Having just come off the Tribeca film festival, I should be perfectly attuned to an experimental short film anthology like Paris Je T'Aime, (Paris, I Love You) and some segments of it are definitely enjoyable, but the overall hit-miss ratio is too low to ignore. This, despite a juggernaut talent bench that includes the Coen brothers, Wes Craven, Natalie Portman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Alfonso Cuaron, Nick Nolte, Miranda Richardson, Bob Hoskins, Elijah Wood, Steve Buscemi, Gus Van Sant and Juliette Binoche. In fact, these are only a few of the notable performers and directors who contribute to the 18 shorts, only a few of which actually intersect with the others. My favorite of the lot is the one that the Times' Stephen Holden declared to be the worst: a snappy little love note to Parisian vampires titled Quartier de la Madeleine. Starring Olga Kurylenko as a classic vampire with opaque, milky eyes who is interrupted in the midst of her work by Elijah Wood, it's a beautifully photographed little love story with lots of blood that seems made of melted pink plastic.

Strangely enough, that's not the short directed by Craven (even though he makes a cameo in it -- how could he not?) Craven's entry is Pere-Lachaise, focusing on a visit to that famous cemetery -- where Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust and Jim Morrison are buried -- by a squabbling couple played by Rufus Sewell and Emily Mortimer. Just when Sewell's character has run out of things to say, the ghost of Wilde actually shows up to give him some advice. Like many of the films, however, it feels like a 30-minute short that was cut down to about one-third of that time in order to squeeze it into this crowded phone-booth of a feature format. If you don't pay careful attention, you might actually miss Wilde's appearance and wonder what happened to wrap up the segment. Still, the acting drags it over the finish line. The same can be said for Quartier des Enfants Rouges, starring Gyllenhaal as an American actress shooting a costume drama in Paris and possibly falling for her Parisian dope dealer.

On this edition of Movie Pics, we have two beautiful entrees and those half-eaten, fast-food leftovers your friend stuck in the fridge last week. Check it out:

• Correct me if I'm wrong, but this may be the first still from No Country for Old Men (pictured above). Directed by the Coen Brothers and based off Cormac McCarthy's novel, pic revolves around a hunter (Josh Brolin) who stumbles upon dead bodies, some heroin and more than $2 million in cash. To some of you, that may sound like one helluva night out on the town. However, our hunter is not so lucky, as he soon finds himself caught up in a world of violence and mayhem.
• In the same New York Times article that features No Country for Old Men, there was also a new photo from Paul Thomas Anderson's upcoming oil flick, There Will Be Blood. As the article states, both films were filmed in Marfa (not Martha), a tiny Texas town with a population of 2,400. Anderson's film, however, is based off Upton Sinclair's novel, Oil!, and centers around a turn-of-the-century prospector (Daniel Day Lewis), his family and the early days of the oil business.
• And, finally, a few pictures and film clips have surfaced from Jackass: Number Two, a (sequel?) to the 2002 masterpiece in which a bunch of morons run around and take turns torturing themselves, their bodies and audiences everywhere. Yeah, that about sums things up as far as Jackass goes. Enjoy!

The Hollywood Reporter is, well, reporting that the Coen Brothers have added some more meat to their contemporary Western thriller, No Country for Old Men. Just hearing the words 'Western' and 'Coen Brothers' in the same sentence gets me so juiced, Barry Bonds would be jealous. Ooohh, was that a sports reference on Cinematical? Arrest me now!

Woody Harrelson and Stephen Root have signed on to play roles in the pic, which is based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. Story will center around a gent (as Martha would say) who happens upon a bag full of money and drugs while out hunting antelope. Needless to say, the guy takes the bag home where he and his mates have one helluva night. Okay, that's not correct. Though he does take the bag, its owners soon come looking, landing our hero on the run and in serious trouble. Assuming Tommy Lee Jones (who also stars in the film) will play the lead, Harrelson could be heading toward a part as the nasty, drug-addicted villain. Seems like the perfect fit -- after all, the dude was pretty convincing in Natural Born Killers. Eh?