Surely, Leslie Nielsen can't be dead

The senior statesmen of sophomoric comedies, Leslie Nielsen, died yesterday at 84.

So now's as good a time as ever to revisit Airplane!

We're all counting on you.

The Wintour Season

If you have any desire to go behind the scenes of a fashion mag, or simply want to appreciate your own boss a little more, “The September Issue” hits newsstands theaters today.

The documentary follows feared and revered Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and her team through the scramble of making the magazine's September 2007 issue. Weighing in at close to five pounds (that's 840 pages), it is the largest single issue of a magazine ever published. And drastically larger than the mere 584 pages in the September 2009 issue.

A sort of Simon Cowell of the fashion world, Anna doesn’t mince words. The real-life devil clad in Prada, Anna was the inspiration for Meryl Streep’s character who tortured poor Anne Hathaway. She has become quite the personality whom everyone loves to hate.

Anna recently stepped outside the glossy walls of the magazine amongst poorly-dressed commoners to go on Letterman, where she even laughed at herself saying, "I read in The New York Times this week that I'm an ice queen, I'm the Sun King, I'm an alien fleeing from District 9 and I'm a dominatrix.”

No, she may not be nice. This is fashion. She’s the editor of VOGUE. She has stuff to do. Decisions to make. And her job is to have a critical eye and absolute certainty. No time for coddling. And, no, maybe you shouldn’t look her directly in the eyes, but that’s what the sunglasses are for.

But who can blame her for a little grumpiness. After all, her industry is in peril, and she along with many other magazine editors are concerned for their jobs. Things must be getting bad if she’s even been reduced to fetching her own coffee.

As Miranda Priestly would dismissively say, ”That’s all.”

Transformers movie review - leave kiddies at home

Not as disappointing as The Phantom Menace, but close. If you like metal and steel and high-maintenance females, and don't have anything to do for about two and a half hours, you'll love Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen, opening everywhere this weekend. Here's the film in a nutshell - Things blow up. People run. Things shoot. People scream. Things explode. People jump in the air. I have a limit on how much firepower should be in a movie. Michael Bay doesn't.

But it's the vulgarity, not the overindulgence of explosives, that hurts the film the most.

20 minutes into the film, it transforms into American Pie. Sam is just arriving on campus with his viagra-fueled parents to check out the crazy dorm life. His mom smokes grass and tells some students about her son's sex life. Dad tries to calm her down, but not before she says "$#!t!" a few times and storms out. It gets better. 20 minutes later the movie transforms into Species. This part, well, you'll just have to see it for yourself. And the randiness isn't just saved for humans. Both dogs and robots, by my estimation, reach second base. Sometimes with a leg. Sometimes with each other. This combined with the crude, unnecessary language made me uncomfortable throughout the movie. I don't recall hearing the F-bomb, but if that's the case, it would be the only bomb not used in the movie.

There are bright spots. For starters - Dwight Schrute. Also the CGI is what you'd expect - top notch and mind blowing. John Turturro is again interesting - minus a brutally disgusting de-trouser scene. Sam's mom steals a few scenes. The rest of the cast do their best given the amount of green screens. And it's a good thing too, because Megatron can't act. Neither can Optimus Prime. The robot personalites are never explored, in turn making us care very little for who wins or loses. Plus it's hard to make heads or tails of who's fighting who in the battle scenes. Instead of focusing on well known characters like Soundwave and the Constructicons, Bay gives too much love to unknown personalities like Megatron's boss and some old beardy robot that has changed alliances.

The plot? I'm not sure there is one. I think it transformed into Megan Fox's lipstick. I suppose it involves saving Optimus. Which is perplexing given that Optimus Prime doesn't seem like an answer to the problem. This is a hero that always seems on the 101 headed for the battle driving as fast as possible to help out. (Also, I can't help hearing Eeyore everytime he talks). The movie is based on a missing piece to a puzzle, or some pyramid access or something. I'm not even sure. But delivering an incapacitated Optimus halfway around the world was the biggest part of the movie. And just as the military helicopter is carefully approaching the landing carring the wounded robot, it unleashed the ropes holding him, dropping him 3 stories on the concrete. This pretty much sums up the film. Never wasting a chance to have something loud crash onto something big.

Like 'Jurrasic Park', 'Transformers' charm came and went in the first film. By the time the seqal arrives, the curiosity and uniqueness is gone. What's left is just scrap metal.

Where the Wild Things Will Be

Although not opening in theaters until October 16th, there is already much buzz about the trailer and images from the upcoming “Where the Wild Things Are” screen adaptation by Director Spike Jonze.

With so much adoration for the 1963 children’s book, written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, there’s a lot of pressure not to disappoint. But if responses to the trailer, beginning in theaters today, are any indication, people are already emotionally-attached to the movie.

Speculation abounds on how Jonze will stretch a full-length feature out of the mere ten-sentence long children’s classic. And some criticize that the visual style and poster may be “too dark” for a young audience.

But who is this movie really directed toward? With music in the trailer featuring Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” and soundtrack lead by the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s frontwoman Karen O, the audience will definitely skew decades older than the 3-8 recommended reading age of the book. After all, that’s who has the strongest memories of the book and who most longs to revisit their wild thing adventures. Nostalgia is a powerful force –- precisely why Jonze opted to lend his unique approach using mostly live action (think “The Neverending Story”) instead of amping it up on cgi.

Another draw is the sophisticated cast, including James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara, Forest Whitaker, Catherine Keener and Mark Ruffalo who offer appearances or voices.

As audiences grow wilder with anticipation, it will be interesting to see what products and companies align themselves with the movie on the marketing front. Here's a first peek. Already better than this. Stay tuned.

Rourke deserves Most Valuable, not necessarily Best Actor

The Oscars are coming. And, yes, The Wrestler is not your typical critically acclaimed movie of the year. I thought it was really good, extremely well done. It's not easy to pull off a movie like this and be taken seriously. You have to look no further than Over the Top to see that. And for taking it to the next level, Mickey Rourke certainly deserves all the praise in the world.

But as good as it was, I just don't see it as Best Actor material. They need to create a new category: Most Valuable Actor. Rourke is to The Wrestler as the T-Rex was to Jurassic Park. After seeing it, who else could fill the role and dominate the screen like that.

I think the movie's director, Darren Aronofsky, deserves a lot of the credit. The cinematographic themes and the simple, restrained character development are all beautifully orchestrated to take us to the brink of ridiculous and even cliche, while keeping the story real in the fakest of environments - strip clubs and pro wrestling rings (portrayed by Hollywood no less.)

All that being said, I will be happy if Rourke follows up his Golden Globe with an Oscar, just not leap-from-the-top-turnbuckle happy.