Cinematical

I know Jim Carrey's track record has a few blemishes on it, but I have a good feeling about this one. Yes Man has a simple premise -- a no-fun, take-no-chances guy decides to say yes to everything for a year -- and the trailer feels like the ol' Jim we fell in love with back in the '90s.

Plus, the director is Peyton Reed, who will always hold a place in many people's hearts for Bring It On and the under-appreciated Down with Love. Maybe he can keep Carrey's more buffoonish tendencies in check?

We'll find out when the film is released on Dec. 19. In the meantime, watch the trailer and let us know what you think. Can the premise work? Will it wind up being overly wacky or too cartoonish? Do you agree that Zooey Deschanel should appear in more movies?

Well, it is. Or so say the Internet Movie Database users, who have already rocketed the film to the #1 spot on IMDb's Top 250 list with a rating of 9.5 out of 10 and about 47,000 votes. It displaces The Godfather -- a film that doesn't even HAVE a pencil-wielding psycho-clown -- which had held the top spot for about a decade (according to our pal Peter at SlashFilm).

The rest of the top 10 on IMDb's list isn't as depressing as I thought it would be: Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather Part II, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Pulp Fiction, Schindler's List, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Empire Strikes Back, and Casablanca. I was expecting to see nothing older than about 1990, and certainly nothing in black-and-white.

IMDb notes that for the Top 250 list, "only votes from regular voters are considered," but they fail to define "regular voters." Does that mean people who vote regularly? Or do they mean "regular voters" as opposed to "guest voters" or something? Either way, these apparently aren't people who, in a rush of enthusiasm for The Dark Knight, hurried home and gave it a 10 out of 10 despite never having rated anything else on IMDb before. Apparently they have exercised their right to vote before, and presumably they know what they're doing.

Now, I loved The Dark Knight and all, but come on: the best film ever made? Surely that is not an opinion held by very many people, if any.

Some police departments have a unit called the Special Investigations Section, where officers focus on catching dangerous, violent criminals in the act. The Los Angeles Police Department, fairly infamous for a lot of things anyway, has a SIS unit that's frequently been the subject of scrutiny for the way its officers operate under, ahem, somewhat looser rules than regular cops. And now somebody's making a movie about it!

A movie about cops who are loose cannons and don't play by the rules but they get the job done? What a fresh concept! I hope one of them gets shot when he only has two weeks left till retirement. I'm not quite sold on the title, either: At the moment, it's called SIS, though I bet Warner Bros. changes it before the film hits theaters. (Seriously, SIS? What do they call the cops in that unit? SISsies?)

From The Hollywood Reporter comes news that Warners is moving ahead with the project, with casting currently underway and Chris Gorak set to write and direct it. Gorak is a former art director (Fight Club and Minority Report represent some of his best work) who wrote and directed 2006's Right at Your Door (pictured), a fine psychological thriller about a dirty bomb that goes off in L.A. and separates a contaminated woman from her clean husband. The eight or nine people who saw Right at Your Door (rent it!) are pretty interested in seeing what Gorak does next, so I'll be keeping my eye on SIS.

When you see the words "performance artist" in a news article, you can almost bet the words "publicity stunt" will soon follow, and I believe that's what we have here. A Beijing artist named Zhao Bandi, who uses images of pandas in all his work and walks around all the time carrying a stuffed panda, is suing DreamWorks over its offensive depiction of the animal -- the Chinese national symbol -- in the recent animated hit Kung Fu Panda.

The film has been successful in China, too -- or, as Variety puts it, "has done boffo B.O." -- which suggests the average Chinese citizen doesn't find it insulting. But Zhao says differently. His two major points of contention? First, Po, the panda voiced by Jack Black who is the film's protagonist, has green eyes, and green is the color of evil. (I have zoomed in on the eyes in the picture so you can see for yourself how evil they are.) Second, Po's father in the film is not another panda but a duck. (Well, Zhao says he's a duck. I thought he was a goose. If I'm right, will that technicality invalidate the lawsuit?)

Variety quotes Zhao as demanding to see DreamWorks' "creative meeting records" to explain Po's green eyes, which he insists must be a "conspiracy." As for the duck issue, Zhao says this: "Drawing the father of the giant panda as a duck is an insult to the Chinese people. In a few years time, I'm worried some young Chinese people will think their ancestor is Donald Duck." I confess I don't see why thinking you descended from a duck is any worse than thinking you descended from a panda, but my knowledge of Chinese culture is somewhat limited.

I concede that it's possible you might already have a film in mind to see this weekend. I understand that there's a highly anticipated major release hitting theaters today that's expected to draw huge crowds. But enough about Space Chimps. This is the Indie Spotlight, a weekly round-up of films opening in limited release that you can see now (if you live in the right city) or put on your list of Movies to Watch Out For.

So what's opening beyond the multiplexes today? These nine films: Before I Forget, The Doorman, Felon, Lou Reed's Berlin, Mad Detective, A Man Named Pearl, Take, Transsiberian, and A Very British Gangster. Here's the lowdown:

Transsiberian
What it is: A thriller about an American couple (Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer) who gets tangled up in murder, drugs, and intrigue while on a train from China to Moscow. Directed and co-writer by Brad Anderson (The Machinist).
What they're saying: Cinematical's Jeffrey M. Anderson raves about it here, and also interviewed the director and Mortimer. The consensus is pretty positive at Rotten Tomatoes, too. Looks like Brad Anderson has another winner.
Where it's playing: New York City's Angelika Film Center and Paris Theatre.
Official site: None.

Lou Reed's Berlin
What it is: A concert film, directed by Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), in which Lou Reed re-performs his 1973 album Berlin. Shot over five nights in 2006.
What they're saying: Cinematical's Christopher Campbell liked it overall, which just a few qualms about Schnabel's methods. At Rotten Tomatoes, about two-thirds of the reviews are positive. One suspects that, as usual with concert films, those with no interest in the music itself probably won't be converted by the movie.
Where it's playing: NYC's Film Forum; L.A.'s Nuart Theatre.
Official site: Berlin the Film.

Twentieth Century Fox has changed the release date on the Rainn Wilson comedy The Rocker again, but I think this move might be for the best. Maybe. We'll see. What do I know?

The flick, in which Wilson plays a former rock drummer who gets a new chance at stardom when he joins his teenage nephew's band, was originally slated for Friday, Aug. 1. Then they decided a Wednesday was better, so it became July 30. But now Fox has announced that it's been pushed back three weeks to Wednesday, Aug. 20.

Why the shuffle? Fox didn't say, but I would guess it's to avoid the raucous comedies Step Brothers (due on July 25), Pineapple Express (Aug. 8), and Tropic Thunder (Aug. 13). A July 30 release would have put it in the middle of a comedy war zone, and The Rocker -- which got so-so reviews (including my own) when it played at CineVegas and doesn't have nearly as much star power as those three -- would have gotten trampled. It would have been a PG-13 David against three R-rated Goliaths.

By Aug. 20, Step Brothers and Pineapple Express will have already done most of their box office damage, leaving Tropic Thunder as the only big-name comedy competing with The Rocker. I think it's smart to stick with a Wednesday, too, as three more comedies -- The House Bunny, Hamlet 2, and The Longshots -- open on Friday, Aug. 22.

What do you think? Is there too much comedy competition between now and Labor Day? Or are the films different enough that they won't be stealing each other's audiences?

Well, assuming you live in New York, L.A., or Fort Lauderdale, that is. Those are the cities that will get TLA Releasing's mini-fest this summer, with six gay-themed features playing for one week in each location. You can see a somewhat NSFW trailer for the fest at TLA's YouTube page, but here's a brief rundown of what's happening:

First you got your Bangkok Love Story, a thriller about a hitman who falls for his victim. Then there's Chuecatown (Boystown), a comedy involving bathhouses and murders (I'm thinking of that scene in Eastern Promises, but gayer). Next: I Dreamt Under Water, which TLA's press release describes as "graphically sexual" and involving a young man's search for love. Dog Tags is a romantic drama about a soldier who does a bit of asking and telling, if you know what I mean; 3-Day Weekend has eight fellas bonding and bed-hopping over a getaway weekend; and Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon is a documentary about 1970s porn icon Jack Wrangler.

Though all six films are about gay men and their sex lives, there is some notable diversity as well, in that three of them are foreign (Thai, Spanish, and French), and one's a documentary. So you can feel like you're being cultured, too, while watching the randy movies about pretty people.

When Josh Brolin takes a night off from playing a young George W. Bush to get arrested in a bar, the jokes practically write themselves. (Method acting, anyone?) That's what happened in the wee hours of Saturday morning in Shreveport, La., as Brolin, co-star Jeffrey Wright (who plays Colin Powell), and five crew members from Oliver Stone's biopic W. were arrested at the Stray Cat bar and taken down to the big house.

The Associated Press's account is sparse, so we turn to Shreveport's KSLA News 12 for more details (and thanks to Jeffrey Wells for the link). Seems it was closin' time at the ol' Stray Cat, and Brolin and his pals wouldn't leave, despite bein' asked twice, and they were bein' rowdy. So the bar staff called the police, who arrived just after 2 a.m., whereupon there was a bit of a scuffle, and a fellow named Eric Felland got arresting for remaining in the bar, public drunkenness, and resisting arrest. Brolin, Wright, and the other W.-affiliated folks reportedly interfered with the arrest, so they got arrested for that misdemeanor.

The Shreveport Times reports that Brolin posted a $334 bond and was free to go. Wright and the other four arrest-resisters had the same price on their heads. The guy who was being arrested in the first place, Felland, who is a lighting technician on the film, had a $752 bond. It's unclear from the early news reports how long it took everyone to get out of the clink, but one assumes they didn't have to fester in jail too long. I like what one of the commenters at Hollywood Elsewhere said, that it would have been great if James Cromwell, who plays George Bush Sr., had had to come bail everyone out.

We told you about Todd Phillips' next directorial project, Hangover, way back in October, but there hasn't been any further word on it since then. But apparently someone's been thinking about it -- The Hollywood Reporter says Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper are in final negotiations to star in it, and the flick is entering pre-production. In other words, stock up on your electrolytes, because Hangover is on its way.

Hangover is a comedy about three friends who wake up after some pre-wedding festivities in Las Vegas to discover that they have misplaced the groom. (I think we've all been there.) Helms and Cooper will be two of the friends; the third has not yet been cast. Presumably the groom is a relatively minor character, given that he is missing for much of the film.

Helms (on the left) is a favorite these days from his work on The Daily Show and The Office, while Cooper, probably best known for TV's Alias and Kitchen Confidential, has slowly started adding movie comedies to his résumé. He shows up in this summer's The Rocker as a heavy-metaller whose bandmates are Will Arnett, Fred Armisen, and Rainn Wilson, which is pretty good company, comedy-wise.

It's worth noting that the Hangover, written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, was on the list of Hollywood insiders' favorite unproduced screenplays of 2007. On the other hand, Lucas and Moore's previous screenplay was the Martin Lawrence comedy Rebound. Still, one remains optimistic.

Phillips garnered a lot of fans for Old School in 2003, then stumbled with Starsky & Hutch and School for Scoundrels. Hangover sounds like a return to the Old School paradigm, and that sounds good to me. What do you think?

Back in December we ran an article covering some of The Dark Knight's promotional activities, and not to toot my own horn or anything, but I posted what I thought was an extremely witty and observant comment: "I'm just glad they're doing something to raise awareness of this small film that might have otherwise slipped through the cracks."

Admit it, that's probably the funniest joke you've ever read. Because The Dark Knight isn't a small film at all, you see! It's a huge film that already has a great deal of public awareness! See how that's super funny?

Anyway, though we all had a good laugh at how funny I am, I also brought up a puzzling aspect of the Hollywood machinery. Warner Bros. is spending untold millions to promote The Dark Knight, and expending a lot of creative effort, too, with viral sites and games and events and so forth -- and for what? To promote a film that everyone was already going to see anyway. It's a highly anticipated sequel to a hugely popular film, it's gotten terrific buzz from those who have seen it, and it has the unfortunate-but-attention-getting Heath Ledger connection. You'd think the WB promotional team could relax a bit and let the film sell itself -- or, better yet, use that money to promote some lower-profile films that do need the help. So why didn't they?

Bearing in mind that attempts to grasp the logic of a Hollywood studio usually end in frustration, we can generally trace the thought process back to one thing: money.