If you want to take a gander, please visit www.thelatestmoviereviews.com, which includes some links to YouTube trailers and some really cool ads. The site will be adding more features in the coming months, to make it an even better experience, but for now, marvel at the collective genius that is the hive-mind of the Fantaverse!

Now, before I jump into the films that are scheduled to open Aug. 22, I should perhaps tell you that one of them, the Harrison Ford immigration drama Crossing Over, has been bumped back. According to comingsoon.net, the Weinsteins (surprise, surprise) have decided that a fall slot would better serve their interests, tentatively shifting the Wayne Kramer-directed drama to Oct. 24. (Next stop: First Quarter 2009!) So, anyone who has it on their slate in June, July or August leagues (yes, both of you) would do well to remove it, post-haste. Other films that have had their dates changed, according to ComingSoon, are Passengers (to Oct. 24), Soul Men (to Nov. 14), and Guy Ritchie's RockNRolla (to Oct. 3).

So, that leaves us with five films being scheduled for wide-release, one of which is The Rocker, a film that I previewed a few weeks ago before it was bumped from July 30 to Wednesday, Aug. 20. It may do slightly better in this spot, given that it will have a bit of separation from heavy-hitting comedies like Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder, but, again, my best advice would be to check its theater count prior to release. It's only going for $5 in August Ultimate Movie Moguls leagues, which could make it a good pick if it tracks well.

The first previously unscrutinized film I'll talk about today is Fly Me To the Moon, which I am only giving the leadoff spot because, like the films mentioned in the paragraph above, it may also be subject to a date change. ComingSoon has its release date actually listed as Aug. 15, not Aug. 22 (a fact that IMDb agrees with) and I don't know if their data has any merit, but you may want to pay close attention if you have this film on your slate. (Update: The movie's official Web site says Aug. 15, so we'll consider that definitive. If Fly Me is in your plans, act quickly.)

Speaking of IMDb, they very humorously describe Fly Me as "Flushed Away in space?" Instead of rats, however, this film follows the exploits of three houseflies — yes, you read right — who get launched into space when they sneak aboard Apollo 11's historic mission to the moon. The three flies, Nat, Scooter and I.Q. (he's the smart one, and you can tell he's smart because he wears glasses) are all voiced by kids whose names you probably wouldn't recognize. Also lending their voice talents are Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, Robert Patrick, Nicollette Sheridan and Kelly Ripa, not to mention ACTUAL astronaut Buzz Aldrin (playing himself, natch).

The entity releasing this film is K2 Communications, which is a company that specializes in IMAX films. The advertising for Fly Me bills it as "the first-ever completely animated movie shown in 3D," which I will say makes it very marketable. Unfortunately, the story still has to be, you know, GOOD, and I have serious doubts that this will be much more than schmaltzy fluff dressed up in a nice three-dimensional package.

Even though Fly Me has gotten positive, ah, "buzz" (chortle) in Europe, I am wary of picking this film for my roster after reading a review that included the following: "It was like a Pixar movie, only without the humor or the heart. The dialogue reminded me of an educational video ... there were pauses where we were supposed to laugh, but nobody did." While its current User Rating of 7.9, not to mention its cool-looking trailer, make it look tempting (well, more tempting than another recent movie about space-faring non-human creatures, whose primate-pubbing title I will not mention again), be warned that the rosy number reflects fewer than 100 votes, and will probably dip significantly once the film is released. And I have a sneaking suspicion that Fly Me will be given a theater count right in that no-man's-land range: too high for PTA, too low for good box office. Unless User Rating is the only category in which I'm lacking, I'd pass on this one.

Imagine my surprise when I looked at the prices for the brand new August season and found that Death Race had been given the price tag of $20 in Box Office Moguls leagues. I said to myself, "They're kidding, right?" Even with the bizarre overall August-October pricing scheme that Fantasy Moguls has come up with, this just about takes the cake. I figure a film would need a Box Office multiplier of $4M/DS ($4 million per dollar spent) in order to make it feasible in the August leagues, which means that Death Race would have to make $80 million, minimum. Anyone here think that's possible?

First of all, this isn't Arnold Schwarenegger in the 1980s, it's Jason Statham ... now. The lean British tough guy who really made his mark upon the film world in The Transporter (but had fans previously going all the way back to his debut in the Guy Ritchie films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch) has been in precisely ONE blockbuster (not counting his half-minute cameo in the Tom Cruise/Jamie Foxx crime drama Collateral). His biggest bang was in The Italian Job, which squeaked out just over $106 million in 2003. Since then, he's made a modest living in B-grade actioners such as Revolver, Chaos, Crank, In the Name of the King, WAR, and, of course, The Transporter 2 (coming Nov. 26 is The Transporter 3, followed April 17 by Crank 2: High Voltage — maybe he ain't the Governator 2.0, but he does have his fans). I rather liked Statham's somewhat-more-dramatic turn in The Bank Job from earlier this year, but, let's face it, he's not exactly Will Smith when it comes to drawing crowds. And Death Race, from what I've seen, looks like a typical late-August popcorn flick: all action, lots of thrills, not much thinking required. Which is fine, some of my favorite films fall into that category.

And the second reason this isn't worth $20? It's being directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, the man responsible for bringing us the Resident Evil series of films. He's also the guy lucky enough to call Milla Jovovich his girlfriend, but he's not exactly up to the level of, say, Michael Bay, or even Roland Emmerich.

The story takes place in the near future, where violence on television and the Internet has reached an all-time high. The warden of the highest-security prison in America (Joan Allen in the William H. Macy Memorial "I'm Tired of Being Respected for My Craft, Show Me the Money" casting slot) has created a show called "Death Race," which is basically an auto-race-slash-demolition-derby, where the participants are all convicted felons and the prize for victory is freedom. The losers? Well, you can pretty much guess what happens to them. (Didn't Stone Cold Steve Austin start in this exact same movie, like, five minutes ago?) So naturally, when an ex-racecar-driver (Statham) convicted of killing his wife is placed in her care, you can guess where the story goes from there. Ian McShane (fresh from Kung Fu Panda) and Tyrese Gibson co-star.

Coming one week after Tropic Thunder, I believe Death Race has a pretty good shot at No. 2 on its opening weekend, say, around $20 million or so. I seriously doubt, however, that it will do much more than $60 million overall, which makes that $20 price tag egregiously high. $11 in Ultimate is much, much better, given that it could do as many as seven or eight Top 5 points. It won't help you in PTA or User Ratings, though, as I suspect that a rating around 5.0 is what's in store.

Ugh. Now we come to The House Bunny, a ditzy girl-comedy starring Anna Faris (Scary Movie 4, My Super Ex-Girlfriend) as Shelley, a Playboy model who gets kicked out of Hef's mansion — "You're 27 ... that's like 59 in bunny years" is an actual line of dialogue — only to wind up becoming den mother to the sorority girls from Zeta Alpha Zeta. These girls, who are apparently the biggest social doofuses on God's green Earth, are about to lose their house, and it would seem that having a painfully dumb Elle Woods clone take over is the only thing that can save them. Yes, it looks exactly like "Legally Blonde meets Sydney White," but without the quirky charms of either one. Fred Wolf, a former Saturday Night Live writer who cratered earlier this year with Strange Wilderness, is at the helm of this picture, and has to somehow make this retread marketable to the demographic it's aiming at ... whatever that is.

Despite the presence of the former Mrs. Clark W. Griswold, Beverly D'Angelo (along with Bruce and Demi's daughter Rumer and former American Idol siren Kat McPhee), or, actually, because of it, this truly has "should have gone direct to DVD" written all over it. This film will give you no stats in any category save possibly one Top 5 point and a few mil, but for $4 (in Ultimate), you could pick Bangkok Dangerous or Righteous Kill, both of which actually have A-list actors in them. And I pity you if you really think this is worth $7 in Box Office. No, no, no.

Anyone remember Limp Bizkit? Who would have thought that their hard-rockin' front-man, Fred Durst, had it in him to become a Hollywood director? Well, it's true, and his first big project to hit theaters is the latest true-to-life uplifting sports story, The Longshots. Interesting career move, to be sure. Let's just hope he didn't do it all for the nookie. (Grin.)

The Longshots stars Ice Cube, who is coming off of a six-year stretch of doing nothing but action films (xXx: State of the Union, Torque) and African-American family comedies (Are We There/Done Yet? and the Friday and Barbershop movies). It also features rising star KeKe Palmer (Akeelah and the Bee), who plays the role of Jasmine Plummer, an 11-year-old girl who is the daughter of a single mom who, sadly, doesn't have much time for her, given that she has to work almost constantly to support the family.

Enter Jasmine's uncle (Cube), who, quite by accident, discovers that she has a prodigious throwing arm. Hoping to fill the role vacated by her deadbeat dad, he talks her into joining the local Pop Warner football league, a league that, up to this moment in time, has never entertained the thought of letting a girl play. Obviously, this causes quite a stir, among both the kids (with serious "locker room" issues) and their parents, who naturally believe that a girl playing a traditionally male sport would be too disruptive (not to mention dangerous).

However, this is a feel-good film (based on true events), so you know the classic feel-good ending is in store. Now, I have a particular soft spot for stories of this nature, but I can't help but wonder what makes this film any different from the rest of them, which for the most part are a dime a dozen. I also like Cube and Palmer as actors, so I am going to give it the benefit of the doubt. Fantasy Moguls predicts only one Top 5 point, no PTA, a rating of 5.1 and $19 million in total revenues.

Of course, this being an African-American film, it's a fair bet that its User Rating will take a fair pounding, like most films in that category, so that's something to consider. On the other hand, the screenplay was co-written by Doug Atchison, who also wrote the script for Akeelah, which was maybe my favorite small-scale film of 2006, so there's hope. I haven't seen much in the way of advertising, regrettably, and I seriously doubt that its theater count will be much more than 2,500 (if that), so I would probably pass on this title in Ultimate leagues. And for $7 in Box Office, well, the only other $7 films in the August leagues are The House Bunny, College, and Quarantine, so pick your poison.

Props Department: Congratulations from all the Fantaverse to pulpclub and geezer9687, who respectively won the first ever Half-Year Ultimate and Half-Year Box Office Super Leagues. They both out-dueled over 60 players each, over a five-round, seven-month period to claim victory. Well done, both of you! Congratulations, yet again, to BarcaRulz, who emerged victorious in not only the May Regulars league "Rotten Miracles" (his second in three months), but also in the Box Office league "Gotham Knights." Dude, you are on some kind of hot streak right now ... And finally, I must give commendations to Mogul stalwart synestro, for posting a Fantasy Moguls record that, depending on future pricing schemes, may stand for a very long time, by racking up an absolutely incredible $1.3 billion in Round Five of the Full-Year Box Office Super Leagues. Man, that is impressive.

Well, that will do it for me for yet another week. Please return next week, when I will be officially closing out the summer season with four films slated for release in the final week in August: the awesome Don Cheadle leads the way in Traitor, an espionage thriller also starring Guy Pearce and Jeff Daniels; Vin Diesel takes his first starring role in two years as a futuristic mercenary in the sci-fi actioner Babylon A.D.; three teens facing imminent graduation from high school have the weekend of their lives while touring a local university campus as prospective freshmen in College; and Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer make their latest attempt to speed along the utter collapse of good taste and intelligence in film-making with yet another spoof, the aptly-named Disaster Movie. (Oh, this preview is going to be so much fun ...)

TTFN!

Since Jason Statham did the voice a character named "Shrike" in the video game Red Faction II Shrykespeare is considering writing his next column as "Chev Chelios." Or maybe he should do it as "Handsome Rob," or perhaps "Jericho Butler." Send your own Statham-centric suggestion to shrykespeare42@gmail.com.