What kind of a movie do you get when the great Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, The Buena Vista Social Club) directs a story — by Bono, no less — in which Mel Gibson stars as an FBI man who investigates a murder in a fleabag L.A. hotel filled with misfits?

As Gibson has already weighed in at a press conference: "I thought it was as boring as a dog's ass."

It's hard to argue. For starters, Gibson plays his role in a neck brace that makes him look like Frankenstein. The movie goes off the edge, just like Izzy Goldkiss (Tim Roth), who takes a flier off the hotel roof in the film's opening scene. Wenders and cinematographer Phedeon Papamichael work up some nifty atmosphere, enhanced by a soundtrack from the likes of Bono and Brian Eno. But the script that Nicholas Klein has conjured from Bono's idea is a quicksand that sucks down a solid cast, including Jeremy Davies, Milla Jovovich and Jimmy Smits. I should mention that Gibson's character was born with a third arm. It doesn't mean anything. It's just that kind of a movie.

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.