Flixens: Movies, DVDs, TV, comic books and pop culture for women. The boys shouldn't have all the fun.

Nothing showcases the downfall of modern society better than November sweeps week, especially on the Fox network.

According to CNN, Fox will air a two-part interview with wife-throat-slasher and waiter-murderer O.J. Simpson entitled If I Did It, Here's How it Happened on November 27 and 29.  I'm sure the Brown family and the Goldman family already have it on their holiday TiVo schedule... right after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

The interview is conducted by trash-publisher Judith Regan, who has proven herself to be a nightmarish, greedy, opportunistic harpy in the past, and solidifies her place in the Despicable Hall of Fame as she promotes Simpson's new book If I Did It, published by her company, ReganBooks and just happens to be owned by News Corporation, parent company of Fox.

And I just promoted it by reporting on this story.

Damn you Judith Regan!  Damn you all to Hell!!

A while back I saw an early trailer for Flushed Away that, while funny, looked horrible.  The CGI animation looked years behind anything that we've grown accustomed to over the last few years, and it seemed as if Aardman Animations first foray into a CGI feature film was a bit of a misstep.

Well, I'm happy to say that my initial misgivings were ALMOST unfounded.

The plot is relatively straight-forward.  My man Hugh Jackman voices Roddy St. James, a well-kept pet mouse, living a posh but lonely life in a nice London townhouse.  While his "family" is on vacation, Roddy gets invaded by Sid, a sewer rat up from the depths of London's underbelly, who immediately makes himself comfortable in Roddy's domain.  An effort to flush Sid down the "whirlpool" backfires, and Roddy finds himself swept down into the sewers, where he meets an entire city full of mice, rats, frogs, slugs, and other icky creatures far beneath his stature.

Roddy soon crosses paths with Rita, played by Kate Winslet, a plucky Lara Croft-type mouse who's being chased by some thugs of The Toad (played by Ian McKellan who has clearly been spending too much time with Patrick Stewart) regarding some jewels.  Roddy's desire to be with company overrides his fear of getting his hands dirty, and soon he's off on a rollicking good adventure.

Flushed Away ends up being an amusing tale, full of the charm that we've come to expect from the British studio that gave us Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, although I'm afraid a lot of the humor will go right over the heads of most American audiences.  There's a subtlety to Aardman humor that is easily missed, which is one of the reasons Chicken Run did so poorly, despite the fact that it's a terrific WWII prison camp escape yarn.

The other problem with the humor is that it is distinctly British.  For someone who grew up with two brothers constantly spouting off Monty Python skits, it's not an issue, but again, I think most American audiences will find it as over their heads as London Bridge.

The CGI, while much improved from the original trailer, still looked a bit odd in places.  I think this was due to a conscious effort to make the film LOOK like it was being animated using clay figures and stop motion.  This was semi-successful.  I think the animators were having a hard time with this concept, as the effort is uneven.  It's most noticeable in the movement of the character's mouths, which had a distinct stop-motion look to them for the most part, but other movements were a bit to fluid and CGI-ish.  It's hard to describe, but it's one of those things you'll notice when you see it.  What's cute is that the CGI models actually do look like clay, with subtle thumbprints and pits and dimples here and there.  If you watch the credits, you'll see a number of people attached to the project as "surfacers."

The voice acting is solid, with Hugh even getting a chance to sing like we all know he loves to do.  Bill Nighy and Andy Serkis have a nice "Mutt-n-Jeff" chemistry in their scenes together as the thugs, and Jean Reno as Le Frog is the butt of some great jokes about the French.

There's a running gag in the film with the little slimy sewer slugs providing the sound effects and music that never gets tired, and is even used all through the closing credits, and is just so darn cute and whimsical.

Keep your eyes peeled for a TON of sight-gags as well.  The London underbelly scenes are loaded with them.  This is one of those films made for DVD where you can freeze-frame and catch everything.  Look closely for a humorous wardrobe gag early in the film when Roddy is looking through his closet of doll clothes for something to wear.

If you are already a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh journalist, Borat, then I probably do not need to do much convincing for you to see the film adaptation, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

I have always been slightly ashamed that Borat's spell has always worked effectively to make me laugh, but the film has removed that shame and replaced it with some embarrassment. It is, however, undeniable that Borat is one of the funniest films I have seen in many years, but still there is some depth and insight for those that want at least a little social commentary.

If you were planning on watching this film, you don't need to read the rest of this review. Borat is extremely entertaining, and I am giving it a 4-stiletto score.

If you are still reading, I would like to begin by stating that I did not need very much convincing to see this film, as I had been anticipating it for quite some time. I was originally introduced to Borat by my friend and source of much geek information, Sofiane, with whom I went to see Borat.

As I reported on some of the marketing for this movie, I had feared that too much of the movie was being revealed in the hilarious trailer (see HERE). My fear turned out to be true for the first half of the film, which is only one hour and twenty-five minutes long. Nevertheless, even in the first half there are still some surprises, and the funniest moments of the entire film have not been spoiled in any way by the trailer. Since watching that trailer, I had been avoiding any other marketing materials, but I was sad to see that they were trying so hard to spread the hype around Borat. I am certain that in North America at least, people must have been getting sick of the over-marketing.

There is not much in terms of a story, and the film is largely made up in the same style as the various Borat sketches that have been made for Da Ali G Show, but I think that director Larry Charles deserves praise for successfully putting together such an entertaining film. It is the mark of confidence in a director, in my opinion, when he or she can take a cult phenomenon such as Borat, and remain unobtrusive in his or her approach. The result is a genuine piece of work that will certainly not disappoint the fans, but will surely attract new ones among those who discover Borat through this film.

Sacha Baron Cohen delivers a terrific performance as the Kazakh journalist, and it is truly impressive to see him remain in character when placed in some riotous and awkward situations. Cohen is joined here by Ken Davitian as Borat's producer, Azamat. This is the only other fictional character in the film, and their adventures across America bring about not only some painful funny moments, but some truly frightening, and in a couple of other cases endearing moments.

The music is very much in tune with the general whimsical mood of the film, and is largely composed of gypsy music. I noticed several bits of music from Goran Bregovic, and Sacha Baron Cohen’s brother, Erran, composed all the original music used in the film. It is very suitable to the tone of the film, and perhaps not very noticeable, but in the first minutes it helps to put the viewer in the right mood.

One of the major difficulties of any comedy, even some of the funniest comedies of the past few years, has been to make a story that is not formulaic. It seems that the stories are always strung together with the focus being made on the various gags or jokes in a comedy (with some exceptions of course, notably Shaun of the Dead). In Borat, there was really no attempt at doing such a thing, and this decision was perhaps not very difficult to make since it adds to the genuineness of the film, and also because the gags and interviews themselves are diverse and strong enough to work without much added padding. This lack of pretentiousness in putting the film together also fits very nicely to the unpretentious Borat, and the candid approach taken through the character in general exposes the ugly aspects of some of the people that were "interviewed." When watching the film, it could be interesting to see which people turn out to be the most amiable toward Borat, but the aggressiveness or ignorance of others is chilling.

Since the story is virtually non-existent, it can be quite difficult to judge this film. Nevertheless, its saving grace as a film is that what little story there may be comes to a glorious finish, an end that is truly shocking and hysterical.

His name a Borat, he like you. And you will like him.

A number of months ago the Movie MILF told you about Evil Dead: The Musical, which was going to be a theater adaptation of Sam Raimi's cult horror flick.  At the time, many scoffed in amazement and pure disbelief.

Variety has a review, and they say that despite all odds, it actually works... that the show is "a ridiculous amount of fun."

Take, for example, this passage from the review:

Adapting the tale of a noble teenager who must butcher his friends after they're possessed by demons, it's clear that producers and creatives want to manufacture a cult hit of their own. There are weekend perfs at 11 p.m., and the theater's first three rows are designated as a "splatter zone" where fake blood will hit the audience. While protective plastic ponchos are supplied, many splatter-zoners are deliberately wearing clothes that will show off the carnage.

Blatantly inviting such audience rituals instead of letting them occur organically is disingenuous. However, the production redeems itself by pushing its gimmicks so far they become surprising. There's just so much blood getting sprayed across the crowd -- gushing out of arm stumps, chest wounds and well-placed holes in the wall -- that the giddy excess charms.

While the reviewer goes on to say that the show, with book and lyrics by George Reinblatt, could use some minor editing from an experience dramaturg (this is Reinblatt's first show), the production values are top-notch, including a fantastic set and an evil beaver puppet.

Any self-respecting "geek" should get their tickets right now... if only for the fact that it's probably the only musical you'll ever see with an evil beaver puppet.

Click here for the full review.

Dougie sent me an email the other day about Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen's follow-up to Borat.  He sent me a link to a story that said a number of studios were interested in bringing Bruno to the big screen.  Today the Hollywood Reporter says that Universal has won the rights, paying around $42.5 million.

They must think Borat is going to do VERY well, despite the fact that Fox has apparently scaled back the movie's opening to around 800 theaters because it wasn't registering high enough on audience awareness polls.  I think Fox has gotten cold feet about marketing the film... after a hilarious trailer, I haven't seen many commercials for it on TV.  Click here for Dougie's very positive review, since he was fortunate enough to catch a preview of it a few weeks ago.

Bruno, like Borat, has been introduced to viewers of Cohen's Da Ali G Show.  Bruno is the self-proclaimed "voice of Austrian youth TV" and is a gay fashionista exposing the hypocrisy of the worldwide fashion industry.

Okay, I don't know how I missed this the other day, but it's worth talking about now, just in case some of you missed it too.

According to the Hollywood Reporter on Friday, Marvel Comics has partnered with CBS' Guiding Light daytime soap opera to produce an episode where a character gets zapped by electricity and then gains superpowers, including the ability to levitate and conduct electricity.

To top it off, Marvel will include an 8-page insert into some of its top titles where the heroes of the Marvel Universe descend upon the fictional town of GL's Springfield to determine if this new super-being is friend or foe.

Look for the episode, featuring Beth Ehler's Harley Davidson Cooper character to air this week, Wednesday, November 1st.

OMG.  I'm not sure I can do it.

I thought Fox's Arrested Development was simply brilliant.  While I love comedies like Seinfeld for their over-the-top gags and humor, Arrested Development to me was one of the funniest shows I have seen on TV for its outrageous subtlety, if that makes any sense.  Lines like "Buster, you're a grown man, you should be at home sleeping with your mother" are perfect examples of this.  Too bad it was cancelled.

The good news is Mitchell Hurwitz, creator and executive producer of the show, and Richard Day, a former writer on the show, are teaming up to adapt the BBC's The Thick of It, for American audiences according to the Hollywood Reporter.  Sony Pictures TV is currently shopping the idea around for the networks.

The BBC show centers on a "put-upon member of Parliament who is continually harassed by inept bureaucrats working for the prime minister and other politicians and civil servants."  It won the Best New Comedy trophy at the British Comedy Awards.

Perhaps some of our UK readers can fill us in?