That’s right boys and girls, we now live in a world where the above film does more business than this:

NEW MOON has officially taken down THE DARK KNIGHT as the biggest opening day in the history of cinema. $72.2 million is the new mark to beat, which is up from the previous $67.2 million set just last year. I guess that gives the third installment of the Christopher Nolan directed franchise something to aim for.

AMPAS announced late Friday afternoon that 10 animated short films will move on to the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards. Thirty-seven pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:

• “The Cat Piano,” Eddie White and Ari Gibson, directors (The People’s Republic of Animation)
•  “French Roast,” Fabrice O. Joubert, director (Pumpkin Factory/Bibo Films)
• “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty,” Nicky Phelan, director, and Darragh O’Connell, producer (Brown Bag Films)
• “The Kinematograph,” Tomek Baginski, director-producer (Platige Image)
• “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte),” Javier Recio Gracia, director (Kandor Graphics and Green Moon)
• “Logorama,” Nicolas Schmerkin, producer (Autour de Minuit)
• “A Matter of Loaf and Death,” Nick Park, director (Aardman Animations Ltd.)
• “Partly Cloudy,” Peter Sohn, director (Pixar Animation Studios)
• “Runaway,” Cordell Barker, director (National Film Board of Canada)
• “Variete,” Roelof van den Bergh, director (il Luster Productions)

The Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting in screenings held in New York and Los Angeles.

Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco in January 2010.

4-time Oscar winner, director/creator Nick Park, provides a look at his animated short in this 20 minute, making-of WALLACE AND GROMIT: A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH. Even though it premiered on BBC One on Christmas in 2008, Park missed the October 1st deadline that year thus making W & G eligible for the upcoming Academy Awards in March.

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Source: Oscars.org

Here’s a sampling of some of the other animated shorts in the running for the Oscar.

Nicolas Cage is getting his witch on, in more ways than a few.  With the new trailer for SEASON OF THE WITCH, Cage sports a new hair-style (no shocker there), and wields a mighty sword (shock included).  It’s also pretty sweet seeing Ron Perlman continuing his trek through these badass genres.

You can check out the trailer over at Fandango, where they have it for viewing in glorious HD.  It’s somewhat of a standard offering for this type of film, lots of gloomy music, quick edits, and sword slashing from wall to wall.  This movie looks and feels like it’s going to be along those same lines as THE 13TH WARRIOR, a film that I, actually, dig quite a lot.

Directed by Dominic Sena, who has brought us the atrocious GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS and the even more appalling WHITEOUT, SEASON OF THE WITCH looks like it mighty satisfy some horror fans’ cravings for some epic period fare.  Never mind that this thing looks one Nicolas Cage short of debuting on SyFy.  I’m still mighty intrigued by it all.

Run, don’t walk, over to Fandango to check out the trailer right now.  SEASON OF THE WITCH hits theaters on March 19th, 2010.

As if there was any doubt that this would happen, its now official; THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON is now the highest grossing midnight showing of all time. The previous record was held by this guy:

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE took the record from THE DARK KNIGHT with $22.2 million over the summer. After taking the pot with its $26.3 million NEW MOON is now settings its sights on the next record of $67.2 million in one day, which is currently held by THE DARK KNIGHT. I dont know who we are all kidding, this record is as good as broken with the swarm of fans young and old going out to see it tonight. We will update you tomorrow and let you know its status.

Mandi and Kristina saw the movie, without their guys, and offered up their opinions.

Mandi writes: We got to the theater early because we didn’t want to risk not getting a seat. (Getting a good seat was a nice reward for being there 2 hours early.) We were 5th in line and everyone was very nice and reading magazines all about NEW MOON, or had the books themselves that they were reading. We chatted with several people and everyone was excited. Security was very high, which kind of heightened the excitement for everyone.

Once we got into the theater (about 30 minutes before start of the show) you could feel the excitement build. There were lots of young ladies there, but there were several sets of guys there as well, besides the ones that were drug there by wives and daughters! As the lights started to dim, everyone cheered and you could hear the little giggles from everyone with anticipation. (I know that all the giggling didn’t come just from me!) We were afraid that there would be lots of noise and swooning but were very surprised by the lack of it. There were several whistles and hoots when first looks of the new and improved Jacob took his shirt off, but that died down quickly and we went on with the movie.

Overall, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON was great! So much better then TWILIGHT that there really is no comparison! Where TWILIGHT kind of felt disjointed and there was no chemistry at all between any of the characters, NEW MOON just rocked with that kind of lusty feeling that you wanted Jacob to have for Bella. My friends and I have talked a lot about why TWILIGHT was just not the movie it should have been and now having seen NEW MOON, which had the same screenwriter and the same actors, the only thing we could come up with is the difference in directors.

Chris Weitz did an amazing job making the movie stick to the book. I could count only a few places that diverge from the book. These didn’t feel out of place at all. It was like you could see this having happened in the book as you read it. Making a movie based off of a first person narrated book must be very difficult. The Alice e-mails were a great way to put you into that feeling you got when you read the book. You got to hear her thoughts just like you were reading and it was much easier to feel her pain and heartache.

The wolf transformation was wonderful! Not cheesy or overly CG at all. You could almost feel the ground shake when they all transformed. At times, they were even kind of scary. They fit in perfectly with the surrounding area and they never looked out of place in all the nature shots. They were pretty much exactly like what was described in the book and the way I pictured them in my head. Jacob (Taylor Lautner) did a wonderful job. He played his part well enough to “almost” make me change from Team Edward to Team Jacob, at least for the movies!

If there was one bad part of the movie I would say it would be all the close-up face shots all the time. I got kind of tired of having to literally look back and forth on the screen in order to see both people on it. That could have been because we were sitting pretty close to the front of the theater and we were in the MegaPlex. It also made me feel kind of like we were intruding, instead of just watching.

Overall, I thought this was a win-win for everyone. It was a pretty good stand alone movie, it way out-shined the first movie so, as a sequel it was tremendous, and as for following the book, it did great!

Kristina writes: So, after waiting for months and months, I’m finally sitting in line to see the preview of THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON. I have arrived two hours in advance to ensure a good seat in the theater (we were fifth in line) and I am glad I have come prepared with popcorn, candy, and a wonderful friend to chat with. Minutes pass and a few more people wander into the line. It wasn’t until about an hour before the show when the mass crowds started to show up. Even though I felt a little old as well as tall, it was nice to know that I share the same affection for The Twilight Saga with so many different people. Just minutes before letting our line into the theater, the sound in the lobby was deafening by all the excited fans. Once in the theater, we were impressed by the selection of seats available (all made possible by getting there two hours early). Once the lights came down, I was so giddy with excitement that I could hardly stand it!

The NEW MOON movie definitely passed my expectations. As a die hard fan of the books, I was worried at first that the movie would be dull and drag on. I was also worried that as someone who is “Team Edward”, the movie would be lacking with the absence of one of the main characters. Director Chris Weitz did a wonderful job of incorporating Edward as an image in Bella’s head when she would come across danger. However, as much as “Team Edward” I might be, I couldn’t explain the excitement I had once Edward had left Bella. Most of “Team Edward” can’t stand reading this portion of the book but I was ready to see Jacob as well as the rest of the wolf pack. The actors did an amazing job buffing up for their roles. Even the CG of the wolf transformations was astounding and in some portions of the movie, the wolves are almost scary! The movie ended with a “cliffhanger” (unless you’ve read the books) and I’m sure the next seven months until ECLIPSE will seem like forever!

As for the actors, I felt that the chemistry between Bella and Edward was a little lacking, even before the big birthday scene. I know there is a huge struggle within Edward between loving Bella and protecting her, but I was just hoping for a little more emotion from Edward. Once Edward left, I was able to feel Bella’s heartache. As for Bella’s growing relationship with Jacob, that could not have been hotter! The chemistry between Bella and Jacob was exhilarating and did a great job of swaying me to “Team Jacob” for the majority of the film.

So, I have asked myself… with both Twilight and New Moon being wonderful books, what makes the NEW MOON movie so much better than TWILIGHT? My only answer is the director. Twilight is a wonderful story, but unfortunately I don’t think Catherine Hardwicke knew what she was getting into and missed a lot of opportunities to get creative with the film. In my mind, Chris Weitz has redeemed The Twilight Saga. By sticking well to the book but also enhancing some things, I believe he has made his fans (at least this one!) very happy. Now I believe the pressure is on for David Slade and Eclipse. Only seven more months!

Heart-wrenching and bold, hopeful and difficult, shocking and sweet, PRECIOUS is the kind of film that may be hard for people to watch.  A depiction of the harsh realities that has befallen so many teenagers who have lived and who continue to live in poverty, the film is both a triumph and a tribute to their strength and the strength of those who would reach down from the outside and pull them towards the edge of the cesspool.  It is aided by a fantastic sense of style by director Lee Daniels, an unflinching screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher (based on the equally unflinching novel PUSH by Sapphire), and a cast that, through and through, is simply flawless.

The title character, played by Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe, is a 16-year-old junior high student.  Illiterate and overweight, she pushes herself through her day, dealing with the kids who make fun of her on the street and going home to a physically, emotionally, and psychologically abusive mother.  Precious (full name Clareece Precious Jones) is also pregnant with her second child.  Understanding the hardships she must endure outside of the classroom, the principal of Precious’ school enrolls her into the Each One Teach One program.  Hoping to make a better life for herself, Precious goes, and, there, she meets those who would help her do just that.

Sadly, PRECIOUS is the kind of film that not everyone has a desire to sit through.  The pain that this young girl endures through the course of two hours is difficult to watch, and those seeking feature length escapism should look elsewhere.  Precious is beaten, verbally berated nonstop, and even raped by her own father, the source of both of her children.  I did say sadly, though, because there is a light at the end of PRECIOUS’ dark tunnel that is both brilliant and heartening.  Everyone involved in the creation of this film understand its sense of hope and the emotional charge that comes from the moment here and there where we actually see Precious happy.  It’s a jolt seeing this young girl whose life is full of so much pain and endless hate towards her actually smile now and again.  When she breaks down late in the film to her literacy teacher, played wonderfully by Paula Patton, about not feeling love from the world, you understand why, and you weep for her.

Precious is a girl who dream of a better life, who transfers her mind elsewhere when the hardest aspects of her life are trying to interfere.  She dreams of being a movie star.  She dreams of a young boy on a motorcycle coming to pick her up, a character listed as Tom Cruise, though I’m sure there is more to that played out in the novel.  At one moment, a scene of sheer brilliance, she imagines herself and her spiteful mother in the middle of Vittorio De Sica’s 1960 epic war drama, TWO WOMEN.  Never mind that that film is full of hardships for its central characters.  The two women in that film, mother and daughter, love one another deeply.  That, to Precious, is fantasy enough.

These dream sequences are just part of Lee Daniels breathtaking sense of scene crafting.  He captures the late ’80s era the film is set in with glimpses of THE $100,000 PYRAMID and people talking about the bullshit found in a film like BARFLY.  His camera, helped along by cinematographer Andrew Dunn, captures both pain and beauty with equal efficacy and power. Even more than that, Daniels has a way with his actors, pulling the very best from them and making it all seem so effortless.

To begin with, Sidibe is amazing as Precious.  Sidibe has stated that, with her performance in this film, she hopes to bring inspiration, hoping it will help them change their outlook on life or to even help other make the task.  With the performance she gives here, she does absolutely that.  You would never guess this is her first film.  Instead, you would think she was a battered and hurt, young girl who Daniels thrust in front of the camera.  She captures Precious’ pain, but, even more so, she captures her beauty and her hope.

The rest of the cast is equally as moving.  All the girls who play the other girls at Each One Teach One bring vivacity and warmth to their characters.  Lenny Kravitz and Mariah Carey show up in near-complete camouflage (actually, their lack of makeup and hair styles would made it a lack of camouflage, but the results are the same).

There is one performance here, however, that goes even beyond that of Sidibe’s.  Mo’Nique, mostly known for ridiculous comedies and flashy cameos in films like DOMINO and BEERFEST (sorry, those are the only two films she appears in that I’ve seen until now), brings out so much vinegar and evil through her character, that you truly begin to hate this woman.  She beats her child, uses her mentally disabled grandchild for her own gain, and sits by while her daughter is raped, and, with that, this character would have been hated enough.  Mo’Nique gives us and understanding of the character, almost forces it upon us with her monologue delivery and insipid rantings towards her daughter.  The character is evil, long since committing acts (some that we don’t even see) that causes irreparable damage to any hope we may have of her turning back.  That is the character on the page.  The performance Mo’Nique gives brings the character to brutal life, and it is, without a doubt, one of the best performances you will see all year.

It is a hard thing recommending a film like PRECIOUS to people, telling them that it is a fabulous film filled with emotionally painful scenes to watch.  It is a harsh reality film, one that depicts life just as it is for so many.  There is pain.  There is adversity.  But, deep down, underneath the most heartbreaking moments, there is hope.  Sapphire captured this feeling in his pages, and everything and everyone involved in PRECIOUS does an equally outstanding job of capturing that on film.

Coop: Let’s get one thing out of the way here, although it may be obvious considering my genitalia: I am in no way, shape or form a TWILIGHT fan. I have not read any of the books, nor did I dare watch the first film. All I know is the general concept and the fact that Robert Pattinson’s head is freaking huge.

Leah: Hey! I know some male TWILIGHT fans; don’t be such a hater. As for myself, I’m on Team Edward and have been from the start! Sure, R Patz has a huge head but his chiseled abs and sparkly skin make up for it.  NEW MOON was absolutely true to the book in every way, shape and form. That said, I hated the book when I read it. The movie perfectly encompassed Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) pining over Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), looking for any outlet to fill the void he suddenly leaves in her life. That’s all it was, to be blunt. Bella whining for 2 hours out of the 2.5 hour running time.

Coop: We’re talking about the second book/movie. NEW MOON. Correct?

Leah: Correct.

Coop: Then maybe you can elaborate on something for me, which I heard grumblings about after the first film’s release. Does anything actually happen in the novel? Because Chris Weitz’s film is loaded with such an unbearable sense of inertia it never goes anywhere. I could be referring to the endless slo-mo shots of Cullen that pepper the film, but really the whole thing feels that way: drowning, or at least, barely treading water.

Leah: The fact that Edward leaves Bella, his “one true love,” is the main conflict in NEW MOON. They were supposed to be the couple to stand the test of time, but after a bloody mishap, he hits the road. So, Bella is left to fend for herself and naturally, she goes to her best friend for help: Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) and his pack of warm-blooded mutts. The werewolf stuff is supposed to be the big shocker in NEW MOON. But that’s no surprise if you A) read the book or B) saw the trailer. By the time we adjust to the fact that “vegetarian” vampires are running around trying to save the inhabitants of Forks, WA from the regular vampires we are then thrown a curve-ball … there are more monstrous creatures that have only been spoken of as folklore! It’s high school drama at it’s best.

Coop: They should have hired you on their marketing team. I will say that I didn’t despise the film for everything it’s worth, but it’s just sort of there. And I didn’t dislike it for the reasons I thought I would, either. Robert Pattinson was fine. And after watching Kristen Stewart in ADVENTURELAND, I got myself into a mindset of acknowledging her as a decently talented performer — I love that film. The problem here really isn’t hers, it’s just that she’s given nothing to do throughout the film. Her character is a hollow shell to be filled with the lonely desires of preteen girls. Which isn’t inherently a bad concept, because escapism is totally fine. But this isn’t truly escapism: the screenplay leaves Bella to sit in a chair and rot away once her stoic lover leaves her side. The message here is awful. The downfall of the film is in the screenplay, along with Taylor Lautner, whose level of acting is flat as a pancake.

Leah: As a faithful member of Team Edward, I have to say that I despised how much Jacob was on the screen. It’s not just the fact that he can’t act, it’s that he can’t do anything. He can’t even stand there without looking like a lost puppy. In the book, Jacob is supposed to be strong, handsome, and captivating. In the film, he fell short and came off as a lonely, misguided teeny-bopper. I know you’re a fan of Ms. Stewart, but I don’t think the role of Bella is the issue. I think she’s been type-casted as the awkward little plain Jane who somehow always seems to get boys to fall in love with her despite being so painfully ordinary. Don’t get me wrong, she does a great job at being exactly that! But I have to agree with you entirely on the escapism front. Stephanie Meyer only manages to convince the pre-teen-girl audience that without a boyfriend, you might as well just sit in your room for months on end, watching the seasons change.

Coop: Don’t get me wrong, there are redeeming aspects to an otherwise flat film. Michael Sheen from FROST/NIXON runs circles around everyone else onscreen in his brief appearance, while Edward’s sister Alice (Ashley Greene) is cute as a button. And despite looking fairly made-for-TV, there’s one sequence scored to great Thom Yorke vocals that’s pretty visually superb. In the end, though, it doesn’t matter what we say — the fans will devour it, just as I blindly devoured STAR WARS EPISODE III years ago. Everyone is allowed their franchise. What’s your final verdict, as more of a fan?

Leah: I couldn’t have said it better myself. Everyone is going to see this movie. All of the helplessly devoted fans that read the books are currently in line waiting for the midnight release to start. Their friends, who may not have read the books or seen the first film will go anyway just to see Edward and Jacob without their shirts on. Boyfriends will be dragged to the theaters, and it will certainly be at the top of the box office this weekend without a doubt. All in all, I’d say it’s definitely worth checking out. I give it a solid 6/10.

Coop: 4/10 for me. Not worthy of being average, but not offensive enough to drive me up a wall.

THE BLIND SIDE is not a football movie. THE BLIND SIDE is a movie about what it means to be a family. It’s a about how families don’t always fit into nice, neat little molds and that a family can consist of any number of arrangements. It just so happens those arrangements can include a football team as well as an unlikely family that takes another human being into their care, regardless of social taboo. This is the story of Michael Oher.

Michael Oher, played by Quinton Aaron (BE KIND REWIND), is a man of few words, so I will begin by using a single word to describe THE BLIND SIDE… inspiring. THE BLIND SIDE is based on a true story, directed by John Lee Hancock (THE ROOKIE, THE ALAMO) who also adapted the story for the screen from Michael Lewis’ book “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game.” Michael is a large young man, earning him the nick name Big Mike. Michael grew up in an extremely under-privileged and dangerous part of Memphis known as Hurt Village. He was removed from his drug-addicted mother at an early age and spent most of his childhood in and out of foster homes.

As compelling and heart-wrenching as Michael’s past sounds, this is all back story. After barely getting accepted into a fancy private Christian school with the help of a friends’ father, Michael finds that he is ill-equipped for learning in the traditional sense. As he struggles to adapt, he is noticed at first by a school teacher who pushes the staff to adapt to his needs. In the process, Michael meets the Touhy family through SJ Touhy (Jae Head), a tiny boy who quickly befriends Michael.

Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock) and her husband Sean (Tim McGraw) put Michael up for the night after finding him out in the cold rain with nowhere to go. What the Touhy’s never expected was that this one night of spontaneous compassion would ultimately result in a lasting relationship that would change both Michael’s and the Touhy family’s lives forever. From day one, Leigh Anne is drawn to Michael in a motherly way. Michael is a soft-spoken young man with a good heart and athletic potential, fitting right in with a family of football fans. One thing leads to another and before long Michael is playing football on the school team.

Of all the things THE BLIND SIDE may or may not be, it is a satisfying film that lends itself to a greater purpose, but does so without much preaching. Perhaps the only real criticism I can offer is that, while Michael did clearly come from a bad place, I was slightly turned off by the film’s almost entirely negative portrayal of Michael’s roots in Memphis. The one exception is a fairly sincere and well-played, although brief, performance from Adriane Lenox (MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS) as Michael birth mother.

For what it’s worth, THE BLIND SIDE features what I consider Sandra Bullock’s best performance since her role in CRASH. For what it’s worth, that says a lot coming from me. Bullock’s performance is heart-felt and a bit thicker than normal, showing that she continues to take steps in the right direction toward broadening her range as an actress. On the flip side, the audience will find the same thing they always find from Kathy Bates, who appears in a very small role as Michael’s tutor… excellence!

For the football fans, several high-profile college coaches appear as themselves after Michael becomes a hot commodity within the frenzy that is attracting the best of the best into college football. While their are scenes of Michael learning to play football and eventually excelling at it, THE BLIND SIDE appropriately does not focus on this. Instead, the movie spends time illustrating the effect that the Touhy family has on Michael’s life and in turn, the effect Michael has on them, especially on Leigh Anne.

The most powerful moment of THE BLIND SIDE is at the end as the credits begin to roll. No. Not because the movie is over, but because of the photo montage of the real-life Michael Oher, which sets in concrete the notion that THE BLIND SIDE is based on a true story about a real person and a real family. THE BLIND SIDE is funny, endearing and even a little sad at times, but more importantly is a wonderful reminder that there are still people in the world that do good for goodness’ sake.

THE BLIND SIDE will entertain audiences, but hopefully the movie will also inspire audiences. In the current economic climate and state of global affairs, it’s a perfect time of year for an inspirational film. And, it’s not even a “holiday” movie. No. THE BLIND SIDE is not the little film that could change the world, but it could be the little film that inspires someone in the audience to go out and make an effort to change someone else’s life for the better… and that’s enough for me.

If there’s one movie I’ve seen this year that has started with a great premise but has suffered from a failed execution, it would have to be THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN. Written by Thomas L. Carmody and directed by Kevin Willmott (CSA: The Confederate States of America), this fictional pseudo-western tells the tale of a teen-aged Native American boy with the given white man name of Charlie (played by Winter Fox Frank).

Taking place in Kansas during the early 1900’s, the movie follows Charlie’s story, one of many Native American youths that were forcibly removed from their homes and placed into re-education schools that feel more like prison camps. Students are scolded, or even beaten into submission, and punished for speaking their native tongues. These scenes of the school master and the teacher forcing their ways onto these young Native Americans with the idea they are benefiting them are difficult to watch, but illustrate an unfortunate and unspoken chapter in our country’s history.

Seen by the white men as worthless savages, the school attempts to teach the Native American youths their “civilized” ways, how to dress, how to speak, how to live their lives and worship their God. Charlie wants none of this. He resists where his peers have all but given in and submitted to what they feel is a losing battle. In retaliation, Charlie escapes the school, only to be tracked down and captured by Sam Franklin (Wes Studi), a Native American man who has bought fully into the idea of being like the white man.

Sam is a self-made private investigator with hopes of becoming Pinkerton Agency’s first Native American detective. He holds Charlie and proceeds to deliver him for a bounty, lecturing Charlie the whole time about how his insistence on maintaining his indian ways is an outdated and hopeless battle. Sam is proud of his perceived status and acquired material goods, which includes a motor bike and outfit purchased from Lord & Taylors in Kansas City.

During Sam and Charlie’s journey, they end up teaching each other valuable lessons. This relationship between Sam and Charlie is the best part of THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN, developing naturally and with a tangible sense of honesty. After a deadly encounter with three white bounty hunters, Sam and Charlie find themselves being hunted by Sheriff Henry McCoy, a legend amidst white folk for his alleged heroism in battles against the Native Americans.

McCoy (J. Kenneth Campbell) is a tough-as-nails, cold-hearted man with a deeply-ingrained hatred for the Native American man. He repeatedly points out that his entire life has been devoted to killing the indians, but finds himself even more disgusted by the re-education schools, sending McCoy into a crazed and delusional internal struggle over his actions in life. Campbell’s performance is forced and unrefined, but the essence of his character is delivered well enough for the message to be received loud and clear.

THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN ultimately becomes as much a tale of redemption for Sam as it is a powerful story of historical events neglected by our history books, told through Charlie’s experience. Winter Fox Frank gives a promising debut performance as Charlie. While this film carries a powerful message and a great story, the overall pace of the film is slow and tedious. The impact of the story is lessened by the various flaws from certain performances and inadequacies in production, but if the audience can stay awake for the 114-minute running time they’ll find THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN to be a movie worth the effort, despite it’s flaws.

THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN will screen at the Tivoli on Friday, November 20th at 7:00pm during the 18th Annual Whitaker Saint Louis International Film Festival.

Review originally posted on June 15th, 2009 during the CineVegas Film Festival.

I suppose every human being has had something in their lives to instill guilt, ranging greatly over a vast spectrum of severity. Such severity often determines the depth and duration of one’s guilt. Having stolen a piece of candy as a child would naturally be short-lived while causing another person permanent damage would likely weigh much heavier on that person’s conscience. Having been the cause of something to die is clearly amongst the worst guilt a person could endure. Imagine for a moment that you have taken a life, but to what or whom that life belonged you are not certain.

This is the experience the audience is engaged in with ‘The Headless Woman’ (La mujer sin cabeza). This Argentinian film was written and directed by Lucrecia Martel and stars Maria Onetta as Veronica, a middle-aged woman affectionately known to her family and friends as Vero. Driving home by herself, she hits something in the road. Vero believes she heard a dog yelp, but finds herself terribly frightened of what she might find if she were to return to the scene. Vero, clearly disturbed by what has happened, chooses to continue home rather than reveal the truth to herself.

The opening scenes of ‘The Headless Woman’ introduces the audience to Vero’s questionable psychological state of mind, but takes some time to reveal the underlying cause of her distress. We witness the accident very early on, but at first it seems to be the result of some deeper root cause for her mental state. At first, I found myself wondering if Vero was suffering some early onset stage of Alzheimer’s, but this misdirection eventually passed. Vero’s actions and her frequency to appear oblivious to the world and events around her present an interesting element of mystery to her character.

Vero is a member of a good-sized family of class who care for her, but mostly dismiss her concern and continually reinforce the insignificance of what occurred and attempt to prove it was merely a dog. For Vero, the experience is not that simple to cut herself loose of and finds she is alone in carrying this burden. She finds herself surrounded by children, constantly reminded of the possibility of what she might have done. Once Vero does finally break down and cry for the first time, she does so with a complete stranger.

One of the most intriguing aspects of ‘The Headless Woman’ is Martel’s use of space. The framing and staging of the film emphasizes Vero’s sense of uneasy solitude, forced to deal with the unknown reality of her own actions despite having people around her at all times. During her interactions with others, Vero rarely faces the others and stands removed from the action, but always remains in the foreground. This, combined with a masterful use of racked focus and Vero’s lack of eye contact with others, creates an effect of separating Vero from the rest of the world and allows us a front row seat to her inner conflict of emotions.

The concept of ‘The Headless Woman’ is great, taking something as philosophically complex as guilt and translating it visually on screen, but suffers from an otherwise tedious lack of substance outside of Vero’s mind. The film tends to get bogged down in it’s own pace and can become a bit draining at times. However, this is not entirely a fault to the overall effect the film is intended to have on the viewer. A turn of events is revealed in the final third of the film that presents the opportunity for interpretation of Vero’s feeling of guilt.

In the end, Vero dyes her hair from blonde to black, as if to reinvent herself in an attempt to start over and perhaps even redeem herself for what may have happened. Throughout the film, Vero shuffles between wearing two masks. One false mask of relative peace is for her family and friends while the other mask of sadness is her true face.’The Headless Woman’ is a study of the human psyche, a glimpse inside the rugged terrain of guilt and uncertainty that requires more than casual viewing, but isn’t mired in complicated plot devices.

THE HEADLESS WOMAN will screen at the Hi-Pointe on Sunday, November 22nd at 1:00pm during the 18th Annual Whitaker Saint Louis International Film Festival.

Okay, brace yourselves.  We’ve got a little treat for all you members of Team Edward out there.  The trailer for REMEMBER ME, the new drama starring Robert Pattinson, was released today.  Despite the presence of Pierce Brosnan and Chris Cooper, the movie looks hokey as hell.  With Pattinson front and center, it really feels like an actor trying his hardest not to get pigeon-holed.  In that, it feels a lot like LIFE AS A HOUSE, DECEMBER BOYS, or CHERRYBOMB, a film I’m convinced is never going to see the light of day.

But, it stars Pattinson, who’s got some kind of fan-based from this whole TWILIGHT thing, so here you go.  Enjoy:

Remember Me in HD

Trailer Park | MySpace Video

REMEMBER ME hits theaters on March 12th, 2010.

We reported back in August that WENDIGO and THE LAST WINTER director, Larry Fessenden, had signed on to direct the American remake of THE ORPHANAGE.  Today comes word from Arrow in the Head that Fessenden is officially off the project.  Fessenden is currently producing the vampire flick STAKE LAND, and Arrow in the Head, who was on set, spoke with the producer about his on-then-off involvement on the film.

THE ORPHANAGE was two years of waiting. Working on the script with Guillermo was a very exciting experience, but then I got into a casting miasma and that’s where the thing is; I think they’re gonna do it another way, actually. So I think I’m out of it. Hopefully they’ll still use my script, but I’m not sure I’m directing it anymore. That’s Hollywood for ya.

He sounds a little unsure in that quote, but, it’s probably a done deal if he’s opening up to the press about it.  Fessenden even went on to talk about how this waning relationship with Hollywood filmmaking has left him somewhat jaded to return to it any time soon.

Whether Fessenden is on board or not, it is pretty evident that a remake to THE ORPHANAGE is going to get done.  Hopefully, with Del Toro’s involvement, that, at the very least, means it is going to be more than just your run-of-the-mill, Hollywood retread.

If nothing else, this may open Fessenden up to making another Wendigo movie.  It’s been a few years, and he might want to get back into bed with that subject matter.

The final season has arrived. LOST fans rejoice. I love LOST as much as the next guy, and I am really hoping that everything will come full circle (or pretty close to) when the season premieres this year. The official date has been announced by ABC today that the special “all night event” will be on February 2nd 2010. The evening will start off with an hour long review of season’s past and then end with the 2-hour season premiere at 9:00PM ET.

The series will then commence to its normal time from 9:00-10:00pm ET the following week!

I can’t wait! Anyone have a theory worked out yet for the ending?

Brad Pitt’s Plan B is doing all it can to win over the fan boys.  First, it picked up the rights to Max Brooks’ WORLD WAR Z covering the zombie world.  Now, according to Risky Business, the company, along with Indian giant Reliance BIG Entertainment, is going to take on the alien world, as it has attained the feature film rights to Capcom’s third person shooter, DARK VOID.  The film is being developed as a possible starring vehicle for Pitt.

The video game centers on a cargo pilot who is transported to an alternate reality after crashing in the Bermuda Triangle.  He soon finds himself behind hunted by an alien race.  Along with a small band of humans, he tries to fend off the alien threat with a cavalcade of weapons and things that go boom.

Risky Biz projects that, should the film become finalized, it could end up at DreamWorks’ feet due to the financing pact the studio has with Reliance.  The video game is due out in January.

Says Capcom senior vp licensing Germaine Gioia on the game’s opportunities in the film world:

As a game, DARK VOID was developed with a wide-screen mentality – a world full of adventure presented in cinematic scope and scale.

The Spierig Brothers’ debut film, UNDEAD, was funny, quirky, and violent all the way up until it got completely ridiculous and nearly unwatchable.  If early word from Fantasic Fest is any indication, their follow-up film, DAYBREAKERS, is head and shoulders above that first effort.  The trailer (which seems to be playing in front of EVERYTHING now) is one of the better trailers of the year and gets you excited to see if the film can live up to it.

Today, courtesy of Empire Online, we have the UK Quad poster you see above.  It features a quote from Variety claiming the film to be THE MATRIX meets 28 DAYS LATER…, two films that never crossed my mind while reading about or seeing items about DAYBREAKERS.  Gotta love any poster that features Willem Dafoe brandishing a crossbow.

We also bring you today the first TV spot from the film that plays like a pseudo-PSA.

Check it out:

DAYBREAKERS hits theaters on January 8th, 2010.

Left 4 Dead 2
Xbox 360 & PC
Developer: Valve
Publisher: EA
ESRB Rating: M For Mature
Price: Xbox 360 – $59.99 PC – $49.99

Valve shocked and surprised the world when they announced at this years E3 that they would be releasing Left 4 Dead 2 just a year after releasing the first game. No one knew this was coming and honestly Valve did an amazing job at keeping this under the radar of everyone. So how does a game that was in-production for only a year, if that, match up to it’s predecessor that was an instant hit and Game of the Year contender?

Pros

I’m So Pretty, O So Pretty – You can tell that valve made some improvements to their Source engine. Left 4 Dead 2 is a better looking game then its predecessor. Everything about it just looks better from the zombies, special infected, and levels. The updates also let the source engine do so much more. From the fire in the hotel to being in the middle of a hurricane in Louisiana *cough*Katrina*cough. There we some parts of the game where you really need to concentrate on what is going on around you because you will only have the light from your flashlight to guide you.

It’s A Home Run! – Left 4 Dead 2 brings the inclusion of melee weapons into the Left 4 Dead universe. Now instead of running around and pistol whipping zombies you can bash their brains in with an assortment of goodies. Baseball Bat, Crowbar, Electric Guitar, Katana, and a Chain saw are just some of the melee weapons included in the game. Now you really don’t have to worry about inflicting friendly fire onto your teammates because you are to busy running around with a katana slicing off zombies heads.

I’ll Have A Holy Bartender – More guns and more fire power are always a good thing when fighting off the on coming zombie apocalypse. Now you can Rambo your way through the on coming hordes of zombies with an AK-47, Combat Rifle, Grenade Launcher, and Incendiary & Explosive Ammo. But wait there’s more because now you can throw a Bile bomb (Boomer throw up) on zombies and they will attack each other.

Say Hello To My Little Special Friends – You know what they always say the more the merrier right? Well now we have three new special infected to welcome to the family. The Spitter, Charger, and Jockey will make you want to stick together with your team because wondering off can have deadly consequences. They also add a little more flavor to playing online because you aren’t going through three special infected over and over again.

I’m A Scavenger – The first Left 4 Dead featured a regular versus mode and then survival for it’s online multiplayer modes. Both of those game types challenged you as a player and team. Now Left 4 Dead 2 brings the introduction of Scavenge. Players go through three rounds with a time limit as they try to fill a generator with 16 gas cans. Each can you successfully pour into the generator your time is extend.

Cons

Lag You’re It – I don’t know if it’s an internal thing with Valves servers or something within the game, but there is a TON of lag while trying to play online. This doesn’t help when you are trying to run away from an on-coming zombie horde or playing as zombie trying to take out a survivor that got left behind. Getting hit with serious lag can make or break you winning a match or completing a campaign with your friends.

Same Old Problem, Same Old Game – Just like in the first game if a zombie hits you in your back as you are running it stops you completely. I’m sorry, but if I am going forward and someone punches me in the back I am not going to stop running to see what’s going on. No I am going to run even harder or it will give me a little added push.

Overall, Left 4 Dead 2 is everything I thought it would be. It does the first game justice and expands on the story. The inclusion of new weapons, melee weapons, special infected, and multiplayer modes will keep you coming back to this game until Valve surprises the world again and announces Left 4 Dead 3 at this years E3 (Not true). If you loved or enjoyed the first game then you will love or enjoy this one. Valve knows what they are doing and has never let me down with their decisions or directions they take their games. Even with it’s little problems Left 4 Dead 2 is definitely a buy because you never know when you might need a little trying in surviving the on-coming zombie apocalypse.

Hopefully we will learn how this mysterious outbreak happened or if both groups of survivors will ever meet and have to work together to survive again?

4 out of 5 stars

Throughout her 50-year career, renaissance blonde Connie Stevens has been a popular star of movies and TV as well as a recording artist and founder of a hugely successful cosmetics empire. Now with the new film SAVING GRACE B. JONES, Ms Stevens can add movie director and screenwriter to her list of accomplishments. But I’ll always remember Ms Stevens fondly for a movie she starred in in the mid 70’s. It may not be her proudest moment but the 1976 movie SCORCHY is an entertaining action-adventure in which Connie starred as a sexy undercover drug agent who will stop at nothing to break up a violent narcotics-smuggling ring. SCORCHY was a fun, if not particularly good, movie aimed squarely at drive-in audiences who like their action spiced with a touch of sexploitation but SCORCHY is NOT currently available on DVD.

In SCORCHY Connie Stevens plays Sgt. Jackie Parker (I have no idea why this movie is called SCORCHY. No one is named that and the word is never uttered, but strangely it fits) whose latest case involves a gang of international heroin smugglers who are transporting their goods through antiques purchased abroad by unsuspecting tourists. Jackie pursues the villains to Rome and then back to Seattle, where most of the action takes place. About halfway through, exposition ends and SCORCHY becomes one long series of extended chase scenes and shootouts across Seattle involving Jackie, the two major villains (Cesare Donova and William Smith), a briefcase full of money, a briefcase full of drugs, taxis, motorcycles, and dune buggies.

SCORCHY is far from a great film. It’s script is mostly lame and it’s directed without much style by Hikmet Avedis, but it’s the only film like this that Connie Stevens starred in and it’s easy to see why she didn’t return to this type of grindhouse fare. Born Concetta Rosalie Anna Ingolia in 1938, Connie Stevens started show biz singing in a quartet that would eventually become the popular group “The Lettermen’. She began her acting career in juvenile melodramas such as YOUNG AND DANGEROUS (1957) and DRAGSTRIP RIOT (1958) before being chosen by Jerry Lewis to costar in his 1958 comedy ROCK-A-BYE BABY. This led to a role on the TV show “Hawaiian Eye” where she played flaky nightclub singer and photographer Cricket Blake opposite Robert Conrad for four years. She had some music hits, starred in more movies (including TWO ON A GULLOTINE in 1962, the subject of this column a couple of months ago) and had a hugely successful Las Vegas headlining act. Though a gorgeous curvy blonde, Ms Stevens had always cultivated a bubbly wholesome image for herself and it must have caused a stir when she starred in the R-Rated SCORCHY in 1976 (the poster’s tagline reads “She’s Killed A Man, Been Shot At, And Made Love Twice Already This Evening… And The Evening Isn’t Over Yet!”). Even though she plays Jackie Parker as sultry and foul-mouthed, she never seems quite at ease in the part. Her girlish voice is ill-suited for the role, the floppy garish 70’s outfits she wears (The closing credits reveal the costumes are from the “Pleasure Dome Boutique of Hollywood”) aren’t remotely revealing, and she never seems comfortable mouthing raunchy lines like “Two weeks in Rome and I didn’t even get laid!” SCORCHY is most famous for Connie’s two quick-glimpse topless scenes, stills from which have popped up in magazines like ‘Celebrity Skin’ for years. In one, she skinny-dips, and in the other she’s ‘undercover’ with a man who gets shot in the back with a harpoon gun! Connie Stevens never made another exploitation film and stuck mostly with TV after this, occasionally making cameos in films such as GREASE 2 (1982) and BACK TO THE BEACH (1987). Memorable as SCORCHY’s central heavy is William Smith, an imposing muscular tough guy and one of the kings of 70’s drive-in cinema. Smith is sometimes known as the ‘John Wayne of the Biker Movies’ having starred in such motorcycle classics as RUN ANGEL RUN (1969), THE LOSERS (1970), ANGELS DIE HARD (1970), and CHROME AND HOT LEATHER (1971). Smith was best known to mainstream audiences as the villain Falconetti in the groundbreaking TV miniseries “Rich Man Poor Man” in 1975 (it’s he who kills Nick Nolte at the end) and fought Clint Eastwood in ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN in 1980. Cesare Donova, who plays SCORCHY’s drug kingpin, was an Italian actor who had come to Hollywood and landed a lead in the TV series “Garrison’s Gorillas” in 1967 and is best know to younger audiences as the Mayor in ANIMAL HOUSE (1978).

As a movie-obsessed 13 and 14 years old, I used to ride my bike up to the Des Peres 4 (now 14) cinema on Saturday afternoons and ask complete strangers to buy my tickets for R-Rated movies. This is how I first saw SCORCHY (as well as CAPONE and THE DEVIL WITHIN HER among others) and that’s why it’s always had a soft spot in my heart. It was released on VHS in the mid-80’s with box art featuring a woman who looks nothing like Connie Stevens and is now a difficult movie to find. After her show-biz career fizzled and she fell on hard financial times, Connie Stevens began a lucrative new career in the infomercial game with a successful line of skin-care and make-up products in the 1990s. Connie first experimented with movie directing with A HEALING, a 1997 documentary short about nurses who served in Vietnam, and now at age 71 has written and directed her first feature, the Missouri-shot SAVING GRACE B JONES, an old-fashioned melodrama starring Tatum O’Neal as a troubled country singer reconnecting with her family following years of institutionalization. SAVING GRACE B JONES, which also stars Piper Laurie, Michael Biehn, and Penelope Ann Miller, will be screened at the St. Louis International Film Festival this Friday, November 20th at 7pm at the St. Louis Art Museum. Connie Stevens will be in attendance speaking and answering questions after the movie. I’ll be there with my SCORCHY one-sheet for her to sign and don’t be surprised if Connie gets some questions about SCORCHY!

There’s arrows.  There’s cannons.  There’s explosions.  There’s wackiness.  What more could you ask for in a remake to the Coen Brothers’ BLOOD SIMPLE.  Just going off this new trailer, you wouldn’t think it has anything to do with the 1984 original, but it’s in there.

AMAZING TALES: THREE GUNS is directed by Zhang Yimou, who brought us HERO and HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, and it looks like it offers just about everything that made those films such instant classics.

Check it out:

Yimou has stated that BLOOD SIMPLE is one of his all-time favorite films, so I have no doubt that he is going to capture the mood and underlying themes of that film with this picture.  The film will, evidently, be cut into two segments, a thriller segment and a comedic segment, with two pairs of actors playing the lead roles in each segment.

Now, if someone could just get M. Emmet Walsh to wield one of those swords, we be in business.

A release is set in China for December 11th.  Expect it to hit American theaters somewhere in the middle of 2010.

There was a period there of about three minutes where it was anyone’s guess which actor was going to break out bigger, Channing Tatum or Sam Worthington.  For anyone paying close attention, it wasn’t much of a debate.  There was just no way GI JOE was going to make a star that AVATAR couldn’t beat.  Now, as we are a month away from the release of AVATAR, and CLASH OF THE TITANS looks firmly on the horizon, it seems pretty clear cut that Worthington has won this battle.

He’s not resting on his laurels, either, as Mania is reporting that Worthington has signed on to star in an adaptation of the upcoming comic THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME.

Here is a synopsis of the book straight from Mania:

In a near-future America, news has broken that, in a matter of weeks, the government is set to roll out mind-control technology that will kill the criminal impulse in all citizens. Chaos descends on America’s cities as the country braces for the new order. Career criminal Graham Brick is forced to accelerate the heist of his career with an untested new crew in order to beat the deadline. What could possibly go wrong?

Worthington will be playing the role of Kevin Cash, a safecracker enlisted to the crew at the last minute.  Mania got this news from the comic’s creator and the screenwriter of the film, Rick Remender.  Remender says that more casting and a director announcement are coming soon, and that the producers (Michael Schwarz and Barry Levine) are bringing in all A-list talent.

The first issue of THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME hits shelves in December.

I’m sure if you analyze and dissect the rules for eligibility, you’ll find some kind of loophole that kept films like CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, ANVIL!: THE STORY OF ANVIL, and CRUDE off this list of finalists for Best Documentary Feature.

Maybe it’s not based on eligibility at all.  Maybe those movies just didn’t make the cut, which, in my opinion, and a lot of other people’s, as well, is a shame.  This isn’t even taking into account some of the festival docs that didn’t make the cut, films like PULLING JOHN, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC, and THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD.  Politics wins out once again (as if there was every going to be a question of it), and here are the list of 15 films that have moved on in the voting process:

• THE BEACHES OF AGNES directed by Agnès Varda
• BURMA VJ directed by Anders Østergaard
• THE COVE directed by Louie Psihoyos
• EVERY LITTLE STEP directed by James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo
• FACING ALI directed by Pete McCormack
• FOOD, INC. directed by Robert Kenner
• GARBAGE DREAMS directed by Mai Iskander
• LIVING IN EMERGENCY: STORIES OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS directed by Mark N. Hopkins
• THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
• MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN directed by Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey
• SERGIO directed by Greg Barker
• SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman
• UNDER OUR SKIN directed by Andy Abrahams Wilson
• VALENTINO THE LAST EMPEROR directed by Matt Tyrnauer
• WHICH WAY HOME directed by Rebecca Cammisa

The final five nominations will be announced on February 2nd.