I don't know why, but I'm not feelin' the new trailer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I do love the look of the animation, and there's plenty of awe-inspiring spectacle, as usual, in the Lucasverse. But I'm not sure if I'm going to care enough about the story. Something about Darth Sidious/Senator Palpatine embroiling Obi-Wan, Anakin, and the rest of the Jedi in a war sparked by the kidnapping of Jabba the Hutt's son.* The stakes just don't seem high enough, especially since we know already how this all plays out (the movie takes place during the gap between Episode II — Attack of the Clones and Episode III — Revenge of the Sith. The second half of the trailer is all battle scenes and explosions, and while I'm always up for some lightsaber dueling (Darth Maul may have died in Episode I, but his double-bladed 'saber is apparently still wreaking havoc), I'm worried that the film will consist largely of action sequences meant to distract from busy plotting and thin characterizations.
Not that any of this is going to stop me from lining up to see the movie on Aug. 15, mind you.
Tell me, PopWatchers, am I being overly pessimistic? The Clone Wars TV 'toon was really good, but it came in small doses. Can the feature be as involving? Are you more willing than I am to give the Lucasfilm team the benefit of the doubt, especially after geeking out on this clip? Comment below, my young padawans.
*Um, so how do you kidnap a Hutt-sized creature? And Jabba has a son? Does that mean there's a Mrs. Jabba? How do Hutts reproduce, anyway? And do I really want to know the answer to that question? Ewww.
Reaper fans have been having a devil of a time these past few weeks. At long last, the show returned from the writers' strike with episodes that took the supernatural action comedy to new peaks of creativity, even while the freshman series remained conspicuously absent from the list of programs the CW has renewed for next season. Star Bret Harrison (pictured), who plays retail peon/bounty hunter for hell Sam Oliver, phoned me today from Los Angeles to plug the season finale (airing May 20), which he promises will be full of answers to questions the show has been posing all season, and to urge fans cross their fingers that the CW will renew the series. (In fact, they can do more than that. In honor of sidekick Sock, played by Tyler Labine, some fans have joined in a Jericho-like campaign to send their socks to the CW's Burbank office to demonstrate their support. Harrison has a post on his website, Krakoom.com, showing solidarity with the sock-senders.)
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Do you have any indication whether or not the CW will pick up the show? Bret Harrison: I have no idea. I think they're going to let us know Tuesday
morning or something. [Tuesday, May 13, is the day the CW announces its fall slate at its upfront presentation to advertisers.] We just finished shooting the last scene on Monday. It's really hard to say goodbye to the
whole cast and crew when it's "Bye... maybe?" It's a weird emotion.
Assuming there is a second season, what would you like to see happen on the show? What they've been doing these last five episodes is what I hope
they'd keep continuing. It's what we always wanted to do. It's the show we pitched. For a while, it went down this whole
path of hammering the premise home because of new viewers. I was like, "What about the
viewers we always had?" I don't know if it was the strike or what, but finally, the writers got a chance to do what they always wanted:
the mythology, the Ken Marino-Michael Ian Black story [about the gay couple, Sam's neighbors, who were also demons plotting a rebellion against Satan], Sam being chased by demons and not just souls,
and trying to find a way to take down the Devil. The big question is: Is the Devil Sam's father or not?
Last month, a leaked copy of an early draft of the screenplay for Oliver Stone's George W. Bush biopic made the rounds, sending moviegoers and political junkies alike into paroxysms of speculation about just how Stone would depict the still-sitting president on film. Now we have some answers. In this week's EW cover story, we have an exclusive first look at the production of W, including interviews with stars Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Banks (pictured) and director/co-screenwriter Stone. In the article, the creators discuss the inevitable questions about the film's accuracy and fairness, the reluctance of almost everyone in Hollywood (right or left) to get involved in the project, the still ongoing search for an actor to play Dick Cheney, and the film's possible impact on the 2008 presidential election (the producers want Stone to rush the film into theaters by October — unlikely but not impossible).
Here's your chance, PopWatchers, to weigh in. Read the story, then tell us: Do you think the movie will be good? Will it be fair? Is it too soon to make a movie about the still-in-office president, or is it important to have a biopic out while he's still in power and on everyone's mind? Will W have any real-world impact? Do Brolin and Banks look like good fits to play George and Laura Bush? And given the president's current unpopularity, do you think many ticketbuyers will want to see W?
Seems like everybody talks about TV at the office, even people who (unlike me and my co-workers) don't get paid to do so. A new survey specifies who's talking about which programs. No surprise, American Idol is the most talked-about show, popular among both men and women, and especially among workers 65 or older (ah, now we know who voted scary tattooed rocker Carly off the show). Besides AI, women like to talk about Dancing With the Stars (pictured), while men like to pretend they can make sense of talk about Lost.
Which shows are popular topics around your office watercooler? And do you think talking about TV helps or hurts your workplace productivity?
Hard to believe that it's already been 10 years, to the month, since Seinfeld went off the air and into the land of eternal syndication. Newsweek marks the occasion with a debate on whether the show still holds up. It's not much of a debate, really, as even the writer taking the anti- side concedes the show's verbal dexterity, the must-see-ness of its best episodes, and its comforting familiarity.
That's right, "comforting familiarity," a phrase we probably never would have associated with Seinfeld during the supremely cynical sitcom's run. After all, before Seinfeld, most sitcoms were designed to reassure viewers with messages about how life is ultimately fair and how you can always depend on friends and family for support. (Indeed, many still are.) Seinfeld, whose characters famously refused to grow or learn, had none of that, yet it remains reassuring nonetheless. It's reassuring, for instance, to be reminded that other people are just as petty as you (or even more so), that they share your frustration with arbitrary social codes, your annoyance with the irritants of everyday life, and your sense that life is, in fact, ultimately not fair.
Still on my Must List this week: My favorite late night host, Craig Ferguson, delivering the annual comedy monologue at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner. (Yes, I know, this is a week old, but I was on vacation last week. Sue me.) The Scottish-born immigrant does remarkably well before a notoriously tough crowd, mixing pointed humor with heartfelt but unsentimental appreciation of his new American citizenship. Okay, I doubt anyone will ever top Stephen Colbert's fearless performance at this event two years ago, but Ferguson strikes a tricky balance between paying respect to his hosts and tweaking those who deserve it. (Part 1 is embedded below; watch parts 2 and 3 after the jump.)
In the spirit of the event, it's time for you to vote for your top three Must List items this week, your favorites among the current crop of movies/TV/music/books/videogames/Internet/etc. Please include your e-mail address so that we may contact you if we decide to include your choice in the magazine. Deadline is Thursday, May 8, at 10 a.m. ET.
Hey, Reaper fans, did I miss anything during my vacation?
Yeah, I know, in the previous two episodes, we saw the Devil crush a demon rebellion, leaving only Tony alive among his would-be overthrowers; we saw Sam (Bret Harrison, left) finally tell Andi his big secret (and we saw her, after some understandable initial misgivings, turn out to be surprisingly okay with it); we saw Sock (Tyler Labine, right) reunite with Josie; we saw Ben meet his dream girl, but only after he'd already exchanged vows in a sham green-card marriage to help keep annoying co-worker Sarah from being deported; and we saw Sam reluctantly agree to serve as a spy for Satan inside Tony's Rebellion 2.0 conspiracy. But aside from all that, did I miss anything big?
All right, after the pyrotechnics of the last two eps, this week's installment, "Greg, Schmeg" was kind of anticlimactic, no? At least until the end, when Sam did something that might actually shape the direction of his future... but I'm getting ahead of myself. The unwelcome Greg, Andi's lunk of an ex, returned to the picture and used a mysterious "Jedi mind trick" to make Andi spurn Sam and fall for him again. Turns out his newfound power was part of a foolish bargain with Sam's boss. But as the Devil tells Sam, when you're dealing with him, there's always a catch. In this case, Greg didn't also receive the power to make Andi stop loving Sam, so she and Greg would never be truly happy together, which means (as Greg noted later), he'd sold his soul for one night of over-the-sweater heavy petting.
It's great to hear that we may get to see Catherine O'Hara (pictured) every week, thanks to Rob Thomas, who may cast her in an ABC dramedy pilot, Good Behavior. The news got me thinking — there are so many great performers in the SCTV/Christopher Guest axis, and yet a number of them we hardly ever see. I miss Joe Flaherty. What about you, PW-ers? Which MIA comedy performers would you like to see on a regular basis, and what TV roles would you cast them in?
Released on DVD today, P.S. I Love You (pictured), starring Hilary Swank and the ghost of Gerard Butler (Tonight, we karaoke in hell!), may be one of the worst romantic comedies in recent memory. It's so bad, in fact, that it inspired us to create this gallery of some of our least favorite rom-coms ever. Compiling this list provoked some heated arguments among your usually amiable EW.commers — after all, one viewer's gloppy, Cupid-forsaken mess is another viewer's cheesy delight. Inevitably, a lot of really rotten romances failed to make the cut. (For instance, I wish we'd found room for the appalling Milk Money, in which a small-town moppet fixes up widowed papa Ed Harris with hooker-on-the-lam Melanie Griffith.) Click through the gallery, then come back and tell us which reprehensible romantic comedies you'd add to the list.
I'm not fully versed in Stephenie Meyer's world of romantic-but-chaste teenage vampires, but the teaser for Twilight (opening Dec. 12), which debuted in theaters over the weekend and is streaming now at MySpace's Trailer Park, looks pretty darn cool. Hardcore Edward-and-Bella-philes can geek out over at MTV.com, which has a shot-by-shot analysis of the clip. For everyone else, let's just say that Kristen Stewart looks like she'll do fine as the strong-willed mortal Bella; Robert Pattinson seems properly courtly (and toothy) as her bloodsucking beloved Edward; and the action and FX look kinetic enough to dazzle even those who haven't read Meyer's bestsellers. Watch the teaser below, and see if you agree that it makes Twilight look like a movie you could sink your fangs into.
Why all the haterade poured on Sunrise? The 1927 silent classic was the target of a slur uttered by Cameron Diaz at this year's Oscars (in patter written by someone else), and now, it's getting slagged by Tom O'Neil at the Los Angeles Times' Gold Derby blog. Oscar expert O'Neil writes that he finally has seen Sunrise, which shared the first Best Picture Oscar with Wings in 1928, and he doesn't think it's all that. He slams its two-dimensional characters and thin plot and finds it not nearly as exciting as Wings, which had some thrilling aerial dogfight sequences.
Now, O'Neil is a fine awards-show historian and oddsmaker, but he reveals in this post that he's no movie critic. Sunrise does indeed have archetypal characters (they don't even have names) and minimal plotting because it's a freakin' parable. Sounds obvious, but it's a point that apparently eluded O'Neil. Sunrise isn't about plot and character, it's about intense human passions (love, betrayal, homicidal frenzy, mercy, redemption, reconciliation). It's also about the pleasures and terrors of modernity, the tension and uncertainty of an uncomplicated pastoral past giving way to an exciting but chaotic urban future. Mostly, it's about director F.W. Murnau's ability to convey complex emotional states through gorgeously realized silent black-and-white images. True, there are no airplane battles, but to dismiss Sunrise for that reason is like saying Monet's a dull artist because waterlilies and haystacks bore you.
I have nothing against challenging the conventional wisdom, but sometimes, that wisdom is conventional for a good reason. Elsewhere in the post, O'Neil praises The Crowd, another acknowledged masterpiece of 1927 that got robbed at the Oscars. So I know he cares about history, context, and quality filmmaking. I don't think he's furthering any of those causes with a gratuitous, uninformed rant about a movie that should be on the must-see-before-you-die list of everyone who cares about film.
It's unfortunate that Alicia Keys has backed away from her admittedly intemperate comments to Blender magazine. In her clarification, she says she didn't intend to blame the government for creating gangsta rap as "a ploy to convince black people to kill each other"; rather, she intended to blame the media for overhyping music that, she acknowledges, sometimes portrays the reality of certain social ills. (As politicians know, when in doubt, blame the media.)
Now, I'm no conspiracy theorist — I prefer not to attribute to malice what can more easily be blamed on stupidity, short-sighted greed, incompetence, or neglect. I don't think the government is clever or efficient enough to have invented gangsta rap as a hitmaking scheme, much less as a genocidal plot. (Also, if the music really is a plot targeted toward black people, where do all the suburban white kids buying the music fit in?) But it is worth asking how gangsta rap became so popular, to the exclusion of all other forms of rap. It wasn't just media hype. Was it all just marketing? Or was it, as Keys suggests now, because it addressed social realities that were ignored elsewhere? I'm not fully convinced by any one of these notions, but these are questions that ought to be asked, and it would be a shame if the hyperbole of Keys' earlier remarks became an excuse to avoid asking them.
If I were truly conspiracy-minded, I'd wonder if Keys' newly apologetic tone had been forced on her by her management, by someone who worries that being seen as a firebrand will make it harder for her to sell tickets to soccer moms for her elaborately staged arena tour, which kicks off this weekend. I hope that's not the case; I hope Keys isn't discouraged from sticking to the goal she outlined to Blender to write political songs in the future; if anyone can make outrage into a hummable hit, it should be Keys.
You may not know Ollie Johnston's name or face, but you've seen his acting — it's been all but imprinted in your DNA since childhood. Johnston, who died Monday at 95, was the last of the "Nine Old Men," the animators responsible for the classic Disney cartoon features made from the 1930s to the 1970s. They invented the model for how animated features should be made, and each of them took on specific characters in the movie and acted the roles through their drawings. Johnston, in particular, was revered among animators for his emotional directness, from the scene of Bambi's mother's death in Bambi to the plight of the kidnapped orphan Penny in The Rescuers. (That film's Rufus, a wise old cat, was the closest Johnston came to self-portraiture.) The accomplishments of Johnston and his co-worker and lifelong pal Frank Thomas (who died in 2004) were celebrated in the 1995 documentary Frank and Ollie; the pair's website remains a good entry point to their achievements. Even in the age of computer animation, Johnston's work remains enormously influential; Brad Bird paid him homage by giving him voice roles in The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. You can read some good remembrances here and here — or just watch Baloo and Mowgli, strolling hand in hand through The Jungle Book, for the best tribute to Frank and Ollie's friendship.
Just in time for tax day, EW.com has posted a gallery of our favorite accountants from TV and movies. You'll find plenty of your favorites, including Cher's Moonstruck heroine, Andy Richter's much-missed Andy Barker, P.I., and of course, Norm! Still, our reckoning may not be complete. We may have deducted some of the top pop culture bean-counters from our list. Some of you may lament the absence of Friends' Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry, pictured), who introduced TV to the concept of the "wenus" (weekly estimated net use of systems). Or Edward Norton's Fight Club character, who crunched numbers for an auto manufacturer when he wasn't getting himself into brawls. Let us know which of your favorites didn't make the plus column, PopWatchers, and remember: there's no accounting for taste.
Happy birthday to Emma Watson, who turns 18 today. Which means, if her pal Daniel Radcliffe ever films a big-screen adaptation of his stage production of Equus, she'll be old enough to go see it.
Last week, PopWatch gave a shoutout to the McCain Girls, whose music videos in support of John McCain's presidential campaign were so laughably inept yet train-wreck compelling that we couldn't figure out if they were real, grass-roots viral vids or an elaborate, deliberately amateurish parody of same. Well, now we know, thanks to the Comic's Comic blog, which figured out that the video was actually the brainchild of the comedy pros at 23/6, about four days before the New York Times got the 23/6ers to acknowledge it. (Disclosure: Comic's Comic is run by Sean L. McCarthy, who covered the Aspen Comedy Festival for PopWatch last year as a freelancer.) CC has an extensive interview with one of the creators; meanwhile, over at 23/6, they've owned up to their prank and have posted the elusive "Here Comes McCain Again" clip, which we promised you last week. Watch it below, if you dare.
We shouldn't feel bad; even McCain himself was fooled. Still, does it mean we've entered a new era when the line between reality and parody has been irretrievably blurred? And if so, is that good or bad? Philosophize below, PopWatchers.
I'm loving this bit from the wags at McSweeney's (hat tip to Movie City News), which reduces classic movies to their essences in just three lines of dialogue or less. It looked like fun to me, and I thought we should try it here, PopWatchers. Here, for instance, is The Sixth Sense:
HALEY JOEL OSMENT: I see dead people. BRUCE WILLIS: Don't worry, you'll be all right... BRUCE WILLIS: ... Oh.
After the jump, the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in just three lines...
Someone has been leaking stories to the New York Times and other major papers about the likelihood that Katie Couric won't be anchoring the CBS Evening News much longer; it could even be Couric herself, floating trial balloons to see what she might do next, either at CBS or elsewhere. In retrospect, perhaps CBS brass will finally acknowledge that the show wasn't the best use of her Today-honed talents, or maybe they'll decide that the nigthly network newscast (as an institution) is in such desperate straits that it will take more than just a marquee star like Couric to save it. But let's not think of the sinking ship just now; instead, let's ask where Couric should land.
Of the options she's pondering in today's Times story, the one I like best for her is taking over Larry King's slot at CNN. It's a show I think is particularly well suited to her talents (setting prominent interview subjects at ease, mingling with the heartland folks who'd call in). Unfortunately, she'll have to crawl over King's propped-up-like-El-Cid corpse to land the job. So maybe there are other options you think would serve her well; please share below.
Here's a sorta unusual list, counting down the 20 best feel-bad movies of the last 20 years. These are different from standard tearjerkers, movies that go for the melodramatic in order to elicit a cathartic sniffle; rather, these are movies with an essentially tragic view of life, yet which are full of the vitality of the human experience in even the most adverse and painful circumstances. I'm glad someone paid tribute to the oddly exhilarating, cleansing
feeling of despair one gets from watching an exquisitely crafted
downer, and it's particularly good to see shoutouts to The Sweet Hereafter, Igby Goes Down, Henry Fool, Safe, and Lilya 4-Ever. Still, how can you make a list of recent feel-bad movies without mentioning Neil LaBute (particularly Your Friends and Neighbors, pictured) or Todd Solondz or Lars von Trier? Where's Requiem for a Dream, or Maria Full of Grace, or Magnolia? List your favorite feel-bad movies below; you'll feel better, I promise.
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I don't know why, but I'm not feelin' the new trailer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I do love the look of the animation, and there's plenty of awe-inspiring spectacle, as usual, in the Lucasverse. But I'm not sure if I'm going to care enough about the story. Something about Darth Sidious/Senator Palpatine embroiling Obi-Wan, Anakin, and the rest of the Jedi in a war sparked by the kidnapping of Jabba the Hutt's son.* The stakes just don't seem high enough, especially since we know already how this all plays out (the movie takes place during the gap between Episode II — Attack of the Clones and Episode III — Revenge of the Sith. The second half of the trailer is all battle scenes and explosions, and while I'm always up for some lightsaber dueling (Darth Maul may have died in Episode I, but his double-bladed 'saber is apparently still wreaking havoc), I'm worried that the film will consist largely of action sequences meant to distract from busy plotting and thin characterizations.
Last month, a leaked copy of 
Seems like everybody talks about TV at the office, even people who (unlike me and my co-workers) don't get paid to do so. A 
Hard to believe that it's already been 10 years, to the month, since Seinfeld went off the air and into the land of eternal syndication. 
Hey, Reaper fans, did I miss anything during my vacation?
It's great to hear that we may get to see Catherine O'Hara (pictured) every week, thanks to 
Released on DVD today, 
Why all the haterade poured on Sunrise? The 1927 silent classic was the target of a slur uttered by 
It's unfortunate that Alicia Keys has backed away from her admittedly 
You may not know Ollie Johnston's name or face, but you've seen his acting — it's been all but imprinted in your DNA since childhood. Johnston, who 
Just in time for tax day, EW.com has posted a gallery of 
Happy birthday to Emma Watson, who turns 18 today. Which means, if her pal Daniel Radcliffe ever films a big-screen adaptation of 
I'm loving 
Someone has been leaking stories to the 
Here's a sorta unusual list, counting down 
