Take advantage of a golden opportunity at the Macon Film Guild this weekend

In a world in which screen-to-DVD windows keep getting tighter and tighter, it can be hard for a community group as great as the Macon Film Guild to stay alive, but luckily for anyone like me who lives here, it's actually thriving.

And this month they've scored a real coup with "The Last Station." If you've never come out to see what the group puts together the second Sunday of each month at downtown Macon's Douglass Theatre, this is certainly a golden opportunity to finally do so.

The movie itself, about the last years of Leo Tolstoy, is, from everything I've read, a whole lot more fun than that might sound on its surface. Starring Dame Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, James McAvoy and Paul Giamatti, it's apparently a lively arena of personalities and ideas, and if you turn out for the 2 p.m. showing, you'll see me there, probably up in the balcony.

I was hoping to mention what the next offering will be, but I've managed to lose the bright yellow postcard they send me each month. I do know, however, though that I had to miss it because I had to work, the guild showed Pedro Almodovar's fabulous "Broken Embraces" last month, so it is really on a little winning streak.

Showings of "The Last Station" are at 2, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. this Sunday at the Douglass, with a discussion following the 4:30 event, so if you live in Macon, please turn out for this fun offering.

And that's all I really have to say today. I will, of course, also be going to see "Iron Man 2" this weekend, most likely on Saturday afternoon, so feel free to check back for my thoughts about that, mostly likely on Monday morning, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

Now here's a comic-book movie that should truly kick a**

As a very small part of my paying job, I have to compile the "movie caps," or summaries of those movies that are still surviving in Middle Georgia multiplexes, which brought me to this sad fact yesterday: Matthew Vaughn's "Kick-Ass" has already left Macon theaters.

Now, just to put that in perspective, I see a good deal (probably way too many) of movies, but outside the festival circuit I've seen exactly three very good to great ones this year: "A Prophet" (which damn well should have won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language flick), "That Evening Sun" with Hal Holbrook and Vaughn's sublimely silly "Kick-Ass" (actually, you should probably make that four, because I enjoyed Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" IN 2-D quite a bit too.) Which just makes it thoroughly depressing that "Kick-Ass" is gone in no more than a month.

Just to make it even odder, still vying for viewers' attention (though not mine) is "Death at a Funeral," quite possibly the most thoroughly unnecessary remake of all time (with stiff competition from the upcoming redo of "Let the Right One In.") Hell, even "Furry Vengeance" gets at least one more week.

Which finally brings us to today's rather glorious news: 20th Century Fox has signed a deal with Vaughn to direct "X-Men: First Class," with the mutant prequel already getting a release date of June 3, 2011. Bryan Singer, who had been originally booked to direct the flick and is still a producer, apparently made the case for Vaughn, so bully for him.

Though "Wolverine" was nothing but average, and that was unfortunately a massive improvement on Brett Rather's abortion that was "X-3," I'm still extremely confident that Vaughn can make magic from the origin stories of Professor X, Magneto and all their fellow young cohorts. As I've said here before, with "Kick-Ass" Vaughn created the best comic-book movie I've seen quite in many a year, so this should be nothing but tons of fun.

And when it comes to "Kick-Ass" the comic by Mark Millar, there's actually even better news on that front. Millar is teaming up with fellow funnypeople Jonathan Ross, Frankie Boyle and others to launch CLiNT, a new anthology magazine that I will certainly be subscribing to as soon as I can figure out how, especially since the first issue will featuring nothing less cool than "Kick-Ass Volume 2: Balls to the Wall."

Here's how Millar described his new venture in an interview with Bleedingcool.com:

“I want this to be edgy and irreverent, the kind of thing guys will be passing around lunch-halls and common rooms, and there’s nobody I’d rather have creating new characters for CLiNT than Jonathan and Frankie. They’re both brilliant writers and will surprise a lot of people with this stuff. The last thing you’d expect from Jonathan, for example, is a vampire strip, but he pulls it off amazingly. People are going to love this.”

OK, I'm officially in. Best as I can tell, the first issue of this will be available Sept. 2 in the UK and then will be available later by subscription in the U.S.A.

And now for something completely different ...

Though 2009's "Broken Embraces" wasn't one of Pedro Almodovar's best movies, it was certainly one of his funnest to watch, and the film noir works nearly perfectly as a valentine to moviemaking (well, more specifically, a valentine to making Almodovar movies, but the man's certainly earned the right to brag a bit by now, right?) If you haven't seen it, I recommend it very highly, and you can indeed rent it now.

And today comes word about Almodovar's next movie, which won't feature regular muse Penelope Cruz, but will mark a reunion with Antonio Banderas, who got his start way back when in Almodovar flicks like "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" (man, do I love that movie.)

Their new project is called "La Piel que Habito" (literally translated "The Skin I Live In.") It's based on the novel "Tarantula" by Thierry Jonquet, which I'll now have to read, and is scheduled to shoot this summer in Spain and elsewhere. Ever the enigmatic one, Almodovar really didn't reveal much at all about what it's about when he first spoke of this to the Spanish daily El Pais (for you kids, that means daily newspaper, of course):

"The film will be a terror film, without screams or scares. It's difficult to define and although it comes close to the terror genre -- something that appeals to me that I've never done -- I won't respect any of its rules. It's the harshest film I've ever written and Banderas' character is brutal."

An Almodovar "horror" film? I'm already there. More specifically, it's apparently about a plastic surgeon's revenge on the man who raped his daughter, but if you know any more than that, please do let me know.

OK, all I have after that is two videos via my Facebook friends that are indeed just perfect for a Wednesday because they're guaranteed to make you nothing but smile and laugh (and if not, please do get yourself checked out as soon as possible.) First, courtesy of a head's up from Movie Mom Nell Minow comes the first teaser trailer for a movie called "Easy A." Coming in September, it will be an update on the classic "The Scarlet Letter," and as you'll see below it will star easily one of my favorite comediennes working today, Emma Stone. I won't tell you anything else about the teaser except that the Wall Street Journal's Kara Swisher called it and Stone both rightly "adorkable." Enjoy.



And what could possibly top that? The tagline for this last one, which came to my attention courtesy of Bob, just sums it up perfectly: "Bill Murray reads poetry to construction workers at Poet's House." It's a bit long at six minutes plus, but it really is a joy to watch man of the people Murray cutting up with all the working folk and reading, among other things, a poem by Emily Dickinson. Just the perfect thing to get you and me through even the most dreary of Wednesdays. Peace out.

DVD review: Is "Women in Trouble" worth any of yours?

The first big questions that popped into my head when I heard of the movie "Women in Trouble" were who in the world is Sebastian Gutierrez, and how in the world did he get Carla Gugino, Connie Britton, Adrianne Palicki, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Marley Shelton to all star in his movie?

And, more amazingly, how did he get them to play a pregnant porn star, two call girls and a stewardess about to join the mile high club in an airplane toilet, among other colorful characters? Well, having watched this, I'm still not sure how he managed to pull any of it off, but I can tell you that what he came up with is a little indie comedy that borrows extremely liberally from Pedro Almodovar and Robert Altman.

Fitting the campy style of humor that Gutierrez's movie thrives on, "Women in Trouble" opens with a shot of Carla Gugino in a nun's habit, looking solemn, and it's only as we slowly pan out that we find she is, in fact, a porn star acting out a scene. And at its best, his very dialogue-heavy flick straddles the line between funny and simply tasteless, occasionally finding time to squeeze in some genuine moments of humanity for its very talented, almost all-female cast.

On the seamier side, Gugino plays a porn star who finds out as the movie opens that she is pregnant. Adrianne Palicki, who's best known so far for playing Tyra on "Friday Night Lights," plays one of her co-stars who also dabbles in prostitution, and Emanuelle Chriqui is a fellow hooker who throws Palicki's character work when ever she encounters jobs that requires two women.

Into this mix throw Connie Britton as a very high-strung woman who carries around a big family secret she's keeping from her sister, who's having an affair with the husband of her psychiatrist, and you get the idea that Gutierrez has a taste for drama, and piles it on pretty high throughout.

He attempts to weave the stories of these women together in the style of the late, great Robert Altman, but too often uses the most contrived tricks to accomplish it. It's cringeworthy as Gugino's and Britton's characters come together, yes, as they get trapped in an elevator (though, on the most piggish of levels, they both look great as they strip down to their undies in an attempt to beat the heat.)

And like Pedro Almodovar, Gutierrez does have an ear for writing colorful characters for women, though you still have to wonder how much he actually values them when - many times more than once - his camera stops for several seconds on the ample decolletage of one of his assembled beauties.

That said, his screenplay does mine his often seamy subject matter for some genuine humor, at its best in Palicki's character's tendency to blurt out malapropisms (I won't tell you exactly how it comes up, but be sure to look for for the words "immortal whore" - and try not to laugh out loud when you hear them.) He's just as prone, however, to just plunge right through any semblance of taste, as when the same character delivers a speech about her dog and cunnilingus (I'm not making that up, and I won't tell you any more about that to spoil it either.)

But he does manage to write some genuinely moving moments for his best two stars, Gugino and Britton, who for my money match feminine beauty with exceptional acting skills more than any other two women working today with the exception of perhaps Helen Mirren and Laura Linney. It's in moments like this that you can see just how he managed to lure so many great actresses to take part in this madness and, amazingly, to even talk Gugino into starring in a sequel about the further adventures of her character, Electra Luxx.

As far as DVD extras go, they're truly minimal here, consisting of only a "behind the scenes" feature that is actually only Gugino and Palicki riffing on whether or not they're wearing panties (funny enough in itself), a teaser trailer featuring all the ladies cavorting in a swimming pool (which does at least fit the spirit of this) and "deleted scenes" that are actually just five speeches that various minor characters make to the psychiatrist (though, amusingly, that does include Elizabeth Berkeley, somehow.)

Overall, "Women in Trouble" is the definition of a mixed bag, but clocking in at only 84 minutes or so, it's a genuinely diverting little movie that's well worth a rental if you take your humor with a much larger than usual slice of talented beauties.

P.S.: For anyone who happened to end up here by mistake because the word "porn" appears in this review a few times, my apologies - I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere for that.

My (and only my) best movies of the decade: The 2002 edition

With many movie years, you have to choose between quantity and quality, but that was certainly not the case in 2002.

There were so many good movies that year that it really is a shame to cut it down to just 10, but those were the rules I established. However, in a nod to just how many worthy selections there were, here's the honorable mention first:

Peter Greengrass' "Bloody Sunday," Christopher Nolan's "Insomnia," "Mostly Martha," Nicole Holofcener's "Lovely and Amazing," Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away," "Jack-Ass: The Movie," Curtis Hansen's "8 Mile," Phillip Noyce's "Rabbit Proof Fence," Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" and Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."

And when it comes to "Jack-Ass," yes, really, because that movie just makes me laugh from start to finish, and you really can't ask for more than that sometimes. And it really was a banner year for Noyce, who will make another appearance below. Here goes:

"Gosford Park"
Being Robert Altman's last movie should probably be enough by itself to earn a spot on this list, but "Gosford Park" has a whole lot more going for it than that. Proving he could take his talent for weaving together many storylines to just about anywhere, Altman and screenwriters Bob Balaban and Julian Fellowes turned this into not only a solid mystery but also captured the mannered intricacies of the upstairs/downstairs culture.

"Monsoon Wedding"
Does Mira Nair keep having to make movies about Indian subjects for them to be great? Not necessarily, but it certainly seems to help. Two other of her flicks that almost perfectly capture that state of being both Indian and a citizen of the world are "The Namesake" and "Mississippi Masala," but the titular wedding here, which draws guests and chaos from around the world, is her best work.

"Y Tu Mama Tambien"
The runner-up for best movie of 2002 in my book, and only because this year also contains what is my best movie of the decade (you'll have to keep reading to find out what it is, but a few may know already.) The first Alfonso Cuaron flick I managed to see ("Little Princess" is great too, but I didn't see that until it hit video) is a great Mexican road movie, a charmingly twisted coming-of-age tale and - in its own way - a statement on the corrupt nature of Mexican politics. And, for the ladies, of course, it introduced the world to Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. A sheer delight.

"Nine Queens"
I believe this great Fabian Bielinsky heist movie was actually first released in 2000, but it didn't make it to the US of A until 2002, so here it is. Bielinsky, by the way, is a first-rate director, but sadly died at only age 47 and after only helming two movies, this one and "El Aura," a nifty twist on the traditional film noir. Both are well worth an immediate rental.

"Sunshine State"
This was the last time I really thought John Sayles used his storytelling talent to its full strength, and coincidentally enough, it comes 10 years after what for me is still his best flick, "Passion Fish." It probably helps that I had visited my brother in South Florida and got a feel for the murky world Sayles delves into here, but he really got to the crooked heart of it nearly perfectly. (His last movie, by the way, "Honeydripper," was just a real flaming turd in my book, so here's hoping Mr. Sayles makes a return to top form soon.)

"24-Hour Party People"
Michael Winterbottom makes far too many movies for them all to be great - or even good - but not coincidentally the best two put Steve Coogan front and center, this and "A Cock and Bull Story" (which may very well make an appearance on the 2005 list.) Coogan's flair for blustering ego combined with the improbably true story of the rise and fall of Manchester's Factory Records told with a winking wit make this a real gem.

"Super Troopers"
Is, on any possible scale, Broken Lizard's "Super Troopers" better than the 10 or so movies that only made this year's honorable mention? Probably only mine, but the guys made just about the ultimate "comfort" movie with this just wacky enough look at what really happens in the lives of highway patrolmen. Though "Beerfest" was fairly funny, I don't think they'll ever be as good as they were with this one, but here's hoping "Slammin' Salmon" both gets a wide enough distribution that I get to see it and doesn't disappoint. (Amazingly, it looks like there may well be a "Super Troopers 2" in 2011 .. bring it on!)

"City of God"
OK, I probably shouldn't reveal this only three years into the decade, but this Fernando Meirelles flick is, for me, the best movie of the last 10 years. None better combines simply dynamic storytelling in the saga of two boys growing up in the violent slums of Rio de Janeiro with stunning visuals that will stay burned on your brain, especially in a street party scene that's as electric as it is harrowing. This movie spawned both a Brazilian TV series and a sequel of sorts, both titled "City of Men," which are both worth watching but don't quite capture the unique magic of Meirelles' masterpiece.

"The Quiet American"
Occasionally, remakes can work just right, as is the case with Phillip Noyce's update on the Graham Greene novel about Vietnam. Well, update isn't really the right word, because Noyce keeps it right in the same time and place and brings along Brendan Fraser as the titular yank and Michael Caine as a wizened British journalist to tell the tale of how love, politics and intrigue all collide with more style and certainly more steam than the 1958 original. And Mr. Noyce, a definite favorite around here, may very well make another appearance on the 2006 list for "Catch a Fire."

"Talk to Her"
Even when he goes completely over the top, I almost always find something redeeming in Pedro Almodovar's works, but he's at his best as with "Talk to Her" when he takes things a little more seriously without losing any of his unique view of the world. I suggested this one as a Macon Film Guild selection (though I'm sure they had it on their list already), and was pleasantly surprised to find out no one complained, even when one of the two men at the core of this story finds himself shrinking and exploring his comatose lover's body until, inevitably I suppose, he ends up inside her vagina. Almodovar just has a knack for writing great roles for women, as he appears to have done again this year for Penelope Cruz, so I'll leave you today with what I think is the latest trailer for his "Broken Embraces," which is slowly building buzz and should be a strong awards season dark horse. Enjoy, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

This time, the f***ed with the wrong Mexican"

If you ever wake up thinking the odds are stacked against you, which I do fairly often, I've got a rather amazing TV story to share with you, but first a word or two about the still surprising Baltimore Orioles.

Sure, they're only at .500 (8-8), but apart from a rather disastrous four-game sweep at the hands of the dastardly Boston Red Sox, the Orioles have won all four of their other series this year, by a count of 2-1 in each one. Tonight has Japanese import Koji Uehara facing off against Vicente Padilla, his 9.64 era and the Texas Rangers. Keep hope alive!

And the fact that hope is still alive at all for a ninth season of "Scrubs" is even more incredible. Given how this first season on ABC has unfolded, with almost all the new doctors being instantly forgettable, and Zach Braff already eyeing the exit, I just assumed the end was coming in a few weeks or so.

But, when the show has focused on its core characters, it has often been just as funny and plain silly as ever, and it seems that ABC has taken notice. Though no deal is complete yet, the network is said to be seriously looking at a way to lower the license fee and bring back just about the entire cast (including the weakest link, Braff, for at least a few episodes) for a ninth season next year.

Here's hoping it happens, because I can count the non animated TV half-hours I watch on just more than one hand: "How I Met Your Mother," "Scrubs," "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (the best of them all), "My Name Is Earl," "Parks and Recreation," "The Office" and "30 Rock." Are there any other sitcoms out there that I should be tuning in for?

The news that "Scrubs" may still somehow be on life support is, however, far from the strangest TV news out there this morning. It seems that Pedro Almodovar, one day after it was announced that his new flick, "Broken Embraces," will be in competition at Cannes, is now getting into the U.S. TV game too.

And believe me, I'm not making this up. Fox TV is apparently adapting an hourlong series to be extremely loosely based on Almodovar's first big hit (and still his funniest flick) "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown."

Though Almodovar will be an executive producer and says he will stay involved, I still can't see this being anything but bland assuming it actually comes together. Why? First of all, the plot, as described by pilot author Mimi Schmir, seems to have little to do with the original movie: According to Schmir, it's "a suburban drama about a group of women who have known each other for a long time, perhaps from college, who are in the middle of their lives and looking at the second half of their lives."

OK, I watch plenty of shows intended for women (and yes, even one, in "Gossip Girl," clearly intended for girls), but that just sounds like nothing but boring. The original movie got all its spirit from its rapid-fire dialogue and the screwball humor inspired directly by '50s Hollywood comedies. I suppose there's a chance they can keep all that alive, but count me as a skeptic.

Oh well, that's probably more than enough about that. On to the main event. Robert Rodriguez's Machete character, played by Danny Trejo in the best faux trailer from "Grindhouse," seems to be even more resilient than my Orioles.

Even though "Grindhouse" can't even generously be called anything but a box-office disaster (though still tons of fun in my book, with Tarantino's second half being even better than Rodriguez's first) after taking in only $25 million in the U.S. and costing $67 million to produce, Trejo's blade-wielding Mexican day laborer and former Federale Machete is seemingly somehow about to rise again with his own feature film.

Rodriguez says he is eyeing a June start for the flick, which he will co-direct with longtime editor Ethan Maniquis, to begin shooting in Austin.

And for anyone who has managed to block Machete from their mind by any number of things that would have to be much more important, I've included the trailer from "Grindhouse" at the bottom of this post (and be warned that, if you watch it at work, along with rather spectacular cartoon violence, it does feature some rather bare breasts.)

Rodriguez has several other irons in the fire, but "Machete" is certainly the one that I'm most interested in. And with that, I'm off to the second weekend of the Atlanta Film Festival 365, to hopefully squeeze my way in to both James Toback's "Tyson" and Carlos Cuaron's "Rudo Y Cursi." Enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. 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.

A great movie resource for parents ... and everyone else too

Nell Minow, who has been Yahoo's "Movie Mom" for years now, has now taken the title with her for her own blog/review site, a welcome addition to the wide Web of film criticism.

Now, don't let the title Movie Mom scare you, or the fact that her blog is part of the Beliefnet Christian Web site. Though Nell takes into consideration all the factors that might concern parents with a movie, she also reviews flicks for their genuine entertainment value, and does so with style.

For instance, I happen to know that Nell is a big fan of both "Grindhouse" and "Shoot 'Em Up," hardly two movies you would think of as family fare. And though I'm not sure I can fully agree with her here, she gives "Live Free or Die Hard" a B+ in this week's DVD reviews.

Frankly, whether you agree with the Christian angle or not, Nell's reviews are a good sight better than almost anything else you'll find that takes families into consideration. To read her latest reviews, visit the new Movie Mom site here.

RIP Fernando Fernán Gómez

I have to admit that the name Fernando Fernán Gómez didn't mean anything to me until my co-worker Karen, who despite having the surname Ludwig is rather proud to have Spanish blood flowing through her veins, pointed out to me that he had died.

It turns out, as a quick visit to the IMDB confirmed, that the Peruvian actor appeared in 212 films in his long career, including starring in one of my all-time favorites, "El Espíritu de la Colmena," a k a "Spirit of the Beehive." If you haven't seen this flick about two Spanish girls and their quest to find the Frankenstein monster, do so as soon as possible (I think you can still find it on DVD.) He also starred as the pater familias in "Belle Epoque" and had a big role in Pedro Almodóvar's "Todo sobre mi madre" ("All About My Mother"). Rest in peace, Mr. Gómez.

Can Johnny Depp actually sing?

If I remember correctly he may have already done so in John Waters' "Cry Baby," but that's still a key question surrounding Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street."

Well, the answer, judging from this clip of him in the studio singing is only kind of, but probably good enough to serve the purposes of this flick. Judge for yourself, and have a perfectly pleasant turkey day.