Apparently, you don't mess with Denzel Washington

Though I was sure I had had my full of apocalyptic movies, on the advice of Bob of Bob and Justin's Mad Movie Blog, I went to see "The Road," and I have to say it was an extremely pleasant surprise.

Bleak? Sure, but it builds at a natural pace to the perfect ending. Not having read the book, I enjoyed that the event that leaves our heroes, a father and son played by Viggo Mortensen and young Kodi Smit-Mcphee, in the predicament we find them in at the outset is only hinted at in the movie itself. For once, you don't have everything spoon-fed to you, and I didn't mind that one bit.

Though there's a full slate of good flicks out today, and more than a few I still have to catch up on, I'd recommend making time for this if you can handle something that, be warned, is extremely bleak until its glimmer of hope ending.

And I'll take another chance on an apocalyptic tale in honor of the Hughes brothers, who have just been missing from movie theaters for too long. Remember them? Albert and Allen Hughes managed to direct four stylishly entertaining flicks - "Menace II Society," "American Pimp," "From Hell" and my favorite of their movies so far, "Dead Presidents" - before pretty much disappearing in 2001.

Now, however, they're back Jan. 15 with "The Book of Eli," which stars Denzel Washington as a lone man fighting his way across the United States to protect a sacred book which contains the secrets to saving human kind. That sounds pretty meh to me, but like I said, I'll see it out of mad respect for the Hughes brothers, and with Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis in this too, it could - against pretty serious odds - turn out to be a lot more entertaining than I fear.

Below is a featurette about the fight choreography, which shows Denzel in action as our hero. Enjoy.

And with that, I'm off for a week. Though I won't be posting anything to this site, I will be seeing plenty of movies while In NYC, definitely "Up in the Air" (finally!), "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" and "Broken Embraces." Starting Monday, Jan. 3, it will be best of 2009 week here, with this schedule:

Monday: Best female performers of the year (featuring Gladys Knight!)
Tuesday: Best male performers of the year
Wednesday: Best animated movies of the year
Thursday: Best movies of the year
Friday: Finally, with the 2009 winner revealed, I'll offer my 10 best movies of the '00s (better late than never, hopefully.)

And what that, I'm out. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Well, it's not an "Arrested Development" movie, but ...

Mitch Hurwitz, already at work on an animated offering as a midseason replacement for Fox, has now also signed on with CBS for something that sounds right up the "Arrested Development" creator's alley (even if it will star Jason Biggs.)

Biggs would topline what's being described as a comedy about a family that "loves too much," revolving around adult siblings and their parents who are "over-involved in one another's lives."

If that sounds an awful lot like "Arrested Development" itself, well, here's hoping. In another encouraging sign for the show, James Vallely, who wrote 15 episodes of "Arrested Development," is on board as Hurwitz's co-writer for at least the pilot. It has so far received a put pilot commitment and an order for six additional scripts.

Now, about that casting, and since it's the political season, here goes ... Mr. Biggs, I've met Jason Bateman (well, not really, but you know what I mean), and you sir are no Jason Bateman. OK, that didn't even really make me laugh, so I apologize if it just made everyone else groan too. I do hope I'm wrong and he and this as-yet untitled show thrive (or at least actually make it onto the air.)

And as for the other Hurwitz project, Wikipedia has quite a bit of information about it, which I'll shamelessly cut and paste here. It's based on a short-lived New Zealand (not Australian, as an anonymous poster corrected me on) sitcom called "Sit Down, Shut Up." Now called "Class Dismissed," it revolves around a group of "unconventional" educators at a northwestern U.S. high school. And, best of all, here's the rather "Arrested Development"-heavy voice cast:

Will Arnett as bodybuilder Ennis Hofftard
Maria Bamford as Miracle Grohe, a religious science teacher.
Jason Bateman as Larry Slimp, the gym teacher and only staff member that can teach.
Will Forte as Vice Principal Stuart Prozackian.
Tom Kenny as Happy, the secretive custodian.
Nick Kroll as Andrew Sapian, the flamboyant drama teacher
Cheri Oteri as Helen Klench, the unappreciated librarian.
Kenan Thompson as Principal Sue Sezno.
Henry Winkler as Willard Deutschebog, a suicidal German teacher.

Sounds great to me, and for anyone who may not know, Tom Kenny is also the voice of "SpongeBob SquarePants." And now, before I end this prattling on about a show that won't even hit the airwaves until next Spring (at 8:30 Sundays, right after "The Simpsons"), I'll end this with a publicity shot from the show.


Are the Hughes Brothers really going to make another movie?

Does anyone remember Allen and Albert Hughes, much better known as the Hughes Brothers?

I can't blame if you don't, but before pretty much disappearing from the film world, they managed to make four pretty darn entertaining flicks between 1993 and 2001: "Menace II Society," "Dead Presidents" (a seriously underrated movie), "American Pimp" and "From Hell."

Since then they've pretty much toiled in TV and advertising, but now that a rather large star named Denzel Washington is on board their latest attempt to return to the big screen, I have to believe it's gonna happen.

Washington has signed on to star in "Book of Eli" as "a lone hero in a not-too-distant apocalyptic future who must fight across America to bring society the knowledge that could be the key to its redemption," according to Variety.

That sounds a bit meh to me, but the Hughes Brothers, who will direct this for producer Joel Silver, have a real style that I've been missing in movies for a long time now. Here's hoping this actually happens! And, since it's a Friday and my mind is moving all over the place, I'll close with the video for one of my favorite Dead Prez songs, simply and aptly titled "Hip-Hop," and, of course, go see a movie.