looking for something (anything) with a pulse

Ah, August. When the dog days get doggier, the humidity gets turned up . . . and studios throw their junk at us.

It officially starts this weekend and doesn’t let up as we’ve got a pretty uninspired group of movies coming at us. There really doesn’t seem to be anything opening wide worth spending a penny on, though being a “Reno: 911″ and “The State” fan I am somewhat interested in both “The Ten” and “Balls of Fury.” But not enough to take time and money to go see them. I’ve been intrigued by the “Superbad” trailer for weeks, and now it’s getting out-of-this-world reviews. It’s opening this weekend and might be the only thing I end up seeing for the rest of the summer. Hey, Judd Aptow has earned our respect. When he puts his name on something, it’s funny until proven otherwise.

Catching up on some other stuff:

–Speaking of this week’s releases, Entertainment Weekly had a pretty interesting story about “The Invasion,” the update of “Attack of the Body Snatchers” with a present-day feel to it. For some reason, I can’t find it online, so I’ll tell you about it. The article isn’t as much about the movie but the fact that the Wachowski brothers — who redefined the action genre with “The Matrix” and its sequels — came in to reshoot about 20 percent of the movie. From a pure journalism standpoint, the article was pretty poor. The only person EW got on the record to say anything even remotely negative about the situation was the stunt coordinator. Everyone else pretty much said, “This happens sometimes.” And it does. Script doctors have been a Hollywood staple for a long time, and some big names have done it. Quentin Tarantino famously was brought in to work on “Crimson Tide,” and nearly got in a fist fight on the set with Denzel Washington, who objected to his use of the N-word in Quentin’s movies. William Goldman remains tied to one of the biggest mysteries in Hollywood — did he totally rewrite “Good Will Hunting” or didn’t he? So it’s not like these things are unheard of.

What is different is directing one-fifth of the new movie and not getting credit for it (the brothers turned down any credit). All of this while former director Oliver Hirschbiegel was not only still on the payroll, but still on set while the Wachowskis worked their magic. I can’t think of a situation where that’s happened before. No one probably would have noticed except for someone close to the production let it slip during an interview. I’m hoping for this movie to fail on a personal level because producer Joel Silver is the basis for Kevin Spacey’s crazy-man in “Swimming With Sharks,” but I kinda want this movie to fail now so that this doesn’t become commonplace. I wouldn’t want someone coming in and changing my stories around while I watched over his shoulder, so I would hope no one would be forced to watch their vision be trashed in exchange for an extra $10 million at the box office.

–In what can only be considered a mercy killing, HBO canceled “John from Cincinnati” the other day. I tried to get on this and watched the first four episodes, referring to it as “Twin Peaks Lite” and then laughing at myself for being so darn clever. But David Milch, you have a long way to go before you can even breathe David Lynch’s air. With each ep, I found myself more and more saying, “Just tell me who he is, PLEASE!!!” but couldn’t put up with it anymore after four viewings. I meant to get caught up, but never bothered. I feel really sorry for ardent “Deadwood” fans, the show that was canceled by HBO so creator Milch could develop “JFC.” Looks like HBO will again be looking for their next buzzy hit. Maybe if more people would start getting hooked on “Flight of the Conchords” like I am, that will be the choice.

–From the weekly “I Have To Blog About This Files,” poor Brad and Angie could be on the rocks. What the heck took him so long? He went from globetrotting, partying, playboy who had a wife that obviously looked the other day as long as it was kept quiet, then he goes and gets himself tied down to a clearly disturbed (for better or worse) woman who adopts babies like the rest of us buy clothes. Jolie even was looking for houses without Brad. It lasted longer than I thought it would, although they were seen partying the other night in Chicago, so who knows. They need a Mr. and Mrs. Smith 2 to rekindle the love, or at least some guest spots in the proposed TV show. I’m a big fan of Jordana Brewster back from her “As the World Turns” days and as long as Liman is involved, I’d have no problem checking out the show. It’s supposed to be a midseason replacement at CBS.

–I can’t end with that. Umm, umm, umm, oh, thanks to OnDemand, I’ve finally caught up with all four episodes of “Mad Men” on AMC. I’m mildly impressed. The first four eps are almost always reserved strictly for character development and now that we’ve gotten an idea of who Don Draper is — whether we like it or not — there will probably be some more conflicts and confrontations in the coming weeks. One criticism — Vincent Kartheiser, who plays power-thirsty Pete Campbell and who is known in my little world for playing Angel’s son Connor on “Buffy” spin-off “Angel.” His emotional range pretty much starts at slimy and ends right there, despite his constant attempts otherwise. He’s tolerable, but everyone else is dang good. Jon Hamm as Draper is Emmy-worthy after just four episodes. We have a new entry into the “Bad Guys We Love” annals.