Comedies don't have an obligation to be particularly insightful, but you'd think an indie aimed at an adult audience would have something to say about its characters. Smart People stars Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page, and Thomas Haden Church; the cast and the multitude of laughs scored at the expense of easy targets might justify a rental, though I liked it much less after I started thinking about it. I'm in the minority -- James Rocchi expressed all kinds of love in his review. The DVD, out on Tuesday, includes an audio commentary by director Noam Murro and writer Jude Poirier, deleted scenes, bloopers / outtakes, and "the smartest people," which I'm guessing is a "making of" feature. It's also out on Blu-ray.

Also out on Tuesday, How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer has been described as "a comedy about three generations of Mexican-American women enjoying their sexuality." I heard all kinds of good things about it when it had some festival play a few seasons ago. America Ferrera, Elizabeth Peña, and Lucy Gallardo star. The DVD looks bare bones, but distributor Maya Entertainment has more about the film on their site.

An appealing romantic comedy set in and around a citrus grove in Sicily, The Orange Thief (pictured) played several film festivals, including Woodstock and AFI Dallas, and is now out on DVD. I'm not going to claim that this low-key charmer is some kind of lost classic, but it's amusing, looks gorgeous, and has the benefit of an incredibly restful, bucolic setting, which make it worth a rental. The DVD from Lightyear appears to feature only the movie.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive final poster for the film Smart People (click on the image for a larger version), starring Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page and Thomas Haden Church. Smart People first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January where our own James Rocchi called it "so well-made, so well-acted and so impressively (for lack of a better word) smart that anyone who seeks it out will find something to admire and enjoy in its craft and heart." Here, Noam Murro makes his feature directorial debut with a story that follows a widowed professor (Quaid) who's life takes an unexpected turn when his adopted brother (Church) shows up for a visit. For more on Smart People, feel free to check out our Sundance audio interview with Sarah Jessica Parker, Dennis Quaid and Thomas Haden Church.

Smart People arrives in theaters on April 11.

No, it's not a biopic on Eddie Murphy's latest big-screen role choices. Variety reports that Thomas Haden Church has joined Murphy in Nowhereland, a comedy for Paramount that's already set a release date of September 26, 2008. We previously told you that Murphy would be starring in the flick, with Karey Kirkpatrick (or "KK" as we used to call him back in the schoolyard) signed on to direct. In the film, Murphy will play a once successful financial exec whose career winds up in the crapper. From there things take a strange turn as Murphy's character finds the answers to his problems "within the magical world created by his daughter."

I know, they're traveling to the DMV -- that's what I thought too! But I gather it will be a tad more inventive than that. Sandman, er, Church will play Murphy's ambitious rival at work, and the film also reunites Kirkpatrick and Church; both worked together on Kirkpatrick's 2006 directorial debut, Over the Hedge. You hear Murphy's name, you hear Over the Hedge, and you begin thinking "Did I leave the gun loaded?" However, the good news is that the film was scripted by the on-again off-again writing team of Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson -- two guys who brought us the totally awesome (and very imaginative) Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Solomon also penned Men in Black, and so I do have hope that Nowhereland will turn into Somethingland. Paramount is giving it a late September release, clearly avoiding the August comedy rush. That either means a) they have enough faith to release it during Oscar hunting season or b) they want to keep it as far away from potential competition as possible. I'd opt for the latter.

Earlier this week, I was fortunate enough to land a spot on the black carpet for one of the most exciting premieres to hit New York City in a long time. Only, this bad boy wasn't in the heart of Manhattan -- nope, they decided to take the premiere to Peter Parker's hometown, Queens. Not only was the black carpet a mile long, but there were fans screaming everywhere; I guess it could be compared to being on the field during a football game ... except, tack on about 700 screaming teenage girls. Though there was a lot of space for the stars to cover, Cinematical did manage to snag a few shots of the man himself, Tobey Maguire. Also included in the video is Spider-Man 3 director Sam Raimi, and I ask him what the chances are of him returning to direct a Spider-Man 4.

These events are pretty draining; although this video is roughly four minutes long, I was actually on the red carpet for about four hours. Yes, four hours. Tack on another two and a half hours for the actual movie, and I've spent an entire work day with this damn superhero. But it was a cool event, an exciting film and it was all worth it to see a ton of little kids lined up, excited to catch a glimpse of the guy they dress up as for Halloween each year. My favorite part of this video, however, is when I ask director Ang Lee whether he would be interested in taking on another comic book character. By the look on his face, you can tell how excited he was to answer that question. All in all it was a fun time; Spider-Man 3 officially arrives in theaters tomorrow, and you can check out my review of the film here.

The British Telegraph is running a fairly standard puff piece on Tobey Maguire in the run up to the release of Spider-Man 3, with Maguire spouting the same 'maybe I will, maybe I won't' boilerplate when it comes to the next installment in the series. "They'll definitely develop a fourth movie and write a screenplay, and I would consider it if there's a good script, a good story that I felt was worth telling and Sam Raimi was involved and the right cast came together for it," he says. More interestingly, the paper seems to know something that I don't, which is that a $20 million offer is already on the table for Maguire, should he decide to put on the costume one more time. Maguire was paid $16 million for Spider-Man 3, was signed only for three films, and currently has no other film projects lined up, superhero or otherwise, according to the paper.

Maguire blanches at the notion that he is confiining himself to big-budget work: "When I read a script, it has nothing to do with the size of the budget or whether it has global appeal," he's quoted as saying. "I just want to tell stories and play different roles, and I always want to work with great filmmakers." The article also goes into the old story about Jake Gyllenhaal almost getting to put on the suit for Spider-Man 2 before a last-minute intervention by Ron Meyer, president of Universal, put the kibosh on that. In typical British press style, the reporter also feels compelled to point out that Maguire didn't "look particularly relaxed" during the interview, and looks more like a "classroom nerd" than a superhero. You gotta love those Brits.