So Erik-with-a-k covered the coming comedies of 2009, Scott was all over the horror picks (though his inclusion of Race to Witch Mountain still boggles my mind), Eric-with-a-c nabbed the family-friendly fare, and Elisabeth went over the geek fodder that awaits. But while I respect their calendar years and made-up math alike, I've opted to divide my list of 2009's action and adventure flicks into four categories: Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About, Action Flicks I Couldn't Care Less About, Action Flicks That I Hope Surprise Me, and Those Which Fell In Between. Enjoy!

Action Flicks I Couldn't Care More About: First and foremost -- Watchmen (March 6th). It's one hell of a graphic novel and looks to be one hell of an adaptation (with or without the Giant Blank), and come Fox or high water, it'll see the light of day soon enough. Then there's Public Enemies (July 1st), which has me sold on not the subject matter, but sheer pedigree: Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp and Christian Bale as '30s gangsters. (It doesn't hurt that the earliest word ranges from damn good to great.) On the skimpier side, I can only hope that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17th) streamlines its source material as the previous one had, and I can only hope that Crank 2: High Voltage (April 17th) lives up/down to the depravity of its predecessor. There's one last action movie that I couldn't care more about because, well, I've already seen a version of it. The international cut of Taken (January 30th, though reportedly opening with some R-dodging trims) is about as brisk and butt-kicking as one might hope out of a man-on-a-mission kidnapping thriller, and if you disagree, I'll send Liam Neeson to change your mind.

So it seems The Weinstein Co. has opted to release Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds on August 21, 2009, which seems to be a strange date for not only a Tarantino flick, but also one starring Brad Pitt that's set during World War II. Late August is usually dumping ground for iffy action flicks and C-grade comedies. This past August 22 saw the release of Death Race, The House Bunny and The Longshots, to give you an example of the type of films we expect to arrive on that weekend.

Tarantino has already stated that he wants to screen Basterds at the Cannes Film Festival in May, so we assume some sort of cut will be finished by then. One imagines the buzz from that first screening will dictate the film's final release date. Personally, I can't see it staying in late August. Remember a similar move was attempted with the WWII flick Valkyrie, which was originally a June release before being pushed back to Christmas. If Basterds receives any type of awards buzz out of Cannes, the Weinstein Co. will package it right up, toss it into the Toronto Film Festival or The New York Film Festival and release it in the fall.

All I know is that both The Weinstein Co. and Tarantino should think real hard about when they want to release this film, especially after the botched release of Grindhouse on Easter weekend. It should be interesting to see where this sucker eventually ends up. When do you think a film like Inglourious Basterds should hit theaters?

Now that we've all had a chance to see some of the video footage that has been leaking from the set of Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds (footage that has since disappeared), you might have noticed that the man himself was nowhere to be found in most of the clips. But, according to The Quentin Tarantino Archives, one man who has been behind the camera lately is Mr. 'Torture Porn' himself, Eli Roth. Rumor has it Roth is directing a Nazi propaganda film to be included in the story of "...a group of prisoners-turned-soldiers whose mission is to take down a group of Nazis, and the other follows a young Jewish woman who seeks to avenge the death of her parents by this Nazi group."

The horror director first signed on to the project back in August to play Sgt. Donnie Donowitz, "a baseball bat swinging Nazi hunter". But, I guess Roth wasn't content with just being in front of the camera this time around. QT Archives reports that Roth is directing the story of "Daniel Brühl as a Nazi sniper and GIs on a suicide mission." -- presumably while Tarantino was off teaching Til Schweiger how to do a spit take.

You almost have to feel sorry for Tarantino with the amount of scrutiny surrounding his WWII epic -- think about it, when was the last time a headline about an orchestral score got this much attention? So far, Tarantino and company have managed to keep a few details from spilling with the help of the odd water cannon. So, you may be wondering: why all the mania? Well, maybe it's because Tarantino has been talking about making Basterds for so long -- or maybe it's just because for a lot fans, Grindhouse wasn't the comeback they had been hoping for. Either way you cut it, we may not like what the guy has come up with, but at least it will be like nothing else we've seen before.

Inglorious Basterds is expected to arrive in theaters in 2009.

The first time I came across a trailer for the Diane Lane/Thomas Jane/Mickey Rourke hitman thriller Killshot (only remaining on an AICN archive page and the errant DVD release), it was back in September of 2006. Since then, the Elmore Leonard adaptation has endured reshoots in January of 2007 and countless changes in release dates after that. Of course, there's also at least three test screening reviews that bring to light the entire removal of a character played by Johnny Knoxville from the film.

Now, not long after the Weinstein Company issued its latest round of supposed scheduling, Killshot's most recent date -- November 7, 2008 -- has been dashed away by this Los Angeles Times piece, and as pointed out, how does one struggle to release anything that John Madden, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack and Quentin Tarantino all had hands in at some point? How does one struggle to even sell off domestic distribution rights to a film with this cast and that crew? The obvious answer is, of course, that the film is a downright dud, though the general pedigree and harshest reviews seem to suggest that it's not a total turkey.

The best-case scenario at this point is that the film rides the awards buzz of Rourke's performance in December's The Wrestler as suggested and gets a theatrical release in the early winter dumping grounds (through the Weinsteins' Third Rail arm, I'd bet), while the worst-case scenario is the film being directly downgraded to the level of a Blockbuster-exclusive curio. We shall see...

Take one renegade Japanese director, set him to work on a Spaghetti Western, add a cameo by a talkative American filmmaker, and what do you get? First place in the indie four-day weekend box office race. Sukiyaki Western Django, directed by the prolific and extremely versatile Takashi Miike and featuring Quentin Tarantino in a small role, tore it up at the single Manhattan theatre where it opened, grossing $13,100, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. The version released in the US does not represent Miike's original vision, however. Distributor First Look edited 20 or so minutes for the bastardized edition currently playing, so this is a muted triumph. *

The light-hearted I Served the King of England had the right stuff to average $8,487 per screen at eight locations. Directed by Jirí Menzel, the film stars Ivan Barnev, Oldrich Kaiser, and the always wonderful Julia Jentsch. Naked Penélope Cruz outdrew mostly-clothed Penélope Cruz, as Elegy bested Vicky Christina Barcelona on per-screen numbers, $5,697 to $5,102. To be fair, however, Woody Allen's latest is playing on nearly 700 screens and cracked the Top 10; it's made more than $13 million so far, though Elegy's $1.7 million is nothing to sneeze at in the specialty field. Right behind came two consistent cold-weather flicks, Frozen River ($5,028 per screen) and Transsiberian ($4,728). The more temperate Tell No One blew past $4 million in total US earnings in its ninth week, averaging $4,480 at 102 theaters.

Up next? Chris Smith's very good drama The Pool opens on Wednesday; Friday will see the release of Chris Eska's entrancing poetic drama August Evening, Jessica Yu's playful comedy Ping Pong Playa, romantic comedy Everybody Wants to Be Italian, thriller Mister Foe, drama Save Me, and the self-explanatory comedy/drama Surfer, Dude.

* UPDATE: A representative for First Look says that the company acquired the film after it had already been edited from 121 minutes to 98 minutes, and further states that Miike did the editing. My apologies for the error.

As a further aside, the original-length version screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007 and was released in Japan shortly thereafter.

Bastards, bastards, bastards! The best part about Quentin Tarantino appropriating the title for his upcoming movie from Enzo Castellari's high-energy original is that I get to satisfy my inner 11-year-old and tell you all about the latest Inglorious Bastards withour fear of recrimination from parental figures. Diane Kruger is the highest-profile new bastard, according to Variety, joined by Christoph Waltz and writer / actor / comedian Paul Rust.

Kruger, the hellenic beauty who first made a splash on these shores opposite Orlando Bloom in Troy -- which also starred soon to be chief bastard Brad Pitt as a bit of a heel -- will play Bridget Von Hammersmark (not "Hammer Snark," smart guy), a German actress. Kruger is fine casting since, of course, she is a German actress, and already has experience playing WWII theatrics with the flick Joyeaux Noël (Merry Christmas), but I'm sorry that Nastassja Kinski will not be playing the role. She's the kind of 40-something actor that could use a juicy role to remind people of who she is.

Waltz is an unknown quantity to US eyes, though he's done plenty of TV work in Germany. He snared the role of Col Hans Landa, the main Nazi antagonist, the part that Leonard DiCaprio was "in talks" to discuss. If nothing else, Waltz shouldn't have a problem with the accent. Paul Rust has written for Adult Swim's Moral Orel and MTV's Human Giant and appeared in Semi-Pro. Let me go out on a limb and guess that he's been cast -- as the comic relief? I'm sure somebody out there in Commenter Land has read the script and can guess for the rest of us.

The last weekend of the summer means the multiplexes will be crammed with Hollywood's leftover products, most of them rolled out without being screened for critics (never a good sign). But don't despair! The Indie Spotlight is here to fill you in on the limited-release, art-house films opening this weekend, and if they're not playing where you live, you can keep an eye out for when they do arrive. See, it gives you something to look forward to!

The six films opening today are, in alphabetical order: Ballet Shoes, I Served the King of England, My Mexican Shivah, Sukiyaki Western Django, Year of the Fish, and Young People F***ing. In a slightly more subjective order, here's the scoop on each of them.

Sukiyaki Western Django
What it is: A comedic Japanese tribute to the spaghetti Westerns, featuring Quentin Tarantino in a small role and directed by the twisted Takashi Miike.
What they're saying: The reviews are about evenly split at Rotten Tomatoes. Some say it's a one-joke movie that's all style and no substance; others say the sheer insanity of it makes it entertaining.
Where it's playing: New York City (Landmark Sunshine Cinema). Opens in L.A. on Sept. 12.
Official site: Taste the sukiyaki.

I Served the King of England
What it is: A comedy/drama about a man working at a fancy Prague hotel under the Nazis and then under the communists. It was the Czech Republic's official Oscar entry this year, though it didn't wind up getting nominated.
What they're saying: Every single review at Rotten Tomatoes is positive ("darkly humorous," "intelligent," "witty") -- every single review except for one, that is, by Jeffrey M. Anderson, who is also one of Cinematical's finest writers. Why you gotta be different, Jeff?
Where it's playing: New York City (Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, Quad Cinemas), Los Angeles (Laemmle Royal, Regency South Coast Village in Costa Mesa, Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena), San Francisco (Embarcadero Center Cinemas).
Official site: It's in English!

By chance, two Takashi Miike movies, Dead or Alive and Audition, opened in my town with in a week of one another in 2001. It was pretty eye opening seeing the huge difference between them, the speedy carnage of the former and the slow suspense of the latter, and I became an instant fan. Since then I've managed to track down just six more Miike movies, and in that same time he has made over forty (including videos and TV shows). The speed of his production fits perfectly with the personality of his movies. They're often nonsensical; I couldn't make heads or tails of two of his more recent pictures, Gozu and The Great Yokai War. And they're very definitely energetic, verging on crazy. He reminds me of the great German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who cranked out over 40 movies and TV shows in less than 15 years and died at the age of 37. Miike is now 48 and one wonders how much longer he can keep going before he combusts.

Miike's new movie, Sukiyaki Western Django, finds him making a slight change of pace. No, the movie is still crazy and fast and nearly unintelligible, but he has stopped for a moment to consider the work of other filmmakers. The movie is a tribute to Spaghetti Westerns, and especially Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (1964), which in turn was based on Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961). Remember Bono's taunt at the beginning of U2's cover version of "Helter Skelter"? ("This song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We're stealing it back.") This movie feels as if Miike is doing some stealing back of his own.

I like naked women, but that's not why I saw Hell Ride. Honestly, I had forgotten that naked women might be featured prominently. It was the motorcycles and the negative reviews from Sundance that hooked me (I'm a contrary fellow). I like 60s biker flicks, and because writer / director / co-star / Quentin Tarantino's friend Larry Bishop had been in some of them, I figured he could make an affectionate homage. Alas, while Bishop can indeed shoot the hell out of the motorcycle footage, it's the other 95% of the movie that's lazy and boring. What I learned: Bare breasts, slit throats, and roaring motorcycles do not a movie make, as I wrote elsewhere (in German). Also, I hate when critics are right.

Hoping to elevate my thinking, I happily joined friends for an afternoon screening of Love and Honor, a stately, well-composed drama that follows the plight of a samurai food-taster who goes blind. I never knew a samurai could be a food-taster, so that was educational, and I appreciated the (presumably) faithful historical depiction of a samurai marriage, which involves -- you guessed it! -- plenty of love and honor. Unfortunately, the combination of a turtle-like pace and too many beers the night before resulted in sonorous slumber (i.e. I was snoring like a Mack truck). What I learned: Don't see any movie described as "deliberately paced" unless you've ingested copious amounts of caffeine.

Later that night, horror flick The Signal definitely kept me awake with its razor-edged jumble of thrills, chills, and laughs. Despite a disappointing final 10 minutes, I really wish I'd listened to Scott and Eric D., who urged seeing this sick puppy in theaters. What I learned: Always keep a huge metal canister of bug spray handy.

What with the Olympics and the Batman and the pineapple express and the pants, you might be a little overloaded with things to watch this weekend. On the other hand, maybe you've seen all that and want something different. In that case, hooray for the Indie Spotlight! It's our weekly roundup of what's opening beyond the multiplexes, designed so movie fans can keep an eye out for those less-publicized titles.

There are eight indie films for you to examine this week: Beautiful Losers, Beer for My Horses, Bottle Shock, Elegy, Hell Ride, Patti Smith: Dream of Life, Red, and What We Do Is Secret. Here's the skinny on each of them.

Bottle Shock
What it is: A fictionalized account -- very heavily fictionalized, it would seem -- about the plucky California winery that managed to beat French wines in a blind taste test in 1976.
What they're saying: The reviews at Rotten Tomatoes are almost evenly split down the middle. My own take: It's the Two Buck Chuck of wine movies.
Where it's playing: Various places throughout Northern and Southern California, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Detroit, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston.
Official site: Take a sip.

Hell Ride
What it is: Executive-produced by Quentin Tarantino, it's Larry Bishop's homage to the sleazy biker movies of the early 1970s.
What they're saying: They're saying they hate it. Ten of the 12 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes are negative, and that includes the two from Cinematical, by James Rocchi and yours truly.
Where it's playing: Quite a few cities, actually; check out the map here.
Official site: Hop on, easy rider.