225BatonRouge.com - Blogs

We’ll start with the now-obligatory Borat update. With my barometer for the loveable Kazakhstani reporter on Amber Alert status I finally found the second trailer for the film here …just click on trailers to find it. Quite frankly, this is- or-isn’t staged comedy is looking better and better all the time. One thing I neglected to mention a while back when I first blogged about Borat is that it is directed by Larry Charles, a dude who looks like Rick Rubin’s cad of a brother, but is in fact a brilliant comedy writer who, for my money, is the number three guy responsible for the success of Seinfeld, right behind Larry David and Jerry himself.

This weekend is a big one at the movieplex. The Illusionist, Snakes On A Plane, Accepted, and Material Girls all open. The Illusionist has the distinction of earning rare praise from renowned film-shredding critic and LSU alum, Rex Reed. Read his shockingly positive review here.

Everyone should go see a movie this weekend at Baton Rouge’s new theater, the pristine Rave 15 behind the Mall of Louisiana. And with this new theater, we all should have one thing on our minds: 3-D movies. Monster House is playing right now in brilliant digital 3-D. If that doesn’t get you excited, you just wait. Rave will be bringing 3-D features to Baton Rouge on a regular basis. It’s a trend that has caught on nationally as more 3-D movies are in production, and filmmakers like James Cameron and George Lucas are embracing the technology wholesale.

While I was on vacation, it seems Chris Nolan picked a title for his sequel to Batman Begins. It’s going to be called The Dark Knight and will feature Heath Ledger as The Joker. I love the title, but I’m still not convinced Ledger can pull it off. Really I was rooting for either Paul Bettany or Johnny Depp to land the part. So what do you think of the title and the choice of Heath Ledger? Leave some feedback below with your opinion.

In my brief Fall Movie Preview (August issue of 225), I mentioned that The Departed looks like the best Scorcese movie since Goodfellas. Here’s the trailer for the movie out October 6. You decide, but personally I love it. The music--Gimme Shelter and that rocking Italian vignette in particular--the mood, the treachery. It’s all there. Nicholson is back to form, and the teaser poster reminds me of the poster for Mean Streets. So there you go.

Ah, Mel Gibson. Have his 15 minutes of infamy come and gone? After it looked like Disney would drop Gibson’s upcoming Apocalypto from its release schedule in the wake of his drunken anti-Semitic tirade, cooler, more money-minded heads have prevailed at the Mouse House which will, in fact, distribute the film regardless of the controversy. I think Disney really learned its lesson after it decided not to release The Passion of the Christ which then went on to gross a bajillion dollars. Because a bajillion is a lot of dollars, and Disney didn’t get any.