December 18, 2007

Woo Hoo!

After ten years of circulating rumors, Matt Groening's well loved and long running family have finally emerged in feature-film format in The Simpsons Movie. A wide variety of the supporting townsfolk come out for the feature length story, as Homer endangers the entire town and causes Springfield to to be quarantined by the EPA. As a movie, The Simpsons fend off criticisms leveled at the aging TV series by having the film be funnier and sharper than the show had been in years-- simply, a must-see for any lover of the show, and good enough to turn skeptics into new fans.

When a street guitarist (Glen Hansard: The Commitments) meets an appreciative piano player (Marketa Irglova), they form a spontaneous musical and romantic relationship in Once, which retools the musical format by having the characters write, perform, and record together.

Rob Zombie's (House of 1,000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects) newest picture is a remake of the John Carpenter (The Thing, Escape from New York) classic Halloween, often considered to be the first "slasher" movie. Hatchet is proud to be neither a remake, sequel, or based on a Japanese film: it's simply "old-school American horror," where a tour group is stalked in the Louisiana bayou by an axe-wielding maniac.

A Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere, Mirror Mask) authored fairytale, Stardust sends Charlie Cox (Dot the I, Casanova) into the magical realm of Stormhold to retrieve a fallen star for the girl of his dreams (Sienna Miller: Interview, Factory Girl), only to discover that the star is actually a young woman (Clare Danes: Igby Goes Down, Romeo + Juliet). As they travel across Stormhold, they are alternately pursued and befriended, chased through wildly fantastic situations, and encounter colorful characters, including an evil witch (Michelle Pfeiffer: Dangerous Minds, While Oleander) and an unconventional pirate (Robert DeNiro: Goodfellas, The Good Shepherd).

Jason Lee (Mallrats, My Name Is Earl) voices the modern update of the 1960's cartoon hero Underdog as a live-action beagle, as he woos Polly Purebred (Amy Adams: Junebug, Serving Sarah) and battles Simon Barsinister (Peter Dinklage: The Station Agent, 13 Moons). Dan Folger (School for Scoundrels) is recruited by the FBI to infiltrate a tournament, Enter the Dragon-like, held by evil ping-pong master Christopher Walken (The Dead Zone, Wedding Crashers) in Balls of Fury. Rival cheerleading teams are forced to band together in the fourth Bring It On movie, Bring It On: In It to Win It. The only new TV show this week is the 2nd season of HBO's Mormon/polygamy drama Big Love, with Bill Paxton (Aliens, Frailty), Jean Tripplehorn (Timecode, Sliding Doors), and Harry Dean Stanton (Repo Man, Alien).