some kind of wonderful Tagged Articles at Cinematical

There are plenty of John Hughes fans that consider Some Kind of Wonderful to be little more than a recycled Pretty in Pink. But today I'm going to nominate the story of Keith and Watts for Scenes We Love for a very important reason: it's about righting some wrongs. If you're a regular around here, you might remember a little theory I have about the ending of Hughes' teen masterpiece Pretty in Pink, and as it turns out I wasn't the only one who had a problem with it; as the story goes, Hughes wrote Wonderful as a way to finally get the ending that he preferred.

Wonderful was the story of Keith, a sensitive painter, and his best friend, a tom-boy drummer named Watts. When Keith makes good on the life ambition of every teen movie protagonist and goes for the popular girl (played by Lea Thompson), Watts realizes that her feelings for Keith go beyond friendship -- and, of course, what would any Hughes movie be without the abusive beautiful people (headed by Craig Sheffer) and the hoodlum with the heart of gold played by Elias Koteas -- who I've had a bit of a crush on ever since thanks to this movie.

After the jump: why I love this movie and Sheffer gets his well-deserved comeuppance..

Hey, remember Jason Biggs? Since starring in Woody Allen's Anything Else, he hasn't really appeared in ... anything else. Okay, so he co-starred in Jersey Girl and Eight Below, but he hasn't done anything of notice in years -- except for that hysterical short film, The Glitch, of course. I was beginning to think I might see him in the next American Pie direct-to-video sequel before I see him in a big-screen starring role again. Fortunately, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Biggs just got a new gig playing Dane Cook's best bud in Lionsgate's Bachelor No. 2. In addition to Cook, he joins Kate Hudson, Alec Baldwin and Lizzy Caplan (Mean Girls), who just signed on as Hudson's roommate.

As we told you previously, Bachelor follows a guy named Tank (Cook) who makes a living by giving women the worst dates of their lives. Hired by dumped men, Tank's promise is that he'll make the exes come crawling back. However, when his friend (Biggs) is the one broken up with, Tank ends up falling for the dumper (Hudson), making it a tough decision whether to stay loyal to his buddy or follow his heart. Yeah, in some ways it sounds a bit like Cook's upcoming movie Good Luck Chuck -- in which he sleeps with women who then go on to marry their next beau -- with a bit of the competitive love triangle thing from his Employee of the Month thrown in. Bachelor will be directed by Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful's Howard Deutch, but I wouldn't count on anything similar to those John Hughes classics, even with the love triangle storyline. So far this decade, Deutch's most notable work has been The Whole Ten Yards.

Other Biggs movies that could see the light of the projector one day include Michael Ian Black's The Pleasure of Your Company (aka Wedding Daze, aka The Next Girl I See), which MGM has been sitting on in the U.S. for almost a year now. He's also got another movie that seems to have changed names since the last time we wrote about it: Over My Dead Body, which was formerly titled How I Met My Boyfriend's Dead Fiancee (phew! good thing they changed it) -- though THR still gives the longer name.

(Reminder: Click on the movie titles to see a Weinberg-approved DVD review. If a review is unavailable, I'll just go with an Amazon link.)

Recent Theatricals

Akeelah and the Bee (Lionsgate) -- Bee-movie should make for an interesting double feature alongside Spellbound (the documentary, not the Hitchcock). (three featurettes, deleted scenes, gag reel)

Friends With Money (Sony) -- Aniston, Cusack, Keener & McDormand? Count me in. (filmmaker commentary, three featurettes)

Lonesome Jim (IFC) -- Y'know, that Buscemi guy is not just a pretty face; he's actually a pretty good director. (filmmaker commentary, featurette)

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (WB) -- We all love Albert Brooks' patented brand of nebbishy neuroses, but let's chalk this one up to bad timing. (deleted scenes)

Mountain Patrol: Kekexili (Sony) -- A fantastic doco-style story about the dangers of Tibetan antelope poaching. Rent it. (no extras)

The Sentinel (Fox) -- Just keeping us warm until 24: The Movie shows up. (writer/director commentary, four deleted scenes, two featurettes)

Take the Lead (New Line) -- Because middle-aged housewives like movies too. That's why. (director/editor commentary, seven deleted scenes, four featurettes, three remixed trailers)