Some might question whether Brideshead Revisited, the classic novel by Evelyn Waugh, needed to be revisited in a film adaptation; the novel, after all, has been adapted once before in a lengthy and well-beloved British television serial. Fortunately for fans of Waugh's work, this film version of Brideshead, directed by Julian Jarrold (Kinky Boots, Becoming Jane) off a screenplay written by Jeremy Brock and Andrew Davies, is beautifully shot, painstakingly directed, and well worth watching. For the most part, the filmmakers avoid mutilating Waugh's work, although the end result does place a greater emphasis on certain aspects (romance) and limit or eliminate others altogether (the brilliantly written discourses on religion and love that permeate the book).

The film is shot in Castle Howard, also the setting for the miniseries version, and Brideshead itself is a majestic, imposing character that looms over all who encounter it. The screenplay is rather a masterful adaptation; the film handles the compression of years through the storyline with a bit of book-ended time-jumping to both introduce us to the lead characters and close out the story, and Brock and Davies do an able job of whittling the story down to meet the needs of a cinematic experience without losing the feel of Waugh's novel in the process.

Honestly, by now, I think we've all lost that lovin' feeling.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least to hear that folks were mulling a sequel to the 1986 romantic fighter jet flick. Not only are sequels to older films hot these days (see: Indiana Jones 4, Rocky 6, Die Hard 4), but Tom Cruise could provide a real boost to his rep if he were to revisit the character that kinda made him. Whether or not it would actually turn out to be a good movie is a whole different conversation. First off, according to those extremely reliable cats at The Sun, a script outline for Top Gun 2 is done and "movie bosses" want Cruise to star.

Apparently a source said this about the plot: "The idea is Maverick is at the Top Gun school as an instructor - and this time it is he who has to deal with a cocky new female pilot." Ooohh, original ... and spicy! It's like Karate Kid 4 meets A Really Big Paycheck for Tom Cruise! And yet ... we'd all still see it. Why are we such suckers? We currently have no idea how real this rumor is, so for the time being I wouldn't exactly break out into song and dance. Maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't.

What say you? Could this be the sequel we've subconsciously been waiting for our entire lives?

Sometimes it really does seem like Hollywood is out to ruin everything I have ever held dear. I know that's a bit of an overstatement, but every time a piece of news like this crosses my path, I can't help but take it personally. The Hollywood Reporter announced that MGM is developing a musical version of the 1983 romantic comedy, Valley Girl. If you haven't seen the original, then get thee to a Blockbuster because it's pretty damn awesome.

Valley Girl was directed by Martha Coolidge and starred Deborah Foreman and Nicolas Cage as a pair of star-crossed lovers in the San Fernando Valley. Besides being one of the better teen movies to come out of the '80s, Valley Girl also had one of the best soundtracks around. According to THR, MGM is planning on combining the "Romeo and Juliet-style narrative of the original into a musical colored by re-imagined classic '80s tunes." So I guess it just gets worse, because I am not looking forward to a 're-imagined' Melt with You.

The Valley Girl update is just the latest in a series of remakes announced by MGM as they raid their back catalog for anything they can get their hands on. Considering MGM was home of the musical for many years, I understand that it makes sense to carry on the tradition, but why did they have to pick on Valley Girl?

So in honor of all things valley, I'll give my review a little prematurely: Gag me with a spoon.

I'm slightly mistrustful of titles that include exclamation points. They always remind me of the musical version of The Elephant Man, Elephant!, in The Tall Guy ("... there's an angel with big eeears..."). But in the case of Mamma Mia!, I'm actually surprised the title only included one exclamation point -- you can imagine the filmmakers or the creators of the stage version embracing even more emphatic punctuation, just to let you know that This! Is a Musical! And also Wacky!! As if chorus lines of men in flippers, Meryl Streep waving a feather boa, and enough ABBA music to sate the leads of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert wouldn't have clued you in.

The movie, like the stage musical it's adapted from, is essentially and unabashedly an extended gimmick -- an excuse to sing and perform songs that originated from the Swedish musical group ABBA. Characters spontaneously burst into song not because they're aspiring performers (Chicago), or because their singing is meant as a melodious soliloquy (Sweeney Todd), but because the situation or their emotional state reminds them of an ABBA song (sometimes more tangentially than others), and they decide to share it with everyone. I've had friends like this in real life, although that seems to have been a college-age thing.

What do you get when you merge a dork with a saucy ex-13-year-old and a tough, star-tattooed fighter of evil?

Variety reports that DJ Qualls, Nikki Reed, and William Sadler have signed on for an indie comedy by Vlad Yudin called Last Day of Summer. The film, which has a SAG waiver and is already in production in the Big Apple, focuses on an an agitated dude who works at a fast-food place. When he can't take it anymore, he plans to get revenge on his boss, but finds the plan disrupted by a beautiful customer that drops by. I'll take a wild guess and say that Qualls is the worker, Sadler is the boss, and Reed is the customer. It may be a crap job, but at least you know that if Billy Zane comes to kill you, Sadler can fight him off.

So, we know that Reed is getting vampiric these days with Twilight, and Sadler is taking a trip to The Hills Run Red, but what about Qualls? Do you even remember the guy? I had totally forgotten his name, but this is the dorky dude who played Kyle on Road Trip and starred in The New Guy. Remember? Is it time for a Qualls comeback!?

A new poster of The Duchess has appeared online, exclusive to ComingSoon.net.There's a snip of it to the right, and if you click on the lovely Keira Knightley, you'll be taken to the blindingly enormous version.

It's a stunning poster, although I think they could have lightened up on the airbrushing, as Knightley looks appallingly plastic. The dress, however, excuses all sorts of Photoshop sins. You know how I love my lush costumes, and The Duchess promises to have loads of gorgeous, frothy items. (One of my favorite sites, The Costumer's Guide to Movie Costumes, has a whole page devoted to it already. I want that fox hunting outfit for my own, but I'm not sure what to do with it since I don't hunt foxes. Or ride horses.)

But that's the big question about the film, isn't it? Will the movie actually say something relevant about Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire? She was quite the figure in her own time; as the official press release notes, she was a leader of the progressive Whig Party, and an active political campaigner in an era when women couldn't even vote. The comparisons to her descendant, Princess Diana, are apt -- but both women would probably agree that such remarks are a bit glib. The movie marketing, however, is trading on that fact very heavily. I remain excited, but historical dramas can only go one of two ways: wonderful or awful. There's no in-between.

The Duchess opens September 19th, 2008.

I've been to a few conventions before, here in Philly, a couple in New York, and one hazy weekend in legendary Mesquite, Texas. Horror, sci-fi, comic books, and tons of awesome geeks enjoying their own personal flavor of colorful nerd-dom. I enjoy these events, even though my own style of fandom prohibits me from dressing up like Bib Fortuna or Jayne Cobb. (I like to be amicably cynical at these events, so if I happen to make fun of your Buffy costume, please understand it's all in good fun.)

So this past weekend I spent a little while perusing through the San Diego Comic-Con schedule, and here's what I've got a red circle on:

-- First off, I will try to interview the female lead of Fox's The Day the Earth Stood Still remake. I'll be bringing a pair of defibrillator paddles just in case she smiles while I'm in the room.

-- There's an event focusing on the new thriller Mirrors, which I wasn't that psyched for -- until I remembered who the director was. Plus if you don't like Kiefer Sutherland I suspect you're an evil communist robot.

-- The Masters of the Web Panel is either going to be hilarious or it's going to devolve into the geekiest bar brawl you've ever seen. Our own Erik Davis will be discussing the state of internet movie nerd-dom with guys from JoBlo's, CHUD, AICN, IESB, Bloody-Dee, The Movie Blog, Movieweb, Latino Review, and (of course!) Dark Horizons. And since I know most of those lunatics, this should be one amusing little discussion panel.

These days, genre has been boiled down into such simplistic forms that it becomes a buzz-worthy feat when a film manages to pull off more than just a basic premise. A superhero film becomes wow-worthy if time was taken to perfect the story and actors. A comedy becomes rare if it includes a lot of smarts with the slapstick. A romance becomes one of a kind if its characters don't fit into the almost-always-used conventions.

This latter one is a true sore spot of mine. For the most part, romance and relationships have been boiled down to such ridiculous stereotypes that all romcoms sound ridiculous and anything with romance gets the "chick flick" badge. But romance isn't all that stereotypes would have you believe. It's not all clutzy or irrational women, fashion, game playing, and vast gender divides. Sometimes, the romance is even infused with smarts, success, and tangible connection. In praise of my favorite romances, I give you: Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.

I remember, during an advance screening of The Promotion, I was standing in the movie theater and there were women everywhere. This was about a week or so after Sex and the City came out -- and it was right smack in the middle of the week -- but there were still tons of women, all done up and what not. I joked to my friend that this "tons of nice looking women standing in a movie theater lobby in the middle of a random weekday without any men" was kinda similar to a lunar eclipse, in that it rarely happens. If I were a dating councelor, I'd have recommended my male clients to get the hell over to a Sex and the City screening pronto.

Luckily, single men will most likely have another opportunity to mingle with the SATC crowd over a tub of popcorn and a sexy Dr. Pepper as Entertainment Weekly reports a sequel to Sex and the City is already in development and is apparently being fast-tracked by Warner Brothers (New Line put out the first flick). Michael Lombardo, president of HBO's programming group, told folks during a press tour that "there's a lot of energy behind doing another SATC movie." However, one inside source claims Sarah Jessica Parker and her lady friends are a little hesitant because they don't want to rush into things and disappoint fans. Assuming they add another villain to the mix so that it's not just Spacey's Lex Luthor, I'm sure everything will be fine. Oh wait, wrong franchise.

So who wants another Sex and the City movie?

There are not enough obscenities in the English language to describe how much I hated -- hated, hated, hated -- this spring's "romantic" "comedy" Made of Honor. The completely nonsensical title was far from the worst of it. The movie hadn't the remotest notion of humor, or romance, or the way human beings behave. I don't remember another time I've been that irritated and embarrassed in a movie theater. It was honestly one of the worst wide releases I've ever seen. Ever.

But it was mildly profitable. Which means that the people behind it have careers in Hollywood. One of those people is screenwriter Adam Sztykiel. And Walden Media has just picked up a pitch from him to write a family comedy called Housebroken, about a motley group of talking animals forced to live under one roof when their owners move in together. The animals will be computer-animated, of course, interacting with live-action adult protagonists. And moving their lips in that grotesque way movie talking animals do.

In a statement about the newly announced project, the CEO of Walden let us know what he thinks of America's children. In lauding his company's enlightened approach to family entertainment, he described Housebroken as "a great conceptual comedy with relatable family issues for adults and talking animals for kids." 'Cause that's all kids want or need when they go to the movies: talking animals. Man, thank God for Pixar.