Christopher Nolan, uncaped crusader against 3-D? Not so much

Actually, if you like the funny, there's nowhere else to start today than with the fact that the extremely funny Louie CK is coming to F/X tonight with his new sitcom, appropriately enough titled simply "Louie."

The show, which will blend his standup with sitcom set pieces, has gotten nothing but positive write ups from what I've seen so far, so you can count me as thoroughly psyched for this, even if, since it's on at 11 p.m. on a school night, this kid will be in bed already and will watch it in DVRed form Wednesday night. Here's a fairly funny promo clip. Enjoy.



OK, now on to the main event. I'm still entirely convinced that Christopher Nolan's "Inception" is going to do nothing but rock when it comes out July 16, but any notion that he was some kind of uncaped crusader against the virus that is 3-D (which, admittedly, really only existed in my own mind) has now been shattered.

It seems that, rather than standing up to the tide and making his blockbuster without Hollywood's latest gimmick, Nolan and his crew simply ran out of time to complete the 3-D conversion process. Sheesh. Here's what he had to say about it:

"When we edited the film, we looked at the post-conversion process and did some very good tests, but when I really looked at the time period we had and where my attention needed to be in finishing the film, I decided I didn't have enough time to do it to the standard I would have liked."

In the very next quote, however, he goes on to make the exact case against 3-D, post-conversion or otherwise, that holds the most sway with me.

"It's perfectly possible to post-convert a film very well. I like not having glasses on when I see a movie and I like seeing a bright immersive image. So, I think at the end of the day I am extremely happy to be putting the film out with 35 mil film prints. Very brightly projected with the highest possible image quality. That's really what excited me."

Amen brother, Now, just remember that when and if you ever get around to making a "Batman 3"!

In other superhero news about a flick that's so far coming together very well, it seems that Matthew Vaughn has hired his Emma Frost for "X-Men: First Class." Having already made solid choices for the leads of young Professor X and Magneto, respectively James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender, it's only natural in comic-book progression that they'd find, and forgive me for saying it, a sublimely hot actress to play the White Queen. And in Alice Eve, pictured, of course, here, they certainly have.

So, who's Alice Eve? Well, I've only ever seen her in the surprisingly satisfying "She's Out of My League" with Jay Baruchel. Before that movie collapses into a pool of rom-com formula for the finish, it's remarkably funny, especially co-star Krysten Ritter. If you haven't seen this one, you could certainly do far worse with a rental.

OK, as we go into the videos, where else to start than with this this touching tribute to O Rei Pele, executive produced by Fernando Meirelles of "City of God" fame. It imagines a parallel end to the great one's playing career, and if you like soccer (and please, if you don't, keep it to yourself), this is certainly worth about five minutes of your time, and may even jerk a tear or two out of you. Enjoy.



Where do you go from there? Why not to a kung fu movie directed by RZA of the Wu Tang Clan? Yes, really, and this two-minute trailer (with, I apologize in advance, just horrendously bad music) promises that "Wu Tang Vs. the Golden Phoenix" will be bad in the most delightfully fun kind of way. Enjoy.



And finally, how better to end than with the first trailer for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which they've rather wisely stashed in front of "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" beginning at midnight tonight (or tomorrow morning, or whatever.) You can argue with making it into two movies, but the final chapter of Harry's saga is an epic tome, so I really have no beef with it. What you can see from this is that they really got it done just in time, because the kids really can't get any older for this to work at all, but I'm confident director David Yates will come up with winners for these two flicks, the first of which is coming in November. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.