awards contenders on DVD: the studio films

December can feel overwhelming, for movie watchers, with all the awards contenders flooding the arthouses — if you’re in New York and Los Angeles — and multiplexes this holiday season. But it’s always true, too, that films from earlier in the year manage to get notice from critics groups in the pre-Oscar-nominations territory… and some … more…

trailer break: ‘Valkyrie’

Take a break from work: watch a movie trailer… Awesome! It looks like Bryan Singer has a new comic book superhero action movie this Christmas. Excellent! Now, I admit I’m not familiar with the superfriends here, but then, I was never a mega-devoted reader of comic books. They’re a bit older than you usually see … more…

5 reasons I’m psyched for ‘Valkyrie’

All this weekend! 5 movies I’m psyched for in December and 5 reasons why. No. 3: Valkyrie [opens in the U.S. on December 25, and in the U.K. on January 23, 2009]. 1. Bryan Singer. He’s one of the great filmmakers of Generation X — The Usual Suspects, X-Men, Superman Returns — and I’m highly … more…

trailer break: ‘Good’

Take a break from work: watch a movie trailer… Nazis! I hate these guys. Oh, wait… some of them were good people caught up in a situation they didn’t realize would get so bad? Hmm. It looks like Viggo Mortensen may be playing the Most Lovable Nazi ever here, just a nice guy, a smart … more…

Nazis for Christmas

If it’s Christmas, it must be time for Nazis! MGM has announced the release date of Bryan Singer’s new film Valkyrie, and it’s Friday, December 26, 2008. Cuz nothing says holiday fun — or “gimme an Oscar” — like some good old goosestepping and heil-Hitlering. Actually, I kid Valkyrie, even though it’s the movie that … more…

totally quotable: best. lines. ever, 2004 edition

Here, in one place, the most quotable movie lines of the year 2004. They’re not ranked — they’re all great. [Warning: May contain spoilers.] [click here for the funniest bad snippets of dialogue from 2004] “Only people from the Bronx care about the Oscars.” –Sandra Dee (Kate Bosworth), Beyond the Sea “I’ve never seen a … more…

Mission: Impossible 2 and Shanghai Noon (review)

Can it be a coincidence that both of the big new flicks this Memorial Day weekend — the kickoff for Hollywood’s first summer movie season of the twenty-first century — are basically Hong Kong action movies? The people who think about these kinds of things — current-events journalists, mainly — have already predicted that if the 1900s were the American century, the 2000s may well be the Asian century… but they were speaking economically and politically. I guess it’s probably inevitable that Asia would start to hold some cultural sway in the West, too.