys of Baraka," "King Kong" and "Match Point."

So, without any further delay, here are my 10 favorite movies of 2005. As usual, please feel free to add any you think I may have snubbed, and of course to check back on the first five days of this endeavour, if you missed them.

"Everything is Illuminated"
The only movie written and directed by Liev Schrieber is almost as good as the Jonathan Safran Foer novel it's based on, which tells the story of an American Jew's (in the movie, Elijah Wood - not, as I had typed before being politely corrected by always welcome reader Mad Hatter, Tobey Maguire) quest to find the woman who saved his grandfather's life during the Nazi leveling of the Ukrainian village of Trachimbrod. With a lot of humor, this flick delivers a mystery of sorts about the past and the power it holds over us, and is just a lot of fun to watch.

"A History of Violence"
Viggo Mortensen makes this David Cronenberg movie, which is indeed a meditation on the debilitating nature of violence and both an extremely violent work in parts itself, work as well as it does. It's that contradiction of seemingly both loving and abhorring violence at the same time that have made Cronenberg's best movies so compelling. Though this one is great, my favorite Cronenberg movie is still "Spider," in which the violence is mostly psychological.

"Capote"
Though it earned a well-deserved Best Picture nomination, all the also well-deserved accolades for Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance as Capote really overshadowed just how good Bennett Miller's movie itself is. As brilliantly as Hoffman shines in it, this tale which focuses on the writing of "In Cold Blood" is really much more of an ensemble piece, and Catherine Keener as Harper Lee and even more so Clifton Collins Jr. as Perry Smith (two definite favorites around here) deserve almost as much of the credit.

"Serenity"
I have to admit I gave up on "Dollhouse" long before Fox killed it off (and for once, I really don't think Joss Whedon has anything to complain about this time), mostly because though it was indeed smart sci-fi it left out all the fun. His even shorter-lived previous series, "Firefly," and this movie which somehow sprung from it, get the balance much better. Sure, it swipes mercifully from "Star Wars," but the dialogue and the performances of Nathan Fillion and his crew make this space Western close enough to an original to be thoroughly entertaining.

"The Squid and the Whale"
I just have a soft spot for movies about dysfunctional families, and few are quite as miserably so as in this autobiographical debut flick from Noah Baumbach. Heck, I even liked "Margot at the Wedding" quite a bit too, though I think I'm the only person in the world who did. In "The Squid and the Whale," Baumbach deals deftly with many of the same issues that Wes Anderson does with more fancy, specifically how intellectualism can and cannot be a proper replacement for love and engagement with the world. Laura Linney is spectacular here and, for better or worse, this flick unleashed Jesse Eisenberg on the world (I'd say mostly better.)

"Good Night and Good Luck"
I can remember that I somehow managed to be the only person at a matinee of this George Clooney movie, which just made the suffocating feel of it and the sheer terror of Joseph McCarthy even more effective. You're already gonna get me with a valentine to journalism of any kind, and Clooney just imbues this black-and-white flick with a style and pace that make it constantly engaging. Grant Heslov, the co-writer of this movie, directed this year's "The Men Who Stare at Goats," which I found to be a whole lot more satisfying than most critics did.

"Diary of a Mad Black Woman"
I'll make no excuses for including Tyler Perry's feature debut on this list, because it established the formula for most of his movies before it became one. It really does make you laugh, cry and all those other things you hear in that old joke about "Cats," and like his best movies, is just full of humanity and deals with the real issues of life and love with genuine humor.

"Murderball"
This flick from directors Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro follows many of the conventions of the competition documentary but separates itself from the pack when it dives into the off-field lives of its stars, members of a quad rugby team competing to make it to the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. The sport itself, played by men in wheelchairs, is certainly full-contact and sometimes harrowing to watch. You connect with the main players and get a true sense of what their lives are really like, and that's what makes this flick a real winner.

"Hustle & Flow"
I considered calling this post "Come back to us, Craig Brewer," because even though it's buried deep on this list, "Hustle & Flow" was and still is my favorite movie of 2005. Though the music may be different, this is a genuine rock 'n' roll fable that tells the rise (well, sort of) of Djay, a pimp who just wants to be a rap star. On paper it sounds cheesy as it can possibly be, and perhaps it would have been if not for the performance of Terrence Howard as our hero and the extremely strong sense of place that Brewer gives this flick set in grimy Memphis. It's just a movie I've watched more than once every year since it came out and never gets old. And Taraji P. Henson is great as well as Shug, Djay's long-suffering lady who gets to sing the infectious "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" hook.

"Junebug"
This little Southern flick probably would have gone mostly unnoticed if it weren't for Amy Adams, which would have been a real shame, because it has a lot to say about family dynamics and the strains that distance put upon them. It teeters perilously close to caricature at several points, but in the end, director Phil Morrison and writer Angus MacLachlan manage to pack this flick with genuinely colorful characters.

And there you have it. Like I said, please feel free to hammer me for any glaring omissions, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

Merry Christmas to all, and movies for me!

I'm obviously far from alone in declaring the Christmas week to be my favorite time of year, but I may be the only person who says that but still has to work on both Christmas Eve day and Christmas. Not a complaint, mind you, because come Boxing Day I'm off to NYC, which means spending five days with my parents and brother and, of course, a heck of a lot of movies.

There are bound to be some surprises that I'm not aware of yet, especially since we're arriving on the last opening Friday of the year, but here are the seven movies I most want to see, assuming they're still playing somewhere in the city (and, on a side note, how in the world did Rian Johnson's "Brothers Bloom" get pushed back to the end of May? I was really looking forward to seeing that one right about now.) Here goes:

"Happy-Go-Lucky"
On paper this sounds about as appealing as a Tony Robbins seminar, but I'll trust Mike Leigh to turn it into something twistedly appealing. Sally Hawkins plays a schoolteacher whose constant optimism irks everyone around her, which actually sounds right up my alley.

"Synecdoche, NY"
I have a feeling this will be the one I see first, since my parents are arriving before mi hermano (who has already seen it), and I'm really looking forward to it. Oddly enough, Philip Seymour Hoffman's other cheerful holiday flick, "Doubt," is surprisingly opening Friday at a multiplex down in my little corner of the world, so that one will definitely be off the NY menu. For a great read on Mr. Hoffman, check out the profile from last Sunday's New York Times Magazine (which I tried and failed to link to, but you can easily find yourself.)

"Milk"
I was having a discussion with a co-worker and fellow movie devotee yesterday, and I was surprised to hear him say he just can't stand Sean Penn. He compared him to Al Pacino in that they each shout and over emote a lot, but while I can see it with Mr. Pacino, I can't go there with Sean Penn. He just has tremendous range, and you can tell from the trailer for "Milk" that he and director Gus Van Sant found the joy in Harvey Milk's life that came before the tragedy, and I can't wait to see what they came up with here.

"Frost/Nixon"
Apparently wide doesn't mean wide at all, or this one would be entering the fray even in my little corner of the world with the other 10 million flicks opening everywhere on Christmas day. Since it's not, I'll probably catch it in NYC for Frank Langella's performance as tricky Dick and because I have full faith in Peter Morgan and Michael Sheen. By the way, I rented "The Deal," a k a their other Tony Blair flick, the other day, and it's almost as good as "The Queen." Check it out.

"Che"
Despite the certain numbness it will bring to my posterior, I'm hoping that the entire five hours of Steven Soderbergh's "Che" will be playing somewhere while I'm there, and hopefully WITH AN INTERMISSION. From what I've heard it's far from an objective tale, but I really wouldn't have expected it to be, and it's been far too long since I've seen Benicio del Toro on the big screen.

"The Wrestler"
The same friend who was impugning the good name of Sean Penn has already seen this Darren Aronofsky flick, and can't believe it's not playing everywhere. Especially down here, where we may not know much about movies, but we do love our wrestling. I don't see any way this one won't be fun, even if it is a bit depressing.

"Frozen River"
Seeing as this opened way back in like June, I suppose it's a long shot that it would be playing anywhere, but I'm hoping the Melissa Leo Oscar train brings it back for one more run. Immigration, by the way, has turned into the great Hollywood (if not great box office) subject that the Iraq war never became. Already this year has come Patricia Riggen's "La Misma Luna" (Under the Same Moon) and Thomas McCarthy's "The Visitor," both of which are superior to just about any of the recent war flicks, and I'm sure "Frozen River" will be fine fare to complete the set.

So, there you have it. Please, if you think of any that I might be able to catch but haven't thought of, let me know, and have a happy, happy holidays! I'm signing off until at least Jan. 2 or so, but I'm fairly certain the world will continue just fine without me. Peace out.

First look: Synecdoche, New York

I get the feeling from watching this trailer for Charlie Kaufman's upcoming "Synecdoche, New York" that almost everyone's gonna agree he was probably better off with collaborator Spike Jonze, but so what?

After Jonze passed on this to direct "Where the Wild Things Are" (which may never even make it to a screen anywhere near you in the form that Jonze envisioned), Kaufman continued as both writer and director of this apparently rather sprawling flick, due out in at least limited release Oct. 24. And without that filter, we apparently get Philip Seymour Hoffman playing a theater director but really playing, well, Charlie Kaufman.

Anyone who's seen "Adaptation" probably agrees this can be a maddening but extremely entertaining thing to watch. In "Synecdoche, New York" (the title is apparently a play on Schenectady), Hoffman's character spends at least 17 years (guessing from a heartbreaking line that comes at the end of the trailer) building a replica of the entire city of New York in a warehouse.

According to Variety, who provided the trailer at the end of this post, the flick is an uneven meditation on life, death and anything else that crosses Mr. Kaufman's rather twisted mind, but it also "exerts sufficient power and artistic mystery to pull the willing a fair way down its twisty trail, and a first-rate cast led by Philip Seymour Hoffman and some wonderful women provide a constant lifeline even when it’s hard to know what’s going on.

When those women are Catherine Keener, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michelle Williams, Samantha Morton and Dianne Wiest, I'm definitely along for the ride, no matter how ponderous it gets (and even if I have to drive to Atlanta to see it.) Anyways, that's enough prattling on from me. Enjoy the trailer, which although it's often too dark to make out is still enough to get me geeked up for this one, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend.