No one at the end
of 1917 was debating whether the directing debut
of John Ford or the first
appearance of Vittorio de Sica augured
longer careers to come (in fact, both would be making films for the next five - plus decades) or weighing the industry impact
of Mary Pickford's box - office smash Rebecca
of Sunnybrook Farm or (to the point
of my own research) speculating about the future
of slapstick star Roscoe «Fatty» Arbuckle's new sidekick, a vaudeville refugee named Buster Keaton.
The list
of icons making
appearances was truly unprecedented: Superman soars twice — once in the «return» and the other as Ben Affleck; Crockett and Tubbs exude cool; Ethan Hunt falls short; Captain Jack Sparrow sets the stage for the finale; Jack Black sometimes wears stretchy pants; Huey
Long is resurrected and somehow over-played by Sean Penn; the mass appeal
of the DaVinci Code novel fizzled onscreen; Robert Altman's amazing
career ended with an excellent adaptation
of a radio series starring Garrison Keillor's made for radio face; Johnny Depp tried to untrack his
career with The Libertine; Nicolas Cage was front and center in the disastrous remake
of The Wicker Man, but if the preview is any indication, his sleep - walk was merely a tune - up for this year's Ghost Rider; Woody Allen (with Scarlett Johansson as his muse) re-emerged with his best comedy since Crimes and Misdemeanors; amazingly, Jen and Vince's real life break - up was more entertaining than the film version; and while on - set hook - ups seem to the norm, how could the dreadful You, Me and Dupree have been an aphrodisiac for Kate and Owen?