A great day for comedy

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

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

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

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

You're bad at this too!



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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

"They're just hanging there."



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

"I wish I had telephonesis!"

Demko's DVD shelf: TV's smartest show out this week

AMC is going to be airing the entire first season of "Mad Men" back-to-back-to .. well you get the idea on July 26 to prepare for the very welcome start of season two July 27 (wow .. new TV in the summer that doesn't involve someone doing a face-plant into a giant rubber ball!)

If you can't wait that long, and I certainly can't, you can pick up the seriously great first season now on DVD, making it easily my pick of the week.

The two things that set "Mad Men" apart from anything else on TV now are the writing and the simply first-rate acting. Creator Matthew Weiner and his writers don't just embrace the world it's set in, the "golden age" of Madison Avenue advertising in the early '60s, they revel in it. The term political correctness wouldn't be invented for another 30 years or so, so "Mad Men" gleefully dives into all the -isms you can think of and soaks them all in a vat of gin.

And the actors, from Emmy winner Don Draper (ad executive Jon Hamm) on down, just embrace the spirit of the era. The ladies of "Mad Men," especially Elisabeth Moss and January Jones, often outshine the hard-charging dudes around them. I can't recommend this one highly enough, just in case you couldn't tell! There are, however, a few other picks out there this week too, one I've seen and two I will very soon ...

City of Men
This one is not so much a sequel to "City of God" (often listed as my favorite movie of all time, if I'm forced to choose), but more as a follow-up to the great Brazilian "City of Men" TV series.

That series has been out on DVD for a while now, and is very well worth a rental. The movie that's out this week, produced but not directed by "City of God" helmer Fernando Meirelles, focuses on two friends growing in the rather rough world of Rio de Janeiro. With their eighteenth birthdays fast approaching, Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha) sets out to find the father he never met while Acerola (Douglas Silva) struggles to raise his own son.

I haven't seen this one yet, but the series that preceded it is just epicly good television, so the movie's coming this weekend from the Netflix.

Tyler Perry's Meet The Browns
The rather prolific Tyler Perry was clearly coasting a bit with this one, but it still has its charms, mostly due to the always-welcome Angela Bassett. Here she plays a single mom suffering through really tough times in Chicago when she's called to Georgia for the funeral of the father she never met. At that point it turns into mostly a showcase for two of Perry's favorite stage performers, David and Tamela Mann, and - of course - Bassett finds love in the arms of former Laker Rick Fox (this is a Tyler Perry movie, after all, so I'm really not giving too much away here!) And, be warned, Madea does indeed turn up at the end of this one.

My Blueberry Nights
For his journey to America, Chinese director Wong Kar Wai - who has created some lushly beautiful movies in his homeland - surrounds himself with plenty of beautiful people.

Norah Jones, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, Jude Law and even Cat Power (Chan Marshall) are along for the ride in this American road flick that (as far as I can tell) is all about love. The reviews I saw for this were mixed at best, but I've loved the few Wong flicks I've managed to see thus far, so this one's definitely on my rental list too.

And that's it for today. If you happen to go see "Hancock," please let me know what you thought. I'm gonna see it tomorrow morning, but my hopes aren't terribly high. Peace out.

The Bigger Chill: WTF?

There was a brief time, when I was about 15 or so, when I was completely convinced that "The Big Chill" was simply the worst movie ever made. It obviously isn't, but bear with me here.

How do you sell to a kid who's just barely starting to figure out what's cool and what's not about the '80s that it really all just sucks because everything that mattered happened 20 years ago? I've watched it once since and warmed to it a bit, but I certainly never need to see it again (although any movie in which Kevin Costner exists only as "the dead guy" has to have some kind of merit to it.)

In the end, it's just hokum, no matter which generation it's about. Sayles' "The Return of the Secaucus Seven" is a much superior flick, if you simply have to get your nostalgia on. And, though I really can't figure out what the heck this one is even after seeing the trailer twice, director Julie Taymor has seemingly raided the entire Beatles' catalog to encapsulate the '60s in the upcoming "Across the Universe."

Or, if you're somehow already nostalgic for the '90s (and probably not in a way remotely as funny as anything VH1 cooks up), this movie might just be for you. It seems, and I can't make this stuff up, believe me, that "The Big Chill" is being remade with an African-American cast and a contemporary setting. If you can excuse me for a minute, like Christine Taylor in "Dodgeball," I just threw up a little in my own mouth.

OK, I'm back. So, let's see ... according to Variety, writer/director Lawrence Kasdan will have nothing to do with this, and the story will be retitled, but the original script will be used as a "template," with the cast members, who were in college together in the '90s, reuniting at a South Carolina beach house for the funeral of a friend

The first of many questions I have to ask is, what in the world was so great about the '90s? I was in college myself for the beginning of them, and I have to say I had a blast. Living in D.C., I even attended a few protest marches and the first inauguration of Bill Clinton. But if you can name me one thing that was accomplished in that period that's already worth lionizing in this manner, please let me know what it is.

But perhaps I'm looking at this the wrong way. If this is simply a college-reunion flick starring some pretty folks (I always like to see Gabrielle Union, if I get a vote), it will just come and go and be somewhat pleasing to a lot of people who aren't me. And if I get a vote for the dead guy, I'll take Rob Schneider ( assuming that, since he's dead, he doesn't actually have to be black.)

Pacey as Fletch? WTF, take 2

Is it OK to admit that I've seen more than few episodes of "Dawson's Creek" and even found them to be entertaining? I certainly hope so, since I just did.

That said, I don't ever need to see Joshua Jackson (aka Pacey, now there's a tough name for you) in anything, much less in one of my favorite film franchises. If the fine folks at IESB.net have it right, however, he's about to step into the shoes of Fletch (I almost vomited again, but fought the urge this time.)

The "Fletch Won" prequel has been in development limbo for years now. It had two promising but fitful starts, first with Kevin Smith and Jason Lee on board and later with Bill Lawrence and Zach Braff. Somehow Steve Pink and Josh Jackson, the latest director/actor combo to land the whale, just doesn't hold the same appeal.

To be fair to Mr. Pink, he did write the screenplays for two fairly great movies, "High Fidelity" and "Grosse Point Blanke." What's the link there? John Cusack, of course.

Cusack as Fletch, with the very funny Mr. Pink as writer and director? For that I'd be on board right away. But Pacey? There's just no way I can see it.

Three bits of good news

OK, that's a lot of bile for a Wednesday morning, so here's some sweet nuggets to wash it all down:

No. 1: After passing on another "Mummy" movie, Rachel Weisz, in what can only be called a fantastic case of trading up, has landed the role of the mother of the young girl who has been abducted and murdered in Peter Jackson's upcoming "Lovely Bones." Great novel by Alice Sebold, so should be a great flick. 'Nuff said.

No. 2: "World Trade Center" scribe Andrea Berloss will adapt the story of the Fugees, a youth soccer club made up of international refugees that just happens to be based in Clarkston, Ga. I'd much rather see a documentary about these rather remarkable kids, but this could still be a lot of fun. Even better, Universal, which bought the rights to the New York Times article about the club by Warren St. John, will pitch in $500,000 to build them a new soccer field.

No. 3: Danny Boyle's "Sunshine" will indeed be coming out July 20, in the U.S., and if I can get it to load, here's the poster. Enjoy!