More “Stink”—The stink is back by popular demand! Thanks to those four incredible sold-out screenings the other weekend, the Guild Cinema in Nob Hill has decided to resurrect local zombie flick The Stink of Flesh for a special one-night only encore. On midnight, Saturday, Aug. 21, the film will be screened for all those Flesh-hungry zombies who didn't get a seat at the last go-around. This one will probably sell out as well, so get your tickets early.

Unpredictable hack-and-slash is bloody entertaining

Asian action purists who've absorbed a majority of actor Shintarô Katsu's 26 legendary Zatôichi films (a role he played from 1962 to 1989) will probably find filmmaker Takeshi Kitano's recent pop culture-puréed remake a bit too revisionist. In Japan, where Zatoichi is a movie icon on par with James Bond, that's a big deal. Here in America, where you'd be lucky to find one in 50,000 people who've ever even heard of Zatoichi, it's probably not such a major consideration.

Intimate writing/directing debut is is not your garden variety comedy

But what I really want to do is direct: It's been a lament uttered by overly ambitious actors since the dawn of the motion picture era. Charlie Chaplin did it. Orson Welles did it. Mel Gibson did it. Now Zach Braff, star of NBC's hit comedy "Scrubs," is stepping behind the camera for his multi-hyphenate debut, the indie comedy Garden State.

Television tidbits from around the Dial

Green With Envy?--Immigrants rights groups are protesting the new TV series “Gana La Verde” (“Win the Green”), a “Fear Factor”-inspired reality show contest which claims to give out free green cards to Mexican immigrants wishing to enter the United States. Actually, the show only offers a year's worth of free legal advice to each weekly winner. Still, the groups feel that having contestants sleep with snakes, fend off deadly guard dogs and jump between speeding semis presents a “false impression of how the immigration process works.” Despite (or more likely because of) the controversy, the show is currently ranked number two among 19 to 49-year-olds. The show only airs on Spanish language stations in Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas and Houston. Twenty episodes have aired so far, and several contestants are described by the show's producers as “close” to getting their green cards.

Week in Sloth

The Week in Sloth