She Likes to Watch

Incompetent Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is back in "The Return of the Pink Panther."

Winery celebrates end of summer with “The Return of “The Pink Panther”

Wine and laughter will both flow freely this Saturday during an outdoor screening of “The Return of the Pink Panther.”

When a mysterious jewel thief nabs the Pink Panther diamond, leaving only a white glove as a clue, comically incompetent Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is assigned to find it.

Meanwhile, the chief suspect in the case — Sir Charles Litton (Christopher Plummer), aka retired cat burglar The Phantom — seeks to find the diamond and clear his name. If only that bumbling Clouseau wasn’t always getting in the way!

Directed by Blake Edwards, “The Return of the Pink Panther” is packed with gleefully goofy jokes and spectacular physical comedy courtesy of Clouseau and his crazed manservant Cato (Burt Kwouk).  Don’t miss  Herbert Lom as Clouseau’s homicidal boss, Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus.

“The Return of the Pink Panther” screens at sundown at Wild Horse Winery & Vineyards, 1437 Wild Horse Winery Court in Paso Robles, off Templeton Road. (The fun officially starts at 6:30 p.m.)

Tickets are $20 per person — $10 for wine club members — and include popcorn and five wine tastings.

For more information, call 788-6315 or e-mail leslie.churchill@wildhorsewinery.com.

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An unusual series starts this Thursday on local Channel 2.

The public access television station will begin airing folk singer U. Utah Phillip’s radio show, “Loafer’s Glory: The Hobo Jungle of the Mind,” in video form.

Photos provided by Phillip’s family will be paired with 200 broadcasts recorded over the last three years of his life. (Phillips died in May 2008.) They feature poetry, music and guest appearances by the likes of Ani DiFranco, Pete Seeger, Rosalie Sorrels and Kate Wolfe as well as musings about politics, poverty and public performance.

“Utah was a sort of a Renaissance man,” producer David Baumgarten said. “His interests extended from Egyptology to opera, hoboing, railroads and the plights of poor people worldwide.”

The first episode of “Loafer’s Glory” will air at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, with repeat screenings at 2 p.m. Monday and 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. A new episode will be broadcast every two weeks.

For more information, call David Baumgarten at (805) 528-7508.

“Modern Family” beats “Glee,” “Mad Men” triumphs at Emmy Awards

Sorry, “Glee” fans.

Another quirky comedy took the title of television’s top comedy at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards — ABC’s “Modern Family” — beating out Fox’s singing, dancing sensation.

“Modern Family” also won Emmys for writers Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd and supporting actor Eric Stonestreet, who plays a chubby, loveable gay father on the show.

“Glee” still grabbed two statuettes for director Ryan Murphy and supporting actress Jane Lynch, aka cheer coach Sue Sylvester. But the fact that the uber-popular sitcom, which garnered 19 nominations earlier this year, didn’t have a stronger showing at Sunday’s awards ceremony must have disappointed some.

Other comedy acting awards went to Jim Parsons, who plays a brilliant but socially awkward physicist on CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory,” and Edie Falco, the titular star of Showtime’s “Nurse Jackie.”

In the drama category, AMC period piece “Mad Men” won its third consecutive Emmy for outstanding series.  Steve Shill took the directing Emmy for Showtime’s “Dexter.”

Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul nabbed acting honors for “Breaking Bad,” another AMC show, and Kyra Sedgwick won for TNT’s “The Closer.” Meanwhile, Archie Panjabi took home a statuette for her supporting role on CBS’s “The Good Wife.”

Other winners included:

• Bravo’s “Top Chef” — best reality show
• Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” – best variety show)
• HBO’s “The Pacific” – best miniseries
• HBO’s “Temple Grandin” – best made-for-television movie

• What I watched a few nights ago: Bruce Willis in “Surrogates.” Good concept, terrible delivery. #
• Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino will earn $5 million in 2010. Five million smackers!! That’s it. I’m going on “Jersey Shore.” #
• How is The Situation doing compared to other TV stars? Check out The Hollywood Reporter’s helpful chart: http://tinyurl.com/2aabcst #
• What I watched last night: 1985’s “Alice in Wonderland,” starring Sammy Davis Jr., Red Buttons, Scott Baio, Roddy McDowell, Ringo Starr… #
• … Shelley Winters, Sid Caesar, Telly Savalas, Donald O’Connor, Karl Malden, Carol Channing, Lloyd and Beau Bridges, Harvey Korman … #
• … Pat Morita, Sally Struthers, Jonathan Winters, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick Duffy, Steve Allen, etc. A veritable cavalcade of stars. #
• Macaulay Culkin is 30 today. Man, does that make me feel old! #
• The first trailer is out for Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours.” Expect 20 minutes of wincing. http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi298255897/ #
• What I watched last night: “The Runaways,” a surprisingly solid film about sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and the band that spawned Joan Jett. #
• Kristen Stewart was great as the young Joan Jett. I may have to reevaluate my opinion of her. #
• Thank you, @defamer, for explaining this to me: Jersey Shore: The Definition of ‘Done’ http://gawker.com/5623823/ #

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Casey Affleck stars in "Gone Baby Gone," his brother Ben Affleck's directorial debut.

Ben Affleck redeems himself with crime drama “Gone Baby Gone”

After bashing Ben Affleck’s “Jersey Girl” the other day, I feel that I need to make an act of contrition.

Affleck, he of the big brown eyes, the million-watt smile and the perfectly dimpled chin, has come a long way since the days of “Daredevil,” “Gigli” and “Reindeer Games.”

He turned in a stunning performance as aging “Superman” star George Reeves in “Hollywoodland,” contributed a winning cameo to “He’s Just Not That Into You” and stole the show as a slacker bartender in the otherwise uneven “Extract.”

The actor, meanwhile, has proved his depth as a writer and director with “Gone Baby Gone,” “State of Play” and the upcoming “The Town.”

New Times film writer Bryce Wilson must share my opinion.

The first film in his new screening series — “Bryce Wilson Presents” — is “Gone Baby Gone,” the taut crime drama that made me reconsider all the jokes I’ve made at Affleck’s expense.

When 4-year-old Amanda McCready disappears from her working-class Boston neighborhood, her aunt (Amy Madigan) enlists the help of private detectives Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan). She hopes that they’ll succeed where the police (John Ashton, Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris) have failed.

As the case progresses, the investigators encounter drug dealers, gangs and pedophiles — ultimately facing a moral and professional dilemma that will tear them apart.

Amy Ryan (“Green Zone”) garnered Oscar and Golden Globe Award nominations for her electrifying performance as  Amanda’s drug-running mother. She and her fellow castmembers play an integral part in bringing Dennis Lehane’s novel to life.

“Gone Baby Gone” screens at 2 p.m. Saturday at the community room of the San Luis Obispo library, 995 Palm St. in Luis Obispo.

The screening series continues Sept. 25 with “One Two Three,” followed by “I Walked With a Zombie” on Oct. 30.

For more information, call Steve Kinsey at 781-1215.

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Also on Saturday, comedian Josh Blue brings his stereotype-defying humor to the Clark Center for the Performing Arts in Arroyo Grande.

Winner of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” Blue has appeared on “Mind of Mencia,” “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List,”  “Live With Regis” and “Ellen: The Ellen Degeneres Show.” He’s also a cerebral palsy survivor, a member of the U.S. Paralympic soccer team and winner of the Las Vegas Comedy Festival’s Royal Flush Comedy Competition. 

In addition, Blue has two comedy specials under his belt — 2006’s “7 More Days in the Tank” and a “Comedy Central Presents” show that aired last year.

Tickets are $30 to $50.

For more information or to purchase tickets, call (805) 489-9444 or visit the Clark Center online.

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“Gone Baby Gone” image courtesy of MovieWeb.com.

Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler in "Jersey Girl," derided by critics as sentimental schlock.

Movie-watching marathons could be the ultimate proof of film fandom

It’s no secret that I am an unabashed videophile.

My fiance and I watch, on average, a movie a night. In addition to that, we tune into sports games and sitcoms, reality competitions, cartoons and news broadcasts. We spend hours browsing blogs and scoping out the latest trailers, shorts and YouTube videos.

Chalk it all up, and we’re dedicating a substantial part of our day to the moving picture.

For all my fandom, however, I simply can’t compare to Welsh moviegoer Gwilym Hughes.

Hughes, who recently passed away at age 65, watched up to 14 movies a week and kept meticulous records of everything he had seen. He set a Guinness World Record for sitting through through more than 28,000 movies in 2008.

Few could match Hughes’ boundless love of motion pictures, but marathon movie-watching has become a popular spectator sport.

Earlier this month, Fandango editor Chuck Walton wrapped “100 Days of Summer” — achieving his goal of watching 100 movies in 100 days with a screening of “The Expendables.”

Movie critic Nathan Rabin, meanwhile, is currently making his way through “My Year of Flops” – reassessing such cinematic turds as “Jersey Girl,” “Little Nicky” and “Land of the Lost” on a bimonthly basis.

Because Rabin writes for the Onion A.V. Club, he’s able to capture the horror, boredom and bewilderment of watching truly terrible movies on a much more honest level than some critics. Translation: He can swear.

Chris Sims, creator of “Chris’s Invincible Super-Blog,” also seems compelled to seek out the worst the movie industry has to offer.

In his weekly “Worst of Netflix” series, Sims reviews the bottom of the barrel: the films that even Netflix’s normally lenient users have deemed awful. Check out his recent take on “D-War” – a poorly plotted fantasty flick about reincarnated Korean folk heroes fighting dragons in downtown Los Angeles — to see what I mean.

I personally trace these adventures in film fandom back to “A Year at the Movies: One Man’s Filmgoing Odyssey,” by Kevin Murphy of “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ fame.

Murphy conducted his experiment in 2001, so his book is full of references to forgotten flicks “Bridget Jones’ Diary,” “Corky Romano” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” His description of the original “Spy Kids” movie — “Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World,” starring Jessica Alba, is currently in the works — is almost uncanny.

I could spend a year at the multiplex. I could watch 100 movies in 100 days without breaking a sweat.

But intentionally watching bad movies as well as good ones? That, gentlemen, is where you have me beat.

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“Jersey Girl” image courtesy of MovieWeb.com.