Dodgeball was an enjoyable film. It was funny enough, and actually had a couple of really great jokes – I’m partial to ESPN 8 – The Ocho. But does it need a sequel?

Long story Short: We gushed about Dodgeball and he had some good news
for fellow fans – the film was a huge hit at cinemas, and the director
has been contacted by the studio about doing a sequel sometime this
year. Justin said he’s yet to be contacted about it, but he’s heard
third-hand that it’ll be ‘everyone’ back.

A sequel shouldn’t be a huge shock – the 20 million dollar film has made 114 million theatrically in the US. Whether there’s more territory to explore… well, I’ll leave that up to you to debate. As for the stars coming back: unless Old School 2 starts up soon, I think Vince Vaughn will be open.

Voice movies can be great for interviewing really interesting people about things other than the movie they’re promoting. There’s really only a few questions you can ask somebody about voice acting. How long did it take and how many sessions? Did you record alone or with the other actors? When did you see the character and did it look like you expected? If you can think of any more, please let me know for the next time I have to interview people from a cartoon.

Racing Stripes is not an animated movie, but it has an A list cast voicing the live-action talking animals achieved through CGI. Steve Harvey plays one of two characters that are completely CGI. The horseflies played by Harvey and David Spade were not the result of carefully trained insects.

Harvey did his duty to promote the film and talk about being a fly’s voice, but spent just as much time plugging his line of men’s suits, which was really just as interesting as the technicalities of voice acting. One journalist even left the interview with the promise of free suits from Harvey’s line. Next time you see a well dressed journalist, it’s probably that guy.

Q: Was a lot of this ad libbed?

Steve: Probably 90%. We didn’t do well with the script. The writer, he’s a nice guy. These are jokes. You got two guys that are stand ups standing right there. You want to stick to this piece of paper or do you want us to really do something with it? And they were really smart. They let us do it. The first time we did it though, they didn’t- – you know, me and Dave, because we were on this break and we were talking, Dave said, “How are you liking this?” I said, “This is corny to me. This is not funny.” He says, “Yeah, it sucks, man. Okay, on the break, let’s do this scene. What would you do?” I said, “You do this, I do this.” He said, “No, I want to do this, you do that.” I said, “Okay, cool.” So when we went back, we didn’t tell them anything. They said, “And action.” And we just ripped the scene off. The director was standing there going- – you know, flipping through the pages, but the people behind the sound wall in the glass, they were crying. And then the director went, “Cut, cut. Guys, that was really funny but that’s not- – “ and then the movie people came out and said, “Yeah, that was funny. And we’re going to keep that.” And then we had to go back and redo two days of taping because they wanted to know what we thought about the rest of it. So what started out as a four session deal for us turned out to be like 15.

Q: Did they have to animate new stuff to what you were doing?

Steve: Well, see, they kind of saved us for last because everybody else was a real animal that just had to move their mouth. Me and David were the only animated characters, so they kind of saved us for last, but they kept adding more to the movie for us to do because we weren’t that big in the movie in the beginning, I can tell you. We could have shot it in four days and that would’ve been it. They kept adding stuff. It works out because every time they bring you in, they pay you the exact same check so I was very comfortable with the 15 trips in.

Q: Had you ever worked with David before?

Steve: Just out on the road, we’d be in passing back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. We were both touring stand-ups, so he’d be leaving a city, I’d be coming in. We’d run up into each other at the condo. We stayed in condos back then. We weren’t in hotels. We weren’t that big. I’d go, “Hey, man, how’s the condo?” “Great. The crowd on Wednesday sucks. A cheap grocery store is right over there. Buy yourself some new linens. The guys who were here before you were pretty [dirty].” And you just do that. That was it. So I travel with linens in my car, all of that stuff. I have a set of bed linens and stuff.

Q: You’re dapper and your fly is the more dapper one.

Steve: Yeah, I’m trying to upgrade status of horseflies.

Q: And you have a clothing line?

Steve: Steve Harvey Collection. I design them, I pick the fabrics. We’re doing really well. This is only the second year and we’re already in the black. We just got into department stores four days ago. Rich’s department stores in the south which is a part of Macy’s, and they’re blowing out of there so the president of Macy’s, he just called me yesterday and now wants to put them in all the Macy’s so business is good.

Q: Are you wearing a sample?

Steve: I only wear my own clothes. This is a shirt that I made and a suit.

Q: What prompted you to get into fashion?

Steve: Well, all my shows I have a suit on. People always say, “Hey, that’s a nice suit, that’s a nice suit.” I’ve been dressing since I was a kid. My mother, she made us all go to church, so my mother used to always say if you don’t have a suit on and a tie, you’re not really dressed up. So it kind of stuck with me. I like dressing up though. I put a suit on every day. I don’t mind. People go, “Aren’t you uncomfortable?” No. I don’t have any j- – I got one pair of blue jeans. I put ‘em on, I couldn’t believe how I looked in them. I just took them off. It’s cool. I got a ranch and stuff. I ride horses. I got dirt bikes for my kids and all that. We go out and hang out.

Q: Do you wear a suit?

Steve: No. That was going to get printed, wasn’t it? Butt hole wears a suit on a horse. No, man.

Q: How hard is it to get a rhythm with a different comedian?

Steve: Well, see, when a guy’s a comedian though, if you get together with another comic, you have a problem. When you put two comedians in a room, you will find magic. See, comics are these guys that have these scripted shows and they do them just the same way. Every time you see their act, you know what joke is next, they’re closing. Comedians don’t work that way. Comedians walk out, get a feel for the crowd. If it’s not going good, we change directions. If we got to drag your momma into this thing, we will. Whatever we got to do. And David is a comedian. That means he can be funny about anything, and that’s what I am and so it’s easy when it’s another comedian. If you’re in a room with a comic, you got a problem because he’s very stoic and stiff and it’s his rhythm. And all I do is I wait on David to do it his way and I look, and I stare at it and when I see that beat, I know comedically what beats are. If you take too long of a breath, I know good and well you can’t possibly have a punch line following this, so he must be done. Then I jump right in and he follows my rhythm. And then sometimes we talked over top of each other because after a while, you know where a guy is going and you know what the characters are in the movie. I know he’s a disgusting horsefly. I’m trying to bring dignity to it. So once he’s done something that’s just really disgusting to me in real life, I know to shut David off because David’s crazy, man. We got some stuff that ain’t in the movie that’s the best stuff in the world. If they could do an HBO version of this movie, them two flies was crazy.

Q: Will that be on the DVD?

Steve: Well, we got a lot of stuff that they told me they got like an extra 30 minutes of us going really crazy. We did some vile stuff too. Yeah, crazy. We really didn’t expect them to use it, but the Christmas reel ought to be pretty good.

Q: When do you plan on seeing the film?

Steve: At the premiere. I’ve done six movies and I’ve never seen any of them until the premiere, and there was two premieres I didn’t even go to. But I’m not a movie star. It’s not my thing. I’ve never read for a part. If you want me to be in a movie, call me and I’ll come down there. God didn’t bring me out here to be a movie star. I didn’t ever plan on it, so just a little extra money is great gravy, but I’m a TV guy, a radio guy, a stand-up, I’m changing my life a little bit. Motivational speaking and stuff like that. I’m getting older, you know. I don’t want to be 60 years old standing on stage telling some jokes. I want my life to mean something. I’m starting to look at my kids and what they need in terms of me being their dad. I’ve got to be around, give them more direction. I didn’t even see my daughters grow up. They’re in college. They’re going to graduate college in May. I got twin daughters.

Q: What values will Racing Stripes teach kids?

Steve: What’s funny is when I took the movie and I was going to shoot it one day, my little boy said, “Dad, can I go with you?” I said, “No, you gotta go do your extra study day so you can catch up.” You know, he’s not good in math. So he says, “What’s the movie about?” And I say, “Well, it’s ridiculous, man. It’s really kind of stupid. It’s about this zebra who wants to be a thoroughbred racehorse. That’s it.” He said, “Wow, he’s going to do it.” I said, “I don’t know, I ain’t read it. It’d be kind of stupid though.” He said, “But dad, I thought you said that you could do anything, that you could be anything that you wanted to be.” And I went, “Well, okay. Well, you know, just because you want to be it, that doesn’t mean that he can do it. You can’t just be a zebra and just- -“ He said, “Dad, you told me I can’t use can’t.” Because you know I make my kids, they’re not allowed to say can’t and they can’t say quit. I raised my kids like that. And the number one thing that I teach them is I shall fear no man but God. You have to teach your kids to not fear people because other people hold you back with their insecurities, so I don’t let them be afraid of people because God gives us what we have, not people. So when he feeds back that type of philosophy to me, that’s what the movie is about. It’s about this dude that can be whatever he wants to be. And without caring what anybody else thinks and he beats against the odds. My son taught that to me about the movie. So that’s when I realized, okay, this movie might have some value to it by just explaining to him. I was just writing it off. I’m running out the door and I’m just blowing my little boy off. He’s pretty smart when I’m blowing him off. “No, no, no. I’m going to ask you a question.” I’m just getting dressed and leaving, so that’s the value of the movie and my son taught that to me, so that’s when I started thinking, “Okay, this movie might be…” because really, you go to the movie because of the money. All these people out here with these lies and stuff, “Yeah, it’s the redeeming value…” No, they gave you $10 million. That’s why you did the movie. You don’t do Shrek 2 because it’s the redeeming qualities, you do Shrek 2 because they give you $10 million. I’d do Planet of the Apes for $4 million and I would be offended if you said I look like a monkey. Crack on that monkey suit. And I’m the biggest monkey in the damn movie.

Q: Do you have anything coming up?

Steve: Nope, I’m trying to get, since Howard Stern has signed this deal with Sirius radio, I’m just going to meet with those people. And you don’t even have to give me $500 million. Trust me, you don’t. Just a little $15 million a year, I’m your man. I’ll sign three years for $45 million and I’ll just go to Texas and do my show from Texas. $15 million is good.

Q: Is satellite a good alternative to broadcast?

Steve: It has its pros and cons. Radio should be really local where people can learn about their community and what’s going on in their neighborhoods and where’s town hall meetings and stuff. That’s really what radio should be but it’ll never be that again because big business and mergers have killed that. So there ain’t no need to be sitting around, hanging around, trying to take it back to those days because big business ain’t gonna let that happen. So you get a big money deal, some of these people want you to just sit there and crank out jokes in the morning, they give you these lofty checks and then you take the money and you put it in your foundation with your wife and you buy over $2 million worth of schoolbooks for kids, you put air conditioners in the high schools out here like we do and you just keep making that money to give back to the unfortunate people. And the more money you make, the bigger the blessing you can become. And that’s really what God gives it to you for. God lets you be successful because he trusts you that you will do the right thing with it. Now, does he get disappointed often? All the time, because people get there and they forget how they got it. When you hear a guy on stage stand up at an awards show and say, “I want to thank my lucky stars,” you are listening to a fool talk because there is no such thing as a lucky star. But see, when he was praying for God for all these blessings, he wasn’t talking to the stars then. He was talking directly to God. Then when God gives him his stuff, they turn around and go, “I was just lucky,” and they pull this paper out and they’ve got their managers, their agency, their lawyers, without ever mentioning God, and that right there, when you hear that, you are listening to a fool who is convinced that he is the reason he’s standing up there and not because he is blessed and not because he owes God for that now because God gave it to him thinking that he might get up there and do the right thing and he’s not. So I just try not to be that person.

Q: Where can we buy the suits?

Steve: Rich’s. They’re in stores now, they’re in men’s boutiques out west. They haven’t entered department stores out here, because they roll them out slow. You know, Macy’s owns the federated chain. They’ll put them in Rich’s and Lazarus in the south and middle America first before they put them in Macy’s East and Macy’s West. Because middle America wears suits more than they do on the west coast. Oh, definitely. More people go to church dressed up in a suit. That’s a true statement. So after they see it sell big, they’ll put them out here.

I’m all for Elektra. Isn’t that just wrong? A movie webmaster giving it up in public that he is excited about a spin-off from a film that a lot of us felt disappointed by. It’s weird, I know… but I just have to come clean.

Discuss this here on our message boards.

Nick’s List.
Devin’s List.

15. The Machinist (CHUD review)

A juicy role might be enough to convince some high-paid actors to learn dance steps or gain a couple dozen pounds for their craft, but few have ever undergone a transformation as absolute as Christian Bale, who despite his negligible density manages to anchor this murky thriller about an insomniac shop worker who thinks he’s being stalked by a stranger.  I wasn’t blown away by director Brad Anderson’s cheapie Session 9, but with The Machinist he takes a basic premise and gives it a distinctive (if erratic) presentation, blending broody visuals and bizarre elements of Lynch and Hitchcock with a vibe somewhere between Memento and Fight Club.  The script is a little loose, but the movie slowly ratchets up the tension and remains unpredictable, avoiding the clunker climax that’s increasingly common in the spooker genre.  And you don’t see enough movies these days (outside of Cinemax) that feature Michael Ironside, dammit.

Current Rating: 7.6 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  Consistently chilling.  A unique look at extreme effects of paranoia and altered perception.

Performance to Savor: Though he resembles the mobile deceased, the nearly unrecognizable Christian Bale makes you believe he could sell the character even without shedding the approximate weight of co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “The Machinist delivers the year’s best heebies!”

14. Stander (Buy the DVD) 

This is the Thomas Jane antihero movie people should’ve seen instead of The Punisher (not like audiences exactly flocked to see that Marvel mess).  TJ portrays the real-life Andre Stander, a cop in early 80s Johannesburg, South Africa who, frustrated with the state of police politics, decides to rob banks instead.  Seems perfectly reasonable.  After getting caught and tossed in the clink, he breaks out with the crazy Irish guy from Braveheart and Soap from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and the three embark on a spree of audacious robberies that baffle Stander’s former co-workers.  It’s certainly not what you’d expect from Bronwen Hughes, who had previously only directed disposable drivel like Forces of Nature, but she graduates with an embracing pseudo-documentary style (the story is based on actual events) that makes the film’s somewhat superficial motives and unlikely successes believable.

Current Rating: 7.8 out of 10

Contributing Factors: More fun and far less smarmy than another heist movie featuring a ridiculously high-profile cast.

Performance to Savor: Surrounded by a capable cast, Thomas Jane stands out (pun questionable) in the title role, giving his thief a casual likeability and lending credence to somewhat irrational behavior.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “Stander will have you standing, or at least leaning forward, with excitement!”

13. End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones

I’m a fan of the Ramones and punk rock in general (which for some reason surprises people, who are apparently deceived by my vast collection of snappy shirts), and with three of the four original members of one of rock’s greatest bands now collecting posthumous accolades, it’s great to see a thorough and endearing documentary that captures exactly what was behind those three chords they played over and over.  Despite their seemingly simple music and goofball façade, End of the Century’s archival clips, live footage, interviews and various looks behind the scenes reveal a quartet (plus proxy Ramones) of complex, intelligent, charming and very different individuals. Like the Marx Brothers ripping through two-minute anthems.

Current Rating: 8.0 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  As raw as the band, the film documents an enduring chapter in pop culture.

Performance to Savor: Johnny Ramone.  He’s a complete dick and I disagree with his stance on… just about everything, but in this light he seems like the most vibrant member of the band.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “There’s no stoppin’ the cretins from hoppin’!”

12. Infernal Affairs (CHUD Review) (Buy the DVD)

Though I first saw it ages ago, Infernal Affairs finally got released in the States in 2004 so I guess it qualifies.  A curveball from director and co-writer Andrew Lau, previously responsible for action extravaganzas as A Man Called Hero and The Avenging Fist, Infernal Affairs extracts some of the most potent career performances from an all-star cast and confidently navigates through a tense labyrinth of risky circumstances.  As it switches parallel perspective from an undercover detective long entrenched deep in the Hong Kong triad and a spy in the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau, the movie turns the dial on the pressure gauge to excruciating degrees.  And with nary a two-pistol slo-mo slide or flapping dove to be found. I don’t know if it required both a prequel and sequel, but it’s definitely worth seeing before Martin Scorsese’s Americanized version.

Current Rating: 8.0 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  Nail-nibbling situations, complex character motivations, striking visuals and praise-worthy acting turn a familiar premise into a particularly palatable concoction.

Performance to Savor: Andy Lau as the gangster who, after infiltrating Hong Kong’s finest, begins to question his loyalties.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “Star-studded cop swap exceeds the sum of its parts!”

11. Ong-Bak

This one’s sort of another cheat, since it hasn’t yet been officially released in the US… but hey, it’s my list.  Anyone who regularly reads the site knows I’m loopy for Asian films and martial arts flicks, but there hasn’t been anything this pure since Jackie Chan ran out of Project As and God armour.  At first I was distracted by the undercranked fight footage and (admittedly insane) stunts repeated from multiple angles, but on further viewings have come to accept these shortcomings as eager charms from a neophyte director.  No wires, no CGI, just the uncanny physical abilities of lanky star Tony Jaa and the unfortunate stuntmen who get brutalized along the way. 

Current Rating: 8.1 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  The craziest gravity-defying martial arts and punishing stunts of the new century.

Performance to Savor: Tony Jaa.  I have little doubt that with some language lessons and a personality injection, the world’s wide open for this wiry skull-crusher.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “Ong-Bak will hit you in the neck and groin, and you’ll beg for more!”

10. Kill Bill vol. 2 (CHUD review) (Buy the DVD)

Though I dug everything about Kill Bill vol. 1 more – the soundtrack, the death list victims, Go-Go Yubari, the convalesced Bride’s transformation to sword-swinging whirligig – vol. 2’s swerve into spaghetti western territory (with a detour into Shaw Brothers chopsockey) is also a welcome homage compilation in the hands of Tarantino, and wisely given room to breathe in its own film.  People can argue Tarantino’s creativity all they want, but he’s certainly poaching from the right sources as far as I’m concerned.  And in addition to continuing his penchant for drudging up fading actors (Carradine, Hannah, Svenson) and giving them fresh meat to chew, Tarantino also found perhaps the most wonderfully precocious young child actress in recent screen history.   And that’s not (just) the pedophile in me talking.

Current Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  Grindhouse, kung fu, westerns and samurai elements collide (again) in an epic exploitation experiment.

Performance to Savor: He only gets a few moments on screen and he’s camouflaged with makeup, but Michael Parks’ oily whoremaster makes an otherwise superfluous scene one of the film’s best.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “Twice the Bill-killing of vol. 1!”

9. House of Flying Daggers (CHUD review)

What a surprise – another martial arts film on my list.  Though I still prefer the palette and cast of Zhang Yimou’s Hero, his striking wuxia romance House of Flying Daggers is a worthy successor to his high-flying swordplay melodrama.  Crouching Tiger, Stunning Hotness Ziyi Zhang continues to be impossibly gorgeous and more accomplished as both an actress and a “movie martial artist”, and while Yimou seems increasingly reliant on digital trickery, the gracefully furious fights of Daggers are nonetheless exhilarating to the point of near-exhaustion.

I’m really glad that Sony got their hands on the film instead of another distributor that starts with M and ends with iramax, since it means we didn’t have to wait two years to see it (and it didn’t have an English dub, scenes eradicated and a hip-hop version of "Kung Fu Fighting").

Current Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  Pretty faces, a love triangle, duplicity and arterial spray.

Performance to Savor: Ziyi Zhang.  See above.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “The best bamboo battle of the century!”

8. Spartan  (CHUD Review) (Buy the DVD)

David Mamet grabs exposition and traditional narrative by the scruff and hurls them from a speeding vehicle, shouting “I don’t need this shit!”  And he really doesn’t.  Spartan immediately drops viewers into the story and lets them play catch-up as Val Kilmer’s ronin-esque military consultant searches for a politician’s kidnapped daughter, except… someone doesn’t want her found. 

It gets a bit Hollywood-lazy in the third act (the same reason Collateral didn’t make the cut – Terminator Tom??), and there isn’t a single relative of Stallone’s Demolition Man character anywhere, but it’s easily Mamet’s best work since Glengarry Glen Ross.

Current Rating: 8.4 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  Lean, mean, surprising, and loaded with Mamet quips.

Performance to Savor: Val Kilmer, who reminds us that suffering stuff like Red Planet and Hard Cash and At First Sight can eventually lead to something like this.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “Val Kilmer isn’t dead after all!”

7. Spider-Man 2 (CHUD review) (Buy the DVD)

Like the first adventure of the webbed wonder, Spider-Man 2 loses some luster upon repeat viewings, but there’s no denying Sam Raimi has a superhuman grasp on transferring comic book aesthetics to the live-action format.  With the origin of our hero out of the way, Raimi can focus on the burden of such a responsibility, which gives Maguire that much more room to play.  It’s occasionally awkward and a little heavy on angst (it’s the Empire Strikes Back of comic flicks), and Dunst looks like she’d rather scarf down another handful of Xanax than deal with mechanical tentacles and guys in pajamas, but the sequel has more near-perfect comic book moments than the wallcrawler has creature-named villains (although I’d still argue that Raimi’s Darkman is the greatest comic book movie ever, despite it not being based on an actual comic book). 

Current Rating: 8.4 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  A marvelous (ahem) bridge between the introduction of our swinger and his inevitable showdown with… whoever the villain in part 3 is.

Performance to Savor: Alfred Molina.  The guy’s come a long way from whip trading.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “Your heart will be ensnared by the wrist-jizz of Spider-Man 2!”

6. Primer (CHUD review)

While Will Smith blasted holes through iMac mandroids and cranked the casket rotation of Isaac Asimov, a bunch of smaller, more cerebral and much more interesting sci-fi films were released… and seen by a few dozen people.  The Final Cut couldn’t focus and Code 46 was a little too insular, but the no-budget Primer found the sweet spot… assuming one was willing to fire the synapses.

Confession time: Shane Carruth, writer/director/star of Primer, sent me a copy of the film about a year and a half ago, perhaps hoping I might be able to give some small amount of guidance.  Unfortunately, beyond suggesting Sundance and film festivals I was at a loss for advice, as I found the film maddeningly cryptic and entirely stupefying.  Subsequent viewings, however, have revealed a compelling, brilliant and utterly unsolvable Mobius strip about “found science” and its effects.  And considering it was shot for the cost of a used motorcycle, it looks pretty great, too.  Glad to see someone sharper than me recognized Carruth’s gem and gave it some attention.

Current Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  Natural characters and dialogue, and more techno-jargon than you can shake a theoretical physicist at.

Performance to Savor: Shane Carruth, who pulls the whole thing together. Then travels back and does it again.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “Primer is smarter than you!”

5. Taegukgi (Brotherhood of War) (Buy the DVD)

Taegukgi is obviously inspired by Saving Private Ryan, but doesn’t get quite as strained by the mawkish anti-war sentimentality of Spielberg’s opus.  Told through remarkable use of flashbacks, the movie follows two happy brothers suddenly thrust into the vicious frontlines of the Korean War (depicted in some wickedly harrowing battle scenes).  The older brother volunteers for increasingly suicidal missions in an attempt to earn enough commendations to request his kid brother be discharged, but it’s misinterpreted by the younger sibling as a reckless quest for glory.

After the glossy Die Hard-styled Shiri, director Kang Jae-Gyu gets his hands (and cast) muddy in the madness-inducing trenches of warfare.  The huge scope results in slightly sketchy characters and the script falls victim to a few clichés (it’s no shock when that guy who proudly displays family photos gets smithereened), but I think the film benefits from the backdrop of a war whose politics I know little about — the astonishing battles and their devastating impact are where the film triumphs.

Current Rating: 8.7 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  Technically proficient, relentless… South Korean films continue to impress the hell out of me.

Performance to Savor: Jang Dong-gun, who resembles a Korean version of Chow Yun-Fat.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “War… it’s fantastic!”

4. Baadasssss! (CHUD DVD review) (Buy the DVD)

I already sufficiently praised the film in my DVD review, but I’ll paraphrase:  Mario Van Peebles virtually erases his less-than-superb filmography from memory with Baadasssss! (aka How to Get the Man’s Foot Outta Your Ass), a pseudo-documentary chronicling his father Melvin’s arduous task of making the blaxploitation flick Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.  It doesn’t succeed 100% of the time, but it still delivers an extraordinary personal story of perseverance that’s far better than the film it’s about (Sweetback may be a seminal work, but it’s pretty terrible).  Honest, frightening, depressing and uplifting, it’s a captivating Hollywood saga.

Current Rating: 9.0 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  A stylish and confidently crafted tribute to the elder Van Peebles’ work that isn’t afraid to show the misery of filmmaking.

Performance to Savor: Former NFL linebacker Terry Crews.  Forget other big names and recognizable faces — if/when they make the A-Team feature film, this guy’s your B.A. Baracus.  Hell, give him Luke Cage while we’re at it.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “Don’t be no fool… Baadasssss! is what it is!”

3. Oldboy

I was surprised and pleased to find this on the lists of both Nick and Devin, who have been introduced to the greatness of Korean director Chan-wook Park.  The guy is making some of the most affecting, accomplished and uncompromising films today, in any language (except maybe Zeta Reticulan). Even his hypnotically bleak kidnapping thriller Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance wasn’t enough to prepare me for this brutal tale.  Tarantino may have paid ample tribute to the revenge genre(twice!), but Chan-wook almost reinvented it.

Some masochistic part of me anticipates the American remake, just to see how much they fuck it up.

Current Rating: 9.2 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  Grim and ghastly, mesmerizing and staggering.

Performance to Savor: Min-sik Choi, in the role of a lifetime.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “You’ll be thankful you aren’t the guy in Oldboy!”

2. The Incredibles  (CHUD review)

If you like animated movies and superhero stories and you weren’t excited by The Incredibles, there’s probably a shortage of oxygen in the peculiar dimension where you dwell.  Comic book parodies have been pummeled more than Baron Strucker and Batroc the Leaper combined, but The Incredibles transcends satire and commands a place alongside other supreme efforts.  At first I found the setup of an amazing family acclimating to suburban life to be a bit of a drag, but then the villain’s island fortress and the massive climax put everything into perspective.

Thematically it may be the nebulous Pixar film to date – there’s some curious statements on being “special’ – but it’s also the greatest realization of super powers ever to hit movie screens (excluding Nuclear Man, naturally).  I’m sure anyone with a comic flick currently in any stage of production is shitting in their unstable molecules at the prospect of defeating this new comic book masterwork.

Current Rating: 9.2 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  From the nearly infallible Pixar studios and the brainpan of Iron Giant writer-director Brad Bird.

Performance to Savor: Hero dad Craig T. Nelson, delivering his finest line readings since Action Jackson.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “A delicious hero sandwich.  It’s like the title without the S!”

1. Shaun of the Dead  (CHUD review) (Buy the DVD)

I debated with myself over making another Brit zombie flick my number one selection (28 Days Later held the slot last year), but it turns out I’m a bit of a pussy so that was an easy win.  We’ve probably showered this film with more gooey love than anything previous here on CHUD, but it’s the rare film that actually deserves every bit of moist affection. With the equally ingenious UK television series Spaced as a training ground, the filmmakers turned their love of reanimated corpses into a sardonic and surprisingly heartwarming tale of love, friendship, responsibility and undead infestation. I’ve seen the movie at least a half-dozen times, and it’s already cemented a spot on my list of all-time favorites.

Current Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Contributing Factors:  Ingenious and polished, dappled with gore and bulging with respectful nods to the genre.

Performance to Savor: Simon Pegg, supplanting Ken Foree as the king of the zombie smashers.

P.R. CHUD.com Pull-Quote: “Shaun of the Dead is a gift from beyond the grave!”

I have to admit, outside of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (and the Deathstalker movies, naturally), I’m not really much of a swords-and-sorcery guy. Which means that not only do the endless invitations to join the local NERO chapter fall on deaf ears, but the numerous fantasy films rushing into production seeking to capitalize in the wake of Peter Jackson’s little-person epic don’t exactly frost my lembas bread.

Although now that I’ve seen a bit more on the live-action Chronicles of Narnia flick, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, my interest has certainly been piqued (or “peaked”, as is popular internet mangling). But then, seeing a WETA-designed minotaur become howling horned flesh can do that. I’ve never read the book and can’t recall seeing its animated or made-for-TV incarnations, but this could be really nifty (even though the movie will be competing for attention with WETA’s simian creation King Kong, which opens around the same time next year). Bringing fantasy beasts to life may be an esoteric craft, but these guys sure as Sif know it well.

CHECK OUT THE CLIP HERE!

I know a lot of movie and comic fans aren’t particularly sold on the live-action adaptation of Frank Miller’s Sin City from filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. Whether they’re just not moist about the notion of a panel-by-panel reconstruction of Miller’s graphic novels using humans (and Devon Aoki), or if they were personally soured by the experience of Spy Kids 3-D, I have no idea.

The trailer has finally come online (and as an aside, will studios please just universally accept Quicktime as the only feasible format for trailers? And none of that streaming bullshit, either), and for the doubters, it’s either gonna glaze their donuts or officially repulse them permanently. Me, I kinda like the visual approach Rodriguez has taken, although I would still argue that the finished product could stand to have a little more grime. The movie was shot entirely against green-screens, with backgrounds added in post-production in the style of Attack of the Clones (*shudder*) and Sky Captain.

The crime noir flick, which stars almost everyone, condenses several of Miller’s Sin City tales (“That Yellow Bastard”, “The Big Fat Kill” and “The Hard Goodbye”, the name assigned to the initial Marv and Goldie story), meshing them together in three distinct arcs whose characters cross paths throughout the film. I expect it will be the only major 2005 release to feature a rollerblading ninja prostitute, but I’ve been wrong before.

CHECK OUT THE TRAILER HERE!

While you conduct your search for the lost city of Tanis, may I suggest a diversion in the soon to be released found DVD of tennis? Paul Bettany is a minor deity and Kirsten Dunst… was in Spider-Man, so Wimbledon ought to be a film you’re aware of.

1. Best sports film of all time?

2. Sport most in need of a good film?

3. Best film of 2004?

CONTEST OVER.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is the first Wes Anderson movie that Owen Wilson didn’t cowrite. This time, Noah Baumbach helped Anderson with the script but Anderson still called his buddy for a major role. As Ned Plimpton, Wilson plays the long lost son of the title character. At least, he may be the long lost son. It’s left ambiguous.

While Ned and Steve hunt a shark at sea, they bond and deal with their own personal demons. Wilson is in mellow mode, not making any wisecracks and actually seeking affection.

In person, Wilson seems more like his shy dramatic characters than his fast talking buddy comedy ones. For one thing, he doesn’t talk fast. He’s very ambling. And he doesn’t go into much detail. The answers are still there, but it’s simple. Here’s what Owen Wilson had to say about The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Q: How difficult was it to play a pretty straight dramatic character?

Owen: When I got the script, I was kind of like, “Ah, I don’t really see myself as this character” because he seemed sort of like a straight man and very sort of sincere and kind of innocent. Then, when I went to meet with Wes in Rome and kind of started working on it, we came up with making him more of a southern gentleman. Then he became more fun for me to play.

Q: How does the tone compare to the films you wrote?

Owen: To me, it’s hard for me to see a huge difference, maybe because I’m too close to it. So I read the script and I didn’t miss my voice in it and I thought that he and Noah [Baumbach] did a good job.

Q: How hard was it to let go?

Owen: It wasn’t that big a deal because even on the first movie that we worked on, Bottle Rocket, was always Wes as the director. And when you show up on set, you’re the actor, so it was never like I was hanging around looking over his shoulder. If I wasn’t in the scene, I wasn’t on set. So on a movie like Rushmore, I wasn’t there at all. I was filming Armageddon at the time. And then on Royal Tenenbaums, it was just kind of when I was in a scene. So I leave it up to Wes’s judgment because I trust him to do stuff.

Q: Why didn’t you collaborate on this one, just scheduling conflict?

Owen: Yeah, and I think him living in New York now and I’m in Los Angeles, even when I have lots of time it was never something that I really look forward to going and sitting in a room. It always felt a little bit like having a term paper due so it’s nice when you get on a roll when you’re writing and stuff and having Wes as a writing partner all these years, it was fun to work with him because we make each other laugh. We like the same sorts of stuff. It seemed like he didn’t miss a beat with Noah. He did a good job.

Q: Do you ever get seasick?

Owen: No, but Bill and Jeff and Willem did. They had very delicate constitutions.

Q: They said no.

Owen: Really? Oh, they were sick as dogs most of the time. Yeah, I don’t know what it was, but they’re not exactly old salts.

Q: Why do you like working with the same people a lot, like these guys and also Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn?

Owen: I think it’s probably when you go into a movie, you want to surround yourself with people you believe in. and the people that you know as known entities. So someone like Vince, I wasn’t in Old School but I loved him in Old School and I was around him a little bit in Starsky and Hutch but I just think he’s one of the funniest guys and has that sort of great persona. So I can’t imagine having done that movie with somebody different because we work so well together. 

Q: Is Wedding Crashers an anti-Wedding Singer/Planner movie?

Owen: Yes. I don’t know The Wedding Singer, what the tone of that [was], but we crash weddings to meet girls and then I end up falling for this girl and Vince kind of has his romance but it’s not exactly a romantic movie, although maybe a little. That girl from The Notebook is in it, Rachel McAdams. She’s good. She’s a good actress.

Q: What makes you happy?

Owen: I like going to the ocean. I live in Santa Monica, so going down to Venice pier and messing around down there. It begins to sound kind of like a playmate turn-ons when you say what makes you happy. I like the ocean, sunsets, positive people.

Q: Have you done more work on Cars since the delay?

Owen: No, and I just heard that today so what did they say the reason for the delay is?

Q: Because Steve Jobs prefers to release his movies in the summer.

Owen: So the movie I thought was supposed to come out a year from now and now it’s going to come out two years from now? It’s going to come out not this coming summer, but next summer? June ’06, okay.

Q: Does that bother you?

Owen: That seems good. It doesn’t seem like that big a deal. A couple months go by pretty fast.

Q: How often do you get back to Austin?

Owen: I love Austin. I went to school there but I actually prefer Dallas to be honest. But I do like going to Austin and Luke was down there working on this Mike Judge movie, my older brother Andrew was in it and I have fun going down there. I’ll be back in Texas next week and I was there for Thanksgiving.

Q: What do you do when you go back?

Owen: I just usually hang around with Luke and Andrew and they’re usually working. Stay over at the Four Seasons where I was a valet parker in college. I go mess around. There’s a big music scene there and Harry Dean Stanton was down there with us when we were working on this movie and he’d get up and play at the Continental Club and Billy Joe Schaefer, a great country and western singer, he’s written a lot of great songs, great performer.

Q: Will you doing any more movies with Ben Stiller?

Owen: I had fun working on Starsky and Hutch, but I don’t know. The other day I was looking at a script and I was like, “God, it would be great if Ben could play this other part” but it seems like we’ve been in a lot of movies together, seven or eight. So maybe we have to take a rest for a little bit, or give people a rest as the case may be. But yeah, I do do a small appearance in Meet the Fockers.

Q: Will there be a Starsky and Hutch 2?

Owen: I think maybe there’s someone writing the script maybe.

Q: What about Shanghai Dawn?

Owen: I’d love to do something with Jackie. I have a great time working with him.

Q: But is it happening?

Owen: No.

Q: How did you develop a relationship with Bill Murray?

Owen: I think it was just going along with what the script called for. It wasn’t that we did so much bonding outside of work. In fact, we never really hung out that much. He really had to work a lot because he was in almost every single scene, so there was probably a little resentment that I was left. It was never towards me that I was kind of a free agent, so I saw him not too long ago, I was saying, “God, don’t you miss Rome? I loved it.” He was like, “No, I don’t.” He had work his ass off there and I had more time to enjoy it.

Q: Do you want to do more dramatic roles?

Owen: I don’t think about it maybe in a real “this is what I need to do. I just worked on this comedy, so now I’ll try to do this.” It’s really more just what comes up and seeing if it seems like something I could do a good job on, or would have fun doing.

Q: Do you have ideas for more scripts?

Owen: Yeah, I have ideas for stories and things and it’d be hard to find somebody to write as well as Wes to help me on this, so I don’t know if I would write it by myself or try to get Wes to help me. Certainly I would use him as an editor even if he didn’t have time to write it with me, because he’s good at figuring out stuff that I write or should say.

Q: What fascinates you?

Owen: Well, I know movies that I loved. I love that movie Sideways. I love both those characters but it’s not like I see that and go, “Gosh, I should’ve been one of those guys because I loved what they did in it.” But a movie like that would be great to work on. I remember loving The Insider with Russell Crowe, one of my favorite movies. So it’s more just movies that I see that I like. There’s a Richard Ford book, The Sportswriter and Independence Day, I always loved those books. But again, there’s not a character that I’m [dying to play].

Q: How have you and Wes changed over the years?

Owen: I don’t see a big change, at least in the way Wes directs. I think maybe he gets more confidence and a bigger budget and more time to shoot, so he has more time to get things exactly right the way he wants it. But certainly not in his manner, the way he directed me in Bottle Rocket. It’s not that different from the way he did it in Life Aquatic. It’s always been pretty consistent and it’s hard to get the distance or the objectivity to look at myself and see how I’ve changed, but I’m sure I have. I hope I have a little bit.

Q: Will you do another Oscar skit with Ben?

Owen: No, there’s no plans for that. They haven’t started with the Oscar stuff.

Q: What was your favorite moment from the film?

Owen: My favorite thing that I read in the script was the scene underwater where I have an idea maybe that I’ll call Bill dad in the scene that we’re filming. And he doesn’t really want to be called dad. I really loved that when I read it. Now, when we filmed it, we’re underwater and I’m like how is this going to work? You can’t really see people’s expressions, but that was my favorite scene. I felt you didn’t necessarily have to see the people’s face totally, just the dialogue ended up working for me. So it still is very funny and then kind of had a sad quality to it and I would say that’s the stuff Wes and I have always found interesting, stuff that’s funny and a little bit sad also. And I guess he and Noah find that funny also.