How can you not love Mission Impossible now?

Good Monday morning to you, fellow weary workers. I don't know for sure about where you live, but here in the middle of America, we're getting set for what may well be the single hottest week of the year! Yippee! Nothing says "put me to work" quite like flop sweat. The good news is, we have something delightful in the way of movie news to share this Monday: THR is reporting that Simon Pegg will be returning for Mission Impossible 4 (provided there is a Mission Impossible 4). You have to know who Mr. Pegg is at this point in our relationship (mine and yours, not mine and his...he won't acknowledge that one). Here's an example of a hilarious quick sketch he did for his old show, just to remind you of how damn funny this man is.


I would love to see him in a bigger role in the new movie. Hell, if Brad Bird is directing, you could go ahead and make Simon Pegg the lead and throw out the Tom Cruise problem. I'd see it 1,000 times (approximately). Honestly, I hope this movie gets made, especially given the fact that JJ Abrams supposedly had some great ideas for the script of this one, a particularly exciting fact for fans of "Alias." God, I miss "Alias" so much it burns inside. That's right, Ben Affleck, my love of your wife gave me this burning sensation. So...you may want to get yourself checked out.

I see your Burke and I raise you a Hare

Just so we're clear, I think Simon Pegg is a comedy God. I watched all of Hot Fuzz again the other day. Still brilliant. I adore Shaun of the Dead, loved him in Star Trek, and went to see Run Fatboy Run in the theater because of him. So when I heard that this movie was coming, I got pumped.

This was (as you can see) taken by Slashfilm.com and shows the first look at Pegg in his new role...for director John Landis. Landis hasn't made a movie in more than a decade. This is only exciting because he did some pretty good stuff...like An American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers, and Coming to America. He's a comedy god. What's funny is that this comedy is about two real-life Irish murderers who killed 17 people. Hmmm, sounds HILARIOUS! Pegg stars with Gollum (who I'm told is actually a person named Andy Serkis), Tim Curry, Jessica Hynes (yay for "Spaced"), Tom Wilkinson, and most importantly Isla Fisher, who is just love-er-ly. I don't know how you make a comedy about real-life murderers, but I also don't know how someone looked at Tom Arnold and said "yep, I'll marry that." I do know that Pegg and Landis are so awesome that I'm totally pumped to see this. If it captures on either of their best work, we're in for a hilarious bout of based-on-a-true-story murder spree. Suck on that, Nancy Grace. Actually, such on anything, Nancy Grace...preferably if it's sharp.

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Quick Clips for Wednesday July 23

You need some Spaced

Simon Pegg is one of the three British people my wife claims to love (the other two are Hugh Grant and some girl with an accent from the Obama campaign who called her the other day). Although most people fell for Pegg in Shaun of the Dead, the funniest film to ever feature cannibalism (which is weird because cannibalism is inherently hilarious), he first demonstrated his hilarity capability in the BBC series Spaced, which is the funniest straight-up sit-com I've ever seen. After years of begging, a nearly disastrous and thankfully scuttled American remake (which would have been helmed by McG...shudder), and more critical praise than a certain movie featuring a leather-clad mom beater (sorry Christian, alleged mom beater), Spaced is finally available for purchase here in the US of A. No need to rent it, just buy it outright then come back here and tell me how awesome it is.

In my day, they waited to adapt comics until after they came out

Rob Liefeld, who is to comic book artists what Carrot Top is to comedians, has had his latest as-of-yet unpublished comic "Capeshooters" optioned by Warner Bros, who must be high on bat-fumes to option a comic created by a man whose best idea to this point has been his semi-retirement. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will follow slackers (uh oh, I thought Judd Apatow had a copyright on the slacker character) who videotape superheroes and end up on the run after they determine a good guy is actually a bad guy. Sort of like YouTube meets Spider-man (see, I can do Hollywood pitch meetings). Brian Singer, who did what Lex Luther couldn't do by defiling Superman, is slated to direct, but that will likely change after his long-gestating, rumored-to-be-God-awful Valkyrie finally comes out. Why? Because Tom Cruise will likely scream "By the power of Xenu" and rip him in half.

I have two digits I'd like to present to Disney

In what can only be described as the single most irritating thing since horse-hair underwear, Disney has opted to punt Ebert & Roeper At the Movies. Sure, Richard Roeper has been begging for a kick in the pants so relentlessly I've often thought about driving to Chicago and obliging him, but Roger Ebert is the Godfather of movie critics. He's literally the reason I started doing this. I know Leonard Maltin's beard is technically the oldest movie critic in the country and people have long worshipped at the afro of Gene Shalit, but Ebert's thumb is the single greatest critical body part in the history of criticism! Variety is reporting that E! blogger Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz are the replacements for Ebert and his partner, but Ebert and Gene Siskel trademarked the phrase "Two Thumbs Up," leaving Disney the choice of accepting my proposed replacement only two fingers away.