Daily Archives: November 23, 2007

Pitt Doesn’t Play, Miller Enlists

Casting About

Maybe the mega-grosses of Transformers convinced her, maybe not. Either way, insouciant Sienna Miller has enrolled in the big screen adaptation of G.I. Joe, to be helmed by Stephen Sommers for Paramount, and an August 2009 release date, Variety is reporting. If you read between the lines, she’s been cast as Baroness, a raven-haired villain.

In other news, Brad Pitt has up and left Universal’s State of Play, a political drama penned by Matthew Michael Carnahan and Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton), and set to be helmed by The Last King of Scotland director Kevin Macdonald, Variety is also reporting. It’s considered an acrimonious split; Pitt left the movie early Wednesday, following two weeks of struggle
and meetings with Macdonald that prevented the film from
making its original November 15 production start date. The studio
considers Pitt to have walked out of a pay-or-play commitment, and is
leaving open the option to sue him if the film cannot be recast by next week in
time to keep the other actors (a group which includes Edward Norton, Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman and Robin Wright Penn) in place. So… you know, get those head shots in.

Christmas Time in South Park

Blu-ray/DVD Reviews

While its complete season sets are the stuff of manna, there have
also been a number of smart niche DVD releases of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s riotous,
delightfully lewd animated series, like its packaging of “The Passion of the Jew,” the
episode devoted to assaying Mel Gibson’s controversial film. Christmas Time in South Park continues
this winning tradition, offering up seven collected episodes of Kyle, Stan,
Cartman and Kenny’s seasonal misadventures.

South Park
what the Halloween “Treehouse of Horrors” episodes have been for The Simpsons. Of the slightly more
recent entries, “Red Sleigh Down” picks apart action tropes, and sees the boys
bring Christmas to Iraq;
it’s quite funny.

Still, the most inspired episode might still be the eighth
season’s “Woodland Critter Christmas”
(above), an earnestly narrated tale in which Stan, “the little boy in the red poof-ball
hat,” stumbles upon a group of chipper forest animals, led by Squirrelly, and
helps them build a manger when told that the virginal Porcupine-y is pregnant with
their savior child. It’s only after he lures a mountain lion that threatens the
brood to her death that Stan learns the critters are actually Satanists, and he
just paved the way for 10,000 years of darkness and the return of the
(woodland) Antichrist. Working with three orphaned mountain lion cubs and Santa
Claus, Stan tries to set things right. In typical but still hilarious fashion,
the entire thing turns out to be a school story penned by Cartman, just to rip
on Kyle for being Jewish. Also included in the set are “It’s Christmas in Canada”
and “Merry Christmas Charlie Manson!”

Presented in the same 1.33:1 full frame as the show every
week on Comedy Central, Christmas Time in
South Park is anchored by a Dolby digital soundtrack that more than
adequately captures the meager aural demands of the material. While there aren’t
any bonus extras, the release is nicely packaged in a hard plastic tray in a sturdy
cardboard flipbook case, with a gold spine that gives it the appearance of a mock
storybook. It also comes with a special insert advertising South Park and other Comedy Central releases.
To purchase the title via Amazon, click here.
A (Show) B (Disc)