Apparently the same day Ingmar Bergman died, so too did Michelangelo Antonioni. Here is the story from (oddly enought) FinancialTimes.com.

Michelangelo Antonioni, who has died aged 94, was the least Italianate of great Italian filmmakers. A glacial anatomist of love, despair and the alienating tropes of modern life, he seemed to come from another country and culture than the one inhabited by Fellini, De Sica, Visconti, Pasolini and Bertolucci.

Where they coloured their movies with human passion and extremes of style or emotional expression, Antonioni created a landscape and screen language where subtext, symbol and enigma reigned. His stories, from a girl disappearing on a volcanic island (L’Avventura) through a permissive age’s bequest of disillusionment (La Notte) to the semi-surreal blends of drama and mime in Blow Up and Zabriskie Point, were mysteries wrapped in mazy narratives. His protagonists, epitomised in the beautiful ‘blankness’ of his longtime leading lady and one-time wife Monica Vitti, were seekers who did not know quite what they were seeking.

Exactness in Antonioni was confined to the frame itself: precise, unsettling images of a world, natural or man-created, in which abstract forces declare their independence of, or hostility to, human beings. Trees sigh and sough outside a picture-window while Vitti curls foetus-like on a sofa (The Eclipse). Street stalls and their produce share the same colours of industrial-age decay as the earth and buildings. (In The Red Desert Antonioni painted each component of the screen image, including streets, houses, even vendors’ fruit). And in his late Identification of a Woman a foggy road closes in womb-like around a car-driver, to become a dream of annihilation at once beguiling and frightening.

In his most creative decade, the 1960s, Antonioni’s sensibility as an artist seemed closer to a northern European heritage – Camus, Sartre, existentialism – than to anything Mediterranean.

Born in Ferrara on September 29 1912, his interest in cinema began in the late 1930s when he came into possession of a 16mm camera and a part-time job as a film critic. After assisting directors such as Rossellini (Una Pilota Ritorna) and Marcel Carné (Les Visiteurs du Soir), he made his first film Gente del Po, a documentary about Po River fishermen, over a four-year period between 1943 and 1947. Six more documentaries followed, until his first feature Cronaca di un Amore (Love Story) in 1950.

Busy through the fifties – as well a directing four features he collaborated on the script of Fellini’s The White Skeikh – Antonioni became an international name at the decade’s end. His tale of a couple haunted by the emptiness left in their lives by a girl acquaintance’s disappearance – in an unforgettable opening sequence set on a lava-encrusted island – seemed to contemporary audiences so static and obscure that it was booed at its Cannes Film Festival premiere.

Antonioni never looked back, mainly because everyone else did in revisionist shame. L’Avventura was soon esteemed a masterpiece and voted one of the 10 best films ever in an international critics’ poll. And in the next two films of what became an informal trilogy, he forced audiences to look even deeper into cinema’s expressive possibilities.

La Notte was a slow, enthralling mourning-song for a marriage, starring Jeanne Moreau and Marcello Mastroianni as a couple drifting apart while the sounds and sights of the hedonistic sixties - parties, partner-swapping - form a mocking backrop. And in L’Eclisse (The Eclipse) the love story between Monica Vitti and Alain Delon ‘freezes’ more than once as character interaction gives way to abstract collages of sound and picture, commenting on the theme of emotional impasse. The ending is the director’s greatest single sequence: 10 minutes of wordless imagery, from livid skies to the pitiless glare of a street lamp, as a world bows to a bleak new twilight.

Antonioni never quite found that perfect pitch of symbolic emotionalism again. Nor, after the 1960s, did time and fashion offer his compassionate scepticism about relationships such an ideal counter-harmony. He created haunting moments in Blow Up (the photographer hero’s snap-by-snap reconstruction of a murder incident providing a memento mori for Swinging London) and he pushed at the limits of visual vocabulary by surreally rearranging whole landscapes in The Red Desert, a co-production starring Richard Harris, and Zabriskie Point.

But his rapprochement with western mainstream cinema ended with Profession: Reporter (1975). The cryptic tale of switched identities, starring Jack Nicholson as a man drifting through Europe and North Africa, had notable scenes, including at the end a labrynthine and seemingly impossible camera movement. But the film ended in box-office limbo, its concessions to commercialism – star-casting, thriller plot elements – displeasing art audiences while its obscurities alienated entertainment-seekers

By the 1980s Antonioni began to seem like yesterday’s modernist in a world moving towards the lighter, more ludic postures of postmodernism. After a feature-length experiment with video (The Eagle Has Two Heads) and a couple of aborted projects, including a documentary on China, he collaborated with Wim Wenders in a strange, visually beautiful multi-episode film that again found few buyers: Beyond the Clouds.

By then he had been partially immobilised by a stroke, which left him powerless to speak, though in 1996 he travelled to Los Angeles to receive an Oscar for career achievement. His last work for the large screen, an episode in the three-story film Eros (2004, made with Wong Kar-Wai and Steven Soderbergh), was an enigma without heart or energy, though as ever with some beautiful pictures. His death sees the passing of the last survivor of his generation of Italian filmmakers.

From Roger Ebert's website.

Roger Ebert has received these e-mail observations about the death of Ingmar Bergman:

Paul Cox, director:

A note in the paper.
Ingmar Berman has died.
The man who shaped and nourished my deeper thoughts, feeling and hopes.
The artist who illuminated my dreams.
Ingmar Bergman, the magician!
Master of the most powerful tool of self
expression ever given to man.
May his legacy NOT rest in peace.
May his 'chess game with death' remain a symbol of hope.
May his vision of our dark misconceptions of what it means to be human
enlighten our troubled planet for all generations to come.

Paul Schrader, director: Ingmar Bergman, more than any other director, showed that it was possible for a film director to be an introspective and serious artist in the commercial cinema. Bergman paved the road; the rest of us just road down it.

Richard Linklater, director: For an artist who contemplated what he called "the great mystery" probably more than any other, it's almost comforting to know he's now experienced it... or not experienced it, as he seemed to think quite possible.

Gregory Nava, director: When I was a young man in the late sixties - in high school -- I was first introduced to the films of Ingmar Bergman. It was at a funky art theater in La Jolla, called “The Unicorn” where one could drink espresso and read books to the sounds of Baroque music before going into the theater to see “foreign” movies. Quite an adventure for a Catholic school boy.

The films of Bergman struck me like a lightning bolt - I had never seen anything like them before, even the titles were like some kind of existential poetry -- “The Seventh Seal” -- “Wild Strawberries” -- “The Silence.” Here were films that were not afraid to talk about the big questions - “Who are we?” “Where do we come from?” “Where are we going?” And I drank them up, like a thirsty man finding a crystal spring in the desert. My mind and my soul desperately needed what these films had to say. This was not the escapist fare of Hollywood, or the pat spirituality of Biblical epic films where God spoke in hallowed tones from a burning bush. With Bergman, God was a spider that lived in the upstairs closet! A shocking and necessary jolt to my Catholic sensibilities.

Yes, these films changed me forever -- they cemented my dream to become a filmmaker because if film could do this -- then surely it was the greatest art form of our time. I will never forget the first time I saw the horses standing in the surf against a setting sun, and death with his black cape raised approaching the world weary knight.

He was a giant in a time of giants -- Kurosawa, Fellini -- giants like we don't have anymore. You don't realize how unique and important he really was until there is another generation and another and there are no Bergmans. No giants. Now he's gone.

David Mamet, playwright and director: When I was young the World Theatre, in Chicago, staged an all-day Ingmar Bergman Festival. I went at ten o'clock in the morning, and stayed all day. When I left the theater it was still light, but my soul was dark, and I did not sleep for years afterwards.

Guy Maddin, director: A very sad day. I subconsciously thought that guy would live for ever. Even though he's dead now he must still be perceptibly animated somehow by his unkillable Swedish lust and dread. Someone from the CBC left a message for me today asking for a comment on the death of -- then static came and it sounded like she said "Burton" and I thought maybe Richard Burton had died, again, or Canadian game show icon Pierre Burton had died, again, and then I realized they were asking me about Tim Burton, which they weren't of course. So I was especially surprised by this change-up when it turned out to be Bergman. Or was it Shelley Berman? Woe!

Haskell Wexler, cinematographer: I never had the honor of meeting Ingmar Bergman: I was good friends with Sven Nykvist who told me stories about Bergman. They sat in a big old church from very early in the morning until as black as the night gets. They noted where the light moved thru the stain glass windows. Bergman planned where he would stage the scenes for a picture they were about to do. This had the practical advantage of minimizing light and generator costs. Sven said sitting alone with Ingmar in the church had a profound effect on him. I asked him if it made him more religious. He said he didn’t think so but it did give him some kind of spiritual connection to Ingmar which helped him deal with the times Bergman became very mean. On “Days Of Heaven” we had long beautiful mystic hours because of the northern latitudes. We called it Bergman light because of that long extended Swedish latitude and the many hours of Mystic Light.

David Gordon Green, director: Bergman was one of the greatest psychological poets ever. Plumbed the subconscious and put it up on screen like a dream. A true master of sound as well. Plus all those good-lookin' Swedish babes. He was a lion, truly fearless and totally in control, totally committed.

This is taken from The New York Times.

Ingmar Bergman died today, at 89.

There have been plenty of books written about him. But Bergman’s own autobiography, “The Magic Lantern,” was published in 1988, in a translation by Joan Tate. It was reviewed in The Book Review by Woody Allen.

“Less than ennobling,” Allen wrote, “was the motive for seeing my first Ingmar Bergman movie. The facts were these: I was a teen-ager living in Brooklyn, and word had got around that there was a Swedish film coming to our local foreign film house in which a young woman swam completely naked. Rarely have I slept overnight on the curb to be the first on line for a movie, but when ‘Summer With Monika’ opened at the Jewel in Flatbush, a young boy with red hair and black-rimmed glasses could be seen clubbing senior citizens to the floor in an effort to insure the choicest, unobstructed seat.”

Allen continued:

I never knew who directed the film nor did I care, nor was I sensitive at that age to the power of the work itself - the irony, the tensions, the German Expressionist style with its poetic black-and-white photography and its erotic sadomasochistic undertones. I came away reliving only the moment Harriet Andersson disrobed, and although it was my first exposure to a director who I would come to believe was pound for pound the best of all film makers, I did not know it then.

…

Only in the late 50’s, when I took my then wife to see a much talked about movie with the unpromising title ‘’Wild Strawberries,'’ did I lock into what was to become a lifelong addiction to the films of Ingmar Bergman. I still recall my mouth dry and my heart pounding away from the first uncanny dream sequence to the last serene close-up. Who can forget such images? The clock with no hands. The horse-drawn hearse suddenly becoming stuck - the blinding sunlight and the face of the old man as he is being pulled into the coffin by his own dead body. Clearly here was a master with an inspired personal style; an artist of deep concern and intellect, whose films would prove equal to great European literature. Shortly after that I saw ‘’The Magician,'’ an audacious black-and-white dramatization of certain Kierkegaardian ideas presented as an occult tale and spun out in an original, hypnotic camera style that reached its crescendo years later in the dreamlike ‘’Cries and Whispers.'’ Lest the Kierkegaardian reference make the movie sound too dry or didactic, please be assured, ‘’The Magician,'’ like most of Bergman’s films, had one foot brilliantly planted in show business.

In addition to all else - and perhaps most important - Bergman is a great entertainer; a storyteller who never loses sight of the fact that no matter what ideas he’s chosen to communicate, films are for exciting an audience. His theatricality is inspired. Such imaginative use of old-fashioned Gothic lighting and stylish compositions. The flamboyant surrealism of the dreams and symbols. The opening montage of ‘’Persona,'’ the dinner in ‘’Hour of the Wolf'’ and, in ‘’The Passion of Anna,'’ the chutzpah to stop the engrossing story at intervals and let the actors explain to the audience what they are trying to do with their portrayals, are moments of showmanship at its best.

After a while, Allen finally got around to talking about Bergman’s memoir:

It’s a lot about stomach problems. But it’s interesting. It’s random, anecdotal. It’s not chronological, as one’s life story should be. There is no building saga of how he began and gradually worked himself up to dominate the Swedish stage and screen. The story skips around, back and forth, apparently depending on the author’s spontaneity. It includes odd tales and sad feelings. An odd tale: as a young boy being locked inside a mortuary and becoming fascinated by the naked corpse of a young woman. A sad feeling: ‘’My wife and I live near each other. One of us thinks and the other answers, or the other way round. I have no means of describing our affinity. One problem is insoluble. One day the blow will fall and separate us. No friendly god will turn us into a tree to shade the farm.'’ It leaves out things you’d bet he’d discuss. His films, for instance. Well, maybe he doesn’t leave them out exactly but there’s much less than you’d expect, considering he’s made over 40. There’s also not much about his wives in this book. He’s had plenty. (And lots of children too, though they’re hardly mentioned.) That includes Liv Ullmann, who lived with him for years and was the mother of one of his children and a great star in his pictures. But there’s not much about any of the actors and actresses in his films.

So what is there? Well, many gripping revelations, but they’re mostly about his childhood. And about his theater work. Interestingly he draws a picture of every single scene before he stages it. And there is a moving account of how he directed Anders Ek, an actor in several films, who had developed leukemia and was using his own fear of approaching death to portray a Strindberg character. Bergman loves the theater. It’s his real family. In fact, the warm, lovable family in ‘’Fanny and Alexander'’ didn’t exist for real - they were meant to symbolize the theater. (This isn’t in the book. I happen to know it.) He writes too of his maladies: ‘’I suffered from several indefinable illnesses and could never really decide whether I wanted to live at all.'’ His weak bodily functions: ‘’In all the theatres I have worked in for any length of time, I have been given my own lavatory.'’

His breakdown is in there too, over the income tax scandal. It’s mesmerizing to read about it. In 1976, Bergman was crudely snatched from a rehearsal and taken to police headquarters over money owed the Government because of his mishandling of income tax payments. It was not unlike the type of thing that occurs so frequently where one hires an accountant, presumes he will handle everything brilliantly and aboveboard and finds later one has trustingly signed papers without understanding them or even reading them. The fact that he was innocent of willful dishonesty and a national treasure did not prevent the authorities from dealing with him harshly and boorishly. The result was a nervous breakdown, hospitalization and self-imposed exile to Germany with profound feelings of rage and humiliation.

Finally, the picture one gets is of a highly emotional soul, not easily adaptable to life in this cold, cruel world, yet very professional and productive and, of course, a genius in the dramatic arts. In the translation by Joan Tate, Bergman writes quite well and one is often caught up and moved by his descriptions. I lapped up every page, but I’m no test because I have a great interest in this particular artist. It was hard for me to believe he has already turned 70. In his book he recalls when at 10 he was given a magic lantern, which projected shadows on the wall. It stimulated a love affair with movies that is touching in its depth of feeling. Now that he is world-renowned and retired from cinema, he writes the following: ‘’My chair is comfortable, the room cosy, it grows dark and the first trembling picture is outlined on the white wall. It is quiet, the projector humming faintly in the well-insulated projection room. The shadows move, turning their faces towards me, urging me to pay attention to their destinies. Sixty years have gone by but the excitement is still the same.'’

Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish film director whose depiction of anguished human relationships made him an icon of the art-house cinema has died. He was 89.

I can't admit to knowing the most about Bergman but the films of his I have seen I have enjoyed. Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, and especially Persona are my favorites. You had to be in the right mood to watch one of his movies. To be ready to invest yourself in it, not something to just pop in the DVD player on a Saturday afternoon.

I'm probably most familiar with Bergman by his sway over Woody Allen. Several of his films have been heavily influence by the director and some (such as Deconstructing Harry) borrow the entire plot. When Allen set out and made his first drama (Interiors) he borrowed the tone of most of Bergman's works.

I should say more but I could never really give the man his justice so I will leave you with this, the opening scene from The Seventh Seal.

Johnny Depp is returning to the role of Hunter S. Thompson, sort of. He will produce and star in an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's autobiographical 1959 book The Rum Diaries. Depp will play Paul Kemp, a freelance newspaper journalist in 1950s Puerto Rico who is surrounded by a group of self-destructive lost souls. Bruce Robinson (Withnail and I) will write and direct the adaptation. Depp just finished shooting Sweeny Todd and is expected to start work on Rum Diaries after he wraps Shantaram, Mira Nair's adaptation of the novel about an Australian drug addict who returns to a life of crime after escaping to India.

Austin sent this to me a few weeks ago but I didn't even think to post it until tonight. Maybe it's because I've heard the song numerous times in the last two days or maybe it's because I saw the horrible trailer for Underdog over the weekend. Either way, here is the really great music video of Spoon's The Underdog.

Watch actor Christopher Walken roast a chicken.

Roger Ebert has added Killer of Sheep to his list of great movies, you can read his wonderfully written review of it here.

I really liked this excerpt.

You have to be prepared to see a film like this, or able to relax and allow it to unfold. It doesn't come, as most films do, with built-in instructions about how to view it. One scene follows another with no apparent pattern, reflecting how the lives of its family combine endless routine with the interruptions of random events. The day they all pile into a car to go to the races, for example, a lesser film would have had them winning or losing. In this film, they have a flat tire, and no spare. Thus does poverty become your companion on every journey.

The first poster from Tim Burton's adaptation of Sweeney Todd was shown at comic-con. I wish I could get more excited about this but I haven't really been a fan of any of Burton's recent work. Maybe when a trailer is released and I can see some of Johnny Depp's performance will help.

The Simpsons Movie

If you are planning on seeing this movie I beg you to not read anything about it beforehand. Part of the joy of watching this was knowing only the slightest of details about the plot and being surprised at every twist and turn.

I laughed all the way through this movie, and actually became a little emotional during the heartfelt scenes. The Simpsons make an effortless leap to the big screen, in my opinion. Using a very large team of the best writers the series has ever had, this amazing team created a movie with a large canvass and a Simpsons story that does innovative things, that does familiar things, and that reminds us of just why The Simpsons was great in the first place.

The movie feels like a classic episode, just extended. I like that the movie is actually about something (I won't say what but it involves a pig, who gets some of the best jokes in the first act) and wasn't just an excuse to string together a series of slapstick comedy. The film has a few sentimental scenes but they never turn to mush. One of them has Julie Kavner (Marge) giving what is easily her best voice work ever. It's the scene that sets up the last act and after it you really believe Homer would do whatever is necessary to right all the things he has screwed up.

This movie is 100% pure Simpsons straight from the top and it put a huge smile on my face for hours after it was over. I was still discussing some of the jokes last night (I saw it Friday afternoon) and laughing at them all over again. I look forward to watching it again and looking for even more jokes, things I’m sure I’ll be finding in repeated viewings.

Listen to Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg talk about The Green Hornet here. The interview is a little annoying because the last question is about The Pineapple Express, a movie I can not get enough news on, but it ends before any answer is given.

A trailer for Things We Lost in the Fire starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro. It's not a great trailer but it looks to be one of Del Toro's better roles. At the very least the movie looks interesting based on his performance.

Apparently the guy who created those digital painting like transitions for Punch Drunk Love killed himself. Read more about it here.

Instead of doing all the work trying to find The Dark Knight teaser, here it is on Youtube.

Here is the trailer for the sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight. No footage is shown but you do get some nice line readings from Michael Caine, Christin Bale and the first sample of Heath Ledger's voice for The Joker.

In order to see the trailer you need to click on the small square on the right, the one that looks sort of like a television with static. It is very easy to miss, but just look for the word "handed", it's next to that.

Someone from a show I don't watch will star in a movie I don't care about. Zachary Quinto, who plays the Sylar (the bad guy) on NBC's Heroes, will play Dr. Spock in the upcoming Star Trek movie, directed by Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams. Not much has been revealed about the plot in the 11th Trek film, but it is believed to be about a young Spock's first encounters with Capt. James T. Kirk at Starfleet Academy.

The only way they could get me interested is if this was a remake of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. I mean, read this plot summary and tell me it isn't the greatest idea for a movie.

It's the 23rd Century, and a mysterious alien power is threatening Earth by evaporating the oceans and destroying the atmosphere. In their frantic attempt to save mankind, Kirk and his crew must time travel back to 1986 San Francisco where they find a world of punk, pizza, and exact-change buses that are as alien to them as anything they've ever encountered in the far reaches of the galaxy. To save Earth from the destructive space probe, Kirk and his fugitive crew go back in time to 20th century Earth to recover two humpback whales, who are the only Earth beings who can respond to it.

In all seriousness, it actually is a really good movie. It's way too bizarre not to be.

Ever wondered what a Kanye West video would look like starring Zach Galifianakis and Will Oldham? Wonder no more.

I didn't mean for the post below to sound negative. Well, I did and I didn't. I thought the trailer would look different but that doesn't mean I am any less excited. I'm glad that Zemeckis is trying something different and I really hope it pays off. Just in the context of the trailer it didn't really feel like a real movie, something felt off. Hopefully when it is all completed I won't feel this way.

You know how I said you couldn't really tell how good Beowulf was going to look until you saw it in action? Well, the trailer is online now and all I can say is that it looks like a really great video game.

Warner Bros. Pictures has confirmed the cast for Watchmen, the big screen adaptation of the seminal DC Comics limited series. I'm actually excited about this since it is one of the few comic books (excuse me, graphic novels) I have actually read.

Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan ("Grey's Anatomy") and Malin Akerman will star in the Warner Bros. movie, which Zack Snyder is directing. Larry Gordon, Lloyd Levin and Deborah Snyder are producing.

Set in an alternate America, Watchmen follows costumed hero Rorschach, who is living a vigilante lifestyle because most masked heroes have retired or been outlawed. While investigating a murder, Rorschach learns that a former masked-hero colleague has been killed, prompting him to begin investigating a possible conspiracy.

Haley will play Walter Kovacs, aka Rorschach, who ignores the ban on costumed vigilantes. This is amazing casting. Not only is he right for the part but we get to see Moocher in a big budget comic book movie (if you don't get the Moocher reference then netflix Breaking Away).

Crudup will play Dr. Manhattan, a superpowered being with godlike powers and temperament. Priceless (if you don't get that reference listen to the voice over on Master Card commercials).

Akerman will play Laurie Juspeczyk/the Silk Spectre, who is involved with Dr. Manhattan -- but that relationship begins to fall apart as he becomes more disconnected from humanity. The only thing I know about her is that she is in one scene of Harold and Kumar.

Goode will play Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, a costumed adventurer who retired voluntarily, disclosed his identity and built a large fortune. He hatches a plot to avert a global catastrophe he believes will be caused by Dr. Manhattan. He seems a little young for this role but he was really good in Match Point and The Lookout.

Wilson will play the Nite-Owl, a crime-figher who uses technical wizardry and has an owl-shaped flying vehicle. Again, perfect. With him and Haley it's a bit like a Little Children reunion and I have no problem with that.

Morgan will play the Comedian, a cigar-chomping, gun-toting vigilante-turned-paramilitary agent. I have no idea who this is but he has a beard in a lot of his photos, so that's good.

Apparently the Harry Potter 6 casting I posted below was just rumors. MTV checked in with the representatives for Naomi Watts, Joseph Fiennes and Stuart Townsend who said the rumors are not true. According to the reps, Watts has not been cast as Narcissa Malfoy, and Fiennes and Townsend are not on board either.

Naomi Watts will appear in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". She has just signed on for the supporting role of Draco's mother Narcissa Malfoy.

Also joining her are Joseph Fiennes and Stuart Townsend, their roles haven't been specified but it's expected both will tie into the flashbacks into the history of Voldemort. It's quite possible Joseph will play either the father of or a younger version of the character his brother Ralph Fiennes portrays.

I have no idea what happens in the next book so I can't really add any details.

The LA Times got a first look at Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf. The film uses the same motion capture technology that Zemeckis used in The Polar Express. A lot of people complained that the characters in that looked like zombies, I never noticed, I think I was too distracted by the 3D quality in IMAX. This, of course, is a much more adult tale and the technology is supposed to have improved. There is no way to really be for certain until you actually see the characters in motion but one section from the story did make me a bit nervous.

His knack for a good scrap is on show in one of the film's pivotal fight scenes when Beowulf battles Grendel in the nude, mano a beast-o. ("Bob asked if he had to be nude, but we said, 'It's in the poem,' " Gaiman explained.) So in a crafty bit of staging to allow a PG-13 rating, Beowulf's naughty bits are obfuscated by random objects in the foreground. It's more subtle and subdued, but shadows, swords, mead flagons and shoulders block all in a sequence not unlike the prankish cloaking device used in "Austin Powers" films.

Here are the images from the story.

I have a suspicion that Wes Anderson has snuck in the final shot from The Darjeeling Limited into the trailer. If you watch at the 1:37 mark there is a tracking shot of the three brothers walking in slow motion. If Anderson is keeping with his past idiosyncrasies then this could very well be the last image, all of his other movies have ended in slow motion.

From Ruhlman.com, Anthony Bourdain thinks that Ratatouille is the best cooking movie ever made.

"I think it's quite simply the best food movie ever made,” Tony wrote today in an email. “The best restaurant movie ever made--the best chef movie. The tiny details are astonishing: The faded burns on the cooks' wrists. The "personal histories" of the cooks...the attention paid to the food...And the Anton Ego ratatouille epiphany hit me like a punch in the chest--literally breathtaking. I saw it in a theater entirely full with adults--and the reaction to that moment was what movie making was once--a long time ago--all about: Audible surprise, delight, awe and even a measure of enlightenment. I am hugely and disproportionately proud that my miniscule contribution (if any) early early in the project's development led to a "thank you" in the credits. Amazing how much they got "right."

The trailer for Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited is finally online. It looks sort of exactly what you would think a Wes Anderson trailer would look like yet just a bit different. I'm not sure what it is but this seems a bit freer, maybe it's just the setting. I'm also really excited about Adrien Brody being in this, he appears to be a perfect fit in the Anderson universe.

Ratatouille

I hadn't planned on seeing two movies last night but I thought it was a better idea to sit in a darkened theater than to wait around in a darkened house for the power to come back on. I'm glad I did though because Ratatouille is every bit as good as any of the other Pixar movies.

This movie sort of snuck up on me. I was enjoying it though out its running time but it wasn't until the final fade out that I realized just how much. Director Brad Bird steers clear of all talking animal movie cliches, not even allowing the rats and the humans verbally communicate. Sure the rats can talk to one another, but when a human observes this is just sounds like, well, like the noise you would imagine a rat making. He also moves his camera as if he was filming a live action motion picture, not an animated one. Depth of focus, long tracking shots, all of these make the movie seem more real (as real as a movie about a cooking rat can seem).

I also liked that Bird didn't dumb down any of the cooking scenes. I didn't think I would ever be watching an animated movie discussing what the role of a seux chef is or that the one thing a soup is missing is a little saffron. There are also small details that really pop, like the virtual jazz like flavors that show up when Remi (our main rat) is tasting something he really loves.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

There is really no reason for me to review this. You either know you are going to see it (and you probably already have) or know that you have no interest. I will say that I put this equal to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as my favorite of the series. It is also the first time I left the theater and actually felt like reading all the books in the series.

I'm also glad that director David Yates will be back for the next movie. He brings a directorial style to this film that fits into the overall series but is all his own.

The first photo from the George Clooney directed Leatherheads has showed up online. In the film, Clooney plays the coach of a wannabe pro football team in the 1920s, in order to snag some attention and create some attention for the sport and his team, he recruits a World War I hero to be his star player (John Krasinski). When both coach and player fall in love with a journalist (Renee Zellweger) who's out to expose them as frauds, screwball hijinx naturally ensue.

Did anyone notice that Justin Timberlake is an Emmy nominee, for co-writing the song Dick in a Box? Did you even know that the Emmys had a "Best Original Song" category?

A very good international trailer for Superbad.

A posting on the absence of Mark Mothersbaugh from Wes Anderson's upcoming The Darjeeling Limited. Apparently the film will feature music from the films of" Satyajit Ray ("The Apu Trilogy") and Merchant Ivory (British/Indian production duo of uptight 19th Century British mien). Mothersbuagh has collaborated on every Anderson picture to date.

I was wasting time on Youtube earlier and came across this, one of my all time favorite trailers.

A series of quick and funny interviews with Superbad's Michael Cera and Johan Hill. Good to see that Hill is now sporting the neck beard.

This is some of the strangest news I have heard. Seth Rogen is in final negotiations to star as the Green Hornet in a Columbia Pictures movie about the crime-fighting hero. Rogen is also set to co-write and co-executive produce along with writing partner Evan Goldberg.

I knew nothing about this particular super hero so I did a little research. The Green Hornet is about Britt Reid, a playboy who inherits his father's crusading newspaper, the Daily Sentinel, and fights crime by night with his sidekick, the martial arts master Kato. The concept started out as a radio serial and was popularized in a 1966

I read that some speculate that Columbia's decision to attach Rogen and Goldberg means the studio plans to take movie in a comic direction, but the only comment from those involved is that the film will be ''in the tradition of the Green Hornet.''

UPDATE:

This is really any more news but I found it interesting. It was posted on CHUD along with their story about Rogen being The Green Hornet. It is from an interview from 2005, while Knocked Up was filming.

Q: Are there any dream roles that you’re looking at? Knocked Up could be opening a whole new world to you.

Rogen: Any superhero in any capacity. I would be Namor.

Q: You would want to wear those Speedos?

Rogen: I would be anyone. If they’re in a comic book, I would be them.

And now the best poster I have seen this year. The trailer should be online soon, it will be appearing in theaters this weekend.

Below is the trailer for Silent Light. I know nothing about this movie other than it won the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. I also don't know anything about the director but I do know that the trailer is fantastic. It's cut perfectly showing spare photography all set to music that fits wonderfully with the images.

Here is a little blurb I read from the second part of a story comparing the movies of 2007 with 1999. I posted the link to the first part of the story a few days ago, you can read this entry here. I'm guessing he saw the movie at a test screening, I know they were taking place in California.

How's The Pineapple Express?

I didn't know I wanted David Gordon Green to riff on Freebie and the Bean with Seth Rogen and James Franco until last night. Between this and The Foot Fist Way, 2007 could easily be the year of Danny McBride. But 2008 will do.

I can't really think of any comment that would be funnier than the image below so I'm not even going to try. The picture is from the upcoming John Rambo.

The Emmy nominations are out. I wish I cared more but I don't. I'm glad The Office was nominated and think The Sopranos deserves everything but I really don't watch most of these shows. (Does anyone actually watch Two and a Half Men?)

DRAMA SERIES
Boston Legal
Grey's Anatomy
Heroes
House
The Sopranos

ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
James Gandolfini, The Sopranos
Hugh Laurie, House
Denis Leary, Rescue Me
James Spader, Boston Legal
Kiefer Sutherland, 24

ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Patricia Arquette, Medium
Minnie Driver, The Riches
Edie Falco, The Sopranos
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Michael Emerson, Lost
Michael Imperioli, The Sopranos
T.R. Knight, Grey's Anatomy
Terry O'Quinn, Lost
Masi Oka, Heroes
William Shatner, Boston Legal

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Lorraine Bracco, The Sopranos
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters
Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy
Aida Turturro, The Sopranos
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy

GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Tim Daly, The Sopranos
Christian Clemenson, Boston Legal
John Goodman, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
David Morse, House
Eli Wallach, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Forest Whitaker, ER

GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Kate Burton, Grey's Anatomy
Leslie Caron, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Marcia Gay Harden, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Elizabeth Reaser, Grey's Anatomy
Jean Smart, 24

COMEDY SERIES
Entourage
The Office
30 Rock
Two and a Half Men
Ugly Betty

ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
Ricky Gervais, Extras
Tony Shalhoub, Monk
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men

ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Kevin Dillon, Entourage
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Rainn Wilson, The Office

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Conchata Ferrell, Two and a Half Men
Jenna Fischer, The Office
Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds
Jaime Pressly, My Name Is Earl
Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty

GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Beau Bridges, My Name Is Earl
Martin Landau, Entourage
Sir Ian McKellen, Extras
Giovanni Ribisi, My Name Is Earl
Stanley Tucci, Monk

GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Dixie Carter, Desperate Housewives
Salma Hayek, Ugly Betty
Judith Light, Ugly Betty
Laurie Metcalf, Desperate Housewives
Elaine Stritch, 30 Rock

REALITY COMPETITION PROGRAM
The Amazing Race
American Idol
Dancing With The Stars
Project Runway
Top Chef

VARIETY, MUSIC, OR COMEDY SERIES
The Colbert Report
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Late Night With Conan O?Brien
Late Show With David Letterman
Real Time With Bill Maher

VARIETY, MUSIC, OR COMEDY SPECIAL
The Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner
The Kennedy Center Honors: A National Celebration Of The Performing Arts
Lewis Black: Red, White & Screwed
Tony Bennett: An American Classic
A Tribute To James Taylor (Great Performances)
Wanda Sykes: Sick And Tired

MINISERIES
Broken Trail
Prime Suspect: The Final Act
The Starter Wife

MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Inside The Twin Towers
Longford
The Ron Clark Story
Why I Wore Lipstick To My Mastectomy

ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Jim Broadbent, Longford
Robert Duvall, Broken Trail
William H. Macy, Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From The Stories Of Stephen King
Matthew Perry , The Ron Clark Story
Tom Selleck, Jesse Stone: Sea Change

ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Queen Latifah , Life Support
Debra Messing, The Starter Wife
Helen Mirren, Prime Suspect: The Final Act
Mary-Louise Parker, The Robber Bride
Gena Rowlands, What If God Were The Sun

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Edward Asner, The Christmas Card
Thomas Haden Church, Broken Trail
Joe Mantegna, The Starter Wife
Aidan Quinn, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
August Schellenberg, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MOVIE
Toni Collette, Tsunami, The Aftermath
Judy Davis, The Starter Wife
Samantha Morton, Longford
Anna Paquin, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Greta Scacchi, Broken Trail

REALITY PROGRAM
Antiques Roadshow
Dog Whisperer With Cesar Millan
Extreme Makeover Home Edition
Kathy Griffin: My Life On The D-List
Penn & Teller: Bull----!

Click here to see a complete list of the nominees.

United Artists has released the first look at Tom Cruise in the upcoming Bryan Singer directed Valkyrie. Cruise stars as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the aristocratic German officer who led the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944.

Below are two images of Cruise, the first being a comparison of Stauffenberg (left) to Cruise and the second being a full color look at the actor in his German garb. The resemblance between the two is striking but I'm a little nervous how this is going to turn out. Is Cruise going to be using a German accent? If they aren't going to go all the way and film this in the German language I almost would prefer they go The Last Temptation of Christ route and not use accents at all.

Rotten Tomatoes has published an article showing off the best and worst reviewed movies of the first six months of 2007.

Best Reviewed Movies:
1. "Ratatouille"
2. "Away From Her"
3. "Once"
4. "Knocked Up"
5. "Hot Fuzz"
6. "Sicko"
7. "The Host"
8. "Zodiac"
9. "Waitress"
10. "The Lookout"
11. "The Wind That Shakes The Barley"
12. "The Italian"
13. "The Hoax"
14. "Red Road"
15. "Breach""Bridge to Terabithia"
16. "Bridge to Terabithia"
17. "The Namesake"
18. "After the Wedding"
19. "Grindhouse"
20. "An Unreasonable Man"

Worst Reviewed Movies:
1. "Because I Said So"
2. "The Reaping"
3. "Premonition"
4. "The Number 23"
5. "Norbit"
6. "Perfect Stranger"
7. "Happily N'Ever After"
8. "Are We Done Yet? "
9. "Code Name: The Cleaner"
10. "Hannibal Rising"

From the Belfast Telegraph:

The Cerne Abbas Giant is used to having things his own way. Not only does he wield two mighty clubs - one military, one anatomical - but he stands 55m tall, and has been considered a fertility symbol for four centuries.

Indeed, so potent is the Giant's chalky mojo, that couples struggling to conceive are still said to visit his hillside home for a grassy liaison. But yesterday there was a new alpha male in North Dorset. He wields a doughnut instead of a club. He has four fingers on each hand and four toes on each foot. Only three hairs sprout from his bulbous head. And his unmentionables are, mercifully, covered by the world's largest pair of Y-Fronts. His name is Homer Simpson.


The new chalk drawing is the brainchild of the publicity team behind The Simpsons Movie, which premieres in Britain next week. The artist Peter Stuart was commissioned to create a rival "chalk man" next to the Giant, and Stuart, a self-confessed Simpsons fan, leapt at the chance. The work - which, at 70m by 50m, required 200 litres of biodegradable white paint - started two days ago.

"We started very early on Sunday morning by laying the outline for the grid," said Stuart. "Today it's taken us over five hours to complete the painting of Homer Simpson. But it's all been worth it."

British Simpsons fans, whose legions include the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Hawking and Tony Blair, will, no doubt, be tickled by the chalk Homer. But not everyone is happy. Pagans, who believe the Giant is a spiritual icon, are dismayed by this bold new artwork, and, in particular, the accompanying encouragement for young couples to "do it in the doughnut".

"It's very disrespectful and not at all aesthetically pleasing," said Ann Bryn-Evans, joint Wessex district manager for The Pagan Federation. "I'm amazed they got permission to do something so ridiculous. We were hoping for some dry weather but I think I have changed my mind. We'll be doing some rain magic to bring the rain and wash it away."

They should save their magic for a drought. The wet weather that has blighted the summer is set to continue (although Cerne Abbas could be dry until tomorrow) meaning that those wishing to see Mr Simpson in all his glory will have to move fast: as soon as the rains come, this Homer will wash away. D'oh!

Ron Howard will direct an adaptation of "The Emperor's Children," Claire Messud's 2006 novel about New York's upper crust, based on a script by Noah Baumbach.

The book is about Ivy League grads approaching their 30s with trepidation in 2001. Baumbach, a writer who has shown an affinity for writing about the East Coast elite and this sounds a bit like his earlier movie, "Kicking and Screaming".

Howard's busy directing schedule includes "Frost/Nixon," "Angels & Demons," the prequel to "The Da Vinci Code" for Columbia. Imagine has also set up remakes of the French thriller "Cache" and '70s sci-fi film "Colossus: The Forbin Project" as possible directing projects for Howard.

Baumbach has also written and directed "The Squid and the Whale" and the upcoming "Margot at the Wedding."

Watching Live Free or Die Hard tonight I had the idea of what the movie should have been. It's actually a movie already made and a movie already made starring Bruce Willis, his 2006 film 16 Blocks. Just read this plot description and tell me it doesn't sound more like a Die Hard movie than Willis going up against a bunch of internet terrorists.

John McClane (of course I changed this to fit my theory), a burnt-out New York detective, is assigned the unenviable task of transporting a fast-talking convict (Mos Def) from the jail to a courthouse. However, along the way he learns that the man is supposed to testify against McClane's colleagues, and the entire NYPD wants him dead. McClane must choose between loyalty to his colleagues and protecting the witness, and never has such a short distance seemed so long.

So I know it's not perfect but if you ironed out a few kinks I think it could have worked. You have the sidekick, the single day story the other films have employed, and McClane burnt out and overcoming insurmountable odds. Hell, make Mos Def's convict Argyle the limo driver from the first film and the series comes full circle. That last sentence was a joke, sort of.

Live Free or Die Hard

I think Die Hard is the best action movie of all time. Die Hard 2: Die Harder is a step down but still fun and Die Hard With a Vengeance is over the top and fun and I have a special appreciation for it. Live Free or Die Hard is the worst kind of movie, not good and not bad enough, just mediocre. It just lays there like a dead fist.

In fact the movie bears little resemblance to any of the other outings in the series. Other than the fact that Bruce Willis' dry humor is intact and he still get the shit beat out of him, this doesn't even feel like a Die Hard film. It's just like any other run of the mill action feature.

The one compliment I can give the movie is that I thought Justin Long's character would be annoying and distracting but he isn't, he actually holds his own. Faint praise, I know. And as mentioned before Willis' humor and his likability as John McClane adds to something, just not enough.

The movie also features the single dumbest jet pilot in the history of film. Just ridiculous and it really took me out of the movie during the whole action sequence.

I don't really ever read celebrity gossip and I never post it on the website but anything that has to do with Jon Lovitz kicking the crap out of Andy Dick gets my support. From Page Six. (Yes, I realize the paradox of saying that I don't read celebrity gossip and then posting it, proving that I must have been reading it today. The truth is, on the Entertainment Weekly news round up they post a few random gossip related headlines at the bottom of the page and that is where this story came from.)

IT was fight night at an L.A. comedy club last week when Jon Lovitz roughed up Andy Dick over the murder of their "Saturday Night Live" colleague, Phil Hartman.

Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada, who witnessed the assault, said, "Jon picked Andy up by the head and smashed him into the bar four or five times, and blood started pouring out of his nose." Lovitz told Page Six, "All the comedians are glad I did it because this guy is a [bleep]hole."

Lovitz and Dick have been at loggerheads since a 1997 Christmas party at Hartman's house, five months before his troubled wife Brynn flipped out, fatally shooting Hartman, then killing herself. "Andy was doing cocaine, and he gave Brynn some after she had been sober for 10 years. Phil was furious about it - and then five months later he's dead," said Lovitz, adding that when he filled in on Hartman's "Newsradio" sitcom, "I told Andy, 'I wouldn't be here now if you hadn't given Brynn that cocaine.' "

Last year, Lovitz related, a drunken Dick strolled up to his table at Ago in West Hollywood, rudely downed his guests' peach liqueur drinks, and "looked at me and said, 'I put the "Phil Hartman hex" on you - you're the next one to die.' I said, 'What did you say?' and he repeated it. I wanted to punch his face in, but I don't hit women."

When the two ran into each other at the Laugh Factory last Wednesday, "I wanted him to say he was sorry for the 'Phil Hartman hex,' " Lovitz told us. "First he says, 'I don't remember saying that.' Then he leans in and says, 'You know why I said it? Because you said I killed Phil Hartman.' Which I never said. Then he asked me to be in his new movie.

"I grabbed him by the shirt and leaned him over and said, 'I don't want to be in your movie! I don't want to be in your life!' I pushed him against the rail. Then I pushed him again really hard. A security guard broke it up. I'm not proud of it . . . but he's a disgusting human being." Dick's rep said he had no comment.

Dick's weirdness has been well documented. Last year, he licked the faces of Farrah Fawcett, Carrie Fisher and Patton Oswalt, then groped and bit the hand of Post reporter Mandy Stadtmiller at a comedy-festival taping.

John Carney, the director of one of the best movies of the Year, Once, has set up his next project. The movie revolves around the son of a dead rock legend who has managed to live as a recluse by slowly selling off his dad's memorabilia. But he runs out of things to sell and is forced to sell the townhouse his father left him. The imminent sale forces the man to come to terms with himself and his role as a father to a teenage son.

The comedy, which will shoot on the East Coast, is based on a novel by Tish Cohen.

The Pineapple Express screens for the first time and tons of reviews hit Ain't It Cool (not actually tons, just four).

Jerry Seinfeld is going to return to television but only for one episode. He is going to guest star on an episode of 30 Rock, hopefully it will be one written by Tina Fey as some of the other episodes are excruciating to watch. Below are a couple of quotes from the press release.

"I was thrilled to be asked to guest star on NBC's hit comedy '30 Rock'. I think it's going to be so refreshing for me to be playing myself in a show that has nothing to do with neurotic, dysfunctional New York characters," said Jerry Seinfeld.

"We're very excited to have Jerry on '30 Rock'. Finally, my parents have an excuse to watch the show," added Tina Fey, star/creator/executive producer of "30 Rock."

Lauren sent this to me so I have to give her the credit for finding this. I've watched it three times now and I find something different to laugh at each time. Each viewing also gets me a little more excited to see Superbad when it hits theaters in August.

This is from a press release I just read on the Entertainment Weekly website. I'm not sure if this is the worst idea in the history of television but it has to be near the top. Sadly, I am sure I will watch at least the first episode.

NBC COMMITS TO A NEW CELEBRITY VERSION OF 'THE APPRENTICE’ FEATURING
DONALD TRUMP AS CELEBRITY CONTESTANTS VIE TO BE THE BEST BUSINESS BRAIN
UNDER TRUMP’S TUTELAGE

Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. Return to the Boardroom

BURBANK -- July 16, 2007 -- NBC has renewed "The Apprentice" for mid-season
with a creative twist. In a new celebrity version of the popular series,
celebrity contestants will vie for Donald Trump's attention in what will be
the highest-profile competition in the groundbreaking series' run, it was
announced today by Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment and
Universal Media Studios.

An email Q & A between cinematographer Gordon Willis and The Reeler talking about Woody Allens's Manhattan.

This isn't that interesting and I am really only posting this to waste some time but here are a few actors websites I have come across.

Bill Allen of Rad.

William Sadler of The Shawshank Redemption, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, and of course the Grim Reaper in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.

An article comparing the this years movies to one of the best years of movie history, 1999.

Harry Potter and the Four Directors. A look at how each director has approached and visualized Harry's world.

A leaked movie clip from Todd Haynes Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There. This scene featuring Cate Blanchett as Dylan and David Cross as Allen Ginsberg.

Songs That Were Redefined by Movies.

I would add Please Mr. Postman by the Marvelettes from the pool house fight in Mean Streets and Aimee Mann's Wise Up from Magnolia. Those are just off the top of my head, I'm sure there are many more that should be added.

The one I was most surprised about was Austin Powers. Not because it doesn't belong but becuase I had forgot how great the opening was. I love the shot of him being chased around a corner by a group of girls only to turn around and be leading a marching band.

Michael Moore has revealed that the anti-gay Christian right movement might be the topic of his next documentary. He told magazine The Advocate that "I think it's a very ripe subject for someone like me to make a movie about. Simply because we are not there yet and it remains one of the last open wounds on our soul that we are not willing to fix yet."

He goes on to say "There is nowhere in the four Gospels where Jesus uses the word homosexual. The right wing has appropriated this guy ... and they have used him to attack gays and lesbians, when he never said a single word against people who are homosexual. Anyone who professes to be a Christian and does that is certainly not following the teachings of Jesus Christ."

This is from Hollywood Elsewhere.

"It's not a rumor: Superbad is a bolt out of the blue -- the funniest, most cleverly written youth comedy in I-don't-know-how-many- years, and it's going to be a huge money machine when it opens on 8.17. Produced by Judd Apatow and cowritten by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, it's a better teen-sex film -- funnier, wilder, more truthful -- than The 40 Year-Old Virgin or Knocked Up are in their respective realms.

It also marks the return of director Greg Mottola, who's been working steadily on television but languishing in movie jail since the success d'estime of The Daytrippers eleven years ago.

Superbad also heralds the arrival of the funniest comic trio since the post-Duck Soup Marx Brothers -- Jonah Hill (the sociopathic big-mouthed fat guy), Michael Cera (the bright, quiet, thoughtful guy) and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (the dweeby, pale-faced nerd). I'm serious -- these guys are the total dynamo right now. You should have heard the crowd laughing last night at the Arclight. The oil was blowing out of the ground and splattering everyone in sight."

See Indiana Jones in action, albeit very brief. My biggest question: What is with George Lucas' look at the end of the video?

An interesting article about the fall of The Simpsons.

Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce are starring in Traitor, a spy thriller from Overature Films. Cheadle is also co-producing, and Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow) will direct from his own script. Here is where the story becomes a little weird, the movie is based on an original idea from Steve Martin. Yes, that Steve Martin.

Cheadle will play a CIA operative working undercover with a terrorist group who becomes a suspect himself. Pearce will play an FBI agent investigating the operative.''The movie deals with the subject of terrorism evenhandedly,'' Hoberman said. ''It's not black and white but gray and religious-based.''

This was taken from Hollywood Elsewhere.

"We are a Date Destination for Grownups," Landmark megaplex co-owner Mark Cuban tells L.A. Times columnist Patrick Goldstein in a piece about a pair of cool movie-watching houses in West Los Angeles. "You aren't going to see kids running around. There won't be Hostel 33 or Saw 15 playing. We will program for our audience. The mix will still lean toward art and indie fare simply because that is how great movies geared toward adults skew."

Cuban further predicts that the Landmark will be the beneficiary of this glut of new product. "Some producers will face some financial pain," he says. "But it will result in better movies making it to our screens. Good movies will find an audience."

For some reason it seems every movie company decided to release trailers for their upcoming films today. Here are three more:

Jerry Seinfeld's Bee Movie.

Sleuth with Michael Caine and Jude Law.

Fred Claus, the worst of the three trailers here. Maybe I only feel that way because they released a very funny teaser for this last year and this just looks blah. Here is a link to the teaser.

The thing I like most about Judd Apatow's comedy troupe is that they don't sit around and wait for job offers, they write their own movies so they can star in them. Right now Jason Segel is off filming his first script and it seems Jonah Hill is not far behind. He told MTV that he'll be starring in yet another Apatow-produced flick, Pure Imagination. Hill wrote the script and will produce along with Apatow and will apparently follow a guy who isn't sure whether his new girlfriend is real or not.

According to Hill, "Basically, I go through a bunch of traumatic stuff, and I develop an imaginary friend. Then what happens is I meet a girl, and we start dating ... but the problem is I don't know whether she [actually] exists [or] whether she's a figment of my imagination. It's basically a relationship movie, but the whole time I'm trying to avoid finding out whether she's real or not." Hill goes on to say that the goal is to mix their brand of down-to-earth relatable humor with some of the more extravagant (in terms of visuals) stuff you'll find in a Spike Jonze or Michel Gondry film. "It's kind of like a little bit artsier," he notes.

The trailer for Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah
is now online. It stars Tommy Lee Jones who is in a bit of a career renaissance right now with The Three Buriels of Melquiades Estrada, No Country for Old Men, and this.

The teaser trailer for Get Smart, starring Steve Carell.

I really liked this line for Roger Ebert's review of Transformers

"How can a pickup truck contain enough mass to unfold into a towering machine? I say if Ringling Brothers can get 15 clowns into a Volkswagen, anything is possible."

Transformers

Transformers is a big, dumb, fun action/sci fi movie. If you go into the theater with any other mindset you might be disappointed but if you just want to watch giant robots beat each other up you will probably have a good time.

I liked the fact that the movie sort of revels in its absurdity. At one point a charter actually claims "This is 100 times cooler than Armageddon!" We are also treated to such scenes are robots hiding from the main characters parents in his back yard. At least the movie knows its ridiculous.

The main thing that keeps the film afloat is Shia Labouf, he is probably the only character worth caring about. I like that they never make him into a full fledged hero, he is almost just going along for the ride and he displays real emotions when cornered by enemy robots, he doesn't always know what to do.

The movie is a little too long. It takes its time setting up the situation and most of the the first hour plays like a teen comedy, it is here that Labouf really shines, when he is off camera you become a little less interested.

Nobody blows stuff up as good as Michael Bay and this movie is no different. The camera is constantly swooping left or right and the explosions are unrelenting. The action scenes here become a little monotonous after awhile but they still look great. I left the movie wanting to walk in slow motion with patriotic music and a giant fireball behind me. It's stupid but it looks so damn cool.

If you saw Transfomers this week then chances are you saw this trailer. It's a J.J. Abrams produced movie that seems to be a mix of War of the Worlds and The Blair Witch Project. There isn't really any other information about it, not even a title.

There is only one reason why I want to see this movie.

Spielberg on Spielberg

This actually came out last week but just a reminder that one of the best movies of the year is out on DVD.

Roger Ebert reviews my favorite movie of last year, The Departed.


"Note: I was ill when "The Departed" was released last year, and given its Oscar-winning stature, I wanted to double back and review it.

Most of Martin Scorsese's films have been about men trying to realize their inner image of themselves. That's as true of Travis Bickle as of Jake LaMotta, Rupert Pupkin, Howard Hughes, the Dalai Lama, Bob Dylan or, for that matter, Jesus Christ. "The Departed" is about two men trying to live public lives that are the radical opposites of their inner realities. Their attempts threaten to destroy them, either by implosion or fatal betrayal. The telling of their stories involves a moral labyrinth, in which good and evil wear each other's masks.

The story is inspired by "Infernal Affairs" (2002) by Alan Mak and Andrew Lau, the most successful Hong Kong film of recent years. Indeed, having just re-read my 2004 review of that film, I find I could change the names, cut and paste it, and be discussing this film. But that would only involve the surface, the plot and a few philosophical quasi-profundities. What makes this a Scorsese film, and not merely a retread, is the director's use of actors, locations and energy, and its buried theme. I am fond of saying that a movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it. That's always true of a Scorsese film.

This one, a cops-and-gangster picture set in Boston rather than, say, New York or Vegas, begins with a soda fountain scene that would be at home in "Goodfellas." What is deliberately missing, however, is the initial joy of that film. Instead of a kid who dreamed of growing up to be a mobster, we have two kids who grow up as imposters: One becomes a cop who goes undercover as a gangster, and the other becomes a gangster who goes undercover as a cop.

Matt Damon is Colin Sullivan, the kid spotted in that soda fountain by mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). He enlists in the state police after Costello handpicks him so many years before as a promising spy. Leonardo DiCaprio is Billy Costigan, an ace police cadet who is sent undercover by Capt. Queenan (Martin Sheen) to infiltrate Costello's gang. Both men succeed with their fraudulent identities; Colin rises in the force, and Billy rises in the mob.

The story's tension, which is considerable, depends on human nature. After several years, both men come to identify with, and desire the approval of, the men they are deceiving. This may be a variant of the Stockholm syndrome; for that matter, we see it all the time in politicians who consider themselves public servants even though they are thieves. If you are going to be a convincing gangster, you have to be prepared to commit crimes. If a convincing cop, you have to be prepared to bust bad guys, even some you know. Protect your real employers and you look fishy. "The Departed" turns the screw one more time because each man is known to only one or a few of the men on the side he's working for. If Billy's employer, Capt. Queenan, gets killed, who can testify that Billy is really a cop?

Ingenious additional layers of this double-blind are added by the modern devices of cell phones and computers. When the paths of the two undercover men cross, as they must, will they eventually end up on either end of the same phone call? When the cops suspect they have an informer in their midst, what if they assign the informer to find himself? The traps and betrayals of the undercover life are dramatized in one of my favorite moments, when one of the characters is told, "I gave you the wrong address. But you went to the right one."

Although many of the plot devices are similar in Scorsese's film and the Hong Kong "original," this is Scorsese's film all the way because of his understanding of the central subject of so much of his work: guilt. It is reasonable to assume that Boston working-class men named Costigan, Sullivan, Costello, Dignam and Queenan were brought up as Irish-American Catholics, and that if they have moved outside the church's laws, they have nevertheless not freed themselves of a sense of guilt.

The much-married Scorsese once told me that he thought he would go to hell for violating the church's rules on marriage and divorce, and I believed him. Now think of the guilt when you are simultaneously (1) committing crimes and (2) deceiving the men who depend on you. Both Billy and Colin are doing that, although perhaps only a theologian could name their specific sin. A theologian, or Shakespeare, whose advice from Polonius they do not heed: "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

Another amateur theologian, Hemingway, said it's good if you feel good afterward, and bad if you feel bad afterward. Colin and Billy feel bad all of the time, and so their lives involve a performance that is a lie. And that is the key to the performances of DiCaprio and Damon: It is in the nature of the movies that we believe most characters are acting or speaking for themselves. But in virtually every moment in this movie, except for a few key scenes, they are not. Both actors convey this agonizing inner conflict so that we can sense and feel it, but not see it; they're not waving flags to call attention to their deceptions. In that sense, the most honest and sincere characters in the movie are Queenan (Sheen), Costello (Nicholson), and Costello's right-hand man, French (Ray Winstone, that superb British actor who invests every line with the authority of God dictating to Moses).

It's strange that Jack Nicholson and Scorsese have never worked together, since they seem like a natural fit; he makes Frank Costello not a godfather, not a rat, not a blowhard, but a smart man who finally encounters a situation no one could fight free of, because he simply lacks all the necessary information. He has a moment and a line in this movie that stands beside Joe Pesci's work at a similar moment in "Goodfellas."

There is another character who is caught in a moral vise, and may sense it although she cannot for a long time know it. That is Madolyn (Vera Farmiga), a psychologist who works for the police, and who coincidentally comes to know both Colin and Billy. Her loyalty is not to her employer but to her client -- and oh, what a tangled web that becomes.

It is intriguing to wonder what Scorsese saw in the Hong Kong movie that inspired him to make the second remake of his career (after "Cape Fear"). I think he instantly recognized that this story, at a buried level, brought two sides of his art and psyche into equal focus. We know that he, too, was fascinated by gangsters. In making so many films about them, about what he saw and knew growing up in Little Italy, about his insights into their natures, he became, in a way, an informant.

I have often thought that many of Scorsese's critics and admirers do not realize how deeply the Catholic Church of pre-Vatican II could burrow into the subconscious, or in how many ways Scorsese is a Catholic director. This movie is like an examination of conscience, when you stay up all night trying to figure out a way to tell the priest: I know I done wrong, but, oh, Father, what else was I gonna do?"

I stole this from Hollywood Elsewhere, it's a still from the trailer to Shoot 'Em Up. I really had little interest seeing this but Paul Giamatti playing what appears to be an over the top bad guy has piqued my interest.



Here is the trailer.