Don’t be fooled. Mike Russell says that the kids movie Hoot is a thoughtless endorsement of eco-terrorism:

Roy (Logan Lerman) transfers to a Florida middle school. For reasons explained far, far away from the script, he becomes obsessed with a barefoot kid named “Mullet Fingers” (Cody Linley). Soon, Roy is hanging out with Mullet and Mullet’s stepsister (Brie Larson) as they engage in cute little acts of eco-terror to keep a pancake house from being erected over the nest-holes of endangered burrowing owls.

We’re asked to root for these idiots as they pull up surveyor stakes, put a crocodile in an outhouse, spray-paint a patrol car, release cottonmouth snakes to scare off guard dogs, present false information during a hospital visit, flee the five-oh, vandalize bulldozers and assault the pancake-house CEO (Clark Gregg) — a man so cartoonishly nasty, he makes these schmucks look like the good guys.

And then, like three-fourths of the way through the film, it occurs to the kids to dig up an environmental report and call an on-site press conference that the entire town gleefully attends. Which is maybe something the kids should have tried before unleashing the poisonous snakes, don’cha think? . . .

And, worst of all, no one really learns anything. The film’s final scene finds Roy and Mullet looking at a sign announcing a condo construction site. Their eyes gleam wickedly. It’s meant to be funny — but I couldn’t help thinking they were figuring out where to plant the pipe bombs.

I was left a little cold by the second Superman trailer–why is it that when Supes is flying at 400 mph, his hair moves as if there’s only a light breeze? And why is Kevin Spacey doing Lex Luthor as if he was K-Pax’s evil brother? Shouldn’t there be a no-camp mandate? And that scene with Lois, Perry, and Jimmy doing the “It’s a bird” routine feels like a stilted rip-off of the wonderful J. Jonah Jameson office scenes from Spiderman 2.

All of that said, AICN has the first early review of Superman Returns, and it’s quite positive, although for reasons I don’t find particularly convincing. Still, we DC partisans must hope for the best.

If only Wolfgang Petersen had been allowed to make Superman vs. Batman. Well, a boy can dream.

Update: In the comments is a link to this extemely sophisticated fan-film trailer for Superman vs. Batman. In all honesty, I’m not so sure that the Singer-helmed Superman Returns trailer is more enticing.

Tom Cruise is one of the great promoters of our time. Put him in a movie and he’ll go anywhere, do anything, to plug it. He’s even willing to show America how black he is.

No, seriuosly. Warm up with this picture of Tom and Kanye West doing a soul shake. And then, if you’re ready, check out the video of Tom hopping onboard the Soul Train on BET.

No, I’m totally serious.

Dan McGlaughlin points us to this fantastic news: The original theatrical releases of the Star Wars trilogy are coming to DVD:

n response to overwhelming demand, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release attractively priced individual two-disc releases of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Each release includes the 2004 digitally remastered version of the movie and, as bonus material, the theatrical edition of the film. That means you’ll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983.

This release will only be available for a limited time: from September 12th to December 31st. International release will follow on or about the same day. Each original theatrical version will feature Dolby 2.0 Surround sound, close-captioning, and subtitles in English, French and Spanish for their U.S. release. International sound and subtitling vary by territory.

Is this just George Lucas trying to squeeze every last dime out of the DVD format before the hi-def DVD takes over? Probably. But who cares.

It would be easy to poke fun of this fellow, doing reenactments of movie scenes in his bedroom. But if you scroll down and check out his rendition of the Christopher Walken “War Watch” monologue from Pulp Fiction, it’s totally charming and pretty good.

Welcome to the future of the internet. There’ll be lots more of this as DV camera and YouTube grow.

Pajiba has a pretty excellent list. On Meet the Fockers:

Meet the Fockers does have one thing going for it, however, but even that is empty consolation for most of us: If you relish the opportunity to see how far the mighty have fallen, Fockers offers it in spades. What does it say, after all, that Hoffman, De Niro, and Streisand (who have 18 Oscar nominations and six wins among them) are playing second fiddle to an actor whose most famous onscreen moment involved a wad of his own semen hanging from his ear?

Just a shout-out to my homies. Click on thumbnail #4 and it really is an AD moment.

JJV says:

Who should play “young Kirk”? I think it should be Toby McGuire as he can play an insufferable prig. However, Christian Haydenson would cause an equal explosion of Geek Love and also replicate Shatneresk acting chops. To be both young Darth Vader, and young Kirk is to enter a realm where plus 5 Vorpal blades fail to even shave a man.