06.20.08: Comedy Clash: 'Get Smart' Vs. 'The Love Guru', Bacon Joins 'The One And Only'

Seems a bit foolhardy pitting two of the summer’s big comedies against each other the same weekend but that’s what Warner Bros. and Paramount are doing with their respective tentpoles Get Smart and The Love Guru. Warner Bros.’ spy spoof starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway has the edge, but both Get Smart and Guru, Mike Myers’ latest attempt to manufacture a beloved comedy icon in loopy self-help maven Guru Pitka, will be swimming against the tide of bash-happy reviews. A.O. Scott of The New York Times has witheringly branded Guru, “downright antifunny, an experience that makes you wonder if you will ever laugh again”, while The Hollywood Reporter wonders whether “Guru will out-awful Get Smart.”

Vicky Cristina Barcelona Trailer
Word from Cannes came that Woody Allen's new film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, is pretty darn good. And this crank-up-the-threesome trailer seems to confirm it. Notice how, where Woody is concerned, no one bothers to say "return to form" any more - we've all been burned too often by the duffers he's churned out in recent years (the latest, Cassandra's Dream, really scrapes the barrel), But if Vicky Cristina Barcelona revives warm thoughts of Woody rather than makes us wish he'd just retire, it'll be no small achievement.

Casting Call: Bacon Joins Zellweger
* Kevin Bacon has joined Renee Zellweger and Chris Noth on The One And Only. He’ll play the cheating band leader Zellweger dumps to go on the road with her two sons on the hunt for a rich man to marry…

* James Mangold (3:10 To Yuma) will direct The Archive, a time-travel thriller that to be written by David Auburn…