Go see "Kick-Ass" already and just have a hell of a lot of fun

Actually, before we get into any of that today, why not start with some truly "Kick-Ass" casting news?

If you were to list my favorite actors, Hal Holbrook would easily find a spot in the top five. He made "Into the Wild," a movie that still just continues to get better and better with age, and he was even better than that as the star of "That Evening Sun," a genuine Southern gothic that should really be coming to DVD very soon, so keep an eye out for it.

Now he's gonna get the chance to be a truly bad MF as a short-term cast member of "Sons of Anarchy," which in its second season last year really became a great TV drama. When season three returns in September, Holbrook will star in the first four episodes as Gemma's (Katey Segal) father. I was gonna watch anyway already, but they've certainly amped up my interest with that news.

And in even crazier news, I really didn't think there was any way you could get me to watch a remake of "Arthur," even though I do find Russell Brand to be very funny, but I think they've now actually pulled that off.

How? By casting Dame Helen Mirren in the role made legendary by Sir John Gielgud, therefore changing it from a butler to a nanny, something which Brand could almost certainly use in his real life too. There is, of course, still a very large chance that this could just suck all kinds of balls, but with Helen Mirren in it I can at least guarantee you I'll be there to watch it crash and burn.

OK, before I got sidetracked by that little bit of business, this was supposed to be a defense of "Kick-Ass," though having seen it twice now, I'm still rather amazed that Matthew Vaughn's thoroughly entertaining movie needs one.

And this really isn't in response to Roger Ebert or anyone else who has questioned the morality of so much violence being perpetrated by a 12-year-old (my best guess, I really have no idea how old kids actually are.) I'm willing to dismiss that as the ramblings of a sometimes cranky old man, especially since I'm pretty rapidly becoming one of those too. All I can really say is IT'S A FRIGGIN' R-RATED MOVIE!!!

Instead, it's more about what "Kick-Ass" really is rather than what it isn't, because judging by the week one box office numbers, I have to assume that the majority of people who happen to stumble by here today haven't seen it yet.

Because what Vaughn has really accomplished is to make one of the very few non-animated movies that manage to bring a genuine comic book vibe to the big screen. Terry Zwigoff managed to do it by capturing perfectly the spirit of Daniel Clowes' "Ghost World," and the just criminally underrated "Shoot 'Em Up" - though more like Looney Tunes than comic books - managed to contain all of the fun of comic books too (and if you haven't seen this little comic gem, rent it immediately!)

And in many ways, Vaughn has accomplished the same rare feat with his movie about the comic book "Kick-Ass." Ebert and others were at least part right - it does indeed start with the violence. Perhaps my moral compass is just completely askew, but when I knowingly go into an R-RATED movie with the name "Kick-Ass," I think I've pretty much ceded any right to be offended. And besides, I wasn't. I was entertained.

I don't want to give too much away, but the two action set-pieces involving Hit-Girl (young Chloe Moretz, who is just a delight) are easily the two best I've seen this year, and are among the best of the last 10 years or so too. The first starts in darkness, then turns into a trick of lighting and is just expertly shot. And the grand finale, well, all I'll tell you is that it does involve a bazooka and another much cooler weapon that I won't reveal to you here. Let's just say I defy you not to laugh out loud once you hear the strains of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" ring out.

But it's not all about the violence. Just about everything in "Kick-Ass" is fun, funky and very often outrageous, as comic book movies should be. Nicolas Cage is funnier than he's been since, well, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" as Hit-Girl's guardian, Big Daddy, and the near-constant riff on superhero worship manages to sustain itself through the whole thing.

My only qualm with the first movie and fear for the inevitable sequel (but only if the box office numbers somehow pick up, probably) is that that McLovin kid is definitely a one-trick pony. Saying any more than that would only spoil things.

And in week two, there's at least a fighting chance that "Kick-Ass" could somehow win the week, considering the fecal matter - "The Back-Up Plan" and "The Losers" - that's polluting multiplexes this week. If you're having doubts about this and trust me at all (a dangerous proposition, I certainly concede), give "Kick-Ass" a chance in week two. 'Nuff said. Peace out.

Golden Globes: Great comedies get no respect at all

If one thing is clear after Thursday's Golden Globe nominations, it's that the Hollywood foreign press must just be a fairly humorless bunch.

Now, I'm glad to see that "Juno" made the final five, and I can only assume that "Charlie Wilson's War" will have its funny moments (and enough Tom Hanks smugness to make me want to jump out of my chair and just smack the screen), but how in the world can you have a category called "Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy" and not include more of the funniest movies of 2007? (The other nominees were all musicals, "Sweeney Todd," "Hairspray" and "Across the Universe.")

Perhaps the answer is simply to give musicals a category all their own (which might have meant a much-deserved nomination for John Carney's just-perfect "Once.") That's probably too much weight for musicals, but something has to be done to balance the scales in comedy's favor.

Had there been a comedy category, here are the five movies that would have been my nominees:

Hot Fuzz
The Wayans brothers have apparently watched this pitch-perfect spoof of action movies and decided they can do one better. I have nothing but doubt about that, 'cause for my money Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are the masters, and this is the single funniest movie of 2007.

The Simpsons Movie
So what if this was just a 90-minute episode of the TV show? It proved that, with 15 years or so of experience it is indeed possible to come up with a plot and enough jokes to sustain 90 minutes of high entertainment (though why they can't reliably do that from week to week for only 30 minutes anymore is beyond me.)

Superbad
I just watched this again last weekend, and it was at least as good as it was the first time. Jonah Hill and Michael Cera were just as funny as I remembered, but this time the story of the two cops who refuse to grow up, played by Seth Rogen and Bill Hader, just really made me laugh out loud.

Shoot 'Em Up
The beauty of a category for comedy would be if a movie this sublimely silly could really be nominated for anything. If you haven't seen this cartoon-like bullet ballet, rent it immediately. Paul Giamatti, Clive Owen and Monica Bellucci clearly all had fun making it, and as long as you can handle jokes about a baby in extreme peril I guarantee you'll have fun watching it.

And yes, Juno
What's it gonna take to get this little charmer to play wide? I just assumed that a cast this packed with stars would guarantee it a wide ride, but I guess I'm wrong yet again. I suppose that means I'll have to watch Will Smith and his dog walk around for a couple of hours, but I can't really say I'm looking forward to it.

I have a feeling "Walk Hard" might just make a sixth entry to this list, but that's the top five for now (and that means the very funny "Knocked Up" just missed the cut.) As for the rest of the Golden Globe nominations, I could have predicted that my favorite, "Ratatouille," wouldn't be able to make it out of the animated movie ghetto, but there's another, bigger snub that just can't go without mention.

I had to read the list three times to make sure I hadn't missed what must surely be the multiple mentions of "Into the Wild." I had my qualms with the story of Christopher McCandless as told by Sean Penn, but there's no denying it's one of the most powerful movies of 2007, and yet beyond two deserved nominations for Eddie Vedder's songs it was just royally snubbed.

Now, I haven't seen "Atonement," "The Great Debaters" or "There Will Be Blood" (though I'm certainly hyped to do so soon), but how in the world could you have seven nominees for Best Motion Picture - Drama (the other four were "American Gangster," "Eastern Promises," "Michael Clayton" and "No Country for Old Men") and not include "Into the Wild"? Sheesh.

I certainly also would put Emile Hirsch in the top five for Best Actor - Drama (the anointed five are George Clooney, "Michael Clayton," Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood," James McAvoy, "Atonement," Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises" and Denzel Washington, "American Gangster".) His portrayal of McCandless was close to extraordinary.

Much more disturbing was the omission of Hal Holbrook from the Best Supporting Actor category (the big five are Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men," Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War," John Travolta, "Hairspray" and Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton") I can see the merit in all of these except for Travolta's turn in the fat suit (which I didn't see since, having already seen "Hairspray" in two very satisfying formats, I saw no reason to see it re-created once again), but Holbrook's performance was just on a whole other level. If the definition of supporting actor is the person who has the most impact on a movie in a short period of time, then no one fits this better than Holbrook as Ron Franz, the wizened gent who made a last-ditch but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to save McCandless from himself (I don't cry at the movies very often at all, but that moment got me, which says quite a bit.)

But, enough about that. I'm off to see "I Am Legend," and hoping that I'm wrong about how much it's going to suck. Have a perfectly enjoyable weekend.

A great movie resource for parents ... and everyone else too

Nell Minow, who has been Yahoo's "Movie Mom" for years now, has now taken the title with her for her own blog/review site, a welcome addition to the wide Web of film criticism.

Now, don't let the title Movie Mom scare you, or the fact that her blog is part of the Beliefnet Christian Web site. Though Nell takes into consideration all the factors that might concern parents with a movie, she also reviews flicks for their genuine entertainment value, and does so with style.

For instance, I happen to know that Nell is a big fan of both "Grindhouse" and "Shoot 'Em Up," hardly two movies you would think of as family fare. And though I'm not sure I can fully agree with her here, she gives "Live Free or Die Hard" a B+ in this week's DVD reviews.

Frankly, whether you agree with the Christian angle or not, Nell's reviews are a good sight better than almost anything else you'll find that takes families into consideration. To read her latest reviews, visit the new Movie Mom site here.

RIP Fernando Fernán Gómez

I have to admit that the name Fernando Fernán Gómez didn't mean anything to me until my co-worker Karen, who despite having the surname Ludwig is rather proud to have Spanish blood flowing through her veins, pointed out to me that he had died.

It turns out, as a quick visit to the IMDB confirmed, that the Peruvian actor appeared in 212 films in his long career, including starring in one of my all-time favorites, "El Espíritu de la Colmena," a k a "Spirit of the Beehive." If you haven't seen this flick about two Spanish girls and their quest to find the Frankenstein monster, do so as soon as possible (I think you can still find it on DVD.) He also starred as the pater familias in "Belle Epoque" and had a big role in Pedro Almodóvar's "Todo sobre mi madre" ("All About My Mother"). Rest in peace, Mr. Gómez.

Can Johnny Depp actually sing?

If I remember correctly he may have already done so in John Waters' "Cry Baby," but that's still a key question surrounding Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street."

Well, the answer, judging from this clip of him in the studio singing is only kind of, but probably good enough to serve the purposes of this flick. Judge for yourself, and have a perfectly pleasant turkey day.

Bullets over brains: The beauty of Shoot 'Em Up

I feel more than a little odd singing the praises of an extremely bloody (albeit equally silly) movie on the sixth anniversary of 9/11, but here goes.

Looking at the box-office numbers, I'm apparently one of the very few people in the world who bothered to see "Shoot 'Em Up" over the weekend (though there were two other people at my Monday afternoon screening.) I knew "3:10 to Yuma" would rule the weekend, but I didn't expect this very funny flick to fall so hard.

I've read a lot of critics' putdowns of this flick, and have to say I'm more than a little baffled. To me, at least, the most common complaints ring hollow. Given the title, what in the world were people expecting? Yes, it is essentially a string of elaborately staged gun battles between Clive Owen and, well, about 150 dudes or so, all led by Paul Giamatti. And it does indeed play out like a video game or an extremely violent music video, but so what?

Writer/director Michael Davis embraces these inherent limitations and injects his story with an uneven dose of wit, tons of adrenaline and one of the most gloriously ludicrous plots in recent memory. Why, at least for me, does this all work so much better than, say, Joe Carnahan's simply awful "Smokin' Aces"? Because not once, unlike Carnahan's flick, does "Shoot 'Em Up" take itself remotely seriously.

The ridiculous plot, in fact, lifts a large chunk of Carnahan's "Aces" story and takes it even further beyond the line of believability. It starts with Clive Owen as a former black ops officer who just happens to be sitting on a bench as a very pregnant woman runs by, being pursued by some rather angry gunmen. After delivering the baby (amid a flurry of bullets, of course), Owen ends up on the run with the youngun and being pursued by Giamatti's gunmen. Through circumstances too silly to explain here, he hooks up with la bella Monica Bellucci, who pulls off her role of looking perpetually annoyed with aplomb.

However, even by the standard of a movie that's paced like a cartoon (with Clive Owen perpetually munching on a carrot, in case you somehow still missed the point), this is far from perfect. Though the bullet ballets are designed to get more and more insane as the show goes on (set to heavy metal and grunge, of course, including Motorhead's always-welcome "Ace of Spades"), it finally reaches a breaking point about an hour in. For me it came when our hero, cornered in a gun factory by at least 20 dudes, manages to escape by using a series of weapons he somehow managed to (sight unseen, by us) string from the cieling. And, simply admitting and embracing the fact that a plot makes no sense doesn't completely excuse it.

That, however, is thinking far too deeply about a flick that's best enjoyed without much thought at all. I was still laughing on the ride home, and from a late-summer flick I can't ask for much more than that.

I'm convinced that if this had come out in June rather than September it would have been a pretty big hit. And if you do bother to see this and are offended by any of it (including an infant in a constant state of peril), just take a second to look at the title and again ask: What in the world were you expecting?

A "Prime" opportunity on DVD

Though the big news for me today in the DVD world is that "The Wire: Season 4" is finally set to come out Dec. 4, there is a police show that's almost as good as that HBO masterpiece coming to a close on DVD today.

Long before U.S. cable programmers realized that people might actually like seeing great actresses beyond the age of 25 on TV, Dame Helen Mirren paved the way for the likes of Kyra Sedgwick, Glenn Close and Holly Hunter as Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison. Through seven searing miniseries, aired on PBS stations in the U.S., she has starred in one of the best police procedurals around.

Now, with 2006's "Prime Suspect: The Final Act" out on DVD today, the story finally goes out on top, even after Jane Tennison hits bottom.

As the seventh chapter opens, retirement is just around the corner for Tennison, and her final case revolves around finding a schoolgirl's killer. This being "Prime Suspect," she and her team follow several wrong turns and disappointing leads along the way, but the ultimate challenge this time is personal. Faced with a challenging case and the imminent death of her father, Det. Tennison dives deeper into alcoholism and almost ruins everything.

It would be more than a little cliched with a lesser leading lady, but this is Dame Mirren at her best, and I highly recommend this DVD. Peace out.

Drinky Crow is go - for real!

Given that Adult Swim prides itself on living by, well, no rules whatsoever, the details about this are understandably sketchy, but it seems that Tony Millionaire's "Drinky Crow Show" has been given a full-season pickup.

Staying true to its vision of barely organized chaos, Adult Swim unveiled like 30 or so 15-minute pilots on one night last spring and then let viewers vote on the winner, and it seems Drinky Crow was by far the favorite.

Never heard of Tony Millionaire or Maakies? Well, if you can handle your humor extremely juvenile, more than occasionally peurile but also seriously funny, the Maakies comic strip is for you. The adventures of Uncle Gabby, Drinky Crow and the rest of the crew are linked among my favorite sites at right, but be warned, if you have any work to do today don't click on it, because you could easily spend the whole day reading the strips he has online.

Drinky Crow first appeared on TV in a series of rather poorly conceived shorts on "Saturday Night Live" a few years back, but now given new life by Millionaire and Eric Kaplan, he's back in much better condition. No word yet on when exactly more installments will begin appearing, but for proof of just how twistedly funny the pilot was, there's a 30-second glimpse at the end of the post.

And here, straight from the mouth of Eric Kaplan via the great Comics2Film site, is a potential plotline for a future episode that shows that, thankfully, this duo won't be growing up anytime soon:

EK: I'm working on one now where the idea is that Drinky Crow and Uncle Gabby are driving their car, smashing into people, beating on people, just having this night of drunken revelry. Drinky Crow comes home and peaks in the window, because they lost their key so they have to climb in. And he sees his girlfriend in bed with an elephant seal who's going ‘Urgh Urgh Urgh Urgh.' Then Drinky Crow is in this bar and Uncle Gabby is trying to cheer him up saying ‘oh, she wasn't good enough for you.' Drinky Crow is like, are you kidding, she was much better than me. And he's like, yeah I guess you're right. So Uncle Gabby says, I know how to cheer you up, you need to get back in the saddle So he finds these two really homely old hags in the bar and he's like hey, would you mind if you buy me a drink. So he's hitting on these two ladies and Drinky Crow is like, oh that's too depressing, I can't do this. Uncle Gabby says, what you need to do is lower your standards. I have these things called beer goggles. They're beer-fueled mechanical contraptions that you put on your eye. Drinky Crow says fantastic, I'll just take out my eye-tearing-out-hooks and he tears out his eyes and puts this thing in and he looks at these two ladies and they look beautiful.

And, as promised, here's a clip from the pilot in which Uncle Gabby learns the perils of using whale blubber to flirt with the captain's daughter. Enjoy!



A glimpse into "The Mist"

I apologize if this is heavy on pics and clips today, but I have far too much work to do after a long holiday weekend, so have to make this as efficient as possible.

There are few partnerships in movies that work better than Frank Darabont and Stephen King, as I'm confident Darabont's upcoming "The Mist" will once again prove. As the trailer I've posted here shows, you get a big dose of Andre Braugher, which is always a good thing in my book. It looks like he may well be playing the traditional role of "the black guy" in horror movies, which means dying early, but it looks like even if that's so he should get some good screen time in first.



Some psychedelic visions of the "Universe"

I'm not sure why, but I just can't get too psyched for Julie Taymor's "Across the Universe," set for release Sept. 14. Though Taymor is a budding visual master, her narrative skills still leave something to be desired. If "Universe," her tribute to the Beatles and the '60s, is as hollow a shell as her "Titus," it's just gonna be a very pretty montage of music videos.

I am still hoping that I'm wrong, which has been known to happen at least a few times before. To get a taste of what she has cooked up, you can see a ton of stills from the flick at Ropeofsilicon, one of which I've pilfered and included here. Click on the link for 47 more or so.


The limits of good taste

I've found, in my fairly long time on this planet, that I get offended by very little. My only real test with comedy is that it be funny.

And it's in that spirit that I'm really looking forward to the hail of bullets that will be this weekend's "Shoot 'Em Up." The viral marketing for this silly little flick has been fun to take in, as this new site proves. Be warned: If you can't, under any circumstances, laugh about infants in peril, don't click on that link. I hope I'll never get too mature for that. Peace out.

Oliver Stone finally heads back to Vietnam

Although I was really hoping he would jump into the middle of the hunt for Osama bin laden, Oliver Stone has apparently changed course and is now heading back to familiar territory. And that could surely be a good thing.

He is apparently closing a deal with United Artists to finance "Pinkville," a drama about the investigation of the 1968 My Lai massacre that he would direct. Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum will star.

This would be Stone's fourth foray into Vietnam (well, fifth, of course, if you count his actual war service.) Of the the three he's already made, I'd rank "Heaven & Earth" as the best, with "Platoon" a close second and "Born on the Fourth of July" trailing rather badly.

In the new flick, Willis will play Army Gen. William R. Peers, who supervised the investigation into the massacre by U.S. soldiers of as many as 500 My Lai villagers, most of them unarmed women, children and elderly. It's good to hear that, unlike Sly Stallone, Mr. Willis may finally be starting to act his age and not taking to the battlefield.

Tatum will play Hugh Thompson, a helicopter pilot who, upon realizing what was happening below, put a stop to the killing by placing his craft between gunmen and the few villagers who were left, and telling his two shipmates to fire on the soldiers if they shot any more people. They airlifted the survivors and reported the carnage to superiors.

Although they really need to work on that title ("Pinkville" is apparently the description on a military map for the region where My Lai is, but so what?), this could be a welcome return to meaty material for Stone. I enjoyed "World Trade Center" enough as an ode to heroism, but it's been way too long since Oliver Stone challenged anyone or anything on screen, so I can only hope he jumps rights into "the shit," as Max Fischer put it so well, with this one.

Lucas to make two good movies?

OK, that may be a bit harsh, but I'm counting on the Lucas-produced "Indy 4" being fantastic, and this news about a World War II flick sounds almost as good. When's the last time you could really associate George Lucas with two good movies?

The latest, "Red Tails," is a World War II movie he apparently came up with the story for some time ago. The flick, which will center on the Tuskegee Airmen and be produced through Lucasfilm, will be scripted by John Ridley, who is definitely on a roll of late.

Ridley has already written the very funny but underappreciated "Undercover Brother" and the story for "Three Kings," among other flicks, and he came to Lucas' attention after the producer read his script for a movie about the L.A. riots, which Spike Lee will hopefully someday soon finally get around to making instead of toying with more "Inside Man" nonsense.

I really hope Lucas is finally committed to this. What may finally make him follow through with it could be ego. Lord knows what Peter Jackson will do after he wraps "The Lovely Bones," but if it's his long-rumored World War II aviation flick "Dambusters" a fun race to the finish could be on between these two titans.

Paul Giamatti channeling Karl Rove?

The marketing for "Shoot 'Em Up," which has never once shied away from the fact that this movie will be nothing more than an unapologeticly silly hail of bullets, has been just about brilliant.

The latest installment I found was a column by director Michael Davis at MTV Movie News in which, among other amusing things, he reveals the inspiration for Paul Giamatti's hitman in the upcoming flick:

He (Giamatti) says he'd like his character to be based on Karl Rove — a seemingly bookish guy who exercises power behind the scenes. I like it. His character turns out to be way more flamboyant than Rove ... but I like how our free-flowing conversation started making the character better than what is on the page.

If you didn't know it was written by a promising new director, you might think he was just an extremely eager fanboy as he describes meeting Giamatti, Clive Owen and the ravishing Monica Bellucci for the first time, but it's genuinely entertaining reading. And coupled next week with the "3:10 to Yuma" remake, his flick will hopefully blast us right out of the movie-muck that has flowed forth after "Superbad."

TV tidbits

Though I spent probably too much time yesterday fantasizing about the return of Eliza Dushku as Faith the vampire slayer, it seems Tim Minear has other plans in mind for his next TV project. Minear, who was a co-creator of "Angel" and had a big role in the creation of "Firefly," will reteam with his "Wonderfalls" partner Tim Holland for "Miracle Man." It centers on a disgraced former televangelist, a man of no faith, who finds that God is using him to perform real miracles and change lives, starting with his own.

"It's about losing everything and starting over and finding that there is a higher purpose in life," Minear said. "It's about a man who says, 'I don't know how to be good, but I'll try to be better.' "

The premise, frankly, doesn't sound terribly promising, but after the disastrous treatment of "Drive," Mr. Minear needs and deserves a winner, so I'll at least give it a chance.

And, apparently it pays off big to draw extremely crude and smart cartoons. Assuring we will get "South Park" until at least 2011 (huzzah!), Trey Parker and Matt Stone have signed a new $75 million deal with Comedy Central.

The unique deal gives them a 50-50 split on any digital ad revenue. In my fairly many years on this planet I've yet to see anything approaching $75 million, and I really can't even imagine what it might look like, but these guys definitely deserve it. Fifteen years of "South Park"? Bring it on.

OK, it's a long post today, but I'm almost finished, so bear with me. In the mail a few weeks back I got the DVD for the final "Prime Suspect," which I will dutifully review before its Sept. 11 release (but, having already seen it on TV, I can tell you now that it's as good as any entry in the series, and therefore better than at least 90 percent of what passes for entertainment on TV now.)

But "Prime Suspect" does indeed appear to be over, and creator Linda LaPlante is moving on too. She's signed with NBC to pen "Mafia Wives," which revolves around mob wives who take over the business in their husbands' absence. Sounds fairly promising, and it's definitely in the right hands.

And anyone who actually made it this far deserves a reward. Here's the latest trailer for "American Gangster," Ridley Scott's take on the saga of Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas. Peace out.