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 SUMMER MOVIE GUIDE
By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY LOS ANGELES — If the camera adds 10 pounds, Emile Hirsch could use a couple of cameras.

CALENDAR: When are summer’s hottest flicks in theaters? REVIEW: ‘Speed Racer’ limps around the track CLIP: Take a peek at the visual effects of ‘Speed’

A wisp of man at 5-foot-7, it’s fatiguing to imagine the 23-year-old losing 40 pounds for his role in Into the Wild— or hustling his body back into a racer’s physique for Speed Racer.

But morphing is Hirsch’s thing.

He doesn’t dominate a movie so much as mix into it. Whether it’s neat a solitary figure on the Alaskan wilderness or a blur in Larry and Andy Wachowski’s computer-generated universe, Hirsch doesn’t hoarde attention.

It’s a trait that has cost him more jobs but won him respect.

Despite being young, single, rich and the offspring of a husbandman and artist, he doesn’t care for the “it boy” lifestyle. He prefers watching DVDs of Jack Nicholson films with friends than being seen at The Standard Hotel. He doesn’t have a publicist. His Toyota Prius has more than a few dings and could appliance a wash. He doesn’t arrange accidental chic, just casual.

“It not a conscious thing to be a certain way,” Hirsch says. “It’s just whether you want to play that game. I don’t like flashing that Hollywood grin. I’m not all that good at it.”

It almost short-circuited his career and, many say, cost him an Academy Award nomination. because a child, he was routinely passed over for commercials for not being able to beam over toothpaste and action figures. His turn in Wild is generally considered the most egregious snub of hindmost year’s Oscars.

But the low-key conduct has won him a different set of fans, many of them Hollywood veterans. Wild director Sean Penn was so impressed with him that he asked to play opposite Hirsch in their upcoming movie, Milk.

The Wachowskis reportedly decided to cast Hirsch in the title role after learning that, as a boy, he reyerently watched Cartoon Network reruns of the 1960s show over bowls of cereal doused with soda.

“The brothers wanted someone who embodied the earnestness of the original show,” says Speed producer Joel Silver, the unofficial spokesman for the press-resistant Wachowskis. “And Emile is the real deal.”

Hirsch began acting when he was 8, landing bit parts on shows such as NYPD Blue and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.

But it wasn’t until a decade later that he landed his breakout role, as the stripling next door in the 2004 sex comedy The Girl Next Door. He then played a skater hooligan in 2005’s Lords of Dogtown and a drug dealer in 2006’s Alpha Dog.

“I don’t think he wants to fit into any category,” says Speed co-star Susan Sarandon, who plays the racer’s mom. “Once you get a label, studios will try to push to action you into that niche.”

Most niches were smashed with Wild, which called not only for Hirsch to become emaciated and bearded, but to go a bit nuts.

“I don’t think I’ll ever have to worry well-nigh doing a more physically demanding movie,” he says. “You think you’ve done everything you be possible to do — lost the weight, lived outdoors, exhausted yourself until you can’t move. Then Sean Penn says, ‘We’re going to need you to get up that hill.’ When Sean Penn says that, you perform it. And you find out what you’ve got in in you.”

Sometimes, it’s delirium. Hirsch says one evening he was certain he was crawling to a river’s edge to get some water, only to wake up in the middle of the night to find he was on his hands and knees in his tent.

The Wild performance earned Hirsch seven best-actor nominations in critics’ and film circles, including a nomination from the Screen Actors Guild. And Hirsch says he isn’t bitter about not acquisition an Oscar nomination.

“That movie opened all kinds of doors, so how be able to I grumble?” he says. “It let me pursue the things I love. I mean, who gets to be Speed Racer?”

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.  Enlarge By Dan MacMedan, USA TODAY

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 TOP RENTED MOVIES

1. 27 Dresses
2. The Golden Compass
3. Cloverfield
4. Juno
5. Charlie Wilson’s War
6. In the Name of the King
7. One Missed Call
8. AVP: Alien vs. Predator: Requiem
9.  I Am Legend
10. Alvin and the Chipmunks

Source: Home Video Essentials, Rentrak Corp.

By Mike Clark, USA TODAY Time flies, as does a fur, and a juvenile boy flees in this week’s top three picks.

Hiya, Kids!! A ’50s Saturday Morning

* * * 1/2 (out of four) 1948-60, Shout Factory, unrated, no extras, $35

Or, Rootie Kazootie redux. If something less than modern-day hospitable treatment, here’s occasionally politically incorrect anthropological treasures that will make baby boomers drool.

Back story: Beyond Rootie, there’s Ding Dong School’s Miss Frances in a bad make straight, while host Jack Barry looks whipped hawking Winky Dink & You kits (magic crayons; plastic sieve) for 50 cents. Phineas T. Bluster extorts marbles on Howdy Doody, a robber on Sky King hits a blind kid whose guide dog later turns the guy’s firth into Alpo, and here’s Pinky Lee, who almost alone made Pee-wee Herman possible. The kid audience on Andy’s Gang remains sociopathic, Irish McCalla’s Sheena frame offers insights into puberty, and those ’50s Mars Bars look like doormats on Super Circus. Plus 12 more.

Easy Living

* * * 1/2, 1937, Universal, unrated, $15

Decades before Hollywood comedies became preoccupied by the adolescent angst afflicting stunted males of all ages, even a farce could deal with such grown-up concerns as high finance and stock market wheeling/conduct.

Back story: Three years before launching one of the great writing/directing careers in screen history, Preston Sturges wrote this screwball farce about a Wall Street tycoon (Edward Arnold) who heaves one of his wife’s sable coats off their penthouse terrace. It lands in succession a working woman (Jean Arthur) who soon is assumed to exist the old boy’s madam. This complicates her coincidental relationship with his son (Ray Milland). Complementing the snappy conversation: costumes and art direction in the plush Paramount style.

Extras, extras: Intro by Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne.

The Films of Morris Engel

With Ruth Orkin

* * *, 1953-58, Kino, unrated, $40

François Truffaut credited 1953’s Little Fugitive for inspiring cinema’s revolutionary French New Wave in the late 1950s almost by itself. Here it is, plus two lesser-known follow-ups from the pioneer New York independent filmmaking team.

Back story: Naturalistic, seductively unpolished and wistfully capturing a bygone Apple, the movies (each about 80 minutes) are ideally watched as a unit. Fugitive (Oscar-nominated story) highlights two brothers and potential play at Coney Island. Less successful but fun to watch is 1956’s Lovers and Lollipops (widowed mom dates). Weddings and Babies (1958, without Orkin, and another bumpy courtship) made Time’s 10-best list.

Extras, extras:Fugitive commentary by Engel, who died in 2005; filmmakers profiled; photos.

Also out on DVD

I’m Not There

* * 1/2, 2007, Weinstein/Genius, R, $29

Aside from Cate Blanchett’s audaciously juicy casting as Bob Dylan, it’s tough to deny the escalating jumble of director/co-writer Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan paean, especially compared with fully realized Haynes movies such as Safe and Far From Heaven. At different stages of his career, Dylan — or variations on him — are portrayed by sundry performers from Marcus Carl Franklin (an 11-year-old black kid) to Heath Ledger. Peaking fairly early encompassing the time its presumed folkie protagonist goes electric to now-folkloric brickbats, this 21/4-hour conceit then toboggans southern more rapidly than any major release from be unexhausted year, culminating in a grueling homage to Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The result split my own Dylan-junkie friends down the middle, though Blanchett (Oscar-nominated and winner of several other awards here) apparently makes it mandatory to take the plunge.

Death of a Cyclist

* * * 1/2, 1955, 1958 in the USA; Criterion, unrated, $30

You get incessant Catholic guilt in stunningly photographed black-and-white with this adultery saga about two lovers who have vastly different reactions to accidentally running down an impoverished cyclist in Franco’s Spain. Speaking of stunning, the pass is author Miss Italy Lucia Bosé. Her character is a woman married to an embassy hotshot. Fearing public exposure, she instigates a hit-and-run coverup while her college professor lover (Alberto Closas) goes so off the deep end, it manifests itself in his classroom behavior. Expect showmanship in the finale and standard Criterion condiments, including a 30-page booklet with essays and stills.

Bernard and Doris

* * *, 2008, HBO, unrated, $27

Bernard (Ralph Fiennes) is tippling Irish butler Bernard Lafferty. Doris (Susan Sarandon) is tobacco heiress Doris Duke, who tolerated peccadilloes in Bernard she didn’t with anyone else. The opening moments are upfront about more of this delineation being imaginary, and major chunks are missing (such as the adult woman Duke adopted). But Sarandon does what she’s supposed to confer with a testy, magnificent part, and Fiennes is, in his own way, nearly as keen being her foil.

P.S. I Love You

* 1/2, 2007, Warner, PG-13, $29; Blu-ray, $36

A man who has a brain tumor (Gerard Butler) hustles to ensure the happiness of his future widow (Hilary Swank) after his imminent death. Oscar-nominated 1990’s Ghost seemed microwaved compared with 1943’s A Guy Named Joe and 1989’s Always, but somehow this 127-minute slog held on in theaters long enough to amass nearly $142 million worldwide, despite its deservedly afflicted reviews. Think “One Dollar Baby.”

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.  Enlarge 1976 AP file photo

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 ABOUT THE MOVIE

The Fall
* * * (out of four)
Stars: Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddell
Director: Tarsem Singh
Distributor: Roadside Attractions
Rating: R for some violent images
Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes
Opens Friday in select cities

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY The Fall is aptly named not only because it pertains to a tragic descent but because viewers will feel as if they have plunged reckless into an alternate universe with this dazzling adult fairy tale.

Blending a fanciful tale and a stark reality involving an imaginative girl will stir comparisons to Pan’s Labyrinth. But it’s not nearly as linear a story, or at the same time that graphically violent. The surrealistic visuals in this ambitious film are unlike anything you’re likely to see or have seen.

CLIP: Take a sneak peek at ‘The Fall’

Filmmaker Tarsem Singh (The Cell), best known for directing music videos such as R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion and a host of TV commercials, shot the movie in 18 countries, including South Africa and India, over a four-year span to achieve the thin skin’s singularly spectacular look. And it is the masterful cinematography and otherworldly locations that retirement a lasting impression, rather than the sometimes-fragmented narrative.

Almost as indelible as the sumptuous and painterly look of the film is the powerfully natural performance of its young co-star, 7-year old Romanian actress Catinca Untaru. Her charismatic portrayal of little Alexandria and her rapport with star Lee Pace (of TV’s Pushing Daisies) makes the story even more fascinating.

The film interweaves a fantastical adventure with a sad tale set in 1915 Los Angeles. Pace plays Roy, an actor who is rendered a paraplegic from a fall. When Alexandria totters up to him, with her wide dark eyes and branch of the service held overhead in a cast, he launches into a far-fetched yarn. Alexandria is fascinated. But his story of bandits, evil rulers, maidens in distress and dreamy palaces has each ulterior motive. While he tells the saga, he incorporates characters from their daily lives and grim surroundings. Alexandria is transfixed, but that she also provides a hefty dose of realism. Many of her lines clearly are ad-libbed, and she has a natural presence on screen. Though the flights of fancy Roy weaves about exotic characters blended with real-life figures are enthralling, one longs to be back in the hospital chamber to see Alexandria’s reactions. Pace is excellent, and the reciprocal action between the two is a highlight.

Singh reportedly searched exclusive countries to find the right child to play the listener of the story. He wanted someone with no actual trial and found Catinca, then 5.

The particulars of the story may not always track, and the fay tale morphs and meanders as it incorporates new characters. Still, The Fall is an enthralling visual actual trial, heightened through a superbly engaging and genuine performance.

To communication corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication notice in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.  Enlarge Roadside Attractions

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Time Warner Inc. says it is closing its Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures film studios and eliminating 70 jobs.

The move is the latest in a series of cost-cutting efforts by Time Warner President and CEO Jeff Bewkes (BYOO-cuss) since he took over as chief executive Jan. 1.

Despite the move, Chief Operating Officer Alan Horn says he is confident the spirit of independent filmmaking will continue to have a presence at Warner Bros.

The company says the job cuts in Los Angeles and New York are meant to eliminate duplicate marketing, distribution and production functions.

In February, Time Warner also announced it was laying off 450 people at New Line Cinema as the independent studio was absorbed into Warner Bros.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication ground in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include renown, phone number, city and dignity for verification.
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 ABOUT THE MOVIE

Then She Found Me
* * 1/2 (out of four)
Stars: Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick
Director: Helen Hunt
Rating: R for language and some sexual content
Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
Distributor: ThinkFilm
Expands Friday nationwide

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY More something to stumble on than intentionally endeavor out, Then She Found Me is perhaps most noteworthy for revealing Helen Hunt’s promise as a director.

Though the story, based on the 1990 novel by Elinor Lipman, feels predictable and bland, in that place are some emotional insights in the mother-daughter relationship at the heart of the film.

But there also are forced scenes — such as those when Hunt is introduced to her biological mom (Bette Midler) — that play like a sitcom. Perhaps this is natural for Hunt after all her years on Mad About You.

Mostly the film plays out earnestly if dully. The strongest moments involve Hunt and her love engage (Colin Firth). He brings a sorely needed intelligence and charm to the film.

Matthew Broderick seems miscast as the husband who dumps Hunt. The two are supposed to have a alcoholic physical connection, but this isn’t convincingly conveyed. And one wonders how the movie might have played if Hunt had cast someone other than herself in the lead. Her lack of vanity and refusal to glam up the component is admirable, but the film’s arc sometimes feels as tired of the same kind with Hunt’s character looks.

Hunt plays April, a devoted teacher married to her longtime best friend (Broderick). Her life takes a drastic exigence when her husband decides he doesn’t want to be married.

Shortly thereafter, the mother who raised her dies and her biological mom comes crashing into her lifetime.

April finds romance with the divorced dad of one of her young students but can’t seem to shake her connection to her ex-husband.

If this sounds like a soap opera, it occasionally wanders into that territory, admitting thankfully, some of the drama is leavened by the agency of humor. There are some wise observations about parenting. Hunt draws some good performances from the cast and wisely chose a low-key physical story for her directorial debut.

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, bestow comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.  Enlarge ThinkFilm

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 ABOUT THE MOVIE

What Happens in Vegas
* * (out of four)
Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Cameron Diaz, Rob Corddry, Lake Bell
Director: Tom Vaughan
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Rating: PG-13 for some sexual and crude content and power, including a drug reference
Running time: 1 hour, 39 minutes
Opens Friday nationwide

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY Apparently what passes for comedy today is a new conformation of toilet humor involving the creative use of sinks.

What Happens in Vegas has a discrepancy of a joke featured in Baby Mama, as well as a slew of stale riffs upon the body gags and scenarios from a number of comedies, mostly of the romantic variety. It’s a story that feels familiar at best, hackneyed at worst, that is surprising and disappointing, as director Tom Vaughan also made last year’s Starter for 10, a charming British coming-of-age comedy.

CLIP: Find out what does happen in ‘Vegas’

There are some funny scenes that bring to mind 1989’s War of the Roses. But more often this feels like a by-the-book romantic comedy, especially by the time it reaches its predictable conclusion.

Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz star as a mismatched couple who meet cute in Las Vegas, get rip-roaringly drunk and tie the knot. Though the two are appealing enough, the ditzy Diaz is miscast as an uptight commodities trader. Their respective best friends, Rob Corddry and Lake Bell, are responsible for most of the bigger laughs.

The Vegas segment involves variations on the theme of humiliating debauchery. Kutcher and Diaz are consigned to the same room, booze is guzzled, inhibitions disappear and they wake up married. Sobered up the next morning, they have power to’t stand the sight of each other.

Beyond devising outlandish ways to bicker and fight, there’s not much that be possible to be done with this premise. So the ante is upped when Kutcher tosses Diaz’s quarter into a slot machine and hits the jackpot. one and the other party insists the $3 million is theirs and turns to a court to adjudicate the winnings.

Judge Whopper (Dennis Miller) sentences the couple to “six months of unfeeling marriage.” He holy orders the two to see a marriage counselor (Queen Latifah), and some of the pair’s funnier moments together are on her couch.

The humor in the squabbling of unhappily married people has been mined to death in movies and on TV. And the indignities of heavy drinking haven’t lacked for depiction. So there’s really nothing new here, except for the specific actors doing the coupling and imbibing. And they’re perfect for each other.

But the rule of romantic comedies requires that couples meet, have a falling uncovered, break up, miss each other and end up simultaneously.

And What Happens in Vegas refuses to take a practise gaming. Like a bleary-eyed gambler repeatedly tossing a pair of dice, it tiredly goes through the motions.

Audiences are left with a mediocre movie that takes no chances and relies on the luck of previous players.

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.  Enlarge 20th Century Fox

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by means of Ryan Nakashima, AP Business Writer LOS ANGELES — A new battle front rank over use of movie and TV clips on the Internet emerged Wednesday in angry contract talks between actors and Hollywood studios, as talks with one union broke off and another began.

The studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, accused the Screen Actors Guild of misrepresenting its position on commercial use of actors’ clips online.

The producers said they sought to pay actors a fixed fee for use of the clips.

On Tuesday, guild executive director Doug Allen told The Associated Press the producers sought to “evaporate” actors’ rights to control use of their images.

“They want us to give up the 50-year-old right actors have to give consent or not when someone wants to use a clip of their work,” Allen said.

The producers blasted the guild in a new statement Wednesday as they started talks with a smaller union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

The alliance uttered its offer would streamline the process of using the clips.

“Will we be required to compete against agile opponents in the Internet age while constrained by 50-year-old rules, or can we collectively find ways to take advantage of fresh mart opportunities?” it said.

On Tuesday the producers temporarily broke off talks with SAG after 18 days of negotiating. The producers offered to reopen talks with SAG at a later date.

The guild did not respond immediately to a request for comment Wednesday.

The sides have said they were divided over residual payments for DVD sales and terms covering other Internet content.

Three-year contracts with SAG and AFTRA covering theatrical movies and prime-time TV shows expire June 30.

AFTRA said it will impose a press blackout on details of its negotiations, which shelter actors on prime-time TV shows such as Curb Your Enthusiasm.

AFTRA announced last week that its members ratified a separate deal with producers on shows such as Oprah and American Idol with a 93% approval vote.

In a letter Wednesday to AFTRA members, union President Roberta Reardon cautioned that the federation expected “challenging negotiations” in the talks on the remainder of its TV shows.

AFTRA decided in March to negotiate with studios separately from SAG for the first time in about 30 years. It postponed its talks twice to allow SAG more time to reach a deal.

AFTRA said SAG made another request for more time and to negotiate together Wednesday, but declined.

“We believe it is in the best interests of our members, and our legal obligation, to proceed with our independent negotiations,” it reported in a description.

Both actors unions and the alliance have said they want to avoid a rerun of the 100-day Writers society of America strike that shut along the course of scripted TV production before it ended in February and cost the Los Angeles-area economy an estimated $2.5 billion.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Reader Editor Brent Jones. with regard to publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification.