Sunday, September 25, 2011

Sunday thoughts, of "Moneyball," Katherine Heigl (yes, really) and more



Considering the first poster for Bruce Robinson's "The Rum Diary" was just a picture of Johnny Depp in a fedora (probably enough to market a movie), the one above is certainly an improvement, and hopefully visual proof that Robinson's big comeback will play everywhere once it finally opens on Oct. 12.

Why should you care? Well, Robinson, before pretty much disappearing from the face of the Earth, managed to direct at least one perfectly entertaining movie with "Withnail and I," an oddity well worth tracking down if you've never seen it. After about 10 years off from directing any kind of feature films whatsoever, I'm thinking he'll have a winner on his hands with this one, starring Depp as a rather debauched American journalist in Puerto Rico and based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson.

Can't wait to see how all that turns out, but in the meantime I can tell you, as many critics already have, that this weekend's "Moneyball" is a pretty great little flick and one of a definitely dying breed: The grand baseball movie. It combines enough of a rah-rah story with what's essentially an action movie in which the words are the weapons (thanks to Aaron Sorkin) and a buddy movie in which Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill are just extremely funny.

So, why isn't that enough to knock "The Lion King" from the top of the box office? It still might, but the tracking I saw has "Moneyball" coming in a fairly close second. Please, people, just trust me: Even if you're not a baseball geek like me, this movie is just thoroughly entertaining.

And word has come down this weekend that Pitt is now being courted for something else that could be a lot of fun. Doug Liman, who way back in the day directed "Swingers" and much more recently "Fair Game," is set to helm a flick based on the Japanese novel "All You Need is Kill," with Pitt in his sights to play the lead. So, what's it about? Per Comingsoon.net:

There's one thing worse than dying. It's coming back to do it again and again. ... When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many raw recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to find himself reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On the 158th iteration though, he sees something different, something out of place: the female soldier known as the B*tch of War. Is the B*tch the key to Keiji's escape, or to his final death?

Sounds like pretty trippy stuff, and Pitt hasn't made a bad movie (at least that I'v bothered to see) in quite a while now, so stay tuned.

OK, on to a short clip show, starting with "60 Minutes," which I only bother to watch when I know in advance they have something I'll be interested in, and tonight that should certainly be the case. As you'll see from the clip below, tonight's show will feature "South Park" creators Trey Park and Matt Stone, giving a glimpse of how they put together (and voice just about all the characters for) what is still one of the most scathingly funny shows on TV, now rather amazingly about to enter the second half of its 15th season in early October. Enjoy this preview clip.



Next up, a slew of clips from what should be the silliest movie of this fall season, but hopefully one that will be as fun as any movie apparently based on the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots game should be, "Real Steel." That alone should tell everyone all they need to know about this, which stars Hugh Jackman and somehow the great Anthony Mackie, too. Enjoy these clips courtesy of Collider, and keep an eye out for the movie, which will definitely dethrone "The Lion King" on Oct. 7, if nothing else has accomplished that feat in the meantime.






What's the worst thing you could say about the trailer for a Katherine Heigl movie? Not that it looks awful, because that would at least be something we could mock without mercy. Instead, it just looks incredibly generic, essentially a rehash storyline-wise of any number of movies I didn't bother to see. In "One for the Money" (get it?), she plays Stephanie Plum, the heroine of Janet Evanovich's 16-book mystery series, who this time out becomes a bounty hunter and, naturally, ends up in pursuit of a former flame who dumped her in high school. If you really want to know more than that, here's the trailer (remember, I'm just the messenger), and you can keep an eye out for the movie itself if you want to in the movie wasteland known as late January.



OK, finally today, and to quickly wash away the memory of that, there's been a ton of "Star Wars"-related stuff released to pimp the blu-ray release of the entire series, which I wouldn't spring for even if I could afford it, but I can assure you that none of it has been as funny as this, with the qualifier that to enjoy it you have to be a fan of Kenny Powers. Pretty much putting his "Eastbound and Down" character into the persona of Darth Vader, Danny McBride gives extremely foul (I did warn you!) voice to the dark lord's inner thoughts. Enjoy, keep an eye out for the new (and most likely final) season of "Eastbound and Down" early next year, and if you haven't, please go see "Moneyball" this weekend. Peace out.