Paul

OPENING: 03/18/2011

STUDIO: Universal Pictures

RUN TIME: 104 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Fugitive, celebrity, slacker, joker, alien.

Opening Statement
After delighting moviegoers with the wildly entertaining one-two punch of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have re-teamed for the similarly satirical sci-fi comedy Paul. Alas, the film proves a huge step down for the duo.

Facts of the Case
Graham (Pegg) and Clive (Frost) are two English buddies on holiday in the United States. After enjoying a few days at the San Diego Comic-Con, the pair plans to hit the road in their RV and check out the locations of famous “alien sightings.” Though both men believe quite strongly in the existence of aliens, they’re nonetheless startled to actually encounter one in real life.

The alien’s name is Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen, Knocked Up), and he looks like a stereotypical amalgam of every Hollywood alien you’ve ever seen. That’s largely due to the fact that Paul has been around since the 1940s, and those who have glimpsed him have incorporated elements of his features into various aspects of pop culture. Paul’s assimilated a good deal of pop culture himself, frequently referencing his favorite movies and music (not to mention smoking, drinking and swearing like a space sailor).

After an awkward “getting to know you” period, Graham and Clive agree to allow Paul to accompany them on their journey. Along the way, they encounter a bible-thumping redneck (John Carroll Lynch, Zodiac), a non-bible thumping redneck (David Koechner, The Office), a timid creationist (Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live), some bumbling federal agents (including Bill Hader, Superbad and Jason Bateman, Arrested Development), a respected sci-fi writer (Jeffrey Tambor, Hellboy) a powerful bureaucrat (Sigourney Weaver, Alien), a friendly waitress (Jane Lynch, Glee) and others.

The Evidence
If nothing else, Paul serves as a sharp demonstration of just how gifted writer/director Edgar Wright is. Though Wright had nothing to do with the film, it’s clear that the seemingly unstoppable team of Pegg and Frost is reduced considerably without Wright at the helm. The infectious energy and ferocious wit of Wright’s Pegg n’ Frost films are gone, replaced with a good deal of aimless raunchiness, clumsy gags and sloppy storytelling.

Still, Paul seems like it ought to be a lot of fun. In addition to a screenplay written by Pegg and Frost, the film is helmed by Greg Motolla (who gave us the entertaining Superbad and the surprisingly moving Adventureland) and boasts a large cast of very funny people. There are so many things about Paul that probably looked great on paper which simply don’t add up to much in the film.

During some scenes, Paul feels like a movie that never really got past the conceptual stage. The notion of a comedy about an alien who has influenced every element of alien pop culture in recent decades is a potential comedic goldmine, but Paul is content to make some obvious Spielberg references and leave it at that. For that matter, most of the movie’s sci-fi references tend to be pretty obvious (when the guys enter a bar, the band is playing a country & western version of the Cantina music from Star Wars). The film desperately wants to be regarded as a hip celebration of geek culture, but its insistence on being so inclusive prevents that. Being aware of famous moments in Star Wars, E.T. and Star Trek hardly qualifies one as a nerd.

Another idea that probably looked great on paper: creating a comedy about two frightened Brits enduring the horrors of America. Paul presents us as a nation of right-wing, idiotic, tobacco-chewing, gun-loving, power-hungry religious zealots. Which, uh, is fair enough, I guess. There’s fun to be had in looking at the less savory parts of America through the eyes of outsiders, but all of the American characters are presented as such simplistic, one-note cartoons that the whole joke loses its steam very quickly. The film isn’t as much a skewering of American culture as it is a story made up by someone who heard about America from a friend of a friend a few years ago. Alas, we’re a million miles from the delightful sting of In the Loop.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that the central characters just aren’t that interesting. Pegg and Frost aren’t interacting with each other so much as they are with the CGI alien, and they have a tough time generating genuine chemistry with him. Speaking of which, choosing Seth Rogen to voice the title character was a bad idea. Rogen’s cinematic persona is so well-established at this point that we know pretty much everything about Paul within a few minutes of meeting him, and Rogen’s distinctive bark becomes grating rather quickly. I think Rogen is a talented guy, but we either need a break from him for a while or he needs to try tackling more projects that push him out of his comfort zone.

The supporting cast is loaded with talented folks, and we smile when we see most of them appear. Unfortunately, too many of them aren’t given anything to do–Jane Lynch, John Carroll Lynch and Sigourney Weaver in particular are completely wasted. Kristen Wiig has fun playing a character who transforms from timid Christian to foul-mouthed rebel, but after a while she’s forced to repeat the same joke over and over again (she’s new to swearing, so she uses foul language in a variety of unusual ways). Only Bill Hader manages to both receive a decent character and find a way to keep that character interesting for the duration of his screen time.

When the film arrives at its warm and gooey final reel, the effect is rather strange: the “character development” up to this point has been so thin and cartoonish that the movie’s attempt at sincerity feels like a joke. To watch these scenes and feel nothing is to realize just how ineffective Paul is at achieving what it seemingly set out to accomplish.

Closing Statement
In fairness, it should be noted that there are a handful of laughs to be had, along with a handful of genuinely clever sight gags and throwaway lines. Still, these moments only come along just often enough to remind us how much better this could have been had the screenplay been through another draft or two (or three or four). Here’s hoping Pegg and Frost are back in fine form their next time around.

The Verdict
5/10

The Green Hornet

OPENING: 01/14/2011

STUDIO: Columbia Pictures

RUN TIME: 119 min

ACCOMPLICES:
Trailer, Official Site

The Charge
Breaking the Law to Protect It

Opening Statement
It’s no secret that The Green Hornet went through a long and troubled development period. Folks like Kevin Smith, Jake Gyllenhaal, George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg were attached the film at various points, but the property eventually fell into the hands of actor/writer Seth Rogen and director Michel Gondry. Together, this unlikely duo turn in a version of The Green Hornet that’s by turns oddly entertaining and unforgivably messy.

Facts of the Case
Britt Reid (Seth Rogen, Knocked Up) is the spoiled son of a powerful newspaper editor (Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton). When his father passes away, Britt decides to stop fooling around and do something with his life. Dear old dad was committed to the fight against crime in his newspapers, so Britt decides he’s going to take the fight to the streets. With the invaluable aid of his father’s former auto mechanic/coffee-maker Kato (Jay Chou, Curse of the Golden Flower), Britt adopts his new secret identity as “The Green Hornet” and begins a mission to take down the city’s most powerful crime lord (Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds).

The Evidence
The most immediately amusing idea this version of The Green Hornet has to offer is that it’s a superhero movie without a superhero. Well, that’s not true–Kato is pretty impressive in a variety of ways. However, the title character certainly doesn’t qualify as a superhero in the traditional sense. He has no extraordinary powers, no noteworthy fighting abilities and an intellect that’s just a little below average. Kato is Batman and Alfred wrapped into one. That leaves Britt in the role of Bruce Wayne, though he doesn’t have half as much business sense. When he inherits his father’s newspaper business, he insists on meeting with the staff. His attempts at inspirational speeches have a way of leaving people feeling nervous about their careers.

So, Britt and Kato wander into a variety of violent situations. In most instances, this involves Britt getting in way over his head and Kato finding a way to bail him out. Things would probably go smoother if Kato were by himself, but Britt’s the one with the money and the desire for notoriety. There’s a good deal of humor in the little moments in which Kato subtly attempts to find ways to protect Britt from his own foolishness. The film more or less works when it’s in buddy-movie mode, though these two spend so much time bickering that I’m not sure “buddy” really applies.

However, things get more problematic when the film enters action-movie mode. Save for one stylish gimmick Gondry has to offer (that would be the intriguing “Kato-Vision”), the action scenes tend to be loud and purposeless. They’re too much of a muchness, as we often see a lot of chaos onscreen but aren’t always able to easily identify who is doing what to whom. It seems as if Gondry is so caught up in his moments of clever minutiae that he fails to do enough work on the big-picture stuff.

In a way, the entire film is like that. The Green Hornet is loaded with clever dialogue exchanges, fun visual tricks and charmingly kooky moments, but it neglects far too many of its characters, suffers from uncomfortable tonal shifts and has some severe pacing problems. Additionally, the film seems to become increasingly conventional as it proceeds, eventually trading in free-wheeling loopiness for a banal, generic third act. I can’t begin to tell you how disappointed I was in the film’s action-packed finale, which crushes some light touches of wit with overbearing blandness.

Rogen and Chou have some nice chemistry together, though they fare better during quiet moments (such as a scene in which the two sing together while enjoying a ride in Black Beauty, their tricked-out automobile). Rogen doesn’t stretch himself much and clearly doesn’t fit the traditional superhero mold, but he wrote the role for himself and thus never seems miscast. Chou stumbles over his English-language dialogue from time to time, but he has an appealing screen presence and a pretty good sense of comic timing. His subdued demeanor plays particularly well off of Rogen’s boisterous personality.

The supporting players aren’t bad, but the screenplay by Rogen and Evan Goldberg treats them badly. Christoph Waltz has a terrific opening scene with a hilarious punch line, but after that he’s given little of interest to do (even worse, variations on the aforementioned punch line are repeated so frequently that eventually the joke runs out of steam). Cameron Diaz (The Box) initially seems to be playing the obligatory love interest, though she neither falls in love with anyone nor manages to be interesting. Honestly, there’s no reason for her to be in the film. I suppose the filmmakers were worried about not having a female in the principle cast. Tom Wilkinson and Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica) are both prominently credited, but they’re onscreen so little that you’ll probably forget they were in it.

Closing Statement
When we learn that Wilkinson’s character has passed away early in the film, a news flash informs us of the cause: a bee sting. That’s an amusingly offbeat way for a character to die; particularly in a film like this. I laughed at what seemed to be a poke at other superhero tales in which parental figures die horrible deaths at the hands of villains. Alas, later in the film it’s revealed that Wilkinson was not killed by a bee sting, but rather by an injection which was administered by… well, that would be telling. Suffice it to say that I was displeased this turn of events. That’s the movie in a nutshell: oddball fun alternating with considerable disappointment. It’s not bad, it doesn’t work, it’s worth seeing, it’s not worth paying for, it’s fresh, it’s typical, it’s funny, it’s tedious, it doesn’t deserve to be released in January, it doesn’t deserve to be a summer blockbuster, it’s… well, it’s The Green Hornet.

The Verdict
6/10

Observe and Report

OPENING: 04/10/2009

STUDIO: Warner Bros.

RUN TIME: 86 min

TRAILER: Trailer

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

SOUNDTRACK:

The Charge
Right Now, The World Needs a Hero.

Opening Statement
Director Jody Hill first caught the attention of audiences with his comedy The Foot Fist Way. The film gave a career boost to both Hill and star Danny McBride, and they would soon collaborate again on the HBO television series Eastbound and Down. Now Hill has returned with a much more high-profile theatrical feature, Observe and Report, starring Seth Rogen. Lest you think Observe and Report is merely another Judd Apatow knock-off, I urge you to think again. You might like it, you might hate it, but this is one of the most offbeat and original comedies of the year.


Facts of the Case
Rogen plays Ronnie Barnhardt, a security guard at a relatively quiet mall. Alas, the peace is disturbed when a flasher decides to start exposing himself to people in the parking lot. Despite Ronnie’s best efforts, the flasher is not caught. Ronnie makes it his life aim to capture the flasher and bring him to justice. He becomes particularly incensed when the flasher assaults Brandi (Anna Faris), the junkie who works behind the makeup counter at the mall. Ronnie has been secretly pining for Brandi for quite a long time, and vows to her that he is going to protect her from inevitable future attacks. Despite his best intentions, things just aren’t going so well. A police detective (Ray Liotta) keeps interfering with Ronnie’s investigation. His attempt to become an official member of the police department doesn’t quite work out. In addition to this, he’s trying to deal with alcoholic mother (Celia Weston) and bipolar disorder. Can Ronnie overcome his personal obstacles and bring the bad guy to justice?


The Evidence
There is a scene about halfway through the film in which Ray Liotta’s character calls Ronnie into his office. He’s preparing to tell him that he isn’t qualified to be a member of the police department. One of Liotta’s co-workers is hiding in the closet, gleefully listening for the humor that is certain to ensue. Alas, after listening to the conversation, the co-worker steps out of the closet and says, “You know, I was in here because I thought this was going to be pretty funny. But it’s actually just kind of sad.”



Observe and Report has a way of working like that. It delivers sadness when we expect laughs and laughs during moments when we shouldn’t, with a disturbing cloud of psychosis lingering over the whole thing. Most reviews have pointed out Hill was largely inspired by Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, but the film is much closer in spirit to Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, another compelling character study that uncomfortably found laughs in dark and troubling territory. It has been said that films do not influence the culture so much as they reflect it. If that’s the case, there have been few recent films which accurately distill modern American culture as well as Observe and Report.

Ronnie Barnhardt is crass, psychotic, messy, self-conscious, uncaring, bigoted, deeply sad, wasted, well-intentioned, and nobly misguided. It’s remarkable Seth Rogen pulls off this role as well as he does. Don’t let the “silly mall cop” trailers fool you. This is a much different performance from Rogen, one that brings out a new side of his acting ability. I’ve always found the guy warm and somewhat likable, but here he puts aside his slovenly Knocked Up persona to create a disturbed individual who is both frightening and repulsive. We care about him in the way that we care about any mentally disturbed individual in need of help or guidance. In his own small, pathetic way, Ronnie regards himself as a protector of humanity, using a sawed-off shotgun to blast away the dark clouds of evil that surround this world. His violent fantasies are not fueled by a desire to hurt people, but by a warped sense of honor he has created for himself.



One of the most compelling elements of the film is the relationship between Ronnie and a girl named Nell (Collette Wolfe, Semi-Pro). Nell works behind the counter at a little shop in the mall that sells coffee and cinnamon roles. She is a broken person with a broken leg. Her boss (Patton Oswalt) constantly insults and ridicules her, nobody understands her attempt to become a “born again virgin,” and Ronnie seems completely oblivious to the fact that she really cares about him. Wolfe and Rogen share scenes together which truly capture the complex emotions the film conjures. Hill finds a way to blend deep feeling and shocking absurdity in a manner which hits you in the pit of your stomach. There’s one particularly effective scene in which Ronnie determines to make Nell’s boss stop bothering her. The scene provides a primal satisfaction, underlined with the undeniable knowledge that what we are seeing is actually very troubled behavior.



In some ways, I was also reminded of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, a film which also attempted to provide a level of unease by blending undeniably energetic and entertaining action sequences with absolutely horrific and violent behavior. This film is even more effective in what it achieves. The film inserts humor during numerous particularly repulsive moments, and slyly dares the viewer not to laugh. The comedy is definitely here, but it’s dark, bitter, and genuinely uncomfortable. There are ample opportunities for Hill to start preaching, but he avoids them all; and because of it, the film makes me nervous in the same way as Fight Club did. I suspect there’s a pretty significant percentage of people out there who are going to take Observe and Report at face value as a celebration of truly despicable activity.

Closing Statement
The film isn’t perfect, largely because it works better on a metaphoric level than on a realistic one. Even so, I admire its blunt frankness, honesty, and raw humanity. I’ve seen a lot of recent comedies, action films, and horror movies which feature repugnant behavior, and I’m always bothered when I hear people in the theatre laughing at things that sadden me. Observe and Report matches pretty much anything out there in terms of R-rated content. The difference is this one knows what is sad, what is creepy, and what is funny. It throws all of these elements together as a potent mixture that says, “We defy you not to feel the messy, icky humanity of this film.” Recommended for viewers with a strong stomach who are looking for more than cheap laughs.


The Verdict
8/10

Pineapple Express

Opening Date: 08/06/2008

STUDIO: Columbia Pictures

TRAILER: Trailer

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

The Charge
Put this in your pipe and smoke it.

Opening Statement
Following up on the success of Knocked Up and Superbad, the Apatow troupe returns with yet another script that was once on the back burner. Originally written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the Judd Apatow touch of box office gold has placed Pineapple Express on the fast track to the silver screen.

Facts of the Case
Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) has reached the point where one becomes comfortable with life. He has a high school girlfriend, a job as a file server, and is high pretty much all the time. Saul Silver (James Franco) is Dale’s pot dealer and has taken it upon himself to cross the threshold of turning Dale from customer to friend. Along the way the two become entangled in a tale of murder, trafficking, drug cartels, and all out action.

The Evidence
There will be many outcries that Pineapple Express sets a new bar in the stoner comedy genre. But really, how high was that bar anyway? What’s more impressive is how the film provides one of the most memorable comedy duos in years. Dale Denton and Saul Silver have placed themselves in the company of other legendary stoners such as Cheech and Chong and even Hunter S. Thompson and Oscar Zeta Acosta.

The plot to Pineapple Express is an afterthought. Dale witnesses a murder, during a routine service call and flees the scene in a panic, leaving behind a roach of Pineapple Express. Of course, this marijuana being proclaimed by Saul as “dopest dope you’ll ever smoke,” drug lord Ted Jones (Gary Cole) figures out who it belongs to and sends crooked officer Carol Brazier (Rosie Perez) and henchmen Budlofsky (Kevin Corrigan) and Matheson (Craig Robinson) to retrieve our pothead heroes.

But plot aside, this movie is not about being on the run. It’s about friendship. It’s about loyalty. And like most Apatow ventures, it’s about male camaraderie. Whereas The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Superbad are films about maturing and the divorcement of “being one of the guys,” Pineapple Express takes the opposite view, where male friendship is the centerpiece to a happy life.

Anyone familiar with James Franco’s work on Freaks and Geeks will not be surprised that Saul steals the film, as evidenced by the scene where Saul tells Dale how special and important their friendship is. Normally, the dynamic between a dealer and buyer is strictly business, and once the transaction is complete the relationship ends there. So when Saul decides he wants to become friends with Dale, this becomes an huge emotional investment.

Another scene stealer is Red (Danny McBride). Similar to the male relationships in Superbad, Red sees Dale as a threat to his own friendship with Saul. He also sees Dale as a threat in general, as Budlofksy and Matheson threaten his life multiple times. It’s easy to tell that screenwriters Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen adore this character, by the absurd lengths gone to maintain Red’s on screen presence.

And of course, there is Dale at the center of it all. This role is “by the numbers” Seth Rogen, still at the top of his game. Audiences who have seen him before know what to expect and that’s not a fault. Rogen’s laid back demeanor, humor, and everyday Joe persona has yet to overstay its welcome, and his chemistry with Franco evokes that of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau from The Odd Couple — if the two were on weed 24/7.

As with most stoner movies, Pineapple Express enjoys going off on tangents. In fact, the movie takes a divergent turn into action flick territory in the third act, which is all the more strange when the film returns to buddy comedy mode. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear the this act almost functions as a parody of a drug crime film.  

Rebuttal Witnesses
If Pineapple Express lacks anything, it’s empathy towards its characters. Though Dale and Saul are extremely likable, their relationship is absent of the severity that has been displayed in previous Apatow films. The emotional weight between Dale and Saul is never in serious jeopardy and there are no surprises. On the other hand, this is a tale about two potheads.

Closing Statement
Pineapple Express is pure comedy and though it does not transcend its comedic stoner roots, it’s not required to. Rogen and Franco are a terrific duo to watch, whether the audience is blazed or not. And while the film is similar to past Apatow endeavors such as Anchorman and Walk Hard, don’t let these comparisons fool you. This is the best of the bunch and you will not find a funnier film this summer… and probably the rest of the year. 

9/10

Approximately nine months ago, my wife brought up an interesting proposal: “Why Don’t We Go to San Diego for Comic Con?” This was without virtually any prompting on my part; I had no horse in the race, so to speak. I’m not that big of a comic book fan, but we were looking for something to do. So why not go, right? And if you’re going to go, go in style; I booked a room at the newly opened Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, which seemed like a pretty cool status symbol. Aside from an experience at the franchise’s New York restaurant years ago, I did forget that the Hard Rock plays music. All the time. But, compared to other places, it was rock music. The merchandise shop played Black Flag in there, so booyah bitches!

Anyway, the film lineup was pretty good, and I’ll be sharing those here after the jump of the films I managed to sit in on. I’m sure the webs have the footage somewhere, so feel free to search on your own time. On with the opinions!

The Day The Earth Stood Still: Fox was the first to the show, and Keanu Reeves (The Matrix), Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) and Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) came out to pimp the remake of the 1951 classic to be released in December. It was discussed, sometimes at great length, with a couple of shots from the film, and an extended trailer. No, we didn’t get to see Gort, but WETA is doing the work on him now, and things are still very close to the vest. Aside from Connelly being VERY much out of place, barely talking, I’d come in fresh to this, and personally am still wondering why it’s being remade to begin with.

Max Payne: Mark Wahlberg (The Departed), Mila Kunis (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Chris Bridges (a.k.a., the artist formerly known as Ludacris) and John Moore (The Omen) discuss the film which is coming out in October. Wahlberg clearly had fun and played up to the crowd, and everyone talked about how fun it was to do it, meaning how cool it was to fire weapons all day. Moore talked about their own little version of “bullet time” that was employed for the film. Aside from an extended trailer cut to a live version of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” this was a bit of a yawner.

Wolverine: Ole Wolverine himself Hugh Jackman came onstage as an unannounced surprise to throngs of delirious hysterics. After shaking the hand of Len Wein, the creator of the comic book icon, Jackman was happy to finally actually be onstage, as he’d apparently missed the X-Men presentations that occurred in previous Cons.  I’m going to rattle off the cast here; Ryan Reynolds (The Nines) as Deadpool, Liev Schreiber (The Sum of All Fears) as Sabretooth, Tim Riggins from Friday Night Lights as Gambit, to name a few who appear in the trailer. And it’s loaded with action too, which doesn’t hurt. Definitely the one people will be looking forward to in ‘09, unless the GI Joe teaser comes strong.

As a side note; what was particularly interesting about the Fox presentation was that a lot, and I mean A LOT of people got in early so they could be ready for Summit Pictures’ presentation of Twilight. Everyone around my wife and I was there in their “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” shirts, whatever that means, but unfortunately I was called away for other events. I’m told though that the Twilight footage was essentially an extended version of the second trailer with the climatic ballet room sequence, and everyone ate it up. As they should I suppose. But I thought it was a little funny that the Fox gang seemed to trot out their products to hordes of Twilight fans, without knowing what they were getting into. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Watchmen: Try as I might to stay away from the masses, I snuck in for a second, where Zack Snyder (300) and the cast were discussing the film. Aside from an extended trailer, more shots of the heroes were shown which really illustrated Snyder’s vision and faithfulness to the source material, and since this is being released in March, expect some more mad money on a Snyder production.

The Spirit: Frank Miller (Sin City) might be an influential comic book figure, but he needs to lay off the liquor or something. At times he seemed to ramble, and cast members Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) and Jaime King (Blow) seemed to notice. Still though, the footage that was shown of the film looks good, done visually much in the same way that Sin City was. While there’s humor, there are also a couple of required action sequences that look impressive as well. A concern I have a little with this film is that it might not seem to possess the spark of similar comic book films that possess a similar visual style, but I hope I’m proved wrong in this because at least from what I saw, The Spirit could potentially be a good film.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno: Showed up a little late to the game on this one, as I was drinking with some of the cast of ABC Family’s Samurai Girl, which appears to be a Buffy-ish show, except without some of the wit and wisdom. But I will say this about Kevin Smith, he’s got some fans in the biz, for sure, and now in this film, he’s got a couple members of the Judd Apatow stock company in Seth Rogen (Knocked Up) and Justin Long (Accepted) together in this film that looks pretty funny. Bonus points for Long’s, er, “moment” with Brandon Routh. Yes, that Brandon Routh, from Superman Returns. Aside from listening to Rogen’s kind of funny Ian McKellen joke and Jason Mewes looking very impressive all cleaned up from addiction, Zack and Miri comes out in October hopefully, and should be worth the hubbub, even if they might have to change the title.

Terminator Salvation: You know, Christian Bale and Bryce Dallas Howard(?) aside, McG seems to carry himself as a bit of a pompous arse. Why exactly would we want to see a film about a battle with first-generation terminator robots? Why would Arnold Schwarzenegger even consider appearing in this? Ugh. To be fair, McG (Charlie’s Angels) likes paying homage to the previous three films, even including attendees who dressed like Robert Patrick and Linda Hamilton from T2 on stage with him, along with an Asian kid whose Arnold accent seemed to venture into Walken-esque territory. He showed an extended teaser of sorts, without any CG shots in it, and the results? Meh. I counted nods to The Road Warrior and The Great Escape in there, along with something that looked visually a little like Charlie’s Angels, right now to the hot chick almost taking her top off. I’ve got to say I liked the teaser in front of Dark Knight more than I did this stuff, and unlike some of the buzz so far, am concerned that this “reboot” might nuke the franchise from orbit.

Pineapple Express: Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to sneak into the preview screenings that apparently were going on in town, and the footage that Judd Apatow (40 Year Old Virgin), Rogen and gang brought seemed a little to be desired. It seemed like they basically brought stuff from the website or something. One of the scenes came from the Superbad DVD. But come on, you know what this film is going to be about, you’re either going to go see it or you’re not. Oh, and Green Hornet is still on the track of getting made, so yay to that.

Well, that’s the short story on the film side. A quick note on things to come, expect a review of Tropic Thunder in the very near future, along with TV Verdict thoughts from the Heroes and Lost panels, including some teasing of Heroes 3^rd season, as the opener was aired in its entirely exclusively for the Comic Con folks. Until next time, get the funk out your minds and into your hearts people!