I wouldn’t hold my breath on Coppola though. I’ve always considered him highly overrated. Add to that the fact that the best he’s done since Apocalypse Now is Dracula and there’s really no reason to be more than morbidly curious about this one.

Nice to see Phillip Bosco getting some love though. He is awesome and needs to be in more movies. Gotta love when he calls Sigourney out in Working Girl. Gold!

You have to admit that Zemeckis hasn’t been on his game lately though. Don’t get me wrong. I love his work, but lately the old spark just doesn’t seem to be there.

He really needs to hook back up with Bob Gale and crank out some zany adventure movie again. That would be cool!

… That kicks ASS! This is what Die Hard 4 should’ve been (and possibly a sequel entitled Die Hard: Sweeneyer Todd). It could’ve been about John McClane shaving his balding head head (so you can have Bruce Willis running around sans a toupée like he did in Die Limp) and discovering that he gives a wicked close shave, but all of a sudden, Alan Rickman shows up playing a clone of Hans Gruber, and him and McClane engage in a dance (and song) of death, one which ultimately culminates in a straight razor being jammed in a certain smug eastern European’s eye.

I hadn’t heard of There Will Be Blood!, but yeah… I am most definitely IN on this one. As for the Academy having something against P. T. Anderson… Perhaps he’s gay? That’s pretty much the reason why James Dean has one Oscar instead of two. The Academy voters who denied Dean an Oscar nomination for Rebel Without a Cause (I know it wasn’t common then, but if anyone deserved two nominations in the same catagory at a single ceremony, it was James Dean in 1956) and only a single, begrudingly-awarded Oscar for his two nominations are the same ones who still vote today, older and largely unseen, but bigoted and voting in full nonetheless, keeping obvious Best Pictures like Brokeback Mountain from winning (perhaps that’s why they selected Crash instead, in an attempt to deflect any criticism for being discriminatory with a “But we picked the ‘RACISM IS BAD!’ movie!”). Whether or not Dean was actually gay or someone who experimented sexually can’t be said, but as far as the Academy was concerned, he was gay. In actuality, I know P. T. Anderson isn’t gay; I just wanted an excuse to go on that little, potentially slanderous, rambling tirade.

I knew The Golden Compass was coming out at some point, but having never read it, I had little interest in it until just now, upon being promised drunken polar bears and Arctic concentration camps. It’s just as I feared: He’s not Santa Claus, he’s Santa Klaus, and he’s here to preserve the legacy of sein Führer. I must find my way to this film to learn the truth behind their terrible Nazi scheme. The Darjeeling Limited is playing at the art house I saw Lust, Caution in (ironically a former porno theater), and I can say that thanks soley to my absolute distaste for the film’s three stars, I’ve made no attempt whatsoever to even get an idea as to what the hell it’s about (although the concept of camouflaging Owen Wilson’s nose in some fashion does intrigue me and make me grateful; oft-injured sportsman my ass, I know a cokehead’s nose when I see one). As for No Country for Old Men, well… It’s noir, it’s the Coen brothers, and it looks like it’s going to be a bloody good time.

Southland Tales seems like it’s going to be a weird, quasi-Sci-Fi, quasi-Acid Western-type movie, and if it’s from the guy who did Donnie Darko, I’m sure he’s capable of pulling it off; however, being capable of doing something and actually doing it are two entirely different things, and considering the fact that Stiffler’s got half of the top billing (I actually like The Rock) and Justin Timberlake has a role on some level, things don’t bode well for this film in my book.

I hadn’t heard of Cassandra’s Dream until now, but considering the cast (I especially like Ewan McGregor) and the fact that creepy, borderline (or just outright convicted) sex offenders seem to make great movies (Roman Polanski, etc.), I’ll definitely give it a look. I can’t say I’ve even seen the first National Treasure, but I recall the trailers for it being intriguing, and Book of Secrets’ plot sounds pretty interesting as well.

I’m probably going to pass on Charlie Wilson’s War. For some reason, Tom Hanks is just incapable of putting my ass in a movie theater seat all by himself; there has to be a hook to get me into one of his movies (i. e., boy becomes man, man is retarded, man is stranded on island, etc. I’m describing three different movies, but the way I chose to word said descriptions makes it seem like I’m describing one totally badass movie). As for Aaron Sorkin, well… I didn’t find Sports Night funny in the least, and The West Wing was based around too unrealistic of a premise for my taste; though the idea is exhilarating, no one even remotely liberal would ever stand a chance of becoming president in an America where the issues on that show remain issues, let alone someone like Josiah Bartlet. Oh, and what is this December “28st” you speak of? Is it anything like the twenty-eigth? Or are you talking about that Andrea 8st broad who freaked out and drowned her five kids in the bathtub?

Now, I can usually do without Ethan Hawke as well, but I’m with you on this one: with Phillip Seymour Hoffman (or, as my friend and I called him prior to winning the Oscar, the fish (SEE: his initials); since winning the Oscar, we feel Aquaman is an appropriate term of endearment) in it and Sidney Lumet directing (Twelve Angry Men, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon were all damn good, and I think Network is the second finest film on this Earth, although I do have some problems with Fail-Safe (by some I mean one, and by one, I mean the terrible and psychotically revered ending)), it’ll definitely be something to check out.

As for your not-quite-top-ten list, I’ve heard fleetingly of The Kite Runner; there was some Dakota Fanning-style controversy over a child abuse scene or something. As for Rendition, that’s definitely on my “to see” list; it’s not so much about the Middle East as it is about the CIA’s black sites in the Middle East being used to torture honest Americans who just “go missing”. I’ve been absolutely DYING to see American Gangster, but I can’t say I have any interest in Beowulf, unless the video game of the movie counts. Now, while I do agree with you on The Good Earth (dear God, I never thought I would want a main character horribly maimed and murdered like I did Scarlett O’Hara, but hot damn, the prick in this took the title!) is horribly overrated and just flatout lousy, The Catcher in the Rye is… Well, okay, The Catcher in the Rye is overrated, but nothing can be as good as Catcher is often made out to be, and at any rate, it’s still a damn good book.

A question regarding The Mist: You read the story it was based on because Stephen King wrote it? Does this imply that you read everything Stephen King writes? I would have to strongly doubt this, considering you’d have neither the time nor energy to write the quarterly article for this site if you read everything that man shat out.

Juno seems like it might be decent, Youth Without Youth I’m totally disinterested in on account of Coppola’s last movie and the title, The Savages sounds like a rental, and I Am Legend will be getting my cash on opening fucking weekend.

I can assure you that I’ll NOT be seeing Alvin and the Chipmunks, and the last two Saws were nowhere near good enough to get my money in the theater, but Alien vs. Predator: Requiem? I am SO in there, especially considering that they decided it was okay for a spin-off of to gorey, R rated franchises to be gorey and R rated (although I felt the first and painfully PG-13 AvP was rather good).

“Now nobody can say I don’t own John Larroquette’s spine!”

As for your other concerns/complaints/rants yes, there IS a December 28st (it’s like the 28th, but cooler) and there is at least one drunken polar bear in the book (the sequel books involve a man declaring war on God, if drunken polar bears aren’t badass enough for you) of “The Golden Compass” and I too want to see “I am Legend” more with each trailer that I see, particularly after that one involving a lion pouncing on a deer in downtown Manhattan. I also think your “Die Hard” idea is completely awesome.

By the way, is “Lust, Caution” any good? Or is it another oh-so-precious artsy-fartsy independent flicks that an average person (or someone striving to maintain a social life) can safely pass on? Because, if so, I’m about three King books behind and could definitely make better use of two hours.

I’d give Lust, Caution a very strong three stars (out of four, to hell with all that other non-four star rating system bullshit), bordering extremely close to three and a half (this one’s out of five; just kidding). It was surprisingly non-artsy-fartsy, assuming you’re not the type who finds Pabst Blue Ribbon (and thusly anything with subtitles and an intricate plot) to be upscale. The much-discussed sex scenes are nothing special (unless you’re fifteen, then they’re probably the cat’s ass), they just tend to use a wider shot than your typical movie sex scene and sport a fair amount of muff and the occasional glimpse of genetalia. Honestly, if fucking Hostel and Saw III were rated R, that this movie is rated NC-17 is just… UGH.

In short, it’s good, and very tightly made (and Oscar worthy in the direction, art direction, and source material (would this be the “best adapted screenplay” award?) departments (as well as a few acting departments)), but if you have to go out of your way to see it in a theater, I’d say that you’re should just wait for it to come out on video (or DVD, or whatever already-on-its-last-legs-format they release these kinds of things on now).

By the way, as if you’d been hiding beneath a large rock somewhere, the rating system in this country is completely nuts. I think it should be more socially acceptable to see what everyone already has between their legs anyway than to see someone getting appendages torn off with household appliances…though I did spend the week watching Hostel 1 and 2, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (which really is ingeniously deranged), Return of the Living Dead and a few other flicks that had rampant bodily mutilation in them, so I’m not saying we should do away with them altogether. I’m simply saying that we should make them more taboo than just regular sex scenes between two consenting adults, something most human beings will experience for themselves at some point anyway. The fact that it’s the opposite right now just seems completely bizarre.