Saw Thank You for Smoking and was disappointed. Spend the 90 minutes reading Christopher Buckley’s novel, if you haven’t. Giving Nick Naylor a son was lame-to-sappy. Deadwood fans will spot Kim Dickens (Joanie Stubbs) as Naylor’s wife.

And for the record, The Weather Man (Nicholas Cage) is not a comedy. Had I taken the time to check out the IMDB description (“A Chicago weather man, separated from his wife and children, debates whether professional and personal success are mutually exclusive.”) we could have skipped this wrist-slitter. But Hollywood loves Cage. He has half a dozen movies in post-production or on-deck.

Barb says Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ new series (The New Adventures of Old Christine) sucks. As did Watching Ellie (2002). Same for The Michael Richards Show (2000) and both of Jason Alexander’s short-lived series: Bob Patterson and Listen up.

My first reaction to these sad efforts was, “Give it up.” But I’ve change my mind. These three actors gave us some of the best moments in television comedy. Yes, the writing on Seinfeld was great but the actors were damned good, too. If they want to do another series –or half a dozen– they’ve earned the right. Even if they suck. And a few stinkers won’t tarnish my memories of their Seinfeld performances. Those are in the vault.

Netflix is just one more example of “the long tail.” I wanted to watch Duets last week but the guy at the video store looked at me like I was crazy. “We don’t stock the really old movies.”

If you work at Blockbuster, 2000 probably seems like eons ago. So I had Barb move it up on her Neflix list and the DVD arrived in yesterday’s mail. IMDB users rate the movie 5.7 out of 10 but I loved it both times I’ve watched it.

Huey Lewis plays a professional karaoke hustler who reconnects with his daughter (Gwyneth Paltrow) and a bored suburban businessman (Paul Giamattie) turns outlaw karaoke singer. But the most amazing performance was Andre Braugher’s.

Huey Lewis obviously performed his songs and it sounded like Paltrow did. But can Andre Braugher really sing that well? Probably not.

Favorite line: “Sorry, I’m going out for a pack of cigarettes.”
Most erotic scene: Maria Bello pulls on her undies. Sweet Jesus.

I finally got a taste of current TV tonight (DirecTV 366). I say “finally” because I’ve heard about the channel but never bothered to find it and take a look. I thought it was interesting, fresh. If you’re not familiar with the idea behind the channel:

“We slice our schedule into short segments that we call “pods” — each just a few minutes long. And much of it comes straight from you. We call it viewer-created content, or VC2. Right now, VC2 makes up about a third of our channel — and that share is growing. Anyone who wants to contribute can upload a video. Then, everyone in the Current online community votes for what should be on TV.”

It was sort of like 60 Minutes for people under the age of 70. Very sharp graphics. And they include a little status bar near the bottom of the screen to let you know where you are in the segment. Nicely integrated with their website. I’ll be going back for another taste.

While watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for the ____ time, it dawned on me that the actor playing Mr. Rooney, the school counselor (Jeffrey Jones), is the newspaper publisher on Deadwood. And, yes, I am aware that I’m the only person on the planet that had not already made that connection.

Randy comments: “Good actor, bad man.” [Smoking Gun]

Finally saw George Clooney’s movie about Edward Murrrow’s efforts to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy. No car chases. No gunfire. No explosions. No nudity. Just a bunch of guys talking and smoking and looking terrified. In black and white. There were five of us in the theater. Would love to see the movie again, but next time in the White House screening room with W, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove and…maybe John Ashcroft. One of those movies that nobody ever expected to make a lot of money. Just needed to be made.