For Your Consideration

Christopher Guest is not a traditional screen comedian: he does not tell jokes or engage in madcap high-concept hijinks or fall down staircases. As a filmmaker, however, he may be one of the funniest men alive and quite possibly not of this earth. How else to explain Guest's ability to coax from an elite squad of comic improvisers rich, consistently hilarious movies out of premises that, in lesser hands, could be one-joke bores — Dog show! Folk concert! Bad regional theater! It's easy to forget that he didn't actually direct the genre's Rosetta stone, 1984's This Is Spinal Tap (that'd be Rob Reiner).

Even a giant can stumble, however, and when he does, the thud can be resounding. For Your Consideration isn't a mockumentary in the manner of Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000) or A Mighty Wind (2003), and considering that Guest has already stretched the genre to its limits, maybe that's smart. The usual suspects — Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, Eugene Levy, Parker Posey, Catherine O'Hara — are present and accounted for, and the idea of the gang pissing on Hollywood's annual obsession with prestige screams potential, even if the subject matter is hardly unexplored terrain. But the limp farce turns out to be just a collection of musty Borscht Belt quips. A one-joke bore, basically.

A modest family drama entitled Home for Purim brings together a group of insecure actors, a confused director (played by Guest), with Sergei Eisenstein-meets-Eraserhead hair), and the various other stereotypical Hollywood hangers-on who loiter around the craft services table. Somebody reads a rumor published on a gossip Web site that Purim might be potential Oscar material; no sooner is the hearsay confirmed than the little indie production that could goes topsy-turvy and the suits start taking unnatural interest. "We love the whole Purim thing," purrs the studio head (The Office's Ricky Gervais). "But y'know, can you make it a little less Jewish?" Cue rim shot!

Except for a few choice non sequiturs ("Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water, folks … because then all you have is a wet, critically injured baby"), the movie's humor sticks to cheap-shot digs at Hollywood. Occasionally, a jab draws blood — both Entertainment Tonight and talk-show host Charlie Rose are flayed alive — and the images of Willard with a blond mohawk or O'Hara's hideous gallery of post-facelifet grimaces are enough to draw appreciative chuckles. But Guest has set an incredibly high bar for ensemble goofiness over the years, and for once he seems unable to get anywhere near it himself. Apparently, Hell-Ay is a vapid, superficial place full of sad, pathetic poseurs — who knew? For Your Consideration is not a bad movie so much as a bland, toothless one, but for someone of Guest's caliber, that's tragedy enough.

Meanwhile, German director Tom Tykwer's lavish adaptation of Patrick Suskind's cult-hit turned bestseller Perfume: The Story of a Murderer boasts many ingredients real-life Academy voters crave: pedigreed actors (Dustin Hoffman), stiff-upper-lip narration by a sonorous Brit (John Hurt) and dense set design that's the definition of Dickensian. Of course, these same voters may be dissuaded once they see Hoffman as a French transvestite and the hero — though blessed with a superhuman sense of smell — is a stalker and a serial killer. It's also a safe bet that many of the gray-haired biddies wouldn't have caught Tykwer's tribute to Manic Panic hair dye, Run Lola Run (1998), and thus won't appreciate what a huge step forward this is for him. Whether it reaps Oscar gold or not, Perfume is certainly one of the more sensual films you're likely to experience — you can practically smell every fragrance the young perfumer blends for the Parisian elite. And it takes a certain moxie to shoot the book's climactic public orgy with as much fidelity as the MPAA will allow, statuettes by damned.

Before the months of endless ceremonies dedicated to folks patting each other's backs raw, however, there's a holiday season to contend with, which is where MGM's James Bond Ultimate Collection comes in — you can now buy your loved ones Bond films in sets … box sets. (Cue John Barry score.) However, rather than going the chronological route, the studio is releasing randomly grouped titles in four volumes. Coinciding with the release of Daniel Craig's debut as the super-spy in Casino Royale, the two-disc editions of the earlier Bond films might help you wash the taste of the new one out of your mouth or make you appreciate the change from Cold War hero to a contemporary badass. Either way, the chance to own most of the vaunted franchise is its own reward.