Take a magical journey with "The Red Balloon"

It's really slim pickings this week on DVD, especially since I can't see myself springing for any kind of glossy "Golden Compass" package.

There is, however, one little surprise from Janus Films and Criterion that I guarantee will bring a smile to the face of kids of all ages.

Albert Lamorisse's "The Red Balloon" ("Le Ballon rouge") has apparently been available on some kind of DVD for a few years now (I've only seen it on a very grainy VHS copy), but now the folks at Criterion have given this magical short film the proper respect it deserves.

As premises go, it really doesn't get much simpler than this one. Our hero, Pascal (the director's son, Pascal Lamorisse), finds the titular red balloon, which ends up following him through the streets of Paris and even to school. Sappy? Sure, but also just a lot of fun and a moving tale about the power of friendship.

A fun fact: Despite its scant dialogue, the movie actually won the Academy Award in 1957 for Best Original Screenplay, still the only short film to win an Oscar in competition with feature-length flicks. It's also set in the neighborhoods of Belleville and Montmarte, making the balloon's journey a fun one to follow.

You can apparently wait and get a twin bill of this and another Lamorisse film I've never seen, "White Mane," also from Janus/Criterion, but I'm not sure when that will come out. And besides, even if you buy this one rather then rent it, it's only listed as $9.99 at Amazon.

Take a chance and I guarantee you'll be rewarded with a very entertaining little flick.

Bob and Doug get animated?

Well, except for that DVD nugget, all I really have for you is something that will hopefully make at least a few people laugh.

Remember Bob and Doug McKenzie? If you don't, I probably can't help you, because as far as silly but fun movies go they really don't get much better than "Strange Brew."

Now, from ANIMAX Canada, Bob and Doug (a k a Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) are coming in 2009 to Canadian TV, but not as of yet to my American TV (which, oddly enough, looks a lot like a Canadian TV, except mine doesn't get "The Animated Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie.") Here, thanks to QuickStop Entertainment, is the preview that was just shown at New York's ComicCon, introduced by Dave Thomas. Enjoy, and have a pleasant enough Tuesday. Peace out.

Did "The Golden Compass" kill 600 jobs?

More than a tad simplistic, I confess, but that's certainly how it looks from here.

Yesterday came the news that Bob Shaye, who founded New Line Cinema in his New York apartment in 1967, and fellow executive Michael Lynne were being ousted from the somewhat-indie studio. And now comes word that New Line will be folded into Warner Bros., costing the jobs of some 600 employees and adding another big block to the move to consolidate movie production and distribution in the hands of fewer and fewer people.

You probably can't lay all this at the feet of "The Golden Compass," but it does indeed seem to be the final nail in the studio's coffin. Shaye, in particular, had been hoping for "Lord of the Rings" kind of magic, but the anti-religion (much removed from the movie anyway) baggage and the fact that Philip Pullman simply doesn't have the mainstream appeal of a J.R.R. Tolkein were just too much to overcome.

Despite the neutering of some of the book's message, I liked the flick enough to be looking forward to the sequel, "The Subtle Knife," but the chances of that happening now look to be about nil. It apparently has a script by Hossein Amini, but is still listed only as "announced" at the IMDB, with no cast attached as of yet.

But beyond that, what are we really losing in New Line? Well, in its best days, New Line launched the career of Paul Thomas Anderson and revived that of David Fincher (starting with "Se7en"), so for that at least we can be thankful. And they were of course also the studio that backed a little trilogy known as "The Lord of the Rings."

On the downside, they also birthed the career of Brett Ratner and his "Rush Hour" movies, but hey, everybody makes mistakes (and those were at least ones that made mad cash.)

One very important thing that New Line did early, before it got into horror (both "The Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Friday the 13th," among others) and "urban" (I hate that term!) fare ("House Party" and "Menace 2 Society," among many others), was a big boon for the city of Baltimore's oddest native son, and for that we should all say thanks.

I can only imagine the look on Bob Shaye's face when he saw Divine trailing a poodle and eating its excrement. But to its credit, New Line still did distribute even the grossest of John Waters' films, and they were there when he finally made some less shocking and pretty darn good ones ("Hairspray" and "Pecker" being my favorites.) Waters hasn't made a movie since 2004's "A Lowdown Dirty Shame," and is now teaching film at some kind of European university. He's also in the beginning stages of a flick called, appropriately enough,"Fruitcake," but who knows what studio will now bother to get behind that.

Waters himself gave a perfect eulogy of sorts to the Hollywood reporter: "To me, the scary thing is when I was younger, when you went to pitch a movie, there were 20 places to go. Now there are only a handful. They just keep buying each other."

It's hard to believe that the little studio that backed this seriously off-kilter but sometimes very funny dude would later go on to something as ambitious as "The Lord of the Rings." And yes, in case anyone is wondering, "The Hobbit" will still apparently go forward under Warner/New Line's guidance, with Guillermo del Toro still in talks to take the reins.

And what does New Line leave us with as its last offering? A goofy Will Ferrell comedy. I'll probably go see "Semi-Pro," but it would be hard to call that going out on top. In its defense, New Line did also just release Michel Gondry's "Be Kind Rewind," which I did have the chance to see and am still digesting.

The bottom line: Nobody wins in this sad story, and the biggest losers will be the movie fans who will get fewer and less diverse offerings as Hollywood studios merge into what might one day just be one gigantic conglomerate (here's hoping not!). In a crass move on my part to inject at least a bit of levity at the finish, here's the final one sheet for Pixar's Summer 2008 offering "Wall-E," a critter cute enough to make even the most cynical person smile a little. Peace out.

Sam Raimi's going to "Hell," and I'm definitely following

Though I guess you really can't call Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3" the worst movie of this year, I can definitely say it was my most disappointing. After turning out for a midnight screening (which I'm gonna do again tonight for Dewey Cox, but more on that later), I was just thoroughly let down.

The biggest problem, from my perspective, was that Raimi had clearly just stopped having any fun with the "Spider-Man" saga. About halfway through I couldn't help thinking that it's high time for him to direct, not just produce, a good, old-fashioned horror movie. And now, thankfully, that appears to be happening.

It seems Raimi's next project will be "Drag Me to Hell," a supernatural thriller he wrote with his brother, Ivan Raimi. (Yes, I realize that means it's the same writing team behind "Spider-Man 3," but also the duo that came up with both "Army of Darkness" and "Darkman," so take heart.)

The only plot detail leaked so far is that it's about the unwitting recipient of a supernatural curse, and the flick will go into production early next year.

Here's what Rob Tapert, whose Ghost House studio is financing the project, had to say about Raimi's change of pace: "When one has done three very expensive movies, they get used to eating caviar. Sam will have to ponder what it means to come down from the mountaintop for a moment."

As long as whatever he comes up with just tastes like a fun movie, that will be good enough for me. Welcome back, Sam.

Update on "The Hobbit"

Just a day or two after the big news came about MGM, New Line and Peter Jackson making not one but two "Hobbit" movies, Jackson is already bowing out of the directing chair (for now, at least.)

Here's what Jackson's manager Ken Kamins told Hollywood Insider: "Peter won't be directing because he felt the fans have waited long enough for The Hobbit. (Well, he's certainly right about that.) It will take the better part of every day of the next four years to write, direct and produce two Hobbit films. Given his current obligations to both The Lovely Bones and Tintin, waiting for Peter, Fran, and Phillippa to write, direct and produce The Hobbit would require the fans wait even longer."

Which, of course, would open the door wide open for any number of very talented directors to move in. The Variety article about Sam Raimi's horror flick implied that he is already the anointed one, but I'm personally still holding out hope for Alfonso Cuaron, though he already has three (three!?!?) announced directing credits listed at the IMDB for 2009: México '68, The Memory of Running and The History of Love. (I have to imagine he'd gladly give all these up to take the reins of "The Hobbit.") Whoever lands this will have a hot property on their hands, so definitely stay tuned, 'cause a decision is expected by early next year.

Bold move, guys: Vatican slams 'His Dark Materials'

Though I still fairly regularly attend Catholic church services, it pains me to admit I wasn't at all surprised to see the Vatican come out today with a rather pathetic statement about the box office numbers for "The Golden Compass."

Predicting that New Line will bail on completing the trilogy (which I fear will happen too), the Vatican's l'Osservatore Romano newspaper called "Compass" the "Most anti-Christmas film possible" and said that “... In (Phillip) Pullman’s world, hope simply does not exist, because there is no salvation but only personal, individualistic capacity to control the situation and dominate events.”

Having not read the entire trilogy yet I'll give them a pass on the latter part, but what in the world does "The Golden Compass" even have to do with Christmas at all, and what movie were these guys watching? (I have a rather strong suspicion they didn't bother to watch it at all.) If I had any complaints about the movie (which I did, though I kind of enjoyed it too), it's that the movie was defanged of most of Pullman's most overt anti-Christianity sentiment, not that it was spreading it around to corrupt all the kiddies.

And, I think the greater point here is that it is an act of fairly extreme cowardice that the Vatican let its American attack dog, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, do all the talking until it had the box office totals to hide behind. If anything, I think New Line was doomed from the start in making such a costly movie from a book that didn't have quite the following of a "Lord of the Rings," but seeing ridiculous statements like this just makes me hope all the more that it will bankroll the next two chapters in this potentially thrilling trilogy. 'Nuff said.

Free "Jackass"? Yes, please!

Actually, I haven't had time to take in "Jackass 2.5" yet, but once I do, I and anyone else who cares to can apparently do so for free now, and huzzah to that. When I went to the site, it said you had to download something called "Microsoft Silverlight" and go through some "silly registration process," but I'd have to think those will be small hurdles to jump for more jackassery from Johnny and the boys. To download the movie, click here. Methinks I just might try and do so at work later today (rather than, of course, doing any actual work.)

More ridiculous Dewey Cox swag

OK, I can now admit that I've officially been hoodwinked by joining the "Dewey Cox Fan Club."

After already getting a pair of tighty-whities supposedly autographed on the backside by Dewey himself, I found another envelope from Columbia in my mailbox when I got home last night. It was awfully thin, but I still held out hope that it was a copy of the soundtrack or something equally cool.

Of course not. What it was this time, which I've done the service of photographing for anyone who actually bothers to read this, is supposedly a clump of Dewey's chest hair (given the source, I was frankly more than a little surprised they didn't say it was hair from some other region of his body.)

I do have to say I laughed a lot harder this time than I did at the underwear, and since I'm going to a midnight screening tonight, I guess this rather twisted marketing scheme worked (though I'm fairly certain I would have bitten without it.) Bring it on!

Six minutes of "The Dark Knight"?

I figure anyone who made it this far deserves a reward, so please enjoy this YouTube clip that purports to be a rather horribly bootlegged clip of the Joker's henchmen robbing a Gotham bank, which I found over at the great Iwatchstuff.com (though the poster rather cryptically called it "My Safari Trip to Antarctica.") I'd imagine the real test of the veracity of this clip will be how long it lasts before the bigwigs order it removed, so I'll try and keep my eyes on it to see if it becomes a dead link. Until then, enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

This just in : "The Hobbit" is on, and it's twice as nice!

Well, it turns out that at least a billion dollars is enough to make even the most juvenile of adults make nice. It should come as a surprise to no one, I guess, but it's sensational news nonetheless that Peter Jackson and Bob Shaye have kissed and made up, and thanks to that we're gonna get not one but two "Hobbit" movies!

Believe me, I could have put eight exclamation points behind that, but since I write this mess at around 5 a.m. or so, we'll just leave it at one for now and just say I'm rather excited about this. The facts, with apologies to the great "Pushing Daisies," are these:

MGM and New Line will co-finance and co-distribute two films, “The Hobbit” and a sequel to “The Hobbit.” New Line will distribute in North America and MGM will distribute internationally.

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as Executive Producers of two films based on “The Hobbit.” New Line will manage the production of the films, which will be shot simultaneously.

Peter Jackson and New Line have settled all litigation relating to the “Lord of the Rings” (LOTR) Trilogy.

The two “Hobbit” films – “The Hobbit” and its sequel – are scheduled to be shot simultaneously, with pre-production beginning as soon as possible. Principal photography is tentatively set for a 2009 start, with the intention of “The Hobbit” release slated for 2010 and its sequel the following year, in 2011.

Now, the only possible bad news in all of this is that Jackson isn't (yet) listed as the director for either of these flicks. I'd imagine that could change quickly, but as of now Mr. Jackson's plate is already full with his take on Alice Sebold's best-selling "The Lovely Bones" (soon to be on my reading list) and then chapter one of the "Tintin" trilogy (huzzah!) he's developing with Steven Spielberg.

Even so, I'd imagine he'd be perfectly willing to move things around to get in the director's chair for this fantastic project, and I'm just as sure Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo del Toro, Sam Raimi and many other directors will be ringing him up in the next few days (if they haven't already.)

But what, beyond the obvious big pot of mad cash, led all the sides to make nice right now? I'd imagine that "The Golden Compass" had a lot to do with it. Domestically, at least, the $180 million flick continues to disappoint at the box office, dropping 65.8 percent in week two to take in only $8,825,549 (for a two-week total of $40,768,661, about $4 million less than those damn Chipmunks made in just one weekend.)

How the Shaye brothers must have been salivating for another family-friendly epic from the Tolkien well. But no matter how this all really came about, I'm just extremely happy it did.

Don't watch the Golden Globes

It pains me to write that, but it seems that in the last 24 hours or so the already ugly Hollywood labor situation has quickly gone from bad to worst possible scenario.

Assuming there isn't some fairly quick resolution to the writers' strike, the WGA has announced that it plans to picket the Golden Globes ceremonies Jan. 13. I would have to assume this means no actors will be walking the red carpet either, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Or, at least in my case, not see, since I certainly won't be tuning in under these rather desperate circumstances. A small gesture I know, but it's the least I can think of to do at this early hour to support these scribes in their quest to be fairly compensated when their work hits the World Wide Web. 'Nuff said.

When is viral marketing not viral marketing?

Well, that's a rather silly question, I guess, but just about right to introduce this very funny clip from the Apatow camp to promote "Walk Hard." It's basically the guys sitting around on the couch bitching about viral marketing (to market their flick, of course), but luckily it's also sometimes very funny, and it's just nice to see that the Craig Robinson (Darryl on "The Office") has apparenly become a regular member of the gang. I couldn't manage to embed this, but if you click here I guarantee you'll laugh out loud at least once. Enjoy, and have an entirely bearable Wednesday. Peace out.

2007's best soundtrack, and a serious Oscar snub

When I found this morning that the Oscar short list of 59 original songs had been released I was at least a little excited. I love music almost as much as I do movies, and when they come together perfectly it's just sublime entertainment.

Before reading the list, I just assumed there would be at least one song from easily my favorite soundtrack of the year, but I was once again disappointed (we'll get to more about that in just a little bit.)

To be fair, there are some genuinely good selections that did make the list. Kate Bush's "Lyra," which plays over the closing credits of "The Golden Compass," is a haunting tune that will surely be in the final five or so (and, really, isn't any new Kate Bush music at all just a reason to cheer?) There are also three of Eddie Vedder's great songs from "Into the Wild" ("Society," "Guaranteed" and "Rise"), one from John Sayles' "Honeydripper ("China Doll"), and two from John Carney's simply sublime "Once" ("Falling Slowly," the better of the two, and "If You Want Me").

But, of course, among these great tunes you get plenty of silliness, including three (three!?!?) songs from "Good Luck Chuck" and something called "The Tale of the Horny Frog" from "The Heartbreak Kid." Now, I didn't bother to see that Ben Stiller flick, but I can't imagine anything with that title is exactly poetry.

And what they snubbed completely was anything from my favorite soundtrack of the year (with the one for the Joe Strummer doco "The Future is Unwritten" a close second), Loudon Wainwright III's "Strange Weirdos: Music from and Inspired by the Film 'Knocked Up'."

Along with being a slyly funny folkie, Wainwright has been a regular fixture in Judd Apatow's movies and TV shows. In "Knocked Up," he was the obstetrician who flaked out on Heigl and Rogen on delivery day, and he was even better in a bigger role as Jay Baruchel's dorky dad on the much-too-shortlived TV show "Undeclared."

For the soundtrack (which you can buy track-by-track for .89 cents a cut at Amazon), the songs perfectly match the tone of the movie, ranging from bitterly funny ("Grey in LA") to almost-too-sappy ("Daughter.") Except for two songs from Joe Henry, this is all Wainwright, and I assure you it contains at least 10 songs that could have been among the 59 being considered for an Oscar.

To read the entire list of Oscar contenders, click here.

Pedro Almodovar's back in a noir mood

I need to get a job where I can just pick up the phone and get Penelope Cruz on the other end and have her do whatever I want (nothing terribly dirty implied there, I promise.)

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar seems to have that power, and I'd certainly say he's earned it by now. For their next collaboration, Almodovar and Cruz will be making "Los Abrazos Rotos" (if anyone can translate that for me, please do), which the director describes as a "four-way tale of amour fou, shot in the style of '50s American film noir at its most hard-boiled." Sounds like tons of Almodovar fun to me.

Almodovar regulars Blanca Portillo (from "Volver") and Lluis Homar (from "Mala Educacion") will co-star.

According to the director, "Abrazos," which will go into production this spring, is set in the '90s and present day, and will mix stylistic references to films such as Nicholas Ray's "In a Lonely Place" and Vincente Minnelli's "The Bad and the Beautiful" with signature Almodovar themes: "Fate, the mystery of creation, guilt, unscrupulous power, the eternal search of fathers for sons, and sons for fathers."

"Penelope (Cruz) will exchange the era's aprons, cardigans and the hairdos for an updated look, but one that mixes the transparent turbulence of Gene Tierney and the mistreated, challenging beauty of Linda Darnell in Otto Preminger's 'Fallen Angel,' " Almodovar told Variety.

I adored Todd Haynes' ode to '50s-style melodrama with "Far from Heaven," so I'll certainly be keeping my eyes on this to see what Pedro and Penelope can do with an even darker approach.

Eva Cassidy biopic in the works

Always-welcome visitor Nell Minow left a comment yesterday to say that "Walk Hard," Jake Kasdan's upcoming spoof of music biopics starring John C. Reilly, is a real winner that will keep everyone constantly laughing. I certainly hope I agree when I get to see it next week, because this is indeed a genre worthy of sendup.

Which doesn't mean I won't see any more music biopics. I'd certainly spring for Spike Lee's take on the life of James Brown, if he ever gets around to it, and word came today that one of my favorite artists of all time is about to get the cinematic treatment thanks to some very devoted fans.

The story of Eva Cassidy is indeed a real American tragedy. Anyone who spent any time in Washington D.C. in the '90s is probably at least a little familiar with the story of this blues/jazz singer who never received the acclaim she deserved until after her death from melanoma at the way-too-young age of 33.

It was her version of "Over the Rainbow" from the posthumous collection "Songbird" that brought her fame, especially in Europe. And now, AIR Prods., which this year produced director Amy Redford's "The Guitar" (which I have not yet seen), is going to make a movie about her much-too-short life.

This is certainly good news, at least to me, and since I firmly believe that even the worst day imaginable can be made a little better with a dose of Eva Cassidy, here's a YouTube clip of her performing "Cheek to Cheek" live at D.C.'s Blues Alley. If this doesn't bring a smile to your face, well, I'd just have to imagine you simply don't smile often enough. Peace out.

Just why did "The Golden Compass" tank ... or did it?

Well, the short answer would have to be that, opening all alone in December and only pulling in $26 million in the U.S. with a budget of $180 million means your movie was indeed a failure. There's a silver lining behind that truly dismal number, but I'll get to more of that later.

Why did "The Golden Compass" fail to connect with American viewers? Having watched it myself and only mildly enjoyed it, I have my own theory why, and it only tangentially has to do with any kind of church protests.

And I did find out from talking to the manager of my multiplex that, in Macon at least, these protests were real and went beyond the attention-mad ramblings of Catholic League president William Donohue. But even so, since this apparently was mainly kept to handing out leaflets to churchgoers, it was pretty much preaching to the already-converted who most likely weren't going to go see the flick anyway.

Instead, watching the flick, I got the sinking feeling that the filmmakers, Chris Weitz principal among them, were done in by the simple fear of these protests and what it drove them to do to their movie even before it was released. If you've read any of Phillip Pullman's books, and I did read "The Golden Compass"/"Northern Lights" in preparation for seeing this flick, you know it's a wildly entertaining book full of important ideas about the diminished role - and eventual death - of organized religion.

Even if it's not an idea I necessarily agree with, I appreciated the passion which Pullman put into constructing the complex tale and layering it with his philosophy. And it's Pullman's ideological approach that's missing from the movie and, for me at least, made it a noble failure.

While keeping much of Pullman's tale intact (except for, notably, the final three chapters), the evil force known as the Magisterium was vagued up to the point that it was simply turned into some kind of Big Brother interested in taking away from kids any notion of free will. As menacing as that is, it dumbed down the message of the book enough that you're gonna offend some of your true believers while not winning over any of those who were predisposed to oppose the movie, so where's the winner in that?

Aesthetically, I also have to say the movie just dragged more than a bit from the point that our heroine (the simply superb Dakota Blue Richards) left the college until she ran into the aeronaut Lee Scoresby (played by Sam Elliott, who proves he can bring life to any move he's in.) I know there was a lot of exposition to get through, but it was just awfully talky for a fantasy/adventure movie.

But, of course, it's not all bad. As I said, young Ms. Richards is just perfectly defiant as Lyra, and the opening "battle" among she and her friends just sets the tone perfectly before things fall apart. And the ice bears, voiced by the two Ians (McKellen and McShane), were just friggin cool.

And, if you look at the big box office picture, maybe "The Golden Compass" wasn't such a big failure after all. On about 5,000 screens in 25 overseas markets, the movie took in $55 million, more than double its domestic pull. And it in fact managed to make more in these markets than the four movies that followed it - "Enchanted," "Bee Movie," "Beowulf" and "Hitman" - combined.

I have more than a little suspicion, however, that that won't be enough to convince New Line to greenlight the second installment in what was to be a planned trilogy. A quick visit to the IMDB reveals that, indeed, there is no director selected yet for "The Subtle Knife," though there is a screenplay by Hossein Amini.

I have the sneaking feeling that Bob Shaye and the other folks at New Line, having already pretty much neutered the first installment, now don't have the huevos to go through with a series in which our heroine, if I'm not mistaken, does indeed kill God (now, I haven't read the next two books in the series, so please do inform me if I've somehow got this wrong.) If they indeed back away now, this would have to go down as one of the great movie debacles of all time. Stay tuned ...

Will you laugh hard at "Walk Hard"?

I really want this movie to be good. There hasn't been a quality spoof in a long time, and in the hands of Judd Apatow and director Jake Kasdan this would seem to be our best bet in many years. It's also the first time in the main spotlight for the very deserving John C. Reilly, and the musician biopics it takes aim at are equally deserving targets. I can't shake the suspicion, though, that it's gonna be uneven at best, but hopefully still very funny in stretches. Now, with the first 10 minutes at least, you can decide for yourself thanks to the glory of YouTube. Feel free to let me know what you think, and have a perfectly pleasant Tuesday. Peace out.