Actually, though I wish it were something more solid (like when exactly we might get to see it again), any news about "Mad Men" in motion is welcome in this little corner of the world, so let's start there.
When we finally do get to see the great show again, which will apparently be some time in march (nards!), Jon Hamm will be directing the season five premiere, following in the footsteps of John Slattery, who directed two episodes from season four. Why? Because he's Jon Hamm, and if he asked to do this, do you really think anyone at "Mad Men" was going to say no?
Still a long time to wait, but at least there is a deal in place now to keep showrunner Matthew Weiner around through a seventh season, when the show is set to end.
And in movie news, one of Michael Mann's great strengths is giving his movies a strong, sometimes suffocating sense of time and place (see "Public Enemies," which I liked a whole lot more than just about anyone I've talked to about it), so he should really have a lot of fun with what Variety says he's about to sign on for.
The director is eyeing "Go Like Hell," which will be based on the book "Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari and their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans" by A.J. Baimes (sounds like what might be next on my reading list, since I'm finishing up Patrick DeWitt's sublimely funny "The Sisters Brothers").
As the book title makes fairly clear, it's about, according to the book's rather minimal official site:
The remarkable story of how Henry Ford II, with the help of a young visionary named Lee Iacocca and a former racing champion turned engineer, Carroll Shelby, concocted a scheme to reinvent the Ford company. They would enter the high-stakes world of European car racing, where an adventurous few threw safety and sanity to the wind. They would design, build, and race a car that could beat Ferrari at his own game at the most prestigious and brutal race in the world, something no American car had ever done.
Sounds like a perfect match for Mann, who hasn't directed a feature film since "Public Enemies," and I love movies about American ingenuity (see "Tucker"), so here's hoping it happens. Stay tuned ...
After that today, I just have a couple of videos, but the first one has Muppets, so bully. There's not much new here at all, but just in case you're planning to skip "The Hangover: Part II," consider me sharing this second teaser for "The Muppets" that both spoofs and will precede it as a public service. Enjoy.
To close today, Zach Galifianakis' "Between Two Ferns" segments for Funny or Die often tend toward to the latter, but he does bring some of the funny in this clip featuring Will Ferrell. And just to bring the "Mad Men" vibe full circle, keep an eye out for Jon Hamm near the end. And with that, I'm off to do some laundry, go swimming, and then probably see "Kung Fu Panda 2" in glorious 2-D. Peace out.
After that rather sublime photo of Sir Ian McKellen from the set of "The Hobbit" just well, because, I like it, we actually start with TV and NBC today because it's that time of year, and they keep picking up shows I really like.
This one isn't all that surprising, since I think "Parenthood" did very well last season and got stronger as the year went on, but it's still good to know that one of my favorite TV dramas is getting a full third season starting next fall. The show, created by "Friday Night Lights" guru Jason Katims, is indeed soapy and sometimes awfully dopey too, but it has a great cast led by Lauren Graham (welcome back!) and Peter Krause, and it's just full of humor, humanity and heart, the perfect mix after a long day of work. And besides, I challenge anyone to point out a more entertaining hour in the past year on network TV than the "Parenthood" finale, which was just a doozy.
So, great news there, but now on to some movie tidbits. If it indeed seems like just about anything can be fodder for a movie idea these days, you're right, but before you judge this too quickly, remember: At least its not somehow "based" on a board game.
This one, in fact, springs from a classified ad in something called "Backwoods Home Magazine" (yes, really). Here's the text of it: "WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke ... You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before."
And even though the ad was unfortunately just a joke (and a pretty great one at that), that hasn't stopped Big Beach and the Duplass brothers from picking up on it, and even hiring some dudes named Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly to, respectively, direct and write this. And I'd leave it at that, except that this is also attracting a pretty first-rate cast.
The flick, to be titled "Safety Not Guaranteed," is about a trio of magazine employees who investigate the ad, and it will star Kristen Bell and Aubrey Plaza, and has somehow just added the rather sublimely funny Jeff Garlin of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," too. Stay tuned ...
In other movie news, Martin Scorsese has agreed to be really, really annoyed by Lars Von Trier for something that will definitely be bizarre, but could be a lot of fun, too. Scorsese has apparently taken up the challenge issued by Von Trier to be tortured by the latter in a remake of his own movie, "The Five Obstructions."
The original, which I haven't seen, had Von Trier challenging his mentor, filmmaker Jørgen Leth, to remake his 1967 picture “The Perfect Human,” five times, with different conditions, or ‘obstructions’ each time (and these are per The Playlist, hence the quotes) — "in Cuba, with no shot lasting more than 12 frames, in ‘the worst place in the world,’ but without showing that place, in any way he chooses (as a punishment), as a cartoon and, in something of a twist, a version already made by Von Trier himself, but with narration from Leth."
Sounds like pretty wicked fun, and though when this was first rumored with Scorsese, the thought was the movie might be "Taxi Driver," nothing has been confirmed yet. What I do know is that, before that, the next movie Scorsese will be making is "Silence," starring Daniel Day Lewis and Benicio Del Toro and set to begin filming early next year.
That is about a group of Jesuit priests who travel to Japan in the 17th century to try and spread the Gospel. Sounds like perfect Scorsese material, and keep an eye out before that for his next movie to hit theaters (unfortunately in 3D), "Hugo Cabret" (shortened from the title of a book I adore, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret"), starring Hit-Girl Chloe Moretz and Asa Butterfield and coming out Nov. 23.
OK, this has gone on longer than I intended already today, but there's one more movie in the works that caught my eye this morning. Director Jay Roach, when he's not making screwball comedies like "Meet the Parents" or that "Dinner for Schmucks" remake, also manages to make pretty good political dramas, as he did for HBO with "Recount" and is now doing for the network again with "Game Change," about the 2008 Obama-McCain race. And in another project, he's combining those two paths for something called "Rivals" that sounds like it was just tailor-made for me.
Set for release in August 2012, it's set to star Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as two politicians jockeying for position in a small congressional district in South Carolina. I'm laughing at that already, so I'm definitely in. And with that, I'm off. Have a great weekend, and definitely go see "Bridesmaids." Peace out.
Though summer doesn't officially begin for at least a few weeks, in movie terms it got off to a faster-than-expected start last week with "Fast Five," and is now set to really explode with the release of the first big superhero flick.
So, here are the 10-plus movies I'm most looking forward to seeing between now and the end of August, with a couple of caveats. First of all, these are only my picks. It won't have every superhero movie coming out (there are four, if you're wondering) or pirates, and though there is an animated sequel, it's not "Cars 2." And second, these are only the movies likely to open where I live, so though I really want to see the British flick "Submarine," you won't find it here today.
And with that, in order of release (which may, of course, change), here goes:
May 6: "Thor"
I'm thinking I'll skip "Captain America" unless it just gets some really big buzz, but this is one "Avengers" lead-in I'm definitely in for. Directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring Chris Hemsworth as the warrior cast out of Asgard and sent down to Earth, I've been hearing that, like the first "Iron Man" flick, this will be one with almost as brain as brawn (and hopefully a lot of fun, too.)
May 13: "Bridesmaids" I know women are funny, and you most likely do, too. So why is it so rare for a group of truly funny chicks to get to star in a movie where they get to really act up? That's a topic for another day, but this time out veryfunnywoman Kristen Wiig, who wrote the script, is the maid of honor planning a rambunctious bachelorette party and more that should just be a hoot to watch.
May 26: "The Hangover Part II" and "Kung Fu Panda 2"
At least there's a week off between "Bridesmaids" and the sequel to the movie that's pretty much its dude equivalent. The first "Hangover" was nothing but funny, so especially when Ken Jeong turns up again as Zach Galifianakis' "plus one," this one should be, too. And as for "Kung Fu Panda 2," I'm thinking it will share an impressive trait with its predecessor: Being an animated movie that's better than the Pixar movie it shares the same year with (Yes, I thought "Kung Fu Panda" was better than "Wall-E," and am certain the sequel will be superior to "Cars 2.")
June 3: "X-Men: First Class"
I doubt director Matthew Vaughn can re-create the genuine comic-book spirit that pervaded "Kick-Ass," and probably won't really try, but as the trailers have gotten better, I'm more and more convinced that this tale of the cold-war origins of Magneto, Professor X and other mutants (though a lot less than in "X-3") should be a real winner.
June 10: "Super 8"
If it's what I'm expecting, than director J.J. Abrams' flick about a group of kids who make an otherworldly discovery should harken back to the kinds of movies that Steven Spielberg made back in the '80s, and that would be just fine with me.
July 8: "Horrible Bosses"
The workplace revenge comedy is a truly tired gambit, but since this comes from "King of Kong" director Seth Gordon and stars Charlie Day of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," I'm hoping this tale of three friends who conspire to murder their bosses will be dark enough to be a summer treat.
July 15: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"
Though "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" (two movies you'll notice didn't make this list) should give it a run for the money, the end of Harry Potter's long saga (in 2D for me) should be the box office champ this summer, and just a much better movie than either of those. Bring it on.
July 24: "Cowboys and Aliens" and "Crazy, Stupid, Love"
With the most "Snakes on a Plane" title of this summer, as long as Jon Favreau's flick indeed delivers plenty of the titular cowboys (Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford among them) battling alien invaders, how can you really go wrong? Also this week, Steve Carell makes his first post-"Office" movie appearance in "Crazy, Stupid, Love" as a dude facing divorce who gets advice on pitching woo from ladies' man Ryan Gosling. The thought of the two of them together already makes me laugh.
Aug. 12: "30 Minutes or Less" and "The Help"
"30 Minutes or Less," Ruben Fleischer's follow-up to the sublime "Zombieland," stars Jesse Eisenberg and Aziz Ansari as two dudes forced to rob a bank. I'm betting on very funny. And in genuine counterprogramming, "The Help," based on Kathyrn Stockett's novel about a Southern woman who leads a group of Mississippi house maids to tell their stories, should finally make a big star out of Emma Stone.
Aug. 26: "Our Idiot Brother"
With Paul Rudd unleashed to be genuinely funny as the titular idiot and Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks and Rashida Jones all tarring as his sisters, I'm hoping this will somehow be as good as the sum of its parts.
So, there you have it. A few more than 10, and I'm still sure I left some out, so please feel free to add any I may have snubbed, and have a perfectly pleasant Tuesday. Peace out.
I suppose the news of the day is Matthew Weiner's inevitable deal with AMC for three more years of "Mad Men," but the most I can really bring myself to say about all that is that should TV ever, even when it's this good, be so complicated?
Here, however, are the details as I know them. With the deal (actually with Lionsgate, I believe), Weiner has agreed to do a fifth and sixth season, and if AMC wants it, a seventh season. I can't imagine they wouldn't, so what that gives us is an effective end for the show after seven seasons. I read somewhere that Weiner planned to end it after five, but things are certainly going strong now, so why not two more?
As for AMC's demands, the show, as it airs on the network, will be indeed two minutes or so shorter to incorporate more ads, but the much more onerous idea of product placement has been shelved. And as for any demand to cut or slim down the roles of characters to cut costs, I'm not sure about that, but Weiner always kind of rotates in supporting players anyway, so I doubt we'll even notice when this finally returns early next year.
OK, enough serious stuff, but there is word this morning about when two other of my favorite shows will be returning. In the past five years or so, there's only been one TV drama I've enjoyed more than "Mad Men," and that's NBC's sublime "Friday Night Lights." That show will be wrapping up its run (and probably already has on DirecTV) on NBC with this final season beginning appropriately enough Friday, April 15, and it's certainly been a great five-year run.
Also returning soon will be David Simon's New Orleans drama "Treme," on Sunday, April 24 to HBO. If you missed season one, you really missed out on a true American original, a show that moves albeit a bit slowly, but at its own rhythmic pace much like the city it portrays, and takes a lot of time for fantastic character development. If you missed it, there's really no reason I can see not to get started with season two anyway if you get HBO.
Not too many details are known about what's coming in season two, but I do know that food writer Anthony Bourdain has joined the writing staff, and that the great David Morse, who played the police chief in season one, will now be a series regular. Here's a bit more of what Simon had to say about what's in store:
"We are following the actual timeline of post-Katrina New Orleans as a means of understanding what happened -- and what didn't happen -- when an American city suffered a near-death experience. In doing so, we're trying to address ourselves to what the American experiment has become and what possibilities remain for us."
Making the role of cops more central can only be an improvement, so I'll definitely be tuning in for this. And after that today, I just have a quartet of clips, two trailers and two music clips that are just goofy fun. First up comes the first full trailer for "The Hangover Part II," which is set to drop May 26. As you'll see from the trailer, and probably already know, this time around Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms end up in Bangkok, and in my estimation at least, it promises to deliver some solid laughs, especially once Ken Jeong of "Community" turns up once again. Decide for yourself.
Next up comes the first trailer for something at least slightly more serious, the Will Ferrell dramedy "Everything Must Go," which is set to open in at least limited markets May 6. I hope Ferrell is enough to get this flick based on a short story by Raymond Carver to eventually play much wider, because I really enjoy Ferrell when he tones it down a bit. Enjoy, and stick around 'til the end for a very funny soccer joke.
OK, on to the music. First up comes the music video for the National's "Think You Can Wait," which doubles as the theme for director Thomas McCarthy's "Win Win," which is in at least a few theaters now. The song itself has a fairly groovy Nick Cave kind of vibe, and the video is a fun collection of bloopers from the movie, but it really just makes me want to see it, and has me contemplating a drive up to Atlanta this Saturday to do just that. Enjoy.
And finally today, where better to end up on a Friday morning than with Zooey Deschanel serenading Winnie the Pooh? If you've ever heard what she's doing with M. Ward as She & Him, you know it's the sweetest kind of California pop, and she carries that sound into the song from the movie featured here, "So Long." And if you've never checked out She & Him, do it already. I guarantee you won't be disappointed. And smile, folks, because it's baseball season, and the Orioles begin tonight against the Rays. Bring it on!
It happens (at least to me) every year. You see a movie coming with a great cast, from directors you know and trust, but then it either gets caught up in the end-of-the-year rush or doesn't have quite enough star power to reach my little corner of the world.
That's what happened with Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's "It's Kind of a Funny Story," which I had been looking forward to for much of 2010 but only managed to catch up with recently on DVD. Like the duo's other two movies, "Half Nelson" and the far superior "Sugar" (one of my favorite baseball movies), it's a flick full of humanity and also small, easygoing charm, and so the kind that can easily slip through the cracks.
As the movie begins, we meet 16-year-old Craig (Keir Gilchrist) on the day when the pressures of his teen life, overblown in his own mind, have driven him to the point where he thinks he's ready to commit suicide. Not exactly the funniest of subjects, right? But once he decides to check himself into a mental ward and, after telling the desk clerk he's considering suicide just gets handed a form to fill out, you can tell that Fleck and Boden, who wrote the script for this from the semiautobiographical tale by author Ned Vizzini, are going to gently walk a tightrope between unbearable solemnity and outright mockery for a middle ground that just worked for me.
When he tries to check in, Craig finds out he's being sent to the adult ward because the teen wing is under construction, and one of the first people he meets there is Bobby, a pleasantly low-key - for once - Zach Galifianakis. It isn't that he's turned off all the bluster that marks his brashest performances, but he instead channels all that mania and keeps it clearly simmering behind the wounded eyes of a man who, as he eventually tells Craig, has tried to commit suicide many times.
And though this is hardly a penetrating look at the true nature of mental illness, Boden and Fleck do stock the mental ward with charmingly damaged characters who give the movie plenty of humor but also lots of humanity along the way, from Craig's roommate Muqtada, who refuses to leave his room for most of the movie, to a hasidic jew who massively overdosed on acid. And of course, this being a teen movie, there has to be a love interest, fulfilled by Emma Roberts as Noelle who, like Craig, at that moment needs a reason to see the good sides of life.
But the real litmus test of how much you're going to enjoy "It's Kind of a Funny Story" is just how much you can stand Craig, an upper middle-class kid who, from the outset, clearly has many fewer real problems than he imagines. Again, however, Fleck and Boden handle this with a humorous and just dark enough touch, as when Craig first tries to explain his problems to Dr. Minerva, played by the always-welcome Viola Davis, and he lists his fear of terrorism and the sour economy as prominently as the parental pressure that's clearly driven him to this point.
The bottom line: This is indeed kind of a funny story, but a very human one too, and if you missed it the first time like me, it's well worth finding on DVD now.
Be warned: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's "The Extra Man" is indeed a "character study," but thankfully it's a genuinely odd and often endearing one.
Based on the Jonathan Ames novel of the same name, it stars Kevin Kline as the titular "Extra Man," a bizarre, sexless gigolo of sorts for rich old ladies, and Paul Dano as his protege. Much like Ames' "Bored to Death" on HBO, it's also an ode to the kind of New York eccentrics that are being buried by the city's continued Disneyfication.
Berman and Pulcini, who wrote and directed the fabulous "American Splendor," about the late Harvey Pekar, are at their best when they shine the light on American oddity, which is certainly the case with "The Extra Man."
Fans of "Bored to Death," of which you can certainly count me as one, should be warned, however: The humor is much less broad than with that NYC stoner romp starring Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis and Ted Danson. That doesn't mean, however, that the laughs aren't here, there just more delicate and sometimes hard to watch.
Ames always writes a lot of himself into one of his characters, and in this case you have to wonder how many of the issues he shares with Dano's Louis Ives. As the movie opens, he's being fired as a professor at Princeton because his boss discovers him trying on a co-worker's bra in the teacher's lounge.
From there, he sets his sights on New York City, and ends up matched up with Kline after answering an ad seeking a roommate who's a "gentleman." From there on out, the movie is mostly about the relationship of that odd couple and their various adventures squiring old women around town (yes, it often really is as crazy as it sounds.)
Having read on the DVD box that this was "Kevin Kline's best performance since "A Fish Called Wanda'," I was bracing for an over-the-top mess, but for the most part he dives into the part of Henry Harrison and delivers a portrait of a genuine New York eccentric. Dano, for his part, slowly learns to give as good as he gets with Henry's odd life advice, and they play off each other very well.
Ames' tale constantly straddles the line between genuine oddity and contrived quirk, and at least a few times dashes right across it. On the good side is Lewis' visit to a "recession spankologist," something that would be right at home on "Bored to Death" and funny enough that I won't tell you any more about it here.
On the down side, however, is the usually reliable John C. Reilly, who plays Harrison's neighbor with a high-pitched squeal that will grate on you almost as much as his overall performance. And, because of course any movie like this needs a potential love interest for our hero, Katie Holmes makes an appearance too, but never for long enough to be too annoying.
Watching "The Extra Man," I was reminded of two directors: Woody Allen (who turned 75 this week - bully) and Wes Anderson. Allen for the extremely strong sense of place that marks the best of his old New York movies ("Manhattan" being my all-time favorite) and Anderson, of course, for the oddity, at its very best and worst.
The bottom line: "The Extra Man" certainly isn't for everyone (it got a measly 41 percent positive at Rotten Tomatoes), but if you want to spend a little time with some genuine characters in a New York City that's rapidly fading away, you could do a whole lot worse than this mostly fun little flick.
And, of course, I always like to wrap things up with a couple of fun clips.
First up comes a clip from Julie Taymor's "The Tempest," which isn't likely to be on anyone's best of 2010, but along with "The Extra Man," it's sure to be among the craziest of the year, and that's always OK in my book. As you'll see below, this stars Dame Helen Mirren and Djimon Honsou, and also somehow Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Chris Cooper and Alan Cumming. Keep an eye out for this in at least some corners of the world Dec. 10, and enjoy the clip.
Next comes the trailer for Steven Soderbergh's tribute to his friend, the late great monologist Spalding Gray, "And Everything Is Going Fine." It pains me that in the many times I've been to New York City, I never got to see Gray live before he dived off the Staten Island Ferry, but hopefully this IFC documentary will be playing somewhere when I return there in early January. Enjoy.
And with that, I'm off on this rare Friday off to go see Danny Boyle's "127 Hours" in Atlanta, and really looking forward to it. Peace out.
I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that with Wes Anderson about to get busy on a new movie, there are plenty of stars ready to sign up for it. And in even better news, unlike the disastrous "Darjeeling Limited," it seems like this one might even have a proper story behind it.
Anderson is expected to start shooting his next film, "Moonrise Kingdom," in the spring, and he's apparently in negotiations with regular partner in crime and funniest man alive Bill Murray, plus Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and even Bruce Willis.
And even though he's again working with co-writer Roman Coppola, who was with him for "Darjeeling Limited" (sorry to keep bringing it up, but I really hated that movie), it indeed sounds like this flick will have something actually going on in it.
In a story set in the late 1960s, two young adults fall in love and run away, and leaders in their New England town go in search of them. Norton will play a scout leader who brings his charges on a search. Willis is in talks to play the town sheriff who’s also looking, and who is having an affair with the missing girl’s mother, the role McDormand is in talks to play. Murray will play the girl’s father, who has his own issues.
Oooohh, drama. Since Anderson has managed to make four movies I have nothing but love for with "Bottle Rocket," "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (and also two real duds, but enough about that), I'll definitely be keeping track of this one, so stay tuned for more on this soon.
A fairly short report today because, after all, I am on vacation (but, of course, watching movies, since I'm at the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival.) The only other real bit of news before a couple of clips today is something that just makes me giddy: The Muppets movie taking shape painfully slowly is finally starting to line up some seriously funny people.
Along with writing the movie, Jason Segel, of course, gets to cast himself as the main human in this operation, and it's already been announced that he'll be joined by Amy Adams, as his girlfriend (rough gig for Segel, eh?), and Chris Cooper as the big bad, an oil man who wants to drill below the Muppets' theater. But now surrounding them is when things are starting to get really good.
Lady Gaga will make an appearance (why not?), and her entourage will be made up of veryfunnyguys Ed Helms, John Krasinski and Eric Overstreet (a recent Emmy winner, and deservedly so, for "Modern Family"). Also in the mix will be Jack Black, Paul Rudd and "Community" uberfunnyman Donald Glover in unspecified roles, Jane Lynch as a prison guard and Danny Trejo as her prisoner (why a prison guard would have a personal prisoner I don't know, but anything can happen with the Muppets!), and Zach Galifianakis as Hobo Joe.
Whew. Is that enough funny for you? The flick, being directed by James Bobin of "Flight of the Conchords," isn't set to come out until two Christmases from now, but you can already count me as thoroughly psyched for this.
OK, that's all the real news I have today, so here are couple of clips to wrap things up. First up comes the first trailer I've seen for "Barney's Version," based on the comic novel by Mordechai Richler and, thankfully, starring Paul Giamatti. The story is about the life of the titular Barney, or at least his version of it, which includes three wives, two continents and any number of possibly true adventures. It's probably much better than I'm making it sound here. Enjoy the trailer and keep an eye out for this in at least some corners of the world Jan. 14.
And I'll leave you today with the trailer for a magical movie I saw last night here in Rehoboth, a 2009 Indian movie titled "Harishchandrachi Factory." Directed by Paresh Mokashi, it's a humorous look at the life of impossible dreamer Dabasaheb Phalke who, in 1913, made "Raja Harishchandra," thus launching India's feature film industry. It really is a movie made for people who love movies, and though I have no idea if it's coming to DVD in the Western world any time soon, definitely see it if you get a chance. Unfortunately, this trailer was the only one I could find that has the English subtitles, but it also has a truly unfortunate voiceover. It still gives you an idea of the spirit of this great movie, so enjoy the clip, and have a great weekend (and if you happen to live in Macon, of course, please go see the Macon Film Guild's presentation of my favorite flick of 2010, "Winter's Bone," Sunday at 2, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Douglass Theatre.) Peace out.
You'll have to forgive me if I have Stieg Larsson and his "Girl" novels just tattooed on my brain at the moment.
You see, since the last Harry Potter novel, I haven't bothered to take on a 700-page novel until now, and Larsson's "The Girl With Who Played With Fire" has drained a lot more out of me than I could have imagined it would, but with the end finally just a tantalizing 15 pages or so away and in sight later today, I can say it's been well worth it, because it's just a first-rate police procedural with the benefit of starring - without exaggeration - one of literature's greatest heroines of all time in the goth hacker extraordinaire Lisbeth Salander.
I don't know how soon I'll have the energy to take on the the final chapter, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," but coincidentally enough (and not at all by design), I've managed to finish up "The Girl Who Played With Fire" just as the Swedish movie made from it hits DVD, and I can assure you it will be on my weekend viewing slate in some form. In fact, I just checked, and it's available from Netflix streaming, so right to my brand new Blu Ray player for Saturday night. Huzzah!
I was surprised to find that the first two Swedish movie installments were helmed by different directors, because if you haven't seen Niels Arden Opley's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," starring the unforgettable Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander, it's a thriller so good that it really stands alone as an example of how to flawlessly transfer a great novel into a great movie thriller. Rent them both this weekend for what I guarantee will be a wicked good viewing time.
The sequel coming this week was directed by someone named Daniel Alfredson, who also stuck around to direct the upcoming third and final chapter "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" (though there are all kinds of rumors swirling about a posthumous Lisbeth Salander coming out - stay tuned for more on that as soon as I hear it.)
And there's news, appropriately enough for Halloween week, about Opley being offered by CBS Films a project that could turn into a super horror movie.
The studio has bought the rights to Jennifer Egan’s 2006 best-seller "The Keep," and is in final negotiations to acquire the adapted screenplay written by "The Skeleton Key" scribe Ehren Kruger.
So, what's it about? Well, according to what I've read, it's "a story within a story about two cousins with a shared secret who reunite to renovate a legendary haunted medieval castle that turns dreams and nightmares into reality."
That could easily turn into high cheese or something truly creepy in all the best ways, and after watching what Opley did with "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," I'm betting on the latter. Definitely stay tuned for more on this as soon as I can find it.
OK, that's really most of what I have time for this morning, but since Zach Galifianakis is now rumored to be one of the humans getting a cameo in Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller and James Bobin's "The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made," it made me think of this OK Go video which is pretty easily the funniest Muppet clip I've encountered in recent years. All I'll say is that it's a staring contest between OK go drummer Dan Konopka and Muppets drummer extraordinaire Animal. Who wins? You'll have to find out yourself, and it's well worth watching. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.
Before I get into any of that today, there's some rather amazing news about Luc Besson out there today, especially since the man very rarely bothers to direct movies these days that ever see their way into American movie theaters.
Even so, I'm sure just about everyone remembers the weird, wild and mostly wonderful "The Fifth Element." Sure, there are better sci-fi movies, but there aren't many that are more fun.
So, it's rather amazingly good news, courtesy of the froggy site Fantasy.fr, that Besson has been quietly plotting a return to that kind of big sci-fi epic. He told Europe 1 he's currently designing the creatures for a flick he would shoot in 2012 or 2013 for release in 2013 or 2014 (a ways out, I know, but since the man rarely deigns to step behind the camera any more, I guess we shouldn't be surprised.) Here's a bit more of what he had to say about it to Europe 1:
"When I did 'The Fifth Element,' I already had the technological tools that were a little outdated. With the advent of digital technology, it is amazing what you can do. The technique has caught the imagination. One can imagine anything, there will always be technicians to follow you in your delusion."
This could, of course, all fizzle out, but it sounds like nothing but cool so far, so stay tuned.
OK, after that today, I'm rarely in the business of telling people to not go see movies, but I'm gonna come fairly close today. I usually like to let people make up their own minds on just about anything, but I had a viewing experience the other day that just left my brain scarred, and unfortunately I'm still thinking about it five days later.
Allow me to explain. Though I still don't own a cell phone (and never will), I decided to update my viewing to at least the late 20th century by buying a flat TV that doesn't weigh 100 pounds and a blu-ray disc player. It's been great discovering this "new" technology (at least to a Luddite like me), and especially enjoying the Netflix watch instantly content streamed onto my TV (just watched the first season of "Veronica Mars" again, and indeed, TV just doesn't get much better than that.)
And last Saturday, I finally decided I should at least rent a blu-ray disc to see what all this picture quality was about. After a quick trip to the Redbox, I was rather happy to be coming home with Michael Winterbottom's "The Killer Inside Me," which I had wanted to see for a long time now.
Well, I never thought I would ever be a prude when it comes to movie violence, and I still really don't think I am, but be warned if you haven't seen it: This movie is thoroughly disgusting, and I couldn't bring myself to watch enough of it to find out if it eventually has any redeeming value.
I don't want to spoil too much of this in case anyone out there hasn't seen this and still wants to, but I'll tell you exactly how far I made it into Winterbottom's movie starring Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson. About 15 minutes in or so, there's a scene in which Affleck's character, a small-town sheriff of some sort, slowly and methodically beats to death a prostitute he's taken up with, played by Alba.
Now, I suppose there's some merit in the realism of this shot, but it nearly made me vomit, and frankly just kind of left me dazed. I made it through a few more minutes of the movie, which indeed looked amazing, before I had to just turn it off, the first time in as long as I can remember that I started a movie and simply couldn't finish it (hence the walked out of ... sort of, since I didn't actually walk out of my own house.)
I normally love Winterbottom's movies, in particular "24-Hour Party People" and "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story," and one of the things I respect about him as a filmmaker is that he dives into all kinds of genres, so I'll definitely come back to him, but this was one time that I simply couldn't take it.
Please, if you've seen this movie, do let me know if it gets any better, because I really can't imagine any scenario in which I'll be able to bring myself to try and watch it again.
OK, after that rather rambling diatribe, all I have left today is a quartet or so of videos, and they're all pretty good. First up comes, finally, a promo for Conan O'Brien's new TBS show, premiering (I believe) Nov. 8, that fits his comedic skills. Those "Missing You" promos we're OK, but this one, complete with a car filled with "illegal fireworks from New Hampshire" and unpopped popcorn, is much, much better. Enjoy, and certainly tune in for whatever Conan's got cooked up when he finally returns to late night.
I definitely plan to go see "Red" this weekend, because from what I've read and seen so far it seems to be nothing but a big ball of goofy fun. There's plenty of viral marketing out there for the flick starring Bruce Willis, Dame Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Mary Louse Parker and others, but surely none of it as funny as this latest installment of Zach Galifianakis' "Between Two Ferns" bits, this time with Willis. As usual, the interview flames out rather spectacularly, but not before Galifianakis manages to get in some choice zingers such as "Were you ever afraid 'The Whole Ten Yards' might be too good"? Enjoy the clip.
Is it me, or does just about every new show outside of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" and FX's "Terriers" just kind of suck this year? The only other one I've tuned in for so far is "Raising Hope" on Fox, with the recommendation of a co-worker, and that's kind of amusing, but otherwise, not a single show has managed to capture my attention. Am I missing anything good? I really doubt it, but please let me know if so. Thankfully, with one of my favorite shows from last year returning early (in February), relief is in sight. The first season of FX's "Justified," starring "Deadwood" lawman Timothy Oliphant, got off to a slow start, but eventually developed into a nearly first-rate drama. The finale was fantastic, so I can't wait to see where it picks up for take two. Enjoy the trailer for the show's return.
And finally today, I can't imagine I'll ever get to see this movie in any kind of theater, but I love Serge Gainsbourg, so I'll definitely watch it on my spiffy new blu-ray player someday. The rather long clip below is the only trailer I know of for the documentary about the late French pop star by Pascal Forneri. The title, "Gainsbourg, l'homme qui aimait les femmes" ("Gainsbourg, the man who loved women"), is certainly appropriate for the man who somehow romanced Brigitte Bardot, Jane Birkin and many other beautiful women, and thankfully, also fathered the great Charlotte Gainsbourg, a definite reel fanatic fave. Enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.
Yep, that's what happens when I get four days off in a row - my head not only gets filled with crazy ideas, but I also act on them.
Yesterday's was that, having just made it through all of Spike Lee's sensational "If God is Willin' and Da Creek Don't Rise," his second opus about New Orleans and its people, and also having thoroughly enjoyed the first season of David Simon's "Treme," perhaps I should go to the city myself.
And so, if you happen to be there in the third week of November, you just might run into me (staying at something called the "Rathbone Mansion" - I've never stayed in a mansion before, but at $60 a night, I wasn't about to turn that down.)
And in New Orleans news that might just matter to someone besides, well, me, the track listing is out for the collection (you'll see soon why I didn't say "CD") "Treme: Music from the HBO Series, Season 1," and the music itself will be coming very soon too (and will certainly find its way into my digital downloads.)
If you watched the slow-moving but engrossing show (and if you didn't, why the heck not?), you know the music played not just a key role in it, but really set the pace and feel for the whole operation. Musicians from up-and-comer Trombone Shorty (whose "Backatown" I'm listening to right now - excellent) to legends like Allen Toussaint and Irma Thomas all popped up at various spots (and watching Irma Thomas play poker is a surreally entertaining sight.)
Thankfully, they also all make appearances in the music collection for season 1, which will be available for digital download Sept. 28 - with a CD to come at some undisclosed future date. Man, I gotta say, for someone who still doesn't and probably never will own a cell phone, the modes of delivery for entertainment continue to surprise and often confound me (stick around for more on that after the track listing.) Here are the 19 songs you'll find when this comes out:
TREME: MUSIC FROM THE HBO ORIGINAL SERIES, SEASON 1
1. "Treme Song (Main Title Version") - John Boutté 2. "Feel Like Funkin' It Up (Live Street Mix)" - Rebirth Brass Band 3. "I Hope You're Comin' Back to New Orleans" - The New Orleans Jazz Vipers 4. "Skokiaan" - Kermit Ruffins & The Barbecue Swingers 5. "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" - Trombone Shorty & James Andrews 6. "Drinka Little Poison (4 U Die)" - Soul Rebels Brass Band & John Mooney 7. "We Made It Through That Water" - Free Agents Brass Band 8. "Shame Shame Shame" - Steve Zahn & Friends 9. "My Indian Red" - Dr. John 10. "At the Foot of Canal Street" - John Boutté, Paul Sanchez, Glen David Andrews & New Birth Brass Band 11. "Buona Sera" - Louis Prima 12. "New Orleans Blues" - Tom McDermott & Lucia Micarelli 13. "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You" - Michiel Huisman, Lucia Micarelli & Wendell Pierce 14. "Indian Red (Wild Man Memorial)" - Mardi Gras Indians 15. "Indian Red" - Donald Harrison 16. "Time Is On My Side" - Irma Thomas & Allen Toussaint 17. "This City" - Steve Earle 18. "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" - Treme Brass Band 19. "My Darlin' New Orleans" - Leigh "Li'l Queenie" Harris
All I have after that today is a cache of clips, but the first one comes with a bit of news. Though "Freakanomics," the documentary based on the best-selling book by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, isn't coming to at least a few theaters until Oct. 1, it's apparently available for at least rental now on Video On Demand, iTunes, Amazon On Demand, PlayStation Network and Xbox Marketplace. I say apparently because, although it was listed for a $3.99 rental at iTunes, it only said "this item is being modified" and wouldn't work when I tried it, and there's no way in the world I'm going to pay a whopping $9.99 for it at Amazon On Demand. As for the movie itself, with six portions directed by Alex Gibney ("Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," "Casino Jack and the United States of Money"), Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing ("Jesus Camp"), Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me"), Eugene Jarecki ("Why We Fight") and Seth Gordon ("The King of Kong"), I'm certainly going to watch it as soon as I figure out exactly how to find it, perhaps as soon as tonight. Here's the latest TV spot. Enjoy.
OK, if I really ever did have a wall of resistance to Matt Reeves' upcoming "Let Me In," I have to admit now that it's just about completely washed away. It certainly should still be there, since it's a thoroughly unnecessary English-language remake of "Let the Right One In," my single favorite movie of 2008 and easily the best horror movie I've seen in many years, but with each clip they release, it's getting lower and lower. The cast - Chloe Moretz, Kodi Smit-Mcphee and the simply fantastic Richard Jenkins - is perfect, and if you've seen "Cloverfield," you know Reeves is a solid director. And from this first actual footage from the movie, you can see that they at least got right that Jenkins' character, though charged with finding fresh blood for the "young" vampire Eli (renamed Abby in the remake and played by Moretz), he's pretty spectacularly bad at it. Keep an eye out for the movie, also due out in actual theaters Oct. 1, if, like me, you've decided to give in and see it, and enjoy the clip.
In case anyone's wondering, I am very well aware that I'm too old to be watching a bunch of high school-age kids (or probably slightly older) lip-synch their way through incredibly cheesy musical numbers each week on Fox, but I'm also aware that "Glee" is a wickedly funny and very addictive show, so I guess you can call me a "Gleek." The show itself thankfully comes back soon (Sept. 21), and Fox has released this promo clip in which the kids put their spin on Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind," and though that will and should make all hip-hop fans cringe, I like it. Enjoy.
And finally today, in something just perfect for a Friday morning, "Zach Galifianakis' brother" interviews a game Sean Penn in the latest Between the Ferns segment. It's not all funny, but when it is, it really works, especially the thought of Galifianakis, Penn and Jack Nicholson hitting the town to eat at Long John Silver's. Enjoy the clip and have a great weekend, which for me will include at least two movies, "The American" and "Machete." Peace out.
Where better to start today than with a rumor about easily one of my favorite movies of 2010 so far, especially when it's such a juicy one.
While I can't aesthetically call "Kick-Ass" a "great" movie, which certainly means something different to every person who chooses to bestow it on a flick, I can say that it's by a pretty wide margin the funnest movie I've seen this year, and that goes a long way in my little corner of the world.
Now, I understand that the often very bloody antics of a 13-year-old superhero of sorts named Hit-Girl (the simply excellent Chloe Moretz) isn't for everyone, but I still couldn't understand how so many people skipped this during it's spring theatrical run (it only made $48 million in its domestic box office run, and about the same amount overseas.)
DVD sales and rentals, however, have been considerably better, which leads us to the claim that got me so geeked up this morning: Mark Millar, writer of the Kick-Ass funny book, has said on the UK's Radio 5 that a "Kick-Ass 2" has been greenlit and will go ahead based on his follow-up comic (courtesy of AICN for the head's up.)
Now, from all I've read, Millar says a lot of things, but here's hoping this bit at least turns out to be true, because "Kick-Ass 2"? To that, I can only say bring it on!
And after that bit of possible fantasy, here's some much more serious news about two very interesting flicks, one about to start and one that's already finished.
Anyone who's been here before knows that there are very few genres of movies that I like more than the American political movie, the kind that gets at the meat of campaigning in what we still like to think of as a civil society.
George Clooney, who stars in "The American," which hits theaters today (and I'll be seeing tomorrow), will next move back into the director's chair for "Farragut North," an adaptation of Beau Willimon's play, and he's apparently lining up a fantastic cast.
According to Vulture, "the story is set in Des Moines, Iowa, just weeks before the state's Democratic caucuses officially commence; it follows the exploits of a twenty-something presidential campaign spinmeister/wunderkind named Stephen Myers, and the dirty pool he plays to get his candidate the nomination against a rival senator."
As for the cast, Clooney has apparently reached out to Chris Pine, a.k.a. the new Captain Kirk, to re-create the lead role he played in a L.A. stage production of the play last fall. Already set are Philip Seymour Hoffman as Myers' boss on the campaign trail and, even better, Paul Giamatti as the campaign manager of a rival candidate. Offers are apparently also out to Evan Rachel Wood to play a teen campaign staffer and Marisa Tomei to play a probing journalist.
Shooting is set to begin in February, so I'd guess you can put this on the list of movies I'll be amped to see about this time or a little later next year.
And as for movies coming out a lot sooner in at least some corner of the world, can anyone remember the last time John Sayles directed a movie? It was "Honeydripper" in 2007, and though I almost completely hated that flick, the man has made many, many more that I love, so any news of a new Sayles flick is welcome around here (if I had to pick two of his movies I like the best, they would be "Passion Fish" and "Lone Star".)
The director heads to the Toronto International Film Festival this year with a new movie, "Amigo," a fictionalized account of the Philippines-American War at the turn of the 20th century, based on his unpublished, 1,000 page novel on the same subject, "Some Time in the Sun."
The film stars Joel Torre, Garret Dillahunt, Sayles regular Chris Cooper, DJ Qualls, Rio Locsin, Ronnie Lazaro and Bembol Roco, and according to The Playlist, here's what it's about:
The film revolves around the occupation by a squad of U.S. soldiers of a small, rural village. Headed by a respected elder, whom the Yankees refer to as “Amigo,” the villagers are forced to deal with this foreign presence as rules are set, curfews introduced and small attempts at democracy initiated. But the most significant tension in the film lies in the village’s relationship with a rebel group leading the resistance to the occupation. Amigo’s brother is the rebel leader, and his son runs off to join them, so he constantly finds himself torn between balancing what is right for the village and what this means to his family.
Juicy stuff that, and when he's on his game, Sayles is just an epicly good storyteller, so keep an eye out for this one hopefully soon. In the meantime, here's the trailer. Enjoy.
OK, after that today, all I have is a couple of clips, courtesy of MTV, from flicks I'm really looking forward to this fall. Admittedly, they're not the most exciting stuff, but I still think the movies they're culled from will be well worth watching.
First up comes "It's Kind of a Funny Story," from directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, which comes out Oct. 5 (I believe) and which you can list as the single movie I'm most looking forward to for this fall. It stars Keir Gilchrist as a teen who checks himself into a mental hospital only to find himself housed in the adult ward, where he meets Zach Galifianakis and, I'd have to presume, a host of other colorful characters. Enjoy this short clip from the flick.
And finally today, though I haven't read the book by Kazuo Ishiguro, I'm really looking forward to Mark Romanek's "Never Let Me Go," coming to at least some American cities Sept. 15, because it just looks thoroughly creepy in all the best ways. The flick, starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield is, as best as I can tell, about students at an English boarding school who are part of some kind of truly odd social experiment. If I knew more than that I'm still not sure I would reveal it, because I think people, including me, should always be surprised by movies. Anyways, enjoy this short clip featuring Reel Fanatic fave Mulligan and Knightley, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.
Since it's still hot as, well, August outside, what better time than now to look ahead to a time when the weather is cooler and the movies are reliably better, fall.
And just to clarify, on my movie calendar, fall starts in September and ends in November, no matter what the calender says. That said, here are 10 movies I'm definitely psyched to see this fall.
9/1: "The American": George Clooney stars as a hitman who's given one final, inevitably complicated, assignment to complete in Italy in this sure-to-be-cool thriller from director Anton Corbijn, who made the Ian Curtis biopic "Control."
9/3: "Machete": Whether or not Robert Rodriguez's revenge pic starring Danny Trejo (developed from the fake trailer of the same name that appeared in between the two halves of "Grindhouse") is any good, with a cast that also somehow includes Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Don Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Seagal and even Lindsay Lohan, it should be anything but boring. Enjoy the latest trailer.
9:15: Never Let Me Go: Here's one case where I'm definitely glad I haven't read the book first, because Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, which has been made into a movie starring Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield, is about students at a boarding school with a mysterious secret, and I don't want to already know what that is going in.
9/17: Easy A: I'm surely too old for teenie adaptations of classic works, but this take on Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" just looks extremely clever, and star Emma Stone is a natural comedienne. Enjoy the trailer below.
9/17: "The Town": Ben Affleck's directing followup to "Gone Baby Gone" features a stellar cast - including Jeremy Ritter, Reel Fanatic fave Rebecca Hall and Don Draper - in a Chuck Hogan novel about bank robbers in Boston and the FBI man who's out to get them.
9/24: "It's Kind of a Funny Story": Co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who made last year's seriously satisfying baseball/immigration drama "Sugar," return this time with the story of a teenager who checks himself into a mental institution and ends up getting housed in the adult area, where he meets Zach Galifianakis and all kinds of other colorful characters. The one movie I'm most looking forward to seeing this fall. Enjoy the trailer below.
10/1: "Social Network": The creation of Facebook may not exactly sound like a riveting story of American ingenuity, but I'm betting that in the hands of director David Fincher and with a script from "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin, this flick starring Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake will be a real winner.
10/1: "Freakanomics": If too many cooks don't spoil the soup, this documentary based on the best-selling book about the often bizarre rules of causality from six directors - Heidi Ewing, Alex Gibney, Seth Gordon, Rachel Grady, Eugene Jarecki and Morgan Spurlock - should be a surprise hit this fall.
11/5: "Fair Game": Spy games are always best when they're based on a true story, so even if it's clearly old news by now, you can count me in for director Doug Liman's take on the story of outed CIA agent Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts), with her husband being played by Sean Penn.
11/5: "127 Hours": Director Danny Boyle kind of snuck up on Oscar voters to take the top prize with "Slumdog Millionaire," and I think he just might do it again with the story of mountain climber Aron Ralston, played by James Franco, who survived the titular 127 hours trapped under a boulder in a Utah canyon.
So there you have it. Please feel free to let me know of any I've snubbed (and remember that there will be some great ones in December, but that's not on this list) or any you're really amped to see this fall, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.
Many of these things may have indeed happened while I was on vacation with mi hermano in New York and Philly, but they're all fascinating to me, so if you want to, please feel free to read on.
Easily the best news, and fresh I think, is that HBO has set the return dates for two of my favorite TV comedies, and is in fact packaging them back to back this September. "Bored to Death" and "Eastbound & Down" will indeed premiere as a block beginning at 10 p.m. Sept. 26, and I can only say bring it on.
If you've never seen "Bored to Death," and I'm sure there's many more than a few of you who haven't, I really can't recommend many TV comedies higher. The show from novelist Jonathan Ames (if you haven't read his "Wake Up, Sir!", do so right away) is about a struggling writer (Jason Schwartzman) who decides to list himself as a private eye on Craig's List. As he goes on various misadventures in New York City, he's often joined by co-star Zach Galifianakis and, even better, Ted Danson, who steals every minute he's in as a crazed magazine editor.
"Eastbound & Down," from the Southern-fried comedy shop of Jody Hill and friends, is a more bitter pill to swallow, but in its own way almost as funny. At the end of season one, Danny McBride's Kenny Powers had burned all his bridges in his pathetic attempt to return to the big leagues as a pitcher, and if I'm not mistaken, the new season will at least in part have him hurling in Mexico. That should be a hoot, so if you've never seen this little odd show, give it a chance.
In another bit of TV news, though I'm now thoroughly convinced there will never be an "Arrested Development" movie, two of its funniest actors will be reuniting on creator Mitch Hurwitz's new show, "Running Wilde," starting Sept. 20 on Fox.)
In the show, Gob Bluth plays a rich callow dude (sound familiar?) who falls in love with a crusading environmentalist played by Keri Russell. And now comes word that in a casting change, the extremely funny David Cross will play a radical environmentalist who competes for her affections for at least seven episodes. Nothing but funny there (or at least here's hoping, because Hurwitz's last show, "Sit Down, Shut Up," was just a flaming turd.)
And finally, both because this is nominally supposed to be about movies and because I love Sam Raimi at his best, he's attached to direct something that could be all kinds of fun (and I'm not talking about that "Oz" prequel, which even with Robert Downey Jr. as the wiz himself should just be terminated with extreme prejudice.)
After that, I suppose, Raimi has set his sights on adapting the graphic novel "Earp: Saints for Sinners," from a script by the novel's author, Matt Cirulnick. As the title implies, this would indeed be about the Western hero Wyatt Earp, but transport him into a future in which he takes on outlaws in a ravaged society where the only boomtown left is Las Vegas. Now, having sat through "Spider-Man 3" I know Raimi can fall as much as anyone, but this just sounds like fun to me.
OK, from here on out it's all about clips, the first two of which come directly from Roger Ebert's newsletter, which really is a must-read if you love movies (and at $4 a year, it's a real steal too.)
First up comes the first proof that this fall and winter are going to be all about James Franco, and as a devoted "Freaks and Geeks" fan, that's just fine by me. Later, in December (I think), he'll star in Danny Boyle's next flick, "127 Hours," as mountain climber Aron Ralston, who became trapped while climbing in Utah and had to go to desperate measures to survive. You can count that as one of the very few flicks I'm most looking forward to for the rest of the year, but before that, on Sept. 24 if you live in one of America's bigger cities, you'll be able to see him as the poet Allen Ginsberg in "Howl." Here, courtesy of the Ebert crew, is the first trailer I know of. Enjoy.
I thoroughly enjoyed Ben Affleck's directing debut with "Gone Baby Gone," so you can certainly count me as psyched for his sophomore effort, "The Town," based on the novel "Prince of Thieves" by Chuck Hogan and set to come out Sept. 10. The rather stellar cast includes Gossip Girl Blake Lively, Jeremy Renner, Reel Fanatic fave Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm and Chris Cooper in a Boston flick about a bank robber and his contacts with the FBI, amorous, contentious and otherwise (sounds more than a little like "Out of Sight," which is fine with me.) Enjoy the first trailer I know of.
Next up comes the first American trailer for Woody Allen's "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger," which, even with the awful narration that also was the only blemish on his sublime "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," looks like it should be another winner. The cast includes, Josh Brolin, Naomi Watts, Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas and the simply stunning Freida Pinto, so we at least know there will be a lot of pretty people, hopefully doing very funny work when this comes out (and hopefully everywhere) Sept. 22. Enjoy the trailer.
And where better to finish up today than with more silliness from the Muppets? We'll have to wait until Christmas 2011 for the new Muppet movie, "The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made," being cooked up by Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller and James Bobin. In the meantime, thankfully, Jim Henson's creations keep popping up in new YouTube creations like this latest clip of the Swedish chef cooking up some popcorn shrimp, with predictably disastrous results. Enjoy the clip, and have perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.
Actually, before we get into any of that, I saw an update on a contender for the title of movie I'm most looking forward to for the rest of this year, and it's one I had almost forgotten about.
If you haven't seen Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's minor league baseball/immigration drama "Sugar," there really are very few rentals I can recommend higher. It was easily one of my favorite movies of 2009, so it's certainly only good news that they're coming back this fall, especially when they've got such a good cast in tow.
Their next movie, set to be released Sept. 24 by Focus Features, will be called "It's Kind of a Funny Story," adapted from the Ned Vizzini novel of the same name. It's about a teen (Keir Gilchrist) who checks himself into a mental institution only to find himself stuck in the adult unit, where he encounters a bunch of colorful characters.
The supporting cast somehow includes Zach Galifianakis, Emma Roberts, Lorelai Gilmore, Viola Davis and Aasif Mandvi of "The Daily Show," and it was described in Entertainment Weekly by producer Kevin Mischer as being like a "teen version of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' but the tone is more similar to 'The Breakfast Club,' it's funny." OK, I'm in.
But before I got distracted by all of that. this was supposed to be all about movie trilogies, spurred by a comment from one of my fellow cubicle slaves, reporter Phillip Ramati: "So, is 'Toy Story' now the best movie trilogy ever?"
Having thought about it for a couple of days, I'd have to say yes, and with no hesitation. Think about it. The first "Toy Story" was as groundbreaking as it was simply entertaining, the second one was just miles better in terms of story and humor, and the third installment was the best of all, just a fun ride from the start to a finish that's making grownass people around the world cry (yes, me too.)
For that consistency, I'd have to say that yes, it certainly is the best movie trilogy ever made. Below are the eight others that were in contention in my mind, but before that a bit of a digression about the third installment in a trilogy that, while it will almost certainly never make anyone's best of list of any kind, certainly brings the funny.
Kal Penn has quit the White House to reteam with John Cho for the third "Harold & Kumar" flick, "A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas," coming as the perfect Christmas day gift next year. The story finds Harold as a suburban dad who's awakened from his new world by the return of stoner buddy Kumar. We've already learned that, thankfully, Neil Patrick Harris will somehow be revived and veryfunnyguy Patton Oswalt will be involved in this somehow too. And now comes word that Thomas Lennon of the late "Reno 911" (and, rather amazingly, the co-writer of the "Night at the Museum" movies too) has joined the cast as Harold's neighbor.
That's a whole lot of funny for one movie, so here's hoping the duo goes out on a very high note (sorry, I couldn't resist.)
And here, without any further digression, are the eight movie trilogies that, in my mind, could even enter the same conversation with the "Toy Story" saga. As usual, please feel free to add any at the end that you think I've snubbed.
"Back to the Future": For sheer fun, there probably isn't a trilogy that delivers more than Robert Zemeckis' flicks starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. 'Nuff said.
"Evil Dead": I've sung the virtues of Sam Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell" here, well, probably way too many times, but the reason it's so good is it was a return to the form Raimi was in when he made these priceless zombie flicks.
"Goal!":I may well be the only person in the world who holds these movies in such high esteem, but the the soccer series about Mexican futboler Santiago Munez and his journey from L.A. to Newcastle United to Real Madrid and then, of course, to the 2006 World Cup (hey, this is a fantasy, after all), really is just about my favorite sports underdog tale.
"The Godfather": Though the first two movies in Francis Ford Coppola's epic saga get regular and unconditional love, I'd like to take a second to clear up a misconception about the third installment: It's really not a bad movie at all. Not nearly as good as the first two chapters, but a solid ending to the story, especially when you compare it to the simply awful third chapters of, for example, "Spider-Man" and "X-Men."
"Lord of the Rings": I have no idea what's going on with "The Hobbit," which may or may not somehow going to be directed by "LOTR" helmer Peter Jackson, but my favorite moment in the whole Rings trilogy shows just why a "Hobbit" movie would be so amazing. Of the entire nine hours or so, the best stretch for me is still the first 20 minutes or so of the first movie, which take place with the hobbits in the Shire. I'm probably the only person in the world that thinks the rest of Jackson's flicks fail to reach that high point, but there it is.
"Major League": Really? Yes, really. And rather amazingly, writer/director David S. Ward, who's responsible for the first two installments of this baseball comedy epic, says he has a script ready for a fourth chapter, and has even had at least primary talks with Wild Thing Charlie Sheen about it. How could you make another "Major League" perfect? Make it about a winning season for my beloved Baltimore Orioles, because at this point, nothing would be funnier than that.
"Star Wars": Just in case anyone needs any clarification (which I rather seriously doubt), I'm talking here of course about what I believe, thanks to George Lucas, are somehow now called chapters IV-VI. But the abortions that were I-III have been wiped from my mind, so these are really the only three "Star Wars" flicks, and even with the Ewoks at the end, they're all three great.
"Blue," "White" and "Red": Nothing like saving the artsiest for last. I actually Netflixed and watched all three chapters of Krysztof Kieslowski's sublime trilogy over a recent weekend (yes, I live a wild life), and I think the second chapter, "White" with Julie Delpy, is my favorite, though they're all sensational. Though it appears last on this list somehow, this is the movie trilogy I'd put right behind "Toy Story" in terms of overall appeal.
And there you have it. Please feel free to add any you think I've snubbed, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Actually, I'm gonna leave you with easily the funniest picture I saw this morning, which really needs no explanation from me. Peace out.
When I was very young, my father brought home a little movie called "Spinal Tap," and I have never been the same since. Along with being a movie junkie and a devoted fan of the hapless Baltimore Orioles, I have recently returned to the town I grew up in, Salisbury, MD., to work for The Daily Times newspaper.
