Trailer trifecta: A glance at three I'm really looking forward to

If you would have told me several years ago that David Fincher would direct a bona fide "Christmas movie," I would have thought you were straight-up mad.

And I had my initial doubts that he would be able to do much with F. Scott Fitzgerald's odd tale "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," about a man (Brad Pitt) who ages in reverse through the Twentieth Century. Judging from everything I've seen, however, including this lengthy new trailer, it indeed seems like he's come up with something that combines all his best touches with the crowd-pleasing scope of a holiday flick. Enjoy.



Since I've made little secret of just where I stand in this year's election race (and since I, frankly, don't really care who I might possibly offend), I finally decided to break down and get a Barack Obama "widget" for this site (and who came up with that crazy word anyway?).

I originally thought Oliver Stone's "W.", much like Michael Moore's movies in the past, would have a none-too-positive effect on the race, but with Bush so far gone in people's minds and this movie just looking more and more like such silly fun I now just can't see that happening. Here's the latest look at what Stone is cooking up, with the final product set to drop Oct. 29.



When I first heard what Baz Luhrman was attempting to pull off next, I can't say I was terribly excited. What in the world is a director with so much - for lack of a better word - flair doing making a movie in the dusty Australian outback?

I'm ready to be proven wrong once again. Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman star in this appropriately epic-looking tale about an English aristocrat (Kidman) who inherits a huge cattle station in Oz and joins forces with a stock-man (Jackman) to drive 2,000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country's most unforgiving land during World War II. The "Casablanca" touch on the typography is more than a bit much, but count me there when this finally comes out Nov. 26.



And there you have it. Hopefully a little pleasant fodder for wasting some of your work day. Peace out.

R.I.P. Paul Newman

I had planned to talk about Spike Lee's uneven but often wildly entertaining "Miracle at St. Anna" today, but I instead woke up to the rather depressing news that Paul Newman had died.

He was 83 and had suffering from cancer for quite a while, and therefore hadn't acted too often in recent years, most recently adding his voice to Pixar's "Cars." Looking back through his IMDB resume, he made many movies that I and the rest of the world love, but if I had to pick three favorites, they would have to be 'The Hudsucker Proxy," "The Hustler" and, of course, "Cool Hand Luke."

Probably the most quotable movie of all time, that last one is just cinematic comfort food. I've probably seen it as often as any movie I own, and will surely watch at least part of it tonight (after watching the Georgia Bulldogs just roll the Alabama Crimson Tide.) I really don't have anything terribly profound to say about this tragic loss, so instead just enjoy this fairly somber moment from "Cool Hand Luke" Mr. Newman singing "Plastic Jesus" and playing the banjo. R.I.P Mr. Newman.

World War II all around: Valkyrie, Miracle and Red Tails

I've been rather shocked at the mostly negative reviews that have piled up so far for Spike Lee's "Miracle at St. Anna" (30 percent positive at Rotten Tomatoes, and even those were only really lukewarm.)

The main complaint I've read is that Mr. Lee has just bitten off too much to deal with here and lets his movie sprawl over the place and never really focuses on a single story line. Even if that is the case, I'm perfectly willing to sacrifice a rather whopping 2 hours and 46 minutes of my life to see what he's cooked up, because the only Spike Lee movie I can think of that I just had no time for at all was "Crooklyn," and most of the rest of them are movies that I just love. I'm gonna see it this afternoon, so please feel free to check back either tomorrow or Sunday to find out what I thought of it.

(As an aside, there's one scene in "Crooklyn" that just makes me cringe more than just about anything else I've ever seen on the big screen [and I'm really not exaggerating]. It's been a long time since I've seen it, but the stretch comes when the kids get shipped to my Maryland for a while, and apparently to make some kind of swipe at my homeland, he films the whole thing with some kind of gauzy haze. I still have no idea what he was going for, but it was just bloody awful.)

OK, I'm back. Along with releasing his own movie this week, Mr. Lee made news earlier in the week when he apparently disclosed to Roger Ebert the name of the director for "Red Tails," the upcoming Tuskegee Airmen flick being produced by Georgia Lucas. Here's what he had to say:

It was like eight men at the roundtable. And two of ‘em, Lee Archer and Roscoe Brown, was the 8th pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen, which I might add, this spring George Lucas is finally doin’ his Tuskegee Airmen film, “Redtails." He’s gonna produce it and a young African-American director, Anthony Hemingway, is gonna direct it. He’s done several episodic TVs, and is a young director so I’m looking forward to that and hopefully “Miracle” with “Redtails” coming’ up will generate more films to show the untold story about the participation.

You can read the rest of Mr. Ebert's interview here, and it's well worth spending a couple of minutes on. Mr. Hemingway's TV work covers everything from a few episodes of shows I love, "Battlestar Galactica" and "The Wire," to scattered episodes of other blockbusters like "ER" and "CSI NY." Screenwriter John Ridley, who came up with the uneven but still very funny "Undercover Brother" among other films, is scripting the tale of the pioneering airman, so this is one well worth keeping your eyes on when it comes out next spring or so.

And, finally, out today is also the first trailer (that I know of) for Bryan Singer's "Valkyrie," which if I'm not mistaken will finally come out in January. Tom Cruise stars as the main agent in an operation to kill Adolph Hitler, and though the movie supports a rather astounding supporting cast (Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Carice Van Houten, Stephen Fry, Terrence Stamp, Tom Wilkinson and Eddie Izzard, among others), I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that Cruise is the only name that appears in text in this rather kinetic trailer. Enjoy, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

Three cheers: "The Office" is, finally, open again!

The biggest "Office"-related news this morning is actually that Ricky Gervais is close to being tapped to be the host of the next Oscars telecast. Wow. That would have to be a step up from every possible host except maybe Jon Stewart, and probably even from him. Bring it on.

But, of course, long before that, "The Office" returns tonight, and is sandwiched between two other hours of comedy that make this for folk like me a rather blissful night to just veg out in front of the TV.

First on NBC at 8 p.m. comes the return of "My Name Is Earl." Here's a show I can take or leave, but they've hooked me this year for at least the hour-long premiere by casting Seth Green as the latest poor sap Earl Hickey reaches out to help. It seems that Joy's (the insanely funny Jaime Lee Pressly) latest con reminds Earl (Jason Lee) of a wish he stole from a dying child, but he finds out the child, Buddy, is still alive. Throw in the mix that Buddy is being played by Mr. Green and he asks Earl to produce his movie, and you've got what should be high comedy.

That, however, is of course just a prequel for "The Office" at 9 p.m., which initiates what for the next three weeks or so should be two hours of perfect comedy (stay tuned for what follows, in case you some how don't know already.) As fans will remember (and I can't imagine that by now I'm spoiling anything for anyone who would care), in the season four finale Jan turned up pregnant - though not apparently by Michael's seed - and the now-engaged-to-Andy Angela was caught going fairly well beyond heavy petting with her former paramour Dwight. Juicy! Here, according to NBC, is what we can expect in the first three, I believe, all hour-long episodes starting tonight (and I'm extremely happy to report that "The Wire" alum Amy Ryan apparently appears in all of them!):

Weight Loss (tonight)
For the first time, we see what happens over eight weeks of the summer, as a Dunder Mifflin weight loss initiative causes the branch to diet and become obsessed with their weight. Michael (Steve Carell) pursues a friendship with his new HR rep, Holly (Amy Ryan). Jim (John Krasinski) misses Pam (Jenna Fischer), who attends art school in New York. Dwight (Rainn Wilson), Andy (Ed Helms) and Angela (Angela Kinsey) attend to unfinished business. (Aside from me: That last bit should just be priceless.)

Business Ethics (Oct. 9)
(Hold on a minute ... we have to take a week off? I guess that's to make way for Emmy-magnet "30 Rock," so I guess that's OK with me.)
Following Ryan’s (B.J. Novak) recent scandal at corporate, Holly must hold a business ethics seminar. The meeting gets out of control when Michael lets everyone speak freely about their unethical behavior at work. Meanwhile, Jim makes Dwight (Rainn Wilson) comply with the company’s “time theft” policy. (I can't imagine what that means.)

Baby Shower (Oct. 16)
Michael practices for the birth of Jan’s baby by having Dwight go over possible birthing scenarios (hah!). Meanwhile, Michael tells Holly that he will pretend to dislike her for Jan’s benefit.

Sounds like my second-favorite TV comedy will be back in top form, to be followed tonight by a fresh hour of the only one that's funnier (could it get any better than this?), "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." I'm not sure the guys and gal could ever be funnier than they were in last week's season four premiere all about the virtues of cannibalism, but thankfully they're gonna keep trying. Here, according to TV.com, is what's on tap tonight:

On the first episode, "America's Next Top Paddy's Billboard Model Contest," the gang invests in a billboard, so Mac and Frank attempt to find Paddy's next top model. Meanwhile Charlie and Dee work together to come up with the next big thing on YouTube. (I love the new apparent Charlie-Dee alliance - nothing but funny.)

After that comes "Mac's Banging the Waitress," which probably explains itself. Charlie wants Mac to beat up the waitress's new boyfriend, but what he doesn't know is that his friend is the one who's seeing her.

Now, I'll just close with this: I was in high school when NBC had it's last true Thursday night powerhouse lineup, led by "The Cosby Show" and "Cheers," and therefore thought I was too cool (believe me, I never really was) to admit these shows were classics. That said, take this NBC/FX combo, once you factor back in "30 Rock" and - while it lasts - the simply sublime "Scrubs," and I submit there's never been a better night of TV comedy, possibly ever. Enjoy it while you can! Peace out.

Free Michael Moore, Notorious B.I.G. and Madea? What a day

There's just a lot of odd stuff out there today, so let's start with the creme de la weird (with all apologies to Chuck Shepherd.)

The movie version of Bret Easton Ellis' "American Psycho," starring Christian Bale, was a surprisingly good adaptation and a rather severely underrated little flick. Not once, however, did I ever think while watching it, "gee, this would make a great Broadway musical." Someone else apparently did, though, and so we get this (and I can't read any of it without laughing):

Per Variety: "An '80s-tinged tuner adaptation of "American Psycho" has begun the development process and is aiming for Broadway. The graphically bloody novel, which juxtaposes Reagan-era decadence and gruesome killings, includes prominent references to bands of the era, a fact that contributed to the idea of musicalizing the story. Sounds of the time will influence the new show's score. 'Now in particular it seems relevant, especially given what's happening on Wall Street,' said David Johnson of Johnson-Roessler."

Now, as an employee of a company that's currently in the process of downsizing 10 percent of its workforce (which could quite possibly include me), I can certainly understand the impulse to tell the story of a Wall Street banker who just happens to be a serial killer in his spare time, but sheesh.

Free Michael Moore?

Almost as odd, and from the short snippet I've watched so far, possibly much more annoying is the fact that Michael Moore's new "movie" is available for free starting today on the Internets.

Now, don't get me wrong, I used to have a lot of love for Michael Moore, and still have a fairly sizable reservoir of goodwill for the man. I thoroughly enjoyed all of his movies up until "Sicko," and even that one - in which I thought he squandered the opportunity to diagnose what's severely wrong with our health care system to spend too much time gallivanting around Europe to show what's right with theirs - was at worst a noble failure.

Now, however, with "Slacker Uprising," it seems he's made an entire movie about, well, Michael Moore (and it's surely got to grate his cheese that David Zucker's movie mocking him, "An American Carol," will actually get to play wide in movie theaters starting next week.)

What you get in "Slacker Uprising" is Michael Moore touring college campuses to urge young people to register to vote in 2004 and oust George W. Bush. Both noble goals in my book, but Michael Moore being Michael Moore, in the trailer alone he already takes credit for truly starting some kind of real "uprising."

Excuse me? No offense to the youth of America, of which I am no longer a card-holding member, but what exactly have you accomplished at the ballot box, with or without Michael Moore? I'm fairly confident that things will be different this time, but if so, that will have a heck of a lot more to do with BARACK OBAMA and his forces than Michael Moore.

But I hadn't even planned to launch into all that just to tell you this: You can watch Mr. Moore's flick (which I do intend to do, in small snippets) for free by clicking here.

First look: "Notorious"

I have rather strong doubts that any flick about the Notorious B.I.G., a k a Christopher Wallace, that's being funded by his own mother is going to be terribly objective, but the cast at least is first-rate.

Jamal Woolard, who landed the role by being a rather large black man who knows how to rap, will play Biggie himself, but the supporting players are much more exciting. Angela Bassett will play his mother, Voletta Wallace (I guess when you put up your own money you get the best to play you!) Even better, Derek Luke - easily one of my favorite actors - will play Sean Diddy Combs, and the equally promising Anthony Mackie will play the late Tupac Shakur. (And, if I may digress just a bit, I wasn't really expecting to get the rather salacious "Choke" in Macon this week, but at least we get to see Mr. Luke in Spike Lee's "Miracle at St. Anna." I can't wait.)

You won't learn too much more from this teaser clip for the flick set to open in January, but enjoy anyway.



Warning: Black man in drag and fat suit alert!

I really was hoping beyond hope that Tyler Perry was finally ready to retire the character of Madea for good.

After all, his latest flick - "Tyler Perry's The Family that Preys" - isn't perfect by any means, but when it sticks to the story of the friendship between the characters played by Alfre Woodard and Kathy Bates, it's tremendously entertaining. But I guess the urge to clown around in Madea's wig and fat suit was just too strong, so his next Lionsgate flick will indeed be "Madea Goes to Jail," based on his stage play of the same name. (And, oddly enough, Derek Luke's in this one too, playing an attorney.)

Remember, I warned you, but if you still want to see more, here's the teaser trailer. Peace out.

The fine art of the psychological thriller

First off, a hearty congratulations to "Mad Men" in snagging the Emmy for Best Dramatic Series, but how in the world Jon Hamm didn't win for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series is simply a mystery and more than a small crime. Here today, however, it's all about my favorite flicks in easily one of my favorite subgenres.

Although I found a few charms in Samuel L. Jackson and Neil LaBute's "Lakeview Terrace," it was over all so generic and predictable that I just have to beg out of reviewing it (and since it obliterated everything else out there at the box office, they hardly need my help.)

Instead, here are 10 psychological thrillers that are a lot more subtle than that crowd-pleaser, starting with my all-time favorite and then proceeding in perfectly random order. So, here goes, and as always, please feel free to add any you truly love that I may have omitted (because, after all, I only have time to list 10.)

Death and the Maiden
I think I first watched this Roman Polanski flick based on an Ariel Dorfman play as part of a class at Catholic University, but as I said it has stuck with me as just about the perfect psychological thriller. Though the play is clearly about Augusto Pinochet's reign of terror, Polanski sets the movie in an unnamed third world country where Sigourney Weaver plays a housewife who is convinced that her houseguest, Ben Kingsley, is the man who tortured and raped her in the past. As the triangle between Weaver, Kingsley and Stuart Wilson, who plays Weaver's husband and a prominent attorney, unfolds it will just keep you engrossed until the very end, so see it if you haven't already.

A Simple Plan
Though "Spider-Man 2" is easily the best movie ever made by Sam Raimi, I'd put this little flick starring Billy Bob Thornton, Bill Paxton and Bridget Fonda in second (yes, ahead of "Evil Dead.") I've heard tell that the novel by Scott Smith is even better, but never having read it I can't attest to that, but I can tell you this little flick about the power of money is just a winner.

With a Friend Like Harry
The next two flicks on this list will be French because, well, they do psychological thrillers as good as anybody since Alfred Hitchcock, to whom this flick in particular owes a huge debt. In it, Laurent Lucas and Mathilde Seigner play a middle class couple who have a chance encounter with one of Lucas' old school mates Harry, played with chilling precision by Sergi Lopez. It's fun to watch as Harry slowly brings out all of Lucas' worst impulses, and it must be said for folks who take note of such things that Sophie Guillemin, who plays Harry's girlfriend Plum, is just an insanely beautiful woman.

Man on the Train
If I'm not mistaken, it was Ashok who kindly recommended this Patrice Leconte flick starring the French singer Johnny Hallyday and the great actor Jean Rochefort, and I'm certainly glad he did. In it, Hallyday plays a man who comes to a small town with the intention of robbing the main bank and Rochefort is a retired schoolteacher who takes him in as a boarder. It becomes a bit ponderous as they each start to examine the life choices they have made, and the end is just completely crazy (in all the best ways), but I can also recommend this one to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

Apt Pupil
It's more than a little bitterly funny that the late Brad Renfro, who only managed to make it to the age of 25, almost made this list twice with both this mindbender and "Bully," a thoroughly terrifying flick from Larry Clark which just missed the cut. In this Bryan Singer flick based on the Stephen King short story, a very young Renfro plays a boy who finds out the old man down the street (the great Sir Ian McKellen) may just happen to be a rather notorious Nazi war criminal.

Hard Candy
What in the world ever happened to Ellen Page? I skipped the only movie I know she was in this year, "Smart People," but it certainly would be nice to see her on the big screen more often since "Juno." It was this truly chilling flick that first brought her to many people's attention, and in it she plays a teen who lures an Internet perv (Patrick Wilson, who also stars in "Lakeview Terrace") into a trap and just tortures him without mercy. It's almost as uncomfortable to watch as it is simply entertaining as hell, and Page is just fantastic in it.

Rosemary's Baby
Since this one doubles as my favorite horror flick, and is a second entry from Roman Polanski, it was a natural fit for this list. Michael Bay and his fellow felons actually have their eyes on remaking this one (along with "The Birds" and who knows how many other horror classics), but there's no way they'll even come to close to what Polanski created from Ira Levin's pulpy tale of an aspiring actor (John Cassavetes) who offers his wife's (Mia Farrow) first child to the couple next door, who just happen to worship Satan. Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer are just hilarious as the leaders of the little Satanic cult down the hall.

Memento
All the tricks that Christopher Nolan had perfected by the time he made "The Dark Knight" were honed in this little trip starring Guy Pearce as a guy with short-term memory loss who tries to piece together the details of his wife's death using notes and tattoos. "Insomnia," which Nolan made just after this one, is almost as good, but Pearce's singular performance just elevates it a notch above.

Manchurian Candidate
If Jonathan Demme's 2004 version of this hadn't been a remake of John Frankenheimer's classic, the latter one would have been a perfectly pleasant little political thriller. When compared with the original, however, it just can't stand up to what Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury delivered in this slightly flawed but still great flick about those pesky Communists and their predilection for mind control.


Shallow Grave
Whew, last one, but if this were in any order of preference I'd probably have this Danny Boyle flick right below "Death and the Maiden." Even more so than "Trainspotting," this tale of money and greed starring Ewan McGregor, Kerry Fox (man would it be great to see her again!) and Christopher Eccleston established Boyle as easily one of my favorite directors, and I can't wait to see what he's cooked up this year with "Slumdog Millionaire."

And there you have it. As I said, please feel free to add any of your favorites, and have a perfectly passable Monday. Peace out.

Ricky Gervais fans will enjoy a trip to "Ghost Town"

I have no idea if writer/director David Koepp created "Ghost Town" with Ricky Gervais in mind, but after watching it you won't be able to see how it could have worked in any way without him.

What they've managed to do is take a fairly routine ghost/love story and turn it into a bona fide charmer. And for the record, I can't remember the last time I bothered to see a movie about ghosts that wasn't a horror flick because I generally have little tolerance for sap.

There's certainly more than a little of that here, and more and more of it as the flick goes on, but from the outset it's a showcase for Gervais' endearingly jaded view of the world. As dentist Bertram Pincus, he's annoyed with just about everyone and everything around him.

The first 20 minutes or so (after you get to watch Greg Kinnear die, which I suppose has its own kind of joy for a certain number of folks) are basically one long Gervais riff, and it reaches its funniest point when he tries to get a straight answer about his slightly botched colonoscopy (of course) from a dippy, spray-tanning doctor (Kristen Wiig) and the hospital's lawyer/enforcer (Micheal-Leon Wooley). I guarantee that if you've ever been even a little frustrated with doctors (and if you haven't, I'm amazed) you'll just laugh out loud at all of this.

It's that operation that left Gervais' Pincus dead for about seven minutes or so, and afterward cursed with the ability to see and communicate with the many ghosts that lurk on New York's streets (and the flick, by the way, makes great use of NYC in the fall.) Luckily for us, until the inevitable warming of his heart, he remains just as annoyed with the dead as he was with the living, and just as caustic with their many requests.

Chief among them is Kinnear, who enlists Pincus to break up his widow's engagement to a human rights lawyer. The two of them are funny enough, but what saves the flick from ever careening completely into the realm of schmaltz is Tea Leoni, who as Kinnear's widow just has a natural rapport with Gervais. One of the movie's true pleasures is in watching her try to stifle her laughs at the more inappropriate of Gervais' riffs (cheeky but rarely crude stuff, a welcome change from the norm.) And "Daily Show" fans will enjoy seeing Aasif Mandvi as Pincus' dental partner who has to deal with all his most anti-social outbursts.

In the end, you won't learn a whole lot from this late-summer charmer, and hopefully Ricky Gervais won't either, because we all need him to be as sardonic as possible after this turn that should hopefully show the world he can successfully topline a Hollywood flick.

Unfortunately, a quick look at the box office numbers shows this one will only make about $5.5 million and finish behind even "My Best Friend's Girl." That's a real shame, but I think word of mouth about Gervais will keep this one in theaters for a good little while, so consider this my little part to help with that. Just go see it already!

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.