MELTED ICE
A creepy night this week at a screening hosted by Rock 105.3 at Edwards Mira Mesa of Will Ferrell's “Blades of Glory,” his vacant ice-skating picture.
Before the show, radio station reps paraded into the audience passing out “2007 Babes in Bikinis” calendars. Outtakes isn't prudish, but the big crowd included elementary-and middle school-age kids, and younger. Hey, “San Diego's (self-proclaimed) Rock Station,” that didn't rock.
Then, in the midst of closing credits, a vignette from amusing actor Nick Swardson popped on screen. He plays a groupie in the film, stalking Jon Heder's fey Jimmy McElroy. As the roster of cast and crew rolled on, Swardson was stroking dolls of Heder and Ferrell's sex addict, Chazz Michael Michaels. He caressed and kissed them, voicing fantasies of the three of them together.
The movie, meanwhile, features a variation of Ferrell's well-worn, vain Ricky Bobby-Ron Burgundy type, “the only person to have won both a World Skating Championship and an Adult Film Award.” If Ferrell's not careful, audiences could tire of yet another character too-macho-for-his-own-good.
MARCH NIGHTS
Performance, best: Robert Downey Jr., San Francisco Chronicle crime reporter obsessed with finding a murderous psychopath, “Zodiac.”
Support, best: S. Epatha Merkerson, no-nonsense lieutenant from TV's “Law & Order,” charming as a small-town Tennessee pharmacist falling for Samuel L. Jackson, “Black Snake Moan.”
Movie, worst: Director Mike Binder cradles Adam Sandler, the former water boy who sheds tears in the ego-fest, “Reign Over Me.”
Word play: “Where I come from we swim naked and I don't want to embarrass anybody,” Bernie Mac turning down an offer to jump in the pool, “Pride”; “My mother and I have come to an understanding; we've agreed not to understand each other,” Renée Zellweger's Beatrix Potter, “Miss Potter”; “Try to eat a piece of fresh fruit every now and then,” James McAvoy's small-town mom sending him off to college, “Starter for 10”; “When a lesbian propositions you, you should be flattered,” gay Elizabeth Reaser to straight Justin Kirk, “Puccini for Beginners.”
'LOOKOUT' POINTS
Look out for Joseph Gordon-Levitt (left) in “The Lookout.” At 26, the talented actor who came out of a TV sitcom (“3rd Rock From the Sun”) is building a career with juicy roles in smallish films like his teenage hustler in “Mysterious Skin.”
In the new picture, he plays a guy who made a huge, teenage mistake behind the wheel of an automobile, resulting in his own devastating head injury.
Now, he's rooming with a blind man played by Jeff Daniels, in a part not dumb and dumber, but insightful about life and love.
Levitt's damaged young man spends days at a Center for Life Skills and nights as a janitor in a local bank.
He falls in with a nasty crowd that strokes his ego and has eyes on the bank's vault. “The Lookout” is less about crime, more about an emotionally hurt human being coping.
