Based on Tom Cruise's recent public meltdowns, I make the following prediction: War of the Worlds will be the bomb of the summer.

Huh.

Matthew Vaughn quit X-Men3.

It's as involute as a Dennis Miller joke.

Which, is the funnest thign ever, when you can parse the joke (and it is not about his newfound republicanism), but just plain WTF and annoying when you can't. Excellent simile, David -- it made clear exactly what you meant.

Yes, this is two language commentaries in the Movies thread in two days. Because I, guiltily, am not watching movies. (I do have a couple of them at home, but they are sitting on the TV, disconsolate.)

Based on Tom Cruise's recent public meltdowns, I make the following prediction: War of the Worlds will be the bomb of the summer.

Crossing my fingers that it's so.

Join me in praying that Pendragon Pictures' period version of War of the Worlds makes it to our shores and shows Spielberg, Cruise, etc. how it's supposed to be done.

Ooh, that looks cool!

that's all I got....

Is that Hoberman or Atkinson? Sounds more like Hoberman, and not untypical. Sadly, not a major variance with the VV house critical style - if it was about a CD I'd have guessed it was from Christgau's consumer guide.

No, Frank, it was somebody named Ed Halter. I like Hoberman a lot. He writes sentences like these:

If anything, Café Lumiére suggests an Ozu film in reverse—it's mainly ambience "pillow shots," with bits of narrative serving as punctuation. Back in Tokyo after a stay in Taiwan, Hou's young protagonist Yoko (Japanese pop star Hitoto Yo in her first movie) is subdued and opaque as she reoccupies her microscopic apartment and re-establishes contact with her equally undemonstrative family and friends. No one is particularly voluble; the lengthiest conversations are conducted over the phone. The perverse eloquence of Café Lumiére lies in the way in which most things remain unsaid. Feelings are largely unexpressed, the better to surface in Yoko's dreams. These, it turns out, are largely mediated by Maurice Sendak's Outside Over There—the tale of a girl who rescues her baby sister from goblins—which Yoko realizes she read as a child.

From IMDB:

Oscar winner Morgan Freeman overcame his dislike of commercial movies and agreed to star in Batman Begins, because blockbuster movies pay more money. The veteran actor is proud of his roles in critically acclaimed dramas including The Shawshank Redemption and Million Dollar Baby. But he feared his film choices limited the amount of cash he could earn, so he accepted the part opposite Katie Holmes in the action sequel. He explains, "I haven't been asked to play in any of the major blockbuster types of movie - Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Star Wars, any of that. Alec Guinness, who was one of England's most admired and able character actors, played Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. He said he made more money off that movie than he'd made in all the movies he'd made prior to that. So I thought okay, my shot."

Okay, but Morgan did Hard Rain and Bruce Almighty, for crying out loud. I love the guy's work, but sticking to quality projects isn't his trademark. Might as well go big budget, then.

Is Morgan Freeman really playing OPPOSITE Katie Holmes? Like, are they the stars of the show? And love interests?

Man, I'll buy an extra ticket if that's the case.

Freeman has been in some questionable movies (that Stephen King psychic aliens one and Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves also come to mind), but I think he's one of a small group of actors who always turns in a good performance even when the surrounding movie is crap.

Last night I watched Mrs. Miniver and Angels with Dirty Faces . I enjoyed both. MM was sorta sappy until the war stuff and then it was really good. I liked Public Enemy better than AWDF, but a good gangster movie is always enjoyable. I like when the TV season ends so the GF and I can catch up on all of our DVDs.