So, just finished watching the Emmy Awards a bit ago. Overall, a decent enough show. I didn’t get a chance to put together my list of predictions this year (I started to, but didn’t get very far). The major failure of the show was in the chosen hosts. Their panel of 5 reality TV hosts (nominees in their category) was a miserable failure on stage. Heidi Klum managed to hold out as the best of the group, and even she was only abundantly average. When you have presenters like Steve Martin and Ricky Gervais come out and effortlessly upstage the main hosts, it becomes clear just how bad those hosts are doing. Then there’s Don Rickles, who amusingly refused to stay on script. While he may not seem physically top notch, he’s still as quick on the joke as he ever was. By coincidence, I was just watching his Get Smart appearance earlier this week on DVD. Barry Sonnenfeld won a much deserved award for directing the Pie-Lette of Pushing Daisies - the best broadcast network show on the air (which is my way of ruling out Battlestar Galactica in the comparison). And while I think Alec Baldwin is fantastic on 30 Rock, it was still sad to not see Lee Pace get an upset win a leading actor in a comedy award for Pushing Daisies (not that I expected such a long shot possibility). I would have at least loved to see Tony Shalhoub win another for playing Adrian Monk, but I guess 3 wins in a row is good enough. Steven Colbert & John Stewart had a great night at the awards, yet again. It was nice to see Greg Yataines win his best director in a drama award for his excellent work on House’s great season 4 finale. And as much as I truly hate reality TV shows (100%, absolutely), I did like Jimmy Kimmel’s presentation of the best host for a reality TV series award, where they went to commercial before revealing the winner. But the real winner of the night, and deservedly so, was Tiny Fey and 30 Rock. When did Mary Tyler Moore turn into a walking skeleton? Amazingly, though, Betty White still somehow manages to look nearly the same as she did back on the Mary Tyler Moore show. While 30 Rock was one I was very happy to see win the best comedy category, I was sad to see fantastic shows like House and Boston Legal lose to Mad Men for the best drama series. And if there’s one series I’m gonna have to hunt down and check out after seeing the Emmy Awards broadcast, it’s AMC’s Breaking Bad. I hadn’t actually even heard of it previously, but it looks great, and it’s writen/created by the great Vince Gilligan. Lastly, how is it the show ran long? I mean, there were more winners that weren’t there than usual, leaving the presenters to accept. And it seemed like they were getting extra aggressive in playing people off stage. Where did they waste so much time that they didn’t find in rehearsal? As a closing through, I must emphise how much they need to find a real host for the event next year.

Here’s a list of the pending movies in 2008 that I’m looking forward to, in order of impatience. One entry that is sadly not on this list is the new Star Trek film, cause it has been pushed back for release until 2009.

1. Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
   How can this one not be #1 on the list? It’s Indiana Jones. ‘Nuff said.
2. The X-Files 2
   Heck yeah! After long delays, the second X-Files film finally hits the screens. I’m a big fan of the series, and I loved the first film. I have massively high hopes for this movie (hopefully ones that can at least partially be lived up to). Billy Connelly has been added to the mix. But more importantly, the fantastic Amanda Peet joins in on the fun. Woo hoo!
3. Wall-E
   I’m a total PIXAR fanboy. And everything about this movie points to them doing what they do best. There’s no way this one can fail (and I’m not just tempting fate).
4. Quantum Of Solace
   James Bond returns in this enigmatically titled entry to the franchise. Following up almost immediately on the events of Casino Royale, which relaunched the film series yet again and in spectacular fashion, I’m anxiously looking forward to this new entry.
5. Get Smart
   I’m a major Get Smart fanboy. I’ve got ancient paperback novelizations, the complete series DVD set, etc, etc. The total fanboy in me knows I’ll be a bit let down by some of the changes, but I’m not the usual fanboy that hates something just for changing what was in the source material. I was a huge fan of the original Battlestar Galactica, but I happilly gave the new series a chance, and ended up loving it even more. They can be done right, and I’m hoping this one can at least do a decent job of it. It certainly has a great cast to work with.
6. Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
   I’m a big fan of the first Hellboy film, and like it better than Guillermo Del Toro’s much-over-hyped Pan’s Labyrinth. Like Serenity before it, Hellboy 2 was produced by Universal after the original producing studio failed to see the future on the original.
7. Doomsday
   The fact that it’s directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent, Dog Soldiers) is enough to make me anticipate. Doesn’t hurt that it’s a post-apocalyptic style film from the UK. This may end up a disappointment, I suppose, but I’m looking forward to it none-the-less.
8. Iron Man
   I’m not too much of a comic fan, but I enjoy many superhero films. However, this is Robert Downey Jr, one of my favorite actors, starring at his wisecracking best. The trailer is great, and I have high hopes.
9. Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
   David Fincher doing a movie about a man aging backwards, starring Brad Pitt. Yeah, I’m there.
10. The Dark Knight
    After the excellent first film of this franchise relaunch, it’s hard to not be anxious to see the follow-up. Of course, this movie is going to live in infamy after the death of Heath Ledger, The Joker himself.
11. The Happening
    There may be something of a popular backlash against M. Night Shyamalan lately, but I still have a lot of hope for his work. I may think that Lady In The Water is his weakest film (though not a bad film), but I really liked The Village, so sue me. Also, this movie stars Zooey Deschanel, so my ticket is automatically purchased.
12. Valkyrie
    Speaking of popular backlash, here we have Tom Cruise. While I may think he’s a whack-job in real life, I don’t have anything against him on screen. I’m not one to typically let off-screen things affect enjoyment of the on screen product. Anyway, this Bryan Singer film has all the looks of an excellent movie. As usual, John Ottman is doing the score (and the editing, which is typical for a Bryan Singer directed film), which I am definitely looking foward to. Plus, I’m a fan of the WWII film genre.
13. The Incredible Hulk
    Unlike just about everybody, I actually liked the Ang Lee Hulk film. Still, despite trying to bury that film, this follow-up still looks to have great potential. I’m certainly looking forward to the excellent cast, featuring Edward Norton (another of my favorite actors) in the lead.
14. Leatherheads
    The trailers for this have been fantastic. Clooney looks to have perfectly captured both the look and feel of the golden age of cinema, from the story to the banter. He’s proven adept at directing period pieces from the era before (Good Night & Good Luck). Definitely looking forward to this one.
15. Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince
    The Harry Potter films have been a bit hit-or-miss for me. I loved the third movie, and very much liked the most recent fifth film. I didn’t like the fourth, and thought the first two were adequately entertaining. Still, this sixth film is being made by most of the same people as the great fifth entry, so I have high hopes.
16. The International
    Let’s see, Tom Tykwer directing a thriller starring Naomi Watts and Clive Owen. I don’t need to know much more than that to know that I’m seeing this one.
17. Run, Fatboy, Run
    Written by and starring Simon Pegg is enough to get me to see anything. And as an interesting tid-bit, it’s directed by none-other-than David Schwimmer.
18. The Day The Earth Stood Still
    File this one under the category of classic sci-fi films I never thought anybody would remake. The original is pretty good, for the era anyway, and it’ll be interesting to see how they’ll handle a remake. And hey, Jennifer Connelly is reason enough to see absolutely anything.
19. Fanboys
    This film has been fighting a long, uphill battle to finally see a release, and hopefully it’ll be worth it. The story of Star Wars geeks on a quest to be able to steal a copy of Episode 1 for a dying buddy is a wild enough blend of genre, and the fact that it features Kristen Bell is an extra bonus.
20. 21
    A great cast comes together for a movie that looks very good. The trailer definitely does a good job selling the film, and I am anxious to see the end result. I like most films in the gambling genre, and this looks to be another great entry. Will it be the next Rounders? Perhaps not, but if it’s half as good I’ll be happy.
21. Burn After Reading
    After their wild success with No Country For Old Men, it’ll be interesting to see what the Coen brothers have in store for us with this dramedy. The plot of a couple gym employees trying to sell top secret information sounds like a good story foil, and the impressive cast list is enough to sell pretty much any film.
22. City Of Ember
    This conceptually fun sounding film features some great cast members (including none-other-than Bill Murray), and it’s directed by Gil Kenan, who did a good job with Monster House.
23. The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian
    Not too much to say about this one, beyond the obvious nature of it being part of the venerable Narnia franchise. The first film was good, and I think we all know basically what to expect from this sequel.
24. Speed Racer
    Like many others, I have a fondness for the original animated series. I’m definitely curious to see what they do with it. The casting of Christina Ricci as Trixie is nothing short of brilliant. My biggest reason for anxious anticipation for this film is Michael Giacchino’s music score. Letting him cut loose with material like this is gonna be awesome. He’s really becoming an obvious choice at stepping into remakes/sequels and turning in scores that pay respect to the source material. He’s done it before with Mission: Impossible III and is going to be doing so for the upcoming Star Trek film. But something like Speed Racer will really let him go crazy and have fun.
25. Penelope
    Speaking of Christina Ricci, we have this unique looking little romantic character dramedy. It actually opens tomorrow, so I’ll get to check it out sooner rather than later. Looks interesting enough to work, and you can’t possibly go wrong with casting Ricci in anything. Add in folks like Reese Witherspoon and it’s near impossible to go wrong.
26. Babylon, AD
    Vin Diesel returns to the sci-fi action/thriller genre, which is what he does best (not that he isn’t a talented actor, which you can see in films like Find Me Guilty).
27. The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emporer
    OK, I’m a sucker for The Mummy series. Sure, this one might suck, but it’ll be fun to have another adventure film in the mix this year (though it’ll have a tough time in the shadow of Indiana Jones). I was sad to originally hear that the great Rachel Weisz was dropping out of the project, but they did a great recovery by recasting the role with the excellent Maria Bello.
28. 10,000 BC
    Director Roland Emmerich gets to return to a film genre he hasn’t done in a while - ancient civilizations. He did a great job with that kind of material in Stargate. This one is clearly on a much larger scale, but he’s proven adept at large scale productions since (ID4, The Day After Tomorrow). Should be a fun action/event film if nothing else.
29. Wanted
    Here’s a movie that will likely be either fantastic fun or a complete mess. Seems you can’t turn around without seeing James McAvoy in one movie or another these days. Add to the casting mix the likes of Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman and Terrance Stamp, and hopefully you can’t go too wrong. The new trailer I just saw featuring a foot chase in a parking lot is wonderfully dynamic and great fun. Hopefully the whole movie can live up to it. It definitely looks like it’ll be conceptually fun. Hopefully it’ll work a bit better than the OK Jumper, which is another conceptually fun action film of late.
30. The Changeling
    The wildly unexpected pairing of director Clint Eastwood with the likes of writer J. Michael Straczynski piques my curiousity enough to see this, if for no other reason (of which I’m sure there’ll be many).
31. Semi-Pro
    Will Ferrell doing what he does best. The trailers have definitely been funny. It has the potential for being one of the funniest films of the year, if it works as well as it might seem in the trailer. This one also opens tomorrow, so I’ll find out sooner rather than later.
32. The Ruins
    The trailer for this one is pretty good, and the book it’s based on has good buzz. It could be a sleeper hit of the year, and is at least one I’ll definitely check out. Actress Jena Malone is reason enough for me to do so.

I did better than usual with my Oscar picks, again. I actually did the same as last year, with 14 correct picks. John Stewart did a nice enoungh job hosting. I had forgotten that Stewart had hosted previous (the year I’ve tried to blank from memory, where Crash won things and I only got 3 picks right). Frankly, I liked Ellen Degeneres’ hosting better. Ultimately I wish they’d bring Steve Martin back. You can get access to my prediction list on my previous predictions post. I was sad that Juno didn’t win best picture and that Ellen Page didn’t get best actress, but at least it got writing. I didn’t expect Jason Reitman to pick up best director for it (I figured the Coen’s were a total lock there).

OK, here’s my usual set of predictions for the Oscars. This year is a bit of an exception in that I don’t particularly dislike most any of the movies in the list. I’ve seen all 5 best pictures, and I actually like them all. For the record, this is the order of my preference for the best pictures: Juno, Michael Clayton, Atonement, There Will Be Blood then No Country For Old Men. Any title that is highlighted in yellow is one that I’ve seen. The first column of marks is for who I think will win. The second is who I’d pick from the Academy’s nominations. The last column is a write-in of what I’d pick for the category given no limitation of choice (my full list of picks for the year can be found here). Any X marks that I get right will be changed to 1’s to calculate the total right after the awards ceremony. At any rate, I have my prediction list published at the bottom of the full article of this post, or you can just click this link to view them.
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OK, my 2007 retrospective list is finally finished and published. It can be found here.

I’ve been slowly playing catch up on many various episodes of The Colbert Report I’ve missed over the last year or so. For fun, I tossed together some of my favorites of his intro lines for the show (leaving off the “This is The Colbert Report!” closing)…

• This show is an acquired taste. If you don’t like it, acquire some taste.
• You’ve heard of truth in advertising? This is truth with advertising.
• Happy National TV Turn-Off Week, you hypocrites!
• Warning, the contents of USA Today are really about the USA yesterday.
• Nation, It’s time to grab the bull by the horns! If there are no horns, you’re grabbing a cow, stop it!
• Cleanliness is next to Godliness: Churches, fill your baptismal fonts with Purell.
• I got my mojo working—mojo, of course, is what I call my assistant Monica Johnson.
• This weekend, Hippies celebrated Earth Day; maybe one day they’ll celebrate Jobs Day.
• When life gets you down, don’t get mad… Get Stephen.
• Males aged 18-34 with disposable income, prepare to have your purchasing habits swayed.
• Could being a Nielsen family kill you? Watch the entire show to find out.
• America, remember the most important gun safety tip: if you have a gun, you’ll be safe.
• It’s the first day of November sweeps, and I’m pregnant!
• Tonight, the show is in…3D! Unless you are watching on a television.
• Don’t touch that dial, and if your TV has a dial… go get a new TV.

BTW, did the rest of you folks out there in the Colbert Nation pick up your issue #1 of Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen comic?

For those who aren’t familiar with how the TV industry works, this week is one of, if not THE, biggest weeks of the year. It’s known as the “Upfronts” - where the networks do a huge media event revealing their new season schedules and programming to the people most important to them, their advertisers. For many shows, this is the week where they find out if they live or die. Or at the very least, it’s when us fans find out for sure. Case in point: Veronica Mars. The CW’s Upfronts are tomorrow morning, so as I type this I know that in about 10 hours, the fate of the show will be known. And, at this point, it’s looking HIGHLY doubtful that it’ll survive, if industry sources are correct. I’d place survival odds at about 10%. And it’ll be a crying shame to see another TV all-time great, cut down before its time, cause the viewing public are a bunch of reality TV watching morons (sorry, I’m bitter ). Today, CBS revealed their schedule, which has two official cancellations I’m sad to see. Most frustrating is Jericho, which was quite good for this debut season, and also ended on a massive cliffhanger (figures). The other was The Class, which was a very entertaining sitcom with an excellent cast. However, it was already pretty much assumed that The Class was a goner a while back, so I was expecting to see that one on the cancelled list. NBC, as pretty much expected, canned Studio 60, which is very sad. I was expecting it, but it’s sad none-the-less. I’m sure that the fact that it’s a wildly expensive show to produce certainly didn’t help matters. But hey, for once my favorite new show of a year survived (30 Rock). Fox’s upfronts are tomorrow afternoon, but I couldn’t possibly care less what that horrid, abysmal network does anymore. After their years of staggeringly idiotic programming moves, screwing fans over at every single possible moment, they don’t deserve me or anyone else as a viewer. I’ll watch The Sarah Conner Chronicles, but I’m fully aware that it’ll die a quick, painful death - 100% the fault of the network in any failings it’ll have in the ratings. It’s guaranteed from that network. Anyway, for an excellent “score card” of all the announcements/renewals/cancellations, there’s no better source than The Futon Critic’s 2007-2008 Season Upfront Guide.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my first attempt at this article got destroyed by WordPress’ auto-save feature. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna rewrite the whole article again, but I’m going ahead and doing so, if for no other reason that to be defiant against WordPress’ attempt to screw things up. However, I will stop short of how far I had gotten last time and only include the May & June releases. I’ll work up a list of July & August in the near future and perhaps try to combine them into a master list. So anyway, here’s the list of the May & June releases for Summer 2007, listed in order of my level of anticipation with some comments and a link to the IMDB page for the film.

1. Live Free Or Die Hard (6/27)
   Who knows, perhaps this fourth entry to the father of the modern action movie franchise will fall on its face, but I’m totally looking forward to it all the same. Taking point as the director this time is Len Wiseman, who directed the Underworld films. The first Underworld was quite lame. The second one I actually quite liked. The cast for this entry in the franchise gets some nide additions, including the funny Justin Long (we’ll try to not hold the Apple commercials against him). And we’ve got the vastly underrated Timothy Olyphant as the main baddie, too. And hey, Len Wiseman has carried over composer Marco Beltrami from working on Underworld Evolution to do the score to this high profile project. I can’t wait to hear what he comes up with. Surely it’ll be an improvement on the late (not-so-great) Michael Kamen’s efforts for the previous films.
2. Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End (5/25)
   While I didn’t like the second film as much as the first, it was still quite entertaining. My anticipation for this third film is very high, if for no other reason than the fact that this is being produced as a final entry in a trilogy and they will be going for broke. Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow is one of the most defining acting performances of the decade, and getting to see him put the finishing touches on it will be great.
3. 28 Weeks Later (5/11)
   Despite the fact that this is one of those horror sequels to feature none of the original cast, and only partial original crew, I have very high hopes. The original is one of the horror genre’s greats. The Brits have been making better horror films this decade than anyone, and this sequel has the original classic to live up to. But, no pressure…
4. Ratatouille (6/29)
   Sure, the trailers do very little to make me want to see this film, but that’s actually been true of most previous PIXAR productions. Yet they all still manage to be fantastic. At this point, even the typical nay-sayers are saying that they’ve been wrong enough times in the past stating, “this’ll surely be PIXAR’s big downfall,” to finally just accept the fact that it’ll likely be a great film. I’m hoping that the mere fact that it’s a PIXAR film will make it great. They’ve certainly earned enough trust over the years to have that faith in them.
5. Spider-Man 3 (5/4)
   This film gets to be the official kick-off to the summer movie season, and the pressure for it will be intense. After the massive success of the previous two films, and the record setting number of screens it will launch in, all the pundits are expecting the Spider-Man franchise to reclaim that biggest opening record it once had, which was stolen by Dead Man’s Chest. The first film was quite good, but the second was actually better. Can this third film deliver on expectations? It’ll be hard. At least Thomas Haden Church will be an added benefit.
6. Shrek The Third (5/18)
   Here’s another third franchise film to be released in May. And it is yet another that has massive expectations to live up to. Like the Spider-Man films, I liked the second Shrek better than the first and have high hopes for the third. They can’t go too wrong, since Antonio Banderas is back as Puss-In-Boots.
7. Waitress (5/2)
   One of those rarest of cute films: those tainted by controversy - the fact that writer/director Adrienne Shelly was murdered. The film has a fantastic cast (Nathan Fillion, Keri Russel, Jeremy Sisto, Andy Griffith, etc) and looks to be a great little charmer. I definitely look forward to seeing it.
8. Away From Her (5/4)
   The directorial debut of Sarah Polley. ‘nough said. I’m there.
9. Fido (6/15)
   Excellent cast members Carrie-Anne Moss and Billy Connolly star in the wonderfully dark but goofy looking zombie comedy (otherwise known as a “zomcom”).
10. Evan Almighty (6/22)
    One of the most expensive comedies ever made (THE most expensive?) at something like $175 million, the pressure is on for this one. The trailer has been mildly funny, but it’s ultimately the cast that will probably save this one. The great Steve Carrell is joined by the returning Morgan Freeman (who is always great - ALWAYS). And to add icing to the cake, the wonderful Lauren Graham joins the fun. The first film was amusing enough, but not a classic or anything. That’ll at least give this film an easier job at trying to live up to and/or beat the creative expectations.
11. Lucky You (5/4)
    Ignoring the exception of 8 Mile, Curtis Hanson is a very talented director. He has an excellent cast at his disposal for this film, not to mention an excellent crew. Part of said crew is composer Christopher Young, who also did the score to my all-time favorite poker movie, Rounders.
12. Knocked Up (6/1)
    The newest film from talented writer/director Judd Apatow features a fantastic cast (many of whom are regulars in his movie and TV projects). The trailer is quite funny, and Katherine Heigl will make a nice addition to the rest of his usual cast members.
13. Ocean’s 13 (6/8)
    I have high hopes for this third entry film, despite the fact that the second entry wasn’t all that great. It’s impressive that they can manage to coordinate the schedules of the massive returning cast to make these films. Only Julia Roberts isn’t returning for this entry. And hey, they added new cast members as unexpected as Ellen Barkin.
14. Day Watch (6/1)
    The sequel to the slick and cool Russian horror/action film Night Watch should be equally cool, if not more so.
15. Captivity (5/18)
    This looks like it might be a pretty cool horror flick. The trailers have been pretty nifty, and there’s been a moderate amount of controvery over the print advertising campaign. Director Roland Joffe (The Killing Fields, Fat Man & Little Boy) hasn’t made a great film in more than 15 years, so he’s due. And hey, Marco Beltrami has the scoring duties, so at least that part of the film will be great.
16. Mr. Brooks (6/1)
    Can this Kevin Costner thriller deliver? Perhaps. It has many talented cast members, that’s for sure. From Marg Helgenberger to Danielle Panabaker, it also features some entertaining enough actors like Dane Cook and Demi Moore. However, I have a feeling that if anything will make this movie great, it will be William Hurt. His “devil on the shoulder” role in the film will surely give him some great material to work with.
17. You Kill Me (6/29)
    Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni, Bill Pullman, Luke Wilson  - reasons enough for me. Director John Dahl has shown some talent in the past, too.
18. The Wendell Baker Story (5/18)
    Luke Wilson’s directorial debut? Count me in. He stars as well.
    
19. Bug (5/25)
    Here’s one of the crazy films that’s opening against At World’s End, but it might do OK anyway. Trailer for it is fairly effective, and it has a respectable pedigree.
20. Martian Child (6/29)
    John & Joan Cusack star along with the likes of Amanda Peet in this parental looking version of K-PAX. Should be at least fairly good.
    
21. Angel-A (5/25)
    The extremely stylish and rather enigmatic looking black & white film from writer/director Luc Besson get its US debut. I’ll admit that most anything in recent years with his name on it has been total crap (with the exception of the fantastic Danny The Dog, aka Unleashed). Hopefully this will return him to his earlier levels of style and greatness from Nikita to The Messenger (yes, I’m actually a fan of that film).
22. Evening (6/15)
    Claire Danes. I’m there. The rest of the highly notable cast surely won’t hurt, either.
23. A Mighty Heart (6/22)
    This Angelina Jolie-in-a-foreign-land film looks to be different than her previous genre outings, and looks interesting enough to work well.
24. Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer (6/8)
    So, can they improve upon the considerably lame first Fantastic Four film with this sequel. All early indicators look as though they have, but it’ll take a considerable efforts to get rid of the bad after taste from the first film. Hey, if nothing else, at least there’ll be another great John Ottman score to enjoy.
25. Home Of The Brave (5/11)
    Not entirely sure what to make of this movie, but it could turn out good. It does have a couple good cast members (Christina Ricci, Sam Jackson, Jessica Biel), and the trailers have made it look pretty decent.
26. Rise: Blood Hunter (6/1)
    While the “undead” premise of this revenge thriller may backfire completely, and the fact that there’s little material out there about this film yet to make any judgments at all, this Lucy Liu film may be a dark horse in the running.
27. I Could Never Be Your Woman (6/15)
    Amy Heckerling returns with this romantic comedy that looks like it might work well enough if Tracey Ullman’s part in the film didn’t sound like one of those retarded elements that could destroy the entire film. We’ll see about that. Cool to see Heckerling bring a few of the Clueless cast to this film (Paul Rudd, Stacey Dash, Twink Caplan).
28. The Ex (5/18)
    After the awful The Last Kiss, it’ll take a bit of motivation on my part to see another romantic Zach Braff film. But hey, Amanda Peet and Jason Bateman will surely be enough to get me there. And…… Charles Grodin???
29. Surf’s Up (6/8)
    After the mildly amusing but ultimately disappointing Happy Feet, this follow-up computer animated penguin movie doesn’t show too much promise. Who knows, perhaps it’ll be a pleasant surprise. It has tons of awesome voice talent, featuring no less than Jeff Bridges channeling Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski. Other excellent voice performers include Zooey Deschanel, James Woods, Jon Heder, Shia LaBeouf, Mike McKean, Jane Krakowski and the underappreciated Brian Benben.
30. Eagle vs. Shark (6/29)
    Easily the most Napoleon Dynamite rip-off feeling of any movie since, this one has a small chance of working. It has a big danger of being exactly what it looks like - a wannabe.
31. Mama’s Boy (6/29)
    The only reason I have for wanting to see this is for a few of the cast members (Jeff Daniels, Anna Faris, Eli Wallach).
    
32. Nancy Drew (6/15)
    Yeah, OK, I’m hardly the target demographic for this one. Still, it has a solid director in Andrew Fleming (who’s movie, Dick, is one of the single most undervalued comedies ever made, imo) and a descent enough cast. The trailer seems a bit too juvenile, but it might work well enough.

And here are ones that I may or may not see, depending. I’ll have to talk myself into catching ‘em.

1. Georgia Rule (5/11)
   Here’s one of those films that looks like it’s way too stereotypical of the genre, and it features a couple great cast members and a couple sucky ones. If I’m caught up on enough of the other May releases, I might talk myself into catching this one.
2. Blind Dating (5/11)
   A romantic comedy that I have no idea of what to think features a couple good cast members. Might catch it.
3. DOA: Dead or Alive (6/22)
   A stupid looking action parody (I hope) brought to you by the Corey “The Transporter” Yuen. Yes, it’s based on the video game - which is surely another strike against. The ONLY reason I’d wanna see this is Jaime Pressly.
4. Delta Farce (5/11)
   The trailer for this film makes it look considerably stupid, and not in a funny way. My only reason for wanting to see it is for DJ Qualls. Might just wait to catch it on video or something. Perhaps I’ll be able to talk myself into catching it.
5. Hostel: Part II (6/8)
   Yeah, I’m one of the only people who kinda liked Cabin Fever but hated Hostel (though I don’t consider Cabin Fever to be a great movie or anything). I have very little interest in seeing Hostel Part II, as it looks like much of the same, just in a different setting. Somehow, I don’t think a simple change of venue will make much of a difference. I do think Eli Roth is a highly overrated director.
   
6. The Flock (5/11)
   Could Claire Danes actually be enough to make me break my Richard Gere boycott?

I’m sure there’s a handful more that I’m missing here, but this are the ones I’m aware of at this point.

I’m so far behind in posting movie reviews that I thought I’d add insult to injury and post a comic review. I’m not a big comic person (I read the occasional tie-in and collect a couple series of them, like Battlestar Galactica). I’ve got some of the various Buffy comics from years gone by, but haven’t been a collector of them or anything. It’s great to see Dark Horse releasing their new “Omnibus” collections of all their previous Buffy comics, btw. I figured I’d post this review today, seeing as the second issue is to be released tomorrow (the 4th).

At any rate, on to this comic. Us Buffy fans have been waiting for things like the attempted 3 TV movies to happen, but those have been all but permanently scrubbed. It looked like we’d never see a continuation of our beloved series. Thanks to Joss Whedon’s continued success in the world of comics, he decided to do an official, canonical continuation of the series in comic form, and thus was born the “Season 8″ comics. Issue 1 was released last month. It sold out the initial run of 100,000 darn fast (I didn’t get one in time), turning into Dark Horse Comics’ best selling initial pressing. A second printing was quickly put in motion, with a slightly revamped (sorry) and improved cover (as pictured in this post). I picked up a copy of the second print over the weekend and sat down to enjoy the start of the relaunched story line. I was not disappointed. These new comics are being written by a number of the show’s best writers (and a couple high profile comic writers as well). This first issue is written by the man himself, Joss Whedon. “Season 8″ will last anywhere from 25-50 issues (still an up-in-the-air figure), composed of a number of smaller, multi-issue story arcs (such as this first arc of four issues by Whedon), along with some stand-alone story issues. It’s fantastic to see some of the show’s best writers sign on to do issues, like the excellent Jane Espenson, the “Drews” (Goddard & Greenberg), Steve DeKnight and more.

The story in this initial issue is a lot of fun. We get to see where the characters have developed over the year and a half or so since the story ended on the series. Buffy is her typically strong and sharp-witted self. Xander has a new position of power, but is still the simplistic, nerd-oriented self he always was. Dawn is, well, I’ll leave that one for an amusing surprise. Other characters are as yet unseen, but are certain to appear soon (in fact, Whedon has said that most all the characters will appear in some way or another). The comic form for the story allows many things the show wouldn’t - primarily for budget/practicality reasons. Whedon’s writing is solid and witty, as one would expect. The artwork is gorgeous, and somewhat inventive (I love the 2 page, 4 frame sequence of Buffy walking around Dawn talking to her). The stunning cover by artist Jo Chen is outstanding (as are her following issue covers). Overall, a rousing success. I look forward to reading all the further comics in this series. It’s so great to have the show back. It’s in a different form, but there’s no denying that this is, in fact, the show reborn. Hurray!

If you or anyone you know has any interest in becoming a TV writer, or simply a writer in general, there are two things that I recommend as mandatory. In the modern age of special edition DVD’s there’s all manner of good commentaries to be found with plenty of excellent industry insight (well, in some of them), but there’s one commentary source that I recommend well above and beyond any other - Ron Moore’s honest and amazingly insightful podcast commentaries for every episode of Battlestar Galactica (since mid-season 1, anyway). If you’re not watching Battlestar, you should. Once you have, sit yourself down for his podcasts. Heck, he’s even posted RAW audio recordings of their writing session, completely uncensored. There’s no shortage of useful information to be found, and he details the process of shaping the story for each and every episode, in the fascinatingly fluid manner in which this particular show is plotted. I also recommend his other DVD commentaries such as the interesting one on the special edition DVD for the deeply flawed Star Trek Generations. The other resource I can’t recommend more is writer Jane Espenson’s fantastic “Jane In Progress” blog, where she does daily posts aimed directly at aspiring writers - what to do and what not to do in writing for TV, how to break into the business, etc, etc, etc. Both of them are a couple of the greatest writers on TV of any kind. Espenson, interestingly, got her break in TV from Ron Moore back on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and has just recently joined on to Battlestar as a writer/producer as well. Between the two of them, there’s enough fascinating material to be had which is far more valuable than anything one would ever learn in any formal training course/program. And the two of them are wildly entertaining in the process.

Just jumping in quick today to try and drum up a few more votes for Starbuck over at the Chicago Tribune’s online “RedEye” edition, where they’ve been doing a running poll for greatest character on TV. It’s down to Jack Bauer on 24 and Starbuck on Battlestar. Go vote for Starbuck! And if you don’t want to disclose your real e-mail and location, make something quasi-legit sounding up and vote anyway.

Ten years ago today, March 10, Buffy debuted on The WB. It became the greatest show in the history of television (my opinion, of course). In honor of the occasion, I watched my five favorite episodes. Here’s some links to celebrate the anniversary:

• TV.com’s tribute
• CHUD.com’s tribute
• A Toronto Star interview
• Flak Magazine tribute
• Video of the “Previously On…” opening of the season 5 finale episode, The Gift.
• Video of “Walk Through The Fire” from the masterpiece musical episode, Once More, With Feeling.
• The full A&E Biography on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The link is to part 1. The other parts are linked on that video.

And I anxiously look forward to the “Buffy Season 8” comics that debut in 11 days (the 21st), as pictured in this post.

I did a bit better than usual with my Oscar predictions this year. Got 14 right. Here’s a link to file with my predictions, now modified to show the results (winner is in bold). Made a couple fairly obvious mistakes (like not picking the period picture for best costumes - figuring that a movie ABOUT fashion would have a chance), but did fairly well. Didn’t see a couple of the upsets coming, like An Inconvenient Truth winning for best song. Then again, Dreamgirls split the vote having 3 nominations. Boy, I hope this is the last time I have to suffer through songs from Dreamgirls. I didn’t like the Inconvenient Truth song either (and those retarded tree-hugger statements on the screen during the performance), but was happy to not see Dreamgirls win. Sure wish Randy Newman could have been the dark horse winner. Speaking of Inconvenient Truth, the Al Gore influence on the ceremony was surprising. I did like joke of them playing him off the stage. Ellen Degeneres did a great job hosting (not to mention the one winner, I forget who it was, that followed through on her acceptance speech advice by mentioning how great it was that four blind kids from the Bronx could win). Those funky dance troup silhouette things were actually pretty cool, too. Overall a pretty good Oscar ceremony. Nice to see Ennio Morricone get his big lifetime achievement award. Still a bit miffed that Shirley Walker was cut from the memorial tribute montage.

I felt the need to put this one into its own post, rather than lumping it in with the other daily ponderings posts. Veronica Mars returns from hiatus tomorrow, Tuesday, at 8:00 (CST). Second only to Battlestar Galactica for best show on TV, this series deserves far more audience than it ever gets. Already shorted 2 episodes for this season, it’s going to need every point of ratings it can muster for a 4th season to be ordered. I’m trying to not get my hopes up for the 4th season, but I can dream. If you’ve fallen behind in watching, or haven’t previously been a fan, it’s worth noting that the newest running mystery begins with this week’s episode (well, it was actually setup at the end of the previous episode before the hiatus began), so feel free to jump in at the beginning of this new mystery.

I was gonna just use this as my video of the day link, but I thought it deserved more attention. This is a hilarious little promo that Fox made. Anybody who’s ever watched 24 will get a kick out of this one. Too funny…

Was just watching an episode of Heroes (1.06), a show which I have mixed feelings about. However, as I’m watching, something jumps out at me. In a nice, quiet little moment in the episode, I notice an object sitting on the night stand next to a bed. Could it be? Nah, couldn’t be. So I back the episode up and look again. Holy cow, it is! It’s the “smushed face” wax lion from Wonderfalls! It’s at this moment where my mind suddenly tries to connect the dots. I hadn’t put 2 and 2 together until this moment that Bryan Fuller was a producer on Heroes. He’s one of the key executive producers and creators of Wonderfalls (one of the greatest shows of all time). Sneaking in the smushed face wax lion prop is way too cool. Woo hoo! Wonderfalls isn’t dead! Now I’m gonna be keeping my eye out for ANY of the other wonderful “muses” from Wonderfalls as I watch Heroes. Heck, I’ll have to check out the previous episodes at some point to see what I can find. Way to go Bryan! Now, sneak some more of them in! For those curious, I grabbed a screenshot of it (it’s in soft focus for almost the entire shot, but I could get a pretty good still as the camera racked focus past it VERY quickly. Just click on the thumbnail to the left for a full res snap of it. For those wondering, that is a shot in a mirror, which explains why the wax lion is backwards (it would take a Wonderfalls fanatic like me to notice that).

Chicago Tribune - Peter Boyle, the actor who transformed from an angry workingman in “Joe” to a tap-dancing monster in “Young Frankenstein” and finally the comically grouchy father on “Everybody Loves Raymond,” has died. He was 71.

Sad news. Boyle was a particularly talented comedian. An expert at deadpan. I will always consider his episode of The X-Files (Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose) to be one of the best of the series - and his performance is one of the main reasons why. He shall be missed.

TVShowsOnDVD.com - News that Fox is releasing WKRP in Cincinnati is making the rounds thanks to a flyer that can be found inside the upcoming release of Stacked. The studio has been working on the set for quite awhile, spending most of their time looking at the songs used in the series. As you’ve probably guessed, there will be music substitutions when the set comes out, but the studio has been spending a lot of time with a music supervisor to ensure that the replaced songs fit the show. Hugh Wilson, creator of the series, has heard some of the replaced music and thought Fox did a good job.

Ah, very cool. Was thinking I’d never see this series hit DVD. In this extreme case, I won’t mind the music replacements as long as they are done with some amount of attention. Sound like they are trying to do it right, so that’s cool.

I’m having fun going through the first season set of Saturday Night Live. It’s impressive to see this historic first season of the legendary SNL. What’s most amazing is that they’ve managed to secure rights to include all the original music guests (unlike DVD sets of In Living Color - though I can’t say I can complain about that). It’s interesting to watch these early episodes. I’ve only gone through a few of the episodes so far, but it’s kinda trippy to watch them in their entirety. The early episodes were sure uneven and experimental, full of brilliance and complete flops. It wasn’t quite the show that it would later become at this point (and it sure was heavier in music performances). I never realized that Andy Kaufman’s legendary “Here He Comes To Save The Day bit was from the very first episode of SNL. Overall, the DVD set is a classy presentation. It may not be loaded with special features, but the content itself is worth it, and the packaging and presentation is well done. This is definitely an unedited slice of history; a veritable time capsule. It’s particularly fun to watch in context of seeing Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, which reminisces often about the early years of the fictional Studio 60 show. And hey, it’s a great entry in the DVD collections of us Chevy Chase fans. Also, if SNL ever does end, and he’s still alive at that point, they HAVE to get George Carlin to host the final episode. Another fun trivial note: the first episode of SNL aired 2 days before I was born. Actually, it’d have been about a day and a half…

Spent a while browsing around the local Tower Records this evening. For those who don’t know, the chain is going out of business, and they’ve been raising the percent discount off things over the last couple months. At the moment, they are discount CD’s at 60% off (though amusingly the rap/hip-hop section is 70% off) and DVD’s are at 50% off. Other things are at various levels, depending. So, I picked up 8 film score CD’s that I had passed on over time due to the higher price. But, with their normal $18 or $19 prices now being between $7 & $8, I sprung for a handful of ‘em. So, if you’ve got a Tower nearby, you might want to rummage around and see what they’ve got left. I’m going to be hitting the other local one in the next day or two and see what they’ve got left. The soundtrack section (where I spend 98% of my time at record stores) was still fairly well filled with a good amount of stuff to still sift through for good deals.

The Futon Critic - NBC’s freshman comedy “30 Rock” (Thursdays, 9:30-10 p.m. ET) has been picked up for a full-season order for 2006-07, it was announced today by Kevin Reilly, President, NBC Entertainment.

OK, I’m gonna start getting paranoid. The new shows I’m hoping won’t get canceled actually AREN’T getting canceled. Something is fundamentally wrong with the universe. So NBC has given full seasons to both of their live variety show behind-the-scenes shows (though both differ from each other quite a lot). I’m thrilled that 30 Rock has made the cut.

So far, the only show that I’ve particularly liked a lot that has been cancelled is NBC’s Kidnapped, and I pretty much saw that cancellation coming from a mile away. A few shows that were OK that have been axed are CW’s Runaway, CBS’s Smith, FOX’s Happy Hour and Vanished.

Techdirt - Unlike many years ago, most theaters don’t have ushers stationed nearby any more. However, Regal Entertainment Group, owners of the largest US movie chain is calling technology to the rescue. They’ll be giving out little devices to “mature” audience members, along with a free bucket of popcorn. If there’s a problem in the theater, whoever has the device can click a button and immediately alert theater employees to come and help deal with the situation.

Oooooh, cool. I might have to start going out of my way to the only Regal theater in my area (it’s definitely not the closest to me) if this program starts to take off for them. It’s a good idea, and I hope it tests well.

Soundtrack.Net - Composer Shirley Walker, best known for her television work on “Batman: The Animated Series”, has died of a brain aneurysm at the age of 61. Most recently, Walker has been known for her work on the Final Destination series of films, and had just completed Black Christmas for long-time collaborator, director Glen Morgan.

Sad, tragic news. I’ve been an admirer of her work for a long time. As one of the only women film composers in the game (as well as Rachel Portman, Anne Dudley and, uh, Lisa Gerrard is the only other I can think of). Walker was a fantastically talented composer, as well as a very gifted orchestrator (having orchestrated many of Danny Elfman’s earlier scores, such as the Batman films). This is particularly sad news, following closely behind the death of Basil Poledouris.

The Futon Critic - “Veronica Mars” Scores Its Best Ratings EVER in Adults 18-34 and 18-49; Attracts Second Largest Audience in Series History

“Veronica Mars” Reaches New Season High in All Categories

WOO HOO! It’s about time the show started to get some ratings improvements. Another week of this and CW might bump that season order up to the full 22. And hey, if it can hold much of it, perhaps another season (I was already resigned to the fact that a fourth season would be unlike, but now I have hope - which I’m sure will be crushed).

Wired - What do you do if you’re the world’s worst director? You challenge your critics to a boxing match. How Uwe Boll fulfilled every filmmaker’s deepest fantasy.

There just aren’t words. That’s one of the most twistedly funny things I’ve read in a while. I find Uwe Boll to be a bad director, but there are worse (Besides, I’ve never been a fan of one of the video games he’s slaughtered). I do kinda admire his complete lack of restraint, and after reading this write-up of the insanity, lack of restraint is clearly one of his strongest personality traits. I couldn’t help thinking of the hilarious closing of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back (where Jay & Silent Bob fly around the country to beat the life out of all their wimpy online fanboy critics). This should definitely give all the Boll-bashers online a moment or two pause - I mean THEY didn’t show up to do something about it…