Love sports? Love movies? You'll love this musical spoof of every sports movie cliche

I ran across The Rotten Tomatoes Show on the Current channel last night (hey, it was a slow TV night), which surprised me because I thought that channel was reserved for co-founder Al Gore's eco-lectures. Now I'm including Current on my favorites list, if only to catch this funny look at movies each week.

Check out co-host Brett Erlich's hilarious musical tribute to sports movies titled Last Second Plays. You'll never watch Hoosiers, Happy Gilmore, Major League or any other jock flick the same way again.

Enjoy!

Nikki Reed: From Hollywood's next big thing to just another Twilight twink

The more I listen to my telephone interview with The Twilight Saga: New Moon co-star Nikki Reed, the more I'm convinced that Catherine Hardwicke did most of the heavy lifting on their 2003 screenplay collaboration, the superb teen drama, thirteen.

I haven't heard that many conversational crutches ("like," "you know," etc.) since interviewing Taylor Lautner last year.

Reed became Hollywood's "it" girl when thirteen was released, earning several critics group citations and award nominations for the semi-autobiographical script and her performance. Hardwicke -- who also directed Twilight but was dumped from the sequels -- shared credit but deferred to Reed in interviews because, hey, it was a better story that a teenager was pouring sordid personal experience into a script.

Since then, Reed hasn't produced another screenplay and roles slacked off, to the point that playing Rosalie Hale in the Twilight flicks is a good career move. I couldn't avoid asking Reed why we haven't seen another screenplay from her.

"Actually, I’ve made some pretty decent attempts," she said before dropping this tell-tale remark: "They were solo attempts, and that might be what the issue was."

Or, it could be Reed's emancipation from her divorced parents at age 14, after turning family issues into a movie.

"I was trying to go to high school while living by myself," she said, "which resulted in me dropping out of high school and then going back to take my equivalency (test), taking college courses and trying to pay rent. Meanwhile, I was also exploring the writing aspect. I think in the next year or so that’s what I’d like to focus on."

I asked Reed if it was difficult wrapping her head around such success at an early, unsupervised age. She reportedly did the kinds of illegal and immoral things that thirteen portrayed teenagers doing.

"That’s a very loaded question," she said. "But yes it was. To this day I’m still trying to figure out how to, like, dissect what I’m actually trying to say and represent with this film, so I can do it the right way.

"In a sense, one could walk away and feel exploited, just torn. My family was put on the line, in the interest of doing something really honest and real. On the other hand, I might’ve done it all differently if I had the chance to redo it."

The rest of the interview -- the stuff Twilight fans want to read -- will be published next week online and in Weekend.

Movie of the morning that wasn't planned: Joel & Ethan Coen's A Serious Man

Almost daily I get phone calls or e-mails from readers wondering why this movie or that one they've heard or read about aren't playing locally. Often they behave like it's my fault that what they want isn't there. Such a movie is A Serious Man, written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men).

There are several reasons, and I won't go into them all now. But sometimes it comes down to a movie distributor treating its product like garbage, dumping them into theatrical recepticles with far less respect than they deserve. Also such a movie is A Serious Man.

This is a film created by well-known artists who've earned several Academy Awards, with a new work that's being acclaimed as another best picture candidate. But the Florida rep for Focus Features didn't know until Tuesday night -- past our Weekend deadlines -- that it would open today (supposedly only) at the Cinebistro in Hyde Park.

I didn't know that Cinebistro doesn't have matinees, meaning I'd need to see it at 5 p.m. on a Friday or 11:30 a.m. Saturday to get a review this weekend on Etc. page 2B. Not the way I like spending weekends, if I can help it, but that's the gig.

Lo and be....whaaa? I learn this morning from an ad in the Times that A Serious Man is also playing at AMC Woodlands in Oldsmar, and with a 10:10 a.m. start time. I'm sure the studio rep will be surprised to learn that. So, Oldsmar's where I'm heading in a minute.

But one question before I go: If people getting paid to promote an Oscar-contending movie for a distributor that could surely use a boost don't even know when or where it's opening, how can anyone else?

The day Soupy Sales left me pie-eyed

Sorry to hear this morning about the death of comedian Soupy Sales, 83, in New York City after a long illness. His brand of silly and subversive humor (for the 1950s and '60s, at least) influenced later comedians from Jim Carrey and Andy Kaufman to Pee-Wee Herman. His trademark gag was smashing cream pies into the faces of celebrities and world figures who'd beg him for the embarrassment.

Soupy was also a great guy, which I learned about a dozen years ago. I was doing a weekly radio gig with Cleveland Wheeler at some station probably bought, sold and rebranded several times since then. Soupy happened to be on the show one Friday when I was in the studio. I stuck around much longer than usual just to kibbitz with him.

Cleveland got the idea for Soupy to hit me with a pie on the air. There was no way I'd refuse. Getting hit with a cream pie by Soupy Sales would be an honor.

Someone dug up an aluminum pie tin, a can of whipped cream and a towel to drape over my chest and shoulders. An assistant piled up the foamy sweetness about four inches high. Soupy milked the routine like a pro, rared back and smashed the gooey mess into my kisser. Laughing like a little kid, Soupy told me I had joined an exclusive club -- well, as exclusive as an estimated 20,000 targets can be -- including Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and JFK. Nice.

The assistant began cleaning up the mess but I told him to save the pie tin. No way that I was going to let a souvenir like that slip away. Soupy graciously autographed it: "To Steve, a great guy, a wonderful writer. With lots of love and custard, Soupy Sales." If you look closely at the photo, you can still see the indentation of his palm and thumb.

The other thing I remember about Soupy is that he loved hot dogs. Absolutely loved them. One request he made at each appearance was the location of the best hot dogs in town. Cleveland's staff found a place near the station for lunch, and Soupy invited me along.

Trouble is, the hot dog joint we went to wasn't the one where Soupy's party was expected. We sat at the wrong one for nearly 45 minutes waiting for others to arrive. Soupy couldn't resist downing a couple of dogs anyway. When we learned where we were supposed to be, about a half-mile down the street, we headed there and Soupy scarfed a couple more tubesteaks. Good time.

Hope there's a hot dog stand in heaven. R.I.P.

Here's an idea to save newspapers: New York Times signs deal turning columns into movies and TV shows

Variety.com reports that Columbia Pictures has signed a deal with the New York Times that will allow the studio first dibs on possible movies inspired by the Modern Love column that runs Sundays in the newspaper.

Readers send in essays on personal subjects such as a recent one on a mother adopting another child after her first daughter died. The Times signed with the ICM talent agency, leading to the Columbia deal. Already HBO is planning a series titled Modern Love that would revolve around the column.

Quoting from the Variety article: "Among the recent NYT content deals was the recent story of immigrant students planning a prom, which Jenny Lumet is scripting for Miramax; an article about a 12-year-old wannabe food critic that Lorne Michaels is developing at Paramount; and one about a small college football team paid to be crushed by bigger schools, which Universal is developing with Jack Black. None of the development projects has yet turned into a movie."

 Sounds like something the St. Petersburg Times should look into during the economic crunch. I can imagine a Deal Divas romp a la Sex and the City, an odd couple action flick starring Sean Daly and Terry Tomalin, and Stuck in the 80's: The Movie.

Kayne West slays his inner demon in Spike Jonze's shocking short film "We Were Once a Fairytale" (Possibly NSFW)

Director Spike Jonze knows Where the Wild Things Are but those monsters are tame compared to what's eating Kanye West in their short film We Were Once a Fairytale. Not that the mini-movie is a work of art but it's an extraordinarily candid fantasy suggesting West is dealing with heavy stuff after hijacking Taylor Swift's big moment at the VMAs, becoming the most despised celebrity in the world (until the next jerk comes along).

You can read a lot into West's video confessional: He's shown in a nightclub acting like a fool, under the influence of something(s), drawing attention to his song being spun by a d.j., hitting on women without a shred of dignity or suaveness and staggering into an alleyway. A woman joins him and they begin having sex until he passes out, waking up alone on a sofa. West staggers back to the club and into a restroom where he vomits then collapses on the floor.

That's when things get weird. West finds a hunting knife on the floor, stands up, looks in the mirror and does a hari-kiri slash across his abdomen, literally spilling his guts. Out of the gash emerges a cat-like creature -- perhaps representing West's pent-up dysfunction. What happens next seems like a message that West is facing up to his inner demon, determined to make it die.

One warning: We Were Once a Fairytale contains profanity, substance abuse, brief simulated sex and cartoonish viscera. It also feels like West -- with the help of Jonze, who directed a couple of his music videos -- is exorcising a lot of pain. We don't have to feel sorry for him but this video quasi-confessional evidences a troubled soul deserving a chance at redemption.

It's official: Paranormal Activity gets a normal run in Tampa Bay theaters starting Oct. 9

Maybe you can't make it to midnight movies anymore, and were left out of Paramount Pictures' cagey late-night weekend release of Paranormal Activity in 33 cities nationwide. Every midnight screening last Thursday, Friday and Saturday reportedly sold out, raking in $535,000 in 99 showings for a stellar $16,000 average.

That's good enough to push Paramount into opening Paranormal Activity wider this Friday, Oct. 9. The midnight shows will continue but now there will be matinee and evening shows to boot.

Paramount's strategy in leaking Oren Peli's $11,000 movie to the masses has been brilliant. At that price, the studio really had nothing to lose. The midnight shows, the online "demand it" ploy, the word-of-keyboard from critics like me, are way cheaper than flooding TV and print outlets with ads, or arranging publicity tours.

It kind of reminds me of a little movie called The Blair Witch Project, not only for the grassroots campaign but because Paranormal Activity is practically Blair Witch II that learned a little from the first movie's mistakes in turning off some viewers.

Allow me to explain.

Ten years ago, The Blair Witch Project made my annual top 10 list. I still hear from people wondering what I was smoking at the time. They hated the home video conceit, the near-absence of blood, the fact that we never saw a witch, and a brilliant ending too logically abrupt for their tastes.

All the things that made me love the movie.

But I saw The Blair Witch Project weeks before ads proclaimed it “scary as hell,” according to Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, no stranger to hyperbole which is why you see his name on ads so often.

That was an irresistible dare for moviegoer, turning a $25,000 movie into a $140 million hit. But “scary as hell” in movies typically involves blood and monsters, filmed and edited in familiar fashion. Anyone seeking that from The Blair Witch Project was bound to be disappointed, and were. And I haven't stopped hearing about it.

Watch the same misguided letdown materialize for Paranormal Activity, an even cheaper production — reportedly shot in a week for $11,000 — in the same shakycam vein. Rather than Maryland woods, the haunted place is an upscale San Diego townhouse (owned by Peli). There are two victims of things going bump in the night, not three.

Otherwise, Paranormal Activity isn’t very different until the final half hour when Peli gives audiences what The Blair Witch Project didn’t; a clear motive for the mayhem, a look at whatever causes this ruckus and nifty shocks leading to it. Nothing complicated; a little wind here, some baby powder there, noises off screen and a visceral finale. But it works, if you allow it.

One more tribute to Patrick Swayze, an unforgettable scene from a forgotten movie

It occurred to me over the weekend that the late Patrick Swayze has been memorialized for Dirty Dancing, Ghost, Road House and other hits. But I haven't seen anything about his portrayal of Pecos Bill in 1995's Tall Tale, probably because it flopped and Disney quickly swept it under the carpet.

Personally, I thought Tall Tale was a good time, with Swayze in fine cowpoke mode and Oliver Platt matching him as Paul Bunyan. It's one that Disney's TV division should unearth in light of Swayze's recent passing.

I particularly enjoy the climactic scene posted above, when Pecos Bill gives his horse to a little buckaroo (Nick Stahl) then lassos a tornado to ride. It has a nice resonance in hindsight. Enjoy!

Burt Reynolds' drug rehab pushes back production of A Fonder Heart; new start date is up in the air

Production in Pinellas County on A Fonder Heart hit another road block when its star, Burt Reynolds, checked into a south Florida rehabilitation center last month and checked out after a 30-day stay. The rehab stint was reportedly due to Reynolds' addiction to painkillers and sleeping pills after recent back surgery.

A Fonder Heart writer-producer-director Jim Fitzpatrick said this morning that production was slated to begin on Sept. 21 but that date has been scrapped. Fitzpatrick said he'll have a better idea by the end of September of Reynolds' availability to work after physical therapy and rest.

The drama was originally set to start shooting in July before the first of several start-date delays due to glitches in the financing plan -- including, according to Fitzpatrick, the suicide of one investor.  Fitzpatrick said that money has been replaced by another silent partner, and the $5.4 million budget is secured.

Fitzpatrick -- a friend of Reynolds since the 1980's when he played for the star's Tampa Bay Bandits USFL football team -- has been media outlets ranging from the New York Times to TMZ, all inquiring about Reynolds' condition and the state of the movie.

"Quite honestly, people are making way too much of this," Fitzpatrick said. "I was just down there (in south Florida) with the tailor to finish up Burt's suits (for the movie) and he's fine.

"We actually knew he was going to be doing this. It's not a big deal. When you have lower back surgery, sometimes it's a complete success and other times you have pain. Sometimes when you take a painkiller it doesn't kill the pain, so you take an extra one. That's it."

Fitzpatrick added that reports of Reynolds' rehab including alcohol addiction treatment are "a lie and a rumor. He hasn't drank alcohol in years."

Fitpatrick said the cast of A Fonder Heart -- including Daryl Hannah, Stockard Channing, James Brolin and Lou Gossett Jr. -- is still intact despite production delays.

You wouldn't know it from visiting Fitzpatrick's Pac Atlantic Pictures Web site, that previously featured full-page poster art for A Fonder Heart, trumpeting the starry cast. The poster art -- minus the cast names -- is now found in a much smaller image under the heading: "current projects" (click on the sailboat at the Pac Atlantic homepage to find it).

Fitzpatrick said that's the work of page designers to whom he hasn't spoken in weeks while filling the budget gap left by the investor's suicide.

"It has been a radical year, man," he said. "A lot of people lost a lot of money and jobs. Over 2,500 films have been canceled in L.A.  That tells you something. A lot of friends have called me to ask if I happen to know any investors. I said I'd love to share them but not at this point."

Four questions after viewing the 15-minute sizzle reel of Fame (the reinvention, not a remake, please)

Two of my favorite studio reps, Chantal and Whitney from Allied Advertising, made the long drive from Miami to visit Tampa Bay media outlets, armed with a 15-minute "sizzle reel" from the upcoming update remake -- aww, heck, let's call it a "reinvention," as Chantal urged -- of Fame, the 1980 Oscar winner that practically urged the creation of MTV.

(A sizzle reel, if you don't know, is a Hollywoody way of saying "a bunch of short clips shoved together.")

First of all, the new Fame looks and sounds terrific (even on Mac speakers), with a cast of young talent making American Idol and America's Got Talent look like a Cub Scout skit. One in particular, Naturi Naughton, immediately made me think of the first time I saw Jennifer Hudson belting it out in Dreamgirls. She makes one of the original film's signature songs, Out Here on My Own, into a showstopper, even in abbreviated form. You can get a taste of her mad skills in the preview posted above.

The music covers a lot of ground: hip-hop, Fosse-style jazz, Naughton's Alicia Keys R&B stylings, even ballet, as the students of a New York performing arts academy focus on achieving -- what else -- Fame.

But four questions nag me, even as I predict that Fame will be a big hit when it opens Sept. 25:

1. Have audiences seen too many high school musicals/dance contests/etc. that sucked to believe they haven't already seen this movie?

2. Is Naughton -- who I'll be interviewing in about an hour -- the breakout star that clip editing makes her appear to be? (Good chance. Naughton impressed earlier this year playing Lil' Kim in the Biggie Smalls bio, Notorious.)

3. Does this school have a football team? Fame may need something besides females hotties to get males into theater seats.

4. Why can't MGM provide a screening for Tampa Bay critics in time for Weekend review? As I explained to Chantal, between the Times and TBT* circulation and online exposure, that's about a million eyes (not allowing for eye patches) that studios poke their fingers into like Moe Howard whenever we're skipped.

That's the kind of thought process that needs re-inventing.