Apatow knocks on the door

In theaters Friday: Knocked Up, Mr. Brooks
New on DVD: Hannibal Rising
Celebrity birthday: Fightin’ Irishman Colm Meaney turns 54 today. Happy birthday, man. Can I call you Colm Over? You’re truly an underrated character actor…I mean, Layer Cake, Mystery Alaska and 12 years of Star Trek? Why aren’t you more famous? Here’s a tip, grab a revolver and break into Quentin Tarantino’s West Hollywood office demanding to be in his next picture. QT just loves surprises like that, and you’ll be starring in his movies for years.

I rented two would-be epics last weekend: The Fountain and Apocalypto. The first is a mindbender. The second rests comfortably in its simplicity. Both use foreign cultures to evoke feelings of unease and awe. The Fountain takes us to 16th Century Spain and a 2001-esque future, and Apocalypto sets its story in 16th Century Mexico via the ancient Mayan empire. From the trailer I was expecting Apocalypto to be a much more cryptic, engrossing, and mysterious film along the lines of The New World or Apocalypse Now. But the movie as it is—a glorified, big budget action/chase film—is no less entertaining, just less intriguing on a second viewing.

Ultimately, I liked Apocalypto more, because it was more relatable than eschatological, and I was surprised how much I admired its focus when set in a world that could easily distract the narrative on any number of tangents. A young husband must escape his captors and make it back in time to save his wife and children. A simple idea, but the suspense was tight and well played.

The Fountain may be one of those movies that if you love it, you’re probably reading too much into it. Me, I thought it was okay. I’m glad I saw it for the visual effects. And Hugh Jackman’s performance was good too. The themes of life, death and resurrection were interesting, but how those elements were executed was a little on the boring side, and nothing is boring like boring stuff you don’t understand. I almost wish director Darren Aronofsky had gone completely Kubrick on it and edited each segment in sequence, rather than jumping back and forth between time periods whenever the chance for a clever segue appeared. Someone ought to do a fan edit like this and post it online…

Writer/director Judd Apatow’s follow up to breakthrough hit The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up opens on Friday, but here is the trailer for the other new Apatow film—he produced this one—called Superbad. It stars Arrested Development’s Michael Cera, and was co-written by Virgin and Knocked Up star Seth Rogen. If you’re new to the work of Judd Apatow, start with Freaks and Geeks, one of the greatest cancelled TV series of all-time.

So are Alpha Males out and Beta Males in? Newsweek of all pubs contemplates the phenomenon of the loveable loser. Pointing at Knocked Up’s Seth Rogen, and of course, NBC’s The Office (Michael, Jim and Dwight are all card-carrying betas) as prime examples. With Arnold, Sly and Bruce ruling the box office, I’d say the 1980s were the peak of the Alpha Male reign. And judging by my adverse reaction to this John Rambo trailer, I say I grew bored with the Alpa Male about the same time I got interested in girls. Of course you’d have to go further back than The Office to spot the start of this trend…all the way back to Rushmore’s Max Fischer played by Jason Schwartzman, a character who was in essence a live action version of the original Beta Male hero, Charlie Brown.