I guarantee this will be the craziest thing you see all day

OK, I'm off to finally see "That Evening Sun" today at Atlanta's fabulous Tara (of course) theater, so not a lot of time today, but there is one great bit of Southern movie news, and as promised, a clip that will have you laughing and scratching your heads at the same time.

When (not if) the South rises again, this time it will be in the form of comedy, and buddies Danny McBride, Jody Hill, David Gordon Green and Ben Best are leading the charge.

McBride is the face of their little mob, and has developed into - without exaggeration - probably my favorite actor working today. This year he perfectly played George Clooney's brother-in-law-to-be, who Clooney has to save from a case of cold feet in "Up in the Air." After memorable supporting turns in flicks like "Tropic Thunder" and Gordon Green's "Pineapple Express" (in which he managed to be almost as funny as James Franco, no mean feat), it's beyond high time he get the lead role in his own feature film.

Actually, he's been the star of one movie, Hill's delightfully dark comedy-of-sorts "Foot Fist Way" (rent that right away), and the HBO series "Eastbound and Down," in which he jumped into the role of the ultimate anti-hero in former baseball semi-great Kenny Powers. I might be the only person in the world who loves that show (a friend of mine, Randy "Lethal" Waters, bought it on sale but hated it so much he gave it away to me - thanks!)

And I tell you all that to tell you this: Jody Hill has signed on to direct something called "L.A.P.I." Details are scant so far, but we do know it would star McBride as a beaten-down, hard-boiled private investigator, and that's enough to get me intrigued. The pic would be the first production from McBride, Gordon Green and Hill's production company, Rough House Pictures, and is definitely something worth keeping your eyes on.

But, before I got distracted by all that, I promised some video craziness, and here it is. Long before they became exes and now Oscar rivals, Kathyrn Bigelow and James Cameron - of course - worked together, as they thankfully did for this deliriously cheesy music video.

It's from some kind of '80s new wave band called Martini Ranch, which I had never heard of but apparently featured Bill Paxton as a member. I suppose that connection was what led to Cameron directing this video for the band's song "Reach," which at seven minutes-plus harkens back to the days when music videos at their best were mini-movies.

As you'll see, it looks like some kind of surreal mashup of "Near Dark" (still my favorite Bigelow movie, rent that one too) and "Deadwood," and stars Paxton as a bank robber on the run in the Wild West. Most of the cast of "Near Dark" makes appearances, and best of all, Bigelow leads an all-female posse of bounty hunters, and to be as piggish possible, just looks sensationally hot doing it.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend. For me, it will also include Best Picture nominee "An Education," which somehow turned up at my local multiplex this week. Peace out.

Can Sam Raimi "Drag Me to Hell"? Hell yeah

Judging from the trailer that came out yesterday, I'd say Sam Raimi is finally and thankfully having fun making movies again, but first a short word or two about Jay Baruchel.

Know who he is? Even if you don't think so, you probably do. He played Sandusky in "Tropic Thunder" and Norah's ex in "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," and had his best big-screen part to date as that Zeppelin-obsessed fan in "Almost Famous." And even though Fox only felt fit to air about 15 episodes of it, he was also great as the lead in Judd Apatow's second TV series, "Undeclared," which while never quite as good as "Freaks and Geeks" was still just a damn fine series (and one I have on DVD.)

And now it seems Mr. Baruchel is finally gonna get to carry a movie by himself, and one he had a hand in creating at that, too. Based on a character that Baruchel came up with, "Johnny Klutz" will be about a lovable loser who is impervious to pain. The comedy possibilities are already spinning in my mind. With Ben Stiller involved as a producer, I'd imagine there has to be a pretty good chance this will all come together.

Now, before we get into all the horror goodness from Raimi, there's more news out there that just might impact the future of my favorite current TV drama by far, "Friday Night Lights."

Former cheerleader-turned-Jesus-freak-turned-Tim-Riggins'-girlfriend-once-again Lyla Garrity, a k a Minka Kelly, has signed on to play the lead in something called "Body Politic" for the CW, where she joins co-star Jason Dohring, also known as Logan Echolls on my beloved "Veronica Mars."

On the new show, which according to Variety takes a look at "Washington politics through the eyes of optimistic, up-and-coming staffers," Minka plays Hope, who leaves Michigan after the death of her mother to join the staff of her father, who has just been appointed attorney general. Logan will play a Washington Post reporter. (Just as an aside, I was once an "optimistic, up-and-coming" Washington staffer as an intern for Maryland's great but quick-tempered Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski, and once saw her throw a telephone receiver at someone's head. That was about enough for me.)

I'm not expecting the second coming of "The West Wing" here, but assuming this is also not just completely stupid it will be yet another CW show I'll tune in for despite the fact that I'm way too old to do so without shame.

But what does that mean for "Friday Night Lights"? Well, word is that negotiations are still ongoing between NBC and DirecTV for a fourth season, and insiders are "optimistic" about it happening. Here's hoping, because season three has easily been the best yet. And take note: If not this week's, an episode to come very soon will be all about the future of Lyla and Tim, so definitely stay tuned.

OK, finally, it's down to the horror, and like I said, from this brief glimpse it seems like Sam Raimi has really cooked up something fun with "Drag Me to Hell," which is set to come out May 29.

My first thought watching it was it's just too bad that young Ellen Page dropped out of the lead role, because seeing her as a scream queen would just be a blast. As you can see, Alison Lohman has stepped into her shoes, and I'm betting she'll do just fine.

We're almost there, but if you'll indulge me, here are my three ingredients for horror movie success:

1. Remember people, this should be about suspense rather than simply gore. I'll never understand the entertainment value in watching someone get meticulously tortured.
2. No matter how familiar your idea is, at least have one. I'm almost certain I have yet to see any kind of horror movie remake, and intend to stubbornly hold to that rule from here on out.
3. Keep it simple. You don't need an elaborate curse to unleash all the evil, so just get to it. Raimi certainly seems to have that down here since, as you'll see from the trailer (in just a sec, really), here an old woman turned down for a mortgage extension curses our heroine to hell. Nothing but cool there.

OK, here it finally is. Enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Laugh-a-lot: My 10 best comedies of 2008

The inspiration for this post is actually two-fold, from one thing that made me laugh and one that just made me cringe.

The former comes courtesy of the surprisingly great MTV movies blog, which currently has an interview with David Fincher in which he discusses plans to take "Fight Club" to Broadway as a musical. I just have to assume he was playing the prick with them, but it was delivered as straight news, with him saying he had talked with Julie Taymor and others about what it would involve. Simply bizarre.

The second was something I saw on Variety, and I'll have to take their word for it because I'll never, ever - under penalty of torture, even - tune into anything on my TV featuring Frank Caliendo (I got way more than enough of that during the baseball playoffs anyways.) I mean, does anyone in the world think this guy is actually funny? To me he's just extremely annoying.

He did, however, apparently last night host a special about the funniest movies of 2008, or at least I think he did, since I didn't tune in. Well, if this seriously unfunny guy can say he knows funny, I can too, so here goes: My votes (simply in alphabetical order) for the 10 funniest movies of 2008 (I considered including M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" here, which indeed made me just laugh out loud and often, but it is the holidays after all, so I'm trying to be civil.)

Be Kind Rewind
Michel Gondry's movie just didn't charm me too much at all the first time I saw it, but I've seen it twice since on DVD and it's now quickly moving up the charts. Silly? Sure. Extremely. But the movie re-creations are almost uniformly funny, the last half hour is a sweet tribute to making movies and Mos Def's explanation of why he doesn't want to do "Driving Miss Daisy" is just priceless.

"Burn After Reading"
This is another one that I think will grow in my estimation once I watch it for a second time, but on the first go-round it still has plenty to laugh about in what is certainly one of the Coen brothers' slighter films. I'm not convinced there's any kind of real commentary about our current state of constant surveillance, but Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt and my new favorite Richard Jenkins still bring the funny.

"Hamlet 2"
Steve Coogan throws himself so completely into this portrait of a serious loser that you'll either cringe or laugh along with his misery in spite of yourself. I was often in the latter category when this flick made it to my little corner of the world for exactly one week. It's worth it for that "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" finale alone, but Coogan, Elizabeth Shue (yes, that Elizabeth Shue) and Catherine Keener also were all just a delight to watch.

"In Bruges"
I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but writer/director Martin McDonagh's flick just keeps getting crazier and crazier until a finale that will just leave you scratching your head. Along the way, however, he gives hitmen Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell easily the funniest dialogue of 2008, and they just run with it.

"Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist"
I certainly don't mind crude or even occasionally cruel comedy, but to me it still works best when a director has affection for the subjects he's poking fun at, as Peter Sollett clearly did here with New Jersey's bridge-and-tunnel kids. When I hit the IMDB to make sure I was spelling his name right I found out he was unfortunately now writing a remake of "Footloose," but don't let that stop you from watching Michael Cera and Kat Dennings in this sweet little flick that soon will find a home on my list of the 10 best flicks of 2008.

"Pineapple Express"
Of all the movies on this list, I suspect this stoner comedy will have the shortest shelf life (not unlike even the best buzz, I suppose.) Even so, it's well worth watching for James Franco's performance as the happy-go-lucky dealer, just a comic hoot, and the most painful looking amateur fight scene I've seen in years.

"Soul Men"
I don't know exactly why I was so convinced that the late great Bernie Mac and Sam the Man Jackson palling around as aging "Soul Men" wouldn't be funny, but I'm glad I finally got over that barrier before it left the theaters (though it's still, somehow, playing at our Regal branch yet again in the coming week. Amazing.) When it's crude, director Malcolm Lee's flick is too often also just stupid, but when it's just the Mac man and Mr. Jackson riffing it has a definite appeal, and it's a fitting if way too early way for Bernie to leave us.

"Tropic Thunder"
This was the flick in which Jack Black just reached the saturation point for me, and he'll have to do something really funny (and a lot less annoying) to win me back. That said, Ben Stiller still managed to craft an almost razor sharp satire on Hollywood action flicks, and if you haven't seen Robert Downey Jr. in black face yet, I have to wonder if you even like to laugh at all.

"Vicky Christina Barcelona"
Though there are a lot of heavyweight contenders coming in the next week as I hit NYC with my parents, I'm still fairly certain Woody Allen's lighter-than-air flick will also find a home on my 2008 top 10 list. Even with the thoroughly unnecessary narrator, Rebecca Hall is enchanting, Scarlett Johansson is a lot less annoying than usual and Penelope Cruz is just manically entertaining in every bit of the brief time she gets on screen.

"Zack and Miri Make a Porno"
It's been far too long since Kevin Smith showed up on a list like this, but he certainly deserves it for this mostly satisfying flick. Like, I suppose, an actual porno, it loses it charm before the finish, but along the way Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen make a great comedy duo, the high school reunion is very funny and the money shot (sorry, I had to) comes with an anal sex joke that will make perhaps even the most prudish comedy fans laugh out loud as they are simultaneously blushing.

So, there you have it. Please feel free to add any 2008 comedies I may have missed, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. In an effort to make that more attainable, here's a shot of the simply stunning Carla Gugino in the upcoming "Women in Trouble," which certainly doesn't need to be spoiled by any more words from me. Peace out.

Demko's DVD shelf: The wonder of "Wall-E" and the future of Pixar

Actually, the coolest news I could find out there this morning is that Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, who crafted the simply splendid Harvey Pekar bio "American Splendor," are now about to give the same treatment to Sam Kinison for HBO.

The duo are adapting the Kinison bio "Brother Sam" for Tom Shadyac (who, yes, has "Patch Adams" on his resume) to direct and Dan Folger (star of "Balls of Fury") to play Kinison. Folger can be a pretty annoying presence on screen, but, frankly, so could Kinison, and having seen Folger in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" I can attest he can be a genuinely funny guy, so keep your eyes on this one.

But here today, however, it's about this week's DVDs and - more specifically - the wonder of "Wall-E." Looking back on my mid-year movie report, I had "Wall-E" fifth out of 10, not exactly a stellar rating giving that "Ratatouille" was my single favorite movie of all of 2007. I stand by that, but I will concede that, just as froggy director Guillaume Canet's "Tell No One" has delivered the best closing 30 minutes or so of this year with its amazing reveal, the first third of "Wall-E" is easily the best beginning to any movie of this year.

Watching our hero go through his daily routine and seeing robo-love slowly unfold with the tempestuous Eve (or, as he says, Ev-a) was without exaggeration magical. Here's what I had to say in my original review:

As corny as this certainly sounds, if you've seen Pixar's "Wall-E" (and if you haven't, why the heck not?), can you think of any movie in any genre for the last 20 years or so that had more to say about the power of love?

Well, robot love, of course, but the story of Wall-E and Eve still just grabs you faster and keeps you fully attached longer than almost any love story that I can think of (some might mention "The Notebook," but for simple entertainment value and much more, "Wall-E" just blows that away.)

It does lose a bit of steam as the movie slowly gets more and more conventional, but Andrew Stanton has still crafted a real charmer worth picking up on DVD. And more on Pixar coming in just a bit, but first two more DVD picks this week.

"Tropic Thunder"

When it comes to comedy, I have a broad range of likes, from the sweet (Woody Allen's "Vicky Christina Barcelona" and Peter Sollett's "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" have lasted as two of my favorites from this year) to the truly crude.

In the latter category, there have been two truly tasteless moments in 2008 that I have to admit just made me howl. One is the anal sex joke that comes near the end of Kevin Smith's mostly satisfying "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" (which you won't hear any more about here since this is still linked from a family-friendly newspaper) and the other is Robert Downey Jr.'s "full retard" speech in "Tropic Thunder."

I just assumed that, given how much he appeared in the trailer, the best of his jokes as the black-faced method actor Kirk Lazarus were revealed there, but for once I was wrong. It's worth at least renting "Tropic Thunder," especially if you haven't seen it, for his retard speech alone, but there's also plenty of more crude capers (and more than a bit too much Jack Black), plus the rather funny mockumentary "Rain of Madness" to boot.

"Monty Python Holy Trinity"

I'm ashamed to say I own only one of these movies, "Monty Python's Life of Brian," on DVD. That one has just always had a special place in my heart, I think because amazingly enough I first watched it at a meeting of our Episcopal church youth group. Blasphemy, but not really all that harmful, methinks.

This week, for the rather reasonable price of $29.99 at Amazon, you get that flick packaged with the classics "Monty Python's Meaning of Life" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" with extras in a six-disc set. Not sure I can spring for it now - with Christmas coming up and all - but I have a feeling I will at some point in the fairly near future.

More on Pixar, present and future

I'll close today with a couple of clips. The first is "Burn-E," the Pixar short you'll get if you spring for "Wall-E" on DVD. It uses a lot of "Wall-E" in sharing the exploits of the welding robot, but the moment when he hangs his head in shame is just pretty cool.



Second comes the second trailer for Pixar's next flick, "Up," which rather ominously uses the first minute or so to simply extol the virtues of Pixar flicks past. Once it gets going we do get see our septuagenarian super hero (voiced by Ed Asner) and his flying house (ring any bells? I know there aren't that many original thoughts left at this point, but it would seem this steals rather directly and recently from Hayao Miyazaki!) Anyways, enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly pleasant Tuesday.

Bland, James Bland: The full report

Before anyone points out just how quixotic it is to rail against a movie that's already raked in more than $70 million domestic or call me some kind of elitist, don't bother. I love Bond movies and especially "Casino Royale," but this one simply didn't measure up on almost any front.

Since the movie clearly did, let's start with the theme song, which would be instantly forgettable if it weren't simply so awful. As someone who has just about every minute of "Icky Thump" seared onto my brain, I just can't imagine how Jack White, with vocals from Alicia Keys, could manage to come up with something so generic. Given the worldly appeal of the Bond franchise, I have to wonder if they even gave consideration to someone like M.I.A., a little rough for sure but much more interesting.

And after that, from the outset, you know there's gonna be problems with the action in "Quantum of Solace." I'm OK with the grand introductory set pieces being a thing of the past, especially since this one picks up immediately where "Casino Royale" left off and starts with a nifty enough car chase. But from there it just gets muddier and muddier, and giving full credit to my friend Chris Stanford for this line, I sure wish it hadn't delivered its camera work "shaken, not stirred."

Worst of all, it's just Bond imitating Bourne, and more specifically director Marc Forster imitating the apparently seizure-ridden camera antics of Paul Greengrass, and for such an iconic franchise that's just sad. Before I let this rant go, a challenge to anyone who liked this more than me (and I'm sure there a lot of you out there): Name one action sequence in "Solace" that sticks in your mind two days later (the opera house take was indeed pretty cool, but not enough to satisfy.)

All of which could be forgiven if the story from Paul Haggis and two others or the direction of Mr. Forster gave this latest Bond tale much urgency at all. I mean, we all know that Bond is out for revenge this time for the death of Vesper Lynd (the sorely missed Eva Green), but by the second (and not last) time we see Daniel Craig's Bond drop a body for no productive reason and Dame Judi Dench's M. chide him for it, it quickly gets little but old.

Much worse, the sinister plot being hatched by billionaire Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) is as ludicrous as anything ever cooked up in a Bond flick, but with all the fun drained out it's also just extremely monotonous. I don't want to give anything away, but like just about every story nowadays it's "green." I'm all for saving the planet, but is putting eco-plots in movies (and on NBC all week, apparently just to annoy me as I try to watch my new favorite spy "Chuck") really gonna make any difference?

And the by-the-numbers approach of this Bond installment is hardly helped by director Forster, who has the distinction of making easily one of my least favorite movies ever in "Monster's Ball" but also one I really like quite a bit in "Stranger than Fiction." Here, however, he's clearly overmatched, and not just in the action scenes. At least twice early on - I guess in an effort to move the story along - he has M. simply mention a new lead, and the immediate next image is that new cityscape, with it name plastered on it in case we viewers are, like Robert Downey Jr. explained in "Tropic Thunder," "full retard."

OK, I've certainly gone on long enough about what's wrong with "Quantum of Solace," so was there anything good? Of course. Daniel Craig clearly has the soul to pull off the new Bond we saw unveiled in "Casino Royale," even if his character here is almost completely devoid of it. And what little wit there is in "Solace" - formerly a very welcome attribute of Bond himself - comes almost exclusively from Dench, who can just be wickedly funny in any circumstance (watch "Notes on a Scandal" if you're somehow still not convinced.)

Finally, what about the babes, a key component of any Bond movie? Well, Olga Kurlyenko is certainly leggy and pouty enough to make me at least consider destroying the world. But what she isn't, and I fault the rather poor excuse for a story here again, is particularly sultry, removing almost all the potential sparks from her encounter with Bond. And the secondary babe would have been much more memorable had she been played by Christina Hendricks of "Mad Men" - as I mistakenly thought when I saw the first pics of "Quantum of Solace" - instead of the rather forgettable Gemma Arterton.

So, almost a complete miss for me, but with more than $70 million in the U.S. vault alone, Daniel Craig and James Bond will certainly live (not "die," as that awful theme song says; sorry to harp on it, but it's really just tremendously bad) to see a 22nd (I think I have that right) installment, and I'll certainly give him another chance. Peace out.

"Burn After Reading": "No biggie," but so what?

It really must be nice to be the Coens. What they've essentially done with "Burn After Reading" is enlisted as many of their A-list buddies as they could wrangle into what is easily one of their most nihilistic flicks - and probably one for devoted Coen fans only (of which I'm surely one.)

It's not that their twisted spy caper has no plot. It does, filled with the usual kind of Coen brothers' characters who are not terribly bright and almost always out to serve nothing but their own interest. As with "No Country for Old Men" and all their best flicks (which this isn't quite among), they've taken a conventional genre and added enough of their touches to make it a nasty little world that only they could create (even if in this case it's more than a little too close to the surveillance-crazy one we live in now.)

But this flick otherwise couldn't possibly be much different than the Coens' Oscar-winning triumph, and that's certainly something that should be celebrated. Despite its endearingly despicable characters, this is a screwball comedy until it comes to its inevitably bloody end, so the bottom line question is is it funny?

Well, after a slow start, the answer is very often yes, and thanks much more to Brad Pitt than I would have guessed. Judging from the trailers only, I expected to find his personal trainer to simply be annoying, but he's one of those Coen idiots that the brothers love to create, and Pitt jumps into it with gusto and steals just about every scene he's in. He doesn't quite go, as Robert Downey Jr. put it in "Tropic Thunder," "full retard," but it's pretty darn close and just very funny, especially when he's confronted with John Malkovich's CIA agent Ozzie Cox, who's as crazy as Pitt's Chad is stupid.

And what heart there is in all this darkness comes from Frances McDormand's obsession with plastic surgery in her quest for love and Richard Jenkins as the boss who loves her though she completely fails to notice. Without telling you any more to spoil this odd little flick, it may be the theft of intelligence from Malkovich's ousted spook that offers the semblance of a plot, but it's the three employees of the Hardbodies gym - Pitt, McDormand and Jenkins - that give the violence we all know is coming as much resonance as would be possible in such a wacky movie. (Jenkins, by the way, is just someone I always like to see, so I've just added last year's "The Visitor" to my Netflix queue to make up for overlooking that flick he toplined.)

In the end, it all really adds up to "no biggie," as JK Simmons's sardonic CIA supervisor says in wrapping it all up, but so what? It's not transcendent in the least and not quite the commentary on our current state of affairs that the Coens may have intended, but as a 90-minute lark with a dark wink, I'll take it and enjoy it. And they can always get "Serious" again next year with a flick about judaism and morality starring Richard Kind, so just take this little side trip while you can.

"Hamlet 2": A pretty funny end to a good month

Though there hasn't been any thing nearly as good as "Superbad," I have to say the comedies of August have been surprisingly good. I'd put "Vicky Christina Barcelona" and "Tropic Thunder" on top, and "Hamlet 2" somewhere in the middle of the pack.

The main problem is that - for the first time for me - a little Steve Coogan goes a very long way. I've loved movies he's carried in the past, especially "Tristram Shandy" and "24-Hour Party People," but here he takes an already annoying character and just beats us to death with it. Luckily, his supporting players, including the always-welcome Catherine Keener as his wife and Elizabeth Shue as, well, Elizabeth Shue, and also the mostly Hispanic students in his drama class all fare much better.

And it's an odd consequence that Melonie Diaz (who I've been hooked on ever since "Raising Victor Vargas") has appeared this year in both this and "Be Kind Rewind," the movie it most resembles in structure and tone. Like Michel Gondry's flick, this one kind of meanders around a bit at the start, then builds to a very funny finish.

As I expected, director Andrew Fleming and co-writer Pam Brady keep the jokes coming fast, but they work best when they keep their sights on two targets, "inspirational" teacher movies like "Dangerous Minds" and "Mr. Holland's Opus" and the current crop of musical offerings led by "High School Musical."

I've got to wrap this up quick because I have to labor on Labor Day, but here's the bottom line: If you can get past Steve Coogan's overbearing performance and stick with "Hamlet 2" until the finish, you'll find an offbeat kind of comedy that's never quite as crude as you might be expecting but ultimately almost as satisfying as I had hoped.

More, free "Tropic Thunder" ... the movie within the movie within the movie?

I'm sure you'll be able to see this soon as a DVD extra, but when it's available for free from Itunes, why not waste a half hour of your day with more "Tropic Thunder" hi jinx in the form of "Rain of Madness" ("Heart of Darkness," get it?)

What is it? Well, as the title implies, it's a faux, half-hour documentary about the "making" of "Tropic Thunder," and at many points its almost as funny as the actual movie. Steve Coogan is the real star (and I'm rather psyched - and shocked - that his "Hamlet 2" really is going to play everywhere this weekend) of this extra, and he's all blustering ego as director Damien Cockburn. All the cast members take part, however, and Jay Baruchel's pitching "Prom Knight" (I won't spoil what that is) and Robert Downey Jr.'s meltdown from suffering Post "Platoon" Stress Disorder are especially funny.

But why do you need to hear any more about this from me? Download it for free from the Itunes store here, and enjoy!

"Tropic Thunder": The art of sharp satire lives again

Even if it has come a lot later than usual this year, it's still depressing to announce that, once again, it is now mathematically impossible for the Baltimore Orioles to win 100 games (but the chase to .500 goes on with spirit!)

But that, of course, is not the order of the day. That would be "Tropic Thunder" which - given my fears about how bad it might be - turned out to be surprisingly satisfying and close-to-first-rate satire of Hollywood action moviemaking.

I liked this one even more than "Pineapple Express," which I certainly didn't expect, but it's still not without its faults. First off, I'm still immature enough to get a kick out of grossout humor (I still say the first "Jackass" movie is the "Citizen Kane" of that genre), but I'm beginning to find I just don't have the stomach any more when it crosses the line to simply disgusting. "Tropic Thunder" does this at several points, the worst of which involved writer/director/star Ben Stiller and a certain body part of Steve Coogan's (I won't spoil this revolting bit for you.)

And my second beef was with Jack Black who, for the first time, simply annoyed me on the big screen. Even if you like him, which I definitely still do, try and think of his most annoying characteristics. Now think of all of those amplified because he's tripping balls on cocaine, and you'll come close to how unbearable he is in this movie. For a much better performance by Jack Black as a drug addict, flash back to Alison Maclean's simply charming little flick "Jesus' Son," which is well worth a rental if you haven't seen it.

All that said, there's a lot more to like than to loathe in "Tropic Thunder," and almost all of it revolves around Robert Downey Jr. (though Ben Stiller holds his own and just made me laugh out loud with his heart of darkness with panda breakdown.) Surely everyone has seen Downey in blackface as meticulous method actor Kirk Lazarus by now, but I can tell you there's much more funny here than you've seen in the trailer. The best part of all is that he talks like no person - black or white - you'll probably ever meet, and it's hilarious when Brandon T. Jackson as rapper-turned-actor Alpa Chino (get it?) calls him out on it (and speaking of the fine line between gross and disgusting, two words: Booty Sweat (very funny!)

Drawing even more fire going in to this one was the use of the word "retard" but, and perhaps I'm just extremely insensitive, it works perfectly well in the framework of hollywood satire. If Stiller had simply left it at his portrayal of "Simple Jack" it would have been a mild chuckle-inducer, but once again it's Downey who elevates this to a fair target with his speech about going "full retard." The only people who should really be cringing rather than laughing at this are the moviemakers who know they're the real butt of this joke.

The bottom line: It's a bit too disgusting and definitely repetitive, but "Tropic Thunder" is also the best satire about the business of making movies since "The Player." Peace out.

And yes, I do have a pet rock

After taking the week off to engage in a none-too-pleasant or fruitful war with the phone company, I am now pleased to report that I have entered the late 20th century and have finally gotten a digital internet connection. I still don't have a cell phone, but I suppose there's always hope for that.

And it also means I get to sever all ties with America Online, so it really is a day of liberation and celebration around here.

The main thing I've discovered is Hulu.com, which the rest of the world probably already knows is just a goldmine of free TV and some movies. For example, you can watch every single episode of "South Park" and, even better, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (before they're even out on DVD.) I realize this is turning into a straight-out plug, but I can't help it.

Amazingly enough, you can even watch one of my all-time favorite films there for free, Whit Stillman's "Metropolitan." A look at the rather empty lives of young, upper class Manhattanites during the height of debutante season, it's actually a whole lot better than I'm making it sound here and just a great bunch of witty fun. Stillman pretty much disappeared after directing the mildly diverting "Barcelona" and the simply disappointing "Last Days of Disco," but he's rumored to actually be making a comeback as the director of a flick based on Christopher Buckley's satire "Little Green Men."

But enough of that. The order of the day is Ben Stiller's "Tropic Thunder," which I'm going to see this afternoon and am really looking forward to. And I know there's some controversy brewing about Stiller's frequent use of the word "retard" (what would you prefer, "touched"?), but I certainly think that the Academy Awards insistence on showering Oscars on just about anyone who plays a person with any kind of handicap is certainly a ripe target for spoofing, even if they do go a bit too far.

The real reason I'm more than a little psyched for this one is that it falls into my favorite subgenre of flicks: the "movie within a movie." Most often presented as comedies so directors can poke fun at themselves, they're just almost always enjoyable. So, in honor of "Tropic Thunder" and my return to posting anything at all, here are my 10 favorite movies about making movies (and television, since I make the rather loose rules here):

Spinal Tap
There are certainly more productive (and fun) things to do in college, but the set of dudes I ran with then spent way too much of our downtime quoting lines (pathetic, I know) from Rob Reiner's extremely quotable flick about the world's worst heavy metal band. As you can from my bio entry at the top of this site, I just love this flick.

A Cock and Bull Story
Steve Coogan, while probably more than a bit of an asshole in real life, is still very entertaining when he plays one in movies (which he almost always does.) As this list takes shape, I'm realizing it's gonna be as much about failing to make movies as it is about making them, and Michael Winterbottom's flick about a Quixotic attempt to adapt the "unfilmable" novel "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" is just the perfect portrait of comic futility.

Adaptation
When Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman collaborated for this flick about ... well, sort of, Charlie and his twin brother, Donald ... what they came up with is still one of the strangest movies I've ever seen. Spike is currently doing battle with Warner Bros. about what his "Where the Wild Things Are" will look like if it ever hits theaters, and those of you lucky enough to live in a city much bigger than mine will fairly soon be getting Kaufman's directorial debut with "Synecdoche, New York."

Day for Night
A rather obvious choice I know, but how could you possibly leave off Francois Truffaut's valentine to making movies? You can't find it anywhere online for free, but if you can manage to find Richard Brody's "Auteur Wars" article from the April 7, 2008, edition of The New Yorker, it's just essential reading about Truffaut and Godard.

Living in Oblivion
Steve Buscemi as the director of a nonbudget indie flick that's just falling apart by the minute? This one from writer-director Tom DiCillo is almost as good as that premise promises, and James LeGros' turn as the preening star is just a hoot. A look at DiCillo's IMDB resume reveals this is the only flick of his I've seen, which I'll have to remedy very soon.

Ed Wood
If this list were done in proper order, I'd probably have to put this one at or near the top. Making a movie about the world's worst filmmaker (at least at the time ... he's surely been lapped in that category many times by now) is a ripe target for Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, and perhaps the best proof that when Burton sticks to original material rather than his wretched remakes, he's a heck of a good filmmaker.

Lost in La Mancha
Johnny Depp again, but why not? If you doubt that any of the stories you've heard about Terry Gilliam's obstinance and ego are true, you won't after watching this doco about his doomed attempt to make a movie of "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote." This also features an appearance from one of my favorite actors, Jean Rochefort, looking perfectly piqued at Gilliam's shenanigans.

Bamboozled
This one is about TV not movies, but until it just jumps way into overkill in the final act it's easily one of my favorite flicks from Spike Lee. A very biting and bitter satire, it has Savion Glover and Tommy Davidson starring in a blackface minstrel show, and it's often even more outrageous than it sounds on paper. And you heard it here: I predict, from the limited clips I've seen so far, that Spike's "Miracle at St. Anna" will finally get him the Best Picture nomination he's clearly deserved for many, many years now.

Boogie Nights
Yes, it can get rather tawdry, but Paul Thomas Anderson's flick about Marky Mark's adventures as a '70s porn star is also just a great ensemble and period piece. And I dare you to try and find anything funnier than Don Cheadle trying to sell eight-track players while decked out in Country-Western attire as Buck Swope.

The Late Shift
Whew ... last one! I'm not sure this was the first movie that HBO ever made, but it's certainly the one that started to get the train rolling. It's been years since I've bothered to tune in to either David Letterman or Jay Leno, and I certainly won't give any of my time to Jimmy Fallon, but this insider's look at the late-night war that erupted after the retirement of Johnny Carson is just about pitch perfect.

Silliness from Rainn Wilson

I'm fairly certain the "The Rocker" with "The Office" star Rainn Wilson is going to be a good late-summer laugher, and he's definitely doing his part to make sure people turn out to see it. For the flick's viral (what an odd word) marketing pitch, he's teamed up with cutie Jenna Fischer for some extreme silliness at the Web site Free Jenna Now. I'll leave you with one sample clip, but I recommend visiting the site for a few laughs to make your Friday just a little more bearable. Peace out.

Can Sony right a serious superhero wrong ... and are you ready to laugh?

I've railed in this space far too many times on just why I hate the movie "Spider-Man 3" so much, but now Sony is about to take a chance on fixing perhaps the flick's biggest mistake (among many.)

Even if they are doing it only because they mistakenly believe that the box-office bonanza that is "The Dark Knight" (which is worthy of every penny it's earned and more, in my book) guarantees that America wants more superhero flicks where the villains take center stage, it does owe "Venom" a serious apology and some proper screen time.

By the time the character was introduced in Raimi's rather dismal flick it had already lost its charms for more than an hour or so. However, in the hands of a good writer, a better actor (though you really can't blame Topher Grace for what happened to "Spider-Man 3") and a director who cares more about the franchise than Raimi seemed to in the third Spidey installment, a "Venom" flick could be really, really good. And, frankly, possibly even better than the "Spider-Man 4" that Sony is also developing for 2011.

And, in the only news that really made me laugh out loud this morning, it seems that Freddie Prinze Jr., a k a Mr. Sarah Michelle Gellar, has joined forces with World Wrestling Entertainment. However, for all of those who - like me - were hoping this would mean him climbing into the ring to get pummeled by a 400-lb. steroid-gobbler, I have to break the bad news that this will be a strictly behind-the-scenes kind of gig. Vince McMahon, a longtime master of professional wrestling's art of hyperbole, had this to say about his latest acquisition:

"Freddie Prinze Jr.'s passion, energy and creativity make him an excellent fit for WWE. Bringing on board an experienced Hollywood writer, actor and producer like Freddie Prinze Jr. will only increase the level of entertainment to millions of viewers and passionate WWE fans every Monday on USA."

Ha! I'd have to say he's at least got the first sentence in that gush just about right, and hopefully the movies coming next will be somewhere near as funny as that (though, I have my doubts.)

August: A month to laugh?

If I'm not mistaken (though I too often am), my favorite comedy of 2007, "Superbad" (by just a nose over "Hot Fuzz") came out last August, but I'm not sure this year's late-summer laughers - though there are a lot of them - will come close to that standard.

Here's what's coming (and, oddly enough, all on Wednesdays):

Pineapple Express: Aug. 6
Even if it is just a stoner movie, I have fairly high hopes for this one. Just the redband trailer in which James Franco shows what really happens when you try to kick out the windshield of a moving car was enough to get me laughing rather hard.

"Tropic Thunder": Aug. 13
I'm still holding out hope that this one will be a very funny spoof of full-blown action spectacles, but there are some ominous signs. The fact that just about the only thing they show in most trailers I've seen is Robert Downey Jr. in black face (which, I must admit, really is rather funny) can't be a good omen.

"The Rocker" : Aug. 20
Apparently the director of "The Full Monty" just really likes making movies about naked dudes. More than 10 years after unleashing that on the world, director Peter Cattaneo is back with this tale of Rainn Wilson as "the naked drummer." I have my doubts this will be the vehicle to make the very-funny Mr. Wilson a big-screen star, but here's hoping I'm wrong. It does have a "Superbad" link in Emma Stone, Jules from that flick and one of Rainn's young bandmates in this one.

And, there is a possible wild card out there. For months now, always-welcome visitor Jeremy has been on me to watch "The Wackness," but the groovy comedy hasn't played anywhere near me - until maybe now. If my TV didn't lie last night, it will indeed be playing "everywhere" soon, and just might turn into the little summer flick that becomes a surprise hit. Wait and see ... and feel free to me know if you have any hope at all for the comedies of August. As a parting gift, enjoy this seriously cool "Empire" magazine cover starring some of the "Watchmen." Peace out.

Michael Cera and Edgar Wright: A comedy dream team?

Lest anyone have their suspicions, I don't just write about Michael Cera because it always brings a slight uptick in the rather meager number of people who take the time to visit this site. It's just that I happen to like the guy as much as most of the rest of the world seems to.

And now that he's stepping firmly into the role of leading but still young man, he does seem to be making very good choices. In the latest, which seems like it could only turn out to be extremely cool, he'll be working with "Hot Fuzz"/"Shaun of the Dead" director Edgar Wright on something called "Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life."

Though I had admittedly never heard of the series of short graphic novels (four so far, I believe) by Bryan Lee O'Malley, it sounds like yet another "sensitive slacker" role for Mr. Cera (not complaining, mind you, because he certainly fits the niche well.)

Here, as best as I can tell, is what the story is about: 23-year-old Canadian Scott Pilgrim (Cera) is a wannabe-rockstar living in Toronto and playing bass in the band "Sex Bob-Omb." He falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona V. Flowers, but must defeat her seven "evil exes" in order to date her.

And lest you think that viral movie promotion is just an annoying fad (which it very often can be), it actually brought these two very funny dudes together. You may remember that fairly funny video promoting "Superbad" in which Wright plays a snarky reporter who suffers the wrath of Jonah Hill. Well, Cera played second fiddle in that, and now it's clearly paying off.

So, what else is George Michael Bluth up to? Though it's not (yet anyway) an "Arrested Development" movie, it's still all potentially very good. It somehow slipped by me that he's playing the co-lead, along with Jack Black, in Harold Ramis' upcoming Camp Apatow flick "Year One," and he's also set to play 14-year-old (how in the world are they gonna pull that off?) Nick Twisp in the big-screen adaptation of one of my favorite comedic novels, "Youth in Revolt." I can only say bring it all on.

Details emerge about new "Wallace and Gromit" special

Given my love for Nick Park's creation I easily could have led with this goodness too.

Before I go any further, let me say all of this comes courtesy of Empire, and you can read their full article on the matter here. It seems that Wallace & Gromit's upcoming BBC special, previously known as "Trouble at the Mill," is now known as "A Matter of Loaf and Death" (groan, but still funny), and has cast its leading lady in "Coronation Street" star Sally Lindsay, pictured here.

Even better, Empire revealed some of what the guys' next adventure will be all about: Wallace and Gromit have a brand new bakery business, ‘Top Bun’ (the punning is already spiraling out of control!) Their house has been converted into a granary with a ‘Wallace patent-pending’ old-fashioned windmill on the roof. Gromit, however, finds himself having to run the whole operation single-handedly as Wallace is ‘dough-eyed’ in love with the beautiful Piella Bakewell (Lindsay), former star of the Bake-O-Lite bread commercials. What’s more, a dozen local bakers have disappeared in recent months and Gromit is worried that Wallace may be next. Gromit turns sleuth and the duo soon find themselves drawn into a sinister murder mystery (of course!)

This is set to air on the BBC sometime later this year and then, hopefully quickly, work its way across the pond (and into my house) on DVD.


The coolest movie of 2009?

Though there will surely be a lot of contenders for that title, it's hard to dispute the mojo that's quickly building for Michael Mann's gangster pic "Public Enemies."

The picture above is indeed Johnny Depp in character as John Dillinger, courtesy of Hollywood Newsroom, where you can see more pics from the set here. Along with Depp, the flick's got Christian Bale as top lawman Melvin Purvis, the lovely Marion Cotillard as Dillinger's moll Billie Frechette and Channing Tatum as Pretty Boy Floyd, plus Giovanni Ribisi and Stephen Dorff as either supporting good or bad guys. Simply all-around cool.

"How I Met Your Mother" off the bubble?

Though Variety headlined this with the rather groanworthy "CBS comedies back with a Bang," the big news for me about the return of its Monday night lineup was the performance of my current favorite, "How I Met Your Mother."

The show hit a season high in its new 8:30 time slot (second-place 4.3/11 in 18-49, 9.7 million viewers overall), a 34 percent improvement in 18-49 over its fall firstrun average (and second place, by the way, is nothing to sneeze at when you're up against the season premiere of dancing with the has-beens and never-were.)

With Britney and, even better, "Scrubs" star Sarah Chalke set to appear on next Monday's episode, the numbers should only get better, and hopefully lead CBS to finally go ahead and greenlight a fourth season of network TV's best comedy.

R.I.P. Anthony Minghella

Though it's been awfully light and more than bit a silly here so far today, there is indeed one bit of very sad news out there: Director Anthony Minghella has died of a hemorrhage at the none-too-old age of 54.

Of all his movies ("The English Patient," "Cold Mountain" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley," among others), I think my favorite would have to be his first, "Truly Madly Deeply." This very British but much less treacly take on the "Ghost" story starred Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman, and I'm sure you can still find it on DVD if it somehow passed you by.

But as with most deaths of talented people, what always saddens me the most is what was to come. Minghella had last directed a telepic for HBO based on the Alexander McCall Smith novel "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" starring Jill Scott, Idris Elba, Anika Noni Rose and Colin Salmon, which I haven't had the pleasure of seeing yet. Despite that rather wretched title, the premise of a Botswanan woman (Scott) starting up the country's first female-owned detective agency was enticing enough for HBO to greenlight 13 episodes of a series for Minghella to direct for next spring, but of course now that will never be. Rest in peace, Mr. Minghella.

First full "Tropic Thunder" trailer

OK, enough with all that depressing stuff. Here's the full trailer for Ben Stiller's upcoming "Tropic Thunder," which, despite the warnings of reader dbackdad (who was lucky enough to see a preview screening in Arizona) that this won't be terribly funny, I'm still holding out hope otherwise. Unfortunately, one thing we find out is that Robert Downey Jr.'s stint as a black man starts to already grow old in this small dosage. Enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly bearable Wednesday. Peace out.

How far is too far to be funny?

I was gonna save that photo, and who's actually in it, for the end, but since it made me laugh so hard I almost did an actual spit-take with my coffee, why not lead with it?

Believe it or not, the middle soldier in the above photo, with enlarged face at the bottom, is none other than Robert Downey Jr. in a scene from the upcoming flick "Tropic Thunder." Does that go too far? I don't think so, but I've been known to laugh at a lot of things (almost anything from Kevin Smith, for example) that the rest of the world finds incredibly offensive.

So, what's the story behind all this? Well, in the Ben Stiller-directed flick set to come out in August, Downey plays a method actor who takes his work so seriously that, when cast to play a black soldier, he actually has surgery to become, well, a black soldier.

In his defense (though I'm hoping he won't really need one), Downey clearly understands the stakes here:

"If it's done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago. If you don't do it right, we're going to hell."

I'd say he's right, if more than a little immodest, on both counts. And hey, at least he didn't audition to play a rather large and very dead black rapper (more on that later, so bear with me.) Any thoughts on this?

Jason Reitman's new muse ... Jim Carrey?

When I saw this report this morning, my first thought was when in the world have I last seen Jim Carrey in any kind of movie at all? The answer was the mostly enjoyable "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" (I didn't bother with either "Fun With Dick and Jane" or "The Number 23," and I've decided my life will still be just fine if I never see any big-budget Dr. Seuss flicks.)

Now, however, he's signed on for something I'll definitely tune in for: Jason Reitman's next flick. "Pierre Pierre," which Fox Atomic picked up for a cool million bucks from a spec script from first-time auteurs Edwin Cannistraci and Frederick Seton, tells the "politically incorrect" story of a self-indulgent French nihilist (Carrey, I presume) who transports a stolen painting from Paris to London.

Sounds dark like "Thank You for Smoking" rather than light as "Juno," which would be just fine by me. And though I'd much rather look at Ellen Page (hence the photo) than Jim Carrey, he can still be an extremely funny guy under the influence of a sedative or two, so I definitely say bring it on.

Biggie to be played by ... "Gravy"?

After a year-long search to play the late and very large Brooklyn rapper Notorious B.I.G., Fox Searchlight has settled on the equally large but very much alive Brooklyn rapper Jamal "Gravy" Woolard for its upcoming biopic, "Notorious."

Never heard of him? Me either, but as you can see from this photo he certainly fits the part. And besides, he has a real-life resume that sounds like it could have come straight out of "Fear of a Black Hat." He's released a number of albums, but was also apparently shot before a radio appearance outside the rather "Notorious" New York hip-hop station Hot 97 two years ago, after which he proceeded with the interview before seeking any kind of treatment.

And, apart from that seemingly perfect bit of casting, the flick has attracted a first-rate supporting cast as well. Angela Bassett (huzzah!) will play Biggie's mother, Violetta Wallace, Derek Luke (huzzah again!) will play P. Diddy (or whatever his name is now), and Anthony Mackie (who I had never heard of) will play the equally late Tupac Shakur.

I realize this all may not matter much to most of the world, but in another case of a white guy pretending to be black I listen to much more hip-hop than any gringo of my age rightfully should, and Biggie's "Life After Death" is easily one of my favorite records, so I say this flick - which starts shooting this month - should be all kinds of cool.


Seth Rogen teams up with another very funny guy

Though the rest of this report is about an entirely different flick, I definitely wanted to share the above pic from Kevin Smith's upcoming (and surely juvenile) "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." The expressions on the faces of Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen were enough to make me laugh out loud.

And now comes word that Rogen will team up with writer/director Jody Hill for a new project called "Observe and Report," in which he'll play just about the lowliest specimen of human being around, the mall cop. In something that sounds like it could come straight from the Broken Lizard crew, he'll play Ronnie Barnhardt, a head of mall security who somehow gets in a turf war with the real cops.

Sounds funny enough to me, but who in the world is Jody Hill? Well, the world is about to find out when his 2006 flick "Foot Fist Way" finally gets a hopefully very wide release June 6. Few things make me laugh harder than children getting kicked in the cojones, so this martial arts comedy starring Danny McBride should be right up my alley (and I think it will be one of the real sleeper hits of this summer.)

I've included the trailer below, but be warned: if you watch it at work do it with headphones on, because the language in this is definitely R-rated (and if it gets cut off before the end, you can see the whole thing at Funnyordie.com.) Peace out.