Big Hitter: Cheadle Replaces Howard on Iron Man Sequel!

DVD That Might Interest You
I think I would recommend Mongol before anything else, even though I haven't seen it. I've got to give Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a pass -- though I would urge you to check out the South Park episode on the subject. If you're Blu-Ray inclined, that Ultimate Matrix Collection is looking pretty delightful.

Oscar Thought of the Day
Why isn't Defiance getting any Oscar buzz? It seems like it's in the Academy's wheelhouse. Regardless, because I'm really good at this, I'll give you the five Best Picture nominees RIGHT NOW, months ahead of schedule.

Best Picture Nominees
The Dark Knight (Gotta, they need the audience)
Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Gotta, they need Brad Pitt)
Milk (Focus puts out one exceptional though small film per year)
The Soloist (Robert Downey Jr. IS the buzz these days)
Seven Pounds (Will Smith doesn't make bad movies. Ever.)

Press Releases of Note
Sadly I am boycotting the press section of the column today because the publicists have been uber annoying these past few days. So we all must suffer!

Sequel Rumor of the Day
Actually, it's not a rumor: Don Cheadle has replaced Terrence Howard in the Iron Man sequel. Wow. I really like Cheadle, so I don't think it will hurt the film, but why make that choice? The article indicates money was the issue, but the film made $571m worldwide and probably another couple hundred million on DVD. They could have shown Howard some love. Weird.

Today's Movie Stories on the Internets
It doesn't get any bigger than the Cheadle/Howard story today but the AP is already beating the "Brolin is now a big star" drum. I'm good with that. The scrumptious Maggie Q knocks Hollywood for a lack of good Asian roles. In my opinion she's half right -- but the issue is Hollywood screenwriters don't come up with enough good roles period.

What I Watched Last Night Besides a Movie
Caught a bit of Monday Night Football. Poor Giants. Of course I watched my daily PTI. When do I get to go on the show for five good minutes? Never? Okay, glad I asked.

Deep Thought of the Day
What's the deal with the stock market? Is it up, is it down, somebody tell me because I'd like to know. No, only kidding. That Seinfeld moment was brought to you by my lack of coffee. Now then, on to the real business of the people.

Knowledge is getting speedier, but thinner too. Allow me to explain. We now have access to more data then ever before; zip on over to google to figure out Outkast's first album or hit up Wikipedia to figure out exactly what the original War of the Roses was all about. But with all this quick access comes a price: we know more about more, but less about each individual topic. We all want to find information within seconds, and our attention span must then shorten because of it. Studies of the Internet have proven that very few people are comfortable reading an article without pictures, or one that goes over a certain word count. We want distilled information, and we want it right now.

Now, I'm not the sort of person who decries this and wishes for the old days. However, I do think we lose a lot of room for nuance in the movie world because to get reads these days you have to love or hate the subject matter. Even-handedness is discouraged and ignored by the Internet. That's fine, I don't need to become "huge" like Ben Lyons. I do have to wonder where this will take film. My guess? Quicker and quicker cuts in all things cinematic. Call it the Ratnerization of the movie industry. There's no judgment there, because I'm actually a huge sucker for visually stimulating fast-paced films, but perhaps we're losing our ability to tell long-form stories. Movies have gotten shorter, cuts quicker, with the counterpoint being they've also gotten much prettier too. That counts for something, right?

That is all for now ... because the Deep Thought of the day was getting too deep for even me.

Videos For You

The climactic twist of Fight Club! (sort of NSFW due to language, sexuality, and general fight clubbiness)

Let's give it up for Zooey of the Deschanel family. This M. Ward guy isn't too shabby either.

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