Remember Wallace and Gromit? They're back!

First off, about last night's comedy slate, big kudos to the uneven "Community" for turning its premiere episode into a tribute to the late John Hughes. It was class and easily the best thing about a show with a lot of potential that will almost surely get better as the first season rolls along.

But, even though the funniest thing was of course "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," which is thankfully just as rude as ever, the real surprise was that "Parks and Recreation" was sharper and wittier than "The Office." More Aziz Ansari would always be welcome, but watching Amy Poehler embrace her newfound gay stardom was just a hoot.

OK, enough of that. A bit of movie news before we get to the Wallace and Gromit clips, which will hopefully make you smile like they did me.

First up, it seems that Rebecca Hall, a definite favorite around here (in case you hadn't noticed), has signed on to play the lead in a Richard Linklater movie I might actually get to see before it hits DVD.

In the road comedy-drama "Liars A-E," she'll play Bacall Loomis, a woman who sets out on a road trip during the Obama inauguration to reclaim items that used to be hers from ex-boyfriends. Kat Dennings is also on board to play one of her friends, certainly not a bad thing.

Sounds a little meh to me, but a Linklater road movie of any kind is always at least worth checking out in my book if it actually makes it into theaters.

And in other news, The Weinstein Co. has delayed "potential awards contender" (not sure where I saw those words, but I didn't make them up, believe me) "Youth in Revolt," which I had really been looking forward to seeing in October. I really can't imagine that a movie based on C.D. Payne's absurdly entertaining novel about a 14-year-old (played by Michael Cera in the movie, I have to assume a couple of years older) who's only goal in his young life is to score with the object of his affection, Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday), will ever be up for any major awards of any kind.

But even so, it was certainly something I wanted to see, since I just love the book, but we won't be able to do that now until Jan. 15. Sheesh.

OK, now on to the main event. Could there be better news for fans of wickedly funny animation than that Wallace and Gromit are hitting DVD again Tuesday in their latest adventure, "Wallace and Gromit in a Matter of Loaf and Death"? I actually had the chance to see this as part of an animation collection at the Atlanta Film Festival earlier this year, but passed to see something else playing at the same time.

Nick Park has dabbled in bigger things, but I'll always love Wallace and Gromit most among his creations. It's just that slightly bawdy spirit and the groan-inducing puns that get me every time. As the title suggests, in this latest offering our heroes are somehow now bakers, and surely some kind of evil will develop to block their path.

Here are three clips from the short movie, first the straightforward trailer and then two scenes, first the new morning routine chez Wallace and Gromit and then a glimpse of Wallace pitching woo with his new lady love, Piella Bakewell (did I mention the puns?). The "Ghost" parody in the final clip is just as funny as it is, of course, timely. Enjoy.

And as for this weekend's movies, I think I've been at least temporarily scared off of "Jennifer's Body" by the fair-to-worse reviews, so for me I think it will be "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" (unfortunately in 3-D) on Saturday and then Matt Damon as "The Informant!" on Sunday. Have a great weekend, no matter what you choose to see (or not.) Peace out.

"Sit Down, Shut Up" ... well, the latter immediately, please!

Alright, I gave it two episodes as a courtesy to Mitchell Hurwitz, but my verdict is certainly in (and apparently shared by much of the world): The only possible word to describe "Sit Down, Shut Up" is awful.

And not even gloriously awful in ways that can be celebrated and mocked. It's just generically awful in all the worst ways, a random collection of thoroughly boring characters telling off-color but also uniformly unfunny jokes. How in the world did this garbage spring from the mind of the creator of "Arrested Development"?

Well, it seems that Fox is acting quickly to move it toward oblivion. Taking away its plum post-"Simpsons" time slot, Fox is moving "Sit Down" to the 7 p.m. graveyard and, in what would have to be described as some kind of ironic justice, giving that 8:30 slot back to the remaining episodes of the still-simply fantastic "King of the Hill." I'd give "Sit Down" a month at best, and can't say I will miss it one bit.

There is, however, deliriously better news out there on the animation front today, and it comes in the form of a two-fer from Aardman Features, the fine folks who created Wallace and Gromit. I had the chance to see the latest Wallace flick, "Wallace and Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death'," as part of a collection of animated shorts at the recently concluded Atlanta Film Festival 365, but am rather ashamed to say I passed simply because it ended too late for this aging man on a Sunday school night.

Unfortunately, neither of the two new Aardman flicks, being produced with Sony, will star Wallace or Gromit, but here's hoping they're still tons of fun. The first, "Pirates!", is based on the book "The Pirates! (in an Adventure with Scientists" by Gideon Defoe, and will be filmed in Aardman's signature stop-motion style. It's apparently about a hapless band of pirates trying to win the Pirate of the Year Trophy (how can I get into that game?) It will be directed by "Chicken Run" helmer Peter Lord.

The second flick, to be filmed in CGI, will be titled "Arthur Christmas" and will apparently reveal the secret of just how Santa Claus manages to deliver all those gifts in one night. Sounds like nothing but fun to me.

And I'll leave you today after a short report with the trailer for Alexis Bledel's upcoming flick "Post Grad" because, well, it's Alexis Bledel, and I've always just had a ridiculous crush on both of the "Gilmore Girls." Given how far removed I am from the target demographic for this fluff, there's really no other possible reason I should probably go see it when it comes out in August, but it does also star former "Friday Night Lights" QB1 Zach Gilford and veryfunnywoman Jane Lynch, so maybe it will be surprisingly good. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

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.