Can Mel Make a Comeback?

Really? 'Hot Tub Time Machine' is the best we can do?

(NEWSER) - “2010 very possibly is the worst year in the history of motion pictures,” declares Joe Queenan in a hilarious Wall Street Journal piece bemoaning the downfall of American cinema. You know things are bad in Hollywood when:

• “Shia LaBeouf—who looks a bit like the young George W. Bush” is being passed off “as the second coming of Tom Cruise.”
• The top contenders for Next Big Action Star are Jake Gyllenhaal and Adrien Brody. “None of these are logical heirs to the throne abandoned by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Harrison Ford and Sylvester Stallone. They may not even be legitimate heirs to the throne vacated by Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme.”

Movies disappoint, but rarely go the way of Ishtar

(NEWSER) - It's rare these days to see a big-studio movie truly bomb, and that's a shame, laments Tom Shone of Slate . Sure, we get our share of misfires like Jonah Hex or The A-Team , but few reach the depths of those glorious financial busts of yesteryear like Ishtar, Waterworld, and Cutthroat Island—"the swashbuckler that derailed the careers of Renny Harlin, Geena Davis, and Matthew Modine—and the last film to actually force a movie studio to close, Heaven's Gate-style." More»

Female directors lack 'male gaze,' author says

(NEWSER) - Bret Easton Ellis is likely to find himself scratched from a few Christmas card lists over a MovieLine interview in which he insists women aren't made to be good movie directors. "There’s something about the medium of film itself that I think requires the male gaze," said the American Psycho author. "We’re watching, and we’re aroused by looking, whereas I don’t think women respond that way to films, just because of how they’re built." More»

Prince, Julie Andrews, Francis Ford Coppola deserve another chance

(NEWSER) - Whether they're clearly taking anything just for the money or out-and-out slumming, numerous pop culture icons are mired in a rut of underachievement. The Onion A.V. Club staff fields a question from a Sylvester Stallone loyalist and lists more artists deserving of a second chance:

• Sam Adams can't quit Nicolas Cage: "The near-unremitting river of shit that is his recent output would be disheartening even if it weren’t clear that the main source of his troubles is Cage himself."

Kal Penn leaves Obama administration to resume acting

(NEWSER) - Kal Penn is done with politics: The actor will resign as President Obama's associate director of public engagement to return to show business, starting with a new Harold & Kumar movie that begins shooting in June. The film will see the two buddies reunited at Christmastime under the direction of Todd Schulson, and may be shot in 3-D, reports Entertainment Weekly . Expect to see a lot of freaked-out stoners in theaters come holiday 2011. More»