Down These Mean Streets a Mensch Must Go

Went to see Made of Honor over the weekend -- an at best agreeable romantic comedy with a barely plausible premise rendered even less so by the genius casting of Patrick Dempsey as a 32 year old -- and was rewarded with a big screen look at the teaser trailer for Frank Miller's forthcoming (2009) film version of all-time comic book genius Will Eisner's The Spirit. Two words spring immediately to mind -- "oy" and "gevalt."

My teaser review? The visuals are gratifyingly Eisner-esque, but the voiceover suggests the finished flick will be (surprise, surprise) more of its writer/director's trademark steroidal adolescent wankery. Earth to Miller: The Spirit, as a character, is basically a wise-cracking Jewish guy -- think Jon Stewart, not an obsessed Batmanish avenger. And the best of Eisner's Spirit stories are about sly irony and O.Henry-style surprise; why the humorless auteur behind 300 -- the most irony deficient and frankly nutso film ever to have grossed over 100 million dollars -- thinks he's the right person to bring those stories to the screen strikes me as a mystery that may never be solved.