Reeling

Giving it away

Everyone I know who has seen Borat  thinks it's hilarious, and I could not agree more. But distributor 20th Century Fox is obviously worried being funny just isn't enough.

The studio has posted the opening four minutes of the movie on YouTube, hoping to entice people who couldn't pick Sacha Baron Cohen out of a lineup to buy a ticket for the film, which opens Nov. 3.

This is not the first time a studio has posted footage from an upcoming film on the Internet as a way to promote it. But Fox's apparent concern over Borat is curious: The movie may not smash any opening-weekend boxoffice records, but I can't imagine the word of mouth around it will be anything but positive, ensuring a healthy run at the boxoffice.

We'll always have the XBox version

Not that it's wise to get too excited about a movie based on a videogame, but it's looking like that long-in-the-works Halo movie may never come to pass.

Tomorrow's Oscar nominees today

I wasn't as wild about Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers as some other critics, but you can bet the farm the movie will make the short list of Best Picture and Best Director Oscar nominees next year.

And now that The Departed is a critical and commercial hit, chances are growing that Martin Scorsese will land his sixth nomination for Best Director, setting up a rematch between him and Eastwood, who won in 2005 for Million Dollar Baby.

Currently in theaters is The Last King of Scotland, which will almost certainly earn Forest Whitaker a Best Actor nomination for his indelible portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

One movie opening today that won't be getting any Oscar attention whatsoever is John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus, which is definitely not for all tastes, but worth checking out if you're feeling adventurous (and are at least 18 years old).

Thumbs up

Roger Ebert reports he's slowly getting better but won't be back writing about movies full-time until next year. Ebert was hospitalized in July due to complications from a prior cancer surgery.

"Inland Empire" is coming

According to a story in the Hollywood Reporter, David Lynch will distribute his new movie Inland Empire to theaters himself, possibly before the end of the year (although I wouldn't count on that).

Shot on video and running nearly three hours, the movie reportedly makes the plot of Mulholland Drive seem perfectly logical by comparison, which explains why Lynch is going the self-distribution route. Bring on the incomprehensible weirdness!

Deja vu

In an upcoming sitdown with Good Morning America's Diane Sawyer, Mel Gibson describes his racist remarks during his recent drunken driving arrest as "the stupid rambling of a drunkard".

This will undoubtedly be the first of several contrite interviews Gibson will give between now and December 8, when his latest movie Apocalypto hits theaters. Although the new film centers on the fall of the ancient Mayan civilization, Gibson is still going to have to go around convincing people he's not an anti-Semite - the same thing he did two years ago, when The Passion of the Christ came out.

"The owls are not what they seem."

Ever wonder what the town of Twin Peaks looks like today? Pretty much just like you remember it.

Speaking of the greatest television show ever: Sounds like Paramount is finally getting ready to release the second season of the show on DVD - a whopping five years since the Season 1 DVD came out. Still no word on how Annie's doing, alas.

Dead men tell no tales

Actor R. Lee Ermey, best known for playing the drill sergeant in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, is claiming that Kubrick phoned him shortly before his death in February 1999 to tell him that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman "had their way with him" on the set of Eyes Wide Shut, that he was "disgusted" with the finished film and thought it was a "piece of s--t."

Sorry, but I don't buy Ermey's story, and not just because I'm a fan of the movie. It was Kubrick who kept Cruise and Kidman sequestered on a London soundstage for nearly two years during the filming of the movie, and not the other way around. Whatever you might think of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick was clearly the one calling the shots on that set.

Besides, Kubrick would not hesitate to get rid of an actor who wasn't giving him what he wanted: Both Harvey Keitel and Jennifer Jason Leigh were part of the original cast of Eyes Wide Shut, but both were replaced during production. Kubrick may not have been the eccentric weirdo he was reputed to be, but he certainly wasn't the "shy timid little guy" that Ermey describes, either.

I'm guessing Ermey is probably just looking to get a little attention for his newest movie, which needs all the help it can get.

Jack speaks

Here's my interview with Jack Nicholson about The Departed, which ran in today's paper but is buried so deep within the Herald's website, it's practically impossible to find.