Dance Party USA

Last week's episode of "The Office," entitled "Cafe Disco" and featuring the dance stylings of the entire Dunder-Mifflin crew, made me realize that I am an absolute sucker for a funny dance scene. This likely derives from my love of creating and/or being a part of funny dance scenes (any witnesses at my wedding reception can attest to that fact).

Here, a few of my favorite dance scenes from TV and film (Note: I'm not taking into account musicals; that's another post altogether):

Footloose: Every time this movie is on cable, I'll turn it on to watch the end prom dance sequence set to the titular Kenny Loggins song. Willard has some serious skillz. And don't tell me that you don't wish you could replicate that one dude's crazy robot moves; I've seen you try.

Napoleon Dynamite: Jamiroquai -- and moon boots -- will always have a special place in my heart.

Seinfeld: "The Elaine." Classic.

Can't Buy Me Love: African Anteater Ritual? Definitely busted that one out at several high school dances.

A League of Their Own: This one made me want to learn how to swing dance. And go to a place called the Suds Bucket. And live in the 1940s.

Scrubs: Turk does the dance from the "Poison" video while trying out for the janitor's air band. And he's damn good at it.

Reality Bites: Our heroes are gettin' down at a convenience store after smoking copious amounts of marijuana. Looks like an absolute blast. Also, please note that the music is coming from a janky boom box on the counter. Awwww, early '90s, you're so cute!

Wolverine: The inside scoop on its suckage

Here's something interesting: A friend of mine gave me this insider info about Fox and its latest venture in suckitude, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine":

The funniest part of my job at Fox was reading news online that was happening in my office instead of finding out about it when I was at work. In mid-October 2007, two weeks before the looming writer's strike, Fox sent out an emergency message to the agencies for writers to work on the Wolverine script. They had received the second draft from David Benioff, who they had paid $1.2 million to, and needed a significant rewrite because there wasn't much action or enough story. Most of the script was rewritten in about eight days. And that's why there are huge narrative gaps. A lot of that may have been easy to fix, but Fox is now such a poorly run company that directors will complain about interference before their movies are released. Fox's strategy to make big movies on the cheap, to con audiences with marketing, and to sue Warner Bros. over some minor rights issue with Watchmen (which backfired; the rumor is that Warners leaked the Wolverine work print) undermined a major tentpole and franchise. I was estimating a sub $200 million gross for Wolverine until I saw it. It's more likely to do X-Men 1 business -- about $160 million. They spent less on it than they did on X-Men 3, but I don't think this will end up as all that profitable and it has hurt the various spin-offs and sequels that were in development.

There ya have it, folks. I think that explains a lot. I know I never actually posted a review, but the long and short of it is, wait for Netflix; the effects will look cooler on a smaller screen (yikes). I will say that the opening credits sequence is actually kinda kick-ass.