Daily Loaf

Are you a film fanatic who’s always dreamed of writing your own review of a big Hollywood release? If so, we’ve got just the offer for you: The winning bidder will accompany Associate Editor Joe Bardi (left) to a special preview screening of a major upcoming release. (That’s “preview,” as in “see it before it opens and make your friends jealous.”) Love it? Hate it? Either way, you sort out your thoughts and write the CL movie review for the chosen film — to run in both the print and online editions of Creative Loafing. After you’ve completed the review, attract readers with your own media blitz, including an appearance on CL’s Reel Projections podcast and heavy promotion of your review through Twitter, Facebook and CLTampa.com. Soon, thousands of CL readers will look to you for guidance on what movie to see next. Feel the power!

Suggested opening bid: $50

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As Telly Savalas used to say: Membership has its privileges. The winner of this auction item gets an annual membership for two at Tampa Bay’s favorite old-time movie palace, the Tampa Theatre. The membership includes 12 free movie tickets; $2 off Tampa Theatre-sponsored screenings; free refills on popcorn, soda and coffee from the concession stand; subscriptions to both the theater’s in-house newsletter and e-newsletter; free admission to the annual members’ reception (including a VIP hour before the event); and reduced admission prices to theater fundraisers. Tampa Theatre values these memberships at $200 each, and if you’re like us you’ll save that on refilled popcorn alone.

Estimated value: $200.

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Your little girl is growing up right before your eyes. It seems like only yesterday she was singing along with Hannah Montana, but now she’s dreaming of junior high school pep rallies and cramming for her PSATs. After exhaustive research, we have put together the perfect gift pack for the tweenage girl on your list. Included are DVDs of the cheerleading hit Bring It On: Fight To The Finish (starring High School Musical’s Christina Milian) and ABC’s college hit Greek: Chapter Three, and one The Twilight Saga: New Moon T-shirt. Plus, if you act now, we’ll throw in a New Moon poster and commemorative card set and — for your own movie-going pleasure — two adult admissions, including refreshments, to Channelside Cinemas 10.

Estimated value: $100. Suggested opening bid: $10

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Hard to believe, but the holiday season is in full swing at the multiplex. The last few weeks have already seen the release of some big blockbusters (2012, A Christmas Carol) and at least one surefire Oscar contender (Precious, which had a smash limited release last weekend and was just announced for a Fri., Nov. 20 opening in Tampa bay), and Hollywood promises the best is yet to come. With six weeks until January, here are 12 must-see titles to close out the decade.

Friday, November 20
WHAT’S HOT: THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON
They’re hot, moody and in love. Only problem: He’s a vampire who’s gotta get a move on, driving her into the arms of a group of vampire-hating werewolves. The buzz on the latest Twilight film is out of control, led by recent revelations that stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are necking in real life. The franchise is becoming more cultural touchstone than mere film series, and New Moon looks poised to propel the “Saga” into the upper echelon of high-grossing film series like Harry Potter and Star Wars. Believe it.
COUNTER-PROGRAMMING: AN EDUCATION
If all that Twilight hokum sounds a bit childish, the Tampa Theatre will be opening director Lone Scherfig’s An Education in direct competition with the vampires. Starring Carey Mulligan as a 17-year-old student who falls in love with a much older man (Peter Sarsgaard) only to get an early lesson in heartbreak, An Education made film-fest waves earlier in the year after the film picked up an Audience Choice Award at Sundance. Also of note: British novelist Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy) co-wrote the screenplay.

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With this weekend’s release of Twilight: New Moon, the superfans’ ravenous appetite for handsomely brooding bloodhounds will be temporarily satiated. But it won’t be long before they’re craving more, more, more! So what better way to suck up than the ultimate vampire gift-pack: a New Moon reusable, aluminum water bottle (BPA-free!), two different New Moon T-shirts, a New Moon poster (size 11 1/2” x 17”), a set of New Moon Commemorative Cards, and the two-disc Special Edition DVD of the original Twilight movie. And in case that still doesn’t quiet your bloodlust (particularly the lust part), we’re throwing in the Complete First Season DVD of HBO’s red-hot series True Blood.

Current Bid: $20

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When you strip away all the pomp and circumstance from rock ’n’ roll — the fashion and politics and drugs and groupies and stardom and burnout — what’s usually left is a few simple chords and a tune you can hum. In the 50-plus years since Chuck Berry, Little Richard, etc. created an art form, rock ’n’ roll music has morphed from a powerful expression of freedom and rebellion into a multi-billion-dollar commodity to be packaged and sold by record company soul-suckers that view artists as cattle and the audience as ignorant rabble worthy only of being led around by the nose or dragged to court. It didn’t used to be this way.

The new film Pirate Radio remembers a time when the music was king. Well, OK, the music and a small handful of outlaw DJs floating just off the coast of Britain, pumping their pirate signal to millions of the Queen’s subjects while royally pissing off the authorities in the process. Pirate Radio isn’t a true story, per se, but elements of it are inspired by real events in 1960s Britain, when a legal loophole allowed unlicensed broadcasters to drop anchor within spitting distance of the mainland and thrill the masses with records by The Kinks, The Rolling Stones and The Who.

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Walking out of 2012, the latest disaster epic by Independence Day directer Roland Emmerich, I couldn’t help but feel that the Hollywood Industrial Complex has painted itself into a corner. Make no mistake: 2012 is the disaster movie to end all disaster movies. In the film, almost all of Earth’s continents are destroyed by a combination of massive earthquakes, explosions and huge fireballs that can only be extinguished by massive tsunamis. Cars are flung around like confetti, skyscrapers crumble into dust, and famous landmarks are crushed beneath overturned aircraft carriers. Give credit to Emmerich and his special effects team; 2012 looks terrific. If all you’re looking for is some mindless, high-testosterone action on a Saturday night, I highly recommend this movie.

But for the non-adrenaline junkies in the audience, 2012 suffers from all the same flaws as most of the disaster genre: weak characterizations, preposterous plot and story, and a length (2 hours, 40 minutes) that makes the film ideal for screening on flights to Australia.

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The Creative Loafing team prides itself on producing more Daily Loaf content each week than any individual could ever possibly comprehend. As such, you’re bound to have missed at least one worthwhile story from the pages of this blog over the last few days. Here’s a “greatest hits” list from the week that was, broken down by section:

NEWS

MUSIC

Movies, food, sex and Punky Brewster after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

Relationship Card

It used to be that film festivals in the Tampa Bay area were a rarity. No longer. Totaling up all the fundraisers, workshops and side programming that go along with the ever-expanding number of festivals, it’s clear that fest-hopping has become a year-round sport. And that’s great, because we can all stand to broaden our horizons beyond the standard Hollywood pulp that fills the multiplex each Friday. In the next few weeks, there are two festivals of note: one with lots of local appeal, and one a bit farther south that attracts filmmakers (and filmgoers) from all over the world.

Independents’ Film Festival
Hosted by Tampa’s The Education Channel, the 16th annual Independents’ Film Festival promises an intimate look at locally produced films, including a strong program of student films out of USF. I say intimate because all screenings will be held at The Education Channel’s beautiful, newly upgraded screening room with seating for about 65 people. Festival organizers also promise ample opportunity to hob-nob with filmmakers and other fest attendees, as each themed evening begins with a food and drink reception and ends with coffee and dessert. (All included in the $15 ticket price.)

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I went into Michael Jackson’s This Is It fearing the worst. After months of breathless coverage following MJ’s demise, what could a hastily assembled documentary about the rehearsals for the King of Pop’s comeback 50-night stand at London’s O2 Arena possibly have to add to the spectacle? I feared This Is It would be little more than a crass attempt by the financial backers of the concerts to not only recoup their money but make a killing in the process. After seeing the film, I can report that greed has won the day.

Read more and check out the This Is It trailer after the jump …

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I’m embarrassed to confess that I had no idea who Gertrude Berg was before I watched You-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, an enlightening if somewhat stock documentary from director Aviva Kempner (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg). A radio and television pioneer, Berg enjoyed a long career playing signature character Molly Goldberg, a stereotype-shattering Jewish matriarch who maintained a decades-long run in the public eye. Berg starred in and wrote every episode of the radio and TV incarnations of The Goldbergs (and we’re talking thousands of shows), in the process inventing the sitcom and many of the tropes we find commonplace today.

Read more of Joe Bardi’s review after the jump …
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Editor’s Note: MTV’s Ultimate Parkour Challenge premieres tomorrow night, Oct. 22, at 10 p.m. on MTV. The show will air repeatedly thereafter until the end of time.

MTV has long been a youth-sucking goliath; it’s bloated corporate girth waddling to the trough of whatever cool new thing the kids are into before swallowing it whole and shitting out a processed log of television banality. When it comes to so-called “extreme sports,” MTV’s bastardization squad has been on the prowl since at least the early ’90s heyday of Dan Cortese and MTV Sports. The net’s latest bid to drain the lifeblood from an emerging trend, MTV’s Ultimate Parkour Challenge contains a checklist of MTV’s crimes against its audience: bland hosts, questionable music, whiplash editing and a “competition” with judging that stretches credibility. Despite it all (and to my great surprise), Parkour Challenge is a winner, thanks largely to the assembled crew of compelling daredevils willing to jump off a roof for your entertainment.

Read more about MTV’s Ultimate Parkour Challenge — and check out some videos of the competitors — after the jump.

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[Editor's Note: This review is by CL Atlanta's Curt Holman. You can check out more of his work here.]

Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers’ Where the Wild Things Are remembers something most adults have forgotten: A huge gulf lies between the simplicity of children’s entertainment and the complexity of actual childhood. Growing up may be a time of pure delight, but it also features stretches of agonizing boredom, sudden fright, occasional sorrow and general perplexity at the arbitrary nature of adult rules.

Most artwork aimed at children, even some of the great ones, grabs for the pleasure and maybe a pinch of terror, but seldom attempts to evoke the tangled youthful feelings that go hand-in-hand with the sense of the wonder. Where the Wild Things Are serves as a remarkable exception that grounds its visual splendors in bittersweet realism.

Being John Malkovich director Jonze and co-writer Eggers retain many images from Maurice Sendak’s archetypal picture book. Rambunctious young Max (played by a talented young actor named Max Records — really) wears an off-white wolf suit reminiscent of Ralphie’s bunny outfit from A Christmas Story and chases the family dog with a fork in an early scene. Jonze and Eggers provide the requisite feature film backstory with admirable economy. Max grows up as an imaginative, latch-key son of divorce with a working mother (Catherine Keener) and a neglectful teenage sister.

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[Editor's Note: This review is by CL Atlanta's Curt Holman, part of his Hollywood Product series. To see more reviews by Curt, go here.]

GENRE: Frat-pack vacation.

THE PITCH: Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell play spouses contemplating divorce who convince three couples to join them at a tropical resort that requires a mandatory “skill-building” session. Other pairs include Vince Vaughn and Watchmen’s Malin Akerman, Jon Favreau and Sex and the City’s Kristin Davis, and Faizon Love and Kali Hawk.

MONEY SHOTS: Bateman and Bell pitch their friends the trip idea with a Power Point presentation that enumerates their marital problems. A bucket of chum splashes Vaughn in shark-infested waters. A barely clad Adonis (Carlos Ponce) practically humps the characters — male and female — during a yoga lesson. Vaughn has a video game showdown with the resort’s supercilious major domo, “Sctanley” (Peter Serafinowicz).

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Editor’s Note: This review is by CL Atlanta’s Curt Holman. (You can check out the original here.) For more movie reviews and news, check out CL’s Movies & Television site.

Drew Barrymore usually radiates high spirits and good cheer on screen, so it makes sense that her directorial debut, Whip It, would display the same virtues. In fact, Barrymore’s film shows more skill and subtlety than she often reveals in her acting, which comes as a particular surprise in a coming-of-age tale full of roller derby players with names such as Iron Maven and Maggie Mayhem.
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Harvey’s 4th Street in St. Pete puts Applebee’s and all those other wannabe “neighborhood bar & grills” to shame. Its strip-mall storefront is gussied up with perfectly pruned foliage and decorative lights, and the interior is all charming hardwood and bric-a-brac. More importantly, the menu covers bar fare extensively (burgers, sandwiches, salads, dinner platters, seafood, pasta, etc.), and the food is consistently tasty, reasonably priced and available late — the trifecta for serving a neighborhood of loyal consumers. After more than 20 years in business, Harvey’s has proven itself everyone’s favorite neighbor in the Old Northeast.

Harvey’s 4th Street Grill, 3121 Fourth Street N., St. Petersburg, 727-821-6516, harveys4thstreetgrill.com.

You’d be surprised what turns up in the discount bin at The Sal. My wife, Heidi, found a blue-green Bianchi Italian racing bike sitting in the back of the Family Store on Fourth Street N. in St. Pete. A new Bianchi goes for over a thousand bucks. The manager told Heidi he’d take $50. That wasn’t good enough for the small crowd assembled in line behind Heidi, who protested until the price was lowered to $35. Heidi put about $150 worth of work into the bike (new tires, brakes, etc.) and it’s as good as new — for less than one-fifth the price. The Salvation Army Family Store, 5321 Fourth Street N., St. Petersburg, 727-521-4208, uss.salvationarmy.org.

Mike Judge’s Extract is an annoying movie instead of a funny one. Pitched as a return by the director to the workplace comedy of Office Space, Extract instead suffers from the same faults as Judge’s last film, the Luke Wilson flop Idiocracy. Both flicks have appealing casts and hint at good movies that could be made from the same material, but they are ultimately ruined by silly plot devices and lame characterizations. In the 10 years since Office Space, Judge has regressed as a film maker.

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Grocery stores often cluster, with a Publix across from a Sweetbay down the block from a Save-A-Lot. After Publix bought 49 Albertsons stores last year, several Bay area neighborhoods were left seeing double as the old Albertsons were converted into sparkling Publix grocers. Though the company has recently decided to close some of the doubled-up stores, two Publix stores in St. Pete continue their cross-street competition. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s true that the real festival season around these parts is in the spring, with the Gasparilla Film Festival and Sarasota’s huge festie leading the pack. Still, film-fest patronage has become a year-round affair in the Bay area, and there are some worthwhile options for the movie freaks this fall. First up, The Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival …

Details after the jump …

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Muckracking documentarian Michael Moore is back in Roger & Me territory with this fall’s Capitalism: A Love Story, the trailer for which was released today. Marvel as Mike takes on AIG and Congress to the tune of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes.” Capitalism hits the multiplex on Oct. 2.

Trailer after the jump …

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Be sure to check out Curt Holman’s review of QT’s updated Inglourious Basterds, and CL’s Movies & Television site for all the latest movie news and reviews.

Peter Hooten’s current résumé lists a project titled Voices From Sandover at the very top of the section titled “Film.” A verse-video collaboration between Hooten and influential American poet James Merrill, the film — which Hooten both produced and costarred in — remains one of the 59-year-old retired actor’s proudest accomplishments.

“I felt really good and I worked a long time on it,” Hooten says, lingering over a double espresso and chocolate cake in the dining room at the Sarasota Ritz-Carlton. “And I got really good people together. And we shot it in Cambridge; it was the right atmosphere. … It’s not mainstream, but God, it was a labor of love. So who’s going to see that? But it will be in the libraries when Inglorious Bastards goes bye-bye. Nobody’s going to remember anybody for that.”

Quentin Tarantino, no doubt, disagrees.
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[Editor's Note: This review is by CL Atlanta's Curt Holman. Also check out Cooper Levey-Baker's interview with one of the stars of the original Inglorious Bastards. And for news and reviews of all the summer's biggest movies, go to CL's Movies & Television site.]

Hipster filmmaker Quentin Tarantino refuses to explain the intentional misspelling in the title of his weird World War II epic Inglourious Basterds. The titular Basterds apparently care no more for spell-check than they do the rules of war. Dashing, drawling Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) leads a squad of eight Jewish-American G.I.s into occupied France with the sole purpose of killing as many German soldiers as possible. The idea is that the “disemboweled, dismembered and disfigured bodies” will freak out Hitler’s high command.

The Basterds aren’t just guerillas but wartime terrorists who scalp their victims and never hesitate to kill, torture or deny medical care to fight the “Natzis.” At first, Tarantino seems to present an inflammatory apologia for torture and prisoner abuse, a la 24. Inglourious Basterds arrives in theaters in the midst of an American health care debate that’s hurling Nazi metaphors and swastikas around like blunt instruments. Will town-hall meeting protesters take up the film’s symbolism and call themselves Basterds?

Maybe not, for Inglourious Basterds isn’t the movie it’s sold as, or initially seems to be. Sorting out Tarantino’s intentions for his bold, eccentric WWII fantasy is like defusing a meticulously crafted time bomb that could be either a dud or a high explosive.

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Quentin Tarantino fanboys are drooling over the director’s latest opus, the Brad Pitt World War II epic Inglourious Basterds, which hit’s theaters Friday. Tarantino is the ultimate film geek, famous for having worked at a video store in the days before Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction catapulted him onto the A-list of Hollywood filmmakers. It’s that geek side that is fully on display in this YouTube video posted yesterday, which has QT picking his 20 favorite films since 1990. Tarantino’s #1 is the obscure Japanese film Battle Royale by director Kinji Fukasaku. After that, 2-20 are arranged alphabetically (though Dazed and Confused might be considered #2.) CL contributor Kevin Hopp is currently combing the Blockbuster in search of some of these titles, and he’ll have more on this list next week.

Video after the break …

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Ed. Note: This is the first post by new film contributor Alex Czysz. For more reviews of the summer’s biggest movies, check out the CL Movies & Television site.

There’s always a problem with time travel. It isn’t the disruption of the space-time continuum, or the existential questions posed by our entering and exiting the chronological confines of which we are bound, or even the very question of what time is in and of itself. Ultimately, the problem is whether or not we can accept the very concept of time travel. If so, there’s no turning back, and no questioning the structure of internal logic posed by the author. It is — as the saying goes — what it is.

All things considered, the chronological mechanics in Robert Schwentke’s The Time Traveler’s Wife (based on the recent bestselling novel by Audrey Niffenegger) are coherent enough. Eric Bana (sporting a rather distracting mullet for a good portion of the film) stars as Henry, a librarian afflicted with a rare genetic disorder called Chrono-Displacement which causes his involuntary disappearance from the present and subsequent reappearance in another segment of his life-line.

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Be sure to check out Alive in Joburg, the short film that inspired District 9. And for reviews of all the summer’s biggest movies, go to CL’s Movies & Television site.

Somewhere near the middle of Neill Blomkamp’s District 9, corporate bureaucrat Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) and his alien friend Christopher Johnson blast their way into the headquarters of an evil multinational corporation known as MNU in search of the only trace of fuel left on the planet that can get Johnson home. The pair turns wave after wave of MNU security goons to jelly using an assortment of alien weapons before locating their prize and making an explosive getaway with an army of MNU’s finest in land-and-air pursuit. District 9 isn’t a video game adaptation, but watching the movie I kept thinking that it might as well be.

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Get ready Twilight fans. Here’s your first look at the next film in the Twilight “Saga”, titled New Moon. Drop some Clear Eyes into your peepers before you watch, though. At 16 seconds, if you blink you’ll miss the whole thing.

Full video (all 16 seconds!) after the jump …

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After a string of huge summer blockbusters, Hollywood has finally shot its wad. Welcome to August, the traditional dumping ground of also-ran action movies, lame comedies, cloying rom-coms and at least one sleeper hit. Too bad that sleeper isn’t arriving this weekend.

Instead, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is the huge national release. G.I. Joe is (reportedly) so shiteous that the studio refused to screen it for all but a smattering of the most-fawning Internet critics. (Sadly, I was not on the list.) In a summer where Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is both the worst reviewed and highest grossing film of the season, your movie has to be exceptionally horrible if you’re scared of the big, bad movie critics.

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On this week’s very special Reel Projections podcast, Host Joe (that’s me) is joined by PoHo Wayne Garcia for a conversation about the career of director John Hughes, who died on Thursday at the age of 59. Joe and the PoHo play audio clips from Hughes most famous movies and dissect the director’s influence on the 1980s specifically, and on film-making in general. And go here for video clips of Hughes’ films.

Listen to the podcast here.

Podcast player after the jump …

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When I heard that writer/director John Hughes had died in NY Thursday at the age of 59, my first instinct was to hit YouTube and check out some of his clips. This is the best of what I found:

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

All the best lines …

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Virally marketed to hell ET flick District 9 will be invading multiplexes next Friday. I’ll have a full review of the film in the paper and online next week (first impression: good but incomplete and a bit nonsensical), but for now you can get primed with a look at Neill Blomkamp’s short film, Alive in Joburg. This short caught the eye of Peter Jackson, who hired Blomkamp to direct the now-defunct Halo movie. When Halo went belly-up, Jackson decided to give Blomkamp the cash to make a feature out of his cool little short. I can tell you that District 9 is a far more evolved take on the material in Joburg (it’s amazing what a few million dollars will buy you), but the short film retains a charm all it’s own. It’s also a good set-up for the feature.

Full video after the jump …

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For more reviews of the summer’s biggest movies, check out the CL Movies & Television site.

What’s often missed about the sense of humor is that it’s a defense mechanism. Behind every biting joke, taunt or put-down is a kernel of fear or hurt. Maybe if we keep laughing, all that pain and uncertainty hiding just behind the smile will stay contained. Judd Apatow’s excellent Funny People is a hysterical, profane, entertaining, challenging, honest, touching, sentimental, overwrought jokeathon of a movie. It’s loaded with great performances and wants to make Big points about Big topics. Life and death literally hang in the balance. This is a movie that stares into the abyss and sees a dick joke staring back.

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It looks like the Coen Brothers, those mad geniuses behind Raising Arizona and Fargo, have finally embraced their Judaism. I may be biased (I love me some Joel and Ethan!), but why let that stop me from telling you that the following trailer for A Serious Man looks hysterical? It does. See you yourself …

Check out the full trailer after the jump …

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[Editor's note: This review was written by film critic J.R. Jones for our sister paper the Chicago Reader. You can check out more of Jones' reviews and the rest of the Reader's film coverage here. For more reviews of the biggest movies of the summer, check out CL's Movies & Television site.]

The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow’s white-knuckle drama about a U.S. Army bomb squad in Baghdad, will be the first Iraq war movie to open across America since our forces pulled out of the city. Granted, when Bigelow started shooting the movie in Jordan in July 2007, the surge was still going strong, and when The Hurt Locker premiered in September 2008 at the Venice film festival, the word timetable was still politically radioactive. But when the movie finally arrives in flyover country this month, it will be the first combat drama about Iraq to chronicle a past operation instead of one that’s ongoing. Strangely, it will be history.

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For more reviews of the summer’s biggest movies, be sure and visit CL’s Movies & Television site.

Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl back. It’s a formula as old as drama, but it’s also sort of fanciful. In real life, the boy who loses the girl often sits brooding on the sidelines for months while his lost love lives it up with a new paramour. Enter (500) Days Of Summer, a movie that wants you to know up front that it’s not some silly love story. Instead, Summer is a movie about love and all its messy fallout — hurt feelings, confusion, resentment, etc. The film is also an assured directorial debut from music video director Marc Webb, and he gives his tale a clever structure and playful visual style that helps separate it from the standard rom-com pack.

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After weeks of hearing about it, the world finally gets its first look at video of amateur B-baller Jordan Crawford throwing down the rock in King James’ face. Will LeBron ever be able to appear in public again?

In a word: yes. First off, the TMZ video makes the original NASA moon landing tapes look like IMAX. Second, it’s just not that impressive. Yes, the kid dunks the ball, and yes LeBron is there kinda-sorta contesting the shot. So what? Tiger Woods missing the cut at the British Open last week is far more humiliating than anything on this tape.

Boy did Nike blow this one. If they had just let the video leak out to YouTube in the first place, the interest that the dunking has generated would have been muted. As it is, millions more people will now see Nike’s poster boy get faced than ever would have before. Good one, Nike. What’s next, hiring child slaves to make the shoes?

Video (much better than TMZ’s version) after the jump …

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Dave Chappelle, best known for Comedy Central’s fantastic Chappelle Show and the weed movie Half Baked attempted to put on a free, secret show in Portland, Oregon on Tuesday night. I say “attempted” because the comedian, who publicized the show only through text messages and Twitter, expected about 200 people to show up. He got thousands instead. (At one point in the attached video, Chappelle estimates the crowd is around 4000 strong.) That was too big a group for the PA system, and the show had to be scrapped. Still, the video is amazing.

Check it out after the jump …

For more news and reviews of the summer’s biggest movies, check out the CL Movies & Television site.

My man on the streets on New York (we’ll call him GOX) snapped the following photos from the set of The Bounty, a new action/comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. Unfortunately for GOX, Aniston was M.I.A. when he was around (perhaps she was filming at the NY Daily News), but he did manage to catch some shots of Butler interacting with parade floats and the cops. (That’s him above, mid-bust by New York’s finest.)

More photos after the jump.

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For more news and reviews of the summer’s biggest movies, check out the CL Movies & Television site.

Screening information: Outrage is screening exactly once, Wed., July 15 at 7 p.m. at Tampa Pitcher Show, 14416 N. Dale Mabry, Tampa, 813-963-0578. The film carries no MPAA rating.

If there’s a central message to Kirby Dick’s Outrage, it’s that living life denying one’s sexual orientation is an awful existence. Not only is the closeted person lying to their family and friends — often at great emotional cost to everyone involved — they are lying to themselves. There’s a lot of self-hatred hanging in the closet, and it’s an old saw that the most homophobic folks are the most in denial. Still, a person’s choice to keep their preference private is their own. But what about politicians living in the closet who work to advance anti-gay-rights legislation? Don’t they deserve to be exposed?
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[Ed. note: Each week I'll be breaking down the big summer blockbuster movie releases. If you're curious about what's coming out in future weeks, be sure to check out the Summer Movie Preview. For more info on this week's releases, please check out my full length review of Brüno or visit our movie site for all things film-related.]

FRIDAY, JULY 10TH
Box office gold: Brüno
Worth seeing? For his last big-screen outing, 2006’s Borat, British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen laid waste to George W. Bush’s America — hilariously ruining rodeos, business conferences and a Pam Anderson book signing in the process. Cohen has gone back to the Ali G Show wellspring from which Borat emerged to find his next character, flaming gay Austrian fashionista Brüno. Early buzz has Cohen replicating his Borat schtick, sending Brüno to interact with unsuspecting bystanders who aren’t in on the joke. This time around, that means talking Sex and the City and tent-snuggling with homophobic rednecks, crashing the catwalk at actual runway shows and even dropping trou in front of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. If it’s all half as funny as Borat, the producers will laugh all the way to the bank.
Counter-programming: Mountains of man-ass and potty jokes a turn off? Instead, see I Love You, Beth Cooper. The latest from director Chris Columbus (The first few Harry Potter flicks), Cooper stars Paul Rust as a nerdy kid who declares his love for the hottest girl in school (Hayden Panettiere) during his valedictory speech.  The speech works, and hottie Beth soon decides to show her dorky suitor the night of his life. Ah, fantasy.

Previews for both films after the jump …

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For more news and reviews of the summer’s biggest movies, check out the CL Movies & Television site.

I’ve never been smacked in the face with a dick, but I imagine the experience is a lot like watching Brüno. The first 15 minutes of the movie is a penis shock-and-awe campaign, with a pink bunny-costume dick, a dick on the end of a stick and a talking dick that shouts “Brüno!” out of its peehole. That’s in addition to the many items — dicks, dildos, champagne bottles, etc. — going in and out of assholes obscured only by a little black dot. If there is one word to describe Brüno, it’s Cocktastic.

(Listen to Joe and Joran break down the movie in this week’s Reel Projections podcast after the jump)

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[Ed. note: Each week I'll be breaking down the big summer blockbuster movie releases. If you're curious about what's coming out in future weeks, be sure to check out the Summer Movie Preview. For more info on this week's releases, please check out my full length review of Public Enemies or visit our movie site for all things film-related.]

WEDNESDAY, JULY 1ST
Box office gold: Public Enemies
Worth seeing? Absolutely! Enemies is the latest project from director Michael Mann, the creative force behind Miami Vice (both the TV and film versions), the original Hannibal Lecter flick Manhunter, and the Pacino/Deniro face-off opus Heat. Mann excels at stories of crooks and criminals, and Enemies — the story of bank robber John Dillinger’s populist rabble-rousing reign of terror — is right in his wheelhouse. It also doesn’t hurt to have to have Johnny Depp playing Dillinger, Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover and Christian Bale as FBI top-cop Melvin Purvis. Mann’s ambitions can sometimes weigh down his kinetic shooting style (I mean, Heat’s great, but 3 hours? Really?), but there is no doubt that all the 1930s period details, car chases and shoot-outs will be startlingly rendered. Public Enemies is the best movie of the summer (so far).
Counter-programming: A period piece about violent gangsters not appropriate for your family’s weekend outing? Never fear, everyone’s favorite prehistoric explorers are back for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Picking up where the original left off, Dawn of the Dinos follows the continued adventures of Manny, Scrat and the rest of the thawed-out critters. The famous voices behind the scenes include Simon Pegg, Seann William Scott, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah and Ray Romano. In addition, two higher-brow flicks hit this weekend: Larry David takes a stab at “the Woody Allen role” in Allen’s latest, Whatever Works; and Michelle Pfeiffer re-teams with Dangerous Liaisons director Stephen Frears for another period piece, Cheri.

Previews for all the movies after the jump …

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For more news on the summer’s biggest releases, please check out CL’s Movies & Television site.

You have to hand it to the producers of Public Enemies; their timing is impeccable. After months of watching the banks loot the nation’s treasury of billions under the guise of the TARP bailout, the public is bound to be receptive to heartthrob Johnny Depp as charismatic bank robber John Dillinger. It helps that Depp is stellar here, his Dillinger a smooth cat who’s quick to give a lady his coat or his word. As directed by Michael Mann (The Insider, Heat), Public Enemies is a gripping gangster flick that works both as a Depression-era period piece and a throwback to the films of that era.

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Found this randomly when poking around the Internet Movie Database: Raging Bull II. Per the proposed synopsis:

A unique combination prequel and sequel that explores “before the rage” and “after the rage” of world middleweight boxing champ Jake LaMotta’s tumultuous life and times.

Raging Bull II is currently aiming for a 2010 release date. Hopefully, the multiplex in Hell isn’t already booked by Transformers 3.

Director Kirby Dick is best known for his Academy-Award nominated documentary Twist of Faith and for This Film Has Is Not Yet Rated, an expose of the M.P.A.A. film-rating system and the M.P.A.A.’s employees. In the film, Dick goes P.I. on the censors, figuring out who the “secret” members of the ratings board are and following them around L.A.

Dick’s latest documentary follows a similar trajectory, albeit with very different subject matter. The film is Outrage, and Dick’s target is hypocritical conservative politicians who repeatedly use their power to undermine gay rights legislation while secretly living a closeted gay lifestyle. Anyone want to guess which famous Florida politician gets working over in the film? It’s none other than Governor Charlie Crist. I have not seen the film yet (I’m awaiting word from the publicists), so I can’t comment on Gov. Charlie’s part of the film, or what ground gets covered. We’ll have a full review up on the CL movie site as soon as we see it.

Now the good news: Outrage will get a one-night-only showing at Tampa Pitcher Show on July 15. You can check out the trailer for Outrage after the jump.

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Ed. Note: What follows is a repost of an item by CL Marketing Director Joran Oppelt from his recent trip to SXSW. At the time, I thought it was just a really cool video. Today I think it’s become something more. You can see Joran’s original post here.

Quincy recalls his first encounters with Michael Jackson and their work on the best-selling records Off the Wall and Thriller, as well as the birth of MTV and how they broke through the “no black artists” mandate.

This exclusive CL TV video was shot in March at Jones’ 2009 South by Southwest keynote address. Check out the Quincy Jones video by clicking here.

[Ed. Note: We've got plenty of Transformers stuff going on on Daily Loaf. In addition to my review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, we've got more posts about Megan Fox than you can shake your wank at. Enjoy.]

My worst fears have come to pass. The God-awful Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has opened with a huge $16 million take from Tuesday night’s midnight screenings. That’s not a record-breaker for a midnight opening, as The Dark Knight cleared $18 million in its late-night bow, but TDK debuted on a weekend-kickoff Friday and not a lame, non-holiday hump day. The $55 million the film grossed on Wednesday is a new high for an opening on that day of the week, besting Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which grossed $44 million on a Wednesday way back in 2007. The conventional wisdom has the film grossing at least $160 million over the five-day weekend. (The news isn’t all bad: Director Michael Bay has said he won’t make a third Transformers film. Woo hoo!)

What a crock of shit! This would be a national embarrassment, were it not for the fact that the movie is already doing huge business overseas as well. I guess that makes this an embarrassment for the entire human race. In case you’re on the fence about hitting the multiplex this weekend, here’s a sampling of the critical reaction to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen:

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Here’s the second trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s World-War-II-As-A-Spaghetti-Western offering Inglourious Basterds, and it’s far superior to the original teaser trailer. Inglourious Basterds opens August 21.

For more news on the summer’s biggest releases, please check out CL’s Movies & Television site.

Early in Away We Go, Verona (Maya Rudolph) looks at longtime love Burt (John Krasinski) and asks, “Are we fuck ups?” The pair will spend the film attempting to figure that out, along the way meeting couples raising children and screwing it up in unique and interesting way. That they confront impending parenthood with wit and intelligence separates Away We Go from everything else currently in major release. But can a movie like this possibly survive in the crowded summer movie marketplace?

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This weekend, Hollywood will ask moviegoers to spend their disposable income on the latest whiz-bang summer blockbuster, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. It’s a given that the movie will own the top spot at the box office (early tracking indicates huge fan interest), but does it have to be a record-breaking opening weekend? Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you: DO NOT GO SEE THIS MOVIE! It’s not too late! You don’t have to line up with the lemmings. If you want to see a movie, check out Away We Go, which gets its Bay area premiere this weekend.

But you’re not going to heed my advice. Maybe you liked the first movie. Maybe you’ve got a thing for giant robots or Megan Fox. Or both. In that case, please read on: Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This is our first Tournament of Summer Movie Blockbuster. In case you missed it, here’s the skinny on the tourney and a full list of competing films. And for news and reviews of this summer’s blockbusters, be sure and check CL’s Movies & TV site.

In yet another blowout, The Empire Strikes Back froze Batman Returns in carbonite and sold it to Jabba the Hut. This weekend’s contest seems to be similarly one-sided as our final #2 seed Raiders of the Lost Ark takes on #7 Shrek 2.

Details on the films and your chance to vote after the break.

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[Ed. note: Each week I'll be breaking down the big summer blockbuster movie releases. If you're curious about what's coming out in future weeks, be sure to check out the Summer Movie Preview. For more info on this week's releases, please check out CL contributor Kevin Hopp's full-length review of Year One or visit our movie site for all things film-related.]

FRIDAY, JUNE 19TH
Box office gold: Year One
Worth seeing? Harold Ramis directed three of the funniest movies ever made (Caddyshack, National Lampoon’s Vacation and Groundhog Day), but since 2002 his output has been limited to the John Cusack sleeper The Ice Harvest and some episodes of The Office. Can he recapture the magic? Year One stars Jack Black and Michael Cera as primitive outcasts who go on a biblical-era road trip after a falling out with their tribe-mates has them cast out of their village and wandering the desert. Seems like a bunch of hooey to me, but there’s no denying the people involved are (or used to be) funny.
Counter-programming: Not into stupid comedies about modern man’s dopiest ancestors? Try a romantic comedy instead. The Proposal stars Sandra Bullock as a cast-iron-bitch businesswoman and Ryan Reynolds as her henpecked assistant. When Bullock’s immigration status comes into question, she decides to marry Reynolds to stay in the country. One minor inconvenience: The pair hate each other. The latest from director Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses), The Proposal should benefit from Bullock’s natural charm and extensive rom-com experience.

Trailers after the jump …

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Note: This is our first Tournament of Summer Movie Blockbuster. In case you missed it, here’s the skinny on the tourney and a full list of competing films. And for news and reviews of this summer’s blockbusters, be sure and check CL’s Movies & TV site.

Sorry for the delay in continuing the Tourney of Blockbusters. I’m back and ready to roll through the rest of Round One. In case you missed last week’s battle, the residents of Jurassic Park devoured the dark lords of Revenge of the Sith to move into Round Two. Today, the polls are open for an epic battle between #2-seed The Empire Strikes Back and #7 Batman Returns.

Details on the films and your chance to vote are after the break.
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This is more of a teaser than a trailer, really. Just Michael Moore talking to the camera, trying to raise a few bucks for the needy. Here’s hoping the doc director can work up some more Roger & Me magic.

[Ed. note: Each week I'll be breaking down the big summer blockbuster movie releases. If you're curious about what's coming out in future weeks, be sure to check out the Summer Movie Preview. For more info on this week's releases, please check out my full length review of The Taking of Pelham 123 or visit our movie site for all things film-related.]

FRIDAY, JUNE 12TH
Box office gold: The Taking of Pelham 123
Worth seeing? Definitely. Pelham is a remake of a well-liked 1974 thriller about a band of criminals (led by Jaws’ Robert Shaw) who take a New York subway train hostage and negotiate with a transit worker played by Walter Mattheau. Denzel Washington steps in for Mattheau in the remake, while John Travolta takes over for Shaw and Tony Scott (Top Gun, Days of Thunder) takes on directing duties. And therein lies the rub. Denzel is good in anything, and Travolta really shines here (a first for the actor when he plays a villain), but Tony Scott’s “style” hampers the film. Still, you could do much worse at the multiplex right now. Bonus factoid: In the original, the criminals are all named after a color — a conceit later lifted by Quentin Tarantino in Reservoir Dogs.
Counter-programming: Instead of Pelham’s high-octane suspense, try a dose of fantasy in Imagine That. Eddie Murphy stars as a high-finance guy whose can’t figure out how to keep his career out of the shitter, but goes looking for the answers to his problems in an imaginary world created by his daughter. If Imagine That isn’t the opposite of a claustrophobic subway hostage movie, I don’t know what is. Also: The Tampa Theatre brings Valentino: The Last Emperor to town. The acclaimed documentary recounts the life of famed Italian fashion designer Rudolph Valentino.

Previews for each film after the break …

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For more news and reviews of the summer’s biggest movies, go to the CL Movies & Television site.

The only things for sure in this life are death, taxes and that any movie starring John Travolta as the villain will suck. Swordfish, Battlefield Earth, Face/Off, Broken Arrow, The Punisher — the list goes on. If Travolta’s playing the heavy, the movie’s going to sink like a stone. Until now: With The Taking of Pelham 123, this rule finally has its exception.
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Note: This is our first Tournament of Summer Movie Blockbuster. In case you missed it, here’s the skinny on the tourney and a full list of competing films. And for news and reviews of this summer’s blockbusters, be sure and check CL’s Movies & TV site.

In Friday’s contest, The Dark Knight batted back a challenge from Armageddon to move on to round two. Michael Bay has been eliminated from competition — Woohoo! Today, the polls are open for the first contest involving a #2 seed, as #2 Jurassic Park takes on #7 Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith.

Details on the films and your chance to vote are after the break.

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I was poking around the Internet this morning, reading about last night’s Phish show in Mansfield, MA., when something hit me. The author kept referring to the concert’s venue, The Comcast Center, by its pre-sponsorship name of Great Woods. I started thinking about the big-three Bay area sports venues and their old names, and now I’m thinking about ditching the corporate sponsorship names too. I have my reasons, and they are as follows:

Building: That big stadium with red seats on Dale Mabry where they play football
Corporate sponsorship name: Raymond James Stadium
Old-school handle: Tampa Stadium. OK, technically it’s always been Raymond James Stadium, but it was built next door to, and replaced, Tampa Stadium.
Reason to switch back: It’s The Great Recession folks, and you want some investment bankers slapping their logo feces all over the local altar to the biggest sport in America? (On a personal note: I think Raymond James had a hand in the Loaf 401(k) program last year. Fell free to label me bitter in the comments.) Tampa Stadium is an excellent name, a simple-but-solid description of the place the moniker represents. Tampa Stadium sounds tough. Not to many players want to travel to Tampa Stadium, a blistering sand pit where opposing teams get the life suffocated out of them. Raymond James Stadium, on the other hand, is the type of place that sees cash from the hometown squad’s retirement account vanish quarterly for as long as they’re in the league.

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If you’ve been watching the new Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, and you’ve found yourself wondering, “Where have I seen this set before?” Conan has your answer:

For more news and reviews of the summer’s biggest movies, go to the CL Movies & Television site.

In what is shaping up to be the first big upset at the summer movie box office, the R-rated comedy The Hangover is currently in first place for the weekend, besting Disney’s strong, kid-friendly Up and the Will Ferrell comedy Land of the Lost. This according to Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood:

Some of the fun of summer box office reporting is that, every now and then, a sleeper comes out of nowhere and captures the No. 1 film crown during a weekend. “I guess there’s no reason to do this if sometimes crazy things don’t happen,” marveled one rival studio exec last night. Because early domestic box office numbers from Friday show that Warner Bros’ well reviewed Bachelor Party-gone-wrong comedy The Hangover opened for at least $16.5M from 3,269 theaters for probably close to a $50M weekend. That’s without stars, too. Instead, credit a hot R-rated high concept (directed by Old School helmer Todd Phillips) and marketing plan.

Moe surprising is that Land of the Lost looks to be a bomb, on pace for $20 million against a reported cost of $100 million. This puts added pressure on Ferrell’s August 14 release, The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. If that one tanks too, there will be grumbling that the comedian has lost his appeal.

For more on Land of the Lost, check out our Reel Projections Podcast or my Land of the Lost review.

Note: This is our first Tournament of Summer Movie Blockbuster. In case you missed it, here’s the skinny on the tourney and a full list of competing films. And for news and reviews of this summer’s blockbusters, be sure and check CL’s Movies & TV site.

In Wednesday’s poll results, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial squeaked by Transformers to move on to round two. (Sorry Murray Jr. and offspring!). This weekend, the polls are open for our final Round 1 battle involving a #1 seed, as #1 The Dark Knight takes on #8 Armageddon.

Details on the films and your chance to vote are after the break.

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[Ed. note: Each week I'll be breaking down the big summer blockbuster movie releases. If you're curious about what's coming out in future weeks, be sure to check out the Summer Movie Preview. For more info on this week's releases, please check out our full length reviews of Land of the Lost, The Hangover and Every Little Step. And for all things film, please visit our movie site.]

FRIDAY, JUNE 5TH
Box office Gold: Land of the Lost
Worth seeing? Only if you’re a big Will Ferrell fan, or if you fondly remember catching episodes of the early ’70s TV version of Land of the Lost produced by puppet-masters Sid and Marty Krofft. The show was ambitious in scope but low in budget, while the big-screen edition sports star power (Ferrell, up-and-comer Danny McBride), an experienced director (Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events’ Brad Silberling) and mountains of pricy CGI. Despite the glossy exterior, the most endearing elements of the TV show — rampaging dinosaurs, monkey people, the alien-looking Sleestaks, even the white-water rafting intro — have made it into the movie. With much of the draw of the 1970s TV show wrapped up in its no-budget production values, it’ll be interesting to see if this high-tech reboot manages to retain the charm of the original.
Counter-programming: If Land of the Lost is a little too goofy or kid-targeted for your sensibilities, there’s also Nia Vardalos, Richard Dreyfuss and Rachel Dratch in the set-in-Greece romantic comedy My Life in Ruins. If that’s not bangin’ your baklava, perhaps you’ll like The Hangover, the latest from Road Trip director Todd Philips about three guys retracing their steps after a Vegas bachelor party gone wrong ends with the groom M.I.A. And there’s always Every Little Step at the Tampa Theatre. Step is like crack for theater geeks, but it’s also a damn fine movie for anyone who’s ever dreamed of something better for themselves.

Previews after the break.

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For more news and reviews of all the summer blockbusters, go to CL’s Movies & Television site.

Reel-Projections-Episode-7_6-3-09.mp3

Mike J. Nelson

The Reel Projections podcast returns with an interview with Mike Nelson. Fans of bad movies or great TV shows remember Nelson as the former head-writer and star of the Comedy Central/Sci-Fi Channel hit Mystery Science Theater 3000. Nelson is still busy trashing flicks with Rifftrax, a provider of audio commentary tracks for movies both old and new. Joined by MST3K vets Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett (among others), Rifftrax is for anyone who ever dreamed of seeing the MST3K crew take on current releases. (I’ve included some YouTube Rifftrax’s clips for The Dark Knight, Jaws, Star Wars and a few others after the break below.) You can also find Rifftrax online, and some of the programs have been released as DVD’s now for sale. All come highly recommended.

Speaking of bad movies, this Reel Projections podcast is also loaded with details on the new Will Ferrell comedy Land of the Lost. Host Joe, Joran and Producer Stephen have all seen the movie, and they break it down on the podcast. A word of warning: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead, so if you plan to see the movie, read Joe Bardi’s non-spoiler review of Land of The Lost now and listen to the podcast after you’ve seen the movie.

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For more news and reviews of the summer’s biggest movies, go to the CL Movies & Television site.

The summer movie season is never one for originality, as Hollywood puts forth mostly known properties with built-in fan interest. This summer has already seen re-boots of X-Men and Star Trek, a fourth Terminator sequel and a second shot of Night at the Museum — and that’s just May. In the weeks to come, expect sequels (Transformers, Harry Potter, Halloween, etc.), remakes (Taking of Pelham 123), and even more re-boots.

Which brings me to Land of the Lost. Originally created by puppet-masters Sid & Marty Krofft back in their 1970s heyday, Land of the Lost (L.O.T.L.) followed the adventures of dimension-hopping scientist Rick Marshall and his two kids, Will and Holly. While on a camping trip, the trio was swept over a waterfall and through a dimensional portal to a strange new world, parallel to earth but containing artifacts of the planet’s past and future. Will and the kids were chased by dinosaurs, befriended by a weird monkey-thing named Cha-Ka and had dealings with lizard men known as Sleestaks, all in an attempt to find their way home. Sadly, cast shake-ups and cancellation came first.

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For news and reviews of this summer’s blockbusters, be sure and check CL’s Movies & TV site.

Ah, the bachelor party. The “last night of freedom” is a well-established rite of passage for dudes trading singledom for the restrictive bonds of marriage, and has long been fodder for the movies. In the 1980s, Tom Hanks was the groom-to-be in Bachelor Party. In the ’90s, Jon Favreau, Christian Slater and Cameron Diaz turned in a decidedly darker take with Very Bad Things. This summer, Hollywood grants us The Hangover, and it turns out to be a clever take on a cliché subject.

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Note: This is our first Tournament of Summer Movie Blockbuster. In case you missed it, here’s the skinny on the tourney and a full list of competing films. And for news and reviews of this summer’s blockbusters, be sure and check CL’s Movies & TV site.

In one of the most unsurprising poll results of all time, Star Wars managed to trounce Mission:Impossible 2 in Monday’s poll. It was so bad for T-Cruise that M:I 2 didn’t even get a vote. Not one! Today, it’s #1 seed E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial vs. dark horse #8 Transformers.

Details on the films and your chance to vote are after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This is our first Tournament of Summer Movie Blockbuster. In case you missed it, here’s the skinny on the tourney and a full list of competing films. And for news and reviews of this summer’s blockbusters, be sure and check CL’s Movies & TV site.

In last week’s inaugural match-up, #1-ranked Jaws put the bite on #8 seed Beverly Hills Cop 2 and advanced to the second round. This week, I plan three matches (check back Wednesday and Friday for the other two), leading off with #1 ranked Star Wars vs. #8 seed Mission:Impossible II.

Voting and details on the films after the jump …

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[Ed. note: Each week I'll be breaking down the big summer blockbuster movie releases. If you're curious about what's coming out in future weeks, be sure to check out the Summer Movie Preview. And for all things film, please check out our movie site.]

FRIDAY, MAY 29TH
Box office gold: Up
Worth seeing? You’re going to skip Pixar’s follow-up to WALL-E? The plot is simple: An old coot ties thousands of brilliantly animated balloons to his house, and takes off for adventure with a stow-away boy scout on board. The directors — Pete Docter, the director of Monsters, Inc., and Bob Peterson, the writer of Finding Nemo — are two Pixar vets who could pull this off in their sleep. To top it off, Up has already passed the snooty French smell test by being selected to open the Cannes Film Festival, the first time an animated film has enjoyed the time slot. Up should finish in the top three at the summer box office.
Counter-programming: Up’s brand of cute and cuddly Disney fun isn’t your bag? Check out Drag Me to Hell instead. Sam Raimi (Spider-Man) returns to his horror-movie roots with this tale of a loan officer (Alison Lohman) who is seriously cursed after she forecloses on old lady with a creepy eye to impress her boss. A warning to those hoping Hell matches the low-fi brilliance of Raimi’s Evil Dead movies: The preview is as glossy as it gets.

Previews after the jump …

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Note: This is the first edition of our Tournament of Summer Blockbuster Movies. In case you missed it, here’s the skinny on the tourney and a full list of competing films. And for news and reviews of this summer’s blockbusters, be sure and check CL’s Movies & TV site.

And the tournament is underway! In our inaugural match-up, we find #1-ranked Jaws taking on #8 seed Beverly Hills Cop 2.

Voting and details on the films after the jump …

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Note: For news and reviews of the summer’s biggest movies, check out our movie site.

Ever get that e-mail that asks you to spot the difference in two seemingly identical pictures? You sit there staring intently when the pic suddenly changes to a scary old witch, the speakers pound out a loud shock chord and you make a deposit at the bank of BVD. I was reminded of this prank while watching Drag Me to Hell, a back-to-basics horror movie from Spider-Man director Sam Raimi. Time and again the camera moves in on Christine, a corporate-ladder-climbing bank rep ably played by Alison Lohman, as she stares off into the distance trying to spot the devil that haunts her. Wind rustles through a tree, shadows dance across the floor, and then — wham! — the specter appears and scares the bejezzus out of her.

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What if Die Hard With A Vengeance (you know, the one with Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Irons as the villian) had been made in 1960’s France? The result would have looked a lot like this (my compliments to Slash Film on the excellent find):

No new Lost tonight (I can hear you wimpering), but that doesn’t mean you have to go completely cold turkey. Here’s part two of our season-ending podcast covering “The Incident Part 1 & 2.” If you missed part one, check it out here. In this second part, we finally get to David Warner’s statement (full text after the jump), discuss the series endgame for Season 6 and generally try to cram our blown minds back into our skulls lest we get brain on the carpet. Enjoy!

CL’s Lost podcast: Season 5, Ep 16 “The Incident Part 2″

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The first cruise I ever went on, about two years ago, turned out to be an unofficial swingers’ cruise… They had their own events in different parts of the ship (away from us monogamists) but they wore next to nothing at dinner, topless sunbathed on the Lido deck and nude sunbathed on the topless deck. Even the European guests complained. The best part was when the cruise line threatened to leave them in the Grand Cayman Islands if they didn’t start cleaning up their act … This was definitely a cruise to remember, and one that left me with fond memories of people I would never want to see half-naked again.

Read more vacation memories and plans for this year by clicking here.

Katie Machol is the editor of CL’s Green Community site.

The summer movie season is already in full swing, with X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Star Trek racking up huge grosses. Still, the box office of those films pales in comparison to that of the biggest summer blockbusters of them all. But it’s not all about the Benjamins, right? Some of the most financially successful films in history also happen to be some of Hollywood’s most beloved.

We’re going to spend the next few weeks separating the great movies that were also huge hits (Forrest Gump) from the huge hits that aren’t particularly good movies (Armageddon). I selected 32 films that each finished at the top of the summer box office from the years 1975 to 2008, then ranked and seeded them into NCAA Tourney-style brackets. The films will face-off, one per day, right here on the Daily Loaf with your votes determining which blockbuster is the greatest of them all.

You can find the complete list of films slated for the tournament after the jump. If anyone has any complaints about the selected films, now is your chance to speak up. Let me know what flicks I left off the list and what I included that needs to be gone. I’m open to suggestions.

One other thing: Three of the 32 films on my list were NOT the highest grossing movie of their particular summer. First person to tell me which three I’m talking about and what three films did win those summers gets a free pass (good for two admissions) to a preview of one of this year’s blockbusters. (I’m not saying which.)  Put your answers in comments and be sure to include your e-mail address in the e-mail field (not in the body of your comment!) so I can contact you after you’ve won.

Voting will begin next week, and I’ll be giving out more movie passes throughout the tournament. Check back to Daily Loaf or go straight to cltampa.com/blockbusters to make your voice heard. And may the best blockbuster win …

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Here’s Joe Bardi (handsome devil, ain’t he?) talking about what I’m he’s doing on his summer vacation. (Getting married on top of a mountain? High times, indeed!) And be sure to check out the rest of our Summer Guide content (including Joe’s Top 10 summer vacation movies) when making plans for your own summer holiday.

Our 2009 Summer Guide will be hitting newstands today, chock full of ideas on ways you can spend your summer vacation. If you don’t want to hunt down the print edition in the physical world (it’s hot outside!), you can stay cool and find all the Summer Guide content online here.

As part of putting the issue together we asked people, “what are you doing on your summer vacation?” Those answers appear throughout the issue and will be posted to Daily Loaf, Tampa Calling and Political Whore over the next few days.

To get things rolling here on Daily Loaf we have Holley Sinn (that’s her below) and Jerome Ritchey, the hosts of Tampa CBS affiliate WTSP’s morning-chat show Studio 10, talking up their summer plans after the jump. Also, a programming alert: Be sure to tune in to Studio 10 tomorrow morning (10 a.m. on channel 10) to catch CL Editor David Warner and interns Lily Reisman and Hannah Walk discussing the summer guide.

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Today we finally get a look at Guy Ritchie’s big-screen adaptation of Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. (Video after the jump.) As a kid, I was a fan of both Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s source material and the series of Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce (both The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are classics that deserve a look the next time you get a hankering for an old movie), and as such I have been anticipating this modern re-telling for some time.

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[Ed. note: Each week I'll be breaking down the big summer blockbuster movie releases. If you're curious about what's coming out in future weeks, be sure to check out the Summer Movie Preview.]

FRIDAY, MAY 15TH
Box Office Gold: Angels & Demons
Worth Seeing? Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard returns to Da Vinci Code territory with this adaptation of author Dan Brown’s first book, a prequel of sorts to Da Vinci. This one’s aimed squarely at a more mature audience, as the under-25 crowd is probably going to find Star Trek or several of May 22nd’s offerings far preferable to Forrest Gump sorting out the mysteries of the bible. If you’re a Da Vinci Code fan, however, this is a can’t-miss proposition.
Counter-programming: The Tampa Theatre scores with Little Ashes, the story of the 1922 meeting of Salvador Dalí, writer Federico García Lorca and filmmaker Luis Buñuel in Madrid, Spain. Dalí and Lorca ended up having a deep friendship — a friendship portrayed in the film as more than just palling around at the bullfights. The historians disagree on whether or not the pair went all the way, though Wikipedia points to yes so it must be true. The film was directed by noted documentary filmmaker Paul Morrison and stars Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson as Dalí, giving Ashes maybe just enough star wattage to cut through the summer clutter. Maybe.

Previews after the jump …

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It’s season finale time, and we’ve got a special two-part edition of our Lost podcast — now with a studio audience! (You didn’t expect us to cram all our speculation into a normal-length podcast, did you?) In Part 1, we cover the “The Incident part 1 & 2,” discussing the epic fall of Ben Linus, whether God and the devil play Chess Backgammon, and if it’s good to be touched by a Jacob. Part 2 next week …
Lost podcast

On this week’s edition of the Lost podcast, we discuss Jack’s crazy plan to to nuke the island, John Locke’s Jacob-quest, and why PoHo hates episodes devoted to nothing but plot advancement. Click below to download the podcast or listen right now by hitting the play button on the media player below. Namaste!
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[Ed. note: Each week I'll be breaking down the big summer blockbuster movie releases. If you're curious about what's coming out in future weeks, be sure to check out the Summer Movie Preview.]

FRIDAY, MAY 8TH
Box Office Gold: Star Trek
Worth Seeing? Check out my full review of Star Trek here. (But in a word: Yes!)
Counter-programming: Star Trek’s black hole-like pull has left few other releases on the schedule this weekend. As it stands, your options are Love N Dancing, a chick flick starring Amy Smart as a dance teacher who takes her student to the top of the dance world seemingly in an effort to spite her neglectful husband (Billy Zane, of course), and Next Day Air, a harder-edged version of Half-Baked starring Donald Faison and Mos Def.

Previews after the jump …

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A long time ago in a galaxy, wait — wrong space opera. Star Trek is that other massively successful sci-fi saga that spawned 10 feature films, four TV series and all the related toys/games/fetish-wear that goes with it. Trek inspired the adoration of millions of our more interesting citizens and enjoyed a string of big-time success throughout the 1980s and ’90s. But then the franchise fell on hard times, the movies started to suck (see: Star Trek: Nemesis) and the remaining TV show (Enterprise) was canceled. Star Trek was never “cool,” per se, but this rapid descent into irrelevance was ridiculous.

Enter J.J. Abrams. The mastermind behind Lost and Alias, Abrams had already hopped aboard an existing property only to see his Mission: Impossible III fail at the box office. Don’t fret, Trekkies, this time out the news is good. Abrams has made the best Star Trek film in a while, at least since 1991’s Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and he has succeeded in breathing new life into the Trek franchise. However, he’s done this at the expense of jettisoning the entire existing mythology of the original Trek series. You still with me, superfans?
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[Note: This is the first edition of weekly posts outlining what's coming to the multiplex this summer. It's also a sneak peak at what you can expect from next week's Summer Movie Preview. Details on that are coming next week. In the meantime …]

FRIDAY, MAY 1ST
Box office gold: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Worth seeing? You mean you haven’t already? Wolverine got gobs of press a few weeks back when a working print of the film leaked onto the Web and was promptly downloaded by thousands of digital criminals. Fox News reporter Roger Friedman was even fired for publishing a review of the bootleg copy. Ultimately, your enjoyment of Wolverine will probably come down to how much you dug the first three X-Men movies. If you hated those, Hugh Jackman and his merry band of mutants isn’t going to convert you this time around. If you’re a fan of the original trilogy, though, word from Roger Friedman and the other brave lawbreakers is that Wolverine out-claws its predecessors.
Counter-programming: If Wolverine’s high-testosterone vibe is a turn off, there’s Matthew McConaughey taking a walk down dating Memory Lane in the chick-flick Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Or maybe you like the high testosterone; you’d just prefer it a little kinder-gentler? In that case, check out Battle for Terra. Terra has been around since 2007, but is only now getting a nationwide release — the delay due to the film’s conversion from conventional 2D animation to 3D. With the high-profile voices of Evan Rachel Wood, Danny Glover, David Cross and Mark Hamill on board, it’s not surprising that the producers decided to throw down the extra cash for an upgrade.

Previews of all three after the jump …

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On this week’s edition of the CL Lost podcast, we discuss Daniel Faraday’s past, pat ourselves on the back for calling the Faraday/Widmore connection, and debate whether “The Variable” was a great Lost episode or the greatest Lost episode ever!
Download the podcast here.

Plus: Curious what Wayne Garcia’s notes looked like? Check them out after the jump …

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Looks like a new phishing scam has hit Facebook, this one currently know as “fbstarter” or “fbstarter.com.” The scam arrives in the form of a message from a Facebook pal that states “Look at this!” and includes a link to fbstarter.com. If you click it, you’ll be dropped onto a spoof Facebook sign-in page which is waiting for you to put in your user name and password. Do it and your account will be used to spam all your friends — and that’s not cool.

Read more about fbstarter.com here …

Best. Video. Ever. This clip defies description, but if Gator Nation doesn’t make it Tim Tebow’s anthem (possibly even re-shooting the vid with Timmy as the cloud surfer), it will be further proof that there is no imagination among UF grads. Enjoy:

To see the full video for the song, click the jump below …
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Here’s the latest installment of our highly-acclaimed* Lost podcast. In this week’s edition, we discuss Wednesday night’s clip show, speculate on who’s going to kick the bucket before the end of season five and mop up some open questions from previous weeks.

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*-Allegedly.

(This item originally appeared on CL’s news and politics blog, The Political Whore.)

Anchor Shepard Smith, Fox News’ lone quasi-sane newsperson melted down on the air last night during a discussion of torture and the government’s role in authorizing it. Shep’s T-shirt worthy quote:

“We are America! I don’t give a rats ass if it helps! We do not fucking torture!”

Can you really blame Shep for losing his cool? He’s surrounded by sycophants and morons of the worst kind. (Hello, Hannity!) I couldn’t take the studio tour at Fox News without losing my cool and getting Tazered by security.

On a side note, the banging on the desk was a nice touch. Video after the break …

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Disturbing.

Last year’s critical darlings continue their march to DVD and Blu-ray with Frost/Nixon leading the April 21 slate of releases. Ron Howard directed this excellent adaptation of Peter Morgan’s Tony award-winning play recounting the historic television interviews of disgraced former president Richard Nixon by British TV gadfly David Frost. Though Howard does his usual, slick job with the film, it’s the acting that’s the ultimate draw. Frank Langella dominates the film, big and grand as Nixon but still granting the ex-prez a touching humanity he is often denied. (For example: Dan Hedaya’s hilarious but lightweight caricature in Dick.) Michael Sheen plays Frost as an Austin Powers-lite figure that grows into an able foil for Langella’s outsized Nixon, and supporting turns by Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt and Sam Rockwell are uniformly excellent. The only real weakness to Frost/Nixon is that it plays a little fast and loose with the history, but hey, this is Hollywood after all.

Geeks unite!There’s a new X-Men box set! More after the break …

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This week, we start off with J.J.’s heavy, 5 minute dissertation on Egyptian gods*. Please bear with us, as the information overload gives way to a jaunty discussion of why Miles & Hurley rock, which cast members can act, what’s “in the shadow of the statue,” and how it can be that London has never seen The Empire Strike Back?!!?

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*-We have scanned J.J.’s exhaustive notes, which were written on a tiny scrap of notebook paper. They can be found after the jump, and may or may not help you figure out exactly what he’s talking about. Good luck.

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Yes, the unthinkable has happened. NFL and broadcasting legend John Madden is hanging it up. Per his statement:

“I’m 73 years old. My 50th anniversary is this fall. It’s been such a great ride. The N.F.L. has been my life for more than 40 years, it has been my passion — and still is.”

Is it just me, or does that quote seem to leave a little wiggle room? I expect we’ll see Brett Favre on TV any second now speculating on whether or not Madden’s retirement is for real, or if (come the opening of training camp) he will still have the fire in his considerable belly to strap on the mic on more time.

On a personal note, I do not remember an NFL without Madden calling games (and at 33, I’m no little kid) and his absence is unthinkable to me. If it’s any comfort, at least Madden will live on forever in digital form as the guy who the football video game is named after. Happy trails, John. You will be missed.

Just a quick update to the Watchmen DVD giveaway.  The winners have been chosen, and I’d like to congratulate Leah Bell and Sandra Uriostegui! Leah nabbed a copy of Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic and Sandra took home Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter.

There’s lots more over on the Fun & Free site right now, including passes for an advance screening of Obsessed on April 23. Don’t you want to see Beyonce’s new movie before everyone else? Well then, go and register already.

And keep checking back to The Daily Loaf (and keep up with cl_tampa on Twitter), as we’ll be giving away movie passes and related gear all summer long.

Comic fans continue to debate the merits of Frank Miller’s The Spirit, which arrives today in a Blu-ray and two-disc DVD package. They say you never want to follow in the footsteps of a legend, and The Spirit largely proves this point by failing to live up to its predecessor, the much-beloved Sin City. Of course, Sin City had Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino on board, and reveled in darker material and the R rating to go with it. (The kinder/gentler Spirit somehow squeaked out a PG-13 despite violence galore.) But forget the story for a second — as a show-off disc for your hot new home theater set-up, The Spirit is a winner. The films sharp visuals and crisp sound are perfect for basking in the glow of that new 1080P monster you just installed in the family room. Special features include Frank Miller talking about the film on a commentary track and about his work in a “Miller on Miller” segment, Samuel L. Jackson adding his mothafucking voice to a storyboarded alternate ending, and the de rigueur bonus of the moment — a digital copy of the film for use with iTunes or Windows.

More (including a trailer for The Spirit) after the jump …

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No, not the feature film, which doesn’t have a DVD release date yet. Instead, we’re giving away both the Tales of the Black Freighter and Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic DVDs. All you have to do is go to our Fun and Free page and sign up. A winner will be selected on Wed., April 15, so get over there and get signed up before it’s too late!

Check out trailers for both DVD’s after the jump. Good luck, fanboys …

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Joe's enthusiasm during this week's podcast deeply concerns London.

Back by popular demand, it’s the second installment of our Lost podcast. This week, the round-table talks Egyptian gods, Richard Alpert’s eyeliner, Locke’s divinity and why you can’t trust a word Ben says. Plus, we add Leilani to the mix, checking facts and keeping us honest. Video clip from the show below the jump. Enjoy …

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Video:

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As part of the hype for J.J. Abram’s Star trek re-boot, Paramount Pictures has launched a website where you can Trek-ify a picture of yourself. Kinda-sorta entertaining. Probably not as cool as having Optimus Prime or Mitt Romney call your friends, but not that far off either.

As an added convenience, the site will allow you to grab a photo from Facebook, eliminating the need to upload a pic. That’s me as a Romulan above. I know, very cute. (To see my Trek-face in action and talking, click below to “read more ‘Go Trek Yourself.’”) It took less than 5 minutes to put together and the lip-syncing (that’s not my voice) is pretty good. If you try this out, leave me a comment or send me the embed code (joe.bardi@creativeloafing.com). If I get a few good ones, I’ll post them here.

Live long and prosper, folks.

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Director Mike Judge is heading back into Office Space territory with Extract, a new comedy set largely in a factory. This preview landed online today, and from it we can glean 1. Ben Affleck’s haircut is a riot, 2. Jason Bateman & Kristen Wiig could be couple of the year, 3. Mila Kunis keeps getting hotter, and 4. Sometimes pot smoking is just a CGI effect. Check it out for yourself below. Extract opens September 4, 2009.

[Note: For a more complete rundown of today's DVD/Blu-ray releases, go here. I thought D.M. deserved a little special attention …]

It’s a shame what’s happened to Dennis Miller’s career. After graduating from Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” anchor chair, Miller went on to fame and fortune with some killer HBO specials, crappy movie work (Disclosure, The Net, Bordello of Blood), a weekly TV show (Dennis Miller Live), and a memorable stint from 2000-2002 in the booth with Al Michaels and Dan Fouts on ABC’s Monday Night Football. After the 9/11 attacks, Miller’s politics and comedy took a hard right turn, with the previously sharp counterculture comic rolling over for the Bush administration and the war in Iraq.

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The Academy Awards may have come and gone, but this year’s nominees for Best Picture are just now making their way to your home theater. Milk led the pack with a March 10 release date, followed by Oscar winner Slumdog Millionare, which hit DVD and Blu-Ray on March 31. April sees Amy Adams and Meryl Streep do battle with Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt (out today); Kate Winslet get swept up in Holocaust romance in The Reader (April 14); and the brilliant Frank Langella resurrects Tricky Dick in Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon (April 21). Sorry, Brad Pitt fans, you have to wait until next month to own The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which hits stores May 5.
But enough about these damn movies already! Frankly, after all the pre-Oscar hype, I’m sick of hearing about them. Instead, let’s talk about last year’s Best Picture winner: No Country For Old Men. The Coen Brothers’ dark, new-fangled Western starring Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem’s haircut finally gets the deluxe treatment today with a three-disc DVD and two-disc Blu-ray package.
Originally released last year lacking suitable extras, No Country is done up right this time, with about five hours of bonus material. In addition to the standard “making of” documentary and interviews, the set also boasts cast-and-crew holding forth on what it’s like to work with the revered Coens. One high-tech addition is the inclusion of a downloadable copy of the film for use on your iPod or Windows devices. It’s a cool feature, even though No Country’s bright desert photography needs to be experienced on a screen larger than a deck of cards to be appreciated.

ODDS & ENDS
A few more titles out today that are worth mentioning: Keanu Reeves’ remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still didn’t exactly tank at the box office, but it was no home run either. Skip it and check out the new Blu-Ray of 2010: The Year We Make Contact, director Peter Hyams’ better-than-expected 1984 sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. If neither of those floats your boat, grab Jim Carrey in Yes Man or an animated rat in The Tale of Despereaux, both out today.