Will James Gunn's "Super" deliver a cult hit?

Update: James Gunn's "Super" has been picked up by IFC, meaning, I hope, that it will be available on cable on demand as soon as it hits its probably very meager amount of theaters ... bully

Wow. The word is trickling in from Toronto, and so far I've seen two simply glowing reviews of "Let Me In" from sources I trust, HitFix and The Playlist.

In both cases, the reviewers clearly love the original Swedish movie, "Let the Right One In" (my single favorite movie of 2008), as much as I do. Yet they both say Matt Reeves, director of the surprisingly entertaining "Cloverfield," has done the just about impossible: He's made a movie that, while perhaps not better (which really would be impossible), at least lives up to the spirit of the original and soars thanks to its two young leads, Hit-Girl Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee. You can read those two reviews here and here, and keep an eye out for Reeves' flick Oct. 1.

You can now count me as extremely curious, if not excited, about that flick, but there's something else that came through the midnight circuit up north that sounds like even more my thing. James Gunn, though he delivered a winner in my book with "Slither," is sorely in need of a box office one, since that very entertaining humor/horror mix starring Captain Mal Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks took in a rather amazingly disastrous $7.8 million at the U.S. box office (really? Trust me, maybe it's not great, but this movie is well worth a DVD rental.)

Well, I can't imagine his new movie, "Super," will do a whole lot better, but from what I know so far it seems to be tailor-made for me. Rainn Wilson plays a man who becomes a masked vigilante after his wife (Liv Tyler) gets strung out on drugs and runs off with her dealer (Kevin Bacon). If that casting's not enough to get you intrigued, as you'll see from the clip below, Ellen Page plays Wilson's seriously unhinged sidekick, and she should just be a hoot.

Early Toronto buzz has been good for this too, and according to the headline of an article behind a Variety paywall, buyers are now "circling" it, so here's hoping it's picked up by a studio big enough to bring it to my little corner of the world sometime this fall. Enjoy this first clip I know of, but be warned: Page throws around F-bombs with abandon, so if that kind of thing bothers you, please don't watch it. Peace out.

Yes, James Gunn will get to work again

After the pretty much complete box-office failure of James Gunn's "Slither," it really seemed impossible that any kind of studio would back him for a new movie, but thankfully I'm wrong once again (I'm pretty used to it by now.)

And the thing with "Slither" is, it's really a pretty fantastic movie. It's no "Shaun of the Dead," but in its own way it very deftly mixes humor and horror, and you really can't go wrong with stars Elizabeth Banks and Nathan Fillion. Since a total of maybe six people saw it in theaters, I'd highly recommend a rental for the rest of you.

And now, rather amazingly, Gunn is now filming in Louisiana another movie he has also written, "Super," and it sounds pretty promising for a late-summer comedy (which is where I'm guessing this would fall.) In it, Rainn Wilson will star as a man who, after seeing his wife get hooked on drugs and taken off by a drug dealer, decides to don a costume and grab his lug wrench to go after her. Doesn't sound like much of a comedy, I know, but in Wilson and Gunn's hands I'm sure it somehow will be (and Wilson more than John Krasinski or Steve Carell of "The Office" clan certainly deserves a great big-screen comedy - "The Rocker" wasn't it. And in a more than slightly tangential "The Office" connection, Gunn and Jenna Fischer were married for about seven years, but are no more.)

The rest of the cast will be Kevin Bacon, who has just been announced as the drug dealer, Liv Tyler as Wilson's wife, and even Ellen Page somehow too, but I have no idea in what role. "Gilmore Girls" fans should take note that the usuallyveryfunny Sean Gunn, James Gunn's brother, will have a part in this too.

I know that's a lot of information about a movie that won't come for at least six months or so, but I like writing about things when I find them, especially to exercise my brain on Saturday mornings. I just hope it didn't hurt yours. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to see "Avatar," and hoping it doesn't suck. Peace out.

My (and only my) best movies of the decade: The 2005 edition

It's kind of amazing (at least to me) and - depending on how you look at it - perhaps kind of depressing that I've been actually been doing this since 2005, but I still like writing it and I hope at least a few people enjoy reading it.

So I, of course, did a Top 10 for that year at the time, but have decided not to look at it before doing this so that doesn't influence what I'm thinking now.

And before I dive into this, a quick word about two movies that almost made the final 10 but just missed the cut. First, Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain." Just for the record, its absence here has NOTHING at all to do with its subject matter. Lee's movie is indeed both a beautiful piece of work about the agony of hidden love and a great portrait of the American West. And if this list went to 11 or 12, you'd see it below.

Secondly, there are few Saturday afternoon movies I love more than Malcolm D, Lee's "Roll Bounce." Silly? Sure. But I defy you to watch this roller skating flick starring still-somewhat-Lil Bow Wow (yes, really) and not a have a big smile on your face by the end.

And finally, before I get to the main event, here are the other movies that garnered honorable mention for 2005: "Millions," "Oldboy," "Palindromes," "Mysterious Skin," "Howl's Moving Castle," "Broken Flowers," "The Constant Gardener," "Green Street Hooligans," "Wallace and Gromit in the Case of the Were-Rabbit," "Breakfast on Pluto," "Pride and Prejudice," "Walk the Line," "The Boys of Baraka," "King Kong" and "Match Point."

So, without any further delay, here are my 10 favorite movies of 2005. As usual, please feel free to add any you think I may have snubbed, and of course to check back on the first five days of this endeavour, if you missed them.

"Everything is Illuminated"
The only movie written and directed by Liev Schrieber is almost as good as the Jonathan Safran Foer novel it's based on, which tells the story of an American Jew's (in the movie, Elijah Wood - not, as I had typed before being politely corrected by always welcome reader Mad Hatter, Tobey Maguire) quest to find the woman who saved his grandfather's life during the Nazi leveling of the Ukrainian village of Trachimbrod. With a lot of humor, this flick delivers a mystery of sorts about the past and the power it holds over us, and is just a lot of fun to watch.

"A History of Violence"
Viggo Mortensen makes this David Cronenberg movie, which is indeed a meditation on the debilitating nature of violence and both an extremely violent work in parts itself, work as well as it does. It's that contradiction of seemingly both loving and abhorring violence at the same time that have made Cronenberg's best movies so compelling. Though this one is great, my favorite Cronenberg movie is still "Spider," in which the violence is mostly psychological.

"Capote"
Though it earned a well-deserved Best Picture nomination, all the also well-deserved accolades for Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance as Capote really overshadowed just how good Bennett Miller's movie itself is. As brilliantly as Hoffman shines in it, this tale which focuses on the writing of "In Cold Blood" is really much more of an ensemble piece, and Catherine Keener as Harper Lee and even more so Clifton Collins Jr. as Perry Smith (two definite favorites around here) deserve almost as much of the credit.

"Serenity"
I have to admit I gave up on "Dollhouse" long before Fox killed it off (and for once, I really don't think Joss Whedon has anything to complain about this time), mostly because though it was indeed smart sci-fi it left out all the fun. His even shorter-lived previous series, "Firefly," and this movie which somehow sprung from it, get the balance much better. Sure, it swipes mercifully from "Star Wars," but the dialogue and the performances of Nathan Fillion and his crew make this space Western close enough to an original to be thoroughly entertaining.

"The Squid and the Whale"
I just have a soft spot for movies about dysfunctional families, and few are quite as miserably so as in this autobiographical debut flick from Noah Baumbach. Heck, I even liked "Margot at the Wedding" quite a bit too, though I think I'm the only person in the world who did. In "The Squid and the Whale," Baumbach deals deftly with many of the same issues that Wes Anderson does with more fancy, specifically how intellectualism can and cannot be a proper replacement for love and engagement with the world. Laura Linney is spectacular here and, for better or worse, this flick unleashed Jesse Eisenberg on the world (I'd say mostly better.)

"Good Night and Good Luck"
I can remember that I somehow managed to be the only person at a matinee of this George Clooney movie, which just made the suffocating feel of it and the sheer terror of Joseph McCarthy even more effective. You're already gonna get me with a valentine to journalism of any kind, and Clooney just imbues this black-and-white flick with a style and pace that make it constantly engaging. Grant Heslov, the co-writer of this movie, directed this year's "The Men Who Stare at Goats," which I found to be a whole lot more satisfying than most critics did.

"Diary of a Mad Black Woman"
I'll make no excuses for including Tyler Perry's feature debut on this list, because it established the formula for most of his movies before it became one. It really does make you laugh, cry and all those other things you hear in that old joke about "Cats," and like his best movies, is just full of humanity and deals with the real issues of life and love with genuine humor.

"Murderball"
This flick from directors Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro follows many of the conventions of the competition documentary but separates itself from the pack when it dives into the off-field lives of its stars, members of a quad rugby team competing to make it to the Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. The sport itself, played by men in wheelchairs, is certainly full-contact and sometimes harrowing to watch. You connect with the main players and get a true sense of what their lives are really like, and that's what makes this flick a real winner.

"Hustle & Flow"
I considered calling this post "Come back to us, Craig Brewer," because even though it's buried deep on this list, "Hustle & Flow" was and still is my favorite movie of 2005. Though the music may be different, this is a genuine rock 'n' roll fable that tells the rise (well, sort of) of Djay, a pimp who just wants to be a rap star. On paper it sounds cheesy as it can possibly be, and perhaps it would have been if not for the performance of Terrence Howard as our hero and the extremely strong sense of place that Brewer gives this flick set in grimy Memphis. It's just a movie I've watched more than once every year since it came out and never gets old. And Taraji P. Henson is great as well as Shug, Djay's long-suffering lady who gets to sing the infectious "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" hook.

"Junebug"
This little Southern flick probably would have gone mostly unnoticed if it weren't for Amy Adams, which would have been a real shame, because it has a lot to say about family dynamics and the strains that distance put upon them. It teeters perilously close to caricature at several points, but in the end, director Phil Morrison and writer Angus MacLachlan manage to pack this flick with genuinely colorful characters.

And there you have it. Like I said, please feel free to hammer me for any glaring omissions, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

More "Chuck"? Yes, please!

You know, my hopes have already been raised and dashed by that dastardly rumor that "Chuck" would come back as soon as the end of October (which is, of course, just about here, with no "Chuck"), but I'm certain this time that this just-as-good information is satisfactual.

With another of its new shows crashing early - this time "Trauma," poor Derek Luke deserves much, much better - it seems that NBC has already ordered six more episodes of "Chuck," upping the second season order from 13 to 19 (and, if enough people tune in, perhaps maybe even 22 - hey, I can dream right?)

No word yet that it would come back any earlier than the originally planned March, but the way things stand now, it would probably be best to just wait until then. NBC has the Winter Olympics, so if "Chuck" were brought back in, say, January, it would just get preempted for the second half of February and perhaps lose any new viewers it may have picked up. Methinks, all things, considered, waiting until March would be just fine.

Whenever it comes, however, more "Chuck" is just sensationally good news. Stay tuned for more details as I get them.

The word is also out today on when we'll get to see another of my favorite comedies, but probably one that should be off the air already.

How in the world "Scrubs" has survived for what will be its ninth season beginning Dec. 1 with two episodes on ABC, I'll never know, but I do know that when it returns this time it won't look much like anything we've seen in the past.

As far as I know, all the regular cast members except for Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) and perhaps Carla (Judy Reyes) have mostly moved on and will only be seen in brief recurring spots from time to time (but it sure is nice to see Neil Flynn each week on "The Middle.") Instead, we'll find Dr. Cox with a new crop of med students to berate and perhaps break down.

I'm all for a fresh start, and I like this show enough to give it another chance this winter, but the main problem is that when they tried to introduce a new cast of characters last year, they all bombed (and I assume will all be gone.) I mean, when you have veryfunnyman Aziz Ansari and you give him absolutely nothing funny to say, you're certainly going in the wrong direction.

But, enough of that. Like I said, I'll at least tune in to see if any of the magic still exists. And all I have except for that today is a couple of videos that caught my eye this morning.

First up is a deleted scene from J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek," which I assume will be included with the DVD release coming Nov. 17. Like most people, I loved the flick, and am almost certain it will end up on my top 10 for the year. Enjoy.


Star Trek - DVD Bonus Footage

And finally comes something that's, unfortunately, at least as depressing as it is enjoyable. If you somehow haven't seen Joss Whedon's short-lived series "Firefly" or the improbable follow-up flick "Serenity," you've missed one of the truly great characters of the last 10 years or so in Nathan Fillion's Captain Mal Reynolds. Watch them as soon as you can, and just to stir some memories, here's Fillion donning the familiar garb for a recent episode of "Castle," which I just can't bring myself to watch because I already absorb way too much just-above-average TV and just don't have time or energy for something that looks so thoroughly banal. Anyways, enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Did "Pushing Daisies" really almost take down "30 Rock" at the Emmys?

You know, I didn't tune in for Sunday's Emmys except for in snippets, but for a reason any TV awards show should appreciate: There was simply much better TV on at the time.

On "Mad Men," that smooth cat getting his foot caught off by a John Deere was the most action the show has ever had, and of course very funny, but I thought all the stuff with poor Sally was even better. And for fans of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," I have it on good authority (from a friend who has seen the first three episodes) that the Loretta Black (Vivica A. Fox) cancer story line will take a turn by episode three that will shock and possibly offend even the most jaded Larry David fans, of which you can certainly count me one. I'll be there, especially since that's also when the "Seinfeld" folks begin their "Curb" run.

But perhaps I should have tuned in for at least a bit of the Emmys, because it somehow turned out to be a banner night for the late and much lamented (at least in this corner) "Pushing Daisies." The show somehow took home four awards, the biggest of which was easily Kristin Chenoweth's win for supporting actress in a comedy.

Now, I know a lot of folks just can't stand her cheery act, but it fit the spirit of the show perfectly (which may tell a lot about why it got canceled after just 22 episodes and two vexingly incomplete seasons), but I loved her Olive, especially how she played off of Chi McBride's Emerson Cod.

And though I'm sure a "Family Guy"-style resurrection is out of the question, it's certainly worth noting that with four Emmys (granted, three were in the creative arts realm handed out before Sunday night), "Pushing Daisies" finished only one behind "30 Rock," which I just assumed would take home its allotted double-digit assortment of trophies (granted, I tune in for every new episode of that one too, I'm just saying, it is kinda funny.)

I would say R.I.P. "Pushing Daisies," but with all these signs of life after death (Bryan Fuller is developing a comic book and even dreaming beyond all reason of some kind of movie) I just can't help but keep a little hope alive.

The only other thing I really would have liked to have seen was the visit from host Neil Patrick Harris' Dr. Horrible. It didn't come in a big production number, as hinted at by EW's Michael Ausiello, but this bit also featuring Nathan Fillion's Captain Hammer is still pretty funny. And I've been telling my bosses for years that the Internet is just a fad, but no one listens to me either. Peace out.

Easily the funniest thing I've seen all week

One of the joys about working where I do (and with layoffs constantly looming, there are less and less of them) is that I'm surrounded by a pretty good set of geeks who know what I like and send me cool things in the e-mail. The above image, apparently created by someone named Evan Shaner, was sent to me by the Telegraph's Web guru, Ryan Gilchrest, and as you can see it's pretty priceless in mashing up "Watchmen" with the "Peanuts" gang.

My favorite thing would have to be Snoopy as Rohrschach, but Charlie Brown makes a pretty darn funny Dr. Manhattan too. And Lucy's chaste version of the Silk Spectre costume is just perfect.

Beyond that goodness, here today it's about what's upcoming in TV, and whether or not there will be anything new or returning worth watching as the silly season kicks up next month. The short answer, of course, is I have no idea since I haven't seen any of these, but here are a few that have caught my eye, with their premiere dates.

Castle, ABC, March 9
Is a likable star enough of a reason to tune in? This series will put that to the test with Nathan Fillion (a k a Captain Mal and that woo-pitching doctor in "Waitress") in the title role as a crime novelist who, natch, solves actual crimes. Sounds nothing but tired, but Fillion's enough to get me to tune in to yet another Monday night show for at least a few episodes.

South Park, Comedy Central, March 11
What's to say about this one except that mssrs. Stone and Parker did some of their best work with two episodes in the most recent season, "Major Boobage" and "Over Logging." The Heavy Metal tribute in "Boobage" was just especially cool. It's pretty amazing that these guys are not only still on the air but also now at least a billion times funnier than "The Simpsons." Bring it on.

Kings, NBC, March 15
Along with "Deadwood" vet Ian McShane (or as one clever journalist called him the other day, Ian Swearsalot) in the lead role of the king, this show has a pretty clever premise going for it too. It takes the story of David, complete with Goliath and all, not only into the modern world but into some kind of parallel realm called Shiloh. It sounds entirely too crazy for TV, so I give it about a month, but I'll tune in for at least the two-hour premiere March 15 to see just what this madness looks like.

Parks and Recreation, April 9
If you're a regular viewer of "The Office" (and if you're not, why not?), you've seen so many promos for this show that you might already be sick of it more than a month before it even premieres. And, frankly, I can normally only take Amy Poehler in small doses (though she was great as that psycho R.A. in "Undeclared"), but here she's surrounded by very funny people in Rashida Jones and Aziz Ansari, and since this comes from the minds of "Office" creators Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, I'll at least have to give it a chance.

Sit Down, Shut Up, April 19

Definitely saving the best for last, I'm jazzed for this animated offering from "Arrested Development" mastermind Mitch Hurwitz, which will soon be entering Fox's Sunday night lineup (unfortunately to replace "King of the Hill," but that great show had a much longer run than I expected, so I suppose it's time to move on.) This oddity is based on a New Zealand (not Australian, as several commenters have told me) sitcom about high school teachers who are at least as self-absorbed and pretty much useless as their students. As you can see from the preview below, it also features several "Arrested Development" vets in the voice cast, so this should really be nothing but fun. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Saturday. Peace out.

"Bottle Shock": A slow-blooming vintage

The only real good news I could find out there this morning is that ABC is taking a pilot starring Captain Mal (Nathan Fillion) to series as part of its midseason lineup coming in January. The fairly promising story of "Castle" from writer Andrew W. Marlowe is about a novelist (Fillion) who helps the NYPD.

The order of the day, however, is "Bottle Shock," an odd little flick that - like a fine wine, I suppose - takes a rather long time to get started but delivers a real kick at the finish. And, for the record, though you're gonna hear me complain quite a bit about this one, I certainly fell under its spell by the end.

The story, based on a true tale, is about a French wine contest staged in 1976 by a British vintner (a superbly snotty Alan Rickman) in which the upstart wineries of Napa Valley did much better than anyone expected (I really hope I'm not giving too much away here, but that should be pretty obvious to most people going in, me thinks.)

My problem with the first hour or so of "Bottle Shock" is that its primary characters, even if they're based on real people, just come across as the most cliched composites. Bill Pullman, as the struggling owner of Napa's Chateau Montelena, plays the bullheaded dreamer to the hilt, and Chris Pine as his drifting-through-life son feels just as tired. Freddy Rodriguez, easily one of my favorite actors, would normally add life to any proceedings, but writer/director Randall Miller involves him in a meandering series of subplots, most notably a romantic side road with a Chateau Montelena intern played by Rachel Taylor that just feels tacked-on from the start.

But at its core, of course, this is a flick all about wine and the making of it, and once it gets around to that the movie really starts to get on a pleasant roll. Though it grows tiresome watching Rickman sampling the wines of Napa and philosophizing about their virtues (perhaps if I appreciated wine more I would have gotten into this more too), he's also the instigator of the contest that gives "Bottle Shock" its real burst of intrigue.

Watching the Napa vintners band together to get their wines across the pond has a real "can-do" spirit to it reminiscent of "Tucker" (hey, knock that one if you want to, but I just love it.) The froggy wine critics Rickman assembles are perfectly snooty, and the set-up uses the conventions of the sports drama in a fun, sort-of-new way.

And the road to getting there is filled with the movie's most genuinely funny moments, including a novel way of getting several cases of wine through customs and the building-up of the "blind taste test" as the big turning point (in which an under-used but charming-as-usual Eliza Dushku finally gets to join the fun.)

I know I spent a lot more time attacking this one here than i did savoring it, but I think that's perhaps because my expectations were high going in. The bottom line: If you like wine and can bear with this flick as it slowly develops, it has a finish to please even the pickiest of palates.

And I'll leave you with the trailer for a flick I'm really looking forward to, even if it is directed by Ron Howard. With a script from "The Queen" scribe Peter Morgan based on his own play, Frank Langella (huzzah!) plays recently deposed ex-president Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen plays interviewer David Frost in "Frost/Nixon." Enjoy, and have a perfectly bearable Wednesday.

Where are they now: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

The inspiration for this post actually comes from welcome news about a veteran of a different Joss Whedon project, Jewel Staite, a k a Firefly ship's mechanic Kaylee.

Though this isn't normally exactly my cup of tea, I'll probably give "The Tribe" a chance with her in it. The flick, set to come out next summer, is described at the IMDB as being thusly: "After a devastating boat crash, a group of friends is stranded on an uncharted island, where they encounter an ancient tribe of humanoid creatures." Sounds pretty meh to me, but like I said, I'll at least give it a shot.

That news got my mind, which does tend to move quicker than my body when I write these things fairly early in the morning, on the idea that it would be fun to check in with the cast of Whedon's masterwork, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Knock it if you must, but it was the smartest and funniest show of its day, and any fans of serials like "Lost" and "Heroes" should recognize its import.

This might be a bit long, because I put together a list of 20 bit to not-so-bit players from the Buffyverse. And I hope at least a few people enjoy reading this even slightly as much as I did researching it. Here goes:

Buffy: Where else would you start than at the top? Given its apocalyptic storyline and extremely long rollout, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the savaging of Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales." In the flick, which may never even make it out to my little corner of the world, Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a porn star/reality TV star (and really, what's the difference between the two?) She has two future credits listed at the IMDB, neither of which look too promising. The first, "Possession," indeed sounds like a parody of most of her post-"Buffy" film work: A woman's life is thrown into chaos after a freak car accident sends her husband and brother-in-law into comas. Thrills arrive after the brother-in-law wakes up, thinking he's his brother. Wow does that sound bad. The next is truly odd. Called "Alice," it springs from a video game called "American McGee's Alice" which in turn was inspired by the Lewis Carroll novel. One of these days SMG will get to star in a good movie, but it's not on the horizon yet, I fear.

Willow: I've been watching season two of Alyson Hannigan's new series, "How I Met Your Mother," on DVD, and I can confirm it's just as funny as I remember. Sadly, I couldn't find upcoming film credits that would offer the chance to redeem herself after the disaster that was "Date Movie," so here's hoping CBS gives "Mother" a solid five-year run or so.

Xander: I guess it shouldn't be surprising that "Buffy" vets get tied down to fantasy/horror work pretty fast. After a thankfully short run on the TV show "Kitchen Confidential," Nicholas Brendon has two current IMDB credits. I can't imagine any movie that really stars Rowdy Roddy Piper will be any good, but 2008's "The Portal" is described thusly: Investigators pursuing a bizarre hemorrhagic illness are lead to a strange black painting that they discover is a portal to another dimension. Sounds more than a little like your standard SMG movie. Next comes "Blood on the Highway," a horror/comedy with this rather ominous tagline: "There's a sucker born every minute!" I can only hope they're not talking about us.

Rupert Giles: The always-welcome Anthony Stewart Head is, as far as I can tell, the only "Buffy" vet who's still actively in the Whedon mob. Although I can't find a firm credit anywhere, I'm fairly certain they're developing a "Ripper" spinoff movie or miniseries for the BBC. In more certain credits, you can see the great Mr. Head as a ghost in Tim Burton's take on "Sweeney Todd" and then with, yes, Paris Hilton in "Repo! The Genetic Opera!" I guess a man's gotta eat.

Spike: "Buffy" and "Angel" player James Marsters had a nifty little run on "Smallville" and can be seen soon as the third lead behind Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler in the December chicky flick "P.S. I Love You." Much more interesting could be his next role, as serial killer Ted Bundy in a miniseries called "Chasing the Devil," scheduled to hit your TV sets somewhere in mid-March.

Anya: Except for some work (along with many of her fellow "Buffy" vets) on Seth Green's "Robot Chicken," Emma Caulfield amazingly has no work listed after a TV movie called "A Valentine Carol" that apparently ran on USA last February. Somehow I managed to miss that one. How in the world can a woman both this beautiful and witty be un- (or at least way under-) employed?

Dawn: Though she was great in "Mysterious Skin," I somehow managed to resist Michelle Trachtenberg's two other big flicks, "The Ice Princess" (which I probably wouldn't admit to seeing even if I had) and the rather unfortunate "Black Christmas." She currently has two other flicks listed as completed, "Kids in America," a coming-of-age comedy headlined by Topher Grace and Anna Faris, and "The Possibility of Fireflies," which promises to be exactly the type of flick I will never see.

Cordelia: Charisma Carpenter left "Buffy" to have just as good a run on the "Angel" spinoff, and also had a great turn as Kendall Casablancas on the late and much-missed "Veronica Mars." Amazingly, that's her last listed acting credit. About the only way I could have gotten excited about a "Wonder Woman" flick would be with her as our heroine and Whedon at the helm, but that's clearly not gonna happen.

Angel: I tuned in for one episode of David Boreanaz's still-running series "Bones" and rather quickly dismissed it as the standard police procedural fare that's saturated our airwaves. If I'm wrong and it's somehow better than that, please let me know. Along with that, he's just wrapped "Our Lady of Victory," a flick in which he plays the hubby of Carla Gugino (triple and resounding huzzah!), who plays the coach of the women's basketball team at a tiny Catholic college who leads her charges to a national title. After that he'll voice The Green Lantern in the animated "Justice League: The New Frontier."

Tara: Clearly the coolest thing Amber Benson has done post-"Buffy" was the "Ghosts of Albion" animated series with Chris Golden for the BBC online. You can still watch it here. She has four current (and most likely straight-to-DVD) credits listed at the IMDB: "Kiss the Bride," starring Tori Spelling (always a promising sign); "Strictly Sexual," of which she's the headliner and actually has this plotline: Two successful women, sick and tired of dating and relationships, decide to keep two young men in their pool house for strictly sexual purposes.; a horror/comedy called "The One-Eyed Monster," of which she's also listed as the principal star, and then a werewolf flick called "Shifter" toplined by Rachel Miner (remember her? I think she was once MacCaulay Culkin's wife.)

Oz: With his own creation, the stellar "Robot Chicken," and as the voice of Chris Griffin, Seth Green has had steady and very entertaining work on TV post-"Buffy." Unfortunately, his upcoming movie credits are a "rumored" role in the John Travolta/Tim Allen "comedy" "Old Dogs" and then what I can only assume is a sequel to the remake of "The Italian Job," to be called, creatively enough, "The Brazilian Job."

Riley: Buffy's college paramour, Marc Blucas, actually has a role in a flick hitting the multiplexes in my little burg this week, "The Jane Austen Book Club," in which he plays the hubby of Emily Blunt. He'll next topline the recently wrapped "Animals," some kind of horror/fantasy with a plot too odd to describe in brief, but did you know he was a starting guard on the Wake Forest basketball team back in the day? Bizarre.

Johnathan: Surprisingly, Nerd of Doom Danny Strong has probably had the most successful career of the "Buffy" ensemble. After a long stint as Doyle, Paris' man, on "Gilmore Girls," he managed to pen the movie "Recount." About the rather screwed-up 2000 presidential election, it's being made by HBO to be trotted out just in time for the 2008 edition. If you really wanted to, you can apparently currently see him in the Amanda Bynes flick "Sydney White." His future credits include "Bad Guys," which, since it wrapped in April, I can only assume is headed straight to DVD, and the comedy "Robbin' in da Hood," which is apparently directed by someone who simply goes by the name Quake. Yes, just Quake.

Andrew: The funniest of the nerds, Tom Lenk, actually had a part in this summer's "Transformers" as "Analyst No. 2," but it doesn't look too promising after that. His only credit: The I suppose inevitable "Boogeyman 2." Sheesh.

Warren: Along with a lot of TV work, head nerd Adam Busch has also managed to have a part in easily one of the worst movies I've had the displeasure of seeing in the last five years or so, "American Dreamz (zzzzz)." After that he only has "Geohunt," which I rather fear will be yet another flick about humans hunting humans.

Faith: Granted, Eliza Dushku should have gotten a much more prominent position on this list, but I figured a trio of very beautiful women was necessary here after the nerds. Her three current credits are "The Alphabet Killer," apparently based on the "double initial" killer of Rochester, NY, "Sex and Breakfast," a romantic comedy toplined by Rachel Miner's former husband, and easily the most promising one, "Bottle Shock," a flick about the birth of the Napa wine industry which will also star Freddy Rodriguez (huzzah again!) and Alan Rickman.

Drusilla: Juliet Landau's seriously insane vamp was always my favorite of the "Buffy"/"Angel" characters. Her upcoming credits include "The Yellow Wallpaper," described (rather optomisticly, I fear) as a dark, Gothic thriller, "Land of Canaan," yet another psychological thriller starring, somehow, Tara Reid, and another thriller called "Darkness Visible" (I couldn't make this stuff up!)

Darla: Along with her steady work on TV's uneven but mostly entertaining "Dexter," the alluring Julie Benz has a big part in next summer's "John Rambo." Yes, that Rambo. Please, dear Lord, don't make us have to watch her make out with Sylvester Stallone.

Wesley: The last place I remember seeing Alexis Denisof was in a very funny run on season one of wifey Alyson's sitcom "How I Met Your Mother." Since, he has nothing else listed, but I did find out that, like the great Linda Hamilton and the late Frank Perdue, he is apparently a native of Salisbury, Md., the little burg where I happened to grow up. Cool.

Caleb: Why not wrap things up with the agent of Buffy's final foe? Nathan Fillion went on to play Captain Mal, of course, in Whedon's "Firefly" and "Serenity" (when in the world is the Sci-Fi Channel gonna come to its senses and revive "Firefly" already?), and also starred with Keri Russell in easily one of my favorite movies of this year so far, "Waitress." His next flick will be something called "Trucker," with Michelle Monaghan which doesn't look too promising, but I like Mr. Fillion enough that I'll watch him in just about anything.

Whew! That certainly went on a long time, so I apologize to anyone who thought it was more than a bit of overkill. As Buffy herself once said, to me it was "just enough kill," and a perfectly enjoyable accompaniment to my morning coffee. Peace out.