Jason Lee's coming back to television!

Exciting news for Jason Lee fans this month. Lee is set to star in a new cop show, Delta Blues, playing a cop who lives with his mom and moonlights as an Elvis impersonator. George Clooney is executive producer. It's a cable show, so I may need to finally break down and invest in cable TV.

If that's not enough reason to get cable, Lee is also working on a live action skateboarding series for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

And he's directing his first feature film, Get Back, about a couple of time travelers meeting John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1966 London. Sounds pretty wild.

Of course, we'll also be seeing Lee on the big screen in Alvin & the Chipmunks, Columbus Circle, and A Couple of Dicks.

And I thought I was going to miss Jason Lee when MNIE was canceled.

Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back

Probably Kevin Smith's silliest movie. Too bad there's so much EXTREMELY vulgar language or this one might be fun for kids.

Jason Lee and Ben Affleck both get dual roles. Why? Because Jay & Silent Bob were around for all the previous Kevin Smith movies, of course! Lee plays both Brodie Bruce (Mallrats) and Banky Edwards (Chasing Amy). Affleck plays Holden McNeil (Chasing Amy) and - who else? - Ben Affleck.

Got 15 seconds? Here's a cute vid of Brodie singing "Matt Matt Matt" with Jay & Silent Bob:



The trailer is pretty amusing too:



Enjoy!

Janet

Vanilla Sky

Vanilla Sky is a 2001 movie starring Tom Cruise as a shallow man who learns how to live a better life the hard way. Jason Lee plays his best friend - and perhaps his only real friend - author Brian Shelby. Lee's part isn't very big, but it isn't small either. This was Lee's second film with director Cameron Crow (Almost Famous was the first).

Here's the trailer:



This is an odd film. Seems many people either love it or hate it. It's definitely interesting and, imho, worth watching.

Janet

Kevin Pollack Interviews Jason Lee for an Hour & Forty-Seven Minutes

Yeah, lots of Jason Lee without the mustache! Kevin asks Jason about his life and career, from how he got into skateboarding as a kids all the way up to the TV pilot Jason recently wrote. Yes! We need more series like My Name is Earl.

Here's the interview:

My Name is Earl Interview with Jason Lee

Because My Name is Earl is now in syndication, a local news station (www.myfoxdc.com) interviewed Jason Lee just a few days ago. It's a nice interview, and the station kindly included the code to embed the interview, so here it is:



I hope you enjoy it, as I did.

My Name is Earl Season 4

Good news! The DVD of My Name is Earl Season 4 will be released tomorrow!

You can pre-order it here:



If you prefer the Blu-Ray edition, which is more expensive, you can get that here:



I don't know about you, but this is some consolation for me. My Name is Earl has been my favorite show since it began in 2005. It's the reason I realized what an amazing actor Jason Lee is. I sorta knew who he was before, but hadn't realized how good and interesting an actor he was.

My Name is Earl inspired me to watch his other films and look up clips on YouTube. Which led to this vlog.

I'm very sad that it won't be back this fall, but at least we can all keep watching it over and over again until we get so sick of it we won't mind anymore that it's canceled.

Meanwhile, I hope the wonderful cast gets lots of new work so we can enjoy them in other roles.

Janet

Heartbreakers

Jason Lee gets to make out with Jennifer Love Hewitt in Heartbreakers, a 2001 comedy.

If you can get past the creepy premise, Heartbreakers is a pretty entertaining movie.

Max (Sigourney Weaver) and Page (Hewitt) are mother-daughter con artists. Max gets rich men to marry her while keeping the men from - er - enjoying the marriage.

Page then seduces the frustrated grooms, while Max conveniently catches them about to cheat, allowing the pair to split some generous divorce settlements.

When Page wants to go out on her own, there's trouble. Max knows her daughter isn't ready and sure enough, Page falls in love with the first guy she tries to con (Jason Lee as Jack Withrowe).

Meanwhile, Max is seducing the hilariously disgusting, chain-smoking tobacco mogul Tensy (Gene Hackman). To complicate matters, her last victim (Ray Liotta) is looking for her.

This got mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it. Ray Liotta and Gene Hackman are especially funny.

I did find Max's fake Russian accent annoying. It's not clear why she needs to affect a Russian accent until she tells Tensy she's about to be deported.

Lee's character is pretty bland and it's hard to understand how Jack sees the good in Page, who is really nasty to him throughout most of the movie. While he does get to respond to her nastiness with some good wisecracks a couple of times, it would've been nice to see more give and take when she gives him a hard time.

One more important fact for Jason Lee fans: He looks hotter in Heartbreakers than in any other movie he's been in. Too bad Jack isn't as interesting as some of Lee's other characters. But Jack is sweet. And, like I said, hot.

Overall, Heartbreakers is an entertaining movie, as long as you don't take it too seriously. It's meant to be frivolous entertainment. If you analyze the icky nature of what Max and Page are doing (and Dean does tell them they'll need years of therapy), you'll spoil all the fun.

Here's the trailer:



Janet

Amost Famous

In 2000, Jason Lee was in one of my favorite movies, Almost Famous.

It's an awesome semi-autobiographical Cameron Crowe movie about a teenage music journalist traveling with the not-quite-famous band Stillwater so he can do a feature story on them for Rolling Stone magazine.

In real life, Crowe did something similar, becoming the youngest Rolling Stone journalist.

Patrick Fugit is wonderful as William, the precocious yet innocent, wide-eyed teen. Billy Crudup plays Russell Hammond, the "incendiary" guitarist Willam looks up to. And Kate Hudson made quite a splash as Penny Lane, a band-aid (NOT a groupie) who falls for Russell while William falls for her. Lee plays Jeff Bebe, the lead singer who's tired of being upstaged by Russell.

Frances McDormand is a stand-out as William's overprotective mom, especially when she manages to intimidate an arrogant Russell - over the phone!

Seymour Phillip Hoffman is wonderful as real-life legendary rock journalist Lester Bangs, who helps William realize that neither of them will ever be cool, and that's the way it should be.

Can you tell how much I love this film?

For Almost Famous, you get several videos:

First, a trailer - and it's a good one.



Here's Stillwater performing the song "Fever Dog" on stage. Crowe's wife, Nancy Wilson of Heart, wrote the songs. The band isn't really performing the song, but they learned the moves from Peter Frampton.



Next, a nice scene where they all sing "Tiny Dancer" on their bus.



Last but not least, the plane scene. It's near the end, so if you haven't seen Almost Famous yet, you may want to hold out for the movie. If you have, or if you don't care, it's pretty funny and so worth watching.



One last note: The first thing you hear when the movie begins is the Chipmunks singing their Christmas song. A precursor to a much different role for Jason Lee.

You WILL enjoy these videos!

Peace,

Janet

A Couple of Dicks

Just learned that Jason Lee will have a role in Kevin Smith's new movie A Couple of Dicks, starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. Michelle Trachtenberg plays Willis's daughter and Lee will play her stepfather. Doesn't sound like a big part, but it's always fun to watch Lee in a Kevin Smith movie. Hope he gets more movie roles now that he's got all that free time on his hands. By the way, Smith didn't write this movie, but he is directing it.

Can My Name is Earl Be Saved?

NBC has been making some bad decisions lately and the decision to cancel My Name is Earl is the worst. Well, okay, it's only my favorite show in the world, so maybe I'm a little biased.

I'm not so sure writing to NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman will work. First, NBC didn't tell Earl creator Greg Garcia about the cancellation until 30 minutes before it released its fall schedule.

Then, to add insult to injury, Silverman pretty much slapped the show in the face by claiming they canceled the show because it didn't get the write-in support that Chuck did.

Meanwhile, Garcia said it was hard to be upset about being thrown off the Titanic. Clearly, there's no love lost between those two.

So we may want to rely on the other networks that have considered picking up Earl.

What can we do to help? I'm not quite sure, but I did sign all the petitions I could find. I Googled "My Name is Earl petitions" and came up with this list:

http://www.google.com/search?q=my+name+is+earl+petitions&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS177US228

If you do want to write to Ben Silverman and tell him what a knucklehead he's been, here's the address:

Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC
3000 W. Alameda
Burbank, CA 91523

You can also write to

Angela Bromstad
NBC president of prime-time programming
100 Universal City Plaza
Bldg 1320, 4th Floor
Universal City, CA 91608

Thanks to Chicago Tribune writer Maureen Ryan's excellent article on how to save Chuck for those addresses!

One last thing you can do. If you Twitter, follow EarlTwitition (although I've been disappointed at the infrequent postings).

If I find out more we can do, I'll let you know. I'd like to write to Fox and other networks to encourage them to pick up Earl.

Mumford

In 1999, the same year Jason Lee played evil demon Azrael in Dogma, he had one of his best roles: naive computer billionaire Skip Skipperton in Mumford. Sweet Skip is the polar opposite of Azrael.

For the longest time, I could find absolutely nothing on this movie, but someone posted a trailer on YouTube fairly recently:



There's not a whole lot of Lee in this minute-long video, but that's because the movie boasts a wonderful ensemble cast.

Do watch out for the skateboarding computer genius (when you see a guy skateboarding, that's Skip/Lee). And wait for the end - Skip has the last line and it's one of the funniest in the film (although it's funnier when you see it in the movie).

The movie itself is entertaining and enjoyable if you can ignore the ethical questions it raises, then tosses aside. If you're a Lee fan, it's definitely worth renting.

Dogma

In 1999, Jason Lee played the demon Azrael in the Kevin Smith film Dogma. Here's a deleted scene that many viewers, including me, think should have stayed in the film:

Enemy of the State

In 1998, Lee had a small but significant part in the action adventure Enemy of the State, which starred Will Smith and Gene Hackman.

Here's a clip featuring Lee's character, Zavitz:



Next up: The 1999 movies Dogma and Mumford - stay tuned.

Janet

Cuisine Americaine

Besides Kissing a Fool, Lee made two other movies in 1998.

He had a starring role in a French film called Cuisine Americaine. Here's a trailer:



This is not an easy film to get a hold of, and I have not seen it yet.

Janet

Kissing a Fool

A year after making Chasing Amy, Jason Lee made the movie Kissing a Fool. Playing Jay Murphy, Lee got to be the kind and gentle best friend to David Schwimmer's shallow, obnoxious Max Abbitt.

This was a nice change of pace for both of them. Schwimmer, of course, was playing lovable nerd Ross on Friends, while Lee was best known for playing the obnoxious best friends in Mallrats and Chasing Amy.

After the bad reviews this film got, I had avoided watching it. What a mistake!

It wasn't perfect (hey, what is), but it was a pleasant little comedy, especially if you're a fan of any of the actors.

I thought Mili Avital was wonderful in this. She has the grace and charm of the actresses of the 30s and 40s. It's easy to believe that both Max and Jay fell in love with her.

Here's a trailer:



Hope you enjoy it.

Janet