Why it's time to shut down "The Office," plus a visit from Conan O'Brien

"If you're going to jump a shark, jump a big one."

Say what you want to about Ricky Gervais, but as easily one of the funniest people on the planet, he certainly should know when something is genuinely funny and when, well, it simply isn't. And, unfortunately, as he correctly pointed out, the latter was very often the case with Thursday's "The Office" finale.

It wasn't just the piling on of guest stars and giving them each about two minutes at most of screen time, but on top of that they gave almost all of them nothing to work with. James Spader was OK, and Jim Carrey arrived at the very end to provoke one of the only real laughs, at least from me, of the entire show.

And you know, it didn't really even annoy me by the end (BIG SPOILER AHEAD) that they didn't even bother to pick a new boss after all that build-up, because it really didn't feel like a show I want to keep watching anyway. It was, awkwardly and often painfully, more like a muddled pilot for a show still trying to figure where it wants to go, and for one that's been on so long, that's just pretty pathetic.

The best possible scenario now? Darryl gets the job, because Craig Robinson is still a very funny dude, and perhaps he can salvage this mess, but it's going to be a rather epic task.

As for me, I'm most likely done with "The Office," but not with everything on NBC's Thursday night lineup, because if you stuck around for the hour-long "Parks and Recreation" finale, you saw a show that's still fresh and genuinely funny, often wickedly so.

The first half was good, but once poor Lil Sebastian died and Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) decided to reorganize the office (putting Ron Swanson in that great captain's chair), it was all comedy bliss from there.

I have to assume Aziz Ansari will be back, and the promise of Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler, who I've grown to like a whole lot more than I did before this show) running for office means I definitely will be too.

And to wrap things up today, here's the first trailer I know of for "Conan O'Brien Can't Stop." Though I would have ponied up for a straightforward documentary about when he took his comedy show on the road, this instead promises to be a much more behind-the-scenes kind of look, which should be even better. I have no idea when or if this is going to make a theatrical run, but keep an eye out for it if you live in a bigger corner of the world than I do, and have a great rest of the weekend. Peace out.

Yes, it looks like there really will be a new Muppets movie

There will surely be more important movies in the next two years or so, and almost certainly better ones too, but I just can't help but getting excited beyond all reason at the idea of a new Muppets movie, and after a couple of years of it being an iffy idea, it finally looks like things are solidly moving forward.

In an interview with Collider.com, for which I was briefly a contributor, "Get Him to the Greek" writer/director Nicholas Stoller talked about what's up with the Muppets movie he and professional partner Jason Segel have written (and some other things I really couldn't possibly care less about), and for the first time he offered some solid evidence that it's really gonna happen. Here's a taste.

The Muppets, Jason [Segel] and I have been working on for a while and James Bobin is attached to direct it and they actually had a table read on Saturday with all the puppets and that’s going to shoot in September. Just really excited about that. It’s kind of a dream-come-true for all three of us so that’s thrilling.

So, what will the movie be about? Well, all signs are the flick, called "The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made" will be a genuinely old-fashioned Muppets affair, with all our old friends getting together to perform a show to save a theater from a now-timely foe, an oil company. This will lead, Stoller promised, to all kinds of crazy cameos a la the old TV show and movies. Here's more from Collider:

It’s one of the original movies like The Muppet Movie, Muppets Take Manhattan, The Great Muppet Caper. Those kinds of movies. So that was really important that we hit that tone and those have a lot of cameos in them and so Jason and I started asking people and everyone we asked just wants to do it. Like everyone is either, “I grew up with it,” or “I loved it,” or loved them now.

OK, I'm sold. Stoller said the shoot should take no more than eight weeks, working around Segel's "How I Met Your Mother" schedule, since he gets to be the main human star of this thing. And as for "Get Him to the Greek," I've read a few geek reviews by now that describe it as so completely debauch that it will be exactly the kind of R-rated movie I enjoy in the middle of summer, and I thought (except for that puppet show at the end) Russell Brand's Aldous Snow was easily the funniest thing about "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," so bring it on.

OK, after that, all I have is a couple of nuggets about much more high-minded projects. With "Frozen River," writer/director Courtney Hunt delivered easily one of my favorite movies of 2008 and just an astonishing debut flick, so any news of her return is welcome around here.

This morning, via the Playlist, comes word that she's found her next project in a remake of the Froggy Laurent Cantet flick "Ressources Humaines," which I have not seen (but will soon, assuming I can find it.) And while I'd normally sneer at the need to remake European movies for American audiences, I think this could be a welcome exception to the norm (and by the way, if you haven't seen Cantet's "The Class," rent it immediately.)

Cantet's flick centers on a young man who returns to his hometown to manage a local factory, only to find out he's being brought in to be the hatchet man. Hunt's movie will keep the same structure but move the action to America, where this story will certainly resonate now.

Rent "Frozen River" right away if you haven't seen it both for a remarkable performance from Melissa Leo, who's currently starring on David Simon's sublime HBO ensemble New Orleans series "Treme," and just because it's just a thoroughly entertaining little flick about immigration in America.

I'll close today with a couple of videos. It's been quite a while (well, since 2006, to be exact) since Alejandro González Iñárritu directed a movie, and though I know plenty of people who hate on his "Babel," I really enjoyed it. And besides, it brought Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi to the world, and what in the world could be wrong with that?

Well, he's back this year at Cannes with "Biutiful," which stars Javier Bardem. Best as I can tell, the movie, which is still in need of a distributor, if you have some scratch burning a hole in your pocket, is about a policeman who runs into a childhood friend who is now involved in drug dealing. Bardem, I think, plays the policeman, and this will hopefully find its way at least kinda near my little corner of the world sometime this year, because you can bet I'll drive a little ways up the road to see it.

Here's a very short production video, again courtesy of the Playlist, to give you just a small taste of what Inarritu has cooking. Enjoy.



And finally, in bad TV news, tonight marks not only the season finales of NBC's Thursday night comedies, but also the last time we'll be able to see them all together (hey, don't kill the messenger.) The real bad news about next season is that "Parks and Recreation," which has developed this year into my favorite of the four, won't be returning until midseason, presumably to accommodate Amy Poehler's new baby. "30 Rock" will also be moving to Friday at 8:30 (I'll watch it at any time, but what the f#@$?) to make room for a hopefully funny new entry, "Outsourced."

Anyways, I'll leave you today with a promo for tonight's "Community" finale, in which Troy finally brings the truth about "jumping the shark." Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Steven Soderbergh's porn movie? Well, not quite ...

Am I really the only person who saw the news footage of folks "tea-bagging" yesterday and just thought how much funnier - and about as equally effective - it would have been using the John Waters definition? Just saying.

And in that spirit, in movie news that's not nearly as salacious as some might be thinking, the first trailer for Steven Soderbergh's movie starring porn star Sasha Grey as a rather high-priced call girl - "The Girlfriend Experience" - has hit, and it looks like it has been made with the clinical detachment that has marked even his best flicks. (And if you want to see some of her work, well, this is the Internet, so I suppose that wouldn't be too hard to accomplish. Since this is a family-friendly site, I've simply included her picture.)

For me, his style works when he's using it in the pursuit of cool, since "Out of Sight" and "The Limey" are just two nearly perfect little flicks. But it can also go way wrong when it has no leash. Witness "Che." Or, for your sake, take my advice and don't.

When I was in New York with my family at the end of last year, I somehow got it into my head that watching all five hours or so of "Che" parts one and two in one day would be entertaining, and somehow also duped my brother into going with me.

Man, was that painful to watch. It's a movie that's much easier to admire, for me, than it ever was to enjoy. For EXTREMELY long chunks, especially during the second part that takes place in Bolivia, it's essentially a training film in guerilla warfare, filmed in thorough detail with tons of precision but scant passion, even with the great Benicio del Toro in the titular role.

Oh well, I digress quite a bit. Here's the trailer for his new flick, which is set to have what I assume will be a rather limited release May 22:



Errol Morris goes narrative

And in surprising news about a director who never lacks passion for his subjects, documentary maker Errol Morris is jumping into narrative features with a tale about cryogenics, which would seem to be right up his alley.

He's perhaps best known for the Robert McNamara documentary "Fog of War," but my favorite Morris flicks are just studies in extreme oddity like the creepy "Mr. Death" and, even better, "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control." And what he comes up with for this dark comedy being written by Zach Helm should fit in with those characters just fine.

Inspired by both Robert F. Nelson's memoir "We Froze the First Man" and a story that aired on NPR's "This American Life" this week titled "You're as Cold as Ice," the true story centers on Nelson, a TV repairman who in the 1960s joined a group of enthusiasts who believed they could cheat death with a new technology: cryonics. But freezing dead people so scientists could reanimate them in the future turned out to be harder than Nelson thought.

If this all works out, it might just add up to the oddest thing from Errol Morris yet: A movie that might even reach theaters in my little corner of the world!

A glimpse of "The Hurt Locker"

Remember Kathryn Bigelow? She made a quick splash with the Keanu Reeves flick "Point Break" in 1991 and then, of course, tried to end the world with "End of Days," but instead just about ended her movie-directing career (to be fair, she did direct three episodes of easily one of my favorite TV shows, "Homicide," and even one of the short-lived and much-underappreciated "Out of Sight" TV version of sorts "Karen Sisco" with the always-welcome Carla Gugino.)

And now she's back with an Iraq war movie (another one?) that promises perhaps the same level of action of her early flicks on a much less grand scale.

Although I enjoyed "In the Valley of Elah" quite a bit and wanted to like Kimberly Pierce's "Stop-Loss" a lot more than I actually did, I don't think there's been an Iraq war movie yet that's managed to catch on with the moviegoing public. Bigelow's flick, however, just might be the first to break that mold, since "The Hurt Locker" seems to simply focus on the lives of the members of an elite Army bomb squad operating in Iraq and let you bring your own politics into the action.

Here's the trailer for the flick starring Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie, which is set to open in at least a few corners of the world at the end of June.



And in a quick thought about TV, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the premiere episode of "Parks and Recreation," even if it does crib most of its style directly from "The Office." It just seems to be infused, at least so far, with the right mix of genuine spirit and just thoroughly mocking it, and I certainly liked Amy Poehler's character a whole lot more than any she's played since that crazy RA in "Undeclared."

Here's hoping the show just gets funnier, because I thought that, even with the double "Office" episodes last week, it was the best thing in NBC's Thursday night lineup. And here's about two-and-a-half minutes or so of what you'll see on tonight's episode, "Canvassing," and as a bonus, more footage of "The Office" crew playing soccer. Priceless. Peace out.

A great day for comedy

If you like comedy of almost all kinds (and who doesn't?), there's a lot of good news and clips out there today, and at least one simply horrible idea: Having run out of appealing targets to roast well before they hit Larry the Cable Guy last month, Comedy Central is now turning to its worst subject yet: Joan Rivers.

I mean, really, if the person you're roasting is so unfunny that she deserves at least the abuse being hurled at her by her "friends" and more, where's the entertainment value in that? I think I'm just the wrong audience for these to start with, but that just sounds like a whole new low.

In much, much better news, tonight on NBC should just be epicly good. At 8:30, the new show created by "The Office" writers Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, "Parks and Recreation," debuts. I can only take Amy Poehler in very small doses, but I thought the same thing about Steve Carell before "The Office" started, so here's hoping I'm wrong.

Even better than that, though, is that it will be sandwiched between two brand spanking new episodes of "The Office" itself. I don't think anyone really believes Michael and Pam have left Dunder Mifflin for good, but it should still be cool to see Michael's big showdown with Charles, played by "The Wire" vet Idris Elba. For just a taste, here's the opening 90 seconds or so courtesy of NBC, featuring Kevin's considerable lack of ability to answer the phone and a very funny kicker:

You're bad at this too!



And in a very good bit of TV news for those who don't mind their humor dark and - as Jody Hill himself puts it - "full of a**holes," HBO has picked up a second season of Hill's series "Eastbound and Down," starring veryfunnyman Danny McBride as a former Major League ballplayer trying to make a comeback (like the mighty Baltimore Orioles, who are now 2-0 at the expense of the dastardly Yankees!)

Director Hill, of course, hits theaters this week with the mall-cop comedy "Observe and Report" starring Seth Rogen. Even with the tired premise, when I saw Associated Press critic Christy LeMire's hyper-ventilating review in which she called it both "vile" and "disgusting" (overkill, anyone?), I knew this would deliver just about completely what I'm expecting and looking forward to.

OK, enough of that. There are three promising trailers out there today that in their own way serve up comedy too. Sometime around August of last year, I put up a poll in which 26 readers voted (not a scientific sample, mind you, but not too shabby, I suppose) for the movie they were most looking forward to for the rest of the year. At the time, I declared that "Slumdog Millionaire" was the single movie I most wanted to see in all of 2008, and we all know what happened to that one.

Well, I don't think it's headed to the same fate as Danny Boyle's flick, but I'm giving the same designation this year to Rian Johnson's "The Brothers Bloom," finally set to open hopefully very wide in a busy May 29 weekend that will also feature at least Sam Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell" and Pixar's "Up."

Why so excited for this one? Well, if you haven't seen Johnson's high school noir flick "Brick," rent it now, and you'll see how much potential he has as a director. Plus, I just love goofy movies about a big con, and when it features Rachel Weisz, Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody and Rinko Kikuchi, I'm definitely in. Enjoy the new trailer.

"Where are we going?"
"New Jersey?"
"I'm gonna grab my coat."



Almost as good is the video proof that Mike Judge is returning to the working world for "Extract," hopefully coming to movie theaters outside of L.A. and Austin sometime in August. Starring Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Mila Kunis, J.K. Simmons and a fairly well-disguised Ben Affleck, it's about "the personal and professional problems of the owner of a flower extract plant (Bateman)." I'm laughing about that already.

And if I can digress just a bit before we get to the trailer, as Judge's "King of the Hill" is coming to an end on Fox after a rather remarkable 13-year run, he's about to have a new animated comedy coming to ABC. Called "The Goode Family," the show about a politically incorrect clan will premiere at 9 p.m. May 27. And in a final bit of TV news for all fans of ABC's late "Pushing Daisies," the facts are these: The final three episodes of that fantastic fantasy will indeed hit the air, for three weeks in a row beginning at 8 p.m. June 20.

And now, without further dithering from me, here's the "Extract" trailer:

"They're just hanging there."



And finally, for real, here's a first glimpse of what Robert Rodriguez is cooking up with "Shorts," also set to hit theaters in August. I'm a sucker for what Rodriguez comes up with when he makes movies for kids, especially the first "Spy Kids." This one looks very similar to others in the current crop of mild fantasies being pitched to youngins by Walden Media and other companies, but I'm still betting it will be a lot of fun. Enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

"I wish I had telephonesis!"

Easily the funniest thing I've seen all week

One of the joys about working where I do (and with layoffs constantly looming, there are less and less of them) is that I'm surrounded by a pretty good set of geeks who know what I like and send me cool things in the e-mail. The above image, apparently created by someone named Evan Shaner, was sent to me by the Telegraph's Web guru, Ryan Gilchrest, and as you can see it's pretty priceless in mashing up "Watchmen" with the "Peanuts" gang.

My favorite thing would have to be Snoopy as Rohrschach, but Charlie Brown makes a pretty darn funny Dr. Manhattan too. And Lucy's chaste version of the Silk Spectre costume is just perfect.

Beyond that goodness, here today it's about what's upcoming in TV, and whether or not there will be anything new or returning worth watching as the silly season kicks up next month. The short answer, of course, is I have no idea since I haven't seen any of these, but here are a few that have caught my eye, with their premiere dates.

Castle, ABC, March 9
Is a likable star enough of a reason to tune in? This series will put that to the test with Nathan Fillion (a k a Captain Mal and that woo-pitching doctor in "Waitress") in the title role as a crime novelist who, natch, solves actual crimes. Sounds nothing but tired, but Fillion's enough to get me to tune in to yet another Monday night show for at least a few episodes.

South Park, Comedy Central, March 11
What's to say about this one except that mssrs. Stone and Parker did some of their best work with two episodes in the most recent season, "Major Boobage" and "Over Logging." The Heavy Metal tribute in "Boobage" was just especially cool. It's pretty amazing that these guys are not only still on the air but also now at least a billion times funnier than "The Simpsons." Bring it on.

Kings, NBC, March 15
Along with "Deadwood" vet Ian McShane (or as one clever journalist called him the other day, Ian Swearsalot) in the lead role of the king, this show has a pretty clever premise going for it too. It takes the story of David, complete with Goliath and all, not only into the modern world but into some kind of parallel realm called Shiloh. It sounds entirely too crazy for TV, so I give it about a month, but I'll tune in for at least the two-hour premiere March 15 to see just what this madness looks like.

Parks and Recreation, April 9
If you're a regular viewer of "The Office" (and if you're not, why not?), you've seen so many promos for this show that you might already be sick of it more than a month before it even premieres. And, frankly, I can normally only take Amy Poehler in small doses (though she was great as that psycho R.A. in "Undeclared"), but here she's surrounded by very funny people in Rashida Jones and Aziz Ansari, and since this comes from the minds of "Office" creators Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, I'll at least have to give it a chance.

Sit Down, Shut Up, April 19

Definitely saving the best for last, I'm jazzed for this animated offering from "Arrested Development" mastermind Mitch Hurwitz, which will soon be entering Fox's Sunday night lineup (unfortunately to replace "King of the Hill," but that great show had a much longer run than I expected, so I suppose it's time to move on.) This oddity is based on a New Zealand (not Australian, as several commenters have told me) sitcom about high school teachers who are at least as self-absorbed and pretty much useless as their students. As you can see from the preview below, it also features several "Arrested Development" vets in the voice cast, so this should really be nothing but fun. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Saturday. Peace out.

Who are these "Crazies," and what the heck are they doing in Peach County?

Actually, the biggest movie news today that might concern anyone who doesn't live within 30 miles of me concerns two biopics in the works which could both turn out to be pretty friggin' cool.

First off, Jim Sheridan, who last made the rather instantly forgettable 50 Cent bio pic of sorts, "Get Rich or Die Tryin' " (man, do I hope "Notorious" - which is indeed playing here this weekend - is better than that!), is now returning to the Irish turf that he knows so well. Well, Irish-American anyway.

Sheridan will be directing and co-wrote the script for a pic about Boston mobster and FBI informant Whitey Bulger, based on the book "Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob" by Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill (which just went on my reading list.)

I love mob movies as much as the next guy, especially ones based on real mobsters, so this should just be a lot of fun (and I'm sure Ben Affleck would give his left nut to play this, but I really just can't see it.)

Even better in my book, Focus Features has acquired the rights to "Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon." Now, I do agree there are too many music biopics out there, but cats just don't get much more interesting than Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.

I recently bought a compilation of two Fela albums on the ITunes, "Open & Close" with "Aphrodisiac," and I can confirm they are just stunningly entertaining. Along with the music, though, Fela was also a political animal, often imprisoned in his native Nigeria before he died in 1997. Although I recommend these two guys for just about everything, I'd love to see Derek Luke (P.Diddy, or whatever his name is, in this week's "Notorious") or the "The Wire" vet who will be making a six-episode run soon on "The Office" (more on that in just a bit) in this meaty role.

Right here in Middle Georgia, and soon, there's something much more and appropriately crazy going on. I've so far managed to steer clear of almost all horror remakes, but I just might have to make an exception for this one.

As reporter Jake Jacobs reported in Wednesday's Sun News (which I lay out), there's a remake of George Romero's "The Crazies" in the works, and amazingly enough it's about to start filming in Peach County. Specifically, the filmmakers will invade Peach County High School and other parts of the county for filming from April 1-20.

So, what in the world is "The Crazies"? I haven't seen it, but as best as I can tell it's about what happens when a toxin is released into a town's water supply that, of course, causes ordinary people to go insane. Sounds good to me as long as it's a lot of fun, and now we know who will be here when it's filming.

Timothy Oliphant (Sheriff Seth Bullock on "Deadwood" who has managed to star in a string of just awful flicks since) and Radha Mitchell (who I last saw in the mildly engaging "miracle" movie "Henry Poole is Here") will be the stars, and if you want to see them, just stop by the school in that window and you might get lucky. And on one day, you'll probably see me too.

TV odds and ends

For most "Friday Night Lights" fans (meaning almost anyone who doesn't have DirecTV), it's been a long, long wait for the new season to hit NBC, but it finally does tomorrow night at 8.

Luckily, and thanks to the largess of always-welcome reader Jeremy, I've seen most of the episodes already, but I'll watch them all again on my bigger screen because they're just as good as ever.

Coincidentally, what will most likely be the last "FNL" episode ever hits DirecTV on the same night that the new season starts on NBC. I won't spoil anything for those of who will be tuning in tomorrow night (except for the teaser that, yes, Tim and Lyla are thankfully an odd couple again), but I can say they're clearly wrapping all the loose ends and doing so with a welcome dose of wicked humor.

And of course, for those of you who - like me - are old enough that you often stay home on Friday nights or else have a DVR, don't forget that the final episode run of "Battlestar Galactica" begins Friday night at 10 on Sci Fi. Bring it on!

Finally, there's some cool casting news for "The Office," and its non-Office spinoff from the series creators, which will premier right after the Super Bowl.

The name Idris Elba (teased so shamelessly just a few paragraphs ago to get perhaps a few people to read to the end of this) will be very familiar to fans of "The Wire" for his turn as Stringer Bell, but you should also check him out in "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" - the last movie from the late Anthony Minghella - once it hits DVD.

Now, in what should be a very funny run, he'll soon be appearing on six episodes of "The Office" as a new corporate suit who - among other duties - will finally try to whip poor Michael Scott into shape. Very cool.

For the new show from "Office" producers Greg Daniels and Mike Schur, "Saturday Night Live" vet Amy Poehler will star and be surrounded by former "Office" employee Rashida Jones, funny man Aziz Ansari and - most recently - Aubrey Plaza (who can apparently be seen in Judd Apatow's next flick, "Funny People.")

So, what's it about? Well, I don't know much, but this one sentence is enough to get me to watch at least a few episodes:

[The sitcom] is set in the office of Amy (Poehler), deputy chairman of the department of parks and recreations in Pawnee, Ind.

Vice chairman? Sounds just right to me, and I'll finally wrap this up with a coming three-episode turn on a show I just recently managed to get on board with, "Chuck," from a dude I can really only stand in small doses.

Goofy man Chevy Chase will play a technology mogul on three upcoming episodes of the show, which returns with new stuff Feb. 2. Unfortunately, it will be in 3-D, so I hope I will be able to stubbornly watch and enjoy it with only the glasses I need to make it through each day.

And, really finally since this has clearly gone on long enough, I'll leave you with this video preview of tonight's "The Office" episode, titled "The Duel." As any "Office" fan knows, that means Dwight and Andy, so definitely tune in, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday.

Weekend update: What - if anything - is worth watching?

I suppose I'd be extremely remiss if I didn't lead off today with the news that Guillermo del Toro is now officially going to be making "The Hobbit," even if the news does now seem more than a little anticlimactic.

He'll be moving to New Zealand for the next four years because, I suppose, it's now written law that any Tolkein movie with Peter Jackson involved has to be filmed there (and I can certainly think of a few worse sacrifices to have to make.)

The somewhat dubious move, of course, is that they're actually making two movies, one that's the real "The Hobbit" and then a sequel that somehow bridges the gap between that work and the first of the "Lord of the Rings" novels. Since this rather extreme act of hubris means they certainly can't call the sequel "J.R.R. Tolkein's 'The Hobbit'," how about "Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson's imaginary bridge to 'The Lord of the Rings' "? I kid, of course, but I bet they'll both turn out to be simply uber-cool.

Though no release date has been set, Variety - with the four-year window - bets it will be one in 2011 and one in 2012, which seems to make sense.

And, before we move on to this week's movies, two bits of TV news, one nothing but bad and one that could turn out to be surprisingly good.

Just to get the ugly out of the way quickly (it is Friday, after all), NBC has definitely traded down in announcing Jimmy Fallon will take over Conan O'Brien's show when the latter moves into the "Tonight Show" chair. I've been wrong at least once before, and to be honest I rarely manage to stay up until 12:30 a.m. very often any more anyway, but I just can't see any scenario in which I'll do so for Jimmy Fallon. Sheesh.

In better news, Nathan Fillion - a k a Captain Mal from "Firefly" and "Serenity" - has signed on to star in a pilot for ABC called "Castle." Despite that rather mundane title, the premise - a "comic procedural" about a famous mystery novelist (Fillion) who helps the NYPD solve crimes - does hold some promise.

But enough about that ... now lets take a look at this week's offerings (which are all really just filling space until the arrival of "Iron Man" anyway), with the added bonus of a trailer for a flick that should probably have made my previous Summer Top 10 list.

1. Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
I realize that I'm far too old to watch this one in a theater, and I can't with good conscience recommend that anyone else take a chance on anything this juvenile, but I will indeed be there Saturday afternoon. My inner snob led me to pass on "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," but once I saw it on DVD it's just become one of those silly little comfort movies - like "Office Space" or "Super Troopers" - that help erase my mind after a particularly dreary work day. Besides, here's what critic Nell Minow, an always reliable friend to this site, had to say:

Cheerfully offensive, cheekily raunchy, happily outrageous, and often just plain disgusting, the movie avoids the usual sophomore slump by ramping up the political jabs while keeping it all unpretentious and moving quickly.

Sounds right up my rather juvenile alley, so this time, I'll be there for the first round.

2. Deception
I had never heard of this until it showed up at our multiplexes this week, but with a cast that includes Michelle Williams (hearty huzzah), Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackman, I might have been willing to take a chance. A quick peek at the Rotten Tomatoes, however, shows it only managed a 6 % positive rating, which seems rather astonishing. Granted, that's only with a few reviews, but the words "predictable potboiler" are enough to stop me (and besides, even "Harold & Kumar" managed to garner 51 % positive.)

3. Baby Mama
I have nothing but love for both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, but I just can't shake the suspicion that this one just won't have enough funny to sustain a feature-length movie. Besides, in the commercial, there's a litmus-test joke, methinks, when Maura Tierney actually wipes something brown off the face of youngun and tastes it to decide if it is "chocolate or poop" (I may be paraphrasing just a bit, but you get the gist.) It's hypocritical I know since I support the often just disgusting "Harold & Kumar," but that joke just kind of makes me sick enough to wait for DVD on this one.

And finally, as promised, the extended trailer for "Hancock," which made its premiere on the TV last night, probably during the rather great "Office" episode with the coke-addled Ryan, but since I fast-forward through the commercials I would have missed it anyway. For anyone else who did the same, here's a look at Peter Berg's July 2 flick about an alcoholic superhero (Will Smith) in need of a makeover from a PR expert (the always funny Jason Bateman.) All those ingredients sound right to me, and the trailer is indeed pretty darn funny. Enjoy, and have a perfectly enjoyable weekend. Peace out.