That being the case, a number of the movie experts here at BLOCKBUSTER got together to discuss why The Nightmare Before Christmas has become such a beloved film, despite not playing into any sort of holiday values archetype.  Here’s what we came up with. You may disagree, but this is our interpretation of this classic movie and why it’s so good.

Fair Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD

As you know if you have seen the film, Jack Skellington, The Pumpkin King, is the lead-scarer and planner for all things Halloween.  Living amongst ghosts, goblins, ghouls, and all sorts of scary creatures in Halloween Town, it’s his job to plan all the annual festivities for the world every Halloween.  His role is very similar to that of Santa Claus’s role for Christmas.  However, after the most recent successful Halloween, Jack feels depressed and bored with everything that he does year after year.  It seems he no longer enjoys scaring people for Halloween.

In his melancholy, Jack leaves town and finds a portal that takes him to Christmas Town where he discovers all kinds of wonderful new things that he’s never seen before.  Inspired by Christmas, Jack presents many of his findings to his friends in Halloween Town as new ideas for Halloween; however, they misinterpret his intentions and decide to take over Christmas.

Jack is filled with a new fire and passion because of all the new ideas that come about in the plan to takeover Christmas.  Without giving too much of the movie away, it’s safe to say that ghosts and skeletons and monsters aren’t the best planners of Christmas.  It all goes horribly wrong as the citizens of Halloween Town turn every Christmas tradition into something spooky and scary, ruining the December holiday.

In the end, Santa comes and saves the day (which could be strong reason for why many people consider this a Christmas film).  Now here’s a point of debate. Some people say that the residents of Halloween Town learn the “meaning of Christmas,” or something similar, because even though they ruined Christmas, Jack Skellington is filled with glee again for his own holiday and gets excited to plan next year’s Halloween.

But I don’t think that’s what happens.  I think that Jack, and finally, everyone in Halloween Town, learn that things can’t stay the same forever.  The same-old, same-old does indeed get old and stale and the world moves on.  So we all have to change.

Halloween Town is a collection of beautiful and brilliant misfits and they also have to change to keep things fresh and exciting.  Even with a spooky and weird holiday like Halloween, Jack discovers that he’s tired of doing the same old scares year after year.  His experience with Christmas fills him with tons of new ideas for how to do his own holiday, and maybe evolve it for the better.

The Nightmare Before Christmas’s main message isn’t “learning the true meaning of Christmas,” nor is it just about having a “spooky Halloween.”  While the film does have a little bit of both of those elements, it speaks to a much wider audience because it is a film about “change.”  At the core of The Nightmare Before Christmas is the message that change may be difficult and uncomfortable. It may be painful.  But change is necessary.  Even with things like holidays, which are so imbued with traditions, change is necessary.  And it can be beautiful.

The post The Meaning of The Nightmare Before Christmas appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Not quite a full-length feature film, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown taps out at about 25 minutes, but it’s still a holiday classic worth watching with the kids.  Join Charlie Brown as he goes trick ‘r treating, stop by Lucy’s house for a classic Halloween party, stay up with Linus as he faithfully awaits the arrival of his favorite holiday hero, the Great Pumpkin, and follow Snoopy as he tries to track down the Red Baron.  The gang’s all here for Halloween and there’s no better way to kick off your Halloween festivities.

Halloweentown

A Disney Channel movie from 2004, Halloweentown is about three siblings who find out that their grandmother is a witch and lives in Halloweentown, an alternate dimension city where witches, ghosts, goblins, skeletons, and all the like have been living for a thousand years.  The children discover that their grandmother is in trouble because the Mayor of Halloween town is trying to brainwash and imprison its citizens.  The kids must join the fight and help battle him and save the town.

Halloweentown is your typical Disney Channel fare, but has plenty of spooky Halloween creatures and magic that make it a fun film for the kids or great Halloween tradition for the whole family.

Casper

Based on the Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon and comics that ran from the 1940s through the 1960s, this live-action and computer animation adaption expands on the Casper story as a paranormal expert and his daughter come to live in the mansion that Casper and his three horrible uncles (also ghosts) haunt.  Casper befriends the daughter Kat (Christina Ricci), and frequently follows her to school and the Halloween dance.  Eventually, Kat discovers a secret that may be able to bring Casper back to life.  It’s a ghostly story that’s fun for the whole family with touching moments and good laughs.

Ernest Scared Stupid

Ernest is back and this time he must save Halloween.  After inadvertently releasing an evil troll that was sealed away more than 100 years ago by his ancestor, Ernest must stop the creature before it turns all the neighborhood children into little wooden statues so that it can consume their life energy.  Can he discover the monster’s weakness and reseal the creature before Halloween ends?

While this film has a silly plot with plenty of slapstick humor, there are some scenes that might be scary for the younger children.  All in all, if you like Ernest, or just goofy holiday films, then Ernest Scared Stupid is a good one for you and your family this Halloween.

The Addams Family

While not technically a Halloween film, The Addams Family is filled with plenty of creepy characters and settings to fit right in with the spooky season.  The Addams are an eerie family that enjoy living a more moribund lifestyle inside their immense mansion. With the re-emergence of long-lost brother, Fester Addams, they begin to celebrate, but something isn’t quite right about Fester, even by Addams’ standards.

The Addams Family was a surprise smash hit during the early ‘90s, loved for its quirky characters and dark settings pitted against the comical storyline.  It spawned another success in 1993’s sequel, Addams Family Values.

For even more Halloween fun, read our post from last year about 4 more Halloween movies perfect for the kids.

The post 5 Halloween Movies Perfect for Kids appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

As you most likely know, the Halloween film series is built upon the premise of the deranged killer Michael Myers wearing his trademark mask and going on a murder spree throughout his hometown on Halloween.  This is more or less the plot of all ten films in the franchise… well, all but one film that is. The black sheep isHalloween III: Season of the Witch.

Halloween III veers drastically away from this formula, cutting out the character of Michael Myers completely. Instead, it replaces the iconic killer with a maniacal mask-maker that plans on killing children on Halloween as he attempts to replicate dark aspects of the Celtic holiday, Samhain.

In theory, the plan for the Halloween franchise was to have each film after Halloween II to have separate, stand-alone characters and storylines all revolving around evil being done on Halloween day; however, Halloween III did poorly with critics and audiences, so by part IV, the producers reverted back to centering all the plots around Michael Myers.

Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows

The Blair Witch Project debuted in 1999 to smashing success based on its clever “is it real or isn’t it?” marketing strategy, earning record-breaking profits from its miniscule budget of about $22,000.  Audiences loved its “found footage” technique using handheld cameras and very low budget effects as they wondered the fates of three young people who disappeared while searching the woods for the fabled Blair Witch.

Seeing that there was more money to be made after this success, producers fast-tracked a sequel and in the process stripped out everything that people loved from the first film, including Haxan Films, the production company that made the original Blair Witch.  Mostly forsaking the pseudo-documentary style of filming with handheld cameras and the “real story” campaign, the studio decided to use more big-budget style filming techniques and special effects for a bigger “commercial success.”  But these changes did not go over well audiences. Additionally, The Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows was panned by critics earning it the Golden Raspberry for Worst Sequel of The Year.

Poltergeist II: The Other Side

Poltergeist is a 1982 Academy-award nominated horror film produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper about the Freeling family, whose house is haunted by an evil spirit that is trying to harm their youngest daughter, Carol Anne.  It was immensely successful, eclipsing the $100 million mark at the worldwide box office.

As horror sequels tend to do after the original film is successful, Poltergeist II: The Other Side attempted to continue the story of the Freelings, eschewing in a new backstory to fit the sequels plot.  In the original film, the Freeling’s house was built on a desecrated cemetery, which led to the otherworldly encounters with angry spirits led by “The Beast.”  But in the sequel, the Freelings have moved away and The Beast becomes the spirit of a demented cult preacher that is tracking down Carol Anne and can now take a physical human form in our world.  An additional new backstory about The Beast being attracted to the Freeling family women because they are clairvoyant is thrown into the mix.

Although to be fair, The Beast’s human form is pretty frightening.

All these changes and retcons (retroactive continuity) were not particularly well-received by audiences or critics, with the movie pulling in less than half of the original’s box office take.

The Ring Two

The Ring was one of 2001’s surprise hits.  Based on the Japanese horror film, Ringu, it scared viewers with a disturbing urban legend of a video that kills anyone who watches it seven days later.  Things got even more frightening when we discover the truth behind the video and a girl with some interesting powers, finishing with a brilliant ending that was as memorable as it was terrifying.

While the first film was a brilliant ghost story of sorts with an intricate backstory, it had a specific set of rules for how the evil spirit could interact with the real world after humans watched the video.  All of those rules are thrown out the window for the sequel.  In The Ring Two, the evil spirit, Samara, can spontaneously possess people and influence outside forces in the real world (such as making deer attack people).

I still can’t get over how dumb this scene with killer deer is.

Rachel, the protagonist, also finds Samara’s birth mother, who was deemed impossible to find in the first film, and then eventually gets pulled into a spirit realm of the haunted video.  It’s yet another example of ruining the groundwork of the original film by retconning plot details and adding new “powers” for the evil entity.

Jaws: The Revenge

Jaws is arguably the most famous film on this list and one that doesn’t need much explanation.  In a nutshell though, an unusually large and aggressive great white shark attacks a number of swimmers near an east coast town, prompting a team of shark hunters to seek out and kill it. This simple equation had incredible success making it an instant classic and giving millions a fear of going in the ocean.

However, the sequels didn’t fair nearly so well. Perhaps it’s because legendary director, Steven Spielberg jumped ship (see what I did there?) after the first film.  In the first two sequels the large killer shark idea is expanded upon with more killings and different settings.  But it’s Jaws 4 that really jumps the shark (zing!).

It’s hard to show a picture of a psychic connection, so here is an image of the shark taking out a plane.

Jaws 4: The Revenge finds police chief Brody deceased, but when his son is killed by another killer shark, his widow develops a psychic connection to the shark that goes off when it attacks.  What was once a thrilling film about real terror in the water, eventually digressed into an animal maniac that can only be stopped by a woman’s new “superpower.”  Jaws 4: The Revenge was so bad that it earned a rare 0% rating on rottentomatoes.com and earned 7 Razzie nominations.

The post 5 Horror Movie Sequels that Completely Disregarded Their Predecessors appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

Let’s start off with a relatively well-known one, at least if you are a horror movie fan.  Well before he became the center of the Hollywood universe by no more than 6 degrees, the actor with everyone’s favorite last name was in the original Friday the 13^th film back in 1980.  But sadly, he wasn’t the hero of the film; no, Bacon just plays another teenager looking to get lucky, but only finds a brutal death at the hands of the killer.  It was a part that wouldn’t be memorable had Bacon not gone on to become a household name in America.

Tom Hanks – He Knows You’re Alone

For his very first film role ever, multiple Oscar-winning actor, Tom Hanks’, film debut in the 1980 slasher film, He Knows You’re Alone.  Much like Kevin Bacon, Hanks had just a small part in this film about a jaunted lover who becomes a serial killer, but unlike Bacon, Tom’s acting chops spared his head. His bit part character was originally supposed to be killed off, but the filmmakers were so impressed with Hanks’ ability to make the character likable that they decided to let him live.

Johnny Depp – A Nightmare on Elm Street

Johnny Depp has made a career out of playing quirky, eccentric characters and making them hilarious and likable, but his first acting role in a feature film was as the completely normal all-American, Glen Lantz, boyfriend of A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s protagonist, Nancy Thompson.

In a step up from Bacon’s and Hanks’ roles in their respective horror film debuts, Depp’s character realizes what’s going on and that there is a killer on the loose.  He sees significant screen time and does try to stop the murderer.

Matthew McConaughey & Renee Zellweger– Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation

We’ve got a special two-fer for you here with both Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger appearing in the 1994 Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel, The Next Generation early in their careers.  Appearing on opposite sides of the chainsaw, Zellweger plays the film’s unfortunate protagonist with McConaughey playing a maniacal killer and relative of Leatherface.

It’s interesting to see to big movie stars coincidentally in a film like this together early in their careers, especially with common leading-man McConaughey as a demented killer.  Despite getting terrible reviews, something good must have been in the film since it launched two prolific careers.

Learn about four other A-list movie stars and their early roles in horror films, check out our previous blog post Great Actors Who Started Their Careers with Terrible Movies.

The post 5 Big Time Actors Who Did Horror Films Early in Their Careers appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

The Secret of Kells

The Secret of Kells tells the fictionalized tale of a young Irish monk, Brendan, who lives in a secluded Christian abbey during the Dark Ages (8^th century).  Brendan is trying to help create and preserve the famous Book of Kells, an illustrated manuscript of the Bible, but it’s harder to do that he would have imagined.  Brendan must do battle with a Celtic pagan deity and resist an invading army of Vikings.   It’s a beautifully illustrated, magical story loosely based on monastic Irish history.

Winning audiences over in Ireland and all of Europe with its vivid and beautiful animation, The Secret of Kells made it stateside in 2010 just in time to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Film.  Trust me when I say that it’s worth watching just for the art style.

Buried

Would you believe that Ryan Reynolds’ highest-rated movie (we’re not counting Adventureland since he wasn’t the lead) on RottenTomatoes.com is a movie that only grossed $1 million domestically?  Believe it. Buried is a tight thriller where Reynolds plays an American truck driver in Iraq who wakes up buried alive in a wooden coffin with only a lighter and a cell phone.

He must piece together how to get out as he races against time and his limited air supply in this tense thriller.  Rent it soon to see if he can discover the how and why he got buried, and more importantly, if he can do something to escape.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

You might have seen this one if you are really into video games and/or “nerd culture.”  Well, regardless of your hobbies, the film adaptation of the American manga Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World earned rave reviews and an 81% on RottenTomatoes.com.  Unfortunately, it debuted as only the #5 movie its opening weekend and grossed barely over half of its production budget.

Don’t let financials deter you though, Scott Pilgrim gives us a quirky, bubbly, action-packed tale about a guy who just wants to get the girl… however, he must first fight, yes physically fight, her seven evil ex-boyfriends.  Plus, all of them have some sort of special power or fighting skill to boot.  Sounds crazy, right? It is… crazy awesome! Scott Pilgrim provides a fun, unique ride for any movie-goer who isn’t turned off by the live-action manga/anime-style special effects.  Oh ,and it stars Michael Cera, Chris vans, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

L’Illusionniste

Another foreign animated film graces our list with L’Illusionniste (The Illusionist) from France.  Done in an old-school animation style and with little dialogue (similar to the first half of Wall-E), The Illusionist uses visuals and sound effects to drive the story of a down-on-his-luck illusionist, Tatischeff.  Dreaming of greener pastures, he moves from Paris to a remote town in Scotland to middling success when he meets a young girl who thinks he is a real magician with magical powers.

Earning a 90% rating on RottenTomatoes.com, The Illusionist is a beautiful and captivating tale that has won over critics worldwide by showing that the beliefs and love of a child can be very powerful indeed,.  Like The Secret of Kells, L’Illusionniste was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2010.

Biutiful

I’d be lying if I said that Biutiful was an uplifting tale, but it is a poetic story of love, fatherhood, and guilt in modern Europe.  Earning Javier Bardem his 2^nd Academy Award nomination, this film shows us a poor cancer-stricken father living in Barcelona, who wrestles with guilt and does what he can to keep those he loves safe and sound.

The entire movie is in Spanish, so if you don’t like reading subtitles (assuming you don’t understand Spanish), then this one might not be for you.  But if you enjoy realistic, even if bleak, emotional portrayals of humanity, love and the human spirit, not many films do it better than Biutiful.

The post 5 Great Films from 2010 that You Probably Didn’t See appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

by Alex Castle

There’s an old saying in show business: never work with children or animals. But if you cast the right kids in the right movie, sometimes you end up with much stronger material than you started with. Some of the most moving dramatic performances and some of the funniest comedic performances in film are given by children, so here are a few of the best movies with kids in leading roles, available now to stream on Blockbuster On Demand!

Kings of Summer
Three teenagers (played, refreshingly, by actual teenagers Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, and Moises Arias), tired of their parents telling them what to do, spend their summer building their own refuge in a remote part of the woods.

Mud
A pair of pre-teens in the Mississippi delta find a ready-made treehouse on a remote island — a boat lodged in a tree, actually — and find it’s the temporary residence of a fugitive named Mud (Matthew McConaughey), who slowly but surely enlists their help finding his lost love.

A Christmas Story
Little Ralphie yearns for a Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas, but his Mom is worried he’ll shoot his eye out. That simple premise makes for one of the most vividly realized Christmas movies ever, with an excellent lead performance by 12-year-old Peter Billingsley.

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
Steven Spielberg rang up the biggest box-office of all time in 1982, behind the uncommonly strong performance of 9-year-old Henry Thomas as a boy from a broken family who happens to find an alien living in his tool shed. (Drew Barrymore, then 5, co-stars as his little sister.)

The Goonies
A gang of preteen kids finds a treasure map and follows it into a spooky cave full of skeletons and booby-traps and things that go “BOO!” It’s so farfetched it might not play but for the great performances of Sean Astin, Corey Feldman, Josh Brolin, Martha Plimpton, Short Round, and Chunk.

Empire Of The Sun
By the time he played American Psycho Patrick Bateman, Christian Bale was already an accomplished screen actor, having played the lead in Steven Spielberg’s heartbreaking drama about a young English boy stranded in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War II.

Where The Wild Things Are
Maurice Sendak’s classic bedtime story is brought to life with a great lead performance by Max Records as Max, the boy who would not eat his dinner. His mother cried, “Wild thing!” etc. This movie is not necessarily for the young kids the book is aimed at, but gets at bigger questions of what it means to grow up.

The post So Grown Up! appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

Citizen Kane

Yes, Citizen Kane, one of the longest-standing #1 movies of all-time on many lists including that of the American Film Institute, limped out of the blocks to start when it released in May 1941. Despite most critics praising the film, many people attribute its lackluster release to the efforts of William Randolph Hearst, the immensely powerful newspaper mogul whose life Citizen Kane is modeled after.

Hearst despised the film as he felt it did not portray him in a good light, so he banned any advertising for, review of, or even any mention of the film from his hundreds of newspapers across the country.  Additionally, he placed pressure on the movie studios and many theater houses to ban the film from showing altogether.  His hatred for the film and efforts to suppress it are recorded in the documentary, The Battle of Citizen Kane.  It wasn’t until the mid-1950s that the film gained major attention from airings on television that American audiences began to realize the genius that was Citizen Kane, quickly making it one of the greatest movies ever made.

Night of the Living Dead

How could such a well-known horror classic be considered a failure?  Well, despite its cult following now, when Night of the Living Dead originally came out in 1968 it was panned for just being a “unrelieved orgy of sadism” that fueled the argument for censoring grisly scenes in movies.  Yes, it terrified its viewers, but it was far from profitable in its first few years, so much so that it had to resort to becoming part of traveling live-action horror shows to make any money.

This all changed in the early 70s when the film took on new life during a horror movie boom and it resurged in movie theaters to become one of the most profitable horror films for decades, launching a whole genre of zombie movies.

It’s early lack of success is hard to believe after this trailer that painstakingly tells us the name of the movie about a dozen times.

Fight Club

Now one of the most popular movies adored by young men, upon its initial release, Fight Club divided critics and grossly underwhelmed at the box office pulling in just over half of its $63 million production budget.  Many critics thought that it promoted anarchy and violence and would spur copycat vandals similar to what happened in Britain after A Clockwork Orange came out.

However, after its theatrical run, director David Fincher personally supervised the DVD production, earning it a number of DVD awards and praise from critics. This helped generate strong word-of-mouth prompting many young people to rent and purchase it in droves, generating more than $55 million in home video rentals and becoming one of the studio’s best-selling home media items.  These rentals and sales led to Fight Club becoming the movie of choice for high school and college boys in the early 2000s.

The Wizard of Oz

Shockingly, one of the most beloved films of all-time was not deemed a commercial success when it was originally released in 1939.  Being MGM’s most expensive production ever at the time, The Wizard of Oz didn’t quite see the box office returns studio heads were hoping for, only barely surpassing its production budget despite the largely positive reviews from critics.

It wasn’t until 1956 that The Wizard of Oz became a big hit, when it began to air on television re-introducing it to audiences across America.  These telecasts became an annual TV tradition during the holiday season, making the Library of Congress declare it the most viewed motion picture on television syndication in history.

The Big Lebowski

Everyone’s favorite dude was a complete dud upon release.  Expectations were high for the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski after their Academy Award-winning success in Fargo.  Unfortunately, it received mixed reviews and middling success at the box office pulling in only $5.2 million on opening weekend and then just $17 million during its domestic run, compared to its $15 million production budget.

However, just like its titular character, The Big Lebowski abides.  And thanks to home video rentals and very strong word-of-mouth, it has become a bona fide cult classic spawning multiple Lebowski Fests across the United States since 2002 and even launching an online religion called “Dudeism” based on the philosophy and lifestyle of the film’s main character.

The post Now Classic Movies that Were Originally Considered Bombs appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

The Wind that Shakes the Barley

The Wind that Shakes the Barley is an independent film set during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War from the late 19-teens to the 1920s.  Starring Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins’ Scarecrow), it showcases the effects of the wars on two Irish brothers as they first fight side-by-side and then experience differing opinions on the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the goal of a unified Irish Free State.

It’s a painful reminder of what war, especially civil war, does to country men and to family, even during the 20^th century.  The Irish Civil War was a bloody affair that many Americans don’t know a lot about and The Wind that Shakes the Barley sheds some light on this bit of history and how it shaped and still affects modern Ireland.

Side note: this premiered at film festivals in 2006, but released in the US in 2007.

The King of King: A Fistful of Quarters

I cannot stress enough how fun this documentary is to watch!  The King of Kong shows us the lives of two Donkey Kong arcade players. Yes, Donkey Kong, as in the original arcade game from the 1980s.  There is a whole world of classic/retro arcade gaming champions that are constantly trying to earn world records on various arcade machines and it is fascinating to see it.

In this documentary, we see a newcomer’s (Steve Weibe) conquest to break a long-standing Donkey Kong world record held by Billy Mitchell, and Steve’s challenges and the crazy situations that he has to finally getting his efforts recognized by the retro gaming record keepers.  The film is done wonderfully with a classic underdog vs. long-standing villain style that showcases many unbelievable characters.  Worth watching if you love video games, documentaries, or just fascinating stories.

Stephen King’s The Mist

The Mist subtly showed up in 2007 and went on to become one of Stephen King’s most well-regarded horror movie adaptations, based on his 1980 novella of the same name.  Considered by many to be one of the truest adaptations of King’s work, many fans love it not just for the terror of what is in the mist, but what fear and the unknown do to the various people holed up together in a small supermarket while trying to survive this situation.

The biggest element that differs from the book is the ending, but Stephen King himself has said that he loved it with the official statement, “Frank [the film’s writer] wrote a new ending that I loved. It is the most shocking ending ever and there should be a law passed stating that anybody who reveals the last 5 minutes of this film should be hung from their neck until dead.”

Rescue Dawn

Another war movie, Rescue Dawn is about American Navy pilot Dieter Dengler, who was shot down and captured by Pathet Lao in Vietnam in 1966.  We see the story of how Dengler was taken to a prison camp and brutally tortured, only to hatch and launch an escape plan with fellow inmates.

Rescue Dawn is a sobering movie about the horrors many POWs faced in Vietnam and many other American wars and the extreme lengths that they went to facing enemy soldiers and villagers sympathetic to American opposition.  It lost money at the box office but has a 90% on RottenTomatoes.com.

Stardust

Stardust is a great romantic fantasy film based on the 1997 graphic novel series of the same name. With a star-studded cast including Robert DeNiro, Clair Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ricky Gervais, Ian McKellan and a young Henry Cavill.  It’s the story of a young man that lives near the border of a magical kingdom and sees a falling star. He decides to retrieve it for his love, but when he gets there he finds that the star is a young woman, which begins his magical adventure that involves witches, pirates, and evil lords.

Stardust is a fantastic film for anyone that loves fantasy, adventure, comedy and anything magical.  It is rated PG-13 for fantasy violence and crude humor, but should be alright for most families with perhaps some slight censorship depending on your standards.

In the Land of Women

Starring Adam Brody, Meg Ryan, and Kristen Stewart, In the Land of Women is one of the more underrated dramas of the past decade. In an attempt to flee his life in Los Angeles after his girlfriend breaks up with him, Carter Webb travels to Michigan to take care of his ailing grandmother.  There he befriends his neighbors, a middle-aged mother and her teenage daughter.

As Carter gets to know both mother and daughter more, things get somewhat complicated and all three of them realize that they are trying to overcome their own relationship and life issues.  It’s a charming drama peppered with the right amount of comedy that keeps viewers engaged with relatable life-situations leading to a satisfying ending.

The post 6 Movies from 6 Years Ago That You Probably Didn’t See, But Should appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

by Alex Castle

There are two kinds of science fiction: the kind that’s really just an excuse to shoot laser guns and fly spaceships and fight exotic alien monsters, and the kind that uses imaginary advances in technology to explore the human condition. Astronaut: The Last Push, new this week on Blockbuster On Demand, fits firmly into the latter category, which got us to thinking about some of the other sci-fi movies with a little more on their mind.

Astronaut: The Last Push
When a mission to the moons of Jupiter is canceled by the accidental death of one of the two men on the vessel, the other is forced to make the three-year trip back to Earth in total solitude.

2001: A Space Odyssey
In Stanley Kubrick’s enormously celebrated 1968 film, each major advance in human evolution is accompanied by a big black monolith, so when one of them appears on Saturn and astronauts are sent to investigate it, can it really be a surprise when their ship’s computer goes crazy? (I don’t really know, I’ve never really understood this movie.)

Moon
Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie) arrived as a major Hollywood talent with the very understated story of a man living alone on a lunar colony who, after an accident, comes to realize that he may not be alone. One of the best sci-fi movies of recent years.

Source Code
Jake Gyllenhaal takes the lead role in Duncan Jones’ inventive follow-up to Moon, as a man trying to solve and prevent the bombing of a train by somehow inhabiting the consciousnesses of various passengers for the last eight minutes before the train blows up.

Inception
One of the more complex movies of recent years concerns a man, haunted by his wife’s death, who specializes in the theft of ideas from people’s minds, hired to plant an idea within someone as an act of corporate espionage.

THX-1138
Before the massive success of Star Wars, George Lucas’ first sci-fi story was about a dystopian future where people are kept docile by outlawing sex, dulling the senses with drugs, and of course an android police force.

The Matrix
Another dystopian future has Keanu Reeves as a computer hacker who learns that “reality” is nothing but a computer simulation, and that all of humanity has been enslaved and put to use as energy sources for the machines that have taken over. Good times!

Children of Men
Twenty years since the last human child was born, Clive Owen finds a pregnant woman and tried to get her to safety in the midst of a brewing war. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron, this film was a critical smash and has everyone eagerly anticipating Cuaron’s next cerebral sci-fi picture, Gravity with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.

The post Cerebral Science Fiction appeared first on Blockbuster Blog.

A Simple Plan

Despite getting Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Billy Bob Thornton), not too many people saw A Simple Plan, perhaps because it is the black sheep of director Sam Raimi’s career, being neither a horror film or a superhero-like fantasy. However, many critics often cite A Simple Plan as Raimi’s best work.

Three Minnesotan friends stumble upon a crashed plane that has $4 million cash in it.  They hatch a plan to take the money, but leave the plane buried in snow to be found later in the spring.  As time goes by, and the feds show up asking questions around town, temptation and mistrust sets in, showcasing the inner workings of man’s heart and how greed and selfishness can turn one against even his most trusted friends and family.  This tense thriller is not to be missed.

Simon Birch

Based on the novel A Prayer for Owen Meany, Simon Birch tells the story of two young boys, one afflicted with dwarfism, whose friendship in the 1960s forever impacts them both. Told in a narrating style akin to The Wonder Years, we’re shown how important a true friendship really is when life isn’t fair and takes us through the ringer.

Simon Birch is a bit of tear-jerker, but takes viewers on a great coming-of-age tale that won’t fail to leave its mark on your heart.  It stars Jim Carrey, Ashley Judd, Oliver Platt, and the young boy from Jurassic Park.

Pi

1998’s Pi film is a psychological thriller from Darren Aronofsky that won a Directing award at Sundance.  In
Pi, we follow number theorist, Max, as he begins to dive into a world of mathematical predictions and paranoia once his computer makes a strikingly accurate stock prediction using a 216-digit number and some seedy Wall Street types find out about it.

Max begins to fear for his life as dangerous people approach him as he frantically works to understand the significance of the number before it’s too late.

Almost Heroes

The last movie that the late, great Chris Farley filmed before his death, Almost Heroes, is a comedy also starring Matthew Perry, as rival explorers to Lewis and Clark, trying to beat the famous duo in exploring the American west and reaching the Pacific Ocean.

While Perry may not be the sidekick that David Spade is to Chris Farley, Almost Heroes never tries to take itself very seriously, making for a fun period-piece comedy based on the classic “odd couple” formula that delivers a number of memorable lines and ridiculous antics.

Fallen

Not many Denzel Washington movies go under the radar, but this is one of them.  Fallen (not to be confused with the upcoming young adult book adaption) has Denzel portraying Detective John Hobbes who gains fame for capturing and lawfully executing a deranged serial killer.

However, after his death, a string of copycat murders occur that lead Hobbes to a game of cat and mouse with the real mastermind behind all the murders, including the ones committed by the killer that he had executed.  John Goodman and Donald Sutherland have supporting roles in this supernatural thriller that has everyone double-guessing who is really who while trying to figure out the truth behind the mysterious killer.

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