SIX-MINUTE ‘ DARK KNIGHT RISES’ PROLOGUE ATTACHED TO NEW ‘MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE’?

Whoa. I’m there.

This might be the best idea Hollywood’s come up with since, well… since offering Christopher Nolan the Batman franchise to begin with.

And I dig the “Mission: Impossible” films, especially the third one.

GEORGE CARLIN ANSWERED 14 YEAR-OLD GIRL’S LETTER

Man, I miss George Carlin. About once  year I have to watch all his HBO concerts over the course of a weekend. Politics shmolitics, the man was brilliant and hilarious.

LINDSAY LOHAN’S PROBATION REPORT’

This isn’t a criticism of The Wrap, who I’ve linked above. But in general, the sport much of the entertainment media (especially the bottom-feeding gossip media) has with the Lindsay Lohans of our world makes me a little ill.

(more…)

If you’re not interested in having Will Ferrell lecture you on the evils of capitalism this coming weekend and would instead prefer to cozy up at home before the warm glow of plasma with a cold one in one hand a Redbox receipt in the other, here are five fairly new-to-DVD flicks that won’t leave you feeling sucker punched.

1. The Road: Director John Hillcoat’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winner was unforgivably snubbed for Oscar consideration last year, as was leading man Viggo Mortensen for his heart-wrenching work as a widowed father leading his adolescent son across a dangerous, barren  post-apocalyptic America. Muted, heartbreaking, and yet hopeful, this is a story about a father teaching his son about what it takes to survive at any cost other than losing your humanity. Perfectly acted, beautifully directed and paced in such a way that casts an hypnotic spell, “The Road” is part Christian allegory, part zombie movie, and boasts an unforgettable cameo by Robert Duvall. (more…)

Sure, you’ve seen it all before: an inexperienced nebbish who’s never experienced a moment of real danger in his life suddenly finds himself thrust into one life-threatening situation after another after meeting a crazed, adrenaline-junkie cop or spy. The two proceed to bicker and banter across a city or around the planet for the next two hours, offering viewers laughs and thrills without reinventing the wheel. 

Bruce Willis has starred in a million of these. The “Lethal Weapon” series wasn’t too different from the concept. But no matter how many times you’ve seen this story done before, there’s hardly a genre more entertaining than an action-comedy taking place amid exotic locales – and the new film “From Paris with Love,” starring John Travolta as a bad-ass CIA assassin named Johnnie Wax who’s forced to team up with a mild-mannered embassy employee played by British actor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, is one action extravaganza that definitely delivers. 

“Paris” kicks things off nicely by showing the dual life experienced by James Reese (Meyers), who spends his days as a personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France, an existence in which he’s mostly planning travel logistics and handling paperwork for his boss. By night, or whenever the CIA decides to call him secretly, he is a low-level operative for the spy agency – until he abruptly gets the call one day to team up with Wax to block an assassination attempt on an American official attending a Parisian conference.  (more…)