So, Kevin Smith has made a horror movie. Can that possibly be a good thing?

Actually, before I jump into that, though I don't have the time this morning for anything even approaching a full review, I just wanted to say that if you do one thing this weekend (beyond, of course, celebrating Christmas), go see "True Grit."

Sure, it's a remake, but it's also one of the best movies the Coen brothers have ever made, largely because they restrain themselves and let The Dude and young Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross have a ball. It has more of the humor from the book than the original movie did and a hauntingly perfect score by Carter Burwell. And even though the last five minutes or so is a thoroughly unnecessary coda of sorts, before that, from the point that Josh Brolin and even better, Barry Pepper as Lucky Ned Pepper turn up, it's the best 20 minutes or so I've seen in a movie this year.

So, just go see it already. After that today, I've just got a series of clips that caught my eye, and a "Community" treat at the end since my DVR has missed the show during its Christmas break.

Every time mi hermano hears the name Kevin Smith, he simply calls him a tool, and given the director's most recent public antics, I most often have to agree with him. That said, however, it really looks like he just may have cooked up something fascinating with his upcoming horror movie (yes, really) "Red State."

I try to be a pretty tolerant dude, especially when it comes to religious views, but when you picket soldiers' funerals (and I really still can't understand why in the world they do that) and those of just about anyone else you decide is somehow unworthy, than you go straight to hell in my book. Or end up the model for a horror film by Kevin Smith, which seems to be the all-too-well-deserved fate of the Rev. Fred Phelps.

As you'll see from this teaser trailer for the flick, which is debuting at next year's Sundance Film Festival, Michael Parks plays the preacher here, and Stephen Root, Melissa Leo and John Goodman factor into this too. Enjoy the clip, and then stick around for some more.



I have a sinking feeling that, like most likely "Red State," Miguel Arteta's "Cedar Rapids" won't open wide enough to reach my little corner of the world whenever it drops next year. And that will be a real shame, because as you'll see from this first trailer I know of, it looks like just the broadest kind of comedy, and quite possibly the very funny variety too. Veryfunnyguy Ed Helms of "The Office" stars as an insurance salesman sent to a conference in the titular city, where he encounters John C. Reilly, Anne Heche and assorted other oddballs. Enjoy the clip.



The more I see of "Source Code," Duncan Jones' followup to the rather sensational "Moon" (rent that already!), the more it just looks like the most generic kind of early-year thriller, but here's hoping I'm wrong. Jake Gyllenhaal stars and finds himself transposed into the body of a soldier so that he can stop the impending bombing of a train. These ticking-clock kind of thrillers really are just about my single least favorite little subgenre of movies, but I'll probably give this a chance just for Mr. Jones' sake when it hits April 1. Enjoy the UK trailer.



Before that comes out, I think the movie I'm most looking forward to seeing early next year would be Peter Weir's "The Way Back," which supposedly opens "wide" Jan. 21. Colin Farrell and Ed Harris are the only name stars among a slew of Russian actors in this tale of a group of men who escaped from a Russian gulag in the 1940s. Not the cheeriest of subjects, perhaps, but Weir is a master at grand storytelling, so this should be pretty great. Enjoy this clip of Farrell from the flick, and like I said, stick around for a "Community" treat at the finish.


To watch more, visit www.t5m.com

Of all the shows on hiatus right now, I think I miss "Community" the most, so I guess that makes it my favorite network show right now. And a lot of the spirit of why the show is so great is captured in this Avengers sendup of the cast. I'm not sure who did it, but kudos, because they're all really funny, especially Shirley as the Scarlet Witch and Pierce as the not-terribly-incredible Hulk. Enjoy the picture, have a great Christmas weekend, and go see "True Grit." Peace out.

An "Arrested Development" reunion - of sorts? Bring it on!

Just a quick report today fueled by a large cup of Jittery Joe's java, because I'm soon off to see "Shutter Island" and then go to see Jack McBrayer host a screening of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" as part of the Macon Film Festival (crap film, but should still be fun night.)

Before all that fun, however, there are a couple of bits of intriguing news out there this morning.

Though the "Arrested Development" reunion diehard fans most want to see would have to be the tremendously long-gestating movie, any project that reunites creator Mitch Hurwitz with Will Arnett - a k a Gob Bluth, of course - on TV in the meantime has to be good news.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hurwitz and "Arrested Development" co-executive producer Jim Vallely are close to signing a deal to create a single-camera, half-hour series for Lionsgate TV to be aired on Fox, with Arnett to be the main star. The show, in what sounds rather suspiciously (but welcomely) like the further adventures of Gob Bluth, would be about a "rich Beverly Hill jackass" who falls in love with a charitable tree-hugging woman who can't stand his lifestyle. Come to think of it, it sounds an awful lot like "Curb Your Enthusiasm" too, but either way, it should be just insanely funny.

Hurwitz and Arnett have reunited on TV once before since the end of "Arrested Development," but calling their very-short-lived animated series "Sit Down, Shut Up" a disaster would be far too courteous. Here's hoping this new project comes together and works out a lot better, but doesn't keep Hurwitz and Vallely away from that "Arrested Development" flick for too long.

There's other news this morning about Thomas McCarthy, who, if I were ever to get around to listing my 10 favorite directors (actually, sounds like fun), would definitely make the roster somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Along with starring as that seriously unscrupulous reporter on the final season of "The Wire" (reminder, David Simon's New Orleans series "Treme" premieres on HBO on April 11!), McCarthy has directed two perfectly sublime indie flicks, "The Station Agent" and the even-better "The Visitor." And now comes great word about the cast for the new project he's developing for Fox Searchlight.

Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan (double huzzah!) have joined the cast of "Win Win," which McCarthy is writing and directing as a semiautobiographical tale about a teen runaway who is taken in by a suburban New Jersey couple and joins the local high school's wrestling team (McCarthy wasn't the runaway, but rather one of his teammates.)

If that sounds suspiciously like a white, suburban "Blind Side," so what? I'd have to assume Giamatti will play the wrestling coach and Ryan the mother who takes the kid in, and with McCarthy guiding this it all sounds great to me. Shooting is set to start in the Garden State in April.

And by the way, did you know McCarthy is an Oscar nominee, for his contribution to the screenplay of "Up"? Congrats!

All I have after that today is a slew of clips from "Cop Out," courtesy of Collider.com. I'm still not convinced that Kevin Smith's hired hand flick is gonna be any good, but it should provide the ultimate confirmation that Tracy Morgan really can be funny in anything. Enjoy, and if you're headed to the big Macon Film Festival event tonight with Jack McBrayer at the Cox Capitol Theatre, I'll see you there. Peace out.

A Saturday cache of clips: Is there really hope for "Cop Out"?

This surely isn't terribly exciting to the rest of the world, but it's thrilling to me that I have actually managed to enter the mid-90s or so and am - for the first time - typing this on my fancy new laptop while enjoying a strong cup of java at Jittery Joe's. It might be also because of the large Brazilian brew I'm downing, but it makes me seriously giddy.

And you know, ever since I heard that Kevin Smith was making a rather routine-sounding buddy cop movie as his next flick - and one he didn't even write himself - I just assumed that "Cop Out" was one I would skip altogether.

But, as you can see from the red band clip below, he does have one definite strength in his corner, the indefatigably crude Tracy Morgan. If you love watching him on "30 Rock" - and when the Emmys are perennially showered on the show, I really can't understand why he isn't at least nominated - you know he's at his best when he appears to be just spouting whatever comes into his head. And from this seriously crude clip - be warned, it contains both talk of monkey sex and a 10-year-old getting punched in the nards - you can see that Kevin Smith understood that he should at least let Tracy Morgan be Tracy Morgan, which will be enough to sucker me into buying a ticket when this comes out Feb. 26. Enjoy.



Next up comes the teaser trailer for a new Luc Besson movie, which though it really doesn't reveal much at all, is still reason to celebrate. The movie is called "The Adventures of Adele Blanc Sec," and from what little I know about it so far, it's based on the comic books by Jacques Tati about a young novelist who gets into all kinds of Indiana Jones-style adventures in the early 20th century. Though this is listed as coming out in April in France and July in Japan, I can't yet find a U.S. release date, but one is sure to come soon. Enjoy.



Even if Avril Lavigne's new theme song for Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" is nothing but a disaster, I'm still almost entirely convinced that the movie itself will rock when it finally comes out in the first week of March. In this clip featuring interviews with both Johnny Depp and Anne Hathaway, I got the sense for the first time that this is going to be "Alice"-meets-"Chronicles of Narnia," with, near the end of this clip, young Mia Wasikowska donning armor to go into battle for the White Queen. And if I can digress about her for a second, she's part of the seriously great ensemble cast of "That Evening Sun" - the best Southern movie I've seen in many years. Go see that one if you can.



There's no shortage of artistic efforts to aid Haiti, and there can really never be too many. Lionel Richie's reconstitution of "We Are the World" surely will have more star power, but I'll take this project over that one any day. As you'll see from this British TV clip, Pogues poet and drunkard extraordinaire Shane MacGowan has convened Nick Cave, Chrissie Hynde, Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols. Mick Jones of the Clash and - though he doesn't appear in this clip - even Johnny Depp too, among others, to record a version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' great "You Put a Spell on Me," with all proceeds going to help Haiti rebuild. You don't get to hear any of the new track in this behind-the-scenes clip, but it's still fun to watch (not the least so you can try and decipher just what in the world MacGowan is saying), and keep your eyes out for the single release at the end of this month. Enjoy.



And finally, in a definite case of saving the worst for last, here's an "Entertainment Tonight" visit to the set of "Burlesque," which gets my early vote for the biggest disaster of 2010. You do get to see Christina Aguilera, Kristen Bell and other very attractive young ladies cavorting around in their burlesque outfits, but this clip mostly just left me with this burning question: Just how in the world did Bell, Stanley Tucci and even Alan Cumming end up in what appears to be a "Showgirls" sequel of sorts with Cher as the matron? Sheesh. Anyways, enjoy the clip, have a great weekend and please, if you have the chance, do go see "That Evening Sun," which features a performance from Hal Holbrook that's even better than the one in "Into the Wild" that should have won him an Oscar. Peace out.



P.S.: The Blogger spell check is once again not working, so please forgive any egregious spelling errors. Thanks.

David Cronenberg and Sigmund Freud? Bring it on!

Avatar 3D. Most amazing visuals I've ever seen. Story-wise, meh. But credit for all the Iraq war parallels. Notice that?

It's really apropos of nothing, but I just thought that Twitter burst from the alwaysveryfunny Elizabeth Banks summed up James Cameron's movie rather perfectly, so I had to share it.

As far as actual news today, there's word of a new David Cronenberg movie coming together, and on a subject that seems perfectly tailored to his view of the world and with a cast that's pretty solid too.

With full credit to The Playlist, which as far as I can tell broke this news first, it seems that the Australian distribution company Hopscotch Films has announced that two "Inglourious Basterds" (my favorite movie of 2009), Christoph Waltz and Michael Fassbender, plus Keira Knightley have all signed on to star in "The Talking Cure," which Cronenberg is directing based on the 2002 play by Christopher Hampton.

In it, Knightley would play Sabina Spielrein, a "beautiful young woman, driven mad by her past." For help, she turns to Carl Jung (Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Waltz).

Christoph Waltz as Sigmund Freud? Sounds like perfection to me, especially since Cronenberg's best movies deal as much with psychological as physical violence, especially my favorite of his flicks, "Spider."

But will any of this ever come together? Well, with that cast you would certainly think so, but Cronenberg is also attached to possibly direct a movie based on the Robert Ludlum thriller "The Matarese Circle," with Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington set to star.

As promising as that might sound, here's hoping "The Talking Cure" jumps it in his directing queue, and that he gets to work on it fairly fast, because it's just been way too long since the world has seen a David Cronenberg movie.

Just how did Kevin Smith manage to "Cop Out" on "A Couple of Dicks"?

No matter how he tries to defend it, "Cop Out," the new name for Kevin Smith's buddy cop movie starring Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis and set to drop in February, is just nothing but boring in my book. And judging from the trailer you'll find at the end of this post, the movie itself probably won't be much better either.

But, any time Smith is given a forum to spout off, he always says at least a few things that make me smile, as he did when discussing the new title with Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider blog. It's worth reading the whole thing, but here are a few highlights if you don't have the time, starting with exactly why he had to drop the "A Couple of Dicks" name in the first place:

(Be warned: The language in this, as usual with Mr. Smith, is more than a little salty.)

Kevin Smith: Look, losing A Couple of Dicks was almost akin to losing my own dick. It was a perfect buddy-cop movie comedy title. Everyone knew it. You couldn’t say that title to somebody without a f—ing smile crossing their face. But what I had gone through with Zack and Miri Make a Porno — “porno” had become very problematic, it became tough for us to advertise [the film], blah blah blah. Warner Bros. decided, “Hey man, we’ll call the networks and see if we’re going to get any problems [with A Couple of Dicks as a title], months before the movie’s ever going to come out.” The top 3 networks — CBS, ABC, NBC — said we can’t run one of your spots before 9 o’clock. ... So my feeling was like, it’s an R-rated movie, so who the f— are we talking to anyway before 9 o’clock? Warner Bros’s feeling was like, “Hey man, the sports audience, dickhead. We have to advertise to the sports audience on Saturday and Sunday and all those sporting events usually take place before 9 p.m. in the evening.” At which point, I was like, “Oh wow, you guys are way smarter than me.”

You still certainly can't convince me that "Cop Out" is any way a funny fallback, but he went on to explain how the title could have, amazingly, possibly been even worse:

Smith: So for months now, they’ve always had A Couple of Cops as kind of this fallback thing — a placeholder, essentially. And then all of a sudden, one of the producers of the movie was like, “Hey they’re locking the title, because the trailer is going to be put on Sherlock Holmes.” And I was like, “This is an abundance of wonderful and horrible information.” I want to be on Sherlock Holmes because everyone on the planet will probably go see it on Christmas, but I don’t want it to be A Couple of Cops. That just seems like we didn’t even try! We went from a really clever title to the least clever title of all time. I was like, “God that title is going to feel like such a f—ing cop out.” And [the producer] goes, “We should just call the movie that.”

OK, I know that's a lot of Kevin Smith for people who, like mi hermano, just find the man to be a tremendous tool, but any fans of juvenile comedy will at least smile at this final bit which includes the perfect, fan-suggested tagline, which means it will never appear on a movie poster.

Smith: We were making up sequel titles in our heads, dude. Like, you know, Two Bigger Dicks. Or Dicks 2: It Just Got Harder. Somebody online said you could take Cop Out and vary it with like, “Rock out with your Cop Out!” Hopefully that will be a tagline on a poster or a trailer. And if it is, we owe that random dude on Twitter like at least a few free passes.

But what about the trailer, which appeared this week? Well, like I said above, it really doesn't look too promising at all, even with an appearance from the alwaysveryfunny Susie Essman of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." I love Morgan on "30 Rock," but it's clear he's only as strong as the material he's working with, and "Cop Out" just looks way too weak. It certainly appears like Mr. Smith's stint as a hired hand for Warner Bros. will result in exactly the kind of "comedy" that appears and disappears very quickly each February. Anyways, "enjoy" the trailer, and have a perfectly pleasant Christmas eve. Peace out.

Does Chuck really know kung-fu? Well, sort of

It may seem awfully odd and - well - kinda pathetic to be commenting on what goes on at Comic-Con when I'm not even there, but I love reading this stuff and also passing on what I find.

And before I get into the mostly good news about "Chuck," there were two tidbits from yesterday that caught my eye, both in their own way rather sad.

Kevin Smith showed up to "promote" his buddy-cop movie "A Couple of Dicks," but without any footage and mainly with the news that the title will have to be changed. Not a huge deal, I guess, but the reason is just pathetic: You apparently can't say a certain word (and it's not couple) before 9 p.m. on TV and get your ads on the air. What in the world?

I can't say the signs are terribly good for this one, but I really enjoyed "Zach and Miri Make a Porno," and Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan should make a great comedic duo, so I guess I should keep hope alive.

Things were apparently - and by force - more grim at the "Futurama" panel, where I guess you have to give Matt Groening credit for facing the audience at all, especially since he couldn't bring any actors with him (in case you missed it, Twentieth Century Fox essentially fired them all after they wouldn't take pay cuts and is now recasting ALL the parts - as it stands, I won't be watching that.)

Groening used his sarcastic best to try and stay above the fray, but the bitterness clearly came through in this: "The core of my being is at peace... There are no mistakes," he said. "I embrace the universe. I send loving thoughts to all living beings, including the 'Futurama' cast and Fox executives."

Here's hoping against hope that they somehow get this resolved with Billy West, Katey Segal and everyone else coming back, but I don't really see it happening at this point.

But the big TV news in my book was all about "Chuck," and like I said, if you're a big fan of the show like me, it was all as good as we could expect.

First and foremost, according to the Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd and a few other reports I cobbled together, Chuck (Zachary Levi) will not be the next coming of Bruce Lee in every episode, which would, of course, eliminate the need for his handlers (and if you make the show with out Adam Baldwin or Yvonne Strahovski, I'm not gonna watch that either.)

According to Levi himself: "The Chuck-fu ... he can't just know kung fu all the time, otherwise his handlers are obsolete. So our very talented and wise creators, they've structured it so the powers have a window, a shelf life, there's a glitch in the system ... I have my powers, but they don't necessarily last -- that's the secret."

That can only be good news, because if at his core Chuck isn't still a pretty goofy guy, the show will lose a lot of its charm. I've included a picture of the art for season three, which would clearly make a really cool comic book cover.

As far as the panel itself went, the cast apparently entered the stage to Jeffster performing "Take Me Home Tonight," which must have just been a riot.

A few other interesting tidbits:

Per co-creator Josh Schwartz: "Something very emotional and traumatic will happen between Chuck and Sarah, but it will be really-really good."

Also: "Now that Awesome knows Chuck's secret, you'll see him pulled into a spy role as well, probably not as reluctantly as he should be." Awesome the spy? Bring it on!

And in a final tease to the fans, Schwartz made this vague claim about the premiere of the third season: "It could be sooner than was announced. We don't know."

I seriously doubt we'll see "Chuck" again until next February, after the next Winter Olympics, but it definitely seems that when it does make it back it will look a lot like the show I've grown to love. Peace out.

What's Zack Snyder up to after "Watchmen"?

The picture above is one of nine in a gallery online at Vanity Fair that's well worth checking out here. This "Honeymooners" shot had to be my favorite because Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Leslie Mann and Jason Bateman are all just sensationally funny people, but there's plenty more to enjoy - including Seth Rogen as Frida Kahlo - in the gallery.

And speaking of seriously funny, a hearty huzzah to Spike TV (which I'm fairly certain I haven't tuned in to up to this point) for reviving a true American hero of physical comedy, the great Super Dave Osborne. If you grew up in the '80s like I did, Super Dave was the king of failed stunts, and now he's about to bring it all back again for four episodes he will write and of course star in this summer. Definitely keep your eyes out for that.

And he's not the only very funny guy who's about to make a comeback. Dave Chappelle sidekick Charlie Murphy - a k a Eddie's currently funnier brother - will launch his show "Charlie Murphy's Crash Comedy" on something called Crackle.com beginning March 20. And please, please, please Mr. Murphy, just go right ahead and steal the concept of "Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories." It was the funniest thing on Dave's show, and he apparently won't be needing it anytime soon.

And since this is already the longest intro having nothing to do with the headline, why not more really funny from Kevin Smith, who proves there's not only life after making a porno, but a real cash cow.

For the record, I really liked "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." It was sweet and funny all at once, and that thoroughly disgusting anal sex joke at the end - I suppose it was the "money shot" - just made me laugh out loud. Almost as funny but thoroughly depressing, however, is that - for Wal-Mart, at least - Mr. Smith and those Weinstein boys have stripped the "porno" from the title completely for DVD shelves, labeling it simply "Zack and Miri." Sad. Really sad.

Now, even though that flick only made a rather paltry $31 million in its theatrical run, Mr. Smith is about to hit the big time. Warner Brothers has signed him to direct the detective comedy "A Couple of Cops," which was apparently at one point, and in Smith's hands probably will again be, known as "A Couple of Dicks." It will star Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. In the flick, according to the trades, the duo will track down a stolen baseball card, rescue a Mexican beauty and deal with gangsters and laundered drug money.

I can't find anything but good news there. For proof that Willis can be a great comedic actor with the right material, look no further than "Bandits" with Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett (well worth a rental if you can still find it.) And Tracy Morgan, though Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin try to steal all the acclaim, is the biggest fool on "30 Rock" and plays it with gusto. That recent bit with Dr. Spaceman about how diabetes might give him the chance to replace one of his feet with a wheel was just priceless.

OK, enough of that. Since this is "Watchmen" week, it should be all about Zack Snyder, and I promise that from here on out it mostly will be. It may be old news to most of the world, but the item I came across this morning was the first I had heard about "Sucker Punch," his next flick after "Watchmen."

And it sounds thoroughly intriguing. The new news is that "Mamma Mia!" star Amanda Seyfried is about to sign on to lead the mostly female cast, with Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, Evan Rachel Wood and Emma Stone all eyeing the project too.

So, what is it? Well, here's the description from Variety: Set in the 1950s, "Punch" follows a girl who is confined to a mental institution by her stepfather, who intends to have her lobotomized in five days. While there, she imagines an alternative reality to hide her from the pain, and in that world, she begins planning her escape, needing to steal five objects to help get her out before she is deflowered by a vile man.

Sounds like it steals more than a bit from "Pan's Labyrinth," but I love movies about the imagination, especially when it's needed to survive. And Zack Snyder has already proven that he has a pretty wild one himself, and he promises he'll use it to fill "Sucker Punch" to create something like " 'Alice in Wonderland' with machine guns," so definitely stay tuned for more on this.

And finally today, a little catching up. No less than two of my co-workers asked me yesterday if I had seen the new trailer for McG's "Terminator Salvation," which will unspool in front of "Watchmen" (which I'll be watching in Imax!) this weekend. I had to admit I had not, but as you can see below, it does indeed - as they led me to believe - kick all kinds of ass. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

"Slumdog Millionaire": A tale of one city that would make Dickens smile (if he ever did)

It's high praise indeed that Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" was the one movie I was most looking forward to this year, and even with these high expectations and me having to drive 90 minutes to see it, it almost didn't disappoint at all. I say almost, but I'm in much more of a glass way more than half full kind of mood, so lets start with the many great things about this flick first.

The two strongest things it has going for it are dynamic storytelling and a vibrant visual style that will leave several images burned on your brain for days after you see it.

Though the movie gets its title from our hero's quest to compete on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" to find the love of his life (corny, yes, but often magical too), that's really just a framing device for the real story of Jamal and Salim Malik, two slumdogs growing up without parents on the streets of Mumbai.

And it's in their early life, which would indeed be a depressing tale if weren't told with inventiveness and feature two young actors, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail as the young Salim and Ayush Mahesh Khedekar as the young Jamal, who are up to the task. Dickens comes in early and obviously as they fall into the hands of Maman (Ankur Vikal), a recruiter (and blinder) of children to be beggars who makes Fagan look almost like a saint.

The gangster angle comes into play later as the two boys paths start to converge, and it works extremely well as a tribute to the old flicks like "Public Enemy" and "Scarface" (the original, of course), movies I revere enough to have done my senior thesis at Catholic University on them (mostly as a very thinly veiled excuse to watch movies.) As Salim is drawn into a life of crime as a wannabe gangster, it also gives the movie one of its signature shots, of the two brothers sitting on a construction tower and looking out on a Mumbai that looks nothing like they knew as kids.

And it's in the imagery that accompanies this moving tale that Danny Boyle really shows his love for the city and its people. It brings me no pleasure at all to pile on Wes Anderson, but how he was able to film "Darjeeling Limited" in India and make it so devoid of life as Boyle's movie is packed with it just becomes a bigger mystery now. As the most direct example, watch any train scene from "Darjeeling" against the sequences in "Slumdog" in which Jamal and Salim live on the rails, and I think you'll see exactly what I mean (in particular look out for Jamal hanging by his ankles to swipe a piece of bread through a train compartment window.)

In spirit and actual imagery, it compares much more directly with Fernando Meirelles' "City of God," which I hold in extremely high esteem. A challenge: How many movies can you think of this year that show you something you've never seen before, and can therefore be hailed as something close to "unique"? I can think of only three in my early-morning haze, "Slumdog", "The Fall" and "The Dark Knight," a big reason why all three will almost surely find a home on my top 10 films of 2008. (And "Slumdog" even manages to pack in a joke early on that shares its inspiration, if not its delivery, with the crudest gag in Kevin Smith's "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" - not as nasty but equally as shocking.)

So, with all this to love about "Slumdog Millionaire," what's its biggest fault? Well, before I mention it, let me just say I've never cared much at all for game shows, apart from occasionally tuning in to see if I know the "Final Jeopardy" question.

I tell you that to tell you this: The game show angle in "Slumdog," which comes from the source novel "Q&A" by Vikas Swarup, just didn't work for me. The eldest Jamal, Dev Patel, plays the role of the beaten down but not out young man well and Anil Kapoor is the perfect counterpart as the oily game show host, but used as a device to tell Jamal's life story (I hope I'm not giving too much away here), it's just too cute and convenient by at least half. But I suppose all this is needed to tell the epic love story of Jamal and Latika (played as a woman by the truly radiant but unfortunately named Freida Pinto, who made me flash back to the most beautiful Indian woman I've ever seen on the big screen, Sarita Choudhury in Mira Nair's "Mississippi Masala"), so I was willing to forgive this one shortcoming. With kudos already piling up from the mysterious National Board of Review and the DC film critics, "Slumdog Millionaire" is likely to claim the outsider slot in this year's Best Picture race, and it would be well deserved.

A final word before I go about the soundtrack, which just offers the most infectious kind of Indian techno pop by AR Rahman, with a little MIA thrown in for good measure. And MIA's "Paper Planes" sure fits in a whole lot better here than it did in the commercial for "Pineapple Express," even if that's what made it a hit. Enjoy this audio-only clip of Rahman's "Gangsta Blues," which will hopefully liven up even the most dreary of Monday mornings. Peace out.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Tropic Thunder"

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

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

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

"Monty Python Holy Trinity"

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

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

More on Pixar, present and future

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



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

Kevin Smith, the art of raunch, and the problem with PG-13

The saddest news out there today is that after abusing Mike Judge's wryly funny "King of the Hill" for 13 years now, Fox has finally pulled the plug, effective at the end of this season. After the way it's been treated with the often nonexistent post-pro football slot, you could really probably call this a mercy killing. Besides, 13 years is a pretty darn good run.

And Mike Judge will be OK, with a feature film, "Extract," hopefully soon to come out in more than Austin and L.A. before hitting DVD. Starring Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, Kristen Wiig, Clifton Collins Jr., Mila Kunis and (huzzah!) J.K. Simmons, all I really know about it is that Bateman plays the owner of a flower extract factory. Mr. Judge will also be returning to animated TV comedy with something called "The Goode Family" coming soon to ABC.

But all that's not the order of the day around here. In honor of Kevin Smith, who I still have loads of time for when he's not simply rehashing his own movies, it's all about R-rated comedies in which the R is squarely for raunch. And before you say that's too harsh, look at his last three movies: "Clerks II", "Jersey Girl" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." Though both of the sequels-of-sorts were funny enough, he's definitely in need of a new crowd, which he has now with Seth Rogen and the utterly charming Elizabeth Banks (more on her later) for "Zack and Miri Make a Porno."

It's sad that Smith squandered the opportunity he had such a big hand in creating with the current wave of R-rated comedies that throw in just enough heart to make the crude go down as almost sweet. My brother thinks Kevin Smith is just, using language Mr. Smith would surely appreciate, "a tool", but I'll definitely turn out for his new one this weekend (even if I will probably be shamed enough to ask the inevitably teen clerk simply for a ticket to "Zack and Miri," as unable to bring myself to use the taboo word "Porno" as the network TV ads are.)

My main point in this admittedly rather disjointed diatribe, however, is that the PG-13 rating - a shameful ruse for many reasons - has watered down the art of true raunch to the point that it just becomes silly juvenilia (though I admittedly often have a stomach for that too.) Here's a test in the form of my 10 favorite raunchy movies, in no particular order. Can you pick out the only one that's not rated R?

Animal House
Clerks
Bad Santa
Superbad
Super Troopers
Airplane
South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
Blazing Saddles
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

And the answer? I thought for a second it might be "Superbad," but Jonah Hill's tirade about the "Ghostbusters lunchbox dick treasure chest" among many other gems made that one thankfully too rude for PG-13. The answer is "Airplane," which I haven't seen for a while, but I guess must be fairly tame by today's standards.

"Airplane" earned a PG rating four years before the PG-13 rating was created, on July 1, 1984 - a truly dark day in my book.Why? Well, you'll find I'm more than a little conflicted about it, but I think both sides I cling to are right, so bear with me.

My main beef with PG-13 is that it's so arbitrary. It was created, according to Wikipedia, in response to the violence in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "Gremlins" (really? WTF?!?!) Since then, however, it has clearly become a toilet for really gross "horror" movies and teen "comedies" that test the limits of taste without taking any time to think about such trivialities as much of a plot.

At the same time, however (remember, I said I'm very inconsistent on this), PG-13 movies too often just don't go far enough. I still find that woman in "Clerks" dryly explaining that she "manually masturbates caged animals for artificial insemination" for a living and the perpetually 8-year-old Stan looking for the clitoris in "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" to be extremely funny, and I hope I always will.

I suppose that's just the built-in problem with the middle ground: It may be the best way forward, but it will always leave increasingly both grumpy and old men like me complaining. The bottom line is, even if "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" will probably top the box office yet again, I'm glad Kevin Smith is back with a lot of raunch, a little smarts and a little more heart, and I hope a lot of people turn out for "Zack and Miri Make a Porno."

And I'll close with a bit more about Elizabeth Banks, easily my favorite comic actress working today (though Anna Faris is rising in the ranks too). She was rather severely underused in "W.", but you're about to see a lot of her: This week in Smith's flick, next week in the extremely silly but hopefully fun (and yes, R-rated) "Role Models" with Paul Rudd, and early next year in the horror movie "The Uninvited" with David Strathairn and Emily Browning (Violet in "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events).

I don't turn out for horror movies much any more (the last one I saw and kind of enjoyed was J.A. Bayona's "The Orphanage), but with that cast I'll give this one a chance. Here's the trailer, which does indeed make it look like it might be a cut above the gore-over-suspense fare that passes for most "horror" flicks nowadays. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend.

Wherefore art thou, David Cronenberg?

When his movies are so uniformly entertaining, I guess you really can't begrudge David Cronenberg the right to make flicks at his own pace, but I can certainly selfishly say the world would be a much better place if he indeed chose to work more often than every two or three years or so.

Since the 2007 thriller "Eastern Promises," which was made by a seriously chilling performance from Viggo Mortensen, I think he's been toying with making an opera of "The Fly." I can't even picture what that might look like!

Thankfully for the rest of us who don't live in Canada and get to see this madness, he's also now ready to get back into movies in a rather big way. Word comes today that he's managed to recruit no less than Denzel Washington (heard of him?) to star in a political thriller from "Bourne" author Robert Ludlum.

Set against the backdrop of the Cold war, "The Matarese Circle" revolves around two men — one American, one Soviet — who must cooperate in order to foil a sinister plot to topple the world’s governments. Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, who crafted the mostly satisfying "3:10 to Yuma" remake, are writing the adaptation.

Oscar alert for Forest Whitaker

I guess maybe this is Forest Whitaker's way to make up for missing out on the role of Notorious B.I.G. (which in all seriousness, of course, I doubt he was ever up for). Getting back on track in his quest to play every heavyset, famous black man on the big screen, he's next set his eyes on directing and starring in "What a Wonderful World."

All kidding aside, this should be a lot of fun, and perhaps more importantly it's actually being filmed in New Orleans for the French company - Legende - behind "La Vie en Rose."

The flick will kick off during Louis Armstrong’s impoverished early years in New Orleans and primarily chronicle his career as a trumpet virtuoso and improvisational singer. Since Mr. Whitaker's last directing effort was with Katie Cruise in "First Daughter," which I admittedly haven't seen, I'll still confidently bet this will have to be much, much better.

Julie Taymor creating a "Tempest"

I really should have given Julie Taymor's "Across the Universe" a chance when it finally came here for one week last year, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Thankfully, the Macon Film Guild is gonna screen it sometime in the next couple of months, so I'll certainly make up for that oversight when it comes again.

And Ms. Taymor is now back at it to create another oddity, this time with Dame Helen Mirren in tow. She's assembling a rather stellar cast for "The Tempest," and has already flipped the gender roles to make Prospero a Prospera for Mirren to play.

All I can really remember about "The Tempest" is that the sorcerer Prospero (Prospera), the former Duke of Milan, has been stranded on an island with a lot of his books and his 3-year-old daughter Miranda. From there I'm sure it will get very dreamy in Taymor's hands with help from a cast that will include Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Ben Wishaw, Felicity Jones and Geoffrey Rush.


Watch Kevin Smith make a porno

From what little I've seen of Kevin Smith's next flick, opening hopefully everywhere on Halloween, I think it's gonna be a real winner. To build the hype for the movie starring Seth Rogen and the fabulously funny Elizabeth Banks, Smith and Co. have starting posting brief "webisodes" at his Quickstop Entertainment site.

The first one, which is up now, features Messrs. Smith and Rogen in a fairly funny discussion about how Rogen should bring more "Affleck-tion" to the set. You can watch it here, and I think it's well worth wasting three minutes or so of your work day. Peace out.

Friday fun with trailers ... starring the Coen brothers!

OK, OK, I realize it's the height of sloth to simply post a couple of trailers for only my second post of the week, so let's first start out with a bit of news, the first of which I can only see being all kinds of bad.

Now, I love the movie "Donnie Darko." It took me at least three viewings to properly wrap my mind around it, but once I did, it just rocks. But why in the world would you feel the need to make a sequel? And more importantly, why would you possibly want to make a sequel without director Richard Kelly (someone named Chris Fisher is stepping in) but with Elizabeth Berkley of "Saved By the Bell" fame? I can't fathom any possible answer to those questions, but it's apparently happening now in the form of something called "S. Darko" (for Donnie's sis, Samantha), and probably headed straight to DVD soon.

In much better news, there will indeed be new TV this summer in the form of the very satisfying "Mad Men" on AMC. Hopefully with some kind of Emmys bounce, with the nominations set to be announced in July (I think), the show will return for season two at 10 p.m. July 21. And, in even better news, if you somehow managed to miss the first season of this great show about ad men, AMC will air all 13 episodes of season one on July 20, so set your DVR.

And, in the last bit before we move on to a twin bill of trailer goodness, David Gordon Green, director of the upcoming can't-miss comedy "Pineapple Express," will next direct the very funny Danny McBride in something called "Your Highness."

The promising premise, in a flick written by McBride and buddy Ben best, has an arrogant, lazy prince (McBride) who must complete a quest to save his father's kingdom. While I'm all for movies with dungeons and dragons, it's certainly also a genre ripe for send up.

And if you've never heard of Danny McBride, you hopefully will very soon. I was really hoping the kung-fu comedy he made with Jody Hill, "Foot Fist Way," would be playing everywhere this week, but it's apparently only in New York and L.A. so far. Here's hoping it plays everywhere next week, cause even if though it's gotten very mixed reviews so far, any flick that actually contains the phrase "Myrtle Beach drunk" as an adjective has to have at least a few merits.

But, finally, I did promise you two trailers, and they're for two flicks I'm genuinely jazzed about. The first, and surely superior, is the redband trailer for the Coen brothers' next flick, "Burn After Reading." While I loved "No Country for Old Men" almost unconditionally, I like the brothers best when they turn to comedy (my favorite Coens flick remains "O Brother Where Art Thou"), so this CIA caper starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand and John Malkovich should just be a hoot when it hits this fall. Enjoy!



And lastly here's a teaser for Kevin Smith's "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" (and no, I didn't just put the word "porno" in this post to get a few more hits from perverts.) I know a lot of people are tired of Smith's rather juvenile view of the world, but I still have a lot of time for him, and have high hopes for this flick starring Seth Rogen and soon-to-be-"it" girl Elizabeth Banks (after her turn as Laura Bush in Oliver Stone's upcoming Bush biopic "W".) Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. Peace out.

When bad things happen to beautiful women ...

Well, I suppose the second entry in this post can't really be called a bad thing, but there's no doubt in my mind that Julie Benz agreeing to be nearly tortured to death for our "enjoyment" can only be an evolutionary step backward.

I'm not gonna rail anymore about "torture porn," "torture chic" or whatever you might want to call it, but it still amazes me when people I enjoy watching in movies or on TV agree to take part in this crap.

But I guess I should get to the news of the day before I rant any further. Julie Benz, a k a Darla of "Buffy" and even more so "Angel" fame, has indeed signed on to topline "Saw V," due out in October (if you had put a gun to my head I probably wouldn't have been able to guess that there have already been four other "Saw" movies. Sheesh.)

Now, it's too early yet to tell if she'll be a victim or otherwise, but I still can't imagine what would drive her to agree to this. I don't think it can be money. She appeared in "Rambo" last year and is one of the principal stars of Showtime and Now CBS' "Dexter," and is also set to star in the upcoming flick "Punisher: The War Zone."

With the exception of Alyson Hannigan's (hopefully continuing for quite a while) run on "How I Met Your Mother" and David Boreanaz's run on "Bones," it's been a pretty bleak career landscape for almost all the stars of "Buffy," but this is indeed a new low.

Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush?

Like I said at the outset, you could hardly call this a bad thing career wise, but does any woman really want to hear they look like Laura Bush?

Banks, who recently wrapped shooting Kevin Smith's "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," is about to sign on to play Laura Bush in "W," Oliver Stone's biopic on the life and presidency of, well, W. Josh Brolin already is on board to play Bush in the biopic, which begins shooting in late April in Shreveport, La.

To be serious for a second, I really like Elizabeth Banks, and not just because she lands squarely on the hot side of the scale, so I hope this turns out to be great. She's a very funny lady, and for evidence of that you can turn to the very-little-seen "Slither," in which she co-starred with "Firefly" vet Nathan Fillion.

And besides, it could certainly be worse ... at least they didn't ask her to play Barbara. Peace out.

How far is too far to be funny?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Seth Rogen teams up with another very funny guy

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

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

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

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

Among the many things I'd enjoy watching Ellen Page do ...

... taking to the rink for a little roller derby action is definitely one of them, even if it is in a movie directed by Drew Barrymore (a cheap shot, I concede, since as far as I know this would be Ms. Barrymore's first directing gig. Perhaps she's the next Akira Kurosawa, but ... well, I'll just drop that and move on.)

Young Ms. Page, sure to be an Oscar nominee for "Juno" when the nominations are announced next Tuesday, will lace up her skates to play yet another spunky teen in Barrymore's "Whip It," the story of a girl named "Bliss" who turns her back on a life of beauty pageants in Texas to join a female roller derby team.

Sound like it's cut directly from the "Juno" formula? Well, there are plenty of more connections. Mandate, the studio that bankrolled Jason Reitman's flick, is also putting up the money for this one. And, just as "Juno" had the somewhat unique (yes, I know something can't be "somewhat unique," but bear with me) cache of being written by former stripper Diablo Cody, this one has a script penned by an actual former roller derby star, Shauna Cross, a k a Maggie Mayhem.

Even if it does sound more than a bit familiar, and now-20-year-old Ms. Page will at some point have to stop playing teenagers, it's hard to argue with the enthusiasm she expressed for all this silliness: "I can't wait to kick ass on wheels!"

If you're gonna make a porno ...

Well, even if Joel Siegel might try to tell you otherwise, Kevin Smith doesn't actually make pornographic movies, but he now has at least one former porn star for his next flick, "Zack and Mirni Make a Porno," and one "The Office" star as well. (Wow is that a lot of times for some variety of the word "porn" to appear in one sentence. If anyone finds this site while looking for actual pornography, please accept my apologies and move on.)

Smith had already announced Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks (double huzzah!) would be playing the leads in his next flick, set to begin production today, and now Craig Robinson (Darryl on "The Office"), former porn star Traci Lords, Ricky Mabe, Jeff Anderson (a k a Anderson regular Randal Graves) and Katie Morgan (HBO's "Katie Morgan: A Porn Star Revealed") have been announced to round out the cast.

I realize a lot of people are just tired of Kevin Smith (my brother calls him a "tool"), but I still find him almost always very funny, and that's good enough for me.


R.I.P. Brad Renfro

No matter how this story eventually unfolds, it can really be nothing but sad.

Actor Brad Renfro, who starred in "The Client" when he was just 10 years old, was found dead in his Los Angeles home early Tuesday at the none-too-old age of 25. I'm not exactly Sherlock Holmes, but I suspect drugs had more than a little bit to do with this.

In his short and rather troubled life, Mr. Renfro did manage to star in at least two movies I really like, Bryan Singer's "Apt Pupil" (when he was still just a kid) and "Ghost World" (even if by then he already did have a rather dead look as the convenience store clerk and boy toy of Enid and Rebecca.) He also was the main star of my favorite Larry Clark movie, the rather criminally underappreciated "Bully."

He had recently completed shooting something called "The Informers" with Winona Ryder and Billy Bob Thornton. R.I.P. Mr. Renfro.

A serious Oscar dis for "Persepolis"

Any chances that "Ratatouille" would somehow sneak into the final five for Best Picture (which I would wholeheartedly endorse) when the Oscar nominations are announced Tuesday seem even bleaker now that the other truly great animated movie I saw this year, the French flick "Persepolis," has failed to make the cut down to nine in the Best Foreign Language Film category. (Maconites, however, take note: When I mentioned this as a possible selection for the Macon Film Guild later this year, Camp Bacon confirmed that it is indeed already on their radar, so stay tuned.)

Also surprisingly slighted was "The Orphanage," Spain's entry and the very stylish and mostly enjoyable horror flick directed by J.A. Bayona (I guess "Guillermo del Toro presents" just didn't have quite the pull that marketers had hoped for.) I'd recommend catching this one in theaters while you still can.

And here are the nine that did make the cut: "The Counterfeiters" (Austria); "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" (Brazil); "Days of Darkness" (Canada); "Beaufort" (Israel); "The Unknown" (Italy); "Mongol" (Kazakhstan); "Katyn" (Poland); "12" (Russia); and "The Trap" (Serbia).

It pains me to admit that I have seen exactly none of these, so if you have, please let me know if they're worth adding to my DVD viewing list. Peace out.

More "Thank You for Smoking"? I'd quit that habit

I guess the big news today is that Ben Stiller's new "comedy" couldn't even make enough to topple The Rock at the top of the box office. But since I joined the masses in just skipping "The Heartbreak Kid," I'd instead like to talk about something else that caught my eye (and ire.)

On the surface, at least, this sounds like a fairly good idea. You can count "Thank You for Smoking" as easily one of my favorite movies of 2006, and probably the funniest flick of the year.

So, why not a TV series designed as a follow-up to the flick, as USA Network is currently planning. Well, it's just a really bad idea.

First of all, look at where Nick Naylor ends up at the end of "Smoking" (and if you somehow haven't seen the movie, there's not much I can do for you, so you'll have to just forgive me for giving it away.) The whole flick is centered on Aaron Eckhart's (very Oscarworthy but completely snubbed) portrayal of Nick Naylor as one seriously smug bastard who does sublimely evil things.

By the end of the movie, when he's given up his work for the great Satan (a k a Big Tobacco), you can accept it because the movie's over and you won't have to bear the sight of Nick Naylor actually working for the side of good. Who in the world wants to see that?

Well, the folks at USA think you do. With someone named James Dodson (not to be confused, apparently, with Focus on the Family's James Dobson) writing the script, the TV version will turn Naylor into some kind of free-agent do-gooder, using his rhetorical skills to help people in need. If you just threw up a little bit, I'm sorry, because I did too.

So, along with dropping any of the malicious spirit that drove both Jason Reitman's flick and the Christopher Buckley novel that it sprang from (both of those guys, wisely, have nothing to do with this new project), they'll turn the lead character into yet another generic TV composite character. Meh.

Luckily, Both Mr Reitman, with the upcoming "Juno," which I think I've now plugged here 150 times (and now I've apparently "adopted" both "Juno" star Ellen Page and Georgia actor Ray McKinnon, with the aid of Splotchy, so get used to it), and Mr. Buckley have more important things to keep them busy on the big screen. Although it's not listed anywhere at the IMDB, I'm fairly certain the once-great Whit Stillman (I still consider "Metropolitan" to be one of my favorite flicks) is at work now on an adaptation of another of Mr. Buckley's satirical Washington novels, "Little Green Men."

And you have my gold-standard guarantee that both of those will turn out to be miles better than anything that comes out of this silly TV project.

Weinsteins just say no to "Red State"

I read Kevin Smith's "Boring Ass Life" blog from time to time, mostly because when he's not completely full of himself Mr. Smith can still be a pretty darn funny guy. So I wasn't too surprised to hear the Weinsteins had passed on his rather crazy idea for a "horror" movie, "Red State."

The first warning sign came about two weeks or so ago when Mr. Smith reported that the Weinstein bros. had called his "Red State" script "important" and compared it in import to past Miramax output like "Pulp Fiction" and "The Piano" (that last bit may have actually come from Mr. Smith's mind, but he said it, not me.)

This sounds exactly like the kind of "vote of confidence" a baseball manager gets just before being fired (as Joe Torre hopefully will be tomorrow.) And indeed, another visit to his site this morning showed this to be true.

Given the subject matter, it's not terribly shocking that the Weinsteins wouldn't want anything to do with it. The lead bad guy is based on the Rev. Fred Phelps, a Kansas "preacher" who, among one of his nicer qualities, I bet, likes to picket the funerals of homosexuals (it pains me to even type his name, but remember, I'm just the messenger here.)

Though I'm sure it's a little better than I'm making it sound here, I'm also certain the Weinsteins bought the superior Kevin Smith project in "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" (which now has, in the two latest installments, both Zach Braff and Seth Rogen listed as "rumored" to play the lead role of Zack.)

"Be Kind" and laugh

It's been a fairly bile-filled post so far for a Monday morning, so let's end with a couple of very funny things.

The Michel Gondry flick "Be Kind Rewind," starring Mos Def, Jack Black and Melonie Diaz, is set to come out at the end of January. The flick, of course, is about video store employees who set out to re-create all of the movies after the tapes get magnetized (by the power plant that, of course, is located right next door.) It's a premise ripe with possibility, as these two posters, riffing as far as I can tell on "Boys in the Hood" and "Rush Hour," clearly show. Enjoy, and have an entirely bearable Monday.