Rat here, rat now

According to Nikki Finke: The rat is grabbing a huge hunk of b.o. cheddar.

R.I.P.: Joel Siegel (1943-2007)

The long-time film critic for Good Morning, America has departed for that Great Screening Room in the Sky. I wonder if Kevin Smith will have anything to say about his demise?

Where for art thou, Optimus Prime?

Anthony Breznican of USA Today takes a look at Transformers, and discerns a touch of Shakespeare. Hey, look, I'm sure people have earned master's degrees with even daffier theses.

Michael Caine and Sean Connery: Geriatric Gangstas?

I laughed until Monster energy drink sprayed out of my nose.

Inconvenient truths

Eric Alterman flames the self-satisfied Mainstream Media types who continually condescend to the star of this year's Oscar-winning Best Documentary. (OK, I admit, it's a stretch, but this is a movie blog, after all, so I had to find some way to rationalize my linking to it.) This is, hands down, the best piece I've ever read on the subject. You might consider forwarding it to people (especially self-satisfied MSM types and their Internet counterparts) who repeatedly take cheap shots at the man who won the popular vote in the 2000 Presidential election. Let them know that you see through their game, and you are not amused.

Saddest. President. Ever.

Now tell the truth: If you saw a scene like this in a movie, wouldn't you expect to hear violins? (Hat tip to Talking Points Memo.) I mean, jeepers, I don't recall ever seeing Jimmy Carter looking this sad. The guy looks like he just heard that his dog died... after being accidentally shot by Dick Cheney.

Justice is served

It's a beautiful summer day. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. Citizen Kane is still No. 1. Paris Hilton is free. And the showboating prosecutor who hounded her is under investigation for ethics violations. Life is good.

And if you think it was his worst movie, just remember: He also appeared opposite Pia Zadora in Butterfly

The Transformers: The Movie -- the 1986 animated feature, not the upcoming Michael Bay blockbuster -- was Orson Welles' last film. Really. Seriously.

And this is what I had to say about it back in '86, back when I knew everything, and had a lot more hair.

Early weekend b.o. report

From Nikki Finke: Looks like Evan isn't so mighty after all.

Don't write those obits for film critics just yet

From my Variety colleague Anne Thompson: "Wasn't film criticism supposed to be irrelevant? On the way out? When it comes to mainstream Hollywood tentpoles, maybe. But talk to filmmakers, no matter what their stripe, and all the talk of new media fades fast. They want the same things indies wanted a few decades ago: reviews from established critics.

"The Web has affected the film biz in many subtle ways, but it hasn't yet replaced the branding that occurs via theatrical booking and critical reviews. A local movie critic with a following drives people to see indie movies in a way that nothing else does -- at least so far."

Maybe what we need is more local movie critics... who write for their own websites?

Andy Griffith: Hot property

Thanks to Waitress, critics and audiences are rediscovering Andy Griffith. So maybe he'll finally get that Oscar nomination he deserved for A Face in the Crowd? (Come to think of it, he should have received a nod for Hearts of the West as well.)

Cats That Look Like Hitler

Maybe it's just me, but I think this one looks more like Bruno Ganz.

OK, this is more like it. There are even more "Kitlers" at catsthatlooklikehitler.com. No, I'm not making this up.

Sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads?

From Crooks and Liars: When actual Pentagon research programs start to resemble the fevered fantasies of Dr. Evil, you know you're living in an age when it's hard to top reality with parody.

'Indiana Jones' redux

From Lucasfilm Ltd.: "For the first time since 1989, Harrison Ford dons the familiar costume on Thursday, June 21, 2007, as the upcoming Indiana Jones adventure begins production under the direction of Steven Spielberg. The new Indiana Jones movie is set in the 1950s and stars Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, John Hurt, Ray Winstone and Jim Broadbent. The Lucasfilm Ltd. production will be released by Paramount Pictures worldwide on May 22, 2008. Photo by Steven Spielberg."

First word on 'Transformers'

From Variety: "If it's true that there's an 8-year-old boy inside every man, Transformers is just the ticket to bring the kid out. Big, loud and full of testosterone-fueled car fantasies, Michael Bay's actioner hits a new peak for CGI work, showcasing spectacular chases and animated transformation sequences seamlessly blended into live-action surroundings. There's no longer any question whether special effects can be made more realistic: The issue is whether disposable actors can be trained to play better with bluescreens."

More AFI post mortem

Roger Ebert weighs in on the AFI's new 100 Years... 100 Movies list here, and he's much more eloquent and insightful than I could be because -- well, because he's Roger Freakin' Ebert. My favorite passage (because it rings so true for me as a college professor as well as a film critic):

"New films become old films so fast. Raging Bull came out 27 years ago. It's older than Casablanca (No. 3) was when I became a film critic. According to the Motion Picture Association of America, more than 50 percent of moviegoers are under 27. They are going to find movies on this list that were made before their grandparents were born -- and, if judging by the kids I saw Buster Keaton's The General (No. 18) with, they might love them.

"Ah, but there's the problem: Will they find out about them? Too many younger moviegoers are wasting their precious adolescence frying their brains with vomitoriums posing as slasher movies. A list like the AFI's can do some good... To take a hypothetical possibility, if you were to see all 100 films on the AFI list, by the end of that experience, you would no longer desire to see a Dead Teenager Movie."

The Associated Press offers some interesting factoids about the new list here, and recalls the original 1998 line-up here.

As for me, I'm still mulling over something M. Night Shyamalan said about The Sixth Sense (No. 89 on the new AFI list) during Wednesday's telecast countdown. Specifically, Shyamalan noted that his movie benefited from great timing, in that it was released before the proliferation of movie blogs on the Internet. If it were released today, he said, Sixth Sense (and, I would add, The Crying Game) likely would suffer because too many blockheads would be posting spoilers on websites. Well, OK, he didn't use the word "blockheads." But I would.

And speaking of spoilers: Didn't the AFI do its own sort of spoiling by airing clips that revealed the climaxes of The Searchers and Citizen Kane?

Back in the saddle again

From the L.A. Times: "If you think of Gene Autry as just that guy on a horse playing guitar and singing, an impressive new exhibition at the Autry National Center's Museum of the American West is determined to change your mind.

"Imposingly titled Gene Autry and the Twentieth-Century West: The Centennial Exhibition, 1907-2007, this show, which opens Friday in Griffith Park and runs through Jan. 13, reveals Autry as someone who accomplished so much in so many areas it practically makes your head spin. It's no wonder that close friend and co-star Smiley Burnette said, 'Whenever the wolf came to the door, Autry ended up with a fur coat.'"

But wait, there's more: The legacy of America's favorite singing cowboy survives and thrives on new and newly reissued CDs.

The Worst Movies Ever - response to SchulteFiaja

Well, of course, if you're going to delve into the really bad, Manos: Hand of Fate certainly does have to figure into the mix.

The Worst Movies Ever - Part 2

And sometimes, some things are worse than bad.

The Worst Movies Ever

To paraphrase Huey Lewis: Sometimes, bad really is just bad.