Happy Thanksgiving from me and Ponyo!

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and what could be better news for a holiday than that Hayao Miyazaki's "Gake no ue no Ponyo" is well on course to hitting theaters - maybe even near me! - as "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" as soon as April 2009.

The news from GhibliWorld is that Disney is currently holding test screenings for the U.S. version that includes the following stable of voice talent: Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Fankie Jonas, Noah Cyrys and Cloris Leachman.

From everything I've read this one may be even more than most magical Miyazaki movies specifically made for children, but so what? I act like a little kid at least once every day, and I'm sure I'll fall for this tale of a 5-year-old boy's friendship with the goldfish princess Ponyo who only wants to become human, all rendered in beautiful watercolors rather than any CGI crap. (And if Tina Fey were to voice a goldfish princess, wouldn't that just be all kinds of fun?)

There's no firm date yet for a North American release, but all I've read puts it in the first quarter of 2009, and I can only say bring it on! In the meantime, there's no real video clip here, but I defy you to listen to the "Ponyo, Ponyo, Ponyo" theme song and not end up humming it for the rest of the day. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant turkey day!

Video troika: Three things that caught my eye this morning

Did anyone notice that Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" has come out, 13 years in the making? I would think not, but according to Variety, at least the Chinese government took notice - and offense.

In an article Monday headlined "American band releases album venomously attacking China," the Global Times said unidentified Chinese Internet users had described the album as part of a plot by some in the West to "grasp and control the world using democracy as a pawn."

Call me crazy, but if the Great Wall does somehow come tumbling down, I'm confident it won't be Axl Rose leading the charge. As for the album, I think I'll just say meh.

There were, however, three other things that caught my fancy this morning, starting with the equally odd fact that Universal is about dump some rather serious bucks on a biopic of the late French pop star Serge Gainsbourg. Which would, of course, be in French.

Even so, I'm still convinced this could be both very cool and possibly a hit too, because Mr. Gainsbourg was just the definition of a bad dude. Along with recording silly '60s pop songs that always told you exactly what you were gonna get in the title - "Bloody Jack," "Docteur Jekyll and Monsieur Hyde," "Ford Mustang" - he also lived hard enough to make Keith Richards look like an amateur and shacked up along with the way with Brigitte Bardot, Jane Birkin and other beauties.

And, in easily his oddest move, shortly before his death in 1991 he recorded an album with daughter Charlotte titled "Lemon Incest." It's fairly tame by today's standards, but it delivers exactly what the title promises - a series of mushy father-daughter love duets that just get exceedingly creepy (and yes, I can attest to that, because I own a copy - how could I resist that?) Charlotte, of course, would go on to become a well-known actress herself, and if I can make one DVD recommendation, watch one of her earliest roles in Claude Miller's "The Little Thief" (which I was rather sad to find you can't find on Netflix, though I know it's out on DVD.)

As for the movie about her papa, Eric Elmosnino will play the singer himself, and graphic novelist Joann Sfar will direct the flick. And for his bevvy of babes, French model Laetitia Casta will play Bardot, Mylene Jampanoi will play Gainsbourg's last paramour, Bambou (I can't make this stuff up), and Anna Mouglalis will play French singer Juliette Greco, who collaborated with Gainsbourg for many years.

OK, I concede that's a lot about a flick that no one may care about one lick, but for a taste of just how sublimely silly Gainsbourg's best songs were, here's a mashup of his "Bonnie & Clyde" duet with Bardot, mixed with visuals from the film starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. Enjoy.



A glimpse of "Adventureland"

I can't imagine this will be nearly as good as "Superbad," but director Greg Mottola looks like he has something pretty funny in the works for his next flick, "Adventureland." An at least semi-autobiographical tale about the summer he had to work at the titular theme park after graduating college, it stars Jesse Eisenberg (remember him from "The Squid and the Whale"?), la Bella Kristen Stewart of "Twilight" fame, Bill Hader and even Martin Starr (who will of course always be known to us Freaks and Geeks as Bill Haverchuk.) Here's the trailer for the flick, which is set to come out next spring, methinks.



And yes, "Battlestar Galactica" will be back!

It seems like forever since "Battlestar Galactica" has been on the air, and it finally returns to Sci-Fi for the final 10 episodes beginning Jan. 16. Episode 4.11 will be titled "Sometimes a Great Notion."

I'm gonna have to rent the first half of season four when it comes out soon just to get reacquainted, but I can with confidence tell you this: For a show that mixes seriously geeky sci-fi with a smart topical edge, you can't even come close to doing better than this show. Here's Sci-Fi's promo reel for the last 10 episodes, which indeed promise an action-packed sprint to the finish. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday.

An often grumpy, clearly middle-aged man attempts to review "Twilight"

I tell you all that as a qualifier, so take this review with a big grain of salt but also know this from the outset: Despite its serious flaws as a vampire tale I really had a lot of fun watching Catherine Hardwicke's "Twilight."

I had almost decided to just act my age and skip it altogether, but instead opted to latch on to two friends who are fans of the series who were headed to a Saturday matinee (conveniently making me look like much less of a perv than I might have going to a movie intended for teen girls all by myself.) At my urging, we sat fairly close to the front and therefore away from the twittering masses, who as best as I could tell were very well behaved anyway.

Things didn't get off to the best of starts as the projector malfunctioned during a promising trailer for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," and we were subjected to a 10-minute delay. Theater manager Wes Clark, who knows me well by my frequent theater visits, said he was afraid he might soon have a riot of "Twilighters" on his hands.

But once it finally got going, I found a lot more to like than I expected going in. First and foremost, Hardwicke gives the town of Forks, Washington, (a real place, evidently) a genuine sense of time and place (even though it was for whatever reason actually filmed in Portland, Oregon.) And she does so without resorting to any forced quirks to induce laughs, instead just letting the scenery speak for itself.

Second, apart from the vampires (which we'll deal with later), all her characters have a natural feel to them, starting with young lead Kristen Stewart. She already gets a gold star in my book for her turn in last year's "Into the Wild, and she makes a genuinely engaging lead. And Billy Burke as her clearly in-over-his-head single father gives the movie most of its intentional laughs, especially when he finds a vampire (though he doesn't know that) has shown up to take his daughter to the prom.

Finally on the very good side, the high school our heroine Bella attends is filled (again, minus the vampires) with the kind of kids you'd expect to find in an American high school in a small town. The main quartet (Anna Kendrick, Michael Welch, Justin Chon and Christian Serratos) are refreshingly geeky and insecure, and were an entertaining bunch to watch.

OK, so far so good, but this is a vampire story of sorts, right? Of course, and that's where it starts to fall apart more than a bit because the vamps themselves are (by design, but still) just way too corny.

I mean, I know this is a story for teens and tweens rather than a horror movie, but vampires that play baseball (I'm not kidding) and scurry after woodland creatures rather than feast on the blood of humans? Give me a break (and let's not even get into whether this actually makes them any better on the morality scale.) And what in the world is Dr. Cullen supposed to be, some kind of Noah of the undead? It was just creepy, and not even slightly in the fun, horror movie kind of way.

By the time we get any real action involving any actually menacing vampires there's only about 20 minutes left in the flick, and we've been subjected to so much treacle at that point that it just drains most of the tension right out of it.

So, if it doesn't really work as a vampire movie, does it work as a love story? Well, for its intended audience, I'm fairly certain it was just about right, but for the rest of us it gets more than a little bit ridiculous. As my two fellow moviegoers and devoted "Twilight" fans (and anyone who's read 2,000 pages of anything is "devoted" in my book) pointed out, the book is much more about character and dialogue than plot, which wouldn't necessarily translate all that smoothly to the big screen.

OK, fair enough, but what that leaves us instead is a lot of vacant staring between Bella and her vampire hunk Edward, played by Robert Pattinson. I'm sure this was intended to convey longing, but more than once just made me laugh out loud (and once earned me a sharp elbow to the ribs.) I'm really not sure what else Hardwicke could have done with this, but it just really doesn't work too well in movie form. (And if you haven't seen Hardwicke's flick "Thirteen," which was co-written by "Twilight" vamp Nikki Reed, rent it now and thank me later.)

But all that said, I left the theater with a smile on my face thanks to a sweet ending that adroitly sets up the next chapter, and that's more than I can say for a lot of flicks out there this year. Peace out.

An "Arrested Development" movie? Signed, sealed but not yet delivered

I suppose it's my duty to mention something about "Twilight," which I will bother to see Saturday afternoon, so here goes.

I was watching "Rocket Science" last night on the DVR, which is easily one of the most charming movies of 2007. My brother and I first saw it in Minneapolis, and if you haven't, just go ahead and rent this quirky teen anti-romance (I'm not really selling it very well, but trust me.)

I tell you all that to tell you this: Anna Kendrick, who starred in "Rocket Science" and apparently has the most microscopic of parts in "Twilight," has somehow managed to snag the female lead in Jason Reitman's next movie, "Up in the Air." It stars George Clooney as a "career transition counselor" - essentially one of the Bobs in "Office Space" - whose main goal in life seems to be to accumulate 1 million frequent flier miles. Not sure how Ms. Kendrick factors into all this, but congrats all the same.

But the real order of business here today is that murky realm where TV and film collide, and how Hollywood works so hard to tease the fans of dead shows with a cinematic afterlife. I had decided to swear off reporting on each slim ray of hope that there would ever be an "Arrested Development" movie, but after a few months or so going strong, today's news just makes me have to surrender to the urge.

In the latest development - and if I understand this the most solid one so far - series creator Mitch Hurwitz and backer Ron Howard have apparently signed some kind of deal for it with Imagine and Fox Searchlight. Hurwitz is apparently on board to write and direct the feature (again, if it ever happens), and Howard will be around to help out, and I assume narrate.

The actors (some of whom I'm sure could sorely use the work) have been teasing that this would happen ever since the show got canceled. I'd imagine even big movie star Michael Cera would come back to play George Michael Bluth again (and since I now mention "Chuck" every day, Tony Hale - whose parents reportedly live somewhere very near to or even in my town of Macon, Ga. - has been very funny as the new assistant manager of the Buy More.) Please, make this happen already!

Is "Pushing Daisies," well, pushing daisies?

It brings me no joy whatsoever to share this next bit of news.

The truly dismal facts are these: ABC has opted not to pick up three shows - "Dirty Sexy Money", "Eli Stone" and the only one of these I care about at all, "Pushing Daisies" - for a full season.

What does that mean for "Pushing Daisies" fans? Well, if I have this right, it means that after last Wednesday's "Oh, Oh, Oh, It's Magic," we have only seven more episodes left of TV's only primetime fairy tale for adults.

Given the rather poor ratings for season 2 so far I suppose you can't really blame ABC, but I'm gonna do it anyway. How in the world did they expect a show this odd - with an admittedly small but devoted following - to survive after only putting out nine episodes before the strike intervened and then none again until this October? Was there anything so compelling on ABC this summer that they couldn't have taken nine hours out of their primetime schedule to reintroduce viewers to this magical tale?

OK, that's enough from me on that, but here's what series creator Bryan Fuller had to say to the Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd:

"I can't help but feel immense pride when it comes to 'Pushing Daisies.' I'm grateful TO everyone and FOR everyone who brought the show to life and for the very loyal audience that embraced us. If we are indeed dead on ABC, we now have to convince DC Comics to let us tell the rest of the season's story lines out in comic book form and convince Warner Bros. features to let 'Pushing Daisies' live again as a movie."

I'd imagine that last bit is even more of a pipe dream than an "Arrested Development" flick, but I'll at least spring for the comic book. Just sad, sad news all around.

In the only bit of good news from ABC, however, "Scrubs" is about to come back to life, and I can only say welcome back. The hospital comedy returns beginning Tuesday, Jan. 6, at 9 p.m., in the time slot it started with way back before being moved all around (and pre-empted all the time) by NBC. We'll get two weeks of back-to-back episodes before it settles in for its regular half-hour run.

The full "Coraline" trailer

One of the more tedious of my weekly newspaper duties is to figure out what's playing at our three Middle Georgia movie theaters and compile capsule reviews from the wire. I say tedious, but I do enjoy seeing which movies manage to stick around way longer than what should be their shelf life.

The most recent example was the magical "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which was re-released in 3-D (which did very little to enhance it) just before Halloween and somehow managed to stick around in one of our theaters until this week. Very odd.

And I tell you all that to tell you this: Here's the full trailer for "Coraline," a coming collaboration between writer Neil Gaiman and animation director Henry Selick (the director of "Nightmare Before Christmas.") As you'll see, it's the story of a young girl who discovers a parallel universe in the crawlspace of her dingy apartment, and it's one of the movies I'm really looking forward to for 2009. Enjoy, and if you happen to see "Twilight" before I do, please feel free to share your thoughts.

Will the X-Men mutate into ... sassy brats?

I'm not sure this is the move that's gonna get the masses to tune in for genuine classics on Sunday nights, but adding Laura Linney (for my money the best actress working right now) is certainly a good one for PBS' Masterpiece Theatre (oops .. that's somehow "Masterpiece Classics" now, I believe.)

Linney will replace Gillian Anderson when the series returns Jan. 4. The 2009 installment, which runs through May, will include four works - "Little Dorrit," "The Old Curiousity Shop" (with Toby Jones), "Oliver Twist" (with Sophie Okonedo, huzzah!) and "David Copperfield" (with Harry Potter, Maggie Smith and Sir Ian McKellen) - as part of "The Incomplete Charles Dickens." Also coming this season will be "Tess of the D'Urbervilles (the premiere) and apparently yet another version of "Wuthering Heights."

I can't say I'll tune in for all of it, but I'm on record as saying I'll watch just about anything with Laura Linney in it, so (even though she's just the host) I'll probably have to at least check out some of the Dickens stuff.

But today's post is about something rather less haughty - Josh Schwartz's impending entry into the real of the X-Men. Sounds like a disaster in the making, I know, but bear with me.

I often fail to remember how old I'm supposed to be (don't you have to to watch TV nowadays?), but even I didn't bother to tune in for Schwartz's "The O.C." With his two current shows, however, you can count me a solid fan.

I know I have no business watching "Gossip Girl," but it remains just the most addictive brand of trash. Besides, thanks to Schwartz, the show has a surprising amount of heart, and lately it's had Wallace Shawn to boot too, so what's not to like?

His other current show, "Chuck," is one I've just recently come around to but am now hooked on enough to become a weekly viewer. It certainly does get more than a bit repetitive as seemingly every new character turns out to be an evil Fulcrum agent (Chuck's ex .. really?!?!), but it's still a very funny spy game.

But does any of this fluff qualify Mr. Schwartz to take on the "X-Men" franchise? From the outset it has to at least be said he certainly can't do any worse than Brett Rat did with the utter crapfest that was "X-3," and they're handing Schwartz a (one can only assume sassy) young wave of mutants for "X-Men: First Class."

Schwartz will pen the flick based on the comic book series (which I haven't read), and will probably step into the director's chair too, though he doesn't yet have any experience in that realm. Given his TV record, we should at least expect this to be fun - and hopefully not too stupid - as it introduces characters like Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, Jean Grey and Professor X at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. And "Chuck," as sublimely silly as it is, features action sequences a cut above most of what you get on TV nowadays, so I'd say there's some hope on that front too.

Whether Schwartz manages to pull this off or not, it seems we're still gonna get a big dose of "X-Men" in the near future (not all that surprising given that, as bad as it was, Ratner's flick took in a rather impressive $456 MILLION worldwide.) Next summer will see Hugh Jackman in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (Origins? Really? Why the heck do we need that?) and probably in 2010 we'll get Sir McKellen as Magneto in another "Origins" flick.

Well, I've certainly said enough about all that, but I'll just close by saying I'm now thoroughly convinced that Baz Luhrman's epic "Australia," coming next week with Mr. Jackman and a certain Aussie you may have heard of named Nicole Kidman, will be a real winner (and at a reported cost of at least $120 million it certainly should be!)

A simply splendid glimpse of "Where the Wild Things Are"

Even though they put their stamp clearly on the pic, I just want to make clear that this was swiped directly from A.I.C.N. It was just so pretty that I couldn't resist.

In quite possibly the longest interview I've ever read, the site's Moriarty engages director Spike Jonze about all kinds of subjects, including (eventually) when - if ever - we'll get to see his take on "Where the Wild Things Are." I still have no idea if it will look anything like what Spike imagined when he first took on my favorite childhood tale by Maurice Sendak, but word from the director is it won't be until at least next October until we finally get to find out.

A true shame that, but enjoy this truly beautiful pic - which was enough to bring a broad smile to my face even at the very early hour that I rise - and have a perfectly passable Wednesday.

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.

Bland, James Bland: The full report

Before anyone points out just how quixotic it is to rail against a movie that's already raked in more than $70 million domestic or call me some kind of elitist, don't bother. I love Bond movies and especially "Casino Royale," but this one simply didn't measure up on almost any front.

Since the movie clearly did, let's start with the theme song, which would be instantly forgettable if it weren't simply so awful. As someone who has just about every minute of "Icky Thump" seared onto my brain, I just can't imagine how Jack White, with vocals from Alicia Keys, could manage to come up with something so generic. Given the worldly appeal of the Bond franchise, I have to wonder if they even gave consideration to someone like M.I.A., a little rough for sure but much more interesting.

And after that, from the outset, you know there's gonna be problems with the action in "Quantum of Solace." I'm OK with the grand introductory set pieces being a thing of the past, especially since this one picks up immediately where "Casino Royale" left off and starts with a nifty enough car chase. But from there it just gets muddier and muddier, and giving full credit to my friend Chris Stanford for this line, I sure wish it hadn't delivered its camera work "shaken, not stirred."

Worst of all, it's just Bond imitating Bourne, and more specifically director Marc Forster imitating the apparently seizure-ridden camera antics of Paul Greengrass, and for such an iconic franchise that's just sad. Before I let this rant go, a challenge to anyone who liked this more than me (and I'm sure there a lot of you out there): Name one action sequence in "Solace" that sticks in your mind two days later (the opera house take was indeed pretty cool, but not enough to satisfy.)

All of which could be forgiven if the story from Paul Haggis and two others or the direction of Mr. Forster gave this latest Bond tale much urgency at all. I mean, we all know that Bond is out for revenge this time for the death of Vesper Lynd (the sorely missed Eva Green), but by the second (and not last) time we see Daniel Craig's Bond drop a body for no productive reason and Dame Judi Dench's M. chide him for it, it quickly gets little but old.

Much worse, the sinister plot being hatched by billionaire Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) is as ludicrous as anything ever cooked up in a Bond flick, but with all the fun drained out it's also just extremely monotonous. I don't want to give anything away, but like just about every story nowadays it's "green." I'm all for saving the planet, but is putting eco-plots in movies (and on NBC all week, apparently just to annoy me as I try to watch my new favorite spy "Chuck") really gonna make any difference?

And the by-the-numbers approach of this Bond installment is hardly helped by director Forster, who has the distinction of making easily one of my least favorite movies ever in "Monster's Ball" but also one I really like quite a bit in "Stranger than Fiction." Here, however, he's clearly overmatched, and not just in the action scenes. At least twice early on - I guess in an effort to move the story along - he has M. simply mention a new lead, and the immediate next image is that new cityscape, with it name plastered on it in case we viewers are, like Robert Downey Jr. explained in "Tropic Thunder," "full retard."

OK, I've certainly gone on long enough about what's wrong with "Quantum of Solace," so was there anything good? Of course. Daniel Craig clearly has the soul to pull off the new Bond we saw unveiled in "Casino Royale," even if his character here is almost completely devoid of it. And what little wit there is in "Solace" - formerly a very welcome attribute of Bond himself - comes almost exclusively from Dench, who can just be wickedly funny in any circumstance (watch "Notes on a Scandal" if you're somehow still not convinced.)

Finally, what about the babes, a key component of any Bond movie? Well, Olga Kurlyenko is certainly leggy and pouty enough to make me at least consider destroying the world. But what she isn't, and I fault the rather poor excuse for a story here again, is particularly sultry, removing almost all the potential sparks from her encounter with Bond. And the secondary babe would have been much more memorable had she been played by Christina Hendricks of "Mad Men" - as I mistakenly thought when I saw the first pics of "Quantum of Solace" - instead of the rather forgettable Gemma Arterton.

So, almost a complete miss for me, but with more than $70 million in the U.S. vault alone, Daniel Craig and James Bond will certainly live (not "die," as that awful theme song says; sorry to harp on it, but it's really just tremendously bad) to see a 22nd (I think I have that right) installment, and I'll certainly give him another chance. Peace out.

Bland, James Bland

A full review to come tomorrow after I've had some time to sleep on it, but I have to just quickly say that the gap between "Casino Royale" and "Quantum of Solace" may be the biggest movie dropoff ever. Not awful, but pretty darn close, especially for a movie that will have made well more than $50 million by the time I get around to writing a proper review. Stay tuned ...

A new (old) spy I've finally found, and a dastardly plot against "The Wizard of Oz"?

First off, a bit of news to digest (if you can).

Before I spill any bile on his vision, let me just say I like John Boorman a heck of a lot. Best known for "Deliverance" - which I don't think I'll ever be able to bring myself to watch again - and "Excalibur," I'd have to say I prefer to those "Hope and Glory" and, most of all, "The General." If you haven't seen this flick starring Brendan Gleeson as Irish robber Martin Cahill, I really can't recommend it highly enough.

Now, however, it seems that Mr. Boorman is more than a little deep into a CGI-animated adaptation of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." I'll let that sink for a second before I have anything at all to say about it.

I've included a shot of the concept art of Dorothy, courtesy of AICN (where you can see a heck of a lot more.) I had hoped until a few years ago that, even with all evidence to the contrary, there still were at least a few classic movies that were truly untouchable. Silly me.

Boorman, in fact, is far from the first person in recent memory to take on this magical saga, but it just might be the first one I'll give a chance to. If I have my info right, Todd McFarlane had been toying with a really sadistic take on the tale (no thanks!), and there was "Tin Man" on Sci Fi, which couldn't hook me even with the presence of Zooey Deschanel and Alan Cumming.

So, why give John Boorman a chance? Well, I've never read L. Frank Baum's original book (a rather serious shortcoming on my part), but from what Variety had to say about this Boorman is sticking closer to that work and will come up with quite a different tale from the original movie (can you imagine, for example, that the Tin Man was a munchkin? Wild.)

Besides, I have to confess that I had the pleasure of seeing "The Wiz" in New York when I was a kid, so I guess there really isn't anything that's all that sacred (but please keep your hands off of "To Kill a Mockingbird"!)

A late comer to the party with "Chuck"

I watch far too much TV already, so I'm always hesitant to commit to any new series just to have them snatched away just as I was getting into the game. It seems that "Pushing Daisies" may be gone after its 13-episode run ordered so far, and while I won't be terribly surprised, I will miss it dearly.

And it's that fear of TV commitment that kept me from ever tuning into NBC's "Chuck" despite mounting evidence that it was really, really good. Now, with two of my co-workers - Stephanie Hartley and Karen Ludwig - practically begging me to watch it, I've finally given in (and, to be as crude as possible, it has been a rather long while since a woman begged me to do anything, so how could I resist?)

Since everyone already has spies on their minds with Daniel Craig back as James Bond in "Quantum of Solace" (and I will indeed be checking that out this weekend, despite some really bad early reviews), I thought I'd offer a very late plug for "Chuck," which is much funnier and just plain fun than I ever would have imagined.

I'll be catching up on it this weekend thanks to Netflix, but if you think you can just picture a modern "Get Smart" starring slackers and a seriously hot Yvonne Strahovski as reluctant spy Chuck's (Zachary Levi) handler (no need to be crude there, people), you should tune in too (though most everyone who would like this is probably well into it already.)

And, though I promised the makers of the sensational documentary "In a Dream" that I would review it soon (and I will!), I'll just wrap this up with the latest TV spot for David Fincher's upcoming "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (because I really do have to get to what is still my paying job.) Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday.

Vampires, vampires everywhere!

Eleven movies in four days is quite a bit, even for a weirdo like me, but I still have to say that the folks at the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival put on one heck of a show.

I can't say any of the flicks I saw were awful, and well more than half of them were very good to outstanding. Though I'll be taking on full reviews of a few throughout the week, here's the breakdown:

Outstanding

Let the Right One In: Vampire mania is about to hit big time with something called "Twilight," which I'm way too old to enjoy, but there's another vampire movie out there now if you live in one of America's big cities (or many other places in the world) that's truly creepy. Swedish director Tomas Alfredson's "Let the Right One In" is the best horror movie I've seen in many years, and a movingly twisted love to story to boot. I'll offer a full review tomorrow, so please feel free to come back for that, but if you can, see this great flick as soon as possible. Besides, according to MTV, President-elect Obama is even reading the "Twilight" books along with his daughter Malia (as if he didn't have enough on his plate already), so maybe I'll have to give it a chance after all.

A Secret: Claude Miller's film about how World War II tore apart one family, and the personal act of betrayal at its core, is as dynamic as Truffaut flicks like "400 Blows," and I'm not exaggerating one bit when I say that.

In a Dream: This astounding documentary by Jeremiah Zagar starts out as a portrait of his father, Isaiah Zagar, who has covered 40,000 feet of Philadelphia with his beautiful mosaics. As it delves deeper and deeper, however, you get a painting of a very troubled man and the effect he has on the people all around him, including his devoted wife, Julia. Difficult but very entertaining all the same, like the best documentaries are meant to be.

The Grocer's Son: I have a fairly low tolerance for sentiment in movies unless it's delivered with a well-developed story to suit it's heart ("Chocolat," for example, is just a movie I simply can't stand.) Writer/director Eric Giuardo's simple story here is one many people will be able to relate to, about a son who returns from the city to run his father's small-town grocery after the pere suffers a heart attack. Funny, romantic and beautifully shot.

Man on Wire: The fun in this "documentary" about Frenchman Philippe Petit's high wire stunt between the Twin Towers in 1974 comes in trying to keep up with what is actual historic footage and what has been re-enacted for the sake of this movie. If that sounds corny, it really isn't. It comes off as one big trick you won't mind one bit falling for, and when you finally get to see Petit on the high wire it's well worth the wait.

Tell No One: Like "The Usual Suspects," this complicated but absorbing thriller from Frenchman Guillaume Canet is one I had to see twice to truly appreciate. After viewing it in August, I was sure the story - from a novel by Harlan Coben - just didn't add up, but after watching it again on Sunday I'm now fairly certain it does. If you can keep up, you get a flick with all the conventions of a truly mind-bending thriller, with the bonus of a great performance from leading man Francois Cluzet, action scenes that pulse with genuine intensity, and a "reveal" that just might be the best 30 minutes of film I've seen all year.

Very good

Trouble the Water: I thought that after watching Spike Lee's tremendous "When the Levees Broke" I'd never want to see another documentary about Hurricane Katrina, but husband-and-wife team Carl Deal and Tia Lessin certainly proved me wrong. Though their flick, produced by Michael Moore's shop, overreaches more than a bit, it's very effecting when it focuses on the husband and wife at its core, two people you will grow to love as you see their harrowing, handheld camera account of what it was like to be trapped in the attic as Katrina bore down on the Crescent City.

Good

Wendy and Lucy: I had extremely high hopes for this flick from director Kelly Reichardt, but I have to say it just left me more than a little cold. Michelle Williams certainly delivers a great performance as one half of the titular duo, Wendy, a truly down-on-her-luck woman who loses her dog, Lucy, and spends most of the movie looking for him. I'm really not giving too much away since not much happens in this flick at all, but I liked Reichardt's "Old Joy" quite a bit, so I'll definitely give her another chance next time.

Under the Bombs Philippe Aractingi's movie about the aftermath of Israel's 2006 bombing campaign in Lebanon certainly wasn't uplifting fare for a Sunday morning. In Lebanon's Oscar hopeful, Aractingi focuses on the story of a woman searching for her son and the cab driver who takes her on the very wild ride to try and find him. Almost all of the other "actors" who appear in the film are Lebanese people who survived the bombing campaign and tell their stories, giving the movie a very one-sided and didactic feel, even though the story has a genuine urgency to it.

Mister Foe This very odd little flick from director David MacKenzie stars Jamie Bell (yes, "Billy Elliott") as a teen with a nasty habit of spying on people and an even more troublesome oedipal complex. Even with a solid cast that includes Sophia Myles, Ciaran Hinds, Claire Forlani and Ewan Bremner (remember Spud?), this one just has a far-too-familiar feel as it tries to deal with some truly twisted subject matter.

And, finally ...

Mirageman: As silly as it is, I really can't fault this flick too much because it delivered exactly what it advertised: A Chilean flick about a superhero called, obviously, Mirageman. As our low-tech street vigilante develops into the people's hero, you do get a fairly sly commentary on tabloid news and just a fun way to spend 90 minutes or so.

I plan to write full reviews of at least "Let the Right One In" and maybe a few more in the coming days - before Bond! - so please feel free to check back, and have a perfectly passable Monday.

Hail to chief Obama

I really don't have anything terribly elegant to say that our new president-elect didn't have to say last night. I'm honored to have done my tiny part for his campaign, and I truly believe that his rather stunning victory last night will usher in "a new spirit."

However, and anyone wanting to make jokes about Democrats and lack of work can keep them to themselves, I'm taking a week or so off from doing this to go see my parents and attend the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival. Though it's hardly the big time, Rehoboth has come a pretty long way since I last attended about 10 years ago to offer a large and diverse slate of films. I'll share my thoughts about all of them when I return, but the three I'm most looking forward to are the Katrina documentary "Trouble the Water," the Swedish (not Mexican, as I somehow thought) vampire movie "Let the Right One In" and director Kelly Reichardt's "Wendy and Lucy."

And, even if you didn't vote for President Barack Obama (I'll admit, I get giddy just typing that), take this time to reflect on the historic nature of what just happened. I believe the call for unity he issued in victory Tuesday was unique, and I sincerely hope it will be embraced by all. Now more than ever, peace out.

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.

Don Draper's guide to picking up women

I could use a half million-dollar bender right about now.

Not much to say this Monday morning except that the "Mad Men" finale lived up to and surpassed all my expectations. Seeing Pete finally get his proper reward was easily the TV highlight of the year, and the closing shot of Don and Bertie was just priceless.

Less successful was this spoof of Don Draper that apparently aired on Saturday's episode of "Saturday Night Live," hosted by Jon Hamm (I wouldn't know because like most "real Americans" I was watching baseball at the time [and I apologize immediately for that rather nasty Sarah Palin-esque comment].)

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that "SNL" couldn't come up with anything fall-down-funny about the most complicated and entertaining show on TV, but it's still worth wasting 90 seconds of your Monday on. Enjoy!

To 3D or not to 3D?

For most of the world, the movie question for this weekend was probably about whether to watch the pretty teens of "High School Musical 3" or the bloodfest of "Saw V" (or perhaps in a truly twisted double feature, both), but for me it was whether or not to finally to take the plunge into 3D for a return to the great "Nightmare Before Christmas."

Since it was being applied to a movie I love, I decided to bite on Hollywood's latest gimmick. The movie itself has stood the test of time very well, with Danny Elfman's songs and Henry Selick's stop-motion animation as magical as ever (though not enough to make me forgive Mr. Elfman for those horrendous Oompa-Loompa songs he crafted for Tim Burton's simply awful "Willy Wonka" remake.) As for the technology, however, I think from now I'm gonna have to just say no.

Did it bring anything positive to the movie-viewing experience? My first impulse was to say no, but in fairness that magical moment when it starts to snow over Halloweentown was indeed fairly cool in 3D, with the snow flakes seeming to fall on top of you. That wasn't nearly enough, however, to make up for what it did to the rest of the movie.

The first problem is that those goofy glasses, which I was happy to find fit comfortably over my actual specs, managed to blur the often stark colors of Selick's dreamscape into a rather unpleasant gray. Not very cool at all.

Secondly, the 3D technology just seemed horribly out of place with the stop-motion style, which is beautiful in its sheer primitiveness. I tend to frown on most ultramodern animation anyway. As much as I loved Gil Kenan's "Monster House," the humans in that one just looked like space aliens (and in none of the best ways), and the effect was even worse with Jerry Seinfeld's "Bee Movie." Call me old-fashioned, but I know what I like.

The trailers offered a peak at what should be my next chance to choose between 3D and traditional animation, and ironically enough it was for another Henry Selick movie (huzzah!). Coming early next year will be "Coraline," directed by Mr. Selick in the stop-motion style from the novella by Neil Gaiman about a young girl who finds all kinds of surprises when she explores the apartment next door.

I kept the funky 3D glasses I paid $2 for, but assuming that "Coraline" will be released in both formats, I'll take the traditional style, as you can with the trailer below. Peace out.

"30 Rock" almost a week early? I'll take that!

I admit that I was very slow to get on the "30 Rock" train, but now that I've given in I have no idea why I had any reservations in the first place.

The show will probably never be as funny as it was in the pilot episode when Tina Fey is wooing Tracy Morgan to join "The Girlie Show," but despite more than a few rough patch during the strike-shortened season two, the show has remained almost as consistently funny as the Emmy hype would have you believe.

And it certainly returns as partner "The Office" is hitting its stride. Last night's episode had not only the most heart of any in recent memory, but anyone who doesn't enjoy watching Amy Ryan give a devilish "hell yeah" to the prospect of sex or Dwight pining for his lost love just probably doesn't enjoy good TV anyway.

So, what will we get to see when "30 Rock" finally returns to join it next week? Well, thanks to NBC (and well, me), if you don't mind watching it on a really small screen you can find out today. All I'll tell you for now is that Jack is back, Liz's adoption interview is a hoot, and keep your eyes open for the mention of Colin Firth erotica.

I can't think of any more enjoyable way to kill 20 minutes of a Friday, so enjoy this season three premier, and have a great weekend.

A free flick from Wayne Wang? Enjoy it while you can

Until this morning, I knew nothing at all about the movie "Twilight" except that it's about young pretty vampires and is intended for many people in the world who aren't me. But now I know that it stars in some capacity Broadway vet Anna Kendrick, who utterly charmed her way through one of my favorite 2007 movies, "Rocket Science." Probably not enough to make me go see it, but it made me smile for a second anyway.

Much better is that with a visit to YouTube (or by simply clicking below) you can view until Thursday a new feature film from director Wayne Wang for free. Who's Wayne Wang? For much of the world, that's a perfectly understandable question.

For years the Hong Kong director has largely trafficked in some pretty schmaltzy crap ("Maid in Manhattan" and "The Heart of Winn Dixie" come to mind), but he also managed to direct easily one of my favorite flicks in "Smoke." If you haven't seen this little movie about the power of storytelling and starring Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Stockard Channing, Forest Whitaker, Ashley Judd and Harold Perrineau of "Lost" fame, Netflix it immediately and thank me later.

But the new news about Mr. Wang is that he's recently released two feature films, "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers" and "Princess Nebraska," the latter of which has been released for free on YouTube. All I know about it for sure is that it's about a Chinese woman who is four months pregnant and going to college in Nebraska. Abortion and San Francisco factor in here somehow, but to find out anymore you'll just have to watch for yourself, as I will very soon.



R.I.P. Dolemite

The most amazing thing about Rudy Ray Moore dying is that he managed to stay alive so long in the first place. The rather rude but usually very funny comedian died Sunday night in Toledo of complications of diabetes at the age of 81.

I can't say his act was ever my favorite thing to watch, but there's no denying he had great influence over hip-hop music, and for that I can only say thanks.

About four or five years ago, Mr. Moore was scheduled to play a show in Macon, and our former entertainment writer Greg Fields was tasked with interviewing him. I laughed for about three minutes straight as Greg tried multiple times to call Mr. Moore, only to be hung up on and swore at because he was mistaken for a bill collector. I still don't know if that was a joke on Mr. Moore's part, but it certainly made my day.

Enjoy this extremely profane (remember, I did warn you) clip of him telling the story of the signifying monkey from "Dolemite." R.I.P. Mr. Moore.

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.

The Rehoboth Film Festival and "the best horror movie of the year"?

The biggest news out there today that isn't all about me is that AMC has just signed on for a third season of "Mad Men," but show creator Matthew Weiner isn't yet quite on board.

Given the run the show is on now deep in season two, I just assumed it was signed up for Weiner's planned five-year run, but I guess that shows you just how little I know about business.

As for the show itself which, if I'm not mistaken, only has two episodes left in this season, last Sunday's installment may have been the best yet. Don's first-season party with the hippies was a hoot, but his adventures in La-La land were just crazy on a whole new level (and my co-worker Karen Ludwig asked a question I have to admit had never really crossed my mind - will he come back to New York?) I have to assume so, but I can't wait for the return of "Dick Wickman" if he shows this week.

But the bad news, of course, is that even though the two sides have apparently exchanged contract offers, Weiner is not yet signed up for the further saga of the men and women of Sterling Cooper. If he were to walk, the show is clearly in good hands by now (including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" vet Marti Noxon and "Gilmore Girls" vet Lesli Linka Glatter, among others), but it would still be a real shame. Stay tuned.

In even better news, though I haven't seen a Broadway show in years, the Great White Way is about to get a serious injection of class.

It seems that "Once," the soundtrack for which still sits on my desk at work and will surely be listened to later today, has been optioned by John N. Hart Jr., Jeffrey Sine and Frederick Zollo to turn the musical into, well, a musical. Luckily, the trio have said they expect stars/composers Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova to be involved in the project (as stars? I'd easily pay $100 for that!) Writer/director John Carney may get in on the game too.

Best of all, it will include not only songs from the sensational movie, but also some more Hansard/Irglova tunes that didn't make the cut. In my mind, I'm definitely already there instead of heading to a 10-hour day for my fifth day of work this week!

Rehoboth Film Festival

It's really hard to complain too much, though, because the day after Barack Obama wins the election I'm headed to Rehoboth Beach, Del., for the 11th (amazing!) annual Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival. My brother and I had once fantasized about hitting Toronto - me for the movies and him for the soccer - but I think Rehoboth is about as glamorous as it's gonna get for me, and that's just fine.

This year's festival takes place from Wednesday, Nov. 5 to Sunday, Nov. 9, and features a host of great almost-first-run movies. Here's the schedule of what I'll hopefully be watching (assuming we can get tickets for them all), and if you live anywhere near Rehoboth (or are just curious), you can finally view the schedule in a pdf program here.

Thursday:

"Mirageman": All I really know about this one is that it's about some kind of Chilean superhero, and that's enough to get me intrigued.

"Let the Right One In": This is the "horror" movie I referred to in the title of this post, and though I'm way too old for most horror flicks, this looks right up my alley. It's apparently a Mexican movie about a young man who befriends his next-door neighbor, who just happens to be a vampire. Cool, and the trailer, courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes, is below.



"Trouble the Water": I'd have to imagine this doco will be the festival's hottest ticket, so hopefully I can get in. Given the human scale of the tragedy, I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching documentaries about Hurricane Katrina, and this one about a husband and wife who get trapped in their house looks like a real winner.

Friday:

"The Pope's Toilet": Despite the rather colorful title of this one, I'm fairly certain it won't have any images of Benedict himself doing his private business. Instead, it's a drama about the madness that surrounds a papal visit to Uruguay.

"In a Dream": I never would have guessed, but apparently Philadelphia is just a mecca for outside (and outsider) art. This particular doco looks at the work of mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar, and should just be a visual feast.

"Wendy and Lucy": I had never heard of this one, but I really like Michelle Williams, so I'm definitely in. As the titular Wendy, she shows up in Oregon with her dog Lucy to look for work. I like movies about the fringes of American life, and this one should be intriguing.

Saturday:

"Mister Foe": Young Billy Elliott (Jamie Bell) is a little more grown up now and suffering a rather serious oedipal complex. After becoming infatuated with a woman who looks like his mother, he runs off to Glasgow, and surely a lot of nifty indie rock and hopefully good filmmaking will follow.

"The Grocer's Son": My parents recommended this one, which for me makes it a must-see. It's a French flick about a city man who returns to southern France to help in his father's grocery store after the elder man suffers a stroke. Doesn't sound like exactly my cup of tea, but I love being proven wrong.

"Love Comes Lately": It looks I'm not terribly likely to get the job I applied for on a lark to be the "Film Festival Coordinator" for the DC Jewish Community Center, but I won't hold that against Isaac Bashevis Singer. This flick based on a collection of the great writer's short stories is about love, faith and - inevitably - cheating in New York City.

Sunday:

"Under the Bombs": Shot in 10 days as bombs were actually raining down on Lebanon in 2006, this drama uses non-actors to look for some answers in all that madness. Good look with that, but I'll give it a chance anyway.

"Man on a Wire": I'll hopefully close the fest with this doco about Philippe Petit's bold and crazy attempt to walk between the Twin Towers on a wire in 1974. The flick is apparently also about all the loony people who conspired with him to make this all happen, which should make for the most interesting part.

So, there you have it. Please feel free to browse through the rather impressive program and make any recommendations of flicks you may have seen but I have omitted from this list (which is not yet set in stone.)

And I'll leave with you the first 10 minutes of "Sex Drive," which I'll probably go see Sunday for a healthy dose of juvenalia after Oliver Stone's "W." on Saturday. I haven't watched it all yet, but I'm sure you'll want to wear headphones if you're watching this at work. Peace out.

Billy Ray's back, so scandal is the order of the day

Just a few quick notes today, because in a moment truly right out of "Office Space," we have to go through 18 hours of training starting today to learn a new program that changes the way we do .. well .. just about everything.

Even if it goes smoothly, a newspaper changing its operating system about three weeks before the election is just as crazy as it seems. But, since that's not really my concern, I'd much rather traffic in the more pleasant realm of movie trivialty.

Billy Ray, who makes his living primarily as a screenwriter, has also managed to direct two of my favorite movies, and now he's back with something that sounds right up his alley.

The two movies that Ray has managed to direct, "Shattered Glass" and "Breach" (easily one of my favorite flicks of 2007), are psychological dramas of the first order that paint very claustrophobic portraits of very troubled people. If you haven't seen the former, starring Hayden Christensen as journalistic fraud Stephen Glass and a stellar Peter SarsGaard as his "New Republic" editor, I can't recommend it highly enough.

Now, Mr. Ray is set to write and direct "How to Rig an Election," based on the memoir of the same name by disgraced G.O.P. political operative Allen Raymond (see a pattern here)? His plot: To jam phone lines at Democratic Party headquarters in an effort to swing a 2002 Senate election in New Hampshire.

"This is the story of Raymond’s rise to power alongside his friend in the party, Jim Tobin, and how their lives intersect in a way that forces Allen to choose between his ambition and his integrity," Ray said. "He makes the wrong choice at first, and by the time he makes the right one, his wife and kids are affected and his life is going up in flames."

Mr. Ray, who specializes in the motivations of petty schemers, should just have a blast with that.

Murderous muppets? I'm there

The big news in Muppet world, of course, is that Jason Segel and writing partner Nicholas Stoller are developing a new - and hopefully very old-fashioned - Muppet movie (though I can't find anything about it on either of their IMDB profiles.)

At the house of Henson, however, they're also now more actively involved in something made just for me: A puppet show for adults.

The Jim Henson Co. has launched development of the feature "Happytime Murders," a puppet comedy in the film noir detective genre (yes, I did make a little geek squeak the first time I read that.) Jim Henson offspring Brian and Lisa Henson will produce the flick, which will mix humans and puppets and center on a puppet detective forced to solve a string of murders around the Happytime Gang, the cast of a popular children's show.

In my mind, I'm already there. Like I said, short report today, since I have to do my actual job along with a half-week's worth of training (though it does mean a lot of overtime, so I really shouldn't complain.) Peace out.