Quick Cuts

Cut to the Quickies …
Quite a few topics I can’t resist as summer’s dog days get kinda loony (L.A.’s police chief outs Lindsay Lohan!), so here goes another batch of items of the short-attention-span variety …

Anyone surprised that the International Olympic Committee would knuckle under to Beijing and allow them to censor Internet access for the thousands of journalists covering the Olympics in China simply hasn’t paid much attention to the IOC over the years. Despite IOC chief Jacques Rogge’s claims that China would provide free and “uncensored” Web access for the foreign news media during the Games, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages, including those that discuss Tibet, Taiwan, China’s suppression of dissidents and sites for Amnesty International, the BBC and even several Hong Kong newspapers. If the IOC really cared about freedom of thought and expression, or freedom of any kind, it never would have awarded China the Games. But as we learned in Atlanta, the folks who run the Olympics may preach the purity of amateur athletics and world peace and cooperation, but the only thing that matters to IOC officials is how much swag they can pocket from the next sucker wanting to play host to the Games. …

Thanks to the Internet, the unsourced, speculative (and mostly fictional) show biz scoops that are a specialty of the British press now circulate quickly around the world and are reported as if they are legitimate news. A couple of recent examples concern The Beatles and Batman. Britain’s Daily Express ran a story quoting unnamed sources as saying that a DVD release of The Beatles’ film “Let It Be” has been blocked by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr because it shows the group in an unflattering light. No quotes from them or even comment from their reps, of course. Just anonymous “insiders.” While the late Neil Aspinall had indicated in the past that some of the outtake footage being considered for DVD release still stirred up sensitive feelings within the Beatles camp, there’s never been any indication it won’t be released again. And I’m inclined not to believe the Express just because I’ve seen how unreliable these anonymously sourced reports have been over the years. Plus the Abbeyrd news site was told last week by Apple: “We do have plans to release it sometime in the future.” Then there are the frequent speculative U.K. movie casting reports, most of which have absolutely no more substance than a bunch of fans playing “what if.” The latest has Johnny Depp being in line to play the Riddler in the next Batman film after “The Dark Knight.” It may sound reasonable, but after “Batman Begins” came out in 2005, similar reports were saying the next film would feature Robin Williams as the Joker. Or Steve Buscemi. Or Mark Hamill. Or Paul Bettany. Or Sean Penn. Of course, when the announcement finally came in July 2006, it ended up being Heath Ledger, whom no one had predicted. The recent reports also have Philip Seymour Hoffman being considered as the Penguin. The same thing was reported in 2006, when they said the character would be reimagined as a British arms dealer. And, in one of the most predictable bits of casting speculation, they’re also touting Angelina Jolie as Catwoman. She’d no doubt be a great choice in the role. As Depp and Hoffman probably would, too. But the fact that these reports emanate from the British press makes them pretty worthless. …

Speaking of McCartney, he is the lead vocalist on a track from the forthcoming “London Undersound” album by British composer Nitin Sawhney (due out in Britain Oct. 13) that has been released online. It’s called “My Soul” and combines one of Macca’s nicer vocals in recent years with a fairly catchy tune. What’s most surprising about it, considering Sawhney’s Asian-influenced jazz-electronica background, is how MOR it sounds. You can check “My Soul” out at:
http://k848.vox.com/library/audio/6a00f48cf28ea5000300fa9683f07f0003.html

It’s been amazing up to now how much show biz mileage Freddie Prinze Jr. has gotten out of a famous name and no discernible talent, but that seems to be coming to an end with the announcement that Prinze Jr. has “joined the creative team” at World Wrestling Entertainment. Actually, come to think of it, most pro wrestlers probably have twice the acting talent of Prinze Jr. …

Thankfully, the U.K. media reports earlier this year that the extremely irritating and overexposed Amy Winehouse might do the theme song for the next James Bond flick turned out to be … you guessed it … wrong. Instead, Alicia Keys and Jack White have recorded the theme for “Quantum of Solace,” due to open Nov. 7. …

The first couple of episodes of the second season of AMC’s critically acclaimed “Mad Men” series, set in the world of Madison Avenue advertising in the early 1960s, have shown the same aversion to network TV drama formula that made the first series so refreshing. Instead of cashing in on all the awards and media hype by doing some sort of stunt scripting for the season premiere, creator/writer Matthew Weiner (a vet of “The Sopranos”) maintained his extremely leisurely pacing and emphasis on nuanced character development. Not much actually seems to happen amid the constant drinking and smoking, but you get beneath the characters’ skin in ways you almost never seen in most TV dramas. And the period detail continues to be impressive. …

Speaking of enjoying shows where it’s all about character, fans of the beloved Britcom “As Time Goes By” know all about that. I’ve caught the show off and over the years as my mother and daughter Olivia have watched in on Saturday nights on our local PBS station but mostly had only seen episodes from the show’s latter years. Over the past couple of weeks Olivia has been catching me up as we’ve watched the first six series (generally only six to 10 episodes each), which she’s collected on DVD. The gentle interplay between Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer as former lovers who rediscover each other after 38 years apart makes for a nice escape from the real world. Paired with a nice steaming mug of English tea, it’s the perfect way to wind down after a day amidst the buyouts and layoffs that dominate the newspaper industry these days. …

AT THE MOVIES: Over the past two weekends, Olivia and I have caught a couple of films that didn’t fare all that well with critics but which we found mostly enjoyable. “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” isn’t the big summer CGI blockbuster about aliens from outer space that some reviewers apparently wanted. Instead, it’s a quieter, more character-driven thriller. Some critics complained it’s like an extended episode of the old TV series, but that’s sort of the point. This film is aimed at fans of the series, particularly those who found the complicated relationship between Agents Mulder and Scully (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson) more compelling than the aliens-among-us story arc. The plot of “I Want to Believe” may border on run-of-the-mill police procedural with a particularly grisly twist, but seeing Mulder and Scully openly expressing their feelings provides the payoff for longtime X-Philes. If you’re one and you haven’t yet seen the film, do so. And be sure to sit through the credits. Enough said. … Meanwhile this weekend we saw “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” the third in the current “Mummy” series starring Brendan Fraser. Set in post WWII China, it actually has nothing to do with mummies (think terracotta soldiers brought to life by a fire-breathing undead evil emperor who bears more than a passing resemblance to the Batman comic villain Clayface) and is flawed by some storytelling leaps of logic (which probably won’t bother you until you think about it later) and characters that are much less developed than in the first two “Mummy” movies. And acclaimed actress Maria Bello is a bit of a disappointment taking over the lead female role from the delightful Rachel Weisz, who played it in the first two films. Nevertheless, it’s still a fun action picture (my daughter objects to that description, apparently because she finds it somewhat condescending, but to me it’s a bit more to the point than the popular phrase “popcorn flick”), and has fairly convincing computer-generated special effects. Plus you get to see martial arts stars Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh duke it out (although their battle would be more effective if it didn’t suffer from the choppy fast-cut editing that plagues so many films nowadays). This is mindless fun, not a film you want to think much about, but there’s certainly a place for that in the megaplexes this time of year.

Besides the terrific 007 “Quantum of Solace” trailer that’s been out a few weeks, the coming attractions before “Mummy” also included the new trailer for this fall’s “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” featuring a look back at when Dumbledore first encountered the young Tom Riddle, who would grow up to be the evil Wizard Voldemort. The creepy kid is portrayed by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, the 10-year-old nephew of Ralph Fiennes, who plays the grown-up villain. You can catch the trailer online at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBGbKCm_pQQ

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Current Mood: drained
Current Music: "My Soul"

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