Leo likes greyhounds and Antonio Villaraigosa like news anchors -- where's the harm? Nice pedicure, by the way. No offense, but she sounds like she's about a quarter-of-an-inch deep, if that.

The following IMDB post about Greg Mottola's Paul, which starts filming later this month, is apparently legit: "A comedy about being an alien in America, even if you're not from outer space. Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jason Bateman Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig and Sigourney Weaver costarring. Directed by Mottola, written by Pegg and Frost, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner producing, Universal distributing, etc.

Paul is the story of Graham Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost), two sci-fi enthusiasts from the UK, who alight from a visit to San Diego Comic Con to Nevada's Area 51 for a spot of UFO...Read More

Here's a basic view shared by certain people I know: "The sea is calm, you said. Peaceful. Calm above but below a world of gliding monsters, preying on their fellows, murderers all of them. Only the strongest teeth survive. And who's to tell me it's any different here on board or yonder, on dry land?" I'm not arguing this perception, but I abhor the manner and tendencies of those who live and act and behave by this view alone. For they are the dark men, the reactionaries, the weak sisters, the conservatives, the fearful, the militant Israelis and Ebenezer Scrooge's of this...Read More

"Okay, I'm big enough to admit when I'm wrong," writes Marshall Fine. "I apologize for calling Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian the most witless, humor-challenged movie of the summer. The winner and new champion: Land of the Lost. At least there's truth in advertising. See it and you lose your time, the money you spent on a ticket and, perhaps, the ability to walk upright without dragging your knuckles on the ground.

"With this film, Will Ferrell officially signals the end of his 15 minutes....Read More

"Perhaps more than anyone else in the business, Zach Galifianakis embodies the rebellion against the outmoded Comedy Club circuit -- the exposed brick, the two-drink minimum, the indifferent audience, the 'regular guy with an attitude' routine -- which has come to be labeled the 'indie comedy' movement. 'Zach is so conceptual,' Sarah Silverman, who has known and worked with Galifianakis since the mid-'90s, told me. 'He's definitely part of the excitement of this shift, this idea of comedy as art. Whether he's at his piano, offering deadpan one-liners, or trying out some brand-new conceptual piece -- like the ways he uses musicians, or...Read More

It's been alleged that somewhere on Tumblr, the blog of MTV Awards comedy writer Scott Aukerman, is a confession that the Bruno/Eminem incident was "yes, staged. That's all anyone wants to talk about, so let's get it out of the way. They rehearsed it at dress and yes, it went as far as it did on the live show."

Over and over the enacting of outrageous/uncomfortable/socially disruptive confrontation scenarios between GenY/late GenX entertainers. Over and over the moment-after suspicions that what we all just saw was staged. Over and over the confirmations arriving a day or two later that...Read More

Bar Refaeli is an Israeli model who's primarily known for her relationship with Leonardo DiCaprio. She's the 2009 cover model of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (lah-lah) and is currently on the cover of the new Esquire. What's the emotional-psychological essence of a guy who always goes for sleek leggy models like Refaeli and the nearly identical Giselle Bundchen? Never a buxom girl-next-door or a Reese Witherspoon maternal type -- always a striking greyhound.

Film Threat critic Scott Mendelson actually posted this yesterday (5.31) on the Huffington Post, to wit:

"The big gossip news today is that John Travolta will not be doing publicity for Sony's upcoming The Taking of Pelham 123. Fair enough. The man lost his sixteen year old son in a freak incident just six months ago, so the idea of doing a junket and/or appearing on the late-night talk shows is probably not very appealing right now (if ever again).

"But here's the awkward situation. It stands to argue that the news that Travolta is not doing publicity, as revealed by...Read More

Michael Moore's 6.1 rant about how General Motors systematically destroyed itself and decimated the lives of thousands of its employees is well taken and pretty much indisputable. But his suggestions about what should be done now are very wise and forward-thinking. 1. President Obama "must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices." 2. "Don't put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars [but] use that money to keep the current workforce -- and most of those who have...Read More

Listen carefully to what Craig T. Nelson is saying to Glenn Beck, apart from his "seriously thinking" about not paying his taxes due to a lack of government accountability. If he's asking what happened to the first ton of bailout money (i.e., the amount that Congress approved last fall), he's not being unreasonable. Tyson director James Toback said a similar thing ("Where did it go?") during our interview last April. But I'm not sure Nelson is saying exactly that.

Here's the AP story, but it's all in the video clip.

I don't understand the ecstatic notices for Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell , which I saw late yesterday afternoon. It's a stunningly sloppy and low-rent thing. There was reason to expect that Raimi would apply at least some of the focus and finesse that he showed in A Simple Plan and in portions of the Spider-Man films, but this is a shoddy and unintelligent wankoff from start to finish.

The story and human behavior are so contrived, hackneyed and illogical that all you can do is throw up your hands and say "what is this?" I understand the deal with...Read More

I wasn't expecting all that much from Terminator Salvation, but I found it half-tolerable -- occasionally stirring and decently crafted, and propelled by a reasonably compelling story by John D. Brancato & Michael Ferris. It's basically a grab-bag tentpole whore piece (Terminator shards and remnants blended with The Road Warrior, Transformers and The Road), but it's also the best film McG has ever done, mainly because of a humanistic theme (i.e., what finally separates men from machines) that's agreeably delivered.

It's a curious thing to go into a film ready to hate only to...Read More

European jet lag always throws you off for two or three days. It plays hell with concentration. The guys and I went to a double-header yesterday at Leows' 84th Street -- Terminator Salvation and Drag Me To Hell. We got back home in the early evening and I immediately went online, but all I could do was surf like a zombie. And an hour from now I have to drive Dylan and his stuff to Philadelphia, where he's enrolled in the University fo the Arts and where he'll be working and living thissummer Out of commission until sometime this evening. 5:25 pm Update:...Read More

This CNN deer-jumping video summons a traumatic event that I've been suppressing for the last nine days. I was driving my rental car on a dark country road in Denia, the Spanish port town located a half-hour south of Valencia, around 10 pm or so, and going about 30 or 35 kph when I suddenly hit a dog. A smallish mutt ran right in front of me....whump. He/she was chasing a dark cat, which had run in front of the car a split second earlier. There was no time to stop. Over before I had a chance to react.

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"But really, what makes Pontypool worth watching is that fascinating (and often underutilized) actor, Stephen McHattie. With his sunken cheeks and eyes that burn with a kind of canny madness, McHattie, playing the reluctant hero, is completely believable, a guy with demons who suddenly finds that the world is even scarier than his interior landscape. Language is a virus, Laurie Anderson once sang - and Pontypool takes that notion to frightening extremes." -- Hollywood & Fine's Marshall Fine in a 5.29 review.

"The harrowing truth remains unchanged from what it was before Dick Cheney emerged from his bunker to set Washington atwitter. The Bush administration did not make us safer either before or after 9/11. Obama is not making us less safe. If there's another terrorist attack, it will be because the mess the Bush administration ignored in Pakistan and Afghanistan spun beyond anyone's control well before Americans could throw the bums out." -- from Frank Rich's column in today's N.Y. Times, called "Who Is To Blame for the Next Attack?"

If you were casting around for an actor to play a good-time 30something guy with a beard, a barrel chest and a wisecracking mouth, would you go with The Hangover's Zach Galifianakis or Humpday's Joshua Leonard? Appearance-wise the differences are mainly about weight (Galifianakis is bulkier) and hair color (Leonard's hair is blondish). Is the Galifianakis similarity the reason Leonard's beard was shaved off for the Humpday release poster?

(l.) The Hangover's Zach Galifianakis; (r.) Humpday's Joshua Leonard

If you're in LA, Jack Morrissey says it's absolutely essential to visit the Rubber Room's Monsterpalooza at the Burbank Marriott Convention Center, which features the work of Drag Me To Hell model/prosthetic guy Greg Nicotera (also the creator of "Bruce" in Jaws and Dirk Diggler's appendage in Boogie Nights). But today's the last shot! Here's Nicotera talking to Time Out.

Taken Friday night on Barcelona's La Rambla, maybe six or seven blocks north of the harbor.

My son Dylan and I happened to be standing on 6th Ave. and 36th Street around 7:35 or 7:40 pm when President Barack Obama's motorcade came howling by. He and Michelle had been to dinner at a West Village restaurant called Blue Hill, and were on their way to the Belasco theatre for a performance of Joe Turner's Come and Gone.

I didn't know what was up at first. Something obviously was with all the cops around and the cross streets blocked off. More and more...Read More

With all the hullaballoo over the last several months about John Madden's Killshot being delayed, regionally released (barely) and generally being shown little love by the Weinstein Co., you'd think there'd be a bit more reaction to this adaptation of an Elmore Leonard thriller coming out four days ago on DVD. Apparently it's a bit underwhelming, but are there any HE reader reactions?

"Killshot hasn't enjoyed the easiest road to a suitable release," wrote DVD Talk's Brian Ondorf. "Filmed nearly four years ago, the picture suffered through endless rounds of editorial indecision,...Read More

The first message I read after landing this afternoon was from former Newsday film writer Lewis Beale, to wit: "Don't know if you're back, but you should check out Pontypool, a Canadian low budget zombie flick. It plays like a horror film written by a semiotician. Utterly unique."

N.Y. Times critic Stephen Holden wrote that "when one infected character is reduced to spouting gibberish as she suicidally hurls herself at [a] glass booth that has become a fortress against the zombie terror, the notion...

Got into JFK from Barcelona around 1:30 pm. Currently sitting in the terminal that houses Iberia Airlines, waiting for son Dylan's plane to arrive at 4:07 pm. Sitting next to a Starbucks, a Subway and other manifestations of corporate sterility. It was awfully nice to be away from all that. Yes, corporate chain branding is ubiquitous worldwide, but the climate feels a tad earthier and more home-grown in Europe.

JFK Terminal 7 -- Saturday, 5.30, 2:40 pm.

"I caught The Hangover at a screening in London a couple of weeks ago, and it really was a great little comedy," says HE reader James Smith. "Zach Galifianakis is superb, and the sequence in the [end] credits is fantastic -- the night they can't remember is finally seen through digital camera photos (although I overheard a few studio people say at my screening that a couple of frames featuring a blowjob won't be in the final released version).

"It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but you wouldn't expect it to. It's loud and it's stupid, but not derivatively or in a way that...Read More