Liam Neeson has been cut from "The Hangover 2."

This news has been blasting around the web for a few days, as if it's some big deal but, here's the thing.

It's a damn cameo. Who cares?

Also, since when are cameos so greatly reported on? If the cameos are cast so openly (first it was Mel Gibson, then Neeson) then they no longer become cameos. Right? Aren't we supposed to be surprised by a cameo? Aren't they usually un-credited?

And Nick Cassavetes is an interesting filmmaker and all, but how does he work as a cameo? He's not exactly a face recognition star. No one watching "The Hangover" will know who he is. Well, they will now, since it's been reported on.

Ugh. Why not just hire Scott Baio, not report it to the press, and get it over with. That's a cameo.
 

Could this be true? For fans of "24," I'm sure many hope so. The news is based on a tweet, and we know how reliable those can be, but it sounds pretty solid.

Here's the details from EW:

"The news only gets better for fans who are anxiously awaiting the return of Jack Bauer: Uber-producer Brian Grazer recently tweeted that he’s on board for long-gestating 24 movie.

'Got off the phone Keifer yesterday and we are very excited about producing the 24 movie for next year,' he tweeted. Grazer’s involvement makes sense since Imagine Entertainment, the company he co-owns with Ron Howard, produced the long running action drama for Fox.

"Last month, Kiefer Sutherland told the women of The View that the movie will come out in 2012."

 

I love Woody Allen. But I really wish his movies would make me feel like this above image. Without a line of dialogue, this pretty much explains the struggles ones must go through in life. More on Woody, and his two upcoming movies later ...
 

This seems like a long time coming, but finally, Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci will be coveted with an honorary Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Here's more about it:

"The organizers of the Cannes Film Festival say they will honor Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci with an honorary Palme d'Or at the opening ceremony of this year's 11-day-long cinema extravaganza.

"The Palme d'Or is the festival's top prize, usually awarded by the jury to one of the films in competition. But honorary Palmes d'Or have been bestowed upon 'important filmmakers, whose work is authoritative' but who've never won the award, including Woody Allen in 2002 and Clint Eastwood in 2009.

"Cannes organizers said in a statement Monday that Bertolucci, director of 1978's "The Last Emperor" and 1982's 'Last Tango in Paris,' will be presented the award during the May 11 inauguration.

 

"Hesher" is the feature film debut of Spencer Susser, a movie that had everyone talking at last year's Sundance Film Festival. We've all been been eagerly awaiting an official release date and now the movie has one -- May 13.

But what of these stills? Well, they give you a look at the character of the movie, Hesher, played by Joseph Gordon Levitt (I love that everyone in the above image is doing what everyone would be doing -- staring) with long locks and home-made tattoos -- basically a look you'll see hitting every college campus in about two months (which will be refreshing). And the story? It sounds like a unique twist on the "magical character who enters everyone's lives" idea, this time, a strange metalhead with aggression issues who shows up one day and begins living with a grief stricken father (Rainn Wilson), his bullied son (Devin Brochu) and their tuned-out, elderly grandmother (Piper Laurie). If you've seen the trailer, you'll get the idea that the wisdom "Hesher" espouses involves setting things on fire and throwing stuff (again, also refreshing), which might be exactly what the family needs. Natalie Portman also appears.   

Check out more stills (Gordon Levitt with director Susser and another with Portman and Brochu) after the jump. I, for one, am stoked to see this.
 

So ... I thought the reviews for "Arthur" were bad. Not compared to David Gordon Green's "Your Highness" (starring Danny McBride, James Franco and Natalie Portman) -- the medieval stoner comedy is getting ransacked, robbed and pillaged.

Here's a few bad ones:

The Chicago Reader's J.R. Jones writes:

"Unwatchable-and, thanks to its high-decibel action sequences, barely listenable-this misbegotten medieval fantasy/stoner comedy marks a new low for David Gordon Green."

Variety's Peter Debruge writes:

"That skunky smell emanating from Your Highness ain't pot; it's the stink of miscalculation that surrounds an inside joke gone awry."

And finally Rolling Stone's Peter Travers (who usually likes everything) simply says:

"Nothing works. Nothing."

 

James Thurber's wonderful short story was already made into a movie, 1947's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" starring Danny Kaye, so could it improve with an update?

Ben Stiller might turn out to be the Mitty for the job.

Here's more from Huffington Post:

"Finally, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" will be exposed before the entire world.

According to Deadline, Ben Stiller is set to make the long-gestating film, based on the classic 1939 James Thurber short story, his next film. Stiller will star as the suburban man who daydreams himself into tales of heroism and adventure.

"One of Thurber's best short stories, it was made into a 1947 film starring Danny Kaye.

"A number of stars, including Jim Carrey and Will Ferrell, have been rumored to be interested in the part; Sacha Baron Cohen was most recently rumored to be in talks for the part, in April 2010.

 

With "Arthur" opening today (see reviews in below post), a movie about a famously charming sot, I'm looking at one of my favorite drunkards -- Ray Milland in Billy Wilder's "The Lost Weekend."

If "Arthur's" not your bag, do check this one out. I can guarantee you it's a better movie.


Billy Wilder's dipso-masterpiece "The Lost Weekend" is a film I watch so often that I can't see a glass ring on a bar table without thinking of Milland (screw cocktail napkins and coasters). I'm not exactly sure why I must view Milland and bottle so often and yet, I do, especially in the wee-hours when I'm suffering from insomnia. And there's been a lot of sleepless nights. I suppose there are obvious reasons why the film is so engrossing -- it's a deserved classic and Ray Milland is funny, tragic, sexy, mean spirited, sneaky -- everything an alcoholic you would know and, unfortunately, love would act like. I get that. (I manage to love drunks). And then there's the story, an important chronicle within the history of addiction movies, and one Wilder chose to relay not as a tired warning tale, but in part, as a clever horror movie -- creepy, potent use of Theremin and all.

The movie is oddly humorous, but tough and rough and sad and erotic (drugs and booze are turn-ons, and Milland is a seduction). It's a nice cross-pollination of Wilder's wonderfully cynical sense of humor and seriousness towards his subject. He seems to both love and hate Mr. Milland, and we are right there with him, questioning, in my case, such deep attraction to the movie.

Why is Ray Milland such a lovable jerk, beyond his charming, deceptive alchy ways? Why is Jane Wyman so adorable and yet irritating (could it all simply be that beautiful leopard coat!)? Why does Wilder hand him dishy Doris Dowling ("I'm just crazy about the locks of your hair") and he isn't allowed one wild bender with the woman? Why is that drunken hallucination at the opera so damn horrifying and hilarious and flat-out entertaining to the point of yearning for some D.T.'s? Why do I get a simultaneous kinky kick and a chill when Milland is confronted by the dry out nurse Bim in that oh-so homoerotic episode? (OK that one's easy to answer).