Gabe's Site

Dalton Trumbo was one of Hollywood’s most promising, exciting voices in screenwriting.  He was erudite and funny, but he knew a serious, fascinating topic when he saw one.  He was also politically rebellious and a firebrand in matters of debate, stubborn to a fault with the truth, or his truth, at stake.  And then, he was blacklisted.  So goes the superficial elements of “Trumbo”, a doc based on his life that doesn’t sweat the small stuff on the way to granting Mr. Trumbo sainted status.  Based on a play by son Christopher, who apparently has never heard the word “hagiography”, “Trumbo” is knee-jerk liberal in all the horrific ways- you’ll gain no new insight into the prodigious talent of the screenwriter, nor will you get a clear picture of the personality behind the words, the blustery braggart that comes across in this film as the cheery blowhard who fought the system and won, even though they took away what amounts to, by my estimation, a few days here and there from his desired profession.  I had only a cursory knowledge of the writer before the movie, but after “Trumbo”, I didn’t learn shit.

We get slices, portions, segments of Trumbo’s life, interspersed with generous accounts from those that knew him well, but nothing ever approaching trenchant insight.  It’s all presented hurriedly to allow time for the movie’s many selling points, segments of writings from Trumbo recited by top Hollywood names.  Most all of these are self-serving acting exercises, with Michael Douglas reminding us he can carry an acting tune, and Donald Sutherland flattering in all the blind ways.  Joan Allen and David Straithairn deliver interesting mimicry of Trumbo’s writing, while Nathan Lane treats his portion, a pro-masturbation screed, as Philip Roth doing vaudeville.  Josh Lucas stops by to bat his eyelashes, Paul Giamatti provides faint smirks, but the best segments here are provided by the fiery Brian Dennehy, who proves to all that he might be one of the most underused actors in Hollywood, completely owning Trumbo’s words, doing what all great actors should do in making the author’s words his own, not giving a damn about tribute or legacy or any such shit.

It’s a similar preaching-to-the-choir aesthetic that was employed in the facile, obnoxious “This Film Is Not Yet Rated”.  The Hollywood Ten, a group of filmmakers including Trumbo who ended up testifying in front of the House Of Un-American Activities Committee, are known here as noble martyrs who’s cause is never fully explained, just as the filmmakers in “Rated” never really explain exactly what they are attempting to do in subverting audience expectations and challenging accepted content.  Whereas the filmmakers stood defiant in the face of controversy and feigned ignorance when banned and censored, so too the Hollywood Ten come across, as far as clips selected, as rebels fighting a system proudly, only to be completely blindsided when it fights back with claws.

If you’d like to know more about the prickly Trumbo’s allegiance to Communism, you won’t find any answers here.  He might as well have been booted from filmmaking because he was addicted to knitting.  By not making explicit Trumbo’s communist ties and coyly playing it close to the vest, the film draws parallels between Trumbo and other unjustly maligned Hollywood figures, equating communism, a choice, with being born black or Jewish.  Worse still, communism becomes shorthand for “intellectualism”, and the insular nature of the doc doesn’t allow for a lot of wiggle room here.  This doc exists squarely in Hollywood, so much so that Trumbo’s story completely ignores whatever else is going on during this period in American history, a me-first bullshit attitude that doesn’t even pretend to give lip service to those less fortunate to Trumbo.  It’s even worse when you learn what happens to other members of the Hollywood Ten, none of which encounter the success Trumbo did post-blacklisting.  With right wing morons constantly taking aim at Hollywood’s disinterest with the “heartland”, stereotypical docs like this don’t help matters.

It might be a product of lowered expectations, a matter of liberal Hollywood throwing up their hands and saying, “Dammit, we’ll never connect with the heartland!”  Which is so pathetically hopeless it would be damaging to the everyday psyche if it wasn’t the attitude pedaled by the entirely of major Hollywood studios.  Still, there the occasional bright light, and this year, the brightest might be emerging from Pixar.  With “Wall-E”, Pixar has fired another salvo against the mediocre, a film that, not unlike last year’s “Ratatouille”, is actually humanist In that it inspires us to all be a little better.  One cannot do this, in the Bush II World, without a little piss and vinegar, which is why “Wall-E” is generating a lot of surprisingly negative buzz from some right wingers on the radio and blogosphere, but let’s cut the diplomacy- most of these people are sycophantic establishment hawks who can’t see the forest from the trees and can’t register the concept of free expression, the very essence of what humanity is.  To say “Wall-E” is not for them is to also say they just don’t deserve great movies.

“Wall-E” begins with humanity’s post-mortem, and it’s as chilling as any imagery we’ve seen in onscreen futureworlds yet, as giant piles of garbage begin to resemble skyscrapers, suggesting that at the close of our time on Earth, we’ve been unable to distinguish our own facile, superficial achievements with our a lack of self-worth, before shortcutting our ways off the planet.  A portion of this world is manned by Wall-E, a probably obsolete garbage collecting machine who, having developed a reasonably active artificial intelligence during seven hundred years of solitude, has developed a routine of collecting, harvesting, discarding and, most importantly, yearning.

This portion of the film, lasting close to a half hour, is mostly silent, a story told with images and only a bit of music, austere pleasures in appreciating the animation and skill dedicated to making Wall-E already come across as the most fully-realized character of the summer, and instantly its most tragic.  To say I was in tears during this entire portion of the film is to boil Pixar’s technical mastery down to mere heartstring-tugging- director Andrew Stanton and his Pixar cohorts have done much more.  They have softened the blow extraordinarily, using the world’s most adorable CGI creation to obscure the damage we’ve done to our Earth, the only buildings left standing old supermarkets and institutions owned by mega-conglomerate Buy’N’Large.  It’s a common message, of course, as we learn that the company, with subtle ties to the world’s remaining political leaders, might have been the catalyst to the humans abandoning the Earth, but storytelling remains the primary drive, even as the images used- a ghostly set of shopping carts, soot-covered ATM’s- say more than a thousand words of dialogue ever could. 

Damning still are the nonstop digital projections of Buy’N’Large’s CEO, played by Fred Willard as a nervous, detached, aw-shucks leader who proposes that, with continuing disasters making Earth inhospitable, people should not stop consuming.  It’s a clear shot across the bow against the President’s response in the wake of terrorism to urge the blind among us to keep shopping, burying our eyes in savings and not seeing the puppeteers controlling the world.  Smart that Pixar’s creators constantly feign innocence when people ask about the political content of their films, because god forbid the bumpkins who need the messages of something like “Wall-E” find out their favorite asshole commentator has declared a rhetorical jihad against Pixar and say, “Let’s go see that apolitical panda that fights kung-fu”.

Thankfully, Pixar has prevented mass children’s suicide because things eventually perk up, with an interstellar visitor who Wall-E immediately cottons to.  A sleek, sexy new robot model arrives, ready to collect information on the abandoned planet, and its love at first heartbeep.  While Wall-E tries to endear himself to this tough cookie, she is at first resistant to this antiquated model and his methods before she uncovers evidence of life on Earth, alerting the Axiom, a spaceship where humanity has made its home.  From this point on, Pixar can’t help but adhere to a few children’s film conventions, as a few somewhat excessive chase scenes, highlighting the unfortunately slack pacing abilities of director Andrew Stanton, especially in comparison to “Ratatouille”’s Brad Bird.  The action is often samey, and as they continue in frequency, with Wall-E becoming less involved, they become generally less involved themselves, and we end up a bit too deep in a sea of periphery robots.

Our introductions to the humans, initially seen as pudgy caricatures, sting the most, and give the film its most controversial element.  Fairly used to interstellar travel and an entirely automated life, humans have forgotten Earth, especially the pleasures that lie within, and are now grossly obese corporate slaves who wear single-colored bodysuits and glide through lines in hover-couches, tapping out their interests in an all-pleasing hologram computer image projected in front of them.  Thanks to a lack of gravity, but also a lack of interest in activity, their arms and legs are more cartoony than the robot star of this adventure, as they listlessly float from one room to another, participating in simulations of physical activity.  It’s not delicate, and it honestly divided my loyalties.

Am I viewing these characters as complete jokes because intent is to tickle our funnybones?  Or is it my own disapproval of the lazy and the shiftless, my own social critique that damns this portrayal as a negative one?  Once these characters are introduced, hurriedly and distractedly pushing buttons, completely oblivious to the world around them, my initial feeling was contempt.  Sadly, as the b-story follows the ship’s captain as he takes control of the ship from the devious head robot, this didn’t change.  “Wall-E”’s hopes are that the human race, well on its way to fulfilling a destiny of self-serving,  irresponsible behavior, will eventually right its course and fight against the urge to make their lives an automated one.  It’s a belief that I don’t think comes across as much as their (merited) contempt for the shallow and intellectually meek, especially when one of the film’s punchlines (and the most meanspirited/least effective) involves a sea of chubblies rolling out of their hovercouches and over each other as the ship tips over.  I’m with “Wall-E” when they are casting stones- I’m not when they are relaying their own basic humanism towards the lowest common denominator.  The question remains- is this perceived lack of conviction Andrew Stanton’s storytelling weakness, or is it my own personal prejudices?  In a film of sublime beauty, it’s the kind of ambitious misstep that will require further re-evaluation in future years.  And isn’t the best thing to be said about a film is that you’ll be re-watching consistently over the next few years?

Another film that might require copious re-watching in the next few years is “Hellboy 2: The Golden Army”, one of the summer’s great pleasures so far, and a film that has already become ensconced in the pantheon of Truly Great Comic Book Movies- no, it doesn’t have much company.  Sadly, I was seated very close to the screen, a place where a lot of details fly by, so I missed out on one of the film’s biggest treats, a visit to a Troll Market underneath the Brooklyn Bridge that features colorful beasties, ghouls and goblins on the periphery of every shot, creating a broad canvas for director Guillermo Del Toro to work his ersatz magic.  Even if I were in the back row, though, I’d surely miss out on the creatures from the mind of Del Toro and “Hellboy” creator Mike Mignola as they zipped past, in the ideal sort of homage- that which tops the original utterly and completely.  One hopes George Lucas is reclining in his alcove, watching a digital copy of “Hellboy II” and trying to think of new ways he can digitally alter the Cantina scene to make Del Toro look like a phony.

The first “Hellboy” followed typical genre mashup conventions, enjoyably mixing character-based humor with gothic monsters at equal volume, motoring along at the CHUG-chugga-chugga-chug-CHUG rhythm of big glossy blockbusters.  This second film, at a new studio and with a bigger budget and more relaxed, less eager-to-please feel, still manages to honor the rhythm and beats of the first one, as we learn how Hellboy and Liz’s relationship is suffering, all the while the BPRD is outed to the press with predictable fanfare while the new addition to the team is naturally ruffling feathers.  And the end of the film also obeys the formula of the genre, encapsulating two hours of mythology into a redundant slugfest.  But the middle portion is when the film hits its grace notes, when the plot settles down and the spectacle and special effects settle down to focus on character-based humor laced in sharp, self-referential character-based humor. 

A showcase sequence, where Hellboy has to take down the very last plant elemental of its kind, recalling the surprising “Batman The Animated Series” episode where Poison Ivy’s plant children wreck havoc, ends not in violence and mayhem, but on a grace note.  The creature, never really posing a legit threat to our heroes, crumbles to the ground, and covers Brooklyn in vegetation, plants springing from the streets, as Hellboy watches, gun still cocked, bringing death as he protects life, clinging to the baby of an innocent bystander.  Suddenly, the movie reveals its prickly allegiance.  Prince Nauda may be the villain of this piece, and his snarls and kung fu moves suggest a serious darkness, but his kind is vanishing, the crown of his kingdom becoming fodder for the distanced wealthy at a Southeby’s auction.  Nauda might be unconscionable in that he surrenders this plant elemental, something of an endangered species, feeling he has to prove a point, breaking a massive egg to serve his omelette, but his gesture finally awakens the BPRD agents, and suddenly their roles as society’s protectors is placed into question.  It’s a direct counterpoint to the wave of superhero movies in recent memory that have posited that, even with the various fuckheads mucking with science for their own personal gains, humanity is worth saving, even though said movies never provide any ample evidence of their mock humanism.

Guillermo Del Toro clearly is not at home with humans anyway.  The moments in “Pan’s Labyrinth” that work the best detail the monsters, as the material with the human characters suggests a nihilistic dislike of the corruption of human souls, their only salvation found in their codependency with the fantasy world.  Even in “Hellboy” the unease could be seen as Del Toro goose-stepped around obvious audience surrogate Agent Myers, the prominent human character who is only briefly mentioned this time around.  It’s not a matter of being anti-human as much as it’s having a confidence and belief in the fantasy world, and the audience’s own symbiotic relationship with the content of these stories.  This bodes well for Del Toro’s “The Hobbit”, as “Hellboy 2”’s best moments follow the death of the plant elemental, with Hellboy’s anger getting the best of him, responding to difficulties with Liz and his own position as a destructive force by lashing out at Johann and boozing up, only to find himself with Abe in the embrace of bad art, here represented in a Barry Manilow singalong.  It’s the need for identification, an attraction to the outside world that humanizes “Hellboy 2”, a film that adheres itself to our world instead of the hermetically-sealed, incident-less place Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” occurs in.  It’s not about bringing the monsters and mayhem to the real world, but rather bringing the real world elements to the characters of the beasts, while still maintaining an element of the fantastical.  It’s a line to straddle, and after his finest studio effort yet, its safe to say Del Toro straddles this line with electric bravado.

From one of the best comic book movies made so far to easily one of the worst- it’s no surprise that Timur Bembaktevov’s “Wanted” is terrible in all the predictable ways.  The film is flawed from the start- it cavalierly sheds the supervillain-based hook of its source material, the terrible graphic novel from Mark Millar- a writer who honestly expects a pat on the back for the contempt he has for his audience- in favor of a generic action movie set-up nestled in a story of homicidal self-actualization.  James McAvoy, shedding the prestige picture pretentions, stars as a faceless office drone who learns that his father is not the world’s most evil supervillain but rather the world’s top assassin, and he’s picked up the innate marksman skills of his father.

He only realizes that its his anxiety attacks that are actually super-accurate target accuracy moments that conceivably help him complete such improbable acts as, say, shoot the wings off a fly.  This doesn’t explain his transformation into a veritable superman, of course- more examples of the Daredevil Syndrome.  This is going to take some time to explain, so please allow for this interruption of your review of “Wanted”…

In the comics, the character of Daredevil has strengthened senses to compensate for his lack of sight.  However, he also trains regularly as a gymnast and acrobat so that conceivably, in a comic book world, he can jump from rooftop to rooftop, the flat-panel pages allowing for our own acceptance of the slightly superhuman.  In the film “Daredevil”, however, we are never given any backstory involving his agility and the character ends up in the flesh, jumping up and down distances of twenty to thirty feet, sometimes more, and landing on his feet.  Also, the film goes out of its way to suggest his super senses increases his sense of touch, so when he gets hurt, he feels it far stronger than you or I.  So then why would he be jumping thirty or forty feet in the air only to land on un-superpowered feet that must be killing him?  For audience members who weren’t familiar with the character and were thrown off by the terrible wire-work, they must have wondered how Daredevil was suddenly able to fly.  It’s the pick-and-choose method of suspension of disbelief- I’m going to explain fantastical element A in a byzantine manner, but you’re just going to have to accept fantastical element B because I’m not going to bother illustrating that.

In this film, the character of Wesley (McAvoy) spends the early goings mortified by his findings- that his father was a member of a league of assassins called The Fraternity, and that they are recruiting him to take his father’s positions.  This must be a big blow to the other guys like Common, who plays a periphery member of the sect who, we are to assume, spent his entire life learning the skill of curving bullets, only to see this newcomer step in immediately as soon as he realizes, “I have a gun in my hand- maybe I can shoot things?”  Far from a story of frustrated middle management, the film has a chance to comment on Bush II hypocrisy, with the group taking orders from a quasi-religious source called the Loom of Destiny.  Like the hoarding of terrorist suspects, Geneva Conventions be damned, the Fraternity accepts that names emerging from the Loom’s textures are preemptively identifying society’s cancers.  While curiously the magical powers of the Loom are never in question, the film asks questions about the responsibilities of societies watchdogs and their own hypocritical manners of cleaning up the world, killing one to save a thousand, as a character puts it. 

But the film seems more interested in its crypto-“Fight Club” method of audience bullying.  When the voiceover claims that Wesley used to be pathetic “Just like you,” it’s an attempt of the film to lower the discourse, to suggest that the path to enlightenment, in an action movie, cubicle environment, or even the real world, is through indiscriminant violence.  It’s not irresponsible as much as it’s entirely under-thought, yet a long line of “rebellious” Hollywood movies that is anti-everything, but never pro-anything.  The film’s third act hinges on a twist that casts the entire premise in doubt but also changes the protagonist, as his set of goals go from learning who he is to a suddenly self-righteous good guy quest.  And then Daredevil Syndrome kicks in, where Wesley combines his established marksman abilities with superhuman dexterity, strength and near-invincibility. 

It’s hard to get too riled up about a movie that’s so full of piss and vinegar when it’s so haphazard, uninterested in the viewer stopping to image just what exactly the whole bloody affair coheres into a theme, idea, message, or even a meaningful a-to-b story.  Credit to Bembaktevov, the flashy Russian import who keeps the action moving at a fast and furious pace, no doubt aware of the holes in the premise and the potential for audience members to second-guess exactly what they’re watching- Marvel, sign this guy for “Thor”.  However, one mustn’t ignore the audience-baiting fourth-wall shatter of the closing scene, where one character encapsulates everything by asking, “What have YOU done lately?”  Unfortunately, this character’s actions during the course of the movie make no sense, and there’s really no indication of what he could possibly do to fill the time now that he’s are a specific place at the film’s close.  The only viable answer to the query at that juncture in the film is, “Um, apparently nothing you can ever relate to.”

The story of “American Gangster” involves drug kingpin Frank Lucas and his cronies, but it essentially boils down to this:  Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington wear black hats.  Sometimes they wear white hats.  Denzel rarely wears a white hat, because he’s made up of blaaaaack hat.  Russell mostly wears a white hat, because the black hat just doesn’t fit him much.  Josh Brolin shows up and pretends to wear a white hat, but his hat is the blackest of all.  Chiwetel Ejiofor, Common and T.I. wear black hats too, though they aren’t as big as Denzel’s black hat, whereas the RZA and John Hawkes wear very white hats, and John Ortiz, the movie’s prominent Hispanic, shamefully clutches to his own black hat.  A lot of character actors show up, but it’s never really in doubt what kind of hats they wear.  There are women in this story too, prominent ones even, but they don’t get to wear hats.  And sometimes they don’t get to wear anything.

Russell Crowe fills this quota, as the white knight with a strategically-placed flaw (skirt-chasing), filling the role of the entire police force that brought him down, both arresting Lucas and, after passing the bar, prosecuting Lucas, yet another stupid, glamorous Hollywood moment in a film filled with them.  It’s the principled bad guy versus the justified hero, with no middle ground to speak of, with morals and ideals about the American Dream buried under interminable montages of users opening grotesque veins and stabbing needles willy-nilly.  Ridley Scott shoots the drug slums of 1970’s Harlem they way he shoots the futuristic landscape of “Blade Runner”- oh, man, it’s terrible that everything is so corporate and abandoned, but would you look at these skyscrapers!  That approach works well in a genre film, but Scott’s merely made a bit of outdated drive-in entertainment, bloated enough that the skimpy story and empty themes merely circle each other for three hours as most are limited to playing spot-that-face amongst the huge prestige cast.  Say this for the casting agent of “American Gangster”- he or she must have had to sit through some terrible movies to recommend the likes of Armand Assante and Cuba Gooding Jr. to stand around on the fringe of the story, most hamming it up, their own familiarity further emphasizing the artificiality of the entire enterprise, where everything, from the Vietnam sets to Joe Morton’s truly awful mustache, comes across as fake as possible.

High expectations abound for under-the-radar DVD release “Trapped Ashes”.  A horror anthology from Lionsgate, this direct-to-DVD offering only saw festival screens thanks to the funding of several Asian overseas companies that probably demanded on the disjointed story structure, familiar J-horror tropes and even a surprising J-score.  This is an interesting factor considering a film that employs the grab bag talents of Joe Dante, Ken Russell, Sean Cunningham, Monte Hellman and John Gaeta, a dream team of experienced names who have sadly ended up on the outside looking in, their own eccentricities keeping them from reaching the lofty heights they had previously achieved. 

The film begins with a tour group exploring an abandoned Hollywood backlot.  Once they get stranded in what looks to be a slightly haunted house, their antsy tour guide surmises, randomly, that they should share their own scary stories to pass the time and maybe learn a little about their own similarities.  The first story, from Ken Russell, features a wannabe actress yearning for breast implants in order to leap back into the limelight, only for them to take on a life of their own.  A second story finds an extramarital affair being carried on from beyond the grave, while the third deals with a Stanley Kubrick analog fleeing Hollywood to avoid a libidinous bloodsucker.  A fourth, and most grotesque effort, showcases a stomach parasite taking on a life of its own.  The entire affair is picked up at the end, where the strangers now know a lot about why they’re here, long made apparent by their superficial connections based on the stories.

The first segment, directed by Ken Russell, maintains the lighthearted, kinky side of the auteur, harkening back to the stagey, theatrical vibe of “Lair Of The White Worm”.  Like that one, Russell is more interested in the idea of vengeful sexual organs, but here it seems like good-hearted fodder for a comedic gore payoff that isn’t worth the fifteen minutes of screentime.  The second segment, from “Friday the 13th” creator Sean Cunningham, isn’t bad, as it follows a white couple who are torn apart in a zombie love triangle where the undead won’t be satisfied.  It has a sense of strong eroticism and is stylish enough to augment the initially dubious prospect of zombie sex.

It’s the third segment which comes close to approaching a moment of rewatchability for this film.  It’s from Monte Hellman, who has the horror pedigree of “Silent Night, Deadly Night 3” on his resume, but otherwise is best known for his dream-like seventies-era dramas, “Two Lane Blacktop”, “Cockfighter” and other films forgotten by most.  Bereft of his own collaborators, both behind the camera and in front, Hellman is some ways adds proof to the credo that some filmmakers are only as good as material given to them.  The story concerns two aspiring filmmakers, one a Kubrick-alike, finding themselves falling for the same woman.  Not much happens in Hellman’s short, as the moments are weighed in silence between the participants, as the protagonist believes he’s entering a lethal game of Russian Roulette with a friend and a partner.  The film posits that Kubrick left Hollywood to avoid bloodsuckers in the form of a vampiric woman- as good a metaphor as any for Hollywood’s opportunism regarding visionary directors.  The short implies that Kubrick lost his way and let the studio re-write his latest movie, uncaring because he was between the sheets with his lady love.  It’s not entirely complex, and like the rest of the film, it looks like poorly lit shit, but it allows the story to breathe and doesn’t rely on a gag punchline or money shot gore prosthetic. 

Things perk up also on the last segment, which is surprisingly the scariest.  Gaeta is behind the camera for this, a legendary special effects pioneer who is directing for the first time, and he seems to handle actors well enough that they don’t play this story, about a young girl and the tumor growing inside of her, as a joke.  If anything, it seems too serious, as the visual representation of the monster is a bit of an eyesore, an impressively realized beastie that looks great but stands in contrast to the verisimilitude of the story.  Nonetheless, good debut short.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem lies in the wraparound story, directed by Joe Dante.  Seen separately, the segments represent a so-so offering that wouldn’t be out of place in Showtime’s maligned “Masters of Horror” series.  However, the film goes off the rails as we’re forced after every story to contemplate the connections between each of the characters.  If anything, these connections are superficial- the entire thing feels like a desire to punish people who have participated in morbid events even though, as the stories took shape, they really aren’t any true sinners who have to be punished at the heart of this thing.  The blame lies on screenwriter Dennis Bartok, who must have friends in high places to get his script turned into a mega-director anthology film.  He doesn’t write any believable dialogue (some of the worst is saved for one of the leads, in reality his own brother) and he’s devised the worst- an eat-your-vegetable horror movie with a moral that couldn’t even be understood by those working on it.  The horse has no cart and limps on one leg.      

Have a jonesing for this week’s “The Dark Knight”?  Hopefully you took a chance to check out Warner Premiere’s DVD release of “Batman: Gotham Knight”.  It’s an animated anthology film filling in the gap between “Batman Begins” and its sequel, but it works gangbusters as a standalone effort, each story showcasing a different style of animation, usually with anime leanings.  Like the studio’s earlier “Animatrix” offering, this is decidedly for adults, with some surprisingly rough violence and a moody, contemplative tone.  To say its filler is to suggest the lightweight nature of it all, but also the ease and comfort in which is falls in line with what is assumed to be a continuing story.

The first short, utilizing a concept done before, features a number of kids sharing in their recollections of witnessing a Batman appearance, each one more drastically different from the last, and helped by strong animation that offers us new versions on one of the most re-imagined characters in the pop culture paradigm.  Another story finds skeptic Gotham cops getting a not-exactly-warm message from Batman, however, refusing to sugarcoat the crimefighter’s appearance in the city.  He’s the avenging warrior, sure, but he also lets the boys in blue know that he’s not going to back down and that they’d better get used to him.  It’s a swift bit of characterization that perfectly encapsulates a shaky vigilante-law enforcement relationship.  Another installment finds Bruce Wayne developing EMP technology to create a bulletproof forcefield, while a later segment showcases just exactly how Batman’s learned to take a beating in the past.  Using the mercurial animation method, the film does a better job of mythologizing the hero than a live-action offering would be capable of while still rationally explaining his existence in the nuts-and-bolts manner of “Batman Begins”.  

Finally, the two most aesthetically pleasing remaining shorts present a more classically-attractive Batman.  One features a knock-out, drag-down fight between the evil Killer Croc who fronts for the still-at-large Scarecrow, and another finds Batman fighting against the DC Universe assassin Deadshot.  While the other films feature quieter moments where you feel the weight of the modern day totem slowing down, taking a moment, revealing his own humanity to the audience, these two kickers showcase superhero action the fans have wanted.  In another bit of fan-casting, the voice of Batman is done by animated series mainstay Kevin Conroy, giving the animated works a shorthand for those finding it difficult to plunge into an already-established world.  A must for Batman fans.

8:00-  And so here we are, liveblogging the 79th Annual Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium.  Maybe my favorite sporting event of the year, and I’m all nestled in with some pizza, popcorn and booze.  I’m waiting for a home run, however, to bring in my secret weapon.  It’s time for the announcements, which is nice- a couple of years ago, they brought out Ted Williams on a motorized wheelchair, and the old bugger was one of the great figures in baseball history, but he puttered so slowly that the game didn’t start until around 8:45.  All due respect to the game greats, but please leave those old bastards off the field.

8:02-  Brian McCann looks like Turtle from “Entourage”.

8:03-  Holy shit, Kerry Wood is here?  How gone am I?  A decade ago, that guy was going to be the next Koufax.  And now I’m just stunned he’s still alive.  I haven’t been paying close attention to this year, and somehow the Cubs have seven guys here.

8:04-  Corey Hart!  It’s 8 PM, someone missed an opportunity to wear their sunglasses.  David Wright of the Mets is announced, and the announcer waits for applause that never comes.  Fuck you Yankee fans.  The Mets’ Billy Wagner seems to realize this- the look on his face says, “I fucking hate the Bronx”.

8:05-  An NL representative gives a speech to the National Leaguers, who haven’t won the All-Star Game in eleven years.  It’s a very lame, colorless speech, and you can tell the players’ minds are miles away.  “Don’t try to be a hero, be a winner,” he says.  No, it’s ok.  It’s not like it’s an All-Star Game or anything.  He states that a win means the best National League team at the end of the playoffs gets home field advantage at the end of the postseason.  Like the players from the last place teams give a shit.

8:06-  The Rays get more cheers than the Mets.  Fucking Yankee fans.  Maybe it’s ironic- they just booed the shit out of the seven Red Sox announced, standing in contrast to the only Yankee reserve, the sainted Mariano Rivera.  Hope the starting lineup is colorful- these are the blandest-looking reserves I’ve seen in a long time.  My favorite part of the player announcements was always seeing these players close up, and realizing just how grotesque or odd they were.  A decade ago, I was pleased to see that Fernando Vina looked just like one of the fuck-up members of my own extended family. 

8:12-  I can’t believe they had a commercial break to break up the roster announcements.  This is gonna be a long fucking night.  Oh, shit, they’re introducing the old-timers who have nothing to do with the game before they get to the starting lineup.  Jim Palmer missed a great opportunity to wear a Moneystore hat.  Or does he not do that anymore?  I’m a decade behind on these things.  They announce a couple of old time Yankees and the audiences is somewhat quiet- these aren’t really great fans, because it costs eight billion dollars to get a seat to one of these games, and you also have to know or suck off somebody.

8:17-  Wade Boggs is ready to star in another “Road House” sequel.  Oh, c’mon, people, boo the shit out of Chipper Jones.  ALEX RODRIGUEZ JUST HUGGED HIM.  PLEASE BOO THE SHIT OUT OF ALEX RODRIGUEZ.

8:19-  Seriously, national baseball telecasts of Yankee games can’t get enough of the fact that Derek Jeter’s dad is black.  It’s too bad they are playing this lame orchestral music, and not an individual theme for everyone in the starting lineup.  I wanted to hear some rolling dice or something when Milton Bradley ran onto the field.

8:23-  Old Yankee Dave Winfield is announced, and he’s wearing his Padres hat, and yet, he lifts up a Yankee hat to the camera.  Oh, you whore.

9.  Tarantino’s Bluff Called-  Amid the flurry of “Inglorious Bastards” rumors comes one of the most unlikely QT tall tales yet.  According to vaguely unappealing porn superstar Tera Patrick, she’s been pegged by Tarantino to headline a modern day remake of Russ Meyer’s titsploitation classic “Faster, Pussycat, Kill!  Kill!”  Patrick, the buxom airhead who’s forever been behind contemporary Jenna Jameson in appeal, at least until Jameson’s recent, very public outbursts, has a reputation of being one of the most thankless, rude and megalomaniac porn superstars yet, further hampering a mainstream crossover like the ones granted to Jameson, Asia Carrera and, recently, Stormy Daniels.  Still, she certain has more than a slight resemblance to original “Pussycat” star Tura Satana.  Not a porno, by the way, the original “Pussycat” was a tongue-in-cheek road picture featuring a cast made up almost entirely of chesty cheesecake stars, the bread and butter of Meyer’s output and exactly the type of film Tarantino has most likely screened repeatedly during an all-night movie binge with friends.  Rightfully, this rumor should be laughed off like the time Tarantino said he wanted to make a plane crash movie with John Travolta and Pam Grier, but hey, slow week.

8.  From Wackness To Prime Gigs-  “The Wackness” hasn’t even had a chance to make a dent on the collective pop consciousness, and writer-director Johnathan Levine is still scoring some serious gigs.  While he reportedly was turned down in his pitch for an unknown Marvel Films property, he managed to land on his feet at Sony, where he’ll make “Positive”.  It’s a romantic drama with a twentysomething protagonist who falls for his fiancee’s sister while on vacation with the family.  “Echelon Vendetta” is his other project, a crime drama about a CIA “cleaner” who begins to investigate the inexplicable deaths of recent CIA operatives.  Good for Levine- I liked some aspects of “The Wackness”, but most importantly, he allowed the story to breathe quite well, favoring story over style.  Now, maybe this will speed up a release of his first film, the forever-shelved “All The Boys Love Mandy Lane”, which was purchased by the Weinstein brothers a couple of years ago and promptly buried.

7.  Mark Millar Wants Bryan Singer’s Gig-  Comic scribe Mark Millar, who recently saw his “Wanted” prove very strong box office, is grabbing the brass ring of his dream project.  About a year ago, he spoke of wanting a crack at the “Superman” franchise after the disappointing returns of “Superman Returns”.  Naturally, no one took him seriously, but that was before he became a hot Hollywood commodity.  Now, with production starting this summer on another Millar property, “Kick Ass” (AKA the worst comic book ever written by mortals), he’s assembled what he sees as Warner Bros.’ dream team to resurrect the Superman property.  Without revealing names, he claims that he’s pleased WB with the creative team he’s involved in the potential relaunch, which includes a bigtime producer and a well-liked, popular American action director with “a major in” at Warners.  Warner remains gunshy on future Superman installments- director Bryan Singer and star Brandon Routh continue with their claim that their “Superman: The Man Of Steel” will shoot next January, but that greenlight won’t come until they’ve made a decision on Millar’s pitch, which he claims they’re waiting until wintertime to okay.  It’s likely that, unlike the proposed “Justice League” movie, this wouldn’t happen concurrently with a “Man Of Steel” movie, especially considering Millar claims the property is “toxic” after the last one “lost $200 million.”  Depending on whom you ask, he’s right, but I don’t think Singer will work alongside someone with those (admittedly boldfaced) opinions.  If it happens, Millar says to expect his film by 2011, exactly five years after Singer’s version. 

6.  Trailer Roundup!  Dial up 007 once again, as the first footage of “Quantum Of Solace” was released to the public this week.  Its only a teaser, but this handsome looking clip hints at Bond getting deeper behind the mysterious crime syndicate responsible for the events of the first film.  Also trailered was the intriguing-looking spot for the remake to “The Day The Earth Stood Still”.  Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly look appropriately morose as an oncoming alien threat, far more malevolent this time than in the original, approaches.  While early script reviews suggested a strong deviation from the subject matter, including the absence of prophetic robot Gort, there’s a brief shot of the ‘bot at the trailer’s close.  Fernando Merielles’ next effort, “Blindness”, showed a pretty messed up view of the future, with a trailer that his all the dystrophic future notes, but it also had Sandra Oh- not everybody wins.  Also trailered this week were Alexandre Aja’s “Mirrors” (it’s a redband clip, so protect the kiddies from AMY SMART TEARING HER FUCKING JAW OFF) and long-in-the-works sci-fi action war picture “The Mutant Chronicles”.  Tom Jane, John Malkovich, Devon Aoki and Ron Perlman costar, but no release date has been set, as a Comic Con screening is where filmmakers will take notes as to what should be changed or reshot.  And that’s probably the worst place to test screen a movie- good luck, boys.

5.  Worse Lieutenants-  Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans” continues to take bizarre, puzzling, mad shape, and this week it gathered momentum with a full cast added.  Among the names are Jennifer Coolidge, Faruzia Balk, Shawn Hatosy, and Xzibit.  The biggest name?  Cage’s prospective partner, Val Kilmer.  I still have no idea what to make of this- everyone else existed on the periphery of Keitel’s character in the first one, so the roles these people would play alongside Cage and Eva Mendes don’t seem all that significant.  Even Xzibit is a puzzle, having been announced as the piece’s “villain”, despite the fact that the enemy of the first film was clearly Keitel’s nervy, immoral police officer himself.  But at least we have Kilmer, who is constantly resuscitating his career through puzzling means like this, consistently putting out great work and only growing in stature as an actor as his career continues.

4.  28th Amendment Rewritten-  Tom Cruise was set to team up with Denzel Washington on Philip Noyce’s “The 28th Amendment” until this week, as Cruise and Noyce have backed out, leaving Washington behind (meanies) to team for “Edwin A. Salt”, a long in development CIA action picture.  “Salt”, which has been in development with names like Peter Berg and Terry George for years, is actually close to shooting, and is probably looking at a 2009 berth,  It details the labyrinth means one CIA agent has to take in order to clear his name for a murder he didn’t commit.  So yeah, it sounds a lot like “Mission: Impossible”, or at least the first one- it’s hard to deny that was a pretty fun movie, right?  Aside from the whole Jim Phelps as a villain angle (which would be like making an X-Files movies where it was revealed Mulder was an alien all along) it was pretty expertly paced and had some memorable action sequences.  “The 28th Amendment” is expected to motor on along in a search for another actor to pair with Washington, and an offer has been made out to Christian Bale, who’s currently putting the finishing touches on a lead role in the next “Terminator” installment. 

3.  Apatowbeat!  Elementary, My Dear Will Ferrell!-  In the sort of greenlight you only get when everything you touch turns to gold, Judd Apatow has gotten a greenlight for his own version of Sherlock Holmes.  Unlike the announced redo from Guy Ritchie, however, this one, from a script by Etan Cohen (“Tropic Thunder”- no relation to Joel or Ethan) is a comedic take.  The players announced?  Sasha Baron Cohen as Holmes, with Will Ferrell as his trusty assistant Watson.  Honestly, as far as oddball premises with these two “Talladega Nights” stars go, this is one I struggle to imagine.  Nevermind the physicality of the entire thing (Ferrell is a giant, somewhat taller than Cohen), there’s the issue of star placement.  Ferrell playing second banana?  Earlier in his career this worked, with Ferrell doing a subdued version of his act alongside other comedy names, but that wouldn’t fly anymore, as he’s established himself as someone who excels at oversized cartoons.

2.  Eddie Murphy Pulls The Fakeout!-  With “Meet Dave” approaching like a shit meteor circling the Earth, Extra reported that Eddie Murphy claimed he was retiring, leaving the industry to instead return to standup.  Most people knew this sounded like bullshit, but it took Murphy himself to clear the air, claiming he was not retiring, and that he was busy getting in shape for “Beverly Hills Cop IV”.  In an interview posted online, he railed against those who thought he would be mailing it in for this version, saying he wouldn’t do it without a quality script, which of course hasn’t manifested for the potential 2010 release.  Contradicting comments made by “director” Brett Ratner a few weeks ago, he said it would still be R-rated, and that with the recent success of R-rated comedies, he now had a chance to be “real”, revealing that he was a fan of films like “Superbad” and its ilk.  I guess this is a good thing- considering how funny Murphy used to be, if he’s going to vanish like a shadow of his unfunny self, he might as well do it in R-rated movies that play to those that grew up with him, and not PG-rated Disney movies with retarded premises that appeal to Cro-Magnons.

1.  Metropolis Lives!-  As much as you’d like to think you’re a mega film buff, you’ve never seen Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”.  Sure, you may have caught clips of the movie during a film class, or maybe you own the 2003 release of the DVD, but until now, we’ve spent years compiling what we felt were a version of the film that approached completion, but was never fully whole.  Lang’s masterpiece was never showcased to the public in its fullest form, 25 minutes cut and never again restored.  Considered lost, the footage lives again, found in a vault in Buenos Aires, and after eighty years, the material can now be cleaned up and reinserted into the film.  There’s a long history of lost films, either prospective classics (Jerry Lewis’ clown concentration camp drama “The Day The Clown Cried”) or unmitigated disasters (“Smokey Is The Bandit”, with Jackie Gleason playing all the roles), so it’s always nice to see footage considered lost finally find the right hands.   

July 2nd
Hancock-  I really don’t like Will Smith.  I appreciate how audiences are learning to be a bit color-blind, as this is the first time that the world’s biggest, and maybe only legit movie star, is a black man (sorry, Clooney), but I wish Smith wouldn’t be as image-conscious as early career Tom Cruise.  Smith makes every project just that more vanilla, and his glad-handling of serious themes in his films suggests a deep divide between his idealism and the development of his political beliefs, which seem to not boil down to anything other than “stay jiggy with it”.  This is another film like that- originally a hot property in Hollywood as “Tonight, He Comes”, this highly circulated script was a very R-rated story of a superhero with an overactive libido and a nasty streak of drunkenness who violates the trust between him and his publicist by sleeping with his wife.  Some say this is the edgiest film of Smith’s career, but they certainly aren’t selling it as such- the trailers seem to be amping up the admittedly impressive looking action sequences while completely avoiding Smith’s first bigtime interracial onscreen romance, while also hinting at a superpowered conflict between him and her, something that wasn’t presented in early discussions of the script.  Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron are the couple, and they seem like smart guys, but it also seems liked they would be suckered into doing a film with vaguely racist and/or sexist connotations (irresponsible, powerful black men shouldn’t sleep with white women, because they will make your life hell!).  I hope it’s not this hateful and simplistic, but one of the people involved in the project’s development is Akiva fucking Goldsman, who needs to die in a fire, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this were the summer’s dumbest movie.  I hate it when encouraging signs are negated- Michael Mann, who was once attached to the project, is a producer,  but the actual director is Peter Berg, who made a very politically questionable film with “The Kingdom”. 

Kit Kittridge: An American Girl-  Based on a series of toys.  Most likely market-tested, and therefore kid-approved!  Brings to mind- what is the best movie based on a series of toys?  If we can count “Small Soldiers”, I’d pick that.

July 3rd
The Wackness-  I saw this the other day, and I don’t know what to make of it, but I do know its affect on me is nothing greater than “slight”.  Josh Peck is a potdealing upper class white kid embracing hip hop in New York City circa ’94, just trying to distinguish between sadness, depression and sexual madness when he falls for the daughter of a therapist he sees, one who gets paid in weed.  Ben Kingsley is the therapist, and I didn’t hate the lisping, slack-jawed moron Peck plays as much as I had hoped, but I would have definitely preferred following Kingsley’s stoner therapist around.  His work in this film is the sort of stuff that will make an entire generation want to check out this old dude's filmography- he REALLY connected with the audience I saw the movie, the way first-timers with electric debuts tend to do, not seasoned, near-legendary Oscar winners.  Jonathan Levine does have an eye for specific details, and many sequences here are memorably different and loaded with a surprising amount of emotion without being showy, so he's certainly one to watch. 



July 4th
Gonzo: The Life And Work Of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson-  Oscar winner Alex Gibney (“Taxi To The Dark Side”) directed this doc about the life and times of the popular journalist and overmedicated merrymaker.  I’ve heard this is a very fair-minded and often interesting doc, and my interest is piqued. 

July 11th
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army-  A testament to the auteur that this has seen the light of day.  Guillermo Del Toro’s original “Hellboy” barely broke even, depending on who you ask, and here we are right in the middle of summer with a second one.  Sony was behind the first one, but they dropped the property, and genre-friendly Universal, apparently fans of “Pan’s Labyrinth”, picked up the rights, while also giving the avuncular filmmaker free reign to make this less reliant on the character’s comic roots and more on eye popping monster creations.  For that alone, I think this will be worth seeing- the first film is a really fun riff on the old monster hunter riff, and this one, where a warrior from a magical land causes havoc in the real world because of what he feels is the conceptual death of fantasy, looks to have a bit of faith in the possibilities of narrative, and therefore the true essence of humanity- what are these movies if they don’t reach for the truth about what makes us want to be better people?

Journey To The Center of The Earth-  3D offering, promising cheap kiddie thrills in the form of all sorts of unimaginative family film bait, including Brendan Fraser slapstick, absurdly dodgy effects and, oh, dinosaurs!  In the end, it’s the sort of near-guaranteed fun that probably isn’t worth the price of an actual ticket.

Meet Dave-  Eddie Murphy and “Norbit” director Brian Robbins continue their unholy alliance with this morbidly embarrassing effort about a man who acts as a vessel for the last of a dying race of Eddie Murphy-looking aliens looking to study the human race.  Can we get a moratorium on the credibility-stretching notion of titling things “Meet [insert name]”?  Yes, it’s a movie about them, we are going to learn about them, that’s a given.  The title doesn’t tell us anything about why Dave is any different than, say, “the Parents”.



July 18th
The Dark Knight-  With the advent of the internet and my growing interest in film as an art form, my anticipation levels for movies has cooled.  So even when I’m interested in an “Iron Man”, in the back of my head, I will be able to predict the entire movie, especially its shortcomings, whereas I can get excited for an upcoming Charlie Kaufman movie, but knowing the level of heavy lifting and post-film rumination I’ll need, I have no problem waiting a week or two to see it.  However, this is the first time that I’m honestly expecting both- a movie I think will be wham-bam, but will also interest me on several levels of storytelling.  Batman has always been my favorite character, mostly because of his shortcomings- he really is a peak human specimen, but he knows he can only change so much in this world, focusing on the greater good as a vigilante just barely one step ahead of the law.  “Batman Begins”, even with its narrative flaws, worked for me strongly on a post-9/11 level in explaining just exactly why someone would dress up as a bat and swing around to make change greater than that of an everyday playboy philanthropist.  Within these newer Batman movies is the seed of a totem of, if not purity than at least decency, emerging from the darkness to not exactly save everyone, but give them a sense of power, a sense of purpose.  “Now there are two of us” indeed.  The second film looks to follow that up, as Gothamites have been re-energized not by the maniac in cape and black armor, but in the symbol of what’s being done to fix the city, and suddenly the city’s nastiest mobsters find themselves being held accountable for the mayhem they’ve caused in the city.  Public avatar for this change is represented in idealistic district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), who nonetheless seems to have the world’s biggest target on his head, with the force of nature known as the Joker to come collecting on behalf of the city’s crime bosses.  So yes, within this tentpole blockbuster is a story about people trying to be better, to make a difference, with the uncommon thread of realization that many will fall in the process. 



Mamma Mia-  Every shot in the trailer for this made it seem like Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgaard and Colin Firth were joined at the hip, bound to spend this entire chick flick as the Men, forever sequestered to a comfy spot in the background, occasionally smiling like idiots.  To think Skarsgaard, a man made of pure awesome, is reduced to Reaction Shot #3 in a movie like this kinda bugs me.  But hey- it’s an ABBA musical based on a Broadway play inspired by ABBA music.  If you don’t know what you’re getting, you’re being an idiot.

Space Chimps-  Some second-tier celebrities voice the titular creatures as the head off in the first manned mission to space in this animated throw-off.  I bet someone gets hit in the crotch.

Lou Reed’s Berlin-  Julian Schnanabel directs this documentary about Lou Reed performing songs from his album “Berlin”.  Reed fans, enjoy.

July 25th
Step Brothers-  I was genuinely surprised not at how unfunny  Will Ferrell’s first R-rated effort “Semi-Pro” was, but how poorly directed the whole film was.  Aesthetically, it might be the ugliest movie I’ve seen in 2008 so far, unless we’re counting home movies.  So my initial worry over whether another R-rated offering would be worthwhile should be unfounded, because this is an Adam McKay joint.  McKay and Ferrell joined together previous for “Talladega Nights” and, of course, “Anchorman”, so this is the chance to make it a stellar three-for-three.  Ferrell and John C. Reilly (so funny in “Walk Hard”- where were you when that came out???) play stay-at-home losers who find their parents marrying and must first cope with each other and then sudden raised expectations when they are expected to get jobs and move out.  There have been several arrested development or empty nest type movies made, but none with the love and appreciation for complete insanity that Ferrell and McKay have- interesting that this has less comedic ringers in the cast, as it may be the closest thing these guys have made to a consistent narrative yet.



X-Files: I Want To Believe-  I can’t really muster up any enthusiasm for “The X-Files” anymore, but I really haven’t seen the show for awhile, so there’s a chance I won’t feel any fondness until I’m in the darkened theater, experiencing it firsthand.  This is not tethered to mythology, so I think Mulder and Scully are… independent ghost trackers or something?  Or are they back with the FBI?  Like most people, I’ve truly enjoyed a handful of episodes, none of which were in the later seasons when I began to forget the show existed.  Anyway, it’s set at wintertime, so it’s nice they’re going seasonal with it.

The Longshots-  An Ice Cube family comedy directed by Fred Durst.  LET THAT SHIT SINK IN.

Henry Poole Is Here-  Luke Wilson stars as an average guy trapped in a movie with a terrible title that no one will see, even though they recognize the star from tons of other movies, none of which they can name.  Sorry, my bad- that’s real life.  Wilson stars here as a guy who finds the face of Jesus burned into the side of the house, drawing all sorts of onlookers and tourists who think it’s a sign.  This is an indie picture from Mark Pellington, a talented music video director who looks to have never recovered from the failure of his first film, the pretty great “Arlington Road”.

American Teen-  I am not falling for the Sundance buzz on this documentary, which follows a number of kids through their high school lives and into adulthood.  What I don’t like in the wake of John Hughes high school movies is what they’ve begat- it was only a hop, skip and a jump from “Breakfast Club” to “The Real World”, and suddenly, more than a decade later, we have an entire generation raised to believe the problems and struggles of their banal suburban lives are suddenly worth a damn, even compared to the rest of the world.  It looks like it comes to a head with this doc, using “The Real World” aesthetics to tell the story of a demographically-friendly group of teens (none black or Hispanic, mind you) as they struggle through the same shit we lived through only to see dramatized in any number of shitty shows and movies.  Maybe I’m wrong- I adored this approach with R.J. Cutler’s “American High”, a failed FOX series back when some reality programming was actually aiming for documentary-like verisimilitude.  That series succeeded, however, because it never pretended the teens were interesting or likable- whereas the advertising for “American Teen” seems to shine the spotlight as the kids being the “stars” of the film, whereas in “American High”, the story was the story of the whole thing- as whitewashed as that show was for broadcast television, you got the idea that the shades of darkness in these kids’ post-school lives would ultimately eat them alive.

Baghead-  The superindie creators of “The Puffy Chair” break out of their mumblecore yearnings to make a pretty heady genre mix.  Again yielding to the young genre’s stop-start improvisational dialogue, shoddy digital photography and non-pro actors, this features the filmmakers themselves on a retreat where they try to plan out their own big breakout horror film when the debate, focused squarely on whether a man with a bag on his head is scary, comes alive as they are stalked by their own creation.  Odd deal- this is the rare indie film getting a release in smaller cities before expanding to New York and L.A.- I applaud this, but is there enough of an indie marketplace to support this movie when it doesn’t get the coastal critic buzz?

Brideshead Revisited-  Costume drama happens!

July 1st
Vantage Point-  I hear this is a case of seeing the same shit over and over again, until it becomes more absurd than a sixth season episode of “24”.  Well, shit, I am a pretty ardent “24” fan, so maybe this is my bag.  Dennis Quaid, Forrest Whitaker, William hurt, Sigourney Weaver and Matthew Fox star.

Tyler Perry’s Meet The Browns-  Tyler Perry does the old two-step, his fanbase celebrates accordingly.  If you haven’t been converted, you won’t be now.  Angela Bassett continues to waste her talent, being that no one in Hollywood can write a black woman for shit, and Perry’s success is attributed to the fact that he tries.

Mad Men Season One-  Haven’t seen this show, but it certainly has its fans.  Deals with advertising agents in the 1950’s and the push and pull between them and their families, careers, etc.  Misleading title, though- I hope somebody’s murdering someone here.

My Blueberry Nights-  I will remain defiant- this was a great movie, no matter what the cruelty of some critics may say.  Their own hatred of “corniness” relegated the first genuinely romantic American film in years to the arthouse ghetto, which is an unacceptable indignity.  Norah Jones floats through a road trip in which she tries to learn everything about herself, while Jude Law leafs through the phone book desperate to find her, if only to serve her one more piece of blueberry pie.  I admit- one of the reasons I enjoy Wong Kar Wai’s films is because women always look luminous in them, and here, he doesn’t skimp in that territory- Jones, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz and even Cat Power have never been so delicious.



Drillbit Taylor Unrated-  I was under the impression that this was a kid’s film from the start, so I was initially surprised at how much violence and vulgarity snuck into the PG-13 cut.  Did they really push this thing close to an R?  Did they have any idea what the audience was for an unofficial remake of “My Bodyguard”?  Whatever the case, the rap was harsh- written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (and proof that his scripts probably shouldn’t be limited to a PG-13 rating), the film still has its fair share of rental-quality gags, and half of them come from the endlessly inventive Danny McBride.

Sex And Death 101-  Simon Baker, the leading man you get when everyone else is less affordable, stars as a chauvinist sex machine who accidentally finds a list of all the women he’s going to eventually sleep with, until he discovers the last one (Winona Ryder) is going to straight up murder his ass.  From Daniel Waters, who wrote the fabled scripts for “Heathers” and “Batman Returns”- fabled, man.  Fabled.

City Of Men-  This is the feature-length spinoff of the miniseries inspired by the great “City of God”.  I don’t know much about it, but it seems to have suffered the unfortunate fate follow-ups of classics tend to, in that it was forgotten and ignored.

Batman The Movie Special Edition-  Before “The Dark Knight”, you can catch the first full-length onscreen Batman adventure- in color!  Adam West and Burt Ward are the Dynamic Duo dedicated to saving Gotham City from the combined might of the Joker, the Penguin, Catwoman and the Riddler.  I grew up watching the series, and I’ve seen this so many times, so I imagine this DVD is for those like me, who are hungry for tiptop special features, preferably involving the truth about Frank Gorshin’s stretchypants. 

Shotgun Stories- Michael Shannon might be the scariest and most unsettling character actor in all of Hollywood- and I haven’t even seen his role in “Bug”, probably his biggest so far.  Hell, he walks into “Before The Devil knows You’re Dead” and just dominates the few scenes he’s in.  This is a movie with Philip Seymour Hoffman, people- no idle achievement there.  Here, he plays the son of a screwed-up red state family- it was a festival also-ran, but Shannon’s presence should put it on anybody’s radar.

Get Smart’s Bruce And Lloyd Out Of Control-  A DVD first- this is a straight-to-DVD companion piece to “Get Smart”, filmed at the same time using many of the same actors.  It centers around bit players Bruce and Lloyd, the gizmo guys who give Maxwell Smart his gadgets in order to fight KAOS, and the fun bit is that apparently some of the scenes in this can be featured happening in brief in the distant background of much of “Get Smart”.  Neat idea- wish it was for a more interesting movie.

July 8th
Batman: Gotham Knight-