With special guest critic
Orson Welch

Hello commune readers, and welcome to mile three of the Orson Welch movie-review marathon. Can we make it to the finish line? Nobody knows, and even fewer care, but still we trek bravely onward. Not even the howls of derisive mockery, nor the constant flood of hateful emails can get us down. Nor being refused entry to the commune’s main offices for not “feeling like a nut” and then returning to our mother’s car to find it literally wallpapered with parking tickets, as if parking on top of the median is on par with a serious act of terrorism. Nay, commune readers, we shant be dissuaded, so stop trying to dissuade us… meaning yourselves… okay, meaning me. Quit fucking with me. I’m just trying to do my job here, and your precious idiot-savant Roland McShyster isn’t back yet, so just step off my jock and let’s be civil about this, okay? Great. Now for the movies.

In Theaters

Cabin Fever
According to the note Roland McShyster left on my windshield, Cabin Fever is “The taxi-cab industry’s winningly botched attempt at creating a new cultural fad, making kids think it’s cool to take a cab absolutely everywhere, even to cross the street to get a newspaper.” Right. I can see why you people love this guy so much. Morons.

In actuality, Cabin Fever is a bastardized cross between The Blair Witch Project and 28 Days Later, two bastards who certainly didn’t need to cross-breed. Look, any time a movie’s selling point is “at least it didn’t cost much to make,” you know you’re in trouble. See Robert Rodriguez, below.

Matchstick Men
So Ted Griffin wakes up one morning, and realizes “Oh shit, I wrote Ravenous!” Thank God nobody noticed. But just to be on the safe side, he hurries up and writes Best Laid Plans and Ocean’s Eleven to cover his tracks. Good move. Keep ‘em laughing about that Ted Nugent’s shirt joke and nobody will bother to ask where exactly you came from. And now you can stop padding your resume by pointing out that your grandma was in Jazz Mad back in 1928. Bonus.

But then Ted finally breaks down and listens to his brother Nick’s stupid idea for a movie called Matchbox Men about some little tiny guys who drive those die-cast toy cars, which he’s been going on about for years. And in a moment of fraternal weakness, Ted actually agrees to co-write the movie with his brother, on the condition that they drop the stupid slot-car angle. Bad move. I mean, good that they dropped the slot cars, bad that they wrote the movie at all. How either of these guys is related to Ridley Scott is anybody’s guess, but he must’ve got too comfortable thinking people had finally forgotten about Legend and he could safely squeak out another turd here. Look for all these guys to do some great work in the near future to try and cover up this burnt spot on the rug.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Here’s an interesting question: How do you follow up a movie that’s famous for being made on a shoestring budget of $7,000 you earned by selling your body to science? If you’re Robert Rodriguez and the movie is 1992’s El Mariachi, you spend another $7,000 on a mediocre sequel and save the rest of your Hollywood budget to secretly make a bizarre spy movie starring your neighbor’s kids. Hollywood caught on, of course, and as punishment made Rodriguez direct The Faculty in 1998, even sneaking Bebe Neuwirth into the cast as a not-so-subtle “fuck you” to Rodriguez. The director got the last laugh however, when his spy movie hit a Teletubbied nerve and Spy Kids was a hit, spawning two sequels. And as the final cumshot in Hollywood’s marmalade, Rodriguez has made another El Mariachi sequel, yet again for $7,000, and has spent the rest of the budget fixing up his house. Now I’m not saying you should go see the movie, but you’ve got to admire those balls.

Secondhand Lions
Okay, first off: Contrary to the message Roland McShyster has been leaving on various office voice mails, this picture is not a pathetic biopic of pathetic film critic Jeffrey Lyons. Though, admittedly, it would probably have been better if it were. Instead, it’s a piece of hilarious shit that tries to pass off the anthropologically old Robert Duvall and Michael Caine as endearing elderly gay curmudgeons charged with raising a precocious young tyke played with Haley Joel Osment. Thanks to the combined age and lifeless performance of his co-stars, I think it’s safe to say that Osment is, yet again, seeing dead people. About as likeable as someone else’s anal cavity, Secondhand Lions will leave you wanting more, more reasons to live and for the love of God keep ‘em coming fast.

Underworld
Here’s a “chicken-or-the-egg?” riddle for you: Did the fact that Len Wiseman is engaged to Kate Beckinsale get the former prop-lackey his first real gig, writing and directing the bad rubber-werewolf opus Underworld? Or was it Wiseman’s involvement that dragged actress Beckinsale into the project and Ike Turnered her into accepting the lead role? If the later is true, we can only imagine what Wiseman talks Beckinsale into in bed, good gravy! The formerly sort of respectable cockney chick-flick queen takes a running broad jump into poop with this ill-advised comic book romp, based on somebody’s stoned idea of what a comic book about Halloween would be like. Cross The Matrix with Dark City and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, then have somebody with a serious head injury try to tell you about all three of them at once, and you’ll have something close to Underworld. Only that would be better since it probably wouldn’t take two hours or cost eight bucks. The choice is yours.

That’s all we’ve got to sink our fangs into this week, commune readers. Here’s hoping you find something tangy to suck on until next issue’s column. Until then, I’ll be keeping my fingertips peeled bringing you the sad, sad best Hollywood has to offer. Take care!

September 1, 2003
The Backyard, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Jeepers Creepers 2, The Order, Party Monster

August 18, 2003
American Splendor, Freddy vs. Jason, Grind, Open Range, Shaolin Soccer, Uptown Girls

August 4, 2003
American Wedding, Fucking Friday, Gigli, The Secret Lives of Dennis, S.W.A.T.

July 21, 2003
Bed Boys II, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Rock the Cradle of Love, Seabiscuit, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

July 7, 2003
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde, Pirates of the Caribbean The Ride The Movie: The Curse of the Black Pearl Harbor, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Sequel, Terminator 3: Rise of the Meatheads

June 23, 2003
28 Days Later, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Jet Lag, When Harry Met Lloyd: Dumb and Dumberer

June 9, 2003
2 Fast 2 Furious, Daniel Day-Car, Hollywood Homicide, The In-Laws, The Italian Job, Love the Hard Way, Rugrats Gone Wild

May 26, 2003
The Matrix Rebooted, Finding Remo, Bruised Almighty, The Hoke, Downey with Love

May 12, 2003
The Lizzie McGuire Movie, Owning Mahowny, The Real Cancun, Whale Rider, X2: X-Men United

April 28, 2003
Anger Management, Bulletproof Monkey, Holes, House of 1000 Islands, Identity

April 14, 2003
Bend it Like Beck’s Ham, The Core, Head of State, A Man Apartment, Phone Booth

March 31, 2003
Ass! Ass! National Tango!, Bringing Down the House, Dreamcatcher, The Hunted, Piglet’s Big Movement, Tears of the Sun, Willard

2003 Oscars Special!
Oscar fever is upon us, ladies and gentlemen, and fear not: that puss-like discharge is a completely normal symptom.

March 3, 2003
Dark Blue, Old School, Spider, Studyhall Junkies, The Time-Life Christmas of David Gale