Hey, it's good enough for Spinal Tap, Hannah Montana and The Monkees. Now Dewey Cox, of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, is the latest fictional music artist to go on a real-life tour. Yes, according to Variety, John C. Reilly is suiting up to perform in character for the "Cox Across America Tour." Joined by his band, the Hard Walkers, Reilly/Cox is making appearances in seven cities: Cleveland; Chicago; Austin; Nashville; San Francisco; Los Angeles and New York City. The first gig is this Wednesday at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and all shows include a screening of the movie, a music biopic spoof from the smartest man in Hollywood, Judd Apatow, and director Jake Kasdan (The TV Set).

Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, only the Chicago date is not sold out. My guess is that by the time of posting, even that show will be unavailable, but feel free to check Sony's RSVP page to find out. Otherwise, you can at least hear Cox's music on the Walk Hard soundtrack, which hits stores today.

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing Reilly as Cox. I also wish I could have seen Reilly tour the nation as Lefty, his character from A Prairie Home Companion -- accompanied by Woody Harrelson as Dusty, of course. If I could see any fictional artist in concert, though, I'd pick The Venus in Furs, or maybe Jesse and the Rippers. How about you? What fictional band or artist would you most like to see go on tour?

Anyway, stay tuned to Cinematical because we're working on something special to coincide with the "Cox Across America Tour."

I have an issue with year-end best-of lists. Or, I should say I have an issue with making them, myself. Every year I think about giving in to the tradition, but then I stop myself when I realize that I haven't seen enough movies. There are the last-minute releases of late December to wait for. There are films I missed earlier in the year that haven't yet arrived on DVD. And ever since I took a hiatus from reviewing films, it has gotten worse, because I see fewer movies than I normally do. Typically I don't discover my favorite pic of a given year until the following year or later.

So, rather than write up a list that may change tomorrow or the next day or 10 years from now, I've decided to reflect on the bad movies I saw. I've definitely seen more bad movies than good movies, anyway. But rather than make a list of the worst of '06 -- I probably haven't seen the real worst any more than I've seen the best -- I fondly recalled the movies that were crap, but were enjoyable, nonetheless.

Some of the movies on my list are wholly guilty pleasures, while others have one or two specific aspects that I found more guiltily pleasurable than the movie itself.

• 10.) Cobra Starship's 'Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)' video from Snakes on a Plane - Sure, Snakes on a Plane is a guilty pleasure -- it was made to be. But it is just too obvious to mention it as a whole, and anyway it really wasn't as enjoyable as it should have been or was meant to be. The music video during the movie's credits, though, is another story. In my opinion it overshadows the actual movie by a long shot. It may be as self-consciously intent on producing irony and camp, but it succeeds where SOAP doesn't. Maybe because it is catchy, maybe because the band looks like a parody of contemporary hipster bands, or maybe because it is shorter -- I am far more likely to return to the video for a good laugh than to the movie (not that I'll turn off the movie on a lazy Sunday with nothing better to do; it is still a guilty pleasure, itself).

The great master filmmaker Robert Altman died last night at a Los Angeles hospital. The writer-director pretty much pioneered a new style of movies using multiple characters and storylines with overlapping dialogue and plots, and he continued making movies well through a time when those he influenced were attempting to copy him. Last year, while shooting A Prairie Home Companion, Altman was assisted by Paul Thomas Anderson, whose Magnolia was almost like a remake of Altman's Short Cuts, just in case the elder filmmaker was to pass on. He didn't.

I guess I took it for granted that he might just continue making movies forever, but at 81, Altman had given us so many classic films, that I can't be too selfishly upset to see him go. I'm going to spend the rest of the day celebrating his life and work rather than sulking in mourning. Many of my favorite films were directed by Altman. He made my favorite western (McCabe & Mrs. Miller), my favorite movie about Hollywood (The Player), my favorite movie about the Korean War (MASH), my favorite wedding movie (A Wedding) and my favorite movie about country music (Nashville). I'm even a big fan of Popeye.

Altman was nominated for five directing Oscars, but never won an Academy Award until he was given an honorary award at this year's ceremony.

It took a while for us to narrow down all the entries in our A Prairie Home Companion DVD giveaway to five winners (actually, it didn't take that long, I was just being terribly lazy over the weekend). When we decided to use the above shot of Lindsay Lohan for this Caption This contest, we knew we'd get some good ones -- and you didn't disappoint us! Here are our winning entries:


"You can fix that in post, right?" -- submitted by reader Eric Blair

"What do you mean they can't see me. Radio? WTF?" -- submitted by reader Chris Muir

"I don't know where you got it, but this bong isn't working" -- submitted by reader Jeremy Parker

"We have a great show tonight... Lindsay Lohan is here! Yeah!!!! Wait... I'm Lindsay Lohan... I mean... Gwen Stafani is here!" -- submitted by reader Dorv

"Would the owner of black lacy panties claim them in the back... oh wait, those are mine." -- submitted by reader Ryan

Congrats to our winners! Official winner emails are winding their way to you through cyberspace even now; make sure you get us your mailing address so we can get your DVD to you!

Okay, you know the drill. We show you a photo from a movie -- in this case, Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion -- you provide us with a brilliantly witty caption for the pic, and we shower you with prizes. Well, maybe not shower, exactly, but in this case we actually have five -- that's right, FIVE -- DVDs to give away, in honor of the release of the A Prairie Home Companion DVD tomorrow. The DVD features special audio commentary with Robert Altman and star Kevin Kline, deleted scenes, and a behind-the-scenes "featurette."

The best five caption entries, as judged by our crack Cinematical caption contest staff, will win. So take a good, hard look at the still from A Prairie Home Companion above and get those brain cells working, Cinematical readers! You have until Thursday, October 12 at 5PM EDT to submit your entry in the comments.

In the best of Robert Altman's ensemble pictures, his sprawling casts fall into a sort of miraculous rhythm. No matter how divergent their storylines might be, there's never a sense that actors aren't on the same page. In MASH, for example, not only are Donald Sutherland's Hawkeye and Elliot Gould's Trapper John completely in sync, but they also share a clear understanding with Sally Kellerman (Hot Lips) and Robert Duvall (Frank Burns). And in The Player, no matter how reptilian and icy Tim Robbins' Griffin Mill gets, he never fails to share convincing connections with every other major actor in the film -- despite its rangy story, never once does the movie feel like anything less than a coherent whole. By the same token, however, when things go wrong for Altman they go very, very wrong. Despite its world-class cast, Prêt-à-Porter is a sprawling mess, full of characters and performances that have nothing to do with one another, and a story that exists simply to give them all an excuse to be in the same movie.

While Altman's latest feature, A Prairie Home Companion, is by no means the aggressive disaster Prêt-à-Porter was, there nevertheless is something off about. Stocked with an all-star cast that includes Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, John C. Reilly, Lily Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan, and Tommy Lee Jones, the movie never congeals into a coherent whole, despite a handful of heart-felt performances. Set backstage at an old-time-style radio show called A Prairie Home Companion (also the name of screenwriter-star Garrison Keillor's long-running show on NPR), the movie takes place during the show's final performance: The Fitzgerald Theater in which it is based has been bought out, and the new owners have no interest in hosting a radio show. As Altman is wont to do, he jumps back and forth among stories that include a pregnant stage manager (Maya Rudolph), lovers planning a tryst (L.Q. Jones and Marylouise Burke), an angel (Virginia Madsen) in search of a soul, singing sisters reminiscing about their careers (Streep and Tomlin), and a star uncomfortable with saying goodbye (Keillor).

According to FOXNews.com, Lindsay Lohan "walked away" from shooting the indie film Bill before attending the Sunday night premiere of A Prairie Home Companion. According to rumors, the actress is unhappy with the production and is planning on only working for big name directors from now on (Bill is being shot by first-time directors Bernie Goldmann and Melisa Wallack). Lohan is supposedly now concentrating on her next film, Georgia Rule, which is about sexual abuse and comes from "big name director" Garry Marshall (would you let the helmer of Exit to Eden tackle a serious film about incestuous molestation?).

Good. Who needs Lindsay Lohan in any independent films from new, unknown filmmakers? I'll admit that after Mean Girls I was excited about her career, but she hasn't done anything interesting since. Sure she's in the new Altman film, but who hasn't been in an Altman film? To completely discredit and exclude all novice directors, if this is indeed what she plans on doing, is a sure sign of a spoiled star.

A Prairie Home Companion is not a masterpiece in the grand, historical sense, but on its own terms, it's pretty much a perfect film. Scripted by Garrison Keillor, directed by the legendary Robert Altman, and starring a dream cast that manages to include everyone from the most nominated actress in Oscar history to the most gossiped about young starlet of today, the film's consummate professionalism oozes off the screen. This  – to see professional entertainers, not breaking a sweat whilst entertaining – should not be surprising, but the simple, classical ease of the thing feels like a revelation.

Coming off his well-deserved lifetime achievement Oscar and the warm, positive reaction his A Prairie Home Companion received at Berlin last month, the media buzz surrounding Robert Altman is higher than it's been in years (and years and years). It's no surprise, then, that Picturehouse chose this moment to officially launch its marketing campaign for his new film, which opens this June.

In addition to a reassuringly old-school poster, A Prairie Home Companion's new website features a trailer which, finally, give most of us our first look at the movie. As both an Altman fan and (this is really, really embarrassing to admit) a listener to the Garrison Keillor radio show on which the movie is based, I'm this movie's target audience, and the trailer had me eating out of its damn hand. While the film's ability to appeal to people unfamiliar with the radio show (meaning, probably, everyone under 60 who isn't me) is very much in question - that's what Lindsay Lohan is for - everything about the trailer struck me as perfect. The combination of Keillor's distinctive voice and the familiar faces of Altman's all-star cast create a very familiar, comforting atmosphere that is rare in American film these days. The trailer isn't trying to shock or challenge us, or even win us over - instead, it has the very unusual effect of welcoming us home, to a place where everything is just as we left it.

Wow, I can't believe I just wrote something that sappy. Such, apparently, is the power of the damn trailer, for those of us either mentally or physically over 60. Seriously. I just want to sit here and watch it all day (and then maybe take a nap, do some knitting, and watch Wheel of Fortune).

[via JoBlo]

Lindsay Lohan admitted in a Vanity Fair interview that she has dabbled in drug use and her weight loss last year was the result of bulimia.  The young actress, who was hospitalized this week for a severe asthma attack, told the magazine that after 2004's Mean Girls she experimented with drugs "a little". She denies using cocaine in the interview, but openly discusses the bulimia that led to her sudden skinniness. "I was making myself sick," Lohan admits.

Is this really a big shock to anyone? Anyone who witnessed Lohan's shrinkorama over the past year, as she went from curvy and sexy to stick-like and sickly-looking, knew the girl had an eating disorder; with the crowd she's been running with and the late night partying, the drug use shouldn't come as a huge shock either. Why is it that if an actress admits drug use, it's no big deal, but if someone actually takes a photo of it, ala Kate Moss, it's a huge-ass scandal?

Lohan, one of the hardest-working actresses in Hollywood at the moment, has been maintaining a busy schedule -- she costars in A Prairie Home Companion, due out in June, and the just completed Just My Luck,  has been filming Emilio Estevez's film about Robert F. Kennedy's assasination, Bobby, another project called The New Girl in pre-prod, and is due to begin filming another assasination film, Chapter 27, about John Lennon's murder, in two weeks. Lots of work, lots of Hollywood pressue to be thin, blond and beautiful, and lots of hanging out with the skinny, rich, partying crowd in Hollywood (can you say Paris Hilton? I knew you could), apparently added up to lots of pressure on Lohan to morph from curvaceous, freckly redhead to ultraskinny blond. Here's hoping she finds her way back to the uniqueness that set her apart from the rest of the Hollywood Barbie doll wannabes, and that she keeps her head on straight.