Is there anything worth watching in the year's busiest frame?

The surprising answer is yes, I think there are actually three movies in wide release that I want to see this week. And, well, there's also a movie about talking chihuahuas, but I guess you can't win them all, right?

For as long as my three-day weekend lasts (which may not be much longer, though I did manage to survive my newspaper's latest round of layoff/buyouts fairly intact), I'll probably go see three movies if I can find three I think are worthy of a matinee. Here's a look at what's available in a week that has, rather amazingly, seven new movies opening in wide release, in the order that I want to see them (and not including Bill Maher's "Religulous" for two reasons: It's not playing here and I wouldn't bother to see it anyway because that's simply not my cup of bile.)

1. "Blindness"
I'm willing to make one exception to my new rule that I will no longer watch the world end (yet again!), but only because this comes from the great Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles, who created the simply perfect flick "City of God." (By the way, I recently watched the sequel of sorts, "City of Men" [pictured here], on DVD, and while it' a different kind of flick it is - in its own way - a compelling tale of coming of age on the rough streets of Rio.) Reviews have been surprisingly abysmal for this flick starring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo and Diego Luna, but I'll find out for myself anyway, probably Saturday.

2. "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist"
Roger Moore threw down the gauntlet of hyperbole by calling this flick "this generation's 'Say Anything'," but as comparisons go, here's hoping he's accurate. Extremely funny man Michael Cera and Kat Dennings star in a tale of two teens who find love and hopefully a lot of funny high jinks during a wild night in NYC.

3. "Appaloosa"
I'm really glad that 1. someone in Hollywood (in this case Ed Harris) loves old Westerns as much as I do and 2. this movie is actually playing in theaters near me, unlike the sublime "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," for which I had to settle for DVD. Here, Harris and Viggo Mortensen star as hired guns brought in to restore order to a town under the control of strongman Jeremy Irons. Renee Zelweger is unfortunately in here somehow too, but hopefully she won't have too much to do.

4. "Flash of Genius"
As silly and sappy as it is, there are just very few movies I love more than Francis Ford Coppola's "Tucker," so I've always had a soft spot for movies about the little guy and cars. Unfortunately, reviews so far have painted this flick starring Greg Kinnear as intermittent windshield wipers inventor Bob Kearns (and Gilmore Girl Lauren Graham as his wife, huzzah!) as too heavy on the courtroom and too light on inspiration. I'll wait a week, but if you see this one and I'm wrong, please let me know.

5. "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People"
I guess I shouldn't be surprised given the title of this one that Simon Pegg just looks extremely annoying in the trailer. I'll see it eventually, because I like movies about journalists and see just about anything with Jeff Bridges in it, but not this week.

6. "An American Carol"
With Michael Moore reduced to releasing his latest "movie," "Slacker Uprising," on the Internet for free, doesn't this flick just seem like a really mean-spirited case of kicking the man when he's already way down? I guess it's nice that Hollywood's Republicans get to have a little fun, but I'll wait until at least DVD to see this one.

7. "Beverly Hills Chihuahua"
I have to assume that this one will win the weekend, but I really have nothing to say about that.

Instead, check your multiplexes Saturday night for a possible sneak preview of "The Express," starring Rob Brown as Ernie Davis, the first black dude to win the Heisman trophy. "Glory Road" was just a crapfest of epicly bad proportions, but I have high hopes that this flick will be much better. Peace out.

What to watch: I'll glady be menaced by Sam the Man and annoyed with Ricky Gervais

Even with two movies opening wide this week that I really want to see, it still just seems like an appetizer for the feast that will hopefully be coming next week.

If wide really does mean wide (which way too often simply isn't true), we get Sept. 26 three movies that I've just been waiting a long time to see: Fernando Meirelles' "Blindness", Spike Lee's "Miracle at St. Anna" and Clark Gregg's "Choke," starring Sam Rockwell and Kelly MacDonald and based on the novel by "Fight Club" scribe Chuck Palahniuk. All three have been heavily advertised on TV all week, so I have my hopes very high they'll all reach my little corner of the world in week one.

But before that, we get a fairly remarkable five movies opening in wide-release land this week, two of which I'll actually be going to see. Here, in descending order of appeal, are this week's offerings:

"Ghost Town"
In designing a flick that should finally show that "Office" mastermind Ricky Gervais can indeed topline a flick that appeals to American audiences, the makers of this one have apparently just made a movie in which he will essentially play himself, which is just fine with me. In it, he plays a dentist who's pretty much annoyed with everything and everyone around him until he has a near-death experience and ends up seeing dead people who annoy him just as much as the living variety. That premise has me laughing already, and even better I can't wait to see what Gervais can do in 2009 with his big writing/directing movie effort, the rather seriously star-laden "This Side of the Truth."

"Lakeview Terrace"'
Ever wonder what happened to writer/director Neil Labute? I had forgotten all about him until I noticed his name attached to this fairly standard looking thriller that still might be a cut above the rest of the pack. In fact, a quick look at the IMDB revealed I haven't seen any of his flicks since 2000's "Nurse Betty," which was fairly entertaining. Here he's got Samuel L. Jackson as a rather pissed-off L.A.P.D. officer who gets more annoyed than usual (sense a pattern here?) when he finds out an interracial couple played by Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington has moved in next door. I'm hoping there's more than enough gray in this black-and-white flick to make it interesting, and I'm still just a sucker for seeing Mr. Jackson be a serious badass.

"Igor"
An animated flick released after the kids are back in school? Never a good sign. In this one, John Cusack provides the voice of the titular mad scientist's assistant Igor, who just wants to be the master of his own lab. Sounds like a fairly promising premise, but early word is the story isn't enough to lure me in, even with John Cleese and Steve Buscemi in supporting voice roles.

"Beer for My Horses"
I'm not sure if this one really is playing everywhere in the U.S. or is just one of those little redneck flicks that they trot out only here in the South. Either way, I'm at least glad it's not an hour-and-a-half-or-so of Toby Keith threatening to kick everyone's ass. Instead, written by Keith and Rodney Carrington (an annual fixture on Macon's comedy club scene), it's the story of two buddies who team up to take on a corrupt sheriff and rescue one of their damsels from the distress of being kidnapped by drug lords. Somehow I'm sure I have the strength to just say no.

"My Best Friend's Girl"
Isn't the actual name of the rather cool Cars song that this flick steals its title and theme song from "My Best Friend's Girlfriend"? It's bad enough when you can't even get that right, but when you throw in three truly annoying (there it is again!) people - Dane Cook, Kate Hudson and Jason Biggs - in what looks like a "romantic comedy" that won't be remotely funny or romantic, you've just got a recipe for disaster. For some reason I thought Mr. Cook was in "The 40-year-old Virgin," but I'm mistaken, and it turns out I've never seen any of the "comedian's" movies. I'm 100 percent certain that streak will still be intact after this weekend.

Reel Fanatic poll results
It may not be as scientific as a Gallup poll, but I was happy to see 33 people cast 62 votes in my question about which Fall movies they're most looking forward to. And it turned out that every flick except "Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys" got at least one vote (I almost voted for that one myself just because I like Mr. Perry so much and hate to see him slighted). The top vote-getter is no surprise, but I didn't expect to see such strong support for "The Road" and a few other flicks. Anyways, here's the results, after which I'll just sign off and wish everyone a perfectly passable Thursday.

Top winner: 7 votes
"Quantum of Solace"

Second place: 6 votes
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"The Road"


Third place: 5 votes
"Burn After Reading"
"Slumdog Millionaire" (huzzah!)
"Zack and Miri Make a Porno"

4 votes:
"Miracle at St. Anna"
"Blindness"

3 votes:
"Synecdoche, N.Y."
"Milk"
"Choke"

2 votes:
"W."
"Australia"
"Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist"

1 vote:
"Towelhead"
"Rocknrolla"
"Frost/Nixon"
"City of Ember"

If you're gonna spoof, go for a big target ... like Michael Moore

Before I say anything bad about the man, let me say this first: I really like Michael Moore and most of his movies. "Sicko," which focused way too much on what's right with health care in Europe rather than what's wrong with it here in America, was a failure in my book - but a noble one at that - but I think all his other flicks have been right on-target.

And I swore after going to see "Date Movie" (admittedly only because Alyson Hannigan was in it, poor girl) that I would never again go see any spoof flick with the word "movie" in it. And I'm sticking to that, but one of the masters of the genre, David Zucker, is gonna take on Michael Moore in one spoof I think I could really go for.

Vivendi Entertainment has picked up North American rights to Zucker's "An American Carol," described by Variety as being about "a cynical, anti-American filmmaker who sets out on a crusade to abolish the July Fourth holiday. He is visited by three ghosts who try to show him the true meaning of America."

First of all, Michael Moore is in NO WAY "anti-American," but good spoofs always draw their targets with a broad brush. The late Chris Farley's brother, Kevin, will play the filmmaker (talk about ghosts!), and the cast will also include Zucker co-conspirator Leslie Neilsen, Dennis Hopper, James Woods and Jon Voight.

I'm assuming this will get a wide opening when it hits Oct. 3, along with - if you're lucky enough to live in a city bigger than mine - the great Fernando Meirelles' "Blindness" and another flick whose trailer you can find below.

So, if I like Michael Moore, why do I want to see him lampooned mercilessly by Zucker and company? Because even though he holds strong opinions and almost always makes movies good enough to back them up, he's also an extremely pompous dude who certainly deserves some good-natured ribbing.

"Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist" trailer

It's been quite a while since I've mentioned Michael Cera, but if you happened to visit here around the time "Superbad" came out a year ago you might well have assumed I have some kind of odd hetero-crush on the dude. Well, I don't, but any one who's seen "Arrested Development" (and if you haven't, why not?) knows he's just an extremely funny guy, and that's reason enough to talk about him from time to time.

Coming Oct. 3, he'll be back opposite Kat Dennings in "Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist," a romantic comedy about - as best I can tell - a high school student who asks the girl standing next to him to be his girlfriend for five minutes so he won't be embarrassed by the ex-girlfriend who's shown up at his band's gig with a new beau. (After watching the trailer, I think I might be mixed up on just who does the asking, but does it really matter?)

Sounds too predictable and frankly, young, for me, but this is being directed by Peter Sollett, who six years ago made the nearly flawless flick "Raising Victor Vargas" (if you've never seen that one, do so on DVD now.) In his hands, the story of Nick and Nora's night in New York City could have a little "After Hours" and a little "Before Sunrise" thrown into it, or it could just turn out to be much worse than either of those fine flicks.

Anyways, enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. I'm debating whether or not to go see "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" or not. I know it's gonna be bad, but I often enjoy watching movies to see just how bad (like M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening," which just made me laugh hard for all the wrong reasons) they can turn out to be. Peace out.