Hollywood Blogslap

In this, part 1 of a brand-new series that I just thought up like 4 minutes ago, I'll bring you small snippets of my favorite reviews from new movies. Once I get done writing my own reviews, there's nothing I love more than reading the opinions of my favorite critics. And today's a good day to start this column because KING KONG comes out today. And I loved it. A lot. And, yay, so did most of my favorite critics.

"And then it just keeps getting more almost unbearably exciting -- I can't remember the last time I actually gasped or moaned out loud at sometime I was seeing on a movie screen, or actually slapped my hands to my face half in awe at what I was seeing and half resisting the urge to cover my eyes so I wouldn't have to see any more... but Kong made me feel like a little kid again, astonished at the transporting power of The Movies." -- MaryAnn Johnason, The Flick Filosopher

"King Kong is gloriously uninhibited, fearlessly silly and willing to express itself through grandiloquent statements and breathless pronouncements. At three full hours, I wanted three full hours more. I hadn't felt as exhilaratingly free and goofy in a film since I was an eight-year-old watching RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK through my fingers. They don't really make movies like this anymore; I don't know if they ever did." -- Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central

"The movie is, almost by definition, too much - too long, too big, too stuffed with characters and over-the-top set pieces - but it is animated by an impish, generous grace. Three hours in the dark with a giant, angry ape should leave you feeling battered and exhausted, but KING KONG is as memorable for its sweetness as for its sensationalism." -- A.O. Scott, The New York Times

"The result is a surprisingly involving and rather beautiful movie -- one that will appeal strongly to the primary action audience, and also cross over to people who have no plans to see KING KONG but will change their minds the more they hear. I think the film even has a message, and it isn't that beauty killed the beast. It's that we feel threatened by beauty, especially when it overwhelms us, and we pay a terrible price when we try to deny its essential nature and turn it into a product, or a target. This is one of the year's best films." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-TImes

Holy crap. Here's some potentially great news from Variety:

Fox still hasn't officially canceled "Arrested Development," but if it does, other networks are interested in the show.

Both ABC and Showtime have had conversations with 20th Century Fox TV and indicated they're open to making a deal for new episodes of the critically beloved, Emmy-winning comedy from creator Mitch Hurwitz. No formal negotiations have taken place, and there are still numerous hurdles that might prevent such a move -- including the show's hefty pricetag.

That said, those familiar with the talks described them as serious, with Showtime said to be in particularly hot pursuit of the ratings - challenged laffer, now on life support at Fox. Skein's third-season order was recently cut to 13 episodes.