Demko's DVD shelf: The return of "W."

Actually, the best thing out there this morning was more about "The Rum Diary," which it looks more and more like will turn into an actual movie in 2010.

So far, we know that "Withnail and I" (watch that, already!) director Bruce Robinson is writing and directing the Hunter S. Thompson adaptation for Johnny Depp to star in as Thompson's alter ego at the time its set - Paul Kemp, a washed-up journalist in 1950s Puerto Rico. And now the movie is quickly assembling a first-rate supporting cast.

Just announced are Aaron Eckhart as a wealthy landowner competing with Depp for the affections of Amber Heard, and - even better- "The Visitor" star Richard Jenkins will play Depp's boss. Bring it on now!

Also out there is this morning is word that one of my favorite directors who I was fairly convinced might never work again is indeed staying in the game.

I think I was one of about seven people on the planet who really liked Noah Baumbach's "Margot at the Wedding." Dysfunctional and uncomfortable, sure, but to me at least also very entertaining.

Now it seems he's up to something along the same lines with another relationship dramedy titled "Greenberg," set to star Ben Stiller and now Greta Gerwig, an indie actress who I'd never heard of before. Details are scant so far except that it's set to begin shooting in March and be set in Los Angeles.

Even better, Baumbach might even soon direct a movie that won't make people want to hate just about everyone in it. He apparently reunited with Wes Anderson (remember him?) to co-write Anderson's animated take on Roald Dahl's "Fantastic Mr. Fox," now scheduled to come out in November. And he's also signed on to write and direct the "9/11 tale" "The Emperor's Children," based on the novel by Claire Messud.

But here today it was supposed to be all about DVDs, and from here on out it will be, because it's actually a week jam-packed with great stuff. Given the state of my economy and nearly everyone else's, I'm not recommending that anyone buy any of these, but they're (the three I've seen, anyway) well worth a rental.

"W."

I'm not sure anyone wants to see anymore of our recently past president, but Oliver Stone's flick is well worth checking out for both a fairly nuanced portrait of a man in over his head and a star-studded cast that pretty much completely shines. Josh Brolin makes W. a likable enough character while not shying away from his "cowboy" tendencies, and Elizabeth Banks, Stacy Keach, Jeffrey Wright and Richard Dreyfuss (as tricky Dick Cheney) in particular are great in supporting roles. The only weak link is Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice, who is just unwatchable (I'd like to give her a lifetime pass since "Flirting" still remains one of my all-time favorite movies, but she really is just truly horrible in this.)

"Miracle at St Anna"

If Spike Lee hadn't stepped in it so deep by getting in a verbal spat with Dirty Harry over the lack of black soldiers in Eastwood's World War II movies, he might have generated a bit more goodwill for his own flawed but still often fascinating effort. Like many of Spike's recent flicks, this tale of four Buffalo Soldiers who get trapped behind enemy lines in a Tuscan village is more than a bit of a sprawling mess, but it's beautifully shot in Italy and is full of little moments that make the flick still worth a rental.

"Soul Men"

Like most of the world I just snubbed the late Bernie Mac's final film - directed by Spike's cousin, Malcolm - during much of its theatrical run, and I'm still sorry I did. A silly movie in many ways, yes, but the tale of Mr. Mac and Sam the man Jackson as two aging soul stars reuniting for a comeback tour is also very funny, especially when the two of them really start to go at it. With "Undercover Brother," "Roll Bounce" and now this, the other Mr. Lee is starting to put together a small stable of movies that I really like.

OK, from here on out are movies I haven't seen, either because I never had the chance or simply missed my window of opportunity.

"Frozen River"

"Homicide" vet Melissa Leo has rather shockingly received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role in this drama about two women who get into the business of immigrant smuggling through an Indian reservation border crossing between New York and Quebec. This one was just ordered from Netflix and should be here when I get back from Ohio on Thursday, and I can't wait to see it.

"Blindness"

Fernando Meirelles' "City of God" remains as easily one of my favorite films, so I'm rather ashamed I didn't jump on this one during the ONE WEEK it played in my little corner of the world. Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo star in this flick about a world struck by a mysterious case of the titular "Blindness," based on the Nobel prize-winning novel by Jose Saramago.

"My Name Is Bruce"

I can't see any way this can be anything but extremely funny. B-movie king Bruce Campbell stars as himself and takes on Guan-di, the Chinese protector, who has been awakened by teenagers (these kids today!) in the small mining town of Gold Lick.

And with that, I'm off to Ohio to watch the Americans stomp the Mexicans in a World Cup qualifier (honestly, I really have nothing against Mexicans off the pitch, but on it they can will hopefully just suffer a slow and very humiliating defeat.) On a much more civil note, I'll leave you with a rather nifty video showing how they created the Rorschach mask that Jackie Earle Haley will soon don for "Watchmen." Peace out.

A visit with Oliver Stone's "W."

The biggest strength of Oliver Stone's "W." is that as I was watching it I had no idea just who this movie was intended for, so you can bring into and take from it just about whatever you want to about our current ruler.

The second biggest strength is Josh Brolin's portrayal of George W. Bush himself, but we'll get to much more on that later. First, a breakdown of what you'll see and what you won't in this mostly successful portrait of power.

After a rapid but not particularly mean-spirited run-through of W.'s missing years (you never see, for example, the man snort coke in daddy's White House or anywhere else), Stone moves quickly to his main focus here, W.'s leadership of the Iraq War.

And this is when his flick is at its strongest, giving a real sense of palace intrigue as nearly all his players disappear into their characters to the point that you almost think you're watching a documentarian's portrait (with the sore exception of Thandie Newton, who we'll also be hearing much more about later.) My favorite moment came as the decision was made to go to war - as the big boys are making the final call, our "decider" sinks into the shadows and seats himself beside Toby Jones' Karl Rove, a subtle moment a younger Stone would never have been able to attain.

But in this stretch and elsewhere you also sense what's most noticeably missing - any of the flights of fancy that made his earlier presidential flicks and other movies so much fun. When they do come here, as in W.'s dream sequences on the Texas Ranger's ballfield and a very ill-conceived one near the end involving daddy, they just seem jarring and take away from the otherwise tight story Stone is telling. I read in the New York Times that he once conceived another dream in which W. was flying on a magic carpet and raining bombs over Baghdad. As silly as that would have been, I still would have loved to have seen it make the final cut.

And after setting up a very plausible case that many of W.'s actions regarding the war and other business are motivated in large part by his daddy issues (and Stone gets a huge assist here from a sensational performance from James Cromwell as Bush the elder), he completely omits the biggest gift and burden that "poppy" bequeathed to his son: The presidency itself. I would have gladly given Mr. Stone another half hour or so to see what he had to say about the fact that if daddy's hatchet man - James Baker - hadn't intervened in Florida, W. would probably never have become president at all. That subject is completely brushed over here, but if you want to get a workmanlike but solid taste of it, Netflix HBO's "Recount" (and keep your eyes on Laura Dern, who just nails the dippy Katherine Harris to a tee.)

But what makes Stone's flick mostly work so well is Josh Brolin, who dives so completely into the role of W. that you never for a minute think you're watching anyone but our leader. He nails it so perfectly that you can read his performance just about any way you want to. While many will see Stone and Brolin's largely sympathetic portrait of W. as a strong leader who follows his convictions, many others (me included) will see an arrogant, more than slightly intellectually challenged and ultimate dangerous man. The fact that you can read it so many ways is exactly why you'll be hearing Mr. Brolin's name on Oscar night.

Cromwell is also exceptional as poppy, but another word of praise is in order for my favorite of the supporting players, Stacy Keach. He makes his first appearance about half way in as the preacher W. turns to after he is born again, and Keach gets to deliver the key speech about Christian love that makes (for me, at least) the crux of Stone's ultimate but subtly made point. How much you think W. has followed this teaching will inform your assessment of the man, and Keach just sells it perfectly.

And, finally, it brings me no pleasure at all to state that Thandie Newton turned in the single worst performance I've seen in all of 2008 with her "portrayal" of Condoleezza Rice. I've had a major thing for Ms. Newton ever since "Flirting," a charming little Aussie flick in which her knee socks just drove me (and Noah Taylor) wild (and for another flick that she just smolders her way through, I highly recommend Bernardo Bertolucci's "Besieged.") I think it's this addiction to her sheer physical beauty that has blinded me over the years to the fact that she really just can't act a lick, which is on blatant display here. Her attempt to capture the nature of Ms. Rice is the perfect example of simple imitation rather then interpretation, and it's almost as bad as Frank Caliendo's take on W. (which, because I love baseball almost as much as our president does, I've had to watch what seems like 10,000 times by now.)

As a last challenge, I wonder if there's anyone out there who likes the president more than I do who found that Stone had any kind of axe to grind with the man in this flick. In his public remarks, the director has certainly disparaged W., but his movie portrayal is about as close to fair and balanced as I could have expected, and almost as entertaining too. Peace out.

I kinda wish this was a joke, but ... the trailer for Oliver Stone's "W"

Before I go any further, let me just state for the record that I used to like Oliver Stone quite a bit, and I want to again. Earnestly. But this trailer ...

Wow ... I didn't expect Stone to make a movie that treats the W. presidency with any respect, but the hard-living Bush part (with the choice cut from Delaware's own George Thorogood .. now, really, how tough can you be when your band is actually called the Delaware Destroyers?) looks funny for a second until it just makes you cringe.

It is kinda cool to see all the fairly A-list actors in their Bush bunch garb, and Thandie Newton indeed looks on the verge of tears just as Condoleezza Rice does whenever I catch her on TV. I'm sure Josh Brolin will be great in this, but I can't see how in the world it can have any positive effect whatsoever on the coming U.S. election (it will drop on Oct. 29.) But, since I'm too lazy to do anything but post video clips for the second day in a row, enough from me. Enjoy the trailer and try not to laugh too hard. Peace out.

This just in: School will rock again!

First off, a hearty huzzah to Guillermo del Toro and "Hellboy II," which managed (just barely) to hold off Will Smith and win the box-office weekend with about $36 million. Personally, I found it to be almost as fun as the first "Hellboy," even if it did eventually just reach creature overload, and I was just happy to see a superhero with almost no baggage at all to impede his principal duty of just kicking all kinds of ass.

Besides, there's a plenty moody enough superhero on the dock this week, and since I'm now off on Fridays, I'll definitely be there at midnight Friday morning to see "The Dark Knight" finally take flight (after what seems like three years of hype.)

But, in what in my odd little world is even better news, there's word this morning that Richard Linklater, Jack Black and Mike White will indeed be back for a "School of Rock 2." I've tried hard not to call a movie as silly as "School of Rock" great, but since I've probably seen it at least 10 times on DVD and it just makes me smile broadly every time, I think I'll just have to give in and admit that I love it unconditionally.

And the plot for the White-penned sequel just sounds like tons of fun. Who doesn't have great memories of elementary school field trips? For us in Salisbury, Md., the highlight was a trip to Washington, D.C., to act up on the National Mall. In Linklater's "School of Rock 2," the lucky kiddies will get to instead go on a rock 'n' roll odyssey across America with Mr. Black as their guide to the history of American music. Simply cool.

And congrats indeed to Mike White, who's taken his lumps after falling out with the Judd Apatow crew. Here's hoping "School of Rock 2" captures all the magic of the original and comes quick enough to rock hard next summer!

A Bush-style frat boy brawl?

I'd imagine there's probably not a whole lot to do at night in Shreveport, La., but even so this story about Josh Brolin, Jeffrey Wright and the "W" crew is just too funny not to pass along.

Things apparently went awry at the Stray Cat Bar (love that name) when a "W" lighting technician was arrested for fighting and Brolin, Wright and four others decided to jump into the battle. (Shown here are the mug shots for Brolin and Wright.)

Felland was charged with resisting arrest, public intoxication and entering and remaining. Brolin, Wright and the others were slapped with the interfering charge.

After arriving at the police station, Brolin, Wright and the others were booked and told they'd have to post cash bonds to be released. Brolin and Wright had to shell out $334 each, while Felland had to fork out more than $700.

I have no way of knowing, of course, but this just sounds to me like a perfect scene from the movie for W's wild days before he somehow encountered Jesus. And, obviously, I pity the poor cop who had to tangle with Josh Brolin, who's clearly just a bad mutha.

And it's worth looking at, if I can find it, the now fairly complete cast list for "W." Here, as best as I can tell, goes:

Elizabeth Banks: Laura Bush
Josh Brolin: George W. Bush
Thandie Newton: Condoleezza Rice
Ioan Gruffudd: Tony Blair
Ellen Burstyn: Barbara Bush
Richard Dreyfuss: Dick Cheney
James Cromwell: Herbert Walker Bush
Scott Glenn: Donald Rumsfeld
Noah Wyle: Don Evans (rumored)
Jeffrey Wright: General Colin Powell
Jason Ritter: Jeb Bush (rumored)
Toby Jones: Karl Rove
Rob Corddry: Ari Fleischer

I'm still more than a little worried about the effect "W" will have on the elections this fall, since it's set to be finished and released by October, but it will still be a heck of a lot of fun watching what all these talented folks can do with the saga of Dubya, especially Toby Jones as Karl Rove.

First Look at "The Dark Knight"

There's probably more out there this morning, but who am I kidding? It's all about "The Dark Knight" here and everywhere else this week, so I'll just wrap it up with HBO's "First Look" at the Christopher Nolan flick. It covers about 14 minutes in two clips, but if you know of a better way to waste some of your workday today, I'm certainly not aware of it. Peace out.

No more movies with George Clooney in the lead?

Granted, the question above is pretty ridiculous, but the rather sorry performance of Clooney's "Leatherheads" brought to mind an even sillier statement allegedly made (but of course denied!) last October by the president of production at Warner Bros.

You may remember that, after the twin tankings of Jodie Foster's "The Brave One" and Nicole Kidman's "The Invasion," Jeff Robinov was quoted, first by Nikki Finke, as saying "we are no longer doing movies with women in the lead." Though I can certainly understand what put him in such a foul mood, that statement was just as stupid then as it is now.

But a look at the box office numbers brings up a valid question. In it's opening weekend, Clooney's flick took in a rather paltry $13.5 million, and didn't even manage to win the weekend, finishing second to "21" with $15.1 million (and really just a hair above "Nim's Island.")

Now, let's flash back to "The Brave One" which, for the record, was easily one of the worst movies I saw in all of 2007. In its opening weekend, Jodie Foster's super-silly revenge flick took in $13,471,488, virtually identical to the take of "Leatherheads." It would go on to compile a $36,793,804 domestic box office total, which at this point would have to be considered a good outcome for Clooney's flick.

So, I offer you all that to ask you this: Will there be any similar hand-wringing over this latest failure? Will any studio executive be quoted as saying they won't "even look at a script with a Clooney lead"?

Of course not, but that's just the kind of double standard that's enough to set me off on a Monday morning with less than a full cup of coffee in my system. But why did Clooney's movie fare so poorly?

Well, in its favor, it had three fairly bankable stars in Clooney, Renee Zellweger and John Krasinski, and of course everyone in America loves football, right? Plus, despite the fact it had sat on the shelf for years before Clooney scooped it up, reliable Sports Illustrated scribe Rick Reilly contributed to the script (along with first-time screenwriter Duncan Brantley.)

So, what happened? You can chalk this one up as a "victory" for critics if you want to. From all the reviews I read, director Clooney and his writers played it too safe both in terms of humor and on-field action, and therefore didn't come up with enough to keep audiences entertained. Older moviegoers (of which, it's rather sad to report, I am apparently one) still listen to critics, and therefore just stayed home.

Or something like that anyway. Personally, I'm just looking forward to a good movie of any kind this year, no matter who's in the lead role. I'm tentatively putting my money on "Street Kings" this week, but not with terribly high hopes.

Casting W's cabinet

Now that Oliver Stone has cast the first family - plus his mommy and daddy - for "W," it's now time to fill out the cabinet and staff, where things could get much more interesting.

The roster so far: Josh Brolin is W, Elizabeth Banks is Laura Bush, Ellyn Burstyn gets the rather ignominious honor of playing Barbara Bush, and James Cromwell (hearty huzzah!) is W's daddy. The news today is that, since Stone clearly likes insanely beautiful women, Thandie Newton will play Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, and Ioan Gruffudd will play W's brother in (making other people take up) arms, Tony Blair.

Which means there are still plenty of juicy roles to fill, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Karl Rove. For Cheney you could certainly do worse than Jason Alexander, but I've got an even more solid TV choice to play Karl Rove.

Remember that "Halloween" episode of "The Office" in which Dwight was so proud of his Sith Lord costume? If there was a better dead ringer for Karl Rove, I haven't seen it, so I'm officially on the Rainn Wilson bandwagon.

And in slightly more serious "Office" news, the show does indeed return beginning this Thursday, so set your DVR. And, even better, NBC announced at its recent upfront that "The Office" will get 28 episodes next year, with the first four being hourlong specials, and then a spinoff to premiere after the Super Bowl. Bring it all on!

"Blindness" trailer

I'm fairly confident that we'll have some great movies before October this year, but if not Fernando Meirelles will be back to hopefully save the day.

"Blindness," Meirelles' follow-up to "The Constant Gardener" and the perfect "Cidade de Deus," is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by José Saramago and is about a city that is struck by a mysterious plague of, well, blindness. As you can see from what I believe is the first trailer below, it stars Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo (double huzzah!) and Gael Garcia Bernal (and, though she's not in the trailer, the lovely Alice Braga too.) Enjoy, and have a perfectly bearable Monday. Peace out.