Destry Rides into a Genre-Shaped Hole

Destry Rides Again could have been the best Western of all time, until it caved in to genre and period requirements, but it's an amazingly fun ride until the climax. Read about my sadness.

Everything Is Glourious, Except the Basterds

I love pretty much everything about Quentin Tarantino's latest film except the title characters and their storyline. That's a good third of the film, but the rest is so stupendous that it doesn't come close to ruining the film. Read about it.

I Saw Avatar

's teaser trailer the other day. (See what I did there?) My first thought was that it looked... sorta terrible. Silly. Crayola. After ten years of planning and work, and a $190 million budget plus however much the ad campaign is costing, this is what James Cameron came up with? This is what he wanted this film to look like? Are you out of your stinking mind? The effects look like they date from Final Fantasy, and not even the 2001 film full of dead-eyed zombies—I'm talking about late-1990s installments of the video game. And even if that's just the work-in-progress, not-quite-finished look, and they'll look less cheap in the finished film, the character design is downright laughable.

I'm not judging the finished product; I'm just talking about how utterly, laughably bad the teaser makes the film look. Maybe the film will be good, or great, and I'll be happy to say so, if indeed it is. (At least, as soon as my 3D headache goes away.)

See for yourself.

Go to Hell Bastards!

That's the subtitle; the title is Detective Bureau 2-3. Local treasure Tim Brayton and I discuss it over at his blog, in the second installment of our series on maverick Japanese director Seijun Suzuki. Suzuki made light-years of progress in the five years since the previous film we covered, Underworld Beauty. Surry down to Antagony and Ecstasy for our conversation.

Funny People Works, Sort Of

It's two and a half hours long, which is far too long for a comedy (and for most movies), but what works in it works well: the aggravated friendship between a dying comedian (Adam Sandler) and his protege/whipping boy (Seth Rogen). Read about it.