Everyone loves Bill Murray, but only the die hard fans recognize the majority of his work. The rest, unfortunately, concentrate too much on his greatest films, such as Stripes, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation and all of his collaborations with Wes Anderson. Yet while each of these films, and Murray’s roles and performances in them, are certainly deserving of their preferred and predominant praises, Murray is the kind of actor who is so talented and entertaining that he can be enjoyed in even the worst movies on his resume. In fact, he’s probably the only A-lister who could lend his voice to a bastardized CG version of a beloved cartoon character and get away with barely any contempt from his devotees.

This week, Bill Murray makes an appearance in the new kiddie sci-fi flick City of Ember as the selfish mayor of a doomed underground metropolis. And it’s sure to be one of his less-appreciated roles, whether because it’s in a children’s movie, because it’s a supporting part in an ensemble filled with many talented actors, or because it’s not Ghostbusters 3. But those who really love Murray will likely flock to the movie primarily to see him, just as they did and do for the rest of these movies with underrated Murray roles:

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McG and Bryce Dallas Howard, “This is our new baby, we named him T-600 McG-Dallas-Howard.”

The world of Terminator fandom let out a collective groan when the news was announced that McG, director of the Charlie’s Angels films, is at the helm of the upcoming Terminator Salvation. The film, the fourth in the more than twenty year-old franchise, stars Christian Bale as John Conner. Bale unfortunately did not join the rest of the cast in promoting the film at Comic-Con. There was a press conference immediately following the big announcement panel, and the star of the show, surprisingly, was director McG.

When asked about the overall feel of the film, McG said, “I’m tremendously influenced by Children of Men, hat’s off to that picture, I think it’s fantastic… By the same token, this isn’t designed to be an art picture, it’s for audiences the world over, so you’ve got to find a balance between that artistic take and what’s right for a film to be seen by a great many people around the world.”

Many fans are concerned that McG’s take will further derail the franchise, rather than improving upon the rather dismal third film. McG seemed more than prepared to address these fears, making explicit his interactions with James Cameron, the creator and director of the first two films. “I did not want to move forward on this picture if Jim were like, ‘Fuck you, what are you doing?’ It’s very simple, I would have acquiesced and said, ‘You’re right, you’re the creator of what this is, and I respect that.’ And he was very encouraging, we talked at length about the story, we talked about Sam [Worthington], and most particularly, we talked about his experience on Aliens, and the idea that you can’t live in fear, you’ve got to move forward.”

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Trailers for novels aren’t the newest idea in the world, but I still think they’re a neat concept. Unfortunately, they can sometimes actually do harm to a book’s appeal, as in the case of Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper’s Hollywood-set novel Celebutantes, which arrives in stores tomorrow. The book has four dramatized “trailers”, or clips, pulled from its pages, the best of which is viewable above. Yes, I said the best of which. And if you think that one is bad, then check out the three other truly embarrassing clips at the book’s MySpace page.

So if they’re so bad, why am I sharing them (and possibly helping to promote the book)? Because I wanted to point out that these are the work of McG, who directed the two Charlie’s Angels movies and is currently working on the next Terminator sequel, titled Terminator Savlation: The Future Begins. The actors in these “trailers” are Katrina Begin (featured in the above spot), Cloverfield’s Mike Vogel, My So Called Life’s “Rickie”, Wilson Cruz, and TV actresses Autumn Reeser (The O.C.), April Bowlby (Two and a Half Men) and Michelle Borth (Tell Me You Love Me). None of these people are completely talentless (yes, even McG is better than this), so I’ll state the fault is with the writing of the two authors.

After four seasons of Entourage, could this novel be any less interesting to fans of film-industry-set fiction? Celebutantes seems even dumber and less relevant an Oscar-themed satire than Christopher Guest’s recent disappointment For Your Consideration. It’s no wonder that Entertainment Weekly called the book “silly” and gave it a “C+” grade (it was reviewed alongside another Hollywood-themed novel titled Oscar Season, which fared a little better with a “B”). The magazine also notes that the book’s authors are the offspring of producer Leonard Goldberg (Charlie’s Angels) and actor Dennis Hopper. You’d think they would have a little more insight.