I feel alone every time I try to talk about Glee with my male friends. Turns out, it’s not a show that other guys watch. But I’m not ashamed to be a straight man who loves musicals and TV shows filled with showtunes. It’s just my upbringing, having been raised somewhat by Rodgers & Hammerstein and spending most of my teen years acting in high school drama productions.

Ironically, though, I have no interest in the film adaptation of Rock of Ages, the 80s rock anthem-filled “jukebox musical” that Adam Shankman (Hairspray) has been tapped to direct. It looks cheesy and I don’t much like the idea of these types of musicals that revolve a plot around a greatest hits compilation. But Shankman thinks it will be like “Mamma Mia! for dudes,” meaning he actually believes heterosexual guys, the kind that don’t watch Glee and The Sound of Music if they can help it, will want to see it.

The whole idea got me wondering, though. What are the most guy-friendly musicals ever made? Probably those from Monty Python. Is Paint Your Wagon on the list? How about Tommy? Grease? Is Guys and Dolls cutting it close? Honestly, unless Rock of Ages has a lot of action and explosions, I don’t see it appealing to the average straight man.

Shankman is also in the news today with the announcement that he’ll co-produce the 2010 Academy Awards telecast with former Fox exec/producer Bill Mechanic (The New World). This makes me wonder if Shankman will try to jump off last year’s “musicals are back!” theme with a “guys can like musicals and the Oscars, too!” vibe. Preferably with his Pacifier star, Vin Diesel, hosting (and dancing and singing and maybe kicking some ass). In all seriousness, though, Shankman will probably try to bring Steve Martin back.

What do you think it would take for real manly dudes to both go see Rock of Ages and watch the Oscars? Comment below with your suggestions and check out the other film blogs’ responses to Shankman’s goal after the jump:

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Movie fans were shocked today with the news that Oscar-winner Adrien Brody is turning action hero to star in the Robert Rodriguez-produced Predator reboot, Predators. At first I thought maybe he’s trying to distance himself from the Roman Polanski mess by picking a movie as far from The Pianist as possible. But then I remembered that since winning Best Actor six years ago Brody has done little to show himself worthy of the award (he’s great in The Darjeeling Limited at least).

But will anybody believe him as a guy who can defeat a bunch of Predators? That he’s better than Arnold Schwarzenegger, who barely survived one of them? That he’s the guy to lead kick-ass costars like Danny Trejo, Oleg Taktarov, Walt Goggins and even … umm … Topher Grace (he’s at least been an action movie villain before, even if a bad one)? Well, obviously this gig is going to require that supposed Oscar-caliber talent in order to convince us.

Check out the stunned reactions from other film bloggers after the jump:
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People seem to think Hugh Jackman deserves better than a boxing robot movie. But seriously, is his starring in Real Steel any worse than his appearances in Van Helsing, Swordfish or pretty much anything else he’s done since breaking out as Wolverine in the first X-Men movie? Sure, he’s an entertaining Oscar host, and he’s apparently very enjoyable on the stage. But try to name one movie he’s really good in that warrants him roles better than a robot boxer trainer in a silly sci-fi sports flick directed by Shawn Levy. And don’t say The Prestige, because that film wasn’t great for any doing of his.

Interestingly enough, Real Steel, which has a very ’80s-action-film-sounding title, is being produced by Steven Spielberg, who also oversees the Transformers movies. Are robots his new aliens? Okay, I guess Transformers are also aliens, and before that he’d already given us alien/robot crossovers like *batteries not included and (sort of) Artificial Intelligence: A.I. (because so many people think those robots at the end of the film are aliens). But in all likelihood, Real Steel will be released in summer 2011, which has just been announced as when we’ll also be getting Transformers 3.

Although I have no interest in seeing either of these movies, I can’t wait to see which of the dueling Spielberg-produced robot blockbusters wins the season’s box office. Maybe Spielberg can even ready Indiana Jones 5 by then, too, and include robots in it. After the ridiculousness of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I wouldn’t be surprised by such an idea.

Check out what the other film blogs are saying about Jackman signing on to Real Steel after the jump:
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It’s already September, and this means it’s officially awards season. Well, maybe not officially, but the Oscars seem to be a hot topic of discussion all of a sudden. On the one hand, the big fall film festivals kick off tomorrow with the opening of the Venice Film Festival. And Telluride and Toronto are about to begin, too. This means awards contenders will begin to be seen by critics and other buzz-makers.

Prematurely putting things into perspective, Vulture posted some Oscar nomination predictions Sunday evening, despite not yet seeing the majority of their picks, and bloggers at the Los Angeles Times responded with either continued analysis or the complaint that it’s too soon.

Meanwhile, those who aren’t necessarily excited or annoyed with the sudden arrival of the season at least have something to say about the Academy’s latest change of rules. This time they’ve revised the voting process for the Best Picture category — which now will include ten nomineees — in a way that could hurt a lot of films’ chances. The interesting thing is, some people believe the change is bad for The Hurt Locker, while other people think it’s beneficial to the film.

Check out what the film blogs are saying about the season and the new rules after the jump:

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Here’s a story that broke yesterday but has continued to pick up steam through the movie blogs today: The Weinstein Co. is planning to release box office champ Inglourious Basterds on DVD by the end of the year in order to use the discs for a cheap but aggressive Oscar campaign. This isn’t surprising news considering Harvey Weinstein’s Oscar addiction, but it has suddenly made me aware that Basterds is both deserving of and sure to receive a nod for Best Picture, which would be Quentin Tarantino’s first such nominee since Pulp Fiction 15 years ago.

Seriously, if we can be talking about District 9, Star Trek and other genre movies for the top category now that it will include ten contenders, how couldn’t Basterds be seen as a likely nominee? People have celebrated Christoph Waltz’s performance since Cannes, and he’s sure to garner a Best Supporting Actor nod, but few have noted how the film itself is a lock, too. Certainly if Weinstein can get The Reader a surprise Best Picture nomination with only five available slots, he can get this film onto a ballot double the size.

Don’t forget the Holocaust rule; how could the Academy ignore a movie that features vengeful Jews assassinating Hitler and 300 other Nazis all at once in a blaze of glory? Never mind that they didn’t get some of the worst offenders involved in the genocide.

Could Basterds garner more than the two obvious nominations? I doubt Tarantino will receive recognition for either directing or screenwriting, but who knows? Any other performances worthy? Any tech fields? Variety has an interesting article today on the costume design by Anna B. Sheppard. She’s been twice nominated for, interestingly enough, Holocaust films (Schindler’s List and The Pianist), but this time she was presented with more of a challenge. I have a feeling this third Holocaust-related project could be the one to get her the Oscar.

Check out what the other film blogs are saying about Basterds‘ Oscar chances after the jump:

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Nikki Finke claims Paramount has bumped Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island from an October 2009 release date to February 2010, for the sole reason that they don’t have enough money to give the picture an awards campaign this year. If this is true it would would sort of make sense, since a) the film hasn’t been slotted into any of the fall film festivals, and b) Paramount is probably all-in, Oscar-wise, on The Lovely Bones. But also: do they really think this is awards bait? Because the trailer makes it look like weirdly generic high-concept horror. Plus, Nikki claims it’s scoring well with audiences — which is more evidence that the Academy wouldn’t give it the time of day.

Via Living in Cinema.

I would title this Bloggery “Comic-Con 2009 Day 2,” but I’m going to reach back a little to the second half of Day 1 since yesterday’s post went up before the Avatar panel, plus people are still talking about that New Moon presentation more than 24 hours later. Unfortunately, there’s so much news and hype coming out of the Con today (Gary Oldman spills Batman 3 beans! Saw VII is greenlit!) that I may ignore some the stuff I care less about, like all the “awesome!!” responses to movies that will more than likely be commercial failures (like the ten listed here). Unless they’re really hilarious or profound.

Without further ado (I have little to say in this intro because I’m not at the Con), check out my favorite coverage from San Diego from the last 24 hours after the jump:
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As if this year’s Oscars ceremony wasn’t abnormal enough, next year’s telecast is sure to be even weirder. Today the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced that it’s increasing the number of Best Picture nominees from five to ten. This isn’t a totally odd idea, since the Academy Awards used to nominate ten films for the big prize, but the last time we saw so many candidates was 65 years ago, when Casablanca beat out nine other titles for the win.

The first thing that I thought — and I’m sure I’m not alone — was, “are there actually ten great films made per year?” Certainly we’re a far, 70-year cry from 1939, considered to be the peak of American cinema, when Hollywood released such masterpieces as Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Dark Victory, Wuthering Heights, Of Mice and Men, Love Affair and Goodbye, Mr. Chips, all of which ran up against and lost to Gone With the Wind.

The second thing I thought is that the Academy is really slapping both The Dark Knight and WALL-E in the face with this change. Now, comparatively, should Star Trek and Up really be the ones to make up for those “snubs”? They’re good, but they’re not that good.

Check out the rest of the film blogosphere’s reactions after the jump:
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In case you haven’t heard (even though most people were talking about this yesterday — sorry today is that slow), next year’s Oscars will return to the month of March, due the Academy’s need to get out of the way of the Winter Olympics. For some of you, this may mean you have extra time to see the nominees. For most of you, this also means you’ll have more time to complain about how the Academy snubbed Wolverine, Avatar, Up or whatever other movie you think deserved a Best Picture nod. As for us film bloggers, the delay gives us additional time to speculate, predict and otherwise cover awards season to death.

As if this year’s Oscars didn’t seem over-blogged enough, I can only expect there will be even more movie sites, including those specializing in the Oscars, next year. And therefore I can only expect that by the time the Oscar telecast airs on March 7 I will be so sick of the whole film awards concept that I’ll almost not even live-Tweet the big night.

Reactions to the Academy’s announcement from other Oscar bloggers after the jump:

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This has been a good week for remakes (or a bad week, depending on how you feel about them), but while announced redos of our beloved mystery comedies, sci-fi actioners and neverending fantasy flicks are shocking enough, there’s not a blogger in the world who saw a new “contemporized” version of Damn Yankees coming. Let alone one starring Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal as Mr. Applegate (aka Satan) and soul-selling baseballer Joe Hardy, respectively.

Yet Hugh Jackman and the rest of the all-singing-all-dancing stars of Sunday’s Oscars telecast did tell us that the musical is back, so maybe we should be making bets on what classic songfest gets reworked next (I’m putting money on West Side Story). This isn’t even the first musical remake we’ll be seeing in the next few years. New films of My Fair Lady, Carousel, Bye Bye Birdie and Jesus Christ Superstar are apparently already on their way to theaters. Anyhoo, let’s see how the ol’ blogosphere reacted to the Damn Yankees news today:

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In episode #108, we posed a simple question: Which movie should be turned into a graphic novel? Your responses to the question became the fodder for a great conversation. Turning the typical page-to-screen progression on its head, we dig into the strengths and weaknesses of each medium. We discuss the possibility of seeing Mystery Train, Walkabout, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Zardoz, Hero, Die Hard, and Gangs of New York crammed into little action-packed drawings.

We check in with Karina for a hindsight conversation about awards season. She poses the question: Who would win in a fight, Benjamin Button or Iron Man? The answer is as obvious as it seems, but not for the reason you think.

Want to win a copy of Watchmen: The Official Film Companion? Send us an e-mail telling us what film you think has the best production design in entire history of cinema. It’s that simple. E-mail filmcouch [at] spout [dot] com.

Ratings were up 10% from last year, and polls indicate that viewers of the Oscars last night mostly enjoyed the telecast and would like Hugh Jackman back to host next year. So why am I still harping on the negatives? Well, no matter how many entertaining elements of the ceremony people remind me of, I have to argue that while the awards themselves were great, the television show was not. And unfortunately, I was not inside the Kodak auditorium where I might have better appreciated the things we all at home should have been able to appreciate. And anything I found entertaining from where I sat in my apartment was pretty much thanks to talented presenters and winners, such as Philippe Petit, Tina Fey, Janusz Kaminski, Dustin Lance Black, Kunio Kato and Danny Boyle.

And I’m not the only one who has complaints. Below you’ll find some criticisms from bloggers who either thought the show was completely terrible or thought it was mostly good with only a few minor gripes.

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Never mind last night’s show being the gayest Oscars ever (I doubt it). And never mind it potentially being the most predictable (nuts to the Academy for not going with any of my badly foreseen surprises). Here’s my biggest criticism of the ceremony: the 81st Academy Awards had surely the worst directed telecast in history. Throughout the show I found myself commenting over and over, “show the clips, not the [stage; musicians; Queen Latifah; etc.].” There were great injustices done to the deceased, to Baz Luhrman’s choreography (even if it wasn’t a great musical number) and to the nominated actors and actresses, many of who could have used a spotlight on their performances rather than isolated praise from a random peer.

But apparently this year’s ceremony wasn’t designed for the TV viewers, possibly because the Academy didn’t expect anyone to tune in anyway (we showed them; ratings were actually up!). It was a big insular party for Hollywood — and a number of foreigners with excellent accents (and Styx tributes) — during which we were all better off reading the live-blogging and live-Twitterings found all over the interweb than watching the actual program. Often, awards live-blogging is pointless; too many bloggers merely list wins and incidents as they happen, which is redundant for people actually watching the show, while others comment without details, which is insufficient for people who missed the event. But overdone Snuggie references aside, this year’s type-it-as-they-see-it bloggers were better than usual. Chalk it up to boredom, but the commentary on the disasters and disappointments of the Oscars was witty, insightful and actually worth reading. Maybe not on all websites, but on a lot of them.

So, for my final Oscar column of the 2008 awards season, I’d like to circumvent celebrating the event (which doesn’t deserve much praise, in my opinion) and instead celebrate five of my favorite live-blogged/Twittered moments of the night. Though everyone loves to watch a train wreck in progress, sometimes it’s better to turn your head away and listen to someone else describe the tragedy for you. Here is a sampling of the best such observations of the worst such wrecks at this year’s ceremony:

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I had heard a couple of weeks ago that Bennett Miller, director of The Cruise and Capote, had directed a short film that was to be shown at the Oscars. The short apparently included interviews from “regular filmgoers.” I know that at least two known film bloggers were interviewed for it, including one who has contributed to SpoutBlog (not me). But as the show stretched into its third hour and nothing resembling what I had heard about the Miller short had yet shown on the broadcast, I started to wonder about its fate. I Twittered to that effect, and I got a private email in response from someone close to the production of the short (and not one of those interviewees, I assure you):

People at Radical Media (the producer) said it wasn’t great - too many old white men - more Mickey Rooney than Mickey Rourke - apparently it got cut…Also, as of Friday night they thought it was in, I don’t know who or when the decision to cut it was made. That being said, the show was 4 hours without so…

I had heard that the short had been set to open the show; I was personally surprised when the telecast started with Hugh Jackman on stage, just because that seemed extraordinarily abrupt in comparison to the montages that have opened the show in years past. The New York Times reports that the Miller short was seen in the Kodak Theater, but didn’t make it to telecast. Did you see it? Do you have any idea why it wasn’t shown to TV audiences? Please let us know.

UPDATE: I’m now hearing that four clips were cut hours before broadcast, as producers calculated the show would run 40 minutes over if they left them in. More details as they come in, until I stop caring…

UPDATE 2:40 PM: The short film is embedded above, via Vanity Fair. Looks like none of our blogger friends made the celebrity-studded final cut, but Jay and Mark Duplass did.