Do you wanna dance

Antepenultimate day of the aughts TS*3

But first . . . say what??? This from today's Times story about 2010 releases of films that have been in the can for a long time:

That slightly older films have clustered in the coming quarter also owes something to a frenzy of activity that preceded the three-month writers’ strike that began in late 2007. Studio executives stockpiled scripts, then quickly shot a spate of films that are still working their way through the system.

Green Zone was part of that surge, as were The Wolfman and Repo Men, a pair of 2008 movies set for release by Universal in the next few months.

Excuse me? Repo Man? How could one of my all-time favorite weird films be remade and I be completely unaware until reading a story about its been sitting around for two years waiting to be released? No, idiot; don't you read for a living? It says Repo Men, idiot, plural: sci-fi about repossession of artificial organs set for April release.

Oh. Anyway . . .

La Danse: Le Ballet de l'Opera de Paris

Crit

It's a baseball cliché that the human arm isn't designed to throw a ball 95mph or to impart such torque that the ball curves sharply on its 60-foot route. I've watched enough baseball that--while I'm still impressed, make no mistake--I no longer drop my jaw when I see what the human arm is capable of when it has been trained to ignore nature. I guess aficionados of the dance must get to that point, too, with the rest of the body.

Not me, though: carefully limiting myself to only as much ballet as appears in enthusiastically reviewed films, I am happy to remain in awe. But what does it say about one's day at the movies when by far the smartest script and the best dialogue come from an unscripted show-don't-tell Frederick Wiseman documentary?

The Young Victoria

Crit

Can I just go on record here as not being enchanted by Emily Blunt? She was bitchily fun in The Devil Wears Prada, but as the spunky young queen here, she's just a character in a soap opera unable to raise the project above its soapy dialogue.

Sherlock Holmes

Crit

Mishmash of Dan Brown and Harry Potter; depend on Holmes to dispel the nonsense. Fisticuffs and explosions, no extra charge. Sequel promised. No. Just no.
*Temple Street

Trailers

• The Last Station--Movin' on up with the Tolstoys! A. O. Scott hated it, David Denby and most critics loved it. I guess I'm in.
• Cop Out--Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan in the early front-runner for the worst film of 2010. Shit! It's directed (but not written) by Kevin Smith!
• The Bounty Hunter--Oops! Cop Out's lead didn't last long!
• Inception--Seems very Matrixy.
• Clash of the Titans--Holy Harryhausen! What to think about a CGI remake of one of the great cheesy F/X flicks of all time? next? Jason and the Argonauts: The Kingdom of Hades? Oh, yeah, I guess so.