As Scott pointed out in his review, you need not fear that this week's Superhero Movie is another brainchild of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, whose satanic perversions of the parody genre -- Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans -- have been terrorizing unsuspecting audiences every year since 2006. Superhero Movie was actually directed by Craig Mazin, a protégé of the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker dream team responsible for Airplane! and The Naked Gun, and produced by David Zucker himself. But it, too, is plagued -- albeit to a much lesser degree -- by what's turning out to be the problem with the entire modern generation of spoofs going back to Scary Movie: relentless pop culture specificity.

The basest incarnations of this, of course, are the Friedberg-Seltzer monstrosities, which may be worthless as comedies but which could prove valuable to historians because they indicate precisely what dominated the American zeitgeist in the few months before their release. It's too generous to call these films' vulgar spasms "jokes," but to the extent that's what they are, they depend entirely on either audience members' awareness of US Weekly-type factoids such as Britney Spears' shaving her head or their recall of particular scenes and characters in recent box-office hits. That's not to say that these kinds of jokes can't be funny -- the problem with Friedberg and Seltzer, as others have pointed out, is that they think throwing something current on the screen ("Look, Paris Hilton!") constitutes humor. But they do limit comedies' universal appeal and staying power.

Nothing gets folks worked up like a list, especially one focusing on movies -- a subject everyone has strong opinions on. The latest is a ranking of the "50 Greatest Comedies of All Time," according to the readers of The Guardian. First, let's look at their Top Ten: 1) Monty Python's Life of Brian, 2) Airplane!, 3) This is Spinal Tap, 4) Some Like It Hot, 5) Withnail and I, 6) Blazing Saddles, 7) The Big Lebowski, 8) Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 9) Duck Soup, 10) Young Frankenstein. Not perfect, but a pretty solid bunch. Keep in mind The Guardian is a British publication, which explains the abundance of Python and the high ranking of the funny-but-certainly-not-6th-greatest-comedy-of-all-time Withnail. I must say, I don't know anyone who would put Life of Brian at #1. I don't even think it's the funniest Python movie, that honor would go to Holy Grail. Great to see Young Frankenstein, Airplane! and Lebowski in particular ranked so high, though.

Looking at the rest of the list, I was glad to see that a lot of my personal favorites made the cut -- Planes Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck (I love me some Candy), Raising Arizona, Anchorman, Kingpin, The Naked Gun, The Blues Brothers, I could go on. I've got some quibbles -- where's Broadcast News? Office Space? Ferris Bueller's Day Off? Animal House? Vacation? -- but only a few of their choices really stood out to me as undeserving. For example, I did a triple take when I saw Meet the Fockers on there. People! Meet the Parents (which didn't even make the cut) sure, but Fockers? What the Fock? Oh well.

Comedy is highly subjective, so a list on this subject is never going to please everyone. A comedy list is extra difficult because it's hard to decide if you're supposed to choose based on number of laughs or quality of the film. (Although, since it's comedy, shouldn't those be one and the same? It seems most don't think so, especially judging by comedy's constant neglect at the Academy Awards). Plus there's the whole generational issue. With some exceptions, what was funny 80 years ago might not hold up laugh-wise today. I'll just come right out and say it -- The General is an important part of film history, sure, but it ain't funny. What would you remove from the Guardian list? And what'd they forget?

In a previous post, I detailed my fondness for old school Kung-Fu films like Enter the Dragon and The 36th Chamber or Shaolin; guys beating the crap out of each other -- complete with over-done sound effects and out-of-sync dialog -- and other mayhem of that nature. The point of the previous post -- other than to thrill you with my knowledge of Los Angeles TV history -- was to highlight a great list of the top ten mano-a-mano fight scenes of all time. Well, for those of you who loved the last post (all twelve or so of you judging from the number of comments) you're in luck because I'm back with yet another list. This time around its the top ten fight scenes of all time.

I know this list may sound similar to the last one but bear with me: While the last one dealt with one man against another, this new list deals with larger numbers of people, or groups, engaged in combat. Or, as the rules for the list state over at the site that compiled it: "It has to be individuals or a group fighting in (reasonably) close quarters, so no vehicle combat (Mad Max 2), no space battles (Return of the Jedi) and no epic warfare or sieges (The Return of the King)." Sounds simple enough, right? Fortunately, it is.

Some of the fights highlighted on this list include Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan vs Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, the corridor fight in Chan wook-Park's Oldboy -- wherein our hero takes out a bunch of baddies all while confined to a narrow corridor -- and one of my personal favorites: the Girl Scout fight in Airplane -- brutal and hilarious at the same time. At the number one spot they put Arnold vs The Predator in Predator. Now, I like Predator but I question putting it at number one. Looking at the list I think I would put the scene from Phantom Menace near or at the top. It's an exciting scene that sets the stage for Obi-Wan's development as a Jedi and a man. On top of that, it showcases some amazing fight choreography and swordplay. It's an outstanding scene in a not-so-great movie that I think deserves to be recognized.

What's your favorite movie fight scene?

While video display glasses are nothing new, this pair from Lumus Ltd. actually looks like normal sunglasses -- bringing science fiction to life. While I doubt these will ever replace your local movie theater, it could easily move into places like your living room and airplane cabins, replacing the wall-sized plasma displays and drop down screens. They could potentially be a lot less expensive and easier to maintain than trying to build your own home superplex.

It occurred to me while I was flying from Burbank to Dallas over the holidays that we don't always want to see what our neighbors are watching in the seats right next to us. The guy I flew next to was watching some movie on his portable DVD player that included a scene at a strip club. (You know the place where people in thrillers or mysteries normally have to go to get a clue to the puzzle from a dancer named Fantasia? Well, this particular scene included a lot of jiggling flesh and bouncing silicone, and the guy sitting next to me had to rewind it and watch it several times. I guess to make sure he was hearing the crucial lines and getting all of the information.)

It sort of stole all the thunder from my own laptop, which was showing National Treasure. Everyone who walked by his seat stopped for an eyeful of bosom, while Nicolas Cage wasn't even glanced at. So do I think these video glasses could come in handy? Most definitely. I, for one, welcome our new video glasses overlords, but don't think they'll replace the "Let's go to the theater!" feeling anytime soon. They'll just help us duplicate it at home. Plus, it'll soon be a necessity for airplanes, helping to drown out crying babies, talky passengers, and seat partners with odd choices in viewing material.

A good parody is hard to spin beyond the here and now. Take "Weird Al" Yankovic, for example. The pop-music jokester has put out 11 regular albums since 1983, when the accordian-playing nice guy's spoof of The Knack's "My Sharona" (titled "My Bologna" and recorded in the men's room of his college radio station) started his career as a musician, comedic icon and food fetishist when it blew up on The Dr. Demento Show. However, every hilarious and unforgettable cut like "Eat It", "Like A Surgeon" and "Smells Like Nirvana" that hit was matched by fade-away tracks like the New Kids jape "The White Stuff" (an ode to Oreos), the Rocky III goof "Theme From Rocky XIII (The Rye Or The Kaiser)" or the misjudgment "Taco Grande" (a riff on Latin rough-boy Gerardo's only hit, "Rico Suave"). The secret to a successful parody is complex, involving a careful balance of picking a song that is big enough, worthy of a good-natured dressing down and most important, funny. The same is true with movies, and the latest in the popular Scary Movie series is a great example of what can go right and wrong with such an attempt.