A great movie weekend in Macon

I realize that means it's at least as great a movie weekend everywhere else too, but a surprise, belated entry has me particularly psyched about the offerings in my little corner of the world.

So, in chronological order, here's what I'll be watching (except maybe the last one) and, if you check back throughout the weekend, I promise, reviewing here:

1. Bee Movie
This isn't the movie I most want to see this weekend, but due to the fact that it's playing on a gazillion screens it's the easiest one to catch before I have to go work today. I think I'd be more excited for this one if we hadn't been inundated with those "Dol-Bee" ads for what seems like three years now. After all, Jerry Seinfeld is a savagely funny guy, and it's much easier to get amped for animation when there's not a glut of it on the big screen, so here's hoping this sucks a lot less than I'm fearing.

2. American Gangster
Until I saw how few screens it's getting at my multiplex, due surely to it's length, among other factors, I was sure this would be the big winner at the box office this weekend. Denzel, Russell and gangsters ... what could be better? For my money, very little. I actually managed to do my senior thesis at Catholic University for a class in political film on something along the lines of "The Social Ramifications and Parallels of Early Gangster Films," which, even though I worked quite hard on it, always felt like a bit of a con. The reviews I've seen so far say this is a pretty by-the-numbers gangster flick, but I still suspect I'm gonna like it a lot.

3. Into the Wild
And here's the wild card late entry, and a flick that many readers of this site have been urging me to see for some time now. My father rather unintentionally spoiled the end of this one for me, which I would be more upset about if every review I've read since hadn't done the same thing. Jon Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven" is one of the best books I've ever read, so I'm sure he delivered a rousing tale here about Christopher McCandless' trip down Thoreau's path, and by all accounts Sean Penn put a stirring visual cherry on top, so count me very psyched for this one too.

4. Across the Universe
I'll definitely need some persuading to drive a half hour to see this one in Centerville. I just love the Beatles far too much to see their songs sung by the likes of Eddie Izzard and, God forbid, Bono. If you've seen this one and there's something to recommend it that I'm just missing, please feel free to let me know.

And there you have it. A busy weekend for me at the movies. Here's hoping you have at least a fairly great one too.

Drinky Crow is go - for real!

Given that Adult Swim prides itself on living by, well, no rules whatsoever, the details about this are understandably sketchy, but it seems that Tony Millionaire's "Drinky Crow Show" has been given a full-season pickup.

Staying true to its vision of barely organized chaos, Adult Swim unveiled like 30 or so 15-minute pilots on one night last spring and then let viewers vote on the winner, and it seems Drinky Crow was by far the favorite.

Never heard of Tony Millionaire or Maakies? Well, if you can handle your humor extremely juvenile, more than occasionally peurile but also seriously funny, the Maakies comic strip is for you. The adventures of Uncle Gabby, Drinky Crow and the rest of the crew are linked among my favorite sites at right, but be warned, if you have any work to do today don't click on it, because you could easily spend the whole day reading the strips he has online.

Drinky Crow first appeared on TV in a series of rather poorly conceived shorts on "Saturday Night Live" a few years back, but now given new life by Millionaire and Eric Kaplan, he's back in much better condition. No word yet on when exactly more installments will begin appearing, but for proof of just how twistedly funny the pilot was, there's a 30-second glimpse at the end of the post.

And here, straight from the mouth of Eric Kaplan via the great Comics2Film site, is a potential plotline for a future episode that shows that, thankfully, this duo won't be growing up anytime soon:

EK: I'm working on one now where the idea is that Drinky Crow and Uncle Gabby are driving their car, smashing into people, beating on people, just having this night of drunken revelry. Drinky Crow comes home and peaks in the window, because they lost their key so they have to climb in. And he sees his girlfriend in bed with an elephant seal who's going ‘Urgh Urgh Urgh Urgh.' Then Drinky Crow is in this bar and Uncle Gabby is trying to cheer him up saying ‘oh, she wasn't good enough for you.' Drinky Crow is like, are you kidding, she was much better than me. And he's like, yeah I guess you're right. So Uncle Gabby says, I know how to cheer you up, you need to get back in the saddle So he finds these two really homely old hags in the bar and he's like hey, would you mind if you buy me a drink. So he's hitting on these two ladies and Drinky Crow is like, oh that's too depressing, I can't do this. Uncle Gabby says, what you need to do is lower your standards. I have these things called beer goggles. They're beer-fueled mechanical contraptions that you put on your eye. Drinky Crow says fantastic, I'll just take out my eye-tearing-out-hooks and he tears out his eyes and puts this thing in and he looks at these two ladies and they look beautiful.

And, as promised, here's a clip from the pilot in which Uncle Gabby learns the perils of using whale blubber to flirt with the captain's daughter. Enjoy!



A glimpse into "The Mist"

I apologize if this is heavy on pics and clips today, but I have far too much work to do after a long holiday weekend, so have to make this as efficient as possible.

There are few partnerships in movies that work better than Frank Darabont and Stephen King, as I'm confident Darabont's upcoming "The Mist" will once again prove. As the trailer I've posted here shows, you get a big dose of Andre Braugher, which is always a good thing in my book. It looks like he may well be playing the traditional role of "the black guy" in horror movies, which means dying early, but it looks like even if that's so he should get some good screen time in first.



Some psychedelic visions of the "Universe"

I'm not sure why, but I just can't get too psyched for Julie Taymor's "Across the Universe," set for release Sept. 14. Though Taymor is a budding visual master, her narrative skills still leave something to be desired. If "Universe," her tribute to the Beatles and the '60s, is as hollow a shell as her "Titus," it's just gonna be a very pretty montage of music videos.

I am still hoping that I'm wrong, which has been known to happen at least a few times before. To get a taste of what she has cooked up, you can see a ton of stills from the flick at Ropeofsilicon, one of which I've pilfered and included here. Click on the link for 47 more or so.


The limits of good taste

I've found, in my fairly long time on this planet, that I get offended by very little. My only real test with comedy is that it be funny.

And it's in that spirit that I'm really looking forward to the hail of bullets that will be this weekend's "Shoot 'Em Up." The viral marketing for this silly little flick has been fun to take in, as this new site proves. Be warned: If you can't, under any circumstances, laugh about infants in peril, don't click on that link. I hope I'll never get too mature for that. Peace out.