Miscellaneous: Mystery*File

Steve Lewis’ first-rate ‘zine Mystery*File is migrating to the web. The site already features plenty to read, including the latest installment of my column In The Frame. This one reviews two of the later novels in the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child, as well as Universal’s first batch of film noir DVDs. Check out the whole issue. You won’t be disappointed.

TV: Extras

The HBO series from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant isn’t as good as THE OFFICE, or the surprisingly solid NBC remake of THE OFFICE. But it’s still remarkably funny, lacerating celebrities like no other show on the tube.

Consider this exchange, in which Ben Stiller (playing himself) tears into Gervais as an extra on the movie he’s directing:

Stiller: Who are you? ... That’s right. Nobody. And who am I?
Gervais: It’s either Starsky or Hutch, I can never remember.
Stiller: Was that supposed to be funny?
Gervais: You tell me. You were in it.

This after Stiller has told the Bosnian refugee whose life has inspired the film he’s making to “stop going on about your fucking dead wife.” Ouch.

Miscellaneous: Link

GreenCine Daily has an interview with the criminally underrated director Walter Hill. It turns out his classic 1979 action film THE WARRIORS, just released as a special edition DVD, is actually science fiction. That gang dressed as baseball players should have been a dead giveaway.