Adams Eve: Live-blogging Amy's Night on SNL

I'll be live-blogging (well, kind of) this episode alongside my roommate Scott. Scott is great because he is the ultimate sounding board.

Late night phone call: I really don't understand the whole SNL is pro-Hillary thing. A show is entitled to an opinion, it's not their fault that Americans are so easily convinced (I do think they had a small impact in Hillary's recent leads but come on). The still photos were a nice touch and it's good to see Armisen playing Obama less stiff. I wonder if this bitter, more cut-throat depiction of Hillary is a reaction to the last two weeks of "Pro-Hillary bias."

Oh first Amy promo photo very cute

Ladies and gentlemen Amy Adams, YAY!

Ooo purple. She always looks so good in purple. Crowd seems particularly psyched (I really wish I could've gotten into this show).

Monologue-LOLCATS Kristen Wiig and Amy Adams DO look similar. Did I not say this is LAST WEEK!?
Annnnd I'm gay.
Scott is a jerk. He says Kristen Wiig's voice is better. But now I'VE now called him a jerk in front of an average of a hundred daily readers. Hah hah, my power is great.
Ok I'll admit that opening PROBABLY could've been better, the sound you're hearing is a hundred middle Americans changing their channels.

"Mirror Image" ABC family series-OK...two sketches about how Amy Adams and Kristen Wiig look similar. Not wild about this bit. Bill Hader already appears 15 minutes in. Good. Ah sly wink to the audience, nothing makes me happier. It really seems like if they wanted to showcase Amy they should've had HER play the fat one. Well at least she's committed. I will be using "ass right I am" at some point in the future. Scott says this sketch is terrible but I reply with "don't you think it EMBRACES it's terribleness?" Scott says no.

Ooo sultry promo photo.

Couples Therapy-Scott says with dark hair A-dubs (yeah we're calling her THAT now) looks like Sarah Michelle Gellar, when I inform him it's funny he should say that because A-dubs played SMG's character in Cruel Intentions 2 he looks at me funny. This sketch belongs to Poehler. It also should've lasted maybe 30 seconds. Besides this sketch is ridiculous, who would EVER marry someone she only met from a soviet bloc country to help them gain citizenship? Who I ask you, who?

Digital Short-A so-so song is redeemed by a solid face punching. It's like a summation of EVERY Snl digital short. And they're still going. Oo blood, it's funny again.

Fierce: The Hot Mess Makeover Show-I haven't yet figured out the new large breasted cast member's deal. Nor have I bothered learning her name. Sorry, repeating "hot mess" and "tranny" is not funny. Yay another flawless Bill Hader impression. Dear SNL, saying that other people over-rely on catchphrases does not excuse composing a sketch made-up entirely of catch-phrases. Also I feel like A-Dubs was not happy about playing Elle McPherson.

Vampire Weekend performs-I wonder if A-Dubs has a whole closet full of nothing BUT purple dresses. In my head she does.

Weekend Update-All right, so again we're seeinga lot less Jim Downey based material as the first two jokes seem fairly pro-bama (I am FULL of words tonight). I feel like in an alternate universe I AM Will Forte. My lips are a little bigger than his though. Wow, Scott really likes Bill Calhoun. My roommates have the STRANGEST taste (the girl likes Psych and the Highlander series...the TV series). I just laughed at the headline "German Soldiers Fat", cause come on, that's funny. Amy Poehler you are JUST cute enough to make the "joke of the week" line funny, once. Once. I know Frank is enjoying the bootleg Ghostbusters theme song. Scott asks if there is really a Brooklyn Ghost Investigation, I remind myself that I am moving in two months. There is a perverse pleasure in hearing Kenan Thompson saying zout a'lours. I have to explain the Keith Richards joke to Scott, didn't he major in music?

Scott theorizes that the reason the show seems off was that they partied too hard after last weeks after-party. I chime in with "Yes, everyone very excited about Ellen Page pseudo-coming out." That probably was pretty wild.

Did anyone else catch Lorne Michaels hugging Amy for a little TOO long during the shot of the show mid-commercial?

Traffic School- Oh wait, it's that Kristen Wiig character she played in Knocked Up. Trailing off while competing with everyone else in conversation always fun (cough). Why is A-Dubs playing the straight-man/authority figure in all these sketches? Isn't she a comic actress? What the deuce. She's not Ralph Nader, you can make her do more funny stuff. What I am getting is that Adams and Wiig are total bffs, I bet she lends her purple dresses. Ooo her imitation of Wiig is solid.

Where can I get these promo photos?

Dr. Uncle Jimmy's Smokehouse and Outpatient Surgical Facility-The title is satirical and appropriate, but I don't know if there is anything MORE to it than that. Ellen Pompeo's exit line is amusing, as is "I hope those aren't MY ribs."

During a commercial for Drillbit Taylor Scott mentions how hot and talented Leslie Mann is. Way ahead of you Scott, way ahead of you.

Roger Clemens Presents-Heh, look at the arms. "Major red-ass" lol. "Do you get it?" yes Mr. Clemens, we do. Tomboy Amy, adorable, also her fall is excellent. "I need power from you this year, steroid power." Sudekis is bringing it in this sketch.

Tookie Stiles-I can't imagine Spike Lee likes this sketch, yeeee (collar pull). Awww A-Dubs Irish accent is adorable. Scott asks if Tookie Williams is a real person, google says no. Or maybe they did say yes but I never search for more than one page.

I love theater, love it, but my god, please no more commercials for plays. It's soooo awkward.

Second Vampire Weekend performance-Ooo a mandolin. I need to get this CD.

Last random sketch, Celebration bar-Big hair is exactly the right kind of trashy, don't ask me why. The dance is very amusing. A-Dubs knows how to cheat out while staying characters and THAT is why I like her. I hope that they don't do this dance three times. But the comedy rule of three is about to smack me on the back of the head. Annnnd I'm right. Ugh. I'm super annoyed that the rehearsal time for this sketch could've been better spent writinga shorter funnier sketch. Though the reaction shots of Hader are solid. Tsk. Sigh.

During a commercial for Virginia (the state) Scott asks "Is this where Dave Matthews songs go?" I reply with "Yes, to die."

Ok so that wasn't GREAT. Or even good. Damn. I wanted to like it, BELIEVE me. But oh man, she is sooo pretty and talented (but not as pretty as my ACTUAL girlfriend who is amazing and wonderful and very good to put up with this kind of post). Oh well. Pettigrew next week, gotta be better.

Vote Dent

Now normally I don't go in for writing about politics on the blog. However, this guy I like. He doesn't strike me as one of those two-faced politicians who says one thing during the campaign and then becomes a whole other person when elected. His whole "stop on a dime" approach to crime is very appealing. I hope you'll consider him on election day, I bet you double or nothing he gets it with your support.

Miss Pettigrew Links for a Day

Friend pimping: Terry of thewunderblog.com fame had some very nice things to say about me and the blog. Which is funny because I happen to have some very nice things to say about him. Particularly now that he updates more frequently and you never know what crazy, random thing he'll blog about next. You should make it a point to check him on the daily here.
Also worth mentioning is Josh Heller taking a break from composing jingles to sit down and write a serious look at the amazing sounding Urban Iditarod competition. It's some pretty damn compelling reportage, both equal parts informative, thoughtful and hilarious. If you absolutely, positively must click on only one link in this whole article make it this one here. Then reassess why you only can click on just one link. Get it together man.

Funny Stuff: Cracked.com lists the Top 25 piecs of Movie Merchandise too awesome to exist. Laugh at the Capote action figure here.

TV Stuff: A ton of solid TV related stuff this week. First up is a link that is already being hailed as "controversial" and has my friend Offer threatening to kill me for potentially ruining Lost. The guys who created this page were EXTREMELY thorough so beware. The mysteries of the island may well be revealed here.
The man who created Hamsterdam wants to make it happen in real life. Wire fans check out David Simon's take on the war on drugs courtesy of Time Magazine here.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator Rob McElhenny has some big, hilarious sounding plans for next season. "The gang takes on the sub-prime mortgage crisis" anyone? You can await the return of "Day Man" (yes they're bringing it back) here.

Lists: I'm a sucker for lists like how Nelly is a sucker for cornrows and manicured toes. Radar provides a look at the most misogynistic films of the last decade here.
Film Babble has a look at the ten most misleading posters/DVD covers of all-time here.

Analysis: Creative loafing makes a pretty compelling defense for the recently lackluster Will Ferrell. Break out of the glass case of emotion here.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall: I can think of no better gift than having a great comedy arrive square on my birthday (actually yes I can but I've been sworn to not mentioning it on the blog by the lady :)). This year will be full of chock full of glorious Apatow produced goodness but I'm especially excited for audiences to discover what fans of How I Met Your Mother and Freaks & Geeks already know. Namely that Jason Segel is a glorious comedy lead. The film, which Segel writes and stars in, will look at break-ups the way Knocked-Up looked at pregnancy. The film already has a very character specific website up, though the url is being rumored to change (a fun but tricky to execute gimmick). Try it at either ilovesarahmarshall.com or ihatesarahmarshall.com It should be noted that the titular Sarah is being played by Veronica Mars herself, Kristen Bell.
There is also a not especially informative but VERY funny interview with a good chunk of the cast (including Jack McBrayer 30 Rock fans) along with director Nick Stoller and producer Shauna Robertson done by Quint over at AICN here.

Youtube faves for this week:

Frank pointed me to this remarkable little gem first (though I received it MANY times subsequently). The opening titles of Star Wars redone as though they'd been created by titles impresario Saul Bass.

Sweeding is taking off (as I predicted) and one of the best I've seen so far is the concise, hilarious and still great version of Once. Damn I love that movie.

Screw that little girl who described the plot of Star Wars. Here is a young man after my own heart. Drainage indeed!

And lastly, Jason Sudekis goes too far. Isn't it enough being Tina Fey's fictional boyfriend? Sudekis!!!!! Oooo I can't wait for Saturday.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (A look at the Watchmen photots)

Well I will definitely being watching the Watchmen when it comes out in 2009 but based on these newly released promotional character photos I will be making the trip to the theater with some reservations.

In general I like director Zak Snyder but I want to love him. His Dawn of the Dead remake was far better than I could've hoped for (though it traded on dread for action). I would even go so far to say that the ten minute opening sequence is one of the best pure horror sequences of all time. The rest of the film can't compete with it (though the "birthing" sequence is solid). While his follow-up film, 300, was visually inspired I felt it was dragged down by ponderous, pedantic narration and an extremely silly, myopic attitude and atmosphere. Audiences more than embraced it and helped Snyder have the cache necessary to take a big, high profile film like Watchmen.

"What is Watchmen?" asks those of you who probably lost their virginity before college. Watchmen is quite simply THE definitive analysis and deconstruction of superheroes and a masterpiece of the comic medium by Messrs. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Even if you don't like or read comics I cannot recommend it enough. Many story elements, archetypes and themes from Watchmen have been pilfered since its release in 1986; The Incredibles, Mystery Men and Heroes have all borrowed generously (though I would say that Watchmen is superior to any of these...especially Heroes), but it definitely has it's own feeling and flavor. Do these pictures convey that? Kind of. It's interesting to see how these fan reactions come in cycles, I've been reading a lot of "too leathery, too stiff, too Matrix-y/Batman and Robin-y" negative comments except if you'll remember back (something good fanboys OUGHT to do) almost identical reactions were leveled at the first X-Men in costume promo stills.

All right enough jibber jabber, let's get to critiquing.
First up, the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Well I'm so glad they kept the mustache. The ammo belts make him look awfully busy but just cause it's in the picture doesn't mean he'll be wearing it throughout the movie. I can't wait until the Grey's Anatomy fans come to this film and think "Awww Denny Duqette" and the Comedian shows up. Oh and then there's that smiley face button. How to sum it up? :)

Ozymandias (Matthew Goode). I like this actor in general but I'm not wild about this particular casting. He looks too young and in this shot (which I realize does not constitute the entire movie) he does not convey that he is the smartest, nicest, most physically proficient guy in the world. He just looks like a snot nosed kid. My friend Etan also pointed out that Snyder and co's typically myopic views of good and evil may be shining through in the poster. Also where's Baranbus? I want a genetically modified Lynx in the background damn it (I am nothing if not reasonable in my requests). I'm glad they kept the purple, very regal, but where's the yellow? Ozy should look friendly and approachable, this isn't it.
Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley). Perfect. Exactly right. If they hew towards the book everyone is going to go CRAZY for Rorschach. Also Jackie Earle Haley doing martial arts. How cool is that? Get ready for a lot of ink blot masks come Halloween 2009.
Silk Specter (Malin Akerman). Frankly, I'm more looking forward to seeing Carla Guigino as the original Silk Spectre, but cie la ve. I think Akerman is a competent comedic actress, even if she's been stuck in some stinkers (Brothers Solomon, Heartbreak Kid). But Silk Specter is called on for some heavy dramatic stuff. She comes off as more tough than sexy in the picture. Also a lot of black in here, I'd rather have more yellow, but oh well, we'll see come '09. Is this the woman who a god could fall in love with?
Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson). Nite Owl is supposed to embody the more embarrassing, impotent, fetish-y, parts of super-heroing. I guess one COULD argue this costume looks silly, but the lighting and posture kind of read as "bad-ass." I also wish they had kept the gut (though this could be a pic of Minute Men era Nite Owl). Still if you hire "the Prom King" you're going to want to show off those abs. I do LOVE that Archimedes (his flying owl ship) is in the background.

Argh, where is Doctor Manhattan? He's tough to market (being he's a bald, blue, naked adonis) and hard to show off (for the aforementioned reasons), but I want to see how he looks really badly.

All in all I'd say good but with reservations. I know, I know, stills aren't a movie. I'll just wait until the first preview comes out, then I'll praise/hammer on it with great ferocity.

One last thought, I finally realized today that this movie contains the former and current beaus of Ms. Mary Louise Parker, Billy Crudup (Dr. Manhattan) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian) respectively. Must have made for some...awkward moments on set. That's actually kind of cool as the characters do not like each other either.

Monkeys aren't donkeys, quit messing with my head

Did you see The King of Kong? In addition to being one of the best (and easily the most entertaining) documentary of 2007, it also made my top 20 (number twelve to be exact) so before I go with today's entry I MUST implore you to go and check out this film (currently on DVD) as I will be getting into "spoiler" territory here. It's funny, dramatic and finally triumphant.

If there's one person who comes out of the film smelling like roses and shining with the divine light of God behind him, it is Steve Wiebe. In addition to being a teacher (yay) the man could not be nicer and any post Kong accolades are well deserved. However if you're the sort to keep up with video game scores or already purchased the DVD you'd know that Billy Mitchell usurped Wiebe's hard fought title for all-time highest Donkey Kong score. Sorry but as anyone who saw the movie will tell you that this is simply not acceptable so TONIGHT Steve Wiebe is re-challenging Mitchell for the title in Las Vegas. No super-delegates, no polls, just a man and his joystick (and occasionally a hammer for smashing barrels). Find out the details here. Our nerd prayers are with you Steve, you're a honest to gosh American hero.

You're a part-time lover (no kidding) and a full time friend (sort of): Asking about the Juno backlash

Look everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I definitely resent it when that opinion is formulated directly to counter popular opinion. I'll grant you there are some clunker bits of dialogue early on in the film but at the end of the day it's a well-constructed, funny, heartfelt look at a young girl's coming-of-age and her growing perception of the world around her. Juno is SUPPOSED to seem to inhabit her own bizarre world (we all do when we're young and TRY to convince me you and your friends didn't have your own bits of slang) at the start of the film, you'll note a lot of the colloquialisms disappear as the story progresses and the plot lines pick up steam. This is not me being an apologist, this is an hones request that for people who USED to like Juno who then flipped on the film when it became a phenomena.
I think a lot of this may have to do with Diablo Cody. With one, EXACTLY ONE, script turned into a film everyone is ready to peg her as the rhyming, pop culture referencing, too cool for school soundtrack maven that would make her an easy punchline. Oh, has anyone mentioned that she's a stripper? Good lord. I think this is one of those situation's it's not entirely out of the question to throw out a word like "sexism." There is a situation where this can easily be disproven because all the hot screenwriter's get pegged as a "type" when they've got big personalities and are successful early on (QT, Kevin Smith, the Coens, Charlie Kaufman & Rian Johnson all been branded) but that label gets lifted once they demonstrate a little versatility (or not, sorry Kevin, love you but let's try to grow just a bit). As someone who made it a point to read all the old entries of her blog (click here for the oldest one I could still find), I can say with confidence that she is a genuinely funny, honest and talented writer who is not banging out a formula to try to be cute and impress anyone. I haven't yet picked up her memoir (saving it for summer reading) but there's no reason you can't here. Her next screenplay, Jennifer's Body, certainly sounds quite different from Juno (though both are about a young women in high school the differences DEFINITELY stop there). If you're intrigued you can get a spoiler-y early review of the screenplay courtesy of CHUD here.

All right guys, I want some help. Where do you come in on Juno? Hating it? Loving it? Changed your mind? If so, why? Put it in the comments.

Nicholson and Hillary: How an ad becomes a phenomena in under 24 hours

Look guys, I wasn't going to blog this but Frank demanded, DEMANDED that my readers see a phenomena in the making.

Ok so check this out:

All right, so let's make fun of it:

Ok so let's now comment on the whole thing (warning: Contains unhealthy doses of Rick Dees):


Yeah. So have fun with THAT. Also please read and comment on the below Juno article. It's not getting a lot of play time on the front of the page.

Curse of the Golden Man: Susan Sarandon

For many actors, winning an Oscar is the crowning achievement of a career, for others it's a way of elevating a career to the next level allowing actors the coveted ability to pick and chose roles. However, there is a darker side to an Oscar win. For one, it alters public perception; if an actor is universally recognized for a certain role and is then awarded for it, it can act as a brand. This brand forever marks the actor or actress as a certain "type." While being type-cast has it's advantages, casting agents always looking for a certain type, it also locks in actors into the same part over and over again, halting their progress as an artist. In this on-going series (as suggested by one of our favorite loyal readers, Cary) will take a look at some popular actors and act as a sort of career assessment slash therapy. I should point out that these articles are not meant to be mean-spirited, quite the opposite. They're to have us consider why we like these actors in the first place and make you, the educated film-enthusiast that visits this site, demand more from our favorites.

Tonight, our subject is Susan Sarandon.
Susan Sarandon is an actress of enormous talent and poise. She possesses a regal poise that shines through in every role and a real wisdom behind her penetrating gaze. But quite frankly
Sarandon has been more interesting lately and prolific as an activist and husband to Tim Robbins. At this point Sarandon has been far more interesting at say, the Democratic National Convention than on screen ever since...well lookee here, since her Oscar win. In 1996 Sarandon won her first Oscar (after several nominations) for playing Helen Prejean in her husband's film Dead Man Walking. Sister Prejean is a stern, compassionate and thoughtful woman, Sarandon has basically done riffs on this character ever since, except now the part is played alternatively as demure or too over-the-top.

One of her better, more passionate appearances

Don't believe me? The post-Oscar resume says it all.

Her first big starring role post-win was the syrupy Stepmom where Sarandon plays the terminally-ill saintly mom who indoctrinates the incoming titular stepmom played by Julia Roberts (which is gross when you stop and think about it for more than a minute). The film has since gone into regular rotation on the likes of TBS and can be found in bargain bins in your local electronics retailer. It also posited Sarandon as both "the mom" and "the wife." Here comes another mom the next year in the Natalie Portman vehicle Anywhere But Here. Sarandon does Mom AND wife with minor variations in The Banger Sisters (comic), Igby Goes Down (sardonic) and Moonlight Mile (maudlin), Shall We Dance (bland and paper-weight-ish) and finally in Elizabethtown (ugh, just...ugh, why was she tap dancing for those yokels-I mean the paying Elizabethtown audience). Oh and I forgot Mr. Woodcock (something my brain was grateful for until...just now). She's also a mom, or should I say stepmom (cocked eyebrow), in Enchanted. Her character, Queen Narissa is probably the worst part of the movie and any scene she's in suffers because she's written as though she A) belongs in a different movie and B) is played with a different kind of broadness (Enchanted is wonderfully illustrative as to there are many levels of "broad"). Of all the movies I've mentioned (and I've seen them all but Woodcock) Enchanted is by far and away the best that Sarandon has been in lately. And as the web's biggest fan of Enchanted (suck it KittyPrincess87!) let me firmly state that it pains me to think about any of this.

When Sarandon does "bring it" these days, she doesn't seem to do it with anyone watching. The whole impetus for this series came from a discussion about Cary watching In the Valley Of Elah (elah, elah, elah, hey, hey, hey, hey). I missed the film because the credits contained the phrase "directed by Paul Haggis" but the completist and awards fan in me has it on my "q" to ensure that I've taken a look at every nominated film. This doesn't change the fact that Elah was one of several "Iraq" films that tanked this year so if Sarandon did do some new and exciting work, most of the population doesn't know about it yet. Her work on the series Rescue Me has been well recieved and she had a good little bit of work in her hubby's other film The Cradle Will Rock (an unfortunately under-seen film). I liked her smooth, silky turn in the Alfie remake, but damn it, it's the ALFIE remake! Even her voice-over work has been poorly applied (with the noted exception of James and the Giant Peach).

Looking at these films simply does not inspire the confidence that Sarandon's earlier chunk of resume does.
I mean come on; Atlantic City, Thelma and Louise, Bull Durham, The Hunger (HOT!), The Witches of Eastwick, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Lorenzo's Oil, Little Women and Bob Roberts (hell why not throw in The Client, the performance is good, even if the movie is trash). In each film Sarandon plays dynamic, intriguing characters who cut a bold swath through their films. I know it's silly to say, why not pick more films like these? But could a younger, hungrier, pre-Oscar Sarandon have been more picky? It should also be noted that right about the time Sarandon started taking these broader, frothier roles in the public eye is right when her kids became old enough to become regular movie-goers. Now I won't begrudge an actor-parent wanting to make material suitable for their children but I'm curious to see through this series the returns start to diminish when the kids begin to grow-up.

Looking ahead for Sarandon she has a dramedy where she sacrifices one daughter's (another mom) college fund for another daughter's modeling career in Middle of Nowhere. She'll be Mom Racer in the upcoming Speed Racer live-action cartoon by the Wachowski's (not exactly a major acting challenge for one of Sarandon's considerable gifts). In her most Oscar-baity future role she'll be the Grandma in Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones. While transitioning from Mom to Grandma can be rough for an actress, the role has a lot of opportunities for Sarandon to really strut her stuff (and not just in a sassy Cloris Leachman type of way). Here's hoping.

Don't bother me next Saturday

As I was watching my DVR'ed SNL after work today I was enjoying the awkward live performance of the cherubic indie darling Ellen Page when all of a sudden what should peak out before the commercials like a beam of light through heaven?


Yeah. That's right.
Her:
Plus them:
And don't forget this guy:
So what do the Sickness Cinema and Celine Dion think about all this?

New Line Cinema In Memoriam

If you haven't been following entertainment news you may not have heard that New Line Cinema collapsed this past week. The studio brand name will still exist (having been absorbed by parent company Warner Bros) and function similarly as Rogue Pictures does for Focus Features, a branch designed specifically for developing and distributing genre pictures (horror, sci-fi, fantasy etc.) . Yet another example that truly all history is cyclical. New Line began as a small production company that had released a handful of mostly forgotten films finally striking gold with 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street. From then on the studio became known as "The House that Freddy Built", finding success the Nightmare franchise and Critters, but the studio also showed a certain degree of bravery steadily courting independent filmmakers such as John Waters (Hairspray) and Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho). The studio had a solid track record mixing solid genre efforts and franchises and occasionally daring their audience with more cutting edge fair. With the start of the nineties the studio had a new franchise to prop itself up on, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The end of the nineties brought Austin Powers. However at this time, Bob Shaye took a large risk on a young Kiwi filmmaker named Peter Jackson, helping the studio bank-roll an ambitious, historic film production. The likes of which that had never been attempted. A massive fantasy series that was to be shot back-to-back-to-back. It would either boost the studio to new heights or send it spiraling into bankruptcy. As fate would have it, the film actually did both, but in ways analysts could not even begin to foresee.

New Line's initial gambit work. The films were a colossal success both critically and (even more importantly for the studio) commercially. However, the studio, flush with it's success got greedy. New Line withheld money from the actors, the Tolkien estate and the director. Furthermore they assumed that audiences wouldn't mind seeing countless fantasy knock-offs. New Line again invested in an expensive and ambitious fantasy film series, an adaptation of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy. On the backs of numerous smaller films failing came The Golden Compass. The film landed in theaters this holiday with a massive thud and the national box-office could not even make back it's production budget, let alone the advertising costs. After that it was academic. I will miss New Line as its own independent studio with it's own unique flavor and I certainly wish only the best for any employees unfortunate enough to get screwed by the poor decision making of the higher-ups. Who knows maybe this production arm of Warner Bros may once again rise up to be it's own powerful force within the industry. Stranger things have happened.

15 New Line Favorites
My Own Private Idaho-Daring, haunting and exciting.
Glengarry Glenn Ross-Remains a quotable masterclass in acting.
Friday-Hilarious, lively and always fun.
Se7en-A personal favorite.
Dark City-Better than The Matrix. Yep, deal with it.
Pleasantville-A sweet, well-acted dramedy.
American History X-Powerful work from Ed Norton and an impressive debut from Tony Kaye.
Magnolia-Before there were milkshakes, there were falling frogs.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch-The Origin of Love remains an AMAZING movie musical number.
The Lord of the Rings-A masterpiece, plain and simple.
Punch Drunk Love-Sweet and touching, best Sandler performance yet.
About Schmidt-Better with every viewing.
Birth-Chilling and masterfully shot, scored and acted.
Little Children-The best urban drama you've never seen has one of the best sex scenes in years.
Hairspray-Charming and vibrant. Gives great Marsden.

15 New Line Guilty Pleasure
Suburban Commando-That big strong space-man is playing havoc with that family's lives.
Pump Up the Volume-Sooooo verrrrry 90's.
Surf Ninjas-QUANSU DUDES!
The Mask-For Cuban Pete and the Tex Avery homages. Also the hottest Cameron Diaz has ever been.
Mortal Kombat-If you were a child of the 90's this film was a very big deal.
The Long Kiss Goodnight-Shane Black could not write a boring film if he tried. Also Geena Davis fights Craig Bierko.
Money Talks-Before becoming a Rush Hour punchline Chris Tucker developed his schtick in this loud, amusing L.A. based 48 Hours rip.
The Wedding Singer-Sure the 80's stuff may be a little much at times, but the movie is not without it's charms.
Drop Dead Gorgeous-Featuring a supporting turn from some girl named Amy Adams.
Blade 2-Directed by some young Spanish filmmaker. Whatever happened to THAT guy? :)
Willard-I wish Crispin Glover did more stuff like this all the time. So proudly, defiantly strange.
Elf-To not like this movie you'd have to be a cotton headed ninny muggins.
Harold & Kumar-Three little letters: NPH. Oh also the shofar bong (God I hope someone uses this as a google keyword).
Snakes on a Plane-Why America? Why couldn't you embrace Snakes on a Plane?
Shoot ‘Em Up-I laughed every minute. Dumb fun. SO MUCH FUN!

Do you have a favorite New Line produced film or memory? You can check out a comprehensive list of their films here.