Teaser Tidbits

A few teaser trailer links for general consumption. The first is a full trailer and site for a movie called Balls of Fury. Even though it is 50/50 whether this movie is hilarious or could be doomed to the unfunny "Knocked Up" bucket, I'll put faith in any film has this title with Christopher Walken as an evil ping-pong player.Second is a little prequel teaser for the upcoming Battlestar Galactica movie. For those unaware, the movie is going to focus on the history of the Pegasus crew. Just those few clips got me jacked.Finally, from our old friend Indiana Jones, the briefest of teaser clips from the forthcoming new addition to the series. Not much to chew on, but I'm already getting nostalgic for one last adventure.And lastly, via Pop Candy, some things should not be remade.

Michael Moore vs. CNN

If you haven't seen the clip of Michael Moore berating Wolf Blitzer and CNN during an interview, you're missing out on some pretty funny, informative, and embarrassing TV. I don't know if it's been three years since Mr. Moore has been on CNN, but he sure sounds like he's pent up three years'-worth of bitterness.

And, true to his form, he updated his SiCKO site with plenty of rebuttal facts and figures. I don't claim to know much about health care, but it's sure fun to learn about it when it's done in 'showdown' format.

Hot Witch of the Day

Eva Green, from the forthcoming The Golden Compass film.On my list of books to read as quickly as possible so I can forget it and enjoy the film!

...And one church to rule them all!

In another in a consistent stream of demonstrations about the idiocy of religion, yesterday the Pope (he of the head of the Catholic Church), decided to bring back tradition (how far off can canings be?) by saying that the Catholic religion is, wait for it, the one true religion:

Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches.

Benedict approved a document from his old offices at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that restates church teaching on relations with other Christians. It was the second time in a week the pope has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that modernized the church.

On Saturday, Benedict revisited another key aspect of Vatican II by reviving the old Latin Mass. Traditional Catholics cheered the move, but more liberal ones called it a step back from Vatican II.

Benedict, pictured above, had only to say in response that, "It's the will of the Lord, and all those other 'religions'," -- he used the traditional hand-quotes here --, "can kiss my ass." When further pressed about the sanity of this reversion, he declared that "I never slice."

This basically presents no change in policy for liberal Catholics, who only pay attention to the rules that they choose to care about instead of the thousands of dogmatic, contradictory, inflammatory rules. Good for them, I say, in seeing how stupid organized religion can be. After all, I would hate my mother (Catholic) to have to sanction or smite my father (Protestant) because of this.

Cloverfield?

I don't know what this movie is called or what it is about (but that's not any less informed than anyone else, but the trailer sure got my attention.It's already got a slew of weird, cryptic websites up, not that they tell you anything. But it's got J.J. Abrams behind it, and I'm already penciling in 1/18/08 as a movie night.

UPDATE: According to AICN, the last two sites linked above are bogus. From the letter director JJ Abrams wrote:

For what it's worth, the only site of ours that people have even FOUND is the 1-18-08.com site. The others (like the Ethan Haas sites) have nothing to do with us.

Aw, Hell

Surprising developments from a church down under...:

MELBOURNE (AFP) - A boy called Hell has been barred from enrolling in a Catholic school in Australia because his surname jarred with its religious teachings, the child's father said Monday.

The youngster's dad, 45-year-old Alex Hell, has expressed outrage after the primary school in the southern city of Melbourne allegedly refused to admit his son, Max.

"We are victims of our name," said Hell, whose name is of Austrian origin.

"We're quite devastated by the whole thing," the Catholic father of three told the Australian Associated Press.

"It's 2007, not 1407 -- it's not the Dark Ages."

It's a wake-up call, dummy. I'm devastated that you haven't grown up yet. In fact, you should be looking on this as a boon. I can't believe they'd let a little thing like a name get in the way of getting more young boys.

Soon I Will Be Invincible

You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but sometimes I'll buy one just based on an irresistable title. With barely a glance at a review for the book or plot, that's what happened when I first heard about Soon I Will Be Invincible. I bought it and I loved it.Set in a world where superheroes exist, the story of an "evil" genius' return to power is told from the two disparate perspectives of an aging super-villain and a newbie super-heroine, providing hilarious realism, insight, and laugh-out-loud commentary. As a former collector of comic books, this refreshingly serious and simultaneously comedic take really struck the perfect chord with me.

Still, all you need is to have seen any of the recent docket of superhero films that have come out in recent years to gain an appreciation for the novel. My only lament was that the book (less than 300 pages) was over far too soon.

That, and if Mr. Grossman decides to write a sequel, it'll be quite some time before I can read it.

Fighting the Law in style

I'd never thought I'd see the day when Alexandria, Virginia would have a city-wide smoking ban, but sure enough, the city council voted (amidst a shit-storm of local protest, mostly by bar owners) to make all restaurants "smoke free" come this time next year.

The countdown was lot nearer for those in England, but one guy had a creative solution:

For pub-goers who enjoy a cigarette with their drink, next week's ban will make England a very different place. So one landlord has claims to have found a loophole to fight the new law - by declaring his pub to be part of a different country. The Wellington Arms in Southampton is set to transform itself from a public house into the official embassy for a tiny Caribbean island.

If it is successful, the pub would be classified as "foreign soil", allowing smokers a haven from the smoking laws covering the rest of the UK. In theory it would then also be allowed to serve cheaper drinks because the pub would be exempt from VAT.

Earlier this month, the pub was named as the official consulate in Britain for the island of Redonda, which lies 35 miles south west of Antigua in the Caribbean. Landlord Bob Beech is now making plans to upgrade the pub to an embassy to allow drinkers to continue smoking in his pub.

If successful it would become the only pub in Britain where smokers can light up after July 1.

Road trip? Or ocean trip? Seems like fun, and since it would be the only smoking bar in the UK, it would probably be the most packed constantly. Unfortunately, there is one small drawback:

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "In accordance with the Vienna Convention the establishment of diplomatic relations between states, and permanent diplomatic missions, takes place by mutual consent.

"However, Redonda is the territory of Antigua and Barbuda and is therefore not entitled to have an embassy or a high commission."

You can't fight city hall. Until you become Emperor!



via QuizLaw

Before the Devil Knows Your Dead

Cinematical talks about an upcoming film that I remember hear was filming, but didn't know anything about it. Apparently, if you show a trailer in France (the trailer is dubbed), you can get away with a lot more than here in the States. Like Marisa Tomei being topless. In a trailer.

I have to admit, I'm a little giddy about just that fact, because it's not something I'm used to seeing. But there's a lot more to be excited about, as the article details:

You know what most movie trailers need? Marisa Tomei, completely topless. You know what else they need? An end tag that tells us the film is "now in post-production"! You know what else they need? Long, drawn-out clips of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke, as down-on-their-luck businessmen planning to rob a mom and pop store that happens to be run by their own mom and pop. Needless to say, this trailer, for Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, is my favorite of the year so far.

Here's the trailer. And you can't go wrong with having a little Massive Attack in your trailer soundtrack.