Toy Story 3, which some critics are equating with the Second Coming, is currently responsible for 67% of advance ticket sales on Fandango. It could be the worst film of the summer and it would still be up there. Family audiences just want that thing that they always pay to see.

I’ve decided to train it down to BAM Cinematek this afternoon to catch a 4 pm press screening of Jules Dassin‘s The Law (1960), which was released in this country as Where The Hot Wind Blows with some of the steamier footage removed. I’ve never seen that version or the uncensored one, which is screening today (as well as commercially at BAM later this month, of course).

I’m of two minds about a certain quote from a certain actress. On one hand it indicates spirit and erotic pizazz. On another it could be what a not-quite-Meryl Streep-level actress might say if she’s concerned about the ebbing of her natural radiance, especially if it peaked about 10 years ago:

“I’m primal on an animalistic level, kind of like, ‘Bonk me over the head, throw me over your shoulder…you man, me woman.’ Not everybody has the right kind of primal thing for me…I love physical contact. I have to be touching my lover, like, always. It’s not optional. I’m always traveling for cock. You’ve got to go where it is.”

I find that the less I think about Cameron Diaz, the better I tend to feel. I liked her as much as I’m ever going to like her in In Her Shoes, but that was pretty much it. I’ll be making an effort to roll with Knight and Day as much as possible this evening, and not let this get in the way. I’m going to do everything I can, in fact, to suppress it.

Rep. Joe Barton‘s “$20 billion shakedown” comment begins at 1:37 and concludes around 4:12. The man actually said “I apologize” to BP CEO Tony Hayward for the Obama administration’s recent pressuring of BP to promptly compensate Gulf-area businesses damaged or ruined by the oil spill.

Update: Barton, slithering worm that he is and always will be, has formally apologized for apologizing to BP. [Posted from iPhone at 7:05 pm.]

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/17/4524162-barton-retracts-apology-to-bp

Sam Mendes directed this Apple face-time iPhone4 ad, which goes on for 1 minute and 52 seconds. It’s enough to make you want to start your own Fight Club. Hello, the world gets it at the 30-second mark! The ad starts to feel a bit tiresome at 45 seconds, and by the one-minute mark it’s like “okay, cool…enough.” And that’s when the torture starts — 52 seconds more! And Mendes didn’t realize this?

The big Manhattan all-media screenings for Knight and Day (20th Century Fox, 6.23) are happening this evening. (I’m catching the 8:30 pm showing.) Indiewire‘s Anne Thompson has seen it and says it “works.” (Forget the link — Indiewire isn’t loading.) And yet it’s “tracking badly because it’s not a pre-sold title and its two stars are not at their peak right now.”

If a tracking survey guy called me and said, “On a scale of one to ten, how keen are you on seeing Knight and Day?,” I would probably say I’m at level seven. I’m at eight and a half for Mangold and Cruise, but Diaz is a four, at best (her ditsyness drives me nuts plus she’s been looking a little long-of-tooth) so it averages out to seven.

That said, I don’t see how typical Eloi sentiments would be especially problematic. Could it be that they don’t understand that Knight and Day is filet mignon to the Wendy’s hamburger that was Killers? You’d have to be pretty fucking dumb not to see that at a glance.

“Truth is, the studios are facing a new reality,” Thompson writes. “Tracking is no longer accurate because audiences are getting wind of feedback on films via Twitter and other social networks. It’s hard to buy an opening weekend gross now. But with a movie that plays — which Knight and Day does — it will build good buzz. That’s why the studio is not only wisely opening the movie on Wednesday, but sneaking it this Saturday too.

“James Mangold‘s movie, written by Patrick O’Neill, boasts a clever high concept — it pits masculine/dark/muscled action star Cruise against feminine/light/sexy comedienne Diaz. It’s a meta-movie that deconstructs and riffs on its genre formulas. And Cruise and Diaz are a delightful combination. She more than holds her own with him — they both know exactly what they are doing. Fox believes that the movie will pick up steam as it goes.”

Marlon Brando video tributes are ubiquitous, but this one offers a silent, slow-mo glimpse of the ambush-murder scene in Elia Kazan‘s Viva Zapata (’52), which I haven’t seen in too many years. (It goes from 2:05 to 2:27.) It’s without question one of the most devastating, perfectly composed death scenes ever filmed, and one of the trippiest.

The clip doesn’t include Brando-Zapata dropping into a kneeling fetal-ball after being drilled by 100 rifles, but the footage of Joseph Wiseman‘s Fernando Aguirre howling with rage as the white horse escapes is breathtaking.

I’m wasting my breath in asking again why there’s been no success in clearing up the rights issue over this film, which would permit a DVD/Bluray to be released. I know that a Viva Zapata DVD is obtainable in Mexico. I was about to say that after the rights issue is finally settled that Zapata needs to be re-mastered by Criterion — bite my tongue. Knowing these guys, they’d probably put out some Stagecoach-level release, squawky and scratched and grainstormed all to hell because their tech guys decided not to digitally tweak the elements in any way.

It was reported two days ago that BP “has tested Kevin and Dan Costner‘s Ocean Therapy device, a centrifugual-force-deploying vacuum cleaner that separates oil and water, and released a statement saying that not only does the device work, but that officials are ‘excited’ about its potential.”Okay, fine but no one should ever use the word “excited” in a prepared statement of any kind. Over-used, generic, meaningless. Only phonies use it.

I ran a little congratulatory summary about the device on 5.23.

“We were confident the technology would work but we needed to test it at the extremes. We’ve done that and are excited by the results,” said Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer. “We are very pleased with the results and today we have placed a significant order with OTS [Costner’s Ocean Therapy Solutions] and will be working with them to rapidly manufacture and deploy 32 of their machines .”

As posted on New York/”Vulture” (i.e., don’t blame me, not my idea, etc.).

Steven Soderbergh‘s Haywire (formerly Knockout), a spy thriller starring mixed martial arts champion Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas and Bill Paxton, was research-screened last night at the Arclight Sherman Oaks, with Soderbergh in attendance. A guy I know and trust was there, and has shared some positive impressions.

(l. to r.) Soderbergh, Carano, McGregor, Douglas. (Art stolen from The Playlist.)

“Mallory Kane (Carano) is young, tough, beautiful, determined, and a freelance covert operative. She is hired out by her handler, Kenneth (McGregor), to various global entities, to perform jobs which governments can’t authorize and heads of state would rather not know about.

“For all her looks and youth, Mallory is still the best in her field, and her skills are in constant demand. But when one of her operations goes awry, Mallory needs to use all her skills, tricks and abilities to escape an international manhunt, make it back to the United States, protect her family, and exact revenge on those that have betrayed her.

“The associations that came to mind were (a) any Bourne movie, (b) any Mission Impossible movie, (c) Taken, (d) Michael Clayton, (e) Wanted, (f) Panic Room, (g) Obsessed, (h) The Informant, (i) Body Of Lies, (j) Edge Of Darkness and (k) Red Eye.

“First and foremost for me were the strong parallels to The Girlfriend Experience. There are lots of closeups of our female lead, who’s no actress but whose skills in her field probably make her more interesting than a star in the role. And there’s an almost complete lack of affect on her part, and yet, for me, a lot of engagement in her situation.

“Another GE current, unlike most big thrillers, is Soderbergh’s focus on the nuts and bolts of the situation. This is what creates and sustains the drama — how does one get out of, or in to, situations like these? For me ‘reality’ is much more interesting than movie fiction.

“The fights are great. I’ve been in, and have personally choreographed, a lot of staged violence, and this was quality stuff. It does my heart good to see a young woman really kick ass. The brutality and desperation of the fights, in fact, at times seemed to appall more than thrill the audience, which is as it should be. As I write this (i.e., the following morning) I’m still thrilled.”

The screenplay is by Soderbergh’s Limey collaborator Lem Dobbs. The Lionsgate film is reportedly slated for a January 2011 release.