New York Magazine has it .

According to NYMag:

The script is 165 pages long and follows a squad of American soldiers called the Bastards — a guerrillalike force who travel behind German lines in 1944, striking terror into the hearts of Nazi soldiers. The Bastards are headed by Lieutenant Aldo Raine — the role we’d imagine Tarantino is hoping to land Brad Pitt for — described by the script as a “hillbilly from the mountains of Tennessee,” who has around his neck a scar from where he survived a lynching. (”The scar will never once be mentioned,” Tarantino writes.) In a parallel story, Inglorious Bastards follows a French Jewish teenager named Shosanna who survives the massacre of her family and flees to Paris, where she winds up running a movie house during the Nazi occupation.

The film will, presumably, go into production very soon if Quentin’s promise of a Cannes debut next year is to be believed.

It’s always a shame to see a promising documentary setup fumbled in the execution, and unfortunately, Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot is a shining example of fumbled execution. Director Adam Yauch (better known as MCA of the Beastie Boys) divides the running time of his hoops doc into three interweaving parts: the back stories of eight talented young basketball players vying for a shot at the big time, exposing the seedy underbelly of professional basketball’s scouting process, and footage of the aforementioned hoopsters battling it out at the Elite 24 Hoops Classic in Rucker Park. While each of these parts is compelling in its own right, Gunnin’s problem lies in its inability to explore each with sufficient depth or complexity.

The film opens with numerous talking heads relating the history of Rucker Park and its famous basketball tournaments (for those not in the know, Rucker is a legendary court in Harlem on which a lot of big name basketball talent has played in hosted tournaments). The audience is assured, endlessly, that playing at Rucker Park is a very big deal. If you didn’t already know about Rucker Park, you will after Gunnin’s first ten minutes.

The film then dives into the stories of the film’s eight star subjects. But only a brief amount of time is spent with each, and thus, the audience never gets a chance to truly connect with any of them. It might have been a better decision to narrow the film’s focus to three or four of the kids with the most compelling stories. As it stands now, the audience is essentially forced to pick a favorite or two, and attempt to follow them when game time comes in the third act (for those keeping track, my favorite is the humble prankster Michael Beasley). But disappointment is inevitable, as each gets only minimal screen time with so many players battling for the camera’s attention.

Yauch creates collages of highlights from each player’s high school career, using rapid-fire editing to amalgamate sports news website snippets, internet search tidbits, and YouTube clips. The internet search cut ‘n’ paste vibe works for the news stories and player facts, but using YouTube clips for highlight footage comes off as sloppy and lazy. These clips serve as the film’s chance to show what each player accomplished during his high school career and they are barely watchable. Seriously, Yauch, you didn’t have the resources to track down some original footage of these players and post-process it a bit to look like online video? As one can imagine, YouTube clips that look washed-out and pixilated on a computer screen look even worse when blown up on the big screen; some are nearly unwatchable.

But the meat and potatoes of Gunnin’ is the Elite 24 Hoops Classic at the end of the film, right? The third act doesn’t quite deliver on the hype, either. One can’t deny that there is some incredibly impressive b-ball playing going on. But, as the film’s subjects remind us numerous times, it’s all for fun and love of the game, and there’s really nothing at stake. There’s just no tension or human drama. The film also makes the mistake of trying too hard to be inspirational. While some of the ‘rags-to-riches’ and ‘for love of the game’ stories border on inspirational, we’re yanked back into reality with tales of endless free sneakers and promises of multi-million dollar contracts.

The film’s bigger problem, though, is that it lacks focus. It feels like there might be three solid films in here that were all shaved down to be rolled into one. Personally, I would have loved to see Yauch spend more time revealing the shady experiences these kids go through as they transition to pro ball (i.e., free sneakers from shoe companies, being thrown onto magazine covers to be made into stars before they’re ready, the complete subjectivity of player rankings, etc). That’s a compelling documentary setup.

As it stands, Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot is not a bad documentary; it’s just not a particularly good one. There is some great basketball footage contained within, but you’ll have to decide if that’s worth your $12. I’d probably wait for DVD and let it gun for your #1 Netflix spot. Ba-dum-chich.

Grade: C

Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot is rated PG-13 and currently showing in NY and LA with an expanding release to follow in the coming weeks.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson opens this Friday, July 4 in limited release.

So maybe the trailer isn’t so great, but the film has a very positive buzz coming off of the festival circuit, with some suggesting Kabluey could be this year’s ‘Little Indie Film That Could’ in the vein of My Big Fat Greek Wedding or Little Miss Sunshine.

Kabluey opens in New York this Friday, July 4, with an expanding limited release to follow.

Grade: C

When Did You Last See Your Father? is rated PG-13 and currently in limited release.

Source: Donnie Darko sequel S. Darko starts shooting May 18 - ScreenDaily.com

Vignettes that build a case for federally de-criminalizing medical marijuana add some gravitas to the proceedings, but the film undercuts its own argument by exploiting a doctor’s signature for a decidedly non-medical purpose.

Grade: C

Super High Me is rated R and begins screening nationwide on April 20 (heh).

It is certainly a patronizing thing to suggest, but it is impossible to resist doing so: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead , the latest film from 83-year-old director Sidney Lumet, feels like a movie that might have come straight out of Cannes from a fresh new talent. It’s really a film from a seasoned veteran filmmaker with the impressive ability to subtly reinvent his style without sacrificing the core elements that solidified him as a master in the first place. Lumet himself has commented on the matter, finding it curious critics feel the need to begin their reviews of Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead by mentioning his age. Well, it’s because Devil is not only a great film, but one that feels incredibly modern. Coming from an 83-year-old man, that somehow amazes filmgoers. I guess we’re all a bunch of closet ageists for assuming older directors should make plodding films with boring plots. But Clint Eastwood, Lumet is not.

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead follows the story of two desperate, financially-strapped brothers, Hank and Andy (Hawke and Hoffman), who concoct an audacious plan to rob their parents’ jewelry store. After suppressing their initial reservations by reassuring each other nobody will be hurt and their parents will be reimbursed through insurance anyway, Hank and Andy carefully plot the heist. But when the two take to executing their devious plan, it ends up gravely fumbled.

Devil opens abruptly with a graphic sex scene between Philip Seymour Hoffman and Marissa Tomei. The scene sets the brazen tone that permeates the rest of the film, and from the first frame, introduces the thematic elements Devil rests upon. The audience quickly learns from pillow talk that Andy is desperate to find happiness with his wife Gina through money, as the two only seem to be happy between the sheets in vacation spots such as Brazil. These themes of wealth and happiness, as well as others like family, loyalty, and accountability, saturate Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead .

Albert Finney steals the film from an impressive ensemble cast as the gruff (but relatable) husband and father who becomes frustratingly obsessed with tracking down his wife’s assailants. Marissa Tomei is another standout, since both leading males (Hoffman and Hawke) are never quite able to pull off the illusion of brotherhood as convincingly as expected. It’s not necessarily their fault, though. Kelly Masterson’s screenplay spends a minimal amount of time establishing a relationship between Hank and Andy as brothers, and the majority of the time with the two bickering at each other over the botched heist attempt. Ultimately, they feel more like quibbling business partners than brothers.

But perhaps it’s not Masterson’s fault, either. The disconnect felt between Hank and Andy as brothers can likely be attributed to the fact that Hank and Andy were indeed not brothers in the initial draft of the screenplay; it was an addition from Lumet. This isn’t to say it was a bad decision; the themes of family loyalty run so deep through Devil that it is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine a version of the film where the two aren’t related. But the brotherhood element surely could have been worked into the existing framework of the screenplay more effectively.

The circumstances surrounding the botched heist in Devil are revisited many times during the film from different characters’ perspectives, but not simply as a gimmick. As Lumet transitions back and forth between time and characters, he always includes another piece of the circumstantial puzzle comprising the robbery. This allows him to keep the relatively brief heist at the forefront of the film whilst exploring its immediate antecedents and consequences from many angles without feeling redundant. Through this technique, characters seeming confident and steadfast at the beginning of the film are revealed to be perhaps more crooked and fragile than they initially appeared when the audience is shown what happened just before or after the scene they saw earlier. The story expands outward in all directions, starting from the heist, in captivating fashion. Other movies have employed this technique, but few as masterfully as Lumet does here.

Devil’s final act is blisteringly intense, which serves both to end the film on an exasperatingly high note, as well as unintentionally bring to light how much the rest of it could have used that same intensity. When it’s all said and done, though, it becomes very easy to forgive such a petty and theoretical nitpick. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead may not be a perfect film, but it’s certainly the best heist movie to come along in a while, and a worthy addition to Lumet’s long and impressive filmography.

Grade: B

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead will be released on DVD next Tuesday, April 15, 2008.

MTV has an exclusive look at the first five minutes of the film .

Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? opens in theatres April 18th, 2008.