This is the learned level of discourse that goes on round here at FlickFilosopher Central all day: My friend JoAnn emailed me this morning -- having noted, obviously, that I’ve already seen Miami Vice -- to inquire of my opinion of one aspect of the film. Did she ask about the atmospheric DV cinematography? Did she ask about the challenges of reimagining a popular retro television series for contemporary audiences? No. She wanted to know:

Is Colin totally hot in the film?

And so I applied my vast repositories of critical acumen and replied:

I generally find him totally hot, but he's a bit too grubby here for my taste.

But he is totally hot in Ask the Dust (read my review/buy at Amazon), the historical drama hitting DVD today. Farrell stars as naive young writer Arturo Bandini, who arrives in Los Angeles during the height of the Great Depression only to have Salma Hayek kick his ass... figuratively speaking, of course. Arturo is kind of a jerk, actually, which greatly diminishes his hotness, but if you’re the kind of movie fan who is able to see past an unlikeable character to drool over the talent of the actor portraying him (and talent is always hot, no matter what a dude looks like or what kind of scrumptious accent he’s got), you’ll find plenty to enjoy in this intriguing but flawed film.