A good movie this summer? Yes, finally, "Get Him to the Greek"

Actually, before I get into any of that, here's a real what the f#$% moment about another potentially great movie we Yanks will never be able to see, or at least not in any kind of movie theater.

I've been wondering for some time when we would be able to see "Cemetery Junction," the '70s period comedy written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (you know, the "The Office" guys). Well, it seems we now have an answer: Aug. 17, but only on DVD.

How in the world could a working-man's comedy from this duo, about insurance salesmen in England in the '70s, not get even a small theater release? I suppose the rather phenomenal box office failures of "The Invention of Lying" and "Ghost Town" had something to do with it (though the latter is a seriously smart and funny romantic comedy, so rent it already.)

Anyways, enough about that disaster. At least we know when we'll be able to see it in some form. Before we get to a couple of videos, here in the next few days it's about two surprisingly good movies I did manage to see last weekend, "Get Him to the Greek" and "Splice." And they're not just good in comparison to the fact that the rest of this summer has just sucked pretty hard, but standalone, actually good.

Let's start today with "Get Him to the Greek," which really comes down to one question: Can you stand Russell Brand? Jackie K. Cooper, who writes up movies for the newspaper I toil for, can't, and gave the move a three. Rather harsh, but certainly understandable. I'd give it a 7 or even 7.5 (on a scale of 10) for being a fast-paced, almost entirely raunchy and just about right summer comedy.

But it all comes down to Brand and to a somewhat lesser extent Jonah Hill, because unlike Judd Apatow's star-laden but seriously confused "Funny People," which really had no idea what it wanted to be, writer/director Nicholas Stoller (with, according to the credits, "characters created by Jason Segel) makes "Get Him to the Greek" a buddy comedy in the traditional sense, with a few celebrities making cameos (Kristen Bell makes a brief but hilarious return as Sarah Marshall) but never overwhelming or distracting from the story at its core.

And I'm sure anyone reading this by now knows already that that story is about Hill's mission, as a record company intern, to get debauched British rocker Aldous Snow (Brand) to L.A.'s Greek Theater for a show. And it indeed often comes down to the two of them pushing the limits of taste and through them again and again, which would get old a lot quicker than its one hour and 45 minutes or so if they weren't such a natural fit together.

There's a moment near the end that just captures their chemistry perfectly. After their American adventure reaches its nadir in a Las Vegas meltdown featuring Snow's father (Colm Meaney, very funny as usual) and broken up by Hill's boss (P. Diddy, not nearly as funny as hyped to be, but OK). Look for the expressions on their faces, one of sheer joy and the other of utter terror, on their faces as they're running out of the hotel, for me the movie's signature moment (and it's the top of this review.)

In the end, what makes this the best "Camp Apatow" - or whatever you want to call it - movie since "Superbad" (and almost as good as that movie, and if you've been here before you know that's high praise) is it's simple moral, or more accurately the almost complete lack of one. Through his journey (and I hope I'm not spoiling too much here, because you really should go see this), all Aldous really learns is that he really shouldn't be too much of a dick. Really nothing more redeeming than that, and that's exactly where this should have ended up.

OK, you get the idea by now that I really liked this, but I did have some quibbles, and it has almost entirely to do with how the movie treats - or more accurately abuses - women (except for Rose Byrne, who is very funny as Jackie Q, Snow's pop diva ex-girlfriend whose songs delight in the art of single entendre.) After "Freaks and Geeks," Apatow and friends made another one-season show that was in its way almost as good, "Undeclared" (if you've never heard of that, just trust me and rent it.) At its center were Jay Baruchel and Carla Gallo, who has been famous since mostly as the female foil for the crudest of "jokes" in the movies Apatow has produced since.

You may remember her from "Superbad" as the party dancer who, it being a certain time of the month, leaves her mark on Jonah Hill. OK, that was funny. In "Get Him to the Greek," however, you can certainly call her a sport, but she's also the butt of a joke that goes horribly wrong in the aforementioned Las Vegas scene. To tell you anymore would spoil it, but let's just say I don't cringe very often at rude humor, but this was just gross and not at all funny.

And poor Elisabeth Moss really just gets treated even worse. As Hill's earnest live-in girlfriend who is also a very hard-working doctor, she's not just a one-dimensional killjoy, but in the movie's most lethargic and awkward stretch, makes for its worst scene by far when she berates Hill for his rock 'n' roll exploits, and then proposes an encounter that's as ludicrous as it is poorly delivered.

Though women have had fun in Apatow-produced movies before (Emma Stone was great in "Superbad," and Charlyne Yi was a hoot in "Knocked Up"), all too often - as here - they're simply around to rain on the parade. But perhaps I'm just thinking too much about what, after all, is designed to be a thoroughly raunchy and fun summer ride, and is, exactly because boys will still be boys, and thankfully with "Get Him to the Greek," very funny ones at that.

OK, I really have to go work now, but I'll leave you with the funniest clip I could find this morning. The "punch line" doesn't come until the very end, and be warned: Before that you get Mike White and Justin Long acting like a very gay (as supposed to partially gay, I suppose) couple, so if that kind of thing offends you, please don't watch it. In a couple of minutes, however, it makes a very salient point about California's Prop 8, and does it in a way that made me, at least, laugh out loud. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

My (and only my) best movies of the decade: The 2003 edition

Compared with the year that preceded it (and please feel free to look back at the first three installments of this series), 2003 was indeed a down year for movies, but that certainly didn't mean it still didn't have some real winners.

It was, in fact, a particularly strong year for documentaries. Two made the final cut you'll find below, and two just missed out: Jeffrey Blitz's "Spellbound" and Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe's "Lost in La Mancha." Blitz, who also made one of my favorite movies of 2007 with the autobiographical and thoroughly charming "Rocket Science," is getting back in the documentary game next year with a movie about the lottery business, so keep your eyes out for it.

And, before we get to the main course, the other honorable mention movies for 2003 are: "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," "Chicago," "Swimming Pool," "Lost in Translation," "Pieces of April" and "The Station Agent."

OK, here goes, and as usual, please feel free to add any you think I might have wrongfully overlooked.

"Man on the Train"
I'll never understand why the French actor/singer Johnny Hallyday never became a big international star, because he's certainly got the charisma for it (although I suppose he's probably a bit too old now.) The best movie I've seen him in was this Patrice Leconte gem in which he plays a gangster who crosses paths with a retired school teacher played by the great Jean Rochefort, and then their lives start to merge. See it if you never have, and I guarantee you'll like it.

"Capturing the Friedmans"
A truly disturbing documentary, but filmmaker Andrew Jarecki was as fair as he could possibly be (many would say too fair) with the titular father and then son, who are accused and then convicted of truly heinous sexual acts involving children. As Jarecki delves into the case, interviewing the accusers as well as the family members themselves at length, the one fact that becomes clear is that "facts" and "truth" can indeed be elusive things.

"Dirty Pretty Things"
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou make an extremely unlikely but engaging pairing in this taut thriller from director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Steven Knight. It deals deftly with the complexities of immigration as it paints a perfectly seedy portrait of London's underbelly, and it and the comedy "The Snapper" (which certainly would have made this list somewhere if it hadn't come out way back in 1993) are my favorite Frears flicks.

"Bend It Like Beckham"
I suppose this is the "yes, really" entry on this list, but there really wasn't a more infectiously fun movie in 2003 than this one from director Gurinder Chadha. Besides, I just like movies about soccer ("The Damned United" will almost certainly make this year's list), and when you throw in a still fairly well-fed Keira Knightley and the real star, Parminder Nagra (who went on to have long run on "ER"), this makes for one I go back to once a year or so and still really enjoy.

"American Splendor"
By a fairly wide margin, this is my favorite movie of 2003, and still the only movie I've seen from directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (I really can't see myself watching "The Nanny Diaries" any time soon.) Harvey Pekar is probably the most unlikely pop culture figure ever, and Paul Giamatti just captures all his quirks perfectly. Fiction and reality blend seamlessly as we find out how Harvey's life as a VA file clerk was transformed by a meeting with R. Crumb that led him to create the titular cult comic book series and then by his endearing relationship with a Delaware comic book store owner, played by Hope Davis. And Judah Friedlander is just a hoot as his oddball buddy Toby.

"Fog of War"
In its own way, this Errol Morris documentary was even more creepy than "Capturing the Friedmans," mostly due to the candidness and stunning lack of remorse of its subject, former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. A similar approach was taken with one of my favorite films of this year, James Toback's "Tyson" (which is out on DVD now.) You'll feel extremely frustrated as you see McNamara's evident genius laid out but then see how it still left him with either a blindness or simply a lack of conscience as to what was really going on in Vietnam.

"School of Rock"
Another "yes, really" entry I suppose, but this flick from Richard Linklater and screenwriter (and very unlikely reality TV star) Mike White was the funniest movie of 2003 in my book, and really, what more can you ask for? Jack Black was far from the grating presence he often is now, and is instead just impish enough as the teacher who teaches his young band of followers to rock out. Just a great "comfort" movie.

"Shattered Glass"
It's really a shame that Billy Ray doesn't direct movies more often, because though he's certainly better known as a screenwriter, the two flicks he's helmed - this one and "Breach" - are real winners. What they share is a claustrophobic feel that perfectly fits this story about disgraced "New Republic" "journalist" Stephen Glass. And though it's a thoroughly depressing case for anyone in my profession, Peter Sarsgaard is particularly good as "New Republic" editor Charles Lane, as is Hayden Christensen (again, yes, really) as the titular shyster.

"The Triplets of Belleville"
Can an animated movie with no discernible dialogue (and not named "Wall-E") really be considered one of the best movies of the last 10 years? I'd certainly say yes in this case, because writer/director Sylvain Chomet's story about a Tour de France champion (named, of course, Champion) who is kidnapped by the French mafia and the grandmother who comes to his rescue is as equally abstract as the animation itself, which renders its characters as oddly shaped and sometimes indeed grotesque. It's a whole lot more charming than I'm making it sound here, believe me.

"Big Fish"
Though he's made some other great ones - and some real duds too - this has stood up through the years as my favorite Tim Burton movie. It's based on the equally good novel by Daniel Wallace, a Southerner with a genuine gift for storytelling, and it's mostly about exactly that - a son who has to sort through the various stories (and perhaps lies) his dying father has told throughout his life. In Burton's hands, and with a dynamite cast that included Ewan McGregor, Billy Crudup, Albert Finney, Jessice Lange, Helena Bonham Carter (of course) and even a young Marion Cotillard, this is a fantastic tribute to the power of the imagination.

And there you have it. Please feel free to add any you may wish to, and to check back Tuesday for a look at 2004. Peace out.

TV tidbits and a glorious glimpse of "The Damned United"

Does anyone else remember the fairly great little documentary "Hands on a Hard Body"? It was a contest doco about a bunch of folks who compete to see who can stand the longest with one hand on a pickup truck, with the winner getting the truck.

For a strange little flick I don't even think you can get on DVD, it's had a surprisingly high number of attempts to re-create it. Robert Altman (and no, I'm not making that up) even had his sights on making a fictionalized version of it when he died, but that wouldn't have been nearly as crazy as this latest reinvisioning (is that even a word)?

It seems that Doug Wright, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, and lyricist Amanda Green have scripted a musical based on the story, which will be staged at the La Jolla Playhouse in California. And no, even if I concentrated really hard, I don't think I could make up anything quite that crazy.

Except for that, it's mostly about TV here today. I suppose I should change the blog's name on days like this, but since it's my space, I write about just about anything that catches my eye.

It starts today with what could only be called excellent news for fans of "Freaks and Geeks" (and if you're not one, I just have to assume you've never seen it.) It seems that Mike White, who served as a "Freaks and Geeks" producer and also wrote probably my favorite episode, "The Little Things," before going on to pen "School of Rock" and other movies, is now returning to TV for HBO with Laura Dern in tow.

The HBO project will star Dern as a woman who troubles those around her when she undergoes a spiritual awakening. And, I apologize for this in advance, but I keep trying to get rid of HBO, but "every time I think I'm out, they pull me back in" with intriguing TV.

OK, so much for the good news. This next bit just makes me vomit in my own mouth, and not just a little bit either (and I must say, orange juice and kashi just taste a whole lot better going down.)

It seems that, unable to come up with any more ideas for its shows that aren't about fat people, NBC is now going to piss all over the great "Prime Suspect" with what might just be the most unnecessary and downright insulting remake of all time.

Without, of course, Dame Helen Mirren or even series creator Lynda La Plante in tow, it seems that "Without a Trace" creator Hank Steinberg has the hubris to take this on. Thankfully, so far at least, it's just a planned two-hour presentation rather than a series, so maybe this just will go away extremely quickly and will be forgotten even faster.

But enough of that bile. In much better cop TV news, it seems that Fox has picked up 13 episodes of a new show from "Burn/Notice" creator Matt Nix.

Though the premise - an ambitious, by-the-book cop is saddled with a drunken, wild-card partner - sounds awfully familiar, from Nix I know it will at least be a fun mix of action and humor, and that's probably enough to get me to tune in when this hits the airwaves.

OK, for the finish, I suppose I should at least make this a bit about movies, especially when it's a glimpse of what is - next to only Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are" - the movie I'm almost most looking forward to for the rest of this year.

Based on easily one of my favorite books by David Peace, "The Damned United" tells the rather disastrous tale of Brian Clough's 42-or-so days as coach of Leeds United, a team he despised even as he took the job. With a script from Peter Morgan and starring Michael Sheen, I really don't see how this can be bad, and you can see from the trailer below that Sheen has at least captured the manic nature of Clough that drives the book. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Thursday. Peace out.

Three - or four - of the weirdest things you'll hear today, I guarantee

Well, actually, the first isn't terribly weird, but it certainly is (with some reservations, of course) good to hear that the first big-screen installment of Tintin, to be called "Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn," is moving forward with huge names attached.

Paramount Pictures and Sony on Monday announced the start of principal production on the 3D motion capture animation film. Even better is that Billy Elliott himself, Jamie Bell, will be Tintin, and he'll be chased down by Daniel Craig as the evil Red Rackham.

For anyone unfamiliar with Tintin, he was the main character - a reporter, huzzah! - in Hergé's series of 24 comics. I have a couple of them on my shelf, and they're my favorite way to see if I can still navigate my way through anything in French.

Some other details from Monday's release (new and old) included that Steven Spielberg is directing the first installment in this planned trilogy, with Peter Jackson set for the second and a director-yet-to-be-named for the third. The movie, rather remarkably, is being written by veryfunnyman Edgar Wright, "Doctor Who" scribe Steven Moffatt and some dude named Joe Cornish.

And if Edgar Wright's on board, that means Nick Frost and Simon Pegg are too, to play the bumbling detectives Thompson and Thomson. They'll be joined by Andy Serkis, Toby Jones, Mackenzie Crook and Gad Elmaleh.

But enough about a movie that's not set to come out until 2011. As promised, here are the three weirdest things I encountered this morning, two of which fall squarely in the category of "a man's gotta eat," and the third of which just makes me ill.

First up, and I missed this because I didn't bother to tune in to any but the last 10 minutes of the Screen Actors Guild Awards show, much less anything from the red carpet.

Somewhere in that three hours or so, Golden Globe winner Mickey Rourke (who lost out that night to Sean Penn, which is how the Oscars will probably break down too) revealed that he has agreed to follow up "The Wrestler" by actually becoming one at Wrestlemania 25, in a showdown with former WWE champion Chris Jehricho.

While I've never been to a live Wrestlemania event, at some point in the '80s I did score what is still my favorite baby-sitting gig, getting a free ticket to watch one year's extravaganza on closed-circuit TV as long as I agreed to take my two young neighbors with me. I have no idea what the card was, but I do know Hulk Hogan was there, and that I had a blast.

But could it possibly be a wise move for Mr. Rourke to jump into the squared circle? Well, I can't see him getting any serious movie work out of the deal, but I can't imagine he much cares either. I'd have to assume he's 1)having a lot of fun and 2) getting paid more than I make in an entire year, so why not?

Next up, and as an avowed enemy of any reality TV, I must say much sadder news, the great Mike White will be appearing on the next installment of "The Amazing Race."

Remember Mike White? Before deciding to run around the world for our "entertainment," he was (and surely still is) a very funny writer and director, responsible for penning "School of Rock" and "Nacho Libre" (which, yes, I do like quite a bit) and directing "Year of the Dog." He's also written a screenplay, "Them," about the fact that giant ants are somehow our real rulers, that will hopefully someday be directed by the aforementioned Edgar Wright.

Well before that, of course, he wrote three episodes of the simply perfect "Freaks and Geeks" and even appeared on one episode as Kim Kelly's water-headed brother, Chip. I had been hoping he would return to TV again after his short-lived Fox sitcom "Cracking Up," but I certainly wasn't expecting it to be like this.

For CBS' reality show, he'll be racing with his pop, Mel White, described as a writer, filmmaker, professor, pastor and gay-rights activist.

The Whites will be seen racing against a deaf guy and his mom, a pair of dwarf sibling stuntmen, a pair of sibling Harvard Law grads, a pair of hot redheads, a pair of blonde flight attendants and a pair of twentysomethings from The Bronx.

Oh well. I guess it could be worse. Here's hoping this is just a fun diversion with dad rather than any kind of permanent career move into TV's alternate reality.

And finally, saving the worst for last - and, really, I can't believe I'm typing this - Hilary Duff is set to play Bonnie Parker in a new take on "Bonnie and Clyde."

Just stop for a second and try to take that in, and then I'll continue ...

OK, here goes ... writer/director Tonya S. Holly says she was inspired to create this sure-to-be abomination - which she says is a "new adaptation," of course, rather than a "remake" of the 1967 film, which finds a home on the list of my top 10 films whenever I bother to compile them - after she found newspaper clippings about the gangster duo in an abandoned house on her family's property.

The big question is, however, how do you get from there to casting Hilary Duff in the role made famous by Faye Dunaway (and some joker I've never heard of named Kevin Zegers as Clyde Barrow)? I used to have a co-worker, Dan Maley, who said he was OK with his kids being infatuated with Ms. Duff since she didn't swear, take her clothes off or do anything else terribly harmful to younguns. But does that mean she can act? (For full disclosure, I've seen her in exactly one thing, a single episode of "Joan of Arcadia," so I guess I really can't be the judge of that.)

I do know that if Bonnie Parker heard this, she'd shoot young Ms. Duff right in the face, but since I'm slightly less prone to extreme violence, I guess I'll just have to sigh and start getting ready for work. Peace out.

This just in: School will rock again!

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

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

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

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

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

A Bush-style frat boy brawl?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First Look at "The Dark Knight"

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

Woody Allen''s new muse: The man in the mirror?

Is Woody Allen finally getting in touch with reality? That really would be a monumental accomplishment, and I'm not sure he's there yet, but I suppose making movies that don't center on women about a third of his age does make for some kind of late-in-life progress.

And not only is Woody no longer focusing squarely on young starlets, but he may now have even found a kindred spirit to work with. Larry David of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," whose rather warped view of the world should fit just fine with Allen's, has signed on for Woody's next flick, set to start shooting this Spring.

There will, of course, be at least one rather young lady on the scene, this time being Evan Rachel Wood, late of "Across the Universe." And after an extended European vacation, which most recently produced the upcoming "Vicky Christina Barcelona" (wtf?) with Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz, Woody's finally coming home. For the first time since 2004 (I think) he'll be making a movie in NYC.

Welcome home, Woody, and though any plot details for this are currently under tight wraps I'll definitely be keeping my eyes on it to see what these very cranky old men can come up with.

Michael Cera will be a "Youth in Revolt"

The last time I posted anything about Michael Cera's next flick and said it was going to based on one of my favorite novels, a very loyal reader of this blog called C.D. Payne's book garbage, so perhaps a bit of clarification is needed on my part.

The work, clearly aimed at people much younger but equally as immature as me, is the definition of an acquired taste. I will, however, firmly state at least this much: It's the best book I've ever read about a teenager constantly concerned with his own erections who manages to burn down a large swath of Berkeley, Calif.

On that level at least, "Youth in Revolt," which Mr. Payne has turned into something of a cottage industry (with at least five sequels), is a satisfying bit of absurdia, and it presents a role that I think the very funny Mr. Cera will be very funny in, even if he's quickly growing too old to play the lead character, Nick Twisp, who in the book at least is 14 years old (which I would think they'd have to change a bit.)

Now, however, they've at least managed to pick a director before Mr. Cera gets any older. Miguel Arteta, director of "The Good Girl," "Star Maps," "Chuck and Buck" and lots of TV, will helm this project if it ever actually gets made (he's even got an episode of "Freaks and Geeks," "Chokin' and Tokin'," on his resume, so a hearty huzzah!) I know Mike White's "Chuck and Buck" put a lot of people off, but it's just a perfectly odd little movie that I love, and its skewed sense of black humor should serve Mr. Arteta well in this new endeavor. Now, get started already!

A view of Dr. Parnassus' "Imaginarium"

Well, half a view, anyways. Quick Stop Entertainment, which has been following the saga of Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" with vigor, has today published this rather odd half photo of what the Imaginarium will look like, assuming the movie ever gets finished.

The complete photo, apparently, will be available soon at the official site, which tried to go live earlier this week but crashed under its own weight. AICN says the folks will try again this weekend with a bigger server, so stay tuned. Enjoy the half pic, and have an entirely pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Is Jared Hess still a funny guy?

Although I haven't much at all liked anything Jon Heder has done since "Napoleon Dynamite" (except for maybe his voice work in "Monster House"), I think I'll always have time for creator Jared Hess.

I know he lost more than a few people with the super-silly "Nacho Libre," which is really a litmus test of just how much Jack Black you can stand, but I laughed my way through just about all of that one (even at those hairy little midget wrestlers, as wrong as that was.)

And now Mr. Hess is back with a story that, if not a little autobiographical, at least seems to be perfectly tailored to his natural geek sensibility. Sam Rockwell, Michael Angarano and Jemaine Clement (I can't say I've ever heard of the last two dudes) are set to star in "Gentlemen Broncos," which is about a high school outcast (natch!) who attends a fantasy writers' convention and gets his story ripped off by a legendary novelist (I'm kinda laughing at that already.)

Angarano plays the teen, while Clement is the author named Ronald Chevalier. Rockwell will play the fictional story's title character who appears in book-come-to-life sequences under two guises: one in the teen's story and one in the author's story.

Though he's doing it rather quietly, it's hard not to be impressed with what Hess and co-conspirator (and very funnyman) Mike White are doing here. Their comedies will never be as racy (or probably as funny) as the stuff coming from Camp Apatow, but I'm glad there's room in the world for directors who can make clean (Hess is a Mormon, in case anyone didn't know) but still solidly entertaining flicks without preaching to us about the filth that too often makes up the rest of our entertainment slate. 'Nuff said.


Can't the body get cold first?

I read the New York Times for many reasons, but it's never better than in its obituaries of complicated people, and the recent one for chessman extraordinaire Bobby Fischer was one of the best in many years.

As most everyone already knows, and as wrong as it is to speak ill of the dead, Fischer was both a genius and too often a right proper prick. Turning his back on the United States after his big victory over Boris Spassky in the World Championship in 1972, Fischer went into hiding and emerged from time to time to unleash increasingly virulent tirades about Jews (none of which I'd ever bother to reprint here.)

Sounds like a natural choice for the hero of a biopic right? Even so, Universal and Working Title have signed Kevin MacDonald of "Last King of Scotland" fame to direct "Bobby Fischer Goes to War," which will focus on Fischer's showdown with Spassky and hopefully a lot more. The flick is scripted by Shawn Slovo, son of the ANC activist and writer of the extremely underrated "Catch a Fire" (please watch this South African flick on DVD if it's somehow passed you by thus far.)

All this will have to come after MacDonald completes filming "State of Play" with Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck and Helen Mirren (hearty huzzah!), but once they finally get started, I certainly don't think you could do much better for a Fischer than Mark Ruffalo. Any other suggestions?

Sci-Fi seeks "Sanctuary"

Mostly because I'm a techno-phobe who clings to fading gadgets with ferocity (I still, for example, don't have a cell phone, and don't see any particular need for one), I have yet to watch one single TV program on the Web (unless you count the very funny stuff being made by Michael Cera and Clark Duke here.)

Which surely means I've missed out on some cool stuff. "Sanctuary," which is about to be ripped from the Web and brought to us old-fashioned folks via our TV boxes by the Sci Fi Channel, certainly fits that bill.

The show, which will be the first television series to use live-action actors against virtual sets in the style of "300" and "Sin City," hails from the creators of "Stargate SG-1" and is about an enigmatic doctor on a quest to track down, aid and protect strange creatures that walk the Earth (I often think I'm one of those, but I'll have to assume they mean something a bit more, well, extraterrestrial.)

Sci Fi has ordered a full 13-story arc, and it sounds like a lot of fun to me. And now, if you'll excuse me, I have to read through, spell-check and perhaps add photos to this before Blogger goes down in about T-12 minutes. Peace out.