Fall/winter movie preview

Before I jump right into this, a couple of notes.

First off, though I've recently moved from Macon, GA., back to Salisbury, MD., I still only get movies that open in the widest possible release, so that's what will be included. Although I'm fairly certain Roman Polanski's "Carnage" and Alexander Payne's "The Descendants" will play wide enough to reach my little corner of the world, I couldn't be sure, so they didn't make the cut.

And second, of course, these are only my picks, so please do feel free to add any at the end that you think I may have snubbed. And with that, let's get right to it, starting with what should be a great one today.

Today: "Drive"

I couldn't tell you what exactly a Nicolas Winding Refn is, but the marketing machine is certainly in full force for what will be the first of his movies I've managed to catch, and why not? Arthouse faves Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan in a movie about a stunt driver who just happens to double as a getaway car artist? I'm there. Enjoy this trailer.



Sept. 23: "Moneyball"

When it comes to sports movies, my two favorite genres are boxing and baseball. In the former (well, MMA, actually), "Warrior" is already a real winner (see it already, people, sheesh), and I'm betting "Moneyball," starring Brad Pitt as Oakland A's bean counter Billy Beane with a script by Aaron Sorkin, will be too. Enjoy this trailer.



Sept. 30: "50/50"

On paper, this one should be pretty dour, and some early reviews I've seen have pegged it as exactly that, but based on the cast I'm thinking I'll still really dig it. In this flick based on writer Will Reiser's battle with cancer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the character based on Reiser, Seth Rogen is his best bud, and definite Reel Fanatic fave Anna Kendrick, who I'll watch in anything without the word "Twilight" in it, plays a shrink. Enjoy this trailer.



Oct. 7: "The Ides of March"

If it's fall, it's the season of George Clooney, and he stars in (and directs) this one and also stars in the aforementioned "The Descendants" too. Clooney has an underappreciated flair as a director, and even though this tale of political operatives and dirty tricks (in which Clooney plays a candidate for president, natch) apparently takes a pretty jaded view of our world, I do too right now, so bring it on. Enjoy this trailer.



Oct. 7: "Real Steel"

If you're going to make movies based on video games, why not Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots? That seems to be exactly what director Shawn Levy has done here for this flick starring Hugh Jackman about, yes, boxing robots. Silly? No doubt, but I'm still betting on a ton of fun too. Enjoy this trailer.



Nov. 4: "A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas"

Though the rest of October looks pretty bleak, things will light up again (pun fully intended) as John Cho and Kal Penn return for their third adventure as America's favorite stoners. This time out, Harold (Cho) appears to finally be too old for all this nonsense (though I hopefully never will be), being happily married with children until Kumar (Penn) shows up to drag him away for more ganja-fueled games. And yes, of course, NPH comes back from the dead. Enjoy this trailer.



Nov. 11: "Immortals"

Of all the movies on this list, this one has the biggest potential to simply be awful, but I still have a lot of time for Tarsem, so I'll take a chance on it. If you've never seen his "The Fall," it's a true visionary wonder, and there are few rentals I can recommend higher. This time out, things are a lot more epic as Mickey Rourke (yes, really) plays a king ruling Greece with an iron fist until Theseus (Henry Cavill) leads an uprising against him. Keep your fingers crossed for this one, and enjoy this trailer.



Nov. 11: "J. Edgar"

A complete stranger to subtlety, Clint Eastwood is just a maddeningly uneven director in my book, but there's no denying the pedigree of this grand biopic. With a script from "Milk" scribe Dustin Lance Black, one Leo DiCaprio will play the FBI founder and longtime director who just happened to enjoy wearing dresses. The only trailer I could find for this was a short teaser in which Leo just lights a cigarette, and all the clips I could locate (with funny effect) laid a fart track over it, so no trailer for this one.

Nov. 23: "Hugo"

Even though he's shortened the title from "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" and filmed this in surely unnecessary 3-D, I still can't wait to see what Martin Scorsese comes up with from one of my favorite books, by Brian Selznick. Asa Butterfield stars as our hero, a young boy who lives in the walls of a train station and discovers one of Georges Melies' amazing automatons. Definite Reel Fanatic fave Hit-Girl Chloe Moretz co-stars. Enjoy this trailer.



Nov. 23: "The Muppets"

Everyone who is, like me, of a certain age, remembers Jim Henson's beloved puppets with nothing but fondness, and has probably (also like me) been lapping up everything that's been released already by the Disney marketing machine. The key to a great Muppets movie is an entirely fun spirit, and everything I've seen so far indicates that writer Jason Segel and director James Bobin have just about nailed it, so here's hoping. Enjoy this trailer.



Dec. 9: "The Sitter"

Though as mentioned above I have nothing but love for a good stoner flick, director David Gordon Green proved with the simply awful "Your Highness" that, if you try hard enough, you can certainly make one of those that just sucks. This time out, however, he's playing it much more safely, pretty much combining "Superbad" with "Pineapple Express" for this flick starring Jonah Hill as quite possibly the world's worst babysitter. I'm a sucker for movies starring foul-mouthed kids (the vastly underappreciated "Role Models" gets me every time), so I'm hoping this will be very funny. Enjoy this red band trailer (and be warned, it's plenty foul).



Dec. 9: "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"

Director Tomas Alfredson's "Let the Right One In" is easily one of my favorite movies of the last 10 years or so (and definitely the best one with vampires), so you can count this follow-up as the one movie I'm most looking forward to seeing this fall. For his take on John Le Carre's novel about the hunt for a Russian mole who has infiltrated Britain's house of spooks, he's assembled a cast that somehow includes Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Ciaran Hinds and even Sherlock himself, Benedict Cumberbatch. Enjoy this trailer, and let the spy games begin.



Dec. 16: "Young Adult"

Director Jason Reitman has yet to make a movie that I haven't mostly loved, and for this hopefully very dark comedy he's reunited with scribe Diablo Cody. In it, Charlize Theron, who proved on "Arrested Development" that she can be extremely funny, plays a writer of teen novels who returns to her small hometown to try and pitch woo with her now happily married former high school sweetheart (Patrick Wilson). No trailer for this one either yet, but keep an eye out for it soon, most likely right here.

Dec. 21: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

Having been burned once already recently by Matt Reeves' extremely by-the-book and just as unnecessary remake of "Let the Right One In," you can color me extremely skeptical about this one, but it certainly fits right in director David Fincher's wheelhouse. Rooney Mara will attempt to step into the shoes of hacker extraordinaire Lisbeth Salander, already perfected on screen by Noomi Rapace in the Swedish original, as she aides Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig, this time) as he tracks down Nazis and other unseemly happenings. Enjoy this trailer.



"Dec. 23: The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn"

What are the odds that even Steven Spielberg can release two movies in the space of six days that are both real winners? Not likely, but this year, on paper at least, it looks like it could happen. In this first one, Hergé's beloved young Belgian detective looks more than a bit odd with the modern touch, but I'm still hoping this will be an old-fashioned tale at least in spirit. Enjoy this trailer.



Dec. 23: "We Bought a Zoo"

After what seems like at least 10 years off, director Cameron Crowe is back this year in a big way, with, first, his documentary about Pearl Jam and then this tale that seems tailormade to his very humanity-heavy style of storytelling. Matt Damon and no-longer-never-nude Scarlett Johansson star in this flick with easily the most "Snakes on a Plane" title of the fall season. Enjoy this still very new trailer.



Dec. 28: "War Horse"

Spielberg's second entry of the week is just the kind of epic movie you'd expect, telling the story of a boy and his horse and their adventures in World War I. And with that, finally, there you have it. Enjoy this final trailer and, as stated above, please feel free to add any movies you're looking forward to that I have somehow snubbed. Peace out.

Don't fear "The Ides of March," or the season of Clooney

Yes, the first trailer for for George Clooney's political thriller is the main event here today, but since I've had a week from hell and haven't been able to even visit here until today, there's some other catching up to do too.

In other movie news, production starts this week on an intriguing project starring three of my favorite actors, Bill Murray, Laura Linney and the truly great Olivia Williams (most recently seen on the big screen by me in another fairly great political thriller, "Ghost Writer," but most famously of course Ms. Cross.)

"Hyde Park on the Hudson," filming in London, stars Murray as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Williams as Eleanor Roosevelt in the period piece that focuses on the first visit of the British monarchy (in this case, King George VI (Samuel West) and the queen (Olivia Colman) to the United States. Stammering George is there to drum up American support for England's looming war with Germany, but FDR just happens to be distracted by ... his distant cousin, Daisy, played by Linney, with whom he develops an intimate relationship.

Juicy stuff there, and seeing Murray play a serious (though surely not too serious) FDR should just be a treat. Stay tuned ...

And there's also a bit of TV news out there about my current favorite network sitcom, "Parks and Recreation."

Poor Ron Swanson. First he (definite Reel Fanatic fave Nick Offerman) gets the single biggest Emmy snub of this awards season, and now, when "Parks and Rec" returns on Sept. 21, he'll encounter Tammy 1, his first ex-wife, so scary a character that she even makes Tammy 2 (Megan Mullally) quake with fear.

Poor Ron's torment, however, should be our delight, because in what should be a great comic turn, Patricia Clarkson will play Tammy 1 in two episodes starting with the premiere.

Should be pretty close to comedy bliss there, and in other TV news, HBO has set the fall premiere dates for two returning shows I'll definitely tune in for.

First up, the best thing about the new season of "True Blood" is that just about as soon as it ends, the second season of "Boardwalk Empire" will start right up. I used to have a lot of time for "True Blood," but though I still tune in during this summer dead period for TV, the utter randomness of it is really starting to drive me more than a little nuts.

That's certainly not a problem with "Boardwalk Empire," which tells the tale of early 20th century Atlantic City and the rise of "Nucky" Thompson (heavy Emmy favorite Steve Buscemi) with a clinical (and sometimes too perfect) precision. Keep an eye out for season two beginning Sunday, Sept. 25, at 9 p.m.

And even better than that, in a rare move off of HBO's regular Sunday night home, the third season of "Bored to Death" will make its debut for an eight-episode arc beginning Monday, Oct. 10, at 9 p.m. The show, which springs from the twisted mind of novelist Jonathan Ames, is far from the deepest thing you'll ever see, but the often doped-out adventures of a would-be private eye played Jason Schwartzman with his buddies, a long-suffering cartoonist played by Zach Galifianakis and, best of all, a truly loopy Ted Danson as magazine editor socialite George Christopher, all around NYC is just exactly my kind of funny.

OK, we really are getting to "The Ides of March," but also this week came the first proof that the once-great Cameron Crowe is actually still making movies. No visual proof that I know of from the feature film he's apparently wrapping up now, "We Bought a Zoo," starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson and set for release this Christmas.

There is, however, a trailer for a documentary that finds the "Almost Famous" director on familiar turf, "Pearl Jam Twenty." Pearl Jam was never exactly my kind of rock (far too earnest for me), but I love what Eddie Vedder did for the "Into the Wild" soundtrack, and I'm always up for a good rock doc, which this certainly looks like it should be. Enjoy the trailer, and keep an eye out for this flick in at least some cities Sept. 20.

Pearl Jam Twenty from Pearl Jam on Vimeo.

And now finally on to the main course. Say whatever you want to about George Clooney's persona, but I really couldn't give less of a flip about all that. The man knows how to pick good movies, and when he manages to direct them they usually turn out to be even better.

The last thing I saw him in was "The American," a first-rate but low-key thriller from Anton Corbijn that would make a perfect rental if you've never seen it, and now this fall he has two movies coming up that are both near the top of my list of must-see flicks for the rest of the year.

Now moved up to Nov. 23, he's starring in the long-time-coming return of director Alexander Payne with "The Descendants," in which Clooney plays a man who tries to put his family back together after his wife dies in a car crash.

Even better, and set to drop before that on Oct. 7 hopefully wide enough to reach even my little corner of the world, will be "The Ides of March," an old-fashioned political movie directed by Clooney and featuring a truly first-rate cast.

In it, Ryan Gosling plays a conflicted political strategist working for a presidential candidate played by (natch) Clooney himself. As you'll see from the trailer, all kinds of political games ensue, and the movie somehow also stars Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Evan Rachel Wood.

It's been far too long since I've seen a good political thriller, so this one is definitely circled on my movie calendar. Enjoy the trailer, and have a great weekend, which for me will at least include seeing "Crazy, Stupid, Love" and maybe "Cowboys and Aliens" too. Peace out.

This is like a family tree, if your family was made of whores ... Beavis and Butthead are back!

Yes, the boys are indeed back, and judging from the clip that Mike Judge just unveiled at Comic-Con, they thankfully haven't matured even one bit.

But first, a bit of movie news, because for fans of comedy (which it's all about today), this could be pretty great.

"Easy A," while lighter than air and clearly aimed at moviegoers much younger than me, was also easily one of the funniest movies of 2010. It's director, Will Gluck, has a new movie out today starring Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake, which in spite of its rather tired "Friends With Benefits" title and premise looks like it could be pretty witty.

What really made "Easy A" a winner, however, was the writing, so the even better news today is that Fox Searchlight has just purchased a new spec script from "Easy A' screenwriter Bert Royal.

Titled "A Thousand Words or Less," the comedy, which Royal will also direct, is set in the cutthroat world of a national high-school (I'm assuming) essay contest. Shailene Woodley, who apparently stars on ABC Family's "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" (which I've obviously never seen) and can soon be seen in Alexander Payne's "The Descendants" with George Clooney, is apparently up for the lead role in this.

I guess you can't get Emma Stone every time, but this should be a hoot all the same, so stay tuned ...

And in other comedy news, I can understand why a lot of people don't like Ricky Gervais. He can be more than a bit of a prick, I suppose, but for comedy to work really well you almost always have to piss someone off, as he's clearly good at.

I can't wait to see what he came up with for the Warwick Davis mockumentary "Life's Too Short" (apparently coming to HBO, but no word yet on exactly when), but he's apparently already moved on to something new, titled "Afterlife."

As Gervais just revealed on his blog, the show, which he's working on with "Dexter" producer Clyde Phillips, will have him playing God, which should have probably an equal number of people cringing and laughing.

The comedy will be about an atheist who dies and goes to heaven ... and meets Gervais as God.

"Not the typical, wise, benevolent God -- that's Morgan Freeman's thing," Gervais wrote. He said his own version will be "an arrogant, wisecracking son of a bitch, who thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread. ... Actually he thinks he's the best thing ever because... well, he is. (He invented sliced bread by the way.) He also loves welcoming atheists to heaven with a smug grin on his face."

He went on to say that, despite his own being an atheist, this isn't an "atheist comedy" because if it was it wouldn't include a heaven or God.

Not sure about the logic there, or where or when this will actually hit the airwaves, but keep your eyes out for it (and I'll certainly let you know when I know more.)

OK, after that rather long detour, on to the main event. With "Beavis and Butthead" coming back to MTV this fall, only two questions popped into my head. Will they still be funny, at least for those people (like me) who found them to be very funny the first time around? And what in the world will they do between segments now that MTV no longer shows anything approaching music videos?

Well, as this 4-minute-plus Comic-Con clip shows, the boys have, if anything, possibly regressed. And in this first bit, which I'll only tell you is titled "Holy Cornholio" (you can probably guess where this is going), they're just as funny as ever. And as for the commentary, instead of videos, for this at least, it's "Jersey Shore," and if you can get past the obviously blatant plugging of MTV's own programming, the boys shred it pretty darn good. Anyways, enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. I'm off to see "Captain America." Peace out.

Get More: Beavis and Butt-Head, MTV Shows

Potentially great things coming to TV with Sam Raimi and Darren Aronofsky

In case you need to know, the above photo of Tom Cruise comes from a 2012 movie called "Rock Of Ages," but it's really so funny that it speaks for itself with no further explanation from me.

And before we get into the TV stuff today, let's start with movie news about one of my very favorite directors, who has inactive for a while now. If you missed it, Anton Corbijn's thriller of sorts, "The American," starring one George Clooney, is easily one of my favorite movies of the past few years. The tale of a hitman (Clooney) on his final assignment in Italy admittedly moves a bit slow, but it's a good story well told and beautifully photographed, and there are few rentals I can recommend higher.

Before that, the former music video director Corbijn made the movie "Control" about Joy Division's Ian Curtis, which is also wickedly entertaining, so he's definitely a director to keep your eyes on. And now comes word that he's landed a follow-up to "The American" that sounds perfect for his style.

"Let the Right One In" director Tomas Alfredson will beat him to theaters with a John Le Carre adaptation, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," and Corbijn will follow that with a much more contemporary Le Carre thriller, "A Most Wanted Man."

The book, published in 2008, tells the story of a Chechian Muslim who illegally immigrates to Hamburg, where he gets caught up in the international war on terror. The tale is loosely based on the real-life story of Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen and legal German resident who was seized by American authorities, with knowledge of the German government, and taken to Guantanamo Bay. He was kept there for several years before being released, without charge, in 2006.

For a better idea of what the book is and movie presumably will be about, here's a trailer that was made for the release of the book. Enjoy, and then stick around for the promised TV news, and then a couple of clips just for fun (with Muppets!).



On my own TV, with very little new on and at the urging of my fellow cubicle slave Renee Martinez, I've been catching up with a home run of a show that I'm embarrassed to admit I had simply skipped until now, "Torchwood." If you've never seen it, the BBC-produced spinoff of "Doctor Who" is tailor-made for fans of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," with much of the same wit and scarier creatures to boot.

The show will come to Starz for its fourth season beginning July 8, and now comes word that the network has bought into something potentially thoroughly fun from Sam Raimi and "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" creator Rob Tapert.

What they're cooking up is a live-action version of an anime show I've never seen titled "Noir," about a pair of rival female assassins who team to take on a secret society to learn more about their own mysterious origins. I'm hooked on that already, and for just a taste of what the anime original was about, here's its opening:



The big event in TV tonight, of course, is the season one finale of "Game of Thrones," and having read book one of George R.R. Martin's fantasy series, what's amazed me most about this perfectly entertaining series is how its managed to stick so strictly to its excellent source material and yet still deliver fun surprises each week. It's somehow gotten better week after week, and tonight's doozy of a finale should continue that trend.

After that, there will be "True Blood," returning next week, and then Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" later this summer, and after that, HBO, never one to rest on its laurels, has enlisted one Darren Aronofsky to direct at least the pilot for a series that sounds like nothing but big fun, "Hobgoblin."

The show, about con men and magicians who conspire to bring down Hitler, has a pilot script co-written by novelist Michael Chabon, and that's all I know so far, but definitely stay tuned ...

OK, to close, on to the videos. The Muppets have teased us pretty good for a few weeks with spoofs on first "The Hangover Part II" and then "The Green Lantern." While those were indeed pretty funny, and probably better than the movies they lampooned, they were really just small-bite appetizers for this first real trailer for "The Muppets," set to come out around Thanksgiving. It looks and sounds exactly like the silly fun I'd expect from a Muppets movie, so move this one starring Jason Segel and Amy Adams right up near the top of the list of movies I most want to see for the rest of this year. Enjoy.



And finally today, I wasn't much impressed at all with the first trailer for Ruben Fleischer's upcoming comedy "30 Minutes or Less," but this second, red-band clip definitely delivers the funny. His follow-up to the sublime "Zombieland," starring Jesse Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari and Danny McBride, is set to come out Aug. 12. Enjoy this rather foul trailer, and have a great rest of the weekend. Peace out.


EMBED-30 Minutes or Less - Watch more free videos

Remember Alexander Payne? He's finally back

Quick, can anyone remember how long it's been since Alexander Payne has made a feature film? Rather amazingly, it's been since 2004, with the seriously satisfying "Sideways."

Which is a real shame, because when he gets a chance to work, he's easily one of my favorite directors. On top of his game, as with "Sideways" and the even better "Election," he just has a wicked sense of humor with a real bite that I appreciate. And for an earlier pick that you can somehow still find at Netflix, "Citizen Ruth," while a much broader kind of flick, is a satire about abortion politics starring Laura Dern that holds absolutely nothing back.

His only real misfire so far, at least for me, was "About Schmidt," which garnered mostly very positive reviews, but to me was just a sappy, truly pointless mess.

Anyways, he's finally back again now with "The Descendants," something serious looking that just happens to star one George Clooney. Best as I can gather, it's about a land baron (Clooney) who's working to reconnect with his daughters after his wife is injured in a boating accident. Like I said, cheerful stuff, but I'm betting on some sly touches, and that this will be a real winner when it comes out Dec. 16.

And in perhaps even better news, we might just not have to wait so long for Payne to direct his next movie after this one. According to the IMDB, he's at least attached to direct a movie based on the novel "Fork in the Road" by Denis Hamill. Though I haven't read that book, here's the synopsis from Publisher's Weekly, which makes it sound like fun stuff:

Twenty-five-year-old film director Colin Coyne goes to Dublin to write a screenplay about his alter ego Kieran, an Irish American from New York who goes to Ireland to find the girl of his dreams. Scripting his film as he lives it, Colin discovers that the line between art and life has been erased by Gina Furey, a gypsy he catches trying to pick his pocket in a crowded pub. Soon he's involved in a passionate but ultimately dangerous affair, with consequences that far exceed anything Colin might have imagined.

Juicy. Who knows if that will actually happen, but in the meantime, enjoy this first trailer for "The Descendants," and then stick around for some more truly raunchy fun from the ladies of "Bridesmaids."



You (or at least I) got the feeling watching "Bridesmaids" that with that many truly funny women in one place, there must have been a lot of pretty great stuff left on the cutting room floor. I'd have to imagine a lot more of that will be on the eventual DVD release, but in the meantime, Funny or Die has released this collection of outtakes that's definitely in the former category. Be warned, if you're watching this at work, do so with headphones, because it is sometimes truly and delightfully foul. You get a lot more Jon Hamm (with Kristen Wiig making monkey noises), and thankfully some more Melissa McCarthy too. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Bridesmaids Outtakes - watch more funny videos

A Wednesday chock full of fun news

There's a lot of movie stuff that caught my eye this morning, but the two best bits come from Fox's fall TV schedule, so let's just start there.

Along with killing off five shows that I never bothered to tune in for, the network also added two that I'll definitely give a chance to next fall at its upfronts.

First up is "Alcatraz," which comes from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot company and is a crime drama revolving around a team investigating the mysterious reappearance of the prison's 1960 inhabitants in the present. Sounds like a pretty serious mindf%$#, and it will star Jorge Garcia of "Lost."

Perhaps even better, Fox has also picked up something called "The New Girl," a comedy starring Zooey Deschanel, who I'll certainly watch in just about anything. This show is about a "quirky female teacher" (Zooey, natch) who becomes roommates with three guys: A man-child, a player and a cynic. Bring it on.

And in one final bit of TV news, I saw a few reports this morning that led with the headline "Martin Freeman leaving 'The Hobbit'," but reading into it just a bit revealed it's just for a short while and so he can work on more "Sherlock" with Benedict Cumberbatch. Bully, because the three episodes they showed a short while back on PBS with Cumberbatch as the titular detective and Freeman as his pal Watson were fantastic.

OK, like I said, a pretty busy day of good movie news, so I'll just get to it briskly before some fun videos, and at least one that's simply bizarre.

First up, now that, thankfully, Darren Aronofsky won't be wasting his time on yet another movie about "The Wolverine," he's now hitched up with George Clooney for something that sounds much more interesting.

According to Vulture, he's now at work on a science fiction movie titled "Human Nature," which will star Clooney as a man who is cryogenically frozen, only to wake up in a future where humanity has become pets to another species. That's all I know about that, but it certainly sounds like a perfect Aronofsky mind-bender.

In other news, Niels Arden Oplev, who made one of my favorite recent thrillers with his take on Stieg Larsson's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," has now set his sights on a genre thriller with a great cast.

The movie, called "The Last Photograph," is a revenge story starring one Sean Penn as a special ops soldier who goes to Afghanistan to track down who murdered his brother, and Christian Bale as a photographer who documented the killing. Sounds like juicy stuff.

Moving quickly (I do have an actual job that still pays me something, after all), there are few genres of movie I love more than boxing flicks, and it sounds like "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" director Jeff Feuerzeig is putting together a potentially sweet one.

Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber and Christina Hendricks will star in "The Bleeder," based on the true story of former New Jersey heavyweight boxer and womanizer Chuck Wepner, who boxed 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali and apparently inspired Sylvester Stallone to pen 'Rocky.' " Fun stuff, that, and I assume Schreiber would play the fighter.

And in a final bit of news before we move on to the videos, it's already known that, in a more-than-slightly odd change up, Tyler Perry will be playing Alex Cross, the role already played twice by Morgan Freeman, in "I, Alex Cross." And now comes very welcome word that Frenchy Jean Reno is joining the cast too.

This time out, James Patterson's creation is squaring off against a psychotic mob hitman to be played by Matthew Fox. No word yet on what role Reno will play, but he can class up just about anything except that remake of "The Pink Panther," so this could be fairly great.

OK, now on the videos. Not surprisingly, what Pedro Almodovar has cooked up now looks as bizarre as it will hopefully be entertaining, as I almost always find his movies to be. "The Skin I Live In" reunites the director with Antonio Banderas, and is a revenge tale that tells the story of a plastic surgeon (Banderas, I have to assume) on the hunt for the men who raped his daughter. It's in competition this year at Cannes, but for now enjoy this very short clip to whet your appetite.



Next up comes a bit of fun courtesy of MTV News. As everyone probably knows, there's another pirate movie starring Johnny Depp coming out soon (May 20), called "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides." I'm still on the fence about seeing it, although the presence of Penelope Cruz cutting up is certainly a plus. What I did like, at least, was this bit of Legos fun. Enjoy.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

I assumed that this week's "South Park" would be all about Osama Bin Laden, but it seems I'm wrong once again (don't worry, I'm used to it). Instead, in something that could be wickedly funny, they take on the royal wedding, which in Trey Parker and Matt Stone's warped minds actually involves a Canadian princess. By the way, NPR is streaming the "Book of Mormon" soundtrack here, and it's just perfectly profane entertainment. Enjoy that and this brief clip from tonight's episode.

Royal Pudding
Tags: SOUTH
PARKIke Broflovski,Terrance,Phillip,more...

And finally today, how better to start Wednesday than with a free movie? I know it has its detractors, but "O Brother Where Art Thou" is still my favorite Coen Brothers' movie, and you can now watch it in its entirety on YouTube. This looks good at full frame, and watching it certainly sounds like a lot more fun than working. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

My top 10 movies of 2010

Before I depart for my annual year-ending week in NYC with my family, I figured it's as good a time as any to come up with my top 10 movies of 2010, both because I figure by now I've seen just about everything that might make this list except for maybe "The King's Speech" and "Rabbit Hole," and simply so this won't be completely empty while I'm gone.

And lest anyone wants to squawk about the fact that neither "Inception" nor "The Social Network" made the cut, rest assured they're among the 10 runners-up, along with "Shutter Island", "A Prophet", "Splice", "Despicable Me", "Easy A", "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1", "The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and "The Fighter".

So, without further delay, let's get to it, in order only of release date until the very end, where you will find my favorite movie of 2010. And as usual, please feel free to add your favorites and let me hear about any that I've unfairly snubbed.

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"/"The Girl Who Played With Fire": These should definitely be viewed together, and ideally all at once with the third chapter, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," but I haven't had the opportunity to see it yet. Given how sprawling and packed with details the novels by Stieg Larsson are, these are both nearly perfect models of how to adapt books for the big screen, and though David Fincher is doing an American remake of the first movie for next year, please do go see these first, because just trust me: Once you see her, I'm sure you'll agree that Noomi Rapace simply is Lisbeth Salander.

"Kick-Ass": Though many movies try to re-create the feel of comic books on the big screen, very few come as close to accomplishing it as this thoroughly fun flick from Matthew Vaughn (for the opposite kind of failure, view the almost completely lifeless "Iron Man 2".) Sure, there are moral questions about having a 13-year-old assassin spray bullets all around, but young Chloe Moretz is electric as Hit-Girl, and she and Vaughn create at least two of the year's best action sequences here.

"Toy Story 3": Being sometimes a fairly cynical fellow, I doubted that all the hype about this Pixar flick could be true, but it really does pack the emotional and entertaining punch to launch the "Toy Story" series into any discussion about the best movie trilogies. And "Toy Story" fans take note: The franchise will live on, sort of, as Barbie and Ken will star in the short movie that will precede "Cars 2" next summer (and will probably be better than the main attraction).

"The Other Guys": A Will Ferrell movie? Really? Yes, because Ferrell and Adam McKay bring all kinds of funny and just enough smarts to this comedy that skewers the buddy cop genre almost as well as Edgar Wright's "Hot Fuzz." And besides, this movie has both the best opening and closing credit sequences of the year, which may not sound like much, but they really are small wonders to behold.

"Animal Kingdom": This Australian gangster flick lacks all of the glamour of "The Godfather" or "Goodfellas," but packs even more of the grit. The story of the less-than-two-bit Cody clan, a crime family that never rose too high and is already on its way down as the movie opens, is hardly a sunny tale, but it's extremely compelling, thanks in large part to the chilling performance of Jacki Weaver as the menacing matriarch.

"The American": This is probably the flick on this list that most divided audiences, but I know that along with me, at least Roger Ebert and Reel Fanatic reader Jeremy Jirik also love it, so at least I'm not alone. "Control" director Anton Corbijn displays all of that titular quality here as he strips this tale of George Clooney as a hit man on what could be his last mission in Italy down to the barest bones of a thriller, making it instead a slow-moving but riveting character study and just a good story well told.

"127 Hours": Though the tale of what lengths trapped climber Aron Ralston had to go to remove himself from underneath a boulder in a valley was as hard to watch as I could have expected, it's also completely imbued with optimism thanks to director Danny Boyle and energy thanks to James Franco, even at its darkest moments. And even though Boyle used two different cinematographers, Enrique Chediak and Anthony Dod Mantle, you'd never know it as they merge their talents to drop us into every treacherous step of Ralston's journey, and should definitely share an Oscar for their efforts.

"True Grit": Even the ridiculous coda at the end, which is loyal to the source but just drains the energy right off the screen, can't ruin the fact that this remake is one of the Coen brothers' very best flicks. Restraining from most of their usual oddity, they instead just let the actors have a ball here, as The Dude, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper and, most of all, young Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross all do, elevating both the humor and heart of Charles Portis' great novel. I've seen it twice already, and just may again before it leaves theaters.

"Black Swan": There's not an ounce of subtlety in this Darren Aronofsky flick, but since at its most basic level he's essentially made a great B horror movie (albeit it one of the psychological variety set in the world of ballet), he didn't really need any to make it soar. I'd have to imagine Natalie Portman is the odds-on favorite for the Best Actress Oscar, but Vincent Cassel should hear his name called in the Best Supporting Actor category too as the ballet guru who leads Portman's Nina Sayers to the darkest reaches of her own mind.

"Winter's Bone": Definitely saving the very best for last, I first saw this movie this summer while on vacation with mi hermano in Philadelphia, and it's been burned on my brain ever since. I watched it again recently to make sure, and yes, Debra Granik's tale of a young woman (the fantastic Jennifer Lawrence, who would get my Oscar vote if I had one) forced to go on a hunt through the American underbelly that is the Ozarks to search for her deadbeat father - who has put the house she's raising her two younger siblings in as a guarantor for a court appearance he's almost guaranteed not to make - is every bit as good as I first thought. Bleak? Of course, but as Lawrence's Rhee Dolly searches for the truth in this mess, this flick combines all the best elements of film noir with a coming-of-age tale of sorts to cook up my best movie of 2010 by a pretty wide margin.

And there you have it. Please, as usual, feel free to share any of your favorites or any that I've just unfairly snubbed, and have a simply splendid new year. Peace out.

Could this be the funniest movie of 2011?

Actually, a better question this morning is why in the world is it so hard for Alfonso Cuaron to make a potentially smart and winning sci-fi flick?

I'm not sure I have this all right, because the saga of his attempt to make the movie "Gravity" is a story with many twists before the camera even starts rolling.

First, if I have this right, Angelina Jolie signed on for and then bailed on this tale of a female astronaut trying to get home after an accident in orbit, and then Natalie Portman did pretty much the same thing.

Well, Cuaron eventually settled on Sandra Bullock (a step back in my book, and an odd fit for this, but oh well), but seemingly just as soon as that was settled, Robert Downey Jr. backed out of playing the main supporting role (I'd assume some kind of NASA dude in touch with our heroine from Earth, but who knows for sure). Sheesh.

That move put this solidly in development limbo, but now in the latest twist, George Clooney has apparently stepped in to that role, so it's game on again ... for now.

Follow all that? If you've seen Cuaron's "Children of Men," you know why I'd certainly like to see him make another sci-fi flick, so here's hoping this really all does come together this time.

And what my world, at least, always needs is more real Westerns ("True Grit" next Wednesday, and I can't wait!), so it's certainly good news that director James Mangold is getting into that game.

He tried once with his remake of "3:10 to Yuma" with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, but while that was a technically proficient flick, I really just couldn't get past the rather thorough unnecessaryness of it (I'm not sure that's even a word, but you get the point).

Now he's signed on to direct something called "The Gunslinger" for New Regency, which is being described as a "revenge thriller" about an ex-Texas Ranger who sets out to punish the men who killed his brother. Bully.

But the main course here today is the second - and much longer - trailer for "Paul," coming just in time for Valentine's Day, for some reason.

If I had to list my 10 or so favorite directors, Greg Mottola would make the list every time. "Superbad" is a comedy classic in my book, and though it goes down a lot drier, "Adventureland" is a heck of a lot of fun too.

Now, for "Paul," he's reunited the "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" comedy duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two geeks on a road trip to Comic-Con who just happen to encounter the titular extraterrestrial along the way. You'll be able to tell from the trailer that Seth Rogen voices the alien, and the alwaysveryfunny Kristen Wiig and Jason Batemen appear in this too. It's rare that we get something potentially this good so early in the year, so enjoy this new trailer (which could disappear any minute now, since I swiped it from some kind of Russian video site), and have a perfectly great weekend, which for me will include both "Black Swan" and "The Fighter" on Saturday, so bring it on! Peace out.

Review: "The American"

Even if the movie calendar has at least slightly turned away from summer, I'm still sure George Clooney and Anton Corbijn's "The American" will be a tough sell (though I haven't seen any box office numbers yet.)

After all, when you dig through the simply gorgeous layers of cinematography in the Italian country side, what Corbijn and screenwriter Rowan Joffe, from the Martin Booth novel "A Very Private Gentleman," have cooked up is nothing short of a meditation, and if you aren't susceptible to its many languid charms, it can indeed be a very tedious one at that.

If you give into the rhythm of it, however, I really think there's a lot to like here (or at least there was for me). I've most often seen Corbijn's movie described as a matter of style way overshadowing substance, but though there's plenty of the latter, there's a lot going on under the extremely pretty surface here too.

When we meet Clooney's Jack, he's an assassin who's either finishing up a job or has been discovered while hiding out after completing one (that's one of the many unanswered questions that hover over "The American" and give it much of its tension.) Either way, it doesn't end terribly well for our hero. Though he survives, it's a bloody escape that will haunt him as he goes into hiding again, this time in Italy (tough life, eh?)

While there, he's commissioned by his handler, a suitably mysterious Johan Leysen, for one last mission for which, he's promised, he "won't even have to pull the trigger." He's commissioned to build a rifle/shotgun hybrid for a beautiful Italian assassinette (Thekla Reuten), and as far as story, that's pretty much what you get.

Now, for the style, which if you're a fan of cinematography, Corbijn delivers on in spades. He lingers on all the right moments and makes the most of the crazy angles you find in those Italian mountain towns. One of my favorite moments comes when Clooney's Jack drives into the center of Castelvecchio, looks around at a few curious townfolk, and then simply gets back into his Audi and drives away - rather than being the world's worst tourist, he's actually just scouting out the location of a pay phone, but it's a really funny scene.

As he's hiding out, though he's warned to "don't make any friends," Jack strikes up a friendship with Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonicelli), who is as interested in what is tormenting Jack's soul as the no-longer-bloodthirsty assassin is too. And more importantly, he meets and, at least initially, pays to have sex with the beguiling prostitute Clara (Violante Placido.) Not terribly James Bond-suave that, but since we've already seen Jack throw his cell phone out the window, we knew he was never really going to be that kind of hero. And for fans of Italian beauty, be advised going in that Placido really doesn't have much time for clothes at all through much of the movie, though I really can't call that a fault.

You can probably tell where this is going, but I guarantee that if you stick with "The American" until its splendid finale, there are plenty of small surprises along the way. What makes it all work, along with Corbijn's camera, is Clooney, who plays Jack with a weariness of the soul that keeps us (or at least me) engaged until the very end. Yes, it's essentially "Up in the Air" without much of the humor but almost as much jaded heart, and it sends summer off not with a bang but with a low-key "thriller" that works on almost every level.

And if you'll excuse me now, I'm off in an almost completely direction to have all my senses assaulted by "Machete." Peace out

"Kick-Ass 2": Not sure I believe it, but why not?

Where better to start today than with a rumor about easily one of my favorite movies of 2010 so far, especially when it's such a juicy one.

While I can't aesthetically call "Kick-Ass" a "great" movie, which certainly means something different to every person who chooses to bestow it on a flick, I can say that it's by a pretty wide margin the funnest movie I've seen this year, and that goes a long way in my little corner of the world.

Now, I understand that the often very bloody antics of a 13-year-old superhero of sorts named Hit-Girl (the simply excellent Chloe Moretz) isn't for everyone, but I still couldn't understand how so many people skipped this during it's spring theatrical run (it only made $48 million in its domestic box office run, and about the same amount overseas.)

DVD sales and rentals, however, have been considerably better, which leads us to the claim that got me so geeked up this morning: Mark Millar, writer of the Kick-Ass funny book, has said on the UK's Radio 5 that a "Kick-Ass 2" has been greenlit and will go ahead based on his follow-up comic (courtesy of AICN for the head's up.)

Now, from all I've read, Millar says a lot of things, but here's hoping this bit at least turns out to be true, because "Kick-Ass 2"? To that, I can only say bring it on!

And after that bit of possible fantasy, here's some much more serious news about two very interesting flicks, one about to start and one that's already finished.

Anyone who's been here before knows that there are very few genres of movies that I like more than the American political movie, the kind that gets at the meat of campaigning in what we still like to think of as a civil society.

George Clooney, who stars in "The American," which hits theaters today (and I'll be seeing tomorrow), will next move back into the director's chair for "Farragut North," an adaptation of Beau Willimon's play, and he's apparently lining up a fantastic cast.

According to Vulture, "the story is set in Des Moines, Iowa, just weeks before the state's Democratic caucuses officially commence; it follows the exploits of a twenty-something presidential campaign spinmeister/wunderkind named Stephen Myers, and the dirty pool he plays to get his candidate the nomination against a rival senator."

As for the cast, Clooney has apparently reached out to Chris Pine, a.k.a. the new Captain Kirk, to re-create the lead role he played in a L.A. stage production of the play last fall. Already set are Philip Seymour Hoffman as Myers' boss on the campaign trail and, even better, Paul Giamatti as the campaign manager of a rival candidate. Offers are apparently also out to Evan Rachel Wood to play a teen campaign staffer and Marisa Tomei to play a probing journalist.

Shooting is set to begin in February, so I'd guess you can put this on the list of movies I'll be amped to see about this time or a little later next year.

And as for movies coming out a lot sooner in at least some corner of the world, can anyone remember the last time John Sayles directed a movie? It was "Honeydripper" in 2007, and though I almost completely hated that flick, the man has made many, many more that I love, so any news of a new Sayles flick is welcome around here (if I had to pick two of his movies I like the best, they would be "Passion Fish" and "Lone Star".)

The director heads to the Toronto International Film Festival this year with a new movie, "Amigo," a fictionalized account of the Philippines-American War at the turn of the 20th century, based on his unpublished, 1,000 page novel on the same subject, "Some Time in the Sun."

The film stars Joel Torre, Garret Dillahunt, Sayles regular Chris Cooper, DJ Qualls, Rio Locsin, Ronnie Lazaro and Bembol Roco, and according to The Playlist, here's what it's about:

The film revolves around the occupation by a squad of U.S. soldiers of a small, rural village. Headed by a respected elder, whom the Yankees refer to as “Amigo,” the villagers are forced to deal with this foreign presence as rules are set, curfews introduced and small attempts at democracy initiated. But the most significant tension in the film lies in the village’s relationship with a rebel group leading the resistance to the occupation. Amigo’s brother is the rebel leader, and his son runs off to join them, so he constantly finds himself torn between balancing what is right for the village and what this means to his family.

Juicy stuff that, and when he's on his game, Sayles is just an epicly good storyteller, so keep an eye out for this one hopefully soon. In the meantime, here's the trailer. Enjoy.



OK, after that today, all I have is a couple of clips, courtesy of MTV, from flicks I'm really looking forward to this fall. Admittedly, they're not the most exciting stuff, but I still think the movies they're culled from will be well worth watching.

First up comes "It's Kind of a Funny Story," from directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, which comes out Oct. 5 (I believe) and which you can list as the single movie I'm most looking forward to for this fall. It stars Keir Gilchrist as a teen who checks himself into a mental hospital only to find himself housed in the adult ward, where he meets Zach Galifianakis and, I'd have to presume, a host of other colorful characters. Enjoy this short clip from the flick.

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And finally today, though I haven't read the book by Kazuo Ishiguro, I'm really looking forward to Mark Romanek's "Never Let Me Go," coming to at least some American cities Sept. 15, because it just looks thoroughly creepy in all the best ways. The flick, starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield is, as best as I can tell, about students at an English boarding school who are part of some kind of truly odd social experiment. If I knew more than that I'm still not sure I would reveal it, because I think people, including me, should always be surprised by movies. Anyways, enjoy this short clip featuring Reel Fanatic fave Mulligan and Knightley, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

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Is there any reason at all to see "Avatar" in the theater again?

From my initial perspective, I'd have to say no, but let's at least look at what you're getting if you do spring for another ride with James Cameron's giant blue horse cats.

The big selling point in trying to nab more of your 3D premium dollars is that there are nine additional minutes (really? sheesh .. wasn't the movie long enough the first time around?) But let's be fair and let the man make his case. Here's what Cameron had to say about it to EW:

"There's a big rousing sequence where they're hunting these herd animals called sturmbeests. There's another new creature that you haven't seen before called the stingbat. There's a really powerful emotional scene toward the end of the film where the leader of the Na'vi is dying after a battle. There's a bit more in the love scene with Jake and Neytiri. There's more bioluminescent stuff in the night forest. Little bits and pieces here and there."

OK, fair enough. The creatures in "Avatar" were uniformly pretty cool (even the horse cats), but I still can't say that's enough to sucker me in again.

It's not that I didn't enjoy "Avatar." In fact, I've seen it twice now, and liked it more the second time around, but after that I really didn't feel I need to visit Pandora again any time soon. The movie itself is really just an old-fashioned, '80s-style sci-fi/action movie with lost of high-tech sheen, and viewed that way, it's a nearly perfectly entertaining bit of fluff.

Oh yeah, I probably should have lead with the fact that, starting Friday, "Avatar" indeed returns to 811 3D theaters, somehow including what's apparently soon to be the only movie theater in Macon (sad but true).

Something you can count me as amped for is the return of "Chuck," which will happen a lot earlier this season, 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20, to be precise (which I have to assume means it will be something approaching a full 22-episode season ... huzzah.)

What we (or at least I) know about the new season is all good so far, starting with the fact that Linda Hamilton will play Chuck's mysterious mom. Even if, like me, Linda Hamilton didn't grow up in Salisbury, Md., I'd still see that casting as nothing but cool (and by the way, Alexis Denisof, a.k.a Wesley from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," is from Salisbury too ... it's a sci-fi mini-mecca!)

In the latest bit of news about "Chuck," Timothy Dalton, perhaps best known as the only person to play James Bond in fewer movies (two, "License to Kill" and "The Living Daylights) than George Lazenby (one, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"), will be joining the show for a multi-episode arc this fall (to belabor the Bond thing a bit more, I suppose Daniel Craig's only played him twice too, but I'd imagine he'll get the chance again sometime.)

All that's known so far is that Dalton will be playing "a mysterious stranger who has history with Chuck's mom." Not much to go on, I know, but the return of "Chuck," along with the FX shows "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "Sons of Anarchy," are the shows you can count me as most psyched to see again (with Martin Scorsese's "Boardwalk Empire," coming Sept. 19 to HBO, easily the new show I most want to see.)

And all I have after that today is a couple of clips, starting with the first U.S. trailer for Stephen Frears' "Tamara Drewe," starring the not-exactly-hard-on-the-eyes Gemma Arterton as, best as I can tell, some kind of literary muse for a community of English writers. There seems to be more than a little Woody Allen-style stuff going on here, which done right certainly can't be a bad thing. Enjoy the trailer, and keep an eye out for this one starting Oct. 8 in at least America's bigger cities. Enjoy.

And finally today, I know I've been talking about "The American" quite a bit, but I'm convinced that Anton Corbijn's hit man movie starring George Clooney is going to be seriously good. Besides, I somehow only have a three-day work week next week, which means "The American" on Thursday, "Machete" on Friday and maybe even "Going the Distance" some time during the weekend too. A busy movie week, just as I like it. Enjoy this series of four clips from "The American" (the first of which I've posted here before) courtesy of collider.com, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. Peace out.

Yes, I really did go see Piranha 3D

And I even kind of liked it too. Far from anything approaching high or even low art, Alexandre Aja's movie is what so many others just claim to be: A genuine B movie, chock full of gore, nudity and, best of all, humor.

It's no surprise to me, then, that the movie not only did fairly well at the box office ($10 million in week one), but also that Dimension has already announced a follow-up. In spite of its many excesses (just as a word of warning, I'm certain I didn't have to see a robotic piranha belch up a severed penis - yes, it's often that silly and gross, too), it's a really fun ride, and I'm almost certain I'll climb on board again, especially since the ending leaves open the possibility of something really wild (I won't spoil it for you.)

I have, however, and probably shouldn't admit this, committed my first bit of thievery since I was 8 years old or so. Instead of "recycling" the 3D glasses this time, I just kept them, and plan to, the next time I give in and watch a movie in 3D, simply buy a ticket for a 2D release showing at nearly the same time, then just slip in to the 3D movie. Juvenile and crooked? Sure, but charging a $3.50 or so surcharge for each 3D movie is at least as criminal, and I'd argue much more so.

But enough about my latest petty scheme, since there's some other actual good movie news out there this week, starting with easily one of my favorite directors, the Japanese animation giant Hayao Miyazaki, who, thankfully, doesn't seem ready to slow down any time soon.

In an interview with the Japanese magazine Cut, thankfully translated by the Miyazaki-obsessed portal Nausicaa.net, he hinted that though he doesn't have any directing options in the immediate future, he does plan to hopefully produce a sequel of sorts to one of my favorite of his flicks, "Porco Rosso."

If you haven't seen that magical movie about a fighter pilot who's cursed to live his life as a pig (yes, really), it really is a delight, and here's some of what Miyazaki had to say about a sequel:

"So I want to escape to "Porco Rosso: The Last Sortie". I have all its materials."
"It should be interesting."
"It is set for Spanish Civil War."
"If next two films succeed and [studio president Toshio] Suzuki-san lets me make it (Porco) while saying, 'It cannot be helped because it's a hobby of the old man', I'm happy. It's my hobby."

The most beautiful animated movies around simply the "hobby of an old man"? You gotta love that, and a "Porco Rosso" sequel set in the Spanish Civil War? Sounds like its not yet a done deal, but I can only say bring it on.

And finally today, does anyone remember the original "Spy Kids" movie? Though Robert Rodriguez's movies lost more and more of the fun in its sequels, the first movie (starring Reel Fanatic fave Carla Gugino, among others) was a perfect little bit of escapist entertainment.

Well, Rodriguez, never one to tire of an idea quickly, has now decided to launch a reboot of sorts of the "Spy Kids" franchise, this time with Jessica Alba sort of in the role started by Gugino.

This time out, Alba will play a retired spy who has been reactivated. Her character is the mother of a baby and two preteen stepchildren. This will, of course, mean casting new "Spy Kids," since the originals, Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara, are surely too old by now. The only other thing that's known so far is that the villain is known as the Time Keeper, whose goal it is to stop time.

That last bit, at least, gives me hope that this will return the series to its roots, which would be a fun turn. And Alba, of course, stars in Rodriguez's "Machete," which will cut a bloody swath through theaters beginning Sept. 3.

It's just about time for me to go to the job that still pays my bills, but I'll leave you with a clip from another movie opening that week, Anton Corbijn's "The American," starring one George Clooney. With its retro look and feel, the tale of a hitman trying to retire is one I'm certainly excited to see. Enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

Fast forward: 10 movies I'm amped to see this fall

Since it's still hot as, well, August outside, what better time than now to look ahead to a time when the weather is cooler and the movies are reliably better, fall.

And just to clarify, on my movie calendar, fall starts in September and ends in November, no matter what the calender says. That said, here are 10 movies I'm definitely psyched to see this fall.

9/1: "The American": George Clooney stars as a hitman who's given one final, inevitably complicated, assignment to complete in Italy in this sure-to-be-cool thriller from director Anton Corbijn, who made the Ian Curtis biopic "Control."

9/3: "Machete": Whether or not Robert Rodriguez's revenge pic starring Danny Trejo (developed from the fake trailer of the same name that appeared in between the two halves of "Grindhouse") is any good, with a cast that also somehow includes Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Don Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Seagal and even Lindsay Lohan, it should be anything but boring. Enjoy the latest trailer.



9:15: Never Let Me Go: Here's one case where I'm definitely glad I haven't read the book first, because Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, which has been made into a movie starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield, is about students at a boarding school with a mysterious secret, and I don't want to already know what that is going in.

9/17: Easy A: I'm surely too old for teenie adaptations of classic works, but this take on Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" just looks extremely clever, and star Emma Stone is a natural comedienne. Enjoy the trailer below.



9/17: "The Town": Ben Affleck's directing followup to "Gone Baby Gone" features a stellar cast - including Jeremy Ritter, Reel Fanatic fave Rebecca Hall and Don Draper - in a Chuck Hogan novel about bank robbers in Boston and the FBI man who's out to get them.

9/24: "It's Kind of a Funny Story": Co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who made last year's seriously satisfying baseball/immigration drama "Sugar," return this time with the story of a teenager who checks himself into a mental institution and ends up getting housed in the adult area, where he meets Zach Galifianakis and all kinds of other colorful characters. The one movie I'm most looking forward to seeing this fall. Enjoy the trailer below.



10/1: "Social Network": The creation of Facebook may not exactly sound like a riveting story of American ingenuity, but I'm betting that in the hands of director David Fincher and with a script from "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin, this flick starring Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake will be a real winner.

10/1: "Freakanomics": If too many cooks don't spoil the soup, this documentary based on the best-selling book about the often bizarre rules of causality from six directors - Heidi Ewing, Alex Gibney, Seth Gordon, Rachel Grady, Eugene Jarecki and Morgan Spurlock - should be a surprise hit this fall.

11/5: "Fair Game": Spy games are always best when they're based on a true story, so even if it's clearly old news by now, you can count me in for director Doug Liman's take on the story of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts), with her husband being played by Sean Penn.

11/5: "127 Hours": Director Danny Boyle kind of snuck up on Oscar voters to take the top prize with "Slumdog Millionaire," and I think he just might do it again with the story of mountain climber Aron Ralston, played by James Franco, who survived the titular 127 hours trapped under a boulder in a Utah canyon.

So there you have it. Please feel free to let me know of any I've snubbed (and remember that there will be some great ones in December, but that's not on this list) or any you're really amped to see this fall, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

For Friday, a treasure trove of clips

Actually, with "The Other Guys" opening today and getting generally very good reviews, let's start with easily the craziest news I could find this morning, and it's about director Adam McKay.

In what would have to be a pretty big reach for the Gary Sanchez production company he runs with Will Ferrell, it seems that McKay has hired screenwriter Jesse Armstrong, co-writer of the sublime satire "In the Loop" (rent that immediately if you somehow haven't seen it), to pen the script for a biopic of Lee Atwater. And if you like political film at all, you know how potentially good this news is.

And just in case you've forgotten about Atwater, he was a prominent GOP strategist who, while he didn't quite engineer the rise of Republicans in the South, certainly channeled their power for George H.W. Bush and others to take advantage of (and, by the way, created that "Willie Horton" ad - remember him?) Far from my favorite dude in history, but certainly a colorful character, and Armstrong should have plenty to work with in all the dirty tricks he pulled in a successful career in politics. Stay tuned.

OK, after that today, it's indeed all about clips, and I've got four or - depending on the time - five that caught my eye this morning, starting of course with "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World." Though surely a gimmick, this interactive trailer that lets you click anywhere in it while it's running to get little nuggets of info about the flick is also extremely addictive as a time-waster. Enjoy, and certainly go see the flick when it opens next week.



Next up, if you have to make movies in 3-D, what more noble use could there be than to shoot a dude being catapulted high into the air in an outhouse? That's right, the "Jackass" boys are back on Oct. 15, and they really will be in 3-D (hence the title, "Jackass 3D.") And I'm certainly not afraid to admit that the antics of Johnny Knoxville and his crew are just the perfectly silly thing to get me laughing on a Saturday afternoon, so I'll be there to see it. Enjoy.

Jackass 3D

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And speaking of satire, there's one coming up that, if it's done right and with no mercy, could be really funny. Called "Butter," it takes on the 2008 Democratic presidential primary and takes it into the competitive world of butter sculpting (yes, really, I couldn't make that up.) In the flick, set to come out sometime next year, Jennifer Garner plays an ambitious butter sculptor in the Midwest who finds her rise challenged by a young black girl with a talent for the art (if you can really call it that.) I'm already laughing at the possibility for funny here, so enjoy this five-minute behind-the-scenes clip from Entertainment Tonight, which thankfully doesn't contain its usual habit of talking over all the footage.



It's been so long since the last "Narnia" movie, and they really just do have such an old-fashioned feel to them (even with all the nifty special effects), that it's pretty easy to forget all about them, but I liked "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" quite a bit, and "Prince Caspian" was even better, so you can certainly count me as amped for the third installment, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," set to come out Dec. 10. Here, straight from the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" DVD and courtesy of Narniafans.com, is the the second trailer I've seen for the flick. Enjoy.



And finally, the transition from swelteringly silly summer to more prestigious fall should start early this year with Anton Corbijn's "The American," set to come out Sept. 1 and star one George Clooney. This is only a brief TV spot, but the flick, starring Clooney as an American assassin who gets one final assignment to complete in Italy before retiring, is one of the movies I'm most looking forward to for the rest of this year, so enjoy, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

"Brick" team reuniting for something really crazy, but hopefully great

If the survival of "Chuck" was really contingent on the ratings for last night's episode, as Deadline Hollywood and other sources claim, the creators at least put up a real winner.

With guest stars Swoozie Kurtz and Fred Willard, plus a mean Bengal tiger, it was just good, old-fashioned goofy, with more than enough romance thrown in to sweeten the deal. And the kicker with Ellie and Awesome in Africa points to a fantastic finish.

Word should come very soon on whether or not there will be a fourth season, but in the meantime, NBC has already made, in its first new series pickup, what would make the perfect leadin to "Chuck" for a spytastic Monday night.

J.J. Abrams of "Lost" and "Alias" has pitched a show called "Undercovers," about a married couple who just happen to be former top spies with the CIA. They get called back into duty (by Gerald McRaney, naturally) after a former co-worker goes missing while on the trail of a Russian arms dealer. Actually, it's probably too much like "Chuck" to pair the two, though I seriously doubt this new show will bring the funny as regularly or as well as "Chuck" does.

In other good TV news, FX has just announced that it has picked up a second season of "Justified," the series based on an Elmore Leonard short story and starring Timothy Olyphant as, well, pretty much the same character he played in "Deadwood," just in modern-day Kentucky (which, oddly enough, isn't all that far removed from the Old West.)

The show, like another new one I'm really digging, "Treme," is certainly on a slow boil when it comes to a running storyline, but it has plenty of personality, and I'll definitely keep tuning in to see where this all goes. The finale of season one, by the way, comes June 8.

All I've got besides that today, as the headline promised, is news about just what director Rian Johnson and co-conspirator Joseph Gordon-Levitt are up to now, and then a nifty George Clooney trailer to finish things off.

The duo first teamed up for easily one of my favorite films of the last 10 years or so, the high school film noir "Brick." If you haven't seen this one, just rent it already, and I guarantee you'll enjoy it. Next for Johnson came "The Brothers Bloom." The first time I saw this in the theater it just left me cold, but coincidentally enough, I just red boxed it again last weekend, and while the plot still doesn't quite add up, there's more than enough style along the way to make it at least an enjoyable failure (and Rinko Kikuchi is just an adorable hoot as Boom Boom.)

Now, he and Gordon-Levitt seem to have something entirely different in the works for their next movie, "Looper." The plot details so far are more than a little confusing, but as far as I can tell it's a piece of "dark sci-fi" about hit men who are sent back in time to find their victims. Sounds more than a little like the average Bruce Willis movie that will appear in February and make exactly no impression at all, but here's hoping that in the hands of these two, it turns into a whole lot more.

And finally, in an admittedly brief report because I'm just running way behind today, I'll leave you with the first trailer I know of for a flick I had never heard of until this morning, Anton Corbijn's "The American." Starring one George Clooney, it's about an assassin who gets one final case in Italy, and judging at least from this brief glimpse, it looks like the old-fashioned, low-tech kind of thriller that I can really get into. Enjoy the trailer for this one, keep an eye out for it in September, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.