If a bunch of inebriated film school half-wits on the brink of expulsion got together to produce a sex farce in under a week, the results might be comparable to Tom Vaughan’s What Happens in Vegas – one of the most unbearable Hollywood comedies of recent years.

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Our first summer feast was both delicious and nutritious (thanks to the high iron content), and with the festivities officially underway, we at AllMovie are ready to stuff our faces. So take a seat and have a look at this summer’s specials as AMG breaks down your movie food schedule for the coming months.

May 2
Made of Honor: Stale Wedding Cake.
Zagat says: Wasn’t that good when it was fresh.

May 9
Speed Racer: Pop Rocks and Redbull.
Zagat says: Worth the risk of your stomach exploding.

What Happens in Vegas: Crappy, overpriced room-service.
Zagat says: You know what it’s going to be like, so you’d better be starving.

May 16
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: Renn Fair Turkey Leg.
Zagat says: As long as you’re wearing the cape, you might as well eat it.

May 23
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Grandma’s Mac and Cheese.
Zagat says: Might not be as good as you remember, but what you remember was really, really good.

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Bored by the same old selections on the shelves of your local video store or on that cable on-demand line-up? Searching for thrilling cinematic expeditions that can’t be found elsewhere? Look no further than right here. The following is my recommended cable viewing list for May 2008, of films unavailable on video – and it marks an unusual month, with the broadcast appearance of a fascinating Michael Powell film forgotten for forty years, a deeply moving and heartfelt documentary by a twentysomething tyro that checks in as one of the top three or four nonfiction films of the past decade, and oh, so much more. So as always: keep your remote handy and fire up your glitter box. We’re going channel surfing.

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To commemorate this weekend’s opening of the Martin Scorsese directed Rolling Stones concert film Shine a Light, the following is my totally personal list of the ten best musical moments in his work. The only rule imposed in order to narrow the field was that the music could not have been written specifically for the film. So Peter Gabriel’s score for Last Temptation of Christ, Liza Minnelli’s performance of “New York, New York”, and Bernard Herrmann’s haunting jazz inflected saxophone from Taxi Driver were not considered.

10. The Color of Money — “Werewolves of London”, performed by Warren Zevon

No matter how long Tom Cruise’s career lasts, there will be many who remember him best dancing in his underwear to Bob Seger in Risky Business. I’ll forever think of him at his most extrovertedly narcissistic as he preens/shoots nine-ball to Warren Zevon’s brilliant song. Cruise’s hair has never been more perfect.

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As we return to cable screenings of movies that are unreleased on video, the coming month demonstrates a particularly strong emphasis on famous Hollywood features that have mysteriously evaded ancillary distribution (i.e., very few documentaries and shorts on the list, this time around). April 2008 is packed with exciting highlights for the discerning viewer, and my top two picks are sure to stop all film buffs in their tracks: a rare cable screening of Bernardo Bertolucci’s wild incest drama Luna from 1979, and a documentary portrait of one of the most exciting and innovative filmmakers of the past 50 years: the brilliant Canadian documentarist Allan King, whose efforts Warrendale and A Married Couple forever changed the way that audiences look at nonfiction cinema. So hit your easy chair, keep your popcorn bowl and your king-sized universal remote nearby, and as always: fire up that glitter box.

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In honor of David Cronenberg publishing his debut novel, you have to wonder if this might be a fruitful art form for a few other filmmakers to tackle. The following is the list of directors who might benefit, both themselves and the general public, by putting pen to page, or at least fingertips to keyboard.

1. Woody Allen: The man has written plays, short stories, and more jokes than possibly any other living human, but he’s never tackled a novel. Maybe such an undertaking would reinvigorate the dean of New York filmmakers.

2. Quentin Tarantino: That he thought Jackie Brown was a let down proves that Tarantino has decided to let his skills as a supremely gifted dialogue writer take a back seat to his imposing directorial skills. While there has not been a frame of his last two films I’d want to alter, maybe some devotion to the written word as an end rather than a means might focus his skills on characters instead of bravura setpieces.

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Snacking on some lunch and checking out the latest links over at Neatorama, I stumbled across a curious little short film by the mute illusionist most folks know as the shorter half of long-time comedy/magic duo Penn and Teller. Of course anyone familiar with their cable television series Bullshit or their popular Las Vegas act knows that the man they call Teller isn’t exactly the outspoken type, so it’s just about as disconcerting to hear him talk as it is to see him taunting the living dead.

At a time when the zombie trend once again seems to have run its course (Day of the Dead remake, anyone?), perhaps this melancholy little short is a fitting epitaph for the lurching sub-genre.

& Teller

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The recent DVD re-release of Newhart Season One (a series for which I carry very fond childhood memories) , struck a nostalgic chord, given the recent deaths of co-star Tom Poston and his off-camera wife, series finale-capper Suzanne Pleshette, and coincided rather neatly with the 25th anniversary of the program’s first year. It inspired me to begin working my way through this three-disc set over the past week, and in re-watching the old episodes, I continually felt amazed by the degree to which American situation comedies have matured, developed, and expanded the scope of their ambitions over the past few decades. Watching this three-camera sitcom after years away is akin to opening a time capsule of early ’80s Reaganite pop culture – and occasionally, but far from often, a pleasurable experience.

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