Turns out that show really did have Two and a Half Men. As much as I dislike the little pudgy kid who just kept getting pudgier over the years, it’s Charlie Sheen who turned out to be a half a man in the end. His recent comments on Alex Jones show got the entire show production stopped, and immediately. Here’s more information:

It’s unfortunate, really, because the show did have elements of brilliance – now and then. It was terribly formulaic, but here’s the kicker – through all that familiar math, you would sometimes see a glimpse of good, classic comedy gold. But I don’t want to focus on the show itself – best-rated only means that – a lot of people watch it. It doesn’t qualify as ‘good’ or ‘acclaimed’, or ‘timeless’. It just means popular. I guess that popularity caused high ratings, massive budget, generous salaries, kid gloves for the actors, and ultimately, one of the actors completely losing his cool, respect, professionalism, and hopefully, any possibility of a career. Charlie Sheen has blew it.

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The Annual ‘Outguess Ebert’s Oscar Predictions’ contest is finally going global. It used to be for USA citizens only, but with the help of mubi.com, a phenomenal online cinema portal, Ebert is inviting anyone to participate. Just pick the films/actors/directors YOU THINK will win the awards next weekend, and if your choices are more accurate than Roger Ebert’s – you can win big. Check out the site, enter the contest, and while you’re at it, check out Ebert’s award-winning blog: rogerebert.suntimes.com

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Yes, September definitely flew by too quickly. And we’ve only seen a fraction of premieres so far. Much more to come. Iconoclasts, CSI Miami (new glasses, I hear), South Park, Bounty Hunter, Caprica, Lie to Me. Oh, I can’t wait to Catch up with Cold Blood, Dirty Jobs, Storm chasers, and the new shows. Check out your local listings, and start spending 4+ hours a night in front of teevee. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.

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If you followed the news, Greg Giraldo overdosed last weekend, and has been in a New Jersey hospital since then. Earlier today, a tweet from Jim Norton informed us that Greg has died. Not a joke, not another black humour stab, this one was sadly for real. It immediately got confirmed, and the condolences have been pouring in. Who is Greg Giraldo? He’s a comedian you wish you saw live, on stage.He’s first got ‘visibility’ on Colin Quinn’s Tough Crowd, on Comedy Central about 8-9 years ago. He made frequent appearances on Howard Stern show, Opie and Anthony, a judge on Last Comic Standing, a regular visitor to Comedy Cellar and Carolines comedy clubs in NYC. Greg is most known for his Comedy Central roasts: from Pam Anderson to Colin Quinn, to David Hasselhoff and that redneck guy. Greg has been in pretty much all of the roasts televised by CC over the past decade. He had the ability to strike you with the sharpest, shortest line, but his eyes always had that kind spark about them – it’s all in good fun. You couldn’t call him an angry comic, or a vicious comic, even though he had the material and speed to spar with the best of them. He could always step back and slow down into an emotional, softer humour.

We’ll  miss Greg greatly. Rest in peace you funny motherfucker.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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The show that spanned over three decades is back. The show that got me (and a big chunk of my family) hooked on movies, er, on films – is heading back to television. We’re willing to forgive ABC and Disney the last few years of less-than-stellar reviews (and hosts), along with terrible past-midnight timeslots. We’re going to ignore the fact the Gene Siskel is long gone, and Ebert is only vocal in his massive twitter and blog universe. We’ll even put up with a bunch of new hosts, and new ideas – which may make it better, or may not. We just want to watch.

Here’s the official announcement (comments have been disabled, maybe there’s a more official PR release later today?) We’re just happy to see him back (and possibly hear his voice once again – thanks to the miracles of technology. Ebert has been absent from the small screen over the last few years, but in recent months has become a force of nature online. Spilling from the usual ‘films’ topics into literature, medicine, politics, economics, his twitter account is now a massive online magnet for honest, informed debate – on anything, with anyone. Man, my admiration for Roger just keeps climbing.

I hope the new show brings back that classy film discussion; and reminds us that ‘they still make good pictures’, and the really good ones are worth looking for, worth waiting for. Roger, bring back some intelligence to the small screen. Movies have never been just about the silver screen, about make-belief. They have always reflected us as a people, as a culture, as a nation. Or nations. We may be in disarray right now, but your natural ability to relate to all things human, and to invoke a real response – should come across in the show.

And once we see this in the show (even if it’s late on a Sunday night), perhaps some of that will come across in our actions the following Monday morning. Boy, I’m setting you up on a high pedestal. Can’t wait for the show, wanna see the ‘new media’ that you promise to bring along, wanna see this discussion go worldwide. With your help, At The Movies can once again be a mirror to our entertainment, our culture, and our state as a people.

January can’t come soon enough. I’m aware that some of the above sounds like gleeful fanboy admiration. Live up to that, Roger. I’ll be watching.

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Here’s an incomplete list of Sunday night winners of the 62nd Emmy Awards. A lot of new shows got the prize, a lot of regulars/favorites are walking away empty-handed. The time is right for new kids to get the spotlight – Glee, Mad Men (ok, they have been noticed before), Breaking Bad, The Pacific, The Good Wife, Modern Family. All fresh ideas, all deserving the statue. Looking forward to the new seasons of these fantastic shows. You should check them out.

• Drama Series: “Mad Men,” AMC.

• Comedy Series: “Modern Family,” ABC.

• Actor, Drama Series: Bryan Cranston, “Breaking Bad,” AMC.

• Actress, Drama Series: Kyra Sedgwick, “The Closer,” TNT.

• Actor, Comedy Series: Jim Parsons, “The Big Bang Theory,” CBS.

• Actress, Comedy Series: Edie Falco, “Nurse Jackie,” Showtime.

• Supporting Actor, Drama Series: Aaron Paul, “Breaking Bad,” AMC.

• Supporting Actress, Drama Series: Archie Panjabi, “The Good Wife,” CBS.

• Supporting Actor, Comedy Series: Eric Stonestreet, “Modern Family,” ABC.

• Supporting Actress, Comedy Series: Jane Lynch, “Glee,” Fox.

• Miniseries: “The Pacific,” HBO.

• Made-for-TV Movie: “Temple Grandin,” HBO.

• Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Al Pacino, “You Don’t Know Jack,” HBO.

• Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Claire Danes, “Temple Grandin,” HBO.

• Supporting Actor, Miniseries or Movie: David Strathairn, “Temple Grandin,” HBO.

• Supporting Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Julia Ormond, “Temple Grandin,” HBO.

• Directing for a Comedy Series: Ryan Murphy, “Glee,” Fox.

• Directing, Drama Series: Steve Shill, “Dexter,” Showtime.

• Directing, Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special: Mick Jackson, “Temple Grandin,” HBO.

• Directing, Variety, Music or Comedy Special: Bucky Gunts, “Vancouver 2010 Winter Games Opening Ceremony,” NBC.

• Variety, Music or Comedy Series: “The Daily Show,” Comedy Central.

• Reality Competition Program: “Top Chef,” Bravo.

• Writing for Comedy Series: Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, “Modern Family,” ABC.

• Writing, Drama Series: Matthew Weiner and Erin Levy, “Mad Men,” AMC.

• Writing, Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special: Adam Mazer, “You Don’t Know Jack,” HBO.

• Writing, Variety, Music or Comedy Special: 63rd Annual Tony Awards, CBS.

A complete list of the winners is available here:  http://www.emmys.tv/

If you missed it, here’s the opening sequence with Jimmy Fallon, featuring cast of Glee:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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This quiet little gem of a movie came out of nowhere last year at Toronto Film Fest, and we really hoped it would pick up. Sadly, almost a year later, it’s gone through a handful of European film fests, and disappeared. Too bad. Bunny and the Bull really deserves to be watched, in small groups of friends, or family – because it’s about true friendship. It’s about understanding and accepting each other no matter how freakishly odd you may be. It’s about compromising and going left, just because a friend thinks it’s the way to go – even as your whole entity wants to turn right. It’s about the little sacrifices we make for friends (or in the name of friendship) every day. This is what ‘bromance’ should be – mature, respectful, solid and at times – tender.

Stephen (Edward Hogg) and Bunny (Simon Farnaby) go on a trip across Europe. They leave dead-end jobs, tiny apartments, one-night stands, lack of any determination and focus behind. And they just go on the road, a trek across Europe. But you see, it’s not a typical road movie. The trip is kinda all happening in the mind of Stephen (he’s a shut-in, and is really afraid to go out), so as he rummages in his apartment and stumbles onto various knick-knacks, he flashes back to that one big amazing trip he had a year ago with Bunny. It’s very warm, and the observations are sharp, culture differences and all, but you see, even that is still just the surface of the movie.

A huge part of it is the sets – as the guys go from situation to situation, a new set is created (very similar to Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind), and these sets seem to be coming together from cardboard, toothpicks and household items. In fact the creators of the film (Paul King) have confirmed that they deliberately tried to imagine how these places would look like if they were assembled from simple items. Some imagination, scissors and glue. And it’s amazing just how simple, brilliant and effective these sets are. The boys travel through Eastern Europe (post-communist), a little visit to France, Germany, and the final act in Spain. Every stop has its own look and feel, and the attention to detail is mindboggling. The fact that this film only had a budget of 1mil is amazing.

Even though the visuals to take over the film from time to time, the boys (and their shared love interest, Eloisa, played by Veronica Echegui) really quickly establish a sense of real journey, real roadtrip, while emebbeded in this cardboard fantasy. I still remember walking out of the theater thinking – this is small, inexpensive, has to be picked up , and would be perfect for a holiday release. Honest without being trite, emotional without being sugary, and very imaginative, something that you can take kids to, even though it really is about (already) grown boys growing up and becoming even older, more seasoned. I also clearly remember my wife declaring that Bunny and the Bull was the best film she’s seen at TIFF in 2009. Of course, as we all remember, ‘Precious, based on a novel Push by Sapphire’ went on to get all the spotlights, awards and box office receipts. In our opinion, this was the gem that really stood out last year at Toronto Fest.

Find it, watch it with friends. This might just bring you closer together.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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As long as there are comic books that haven’t been adapted (or adapted successfully) to big screen, we’ll be regularly  assaulted with over-the-top, self-aware, tongue-in-cheek, archetypal, good vs. evil, paper-thin stories. Most of comic book culture revolves around fallen heroes, and every once in a while a movie is made that perfectly translates that comic book tone into a film. Everything is life or death, everyone has a specific role, nothing is as it seems and almost nothing has any consequence or logic. On a rare occasion, an action film can successfully subvert tired cliches. The Loses manages to do that, keep a straight face with its characterization, and still look good in the process. It’s just fun to watch.

The film came out of nowhere back in spring, did a little business at the box office, and is now making a killing on DVD/Netflix. Understandable, since things like that really do get better after second viewing. Not that there’s too many plot twists or unanswered questions. Quite the opposite, the less you think about why things are happening, the more you can sit back and enjoy how they happen. This film doesn’t have the self-importance of Matrix, or the gloom of The Watchmen. It doesn’t go too far with music-video montages of 300 (although these did have a good look to them). It just gives you solid action, a great team of mercs, an obligatory damsel in distress, and a really over-the-top bad guy. Jason Patrick doesn’t do a lot of splashy roles, but in this one – he’s just so deliciously evil. He even wears a glove on one hand – find out why about 1hr into the film.

The plot, briefly: a team of mercs – who have obviously failed at an important mission (that was the opening sequence) is blacklisted, and is trying to get to the person who fucked them over. Problem is, as good as they are, they really don’t see the obligatory betrayals, and u-turns, so their attempt to bring down the nemesis fails. So does their plan B. Hence ‘the losers’, get it. However, their persistence keep them going again and again, in multiple iterations of the same heist formula: get to the guy who fucked us over, get his valuables/leverage, kill him in process.

All this is accompanied by amazing action scenes, in-jokes, genuine chemistry between the characters, and even though the ‘damsel’ is an archetype, she plays it well. Peter Berg is one of the screenwriters, and the dark, manly humor that was the main attraction in Very Bad Things, and Friday Night Lights is very much present here. Jeffrey Dean Morgan seems to have a a starched white shirt every morning, regardless of previous night’s shenanigans. Chris Evans is hilarious as the tech geek (Marshall from Alias, only with a 6-pack) and Idris Elba is great as the voice of reason in all this action mayhem.

It’s fun, good-looking and not offensive to logic and rules of physics. Although, they certainly are walking the line. Catch The Losers today:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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I recently re-discovered IT Crowd, suddenly the show is making more sense than before. I’m also really enjoying Criss Angel’s Mindfreak, but probably for the wrong reasons. Still, the next few weeks will get you Shatner, Man vs. Wild, Ghost Hunters, Weeds, and Pitchman. All worthy shows, especially Weeds – I wonder how the season without Elizabeth Perkins (replaced by many stunt cameos) will do. Will it reinvent itself like in season 3, or stagnate even further?

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Here’s a great infographic for Inception that actually manages to explain the movie’s multiple layers. It does so visually, and with a geometrically impossible object – which is the in-joke, of course. The film spends so much time establishing the rules of its universe, as it begins to observe some characters break those rules, the point of following them seems kinda … moot. And yet, with all the underused elements in it, and the obligatory shoot-out in act 3 – I still strongly recommend you watch it. Why?

Because Inception is indeed an intelligent, thought-provoking film. It borrows heavily from previous sci-fi classics: Blade Runner, ExistenZ, Matrix, Thirteenth Floor, Solaris – and uses these ideas or techniques to take the viewer deeper, to give us layers of possibilities. It’s a mash-up (I’d say very successful) of familiar ideas, presented in a new way, with characters who seem to have unique motivations. The set-up, the exposition, while a little too long and wordy (too much dialogue in a film that can be so effective with its visuals) are all fantastic. In a world where stealing thoughts and secrets from your competitor’s mind is a relatively common crime, what if you could plant an idea in someone’s head? What if during your journey into someone’s subconscious, you could leave something behind, and let that idea evolve? This is the premise behind inception.

Seems simple enough – all great things usually are – and here comes the team to do the job. Instead of the usual action archetype of ‘explosives’ expert, ‘security’ person, hot-looking ‘damsel’, we get a different crew. Christopher Nolan is trying to turn a cliche on its head. We have a ‘chemist’ – a person who concocts multiple drugs to let the team members (and the target) sleep and get to different layers of the subconscious. We also get a ‘forger’ – a person who’s really good at taking on different personalities, switching roles like a chameleon. And we get an ‘architect’ – a person who designs the world(s) of that subconscious, mixing elements of common places and our dreams. There’s a science to the first two experts. But the architect – in my opinion, is more of an artist.

What do you do in a world where physics can be manupilated? Walk on ceilings, of course.

Without going into too much detail – the movie does get heavily into exposition – the job begins. And here we get another glimpse at Nolan’s intentions. Some of the rules established earlier are broken. Instead of digging into 1-2 layers of the target’s mind, the team is forced to go deeper. Instead of going into one mind, because of circumstances, we have to invade another. And so on. The movie itself feels like a video game where you’re not exactly sure you’re playing it right. Some maneuvers get you to strange places and you need to back-up. But the last part of the film – and this will blow your mind, if you’re open to it – plays like a dream. Sequences change too quickly, characters seem to come out of nowhere, a unique location somehow seems familiar and cozy.

This is where I almost lost it – the shoot-out was too long (obviously obligatory boom-bang budget request), and the multiple layers of the subconscious are very subjective. I enjoyed some of these elements – simply because of Psych 101, common symbols on our dreams. Other people might not have recognized it, or they have different dreams. Nolan took a big risk here, possibly losing the audience’s attention. Still, the effort to give people a vision of their own dreams – is worth the applause.

Not all is good, however. The actors are not all used widely, or at all. Some – just make an appearance, and not add ANYTHING to the story. Shame about that. And as for the opening and closing shots – no spoilers, but does it really matter how the movie opens or closes, if the journey itself is such a rich experience? What’s wrong with a little ambiguity? Besides, if you manage to do so much correctly in 2hrs, a couple of weaknesses or missed opportunities is okay by me. Leonardo Di Caprio should have been the main attraction, but for me – Joseph Gordon Lewitt (and his amazing ‘weightless’ sequence, along with great wardrobe), Ellen Page (a young, inspired architect who gets to play with ‘real’ buildings), and the relentless soundtrack (Hans Zimmer, who else) were the best things about the film. Of course, the visuals are outstanding too, but I can’t say that ‘architecture is the sexiest element of this movie’. Someone else has already made that observation.

The top will keep spinning as long as you want it to. Or will it?

You absolutely must watch it, and maybe more than once. It’s not the movie of the year, or a decade. But it will make you think for a while, and will inspire you to take something familiar, something old, and try to give it new life or new use. In a world full of Adam Sandler films (and recycled poo-poo jokes), this is a smart film – especially if it recycles ideas with depth and meaning. In a world of endless musical and visual rip-offs (the rapper community this is called ‘sampling’, and it’s everywhere), this is a proper homage to things we all know and like from many years before. I’m gonna go watch Blade Runner and ExistenZ again – the source is always better. And in a few months, Inception is going to be on the same shelf.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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