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Did you see Michael Sragow's article "Twitter Effect rattles Hollywood" in the Baltimore Sun? Sragow's thesis is neatly laid out in the first paragraph: "Although word of mouth could always make or break a movie, it usually took days to affect the box office. But the rise of social networking tools such as Twitter might be narrowing that time frame to hours. And that has Hollywood on edge." Now keep in mind that, as Sragow goes on to note, "Movietickets.com recently ran a home-page poll in which 88% of the voting sample said Twitter had no effect on them." Of...

The spring and summer box office has murdered megawatt stars like Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Eddie Murphy, John Travolta, Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks, Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell. Can Brad Pitt escape? A-list movie stars have long been measured by their ability to fill theaters on opening weekend. But never have so many failed to deliver, resulting in some rare soul-searching by motion picture studios about why the old formula isn’t working — and a great deal of anxiety among stars (and agents) about the potential vaporization of their $20 million paychecks. “The cratering of films with big stars is...

If you thought Tom Cruise's character in "The Last Samurai" represented a real figure from history, you were wrong. But don't feel ashamed. A new study shows that even students, with facts staring them in the face, tend to substitute Hollywood fiction for historical fact in their minds. "What we found is that there's something really special about watching a film that lets people retain information from that film, even when they had read a contradictory account in the textbook," said Andrew Butler, a psychology researcher at Washington University in St. Louis during the time he and his colleagues conducted...

James Cameron’s Avatar Teaser Trailer Posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 by Russ Fischer The teaser trailer for James Cameron’s new film Avatar has arrived. The clip isn’t yet properly live at Apple, the site meant to be hosting it in the US, but you can see it in 1080p with this link, or at the French MSN site.Here’s the quick recap: Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) arrives (in his wheelchair) on Pandora. He sees the planet’s beauty and, though him, we’re quickly introduced to the ten-foot tall alien Na’vi avatars. Implanted in his Na’vi body, Jake leads us on...

THE Sinatra clan is none too pleased with the dark direction Martin Scorsese is taking with his biopic of Frank Sinatra. SNIP But according to a source close to the Sinatra family, Frank's daughter and the film's executive producer, Tina Sinatra, is worried that Scorsese's vision might ultimately taint her father's legacy. SNIP Among those whose names have been thrown into the ring to play the Chairman of the Board are Scorsese's favorite, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tina Sinatra's choice, George Clooney, and the studio's preference, Johnny Depp.

    The best religious films, and therefore the best Catholic films, convey the great truths of Christianity implicitly rather than explicitly, not unlike the mystery of incarnation itself, in which the Word became flesh in the person of an obscure carpenter from a hick town in a minor province. In addition, this list consists primarily of films that deal with Catholic characters, Catholic society, and the Bible in ways that are not hostile to the Church. Most of them were made by Catholic directors.   It is interesting to note that the three best directors who ever worked...

INDIAN yogis and Hindu leaders are in a huff over fears that Julia Roberts' upcoming movie, "Eat, Pray, Love," will bastardize their religion and portray yoga as a crock of New Age mumbo jumbo. SNIP Zed added, "The people of India will be anxious to see how perfectly Roberts does her job of cleaning ashram floors as a part of her devotional duty, trying to recite 182- verse Sanskrit chant, and going through grueling hours of meditation, while being feasted on by mosquitoes."

"This may be the summer blockbuster we have been waiting for. District 9, directed by Neill Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson is now in theaters. This film is intense for the entire 2 hours. Chock full of unbelievable CGI effects that interact seamlessly with their surroundings and the actors around them."

Enough already with these aliens!

ISABEL Lucas's latest project is as a Wolverine. The 24-year-old Australian will be thankful the part doesn't actually require her to wear any bodysuit and she's not in a new Hugh Jackman project. She's signed on to star in MGM/UA's remake of the 1984 US war film, Red Dawn. Lucas, who was in Transformers; The Revenge of the Fallen, will play a Wolverine, the name of the local football team that a group of US high school students who form an insurgency when their town is invaded - this time by Chinese and Russian soldiers - call themselves. Josh Hutcherson,...

Hollywood test audiences are always giving low ratings to movies with depressing endings, sending them back to the editing room for a little “cheering up.” But it’s not just the grainy independent films about forbidden romances and snooty aristocracies that get recalled. Some of Tinseltown’s biggest blockbusters got a heavy dose of Paxil...

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - He may have sanded his jagged edge, but Joe Eszterhas still, apparently, has the basic instinct. The polarizing scribe, who hasn't had a film released theatrically in the U.S. in more than a decade, has signed on to a project about the mystical sighting of a virgin in 16th century Mexico. Eszterhas will write the screenplay about the virgin of Guadalupe, a vision that appeared to the Aztec peasant Juan Diego in 1531. While some scholars question Diego's existence, the event is credited with helping to spread Catholicism at a time of economic and social...

Paramount was so worried the critics would hate G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra—and with good reason, it's awful—that they decided not to screen it for anybody. Just one problem: the first showing was at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, which means I have all night to tell you how bad it is. Bad. Bad. Bad. It's excruciatingly bad. Gigli bad. How bad are we talking? I chronicled my night: 11:40 p.m.: I arrive to the theater, a little sleepy and slightly giddy that the movie could be so bad that it's good. I ask the older couple on the escalator...

Just a warning.....do not waste your money on The Orphan. It started out very well, we couldn't wait to see what evil this "orphan" actually was. Total disappointment! I don't go to the movies often (once a year is a lot) but I do love horror/suspense and action movies. I was so excited to see this movie and it was a total let down! The only good thing is the movie theater we went to must have had a "2 fer Tuesday" night because we only paid 8 bucks for 2 tickets. Oh, and the popcorn with the fake butter...

New Zealand film-maker Peter Jackson may have more in common with JRR Tolkien's heirs than he thought - they are also complaining about big studio accounting methods. Tolkien's family and a British charity they head, the Tolkien Trust, are seeking more than $US220 million ($276.94 million) in compensation for the Lord of the Rings trilogy Jackson made in New Zealand. The Tolkien heirs sold movie rights to the LOTR books 40 years ago for 7.5 per cent of future receipts, but say that three films and $US6 billion ($7.55 billion) later, they have not seen a cent of the proceeds....

About a month ago I asked a poll question of what you all thought of today's movies. I asked because I was preparing to do a book review and I needed to know what my fellow Freepers thought. Over 2500 people answered my poll question and many of you told me you looked forward to reading my review when it was finished. Well here is the review of my friends book, "The Message Behind The Movie". by OneVike When I first read the title of the book, “The Message Behind The Movie”, my initial response to the title was, the...

The 2009 summer blockbuster movie season is upon us. As a brief respite from our usual political humor, I offer you this preview of some of this summer’s most eagerly anticipated movies. Dumb And Dumber Obama and Biden are two lovable and friendly, but very stupid friends, who struggle with every aspect of life. Obama is the President of the United States. Biden is his more experienced, but equally stupid sidekick and Vice President. Watch the two bumble their way through the misadventures of running the United States government in this hilarious comedy, destined to be a classic (Hilarity may...

The beloved vintage car from the 1968 movie "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" can't appear in a British parade because it's not roadworthy, local officials say. The car, with its red and yellow wings, flew children away from danger in the film, but now presents a danger to the public in this weekend's Norwich, England, Street Procession, because it lacks a proper Ministry of Transport inspection certificate, the Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday. "The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car does not have a valid MoT certificate and therefore breaches regulations," said Harry Mitchell of the Norfolk Police told the newspaper, adding that...

Is American mega pop star Britney Spears set to return to the big screen, seven years after starring in the box office flop Crossroads? According to reports, Spears has been offered a part in the upcoming Holocaust film The Yellow Star of Sophia and Eton, which integrates time travel, concentration camps and a love story.

Dear AMERICA,This Friday the film "The Stoning of Soraya" will open in selected cities around the country. Given the current events in Iran this film is not only timely but we understand very moving and compelling. We wanted to make sure our members in selected states were aware of the film and, if there is a showing anywhere near you, we urge you to take it in this weekend. (Click here to open a PDF image with a list of the cities and theaters). THE STONING OF SORAYA M. Release Date: NY/LA - June 26, 2009 Distributor: Roadside Attractions and...

In no particular order here are my favorites: Friday Night Lights Hoop Dreams Bang the Drum Slowly Raging Bull When We Were Kings Hoosiers Breaking Away SlapShot Honorable Mention Field of Dreams The Natural We Are Marshall Rocky Semi ToughI am sure I left a lot out.

>>Michael Costigan, Ridley Scott and even Tony Scott are all on board to produce and have tapped Carl Rinsch to get beyond the camera and bring a new Ripley to the big screen. Who is Carl Rinsch? I'm being told he's a commercial/music video director and does work for Scott Free Productions, who is also producing the remake. In the original, the terror begins when the crew of a spaceship investigates a transmission from a desolate planet, and discovers a life form that is perfectly evolved to annihilate mankind. One by one, each crew member is slain until only Ripley...

Oliver Stone doesn't do comedy, intentionally. But perhaps he should: The half-baked, hayseed "Hamlet" he's created in " W." -- his very speculative biopic about our current president -- feels alive only when it ventures into the comically absurd. Despite Josh Brolin's genius and the fully realized portrayal he gives this character called George W. Bush, the movie operates at a paradoxical, dramatic disadvantage: It spends more than two hours trying to interest us in the fact that its subject isn't interesting. It could have been a public service announcement. The Stanley Weiser screenplay fails by attempting too much --...

Why I Walked Out of ‘Year One’ Crying by Victoria JacksonI had a date with Judd Apatow. It was around 1991 and I was between husbands: the out-of-work-Jewish-Gypsy-fire-eater-musician, and the high-school-sweetheart-Baptist-helicopter-police-pilot. I needed a date to a premiere. I knew the rules of engagement for a Hollywood career, and I tried to follow them. It’s difficult to do this when you carry the burden of ethics around with you, but I tried to do it and stay within the bounds of morality. 1) Go to the right places. I went to the Playboy Mansion to find an agent, and I...

On the heels of yesterday's casting announcements, Latinoreview has exclusively learned that Tony Gilroy, the oscar nominated writer/director of Michael Clayton (and one of my top five favorite all time screenwriters) has come aboard to rewrite MGM/UA's remake of RED DAWN! Not surprising considering that Dan Bradley, the director of the remake, was the 2nd unit director of the Jason Bourne films which Gilroy penned. Gilroy has recently delivered a 107 page draft dated 06-01-09. The remake was penned by Carl Ellsworth and Jeremy Passmore and based on the 1984 Cold War-era film co-written and directed by John Milius. We...

Simply put, do you watch movies that have profanity in them? Movies like, "My Cousin Vinny" or "Four Brothers?" I personally don't feel the above movies (or those like them, viz. repeated use of the 'F' word) are fit for human consumption. But where do you draw the line?

After a year of nasty infighting, members of the Screen Actors Guild decided by a large margin that the show must go on. The Guild said Tuesday that 78 percent of voting members decided to ratify a two-year contract covering movies and prime-time TV shows made by the major Hollywood studios.

I like the b-movies of the 1950's and 1960's the best. Little or no foul language, not too much violence, and the wacky cheesy monsters they created. Today it is all femminazi superbimbos in charge, tons of CGI effects, and they are all produced in Canada :-Z Last night I watched a sci-fi flick from 1962 called: Journey To The Seventh Planet, that had some really hokey monsters- one of which was a one-eyed dinosaur creature with rat-like features and big three fingered claws. This film was created by the same team that made ANGREY RED PLANET of 1959. Ib...

Cast members promote the upcoming film "Jian Shi Chu Ji" ("J-10's Sortie") in air force uniform at a press conference in Beijing on June 1, 2009. Picture 5: China's homemade J-10 fighter. [sina.com.cn] One year after its world-stunning public debut, China's homemade J-10 fighter jet will make head onto a new battlefield - the silver screen. "Jian Shi Chu Ji" (literally "J-10's Sortie"), a star-studded film depicting the lives of J-10 pilots, began filming on Monday in Beijing. It is scheduled for release this November, exactly one year after the J-10 aircraft wowed international audiences at the 2008 Zhuhai Air...

PITY the unwitting par ents who take their kids to see "Land of the Lost," Will Ferrell's terminally stupid, sloppy, campy and cheesy -- and thoroughly unexciting and unfunny -- experiment in "family entertainment." Those parents will surely be cringing as: * Ferrell reaches into his pants to pleasure himself. * A half-man, half-ape repeatedly fondles Anna Friel's breasts. * Ferrell, under the influence of a hallucinogenic substance, strokes the aforementioned creature's hair and contemplates kissing him. * Ferrell, out of nowhere, blasphemes about Jesus. Nominally based on Sid and Marty Krofft's innocuous '70s TV show, "Land of the Lost,"...

It seems OneVike is reading a book written by a friend about movies. He was asked to read it and write a book review for him. He would like to get an idea of where we fellow Freepers stand as to what we think about today's movies. So he set up a blog specifically to ask a poll question of us fellow Freepers. YOU! Here is a link to the poll. Whats Your Opinion of Today's Movies? He is leaving the poll up until June, 7, 2009 at 11:59 PM, at which time he will use the results of the...

I am currently reading a book written by a friend about movies. He has asked me to read it and write a book review for him. While I am reading his book, I would like to get an idea of where my fellow Freepers stand as to what you think about today's movies. I have learned in my 11 years as a member of Free Republic, to trust and respect the opinions here more than anywhere else I could go to on the WWW. I guess I would have to say that your opinions reflect the truest conservative points...

While Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" (and the movie version) wasn't as poorly written as The Da Vinci Code, it still has a lot of whoppers. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a18IQD8xTuQ

Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn has agreed to take on the starring role in a film about a retired musician who sets out to find his father's Nazi executioner, according to media reports. Penn is to play an ageing wealthy rocker who grows bored of his retirement and goes on a quest to find his father's killer, an ex-Nazi war criminal taking refuge in the U.S. The screenplay of "This Must Be the Place" was co-written by Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello, and marks Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's English-language feature debut. Penn will take on the new role once he has completed...

The stars will still turn up and the movie line-up looks good but the tone of the Cannes film festival will be more black and white than technicolor in 2009. The credit crunch means Hollywood studios are tightening their belts and conspicuous consumption is temporarily out of fashion. Deal-making will go on but is likely to be more circumspect. "You can feel people are more conservative, more selective," said Helen Lee Kim, president of Mandate International. "They are being more careful and not taking those big jumps as they might have last year." The annual celebration of cinema in the...

Crowds are swarming to see the new, "rebooted" Star Trek movie. But there are many facts about the popular epic that most casual fans don't know: * Star Trek had several incarnations. The most popular series of the franchise was Star Trek: SG1. The least popular? Star Trek: 1999. * The first interracial kiss on American television was between Capt. Kirk and Lt. Sulu. * The original show only broadcast 13 episodes before it was canceled by Fox. * The starship "Enterprise" was named after the first Space Shuttle.

This is simply a great movie. For those of us who grew up first on the television series, then the series of motion pictures, then "The Next Generation," this is the TV series on special-effects steriods, and in my opinion the second best movie of all Star Trek movies, next to "The Wrath of Khan." The first 20 minutes is jarring, and you have to pay attention. It runs the viewer from Capt. Christopher Pike (played by a one of my favorites, Bruce Greenwood), to the evil Romulan Nero (Eric Bana, sans Hulk get-up), to the young Spock, to the...

Last night’s Costume Institute Gala was probably the biggest red carpet event of the year, as it gathered all of the fashion elite including designers, models, and celebs in a stylish symphony of luxurious glamour and elegance. Dream dresses, radiant attendees, more beauty than ones eyes could safely behold, together in glorious aesthetic reverence. If only they could stage such a magnificient soiree every day!

In tribute to stogie lover Wolverine, we rundown five other action heroes that are smokin’ hot – literally Cinema’s archives are dusted in the ash of burnt out cigars. Meatier than cigarettes and less fussy than pipes, the stogie has become cinematic shorthand for manly strength, very rarely to be found in the delicate paw of the fairer sex. They’re a favourite with those bastions of masculine ruthlessness, the gangster flick and the western. In the former they famously gave Tony Montana (Al Pacino) something to chew on in Scarface while Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name in the Dollars...

When celebs like Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Demi Moore and Eva Mendes gather at one location, they literally take turns outshining each other. This is what happened at last night’s Cartier 100th Anniversary in America Celebration. Anne Hathaway appeared wearing a modified version of a Jill Stuart Fall 2009 lacy dress.

Why are Christian Movies So Bad? Posted By Dallas Jenkins On April 29, 2009 @ 5:03 am In Entertainment, Story, Religion | As I mentioned in [1] my last article, Hollywood is more interested in Christian, or “faith-based,” films than ever. The mind-blowing success of “The Passion” got it started, but then it waned as studios couldn’t quite figure out how to match that success. It heated up again recently with the success of the micro-budget, church-produced “Fireproof,” which was the highest grossing indie of 2008.[2] These trends beg a few questions. What took Hollywood so long to discover...

This is what would happen if Hollywood decided to recut "The Shining" and release it as a romantic comedy.

It's a thriller, not an attack on the Howard's By Jeff Miller on April 23, 2009 I am producing a movie on Ron Howards family. In the movie based on my research I say his father was a drug pusher and his mother is a prostitute and that Ron Howard engages in S&M. All of the portrayal of Ron Howard and his family in my movie and the prequel I am doing later will be highly negative. I will present the Howard family as something totally based on lies and question whether his parents really were his parents in the...

Hollywood’s Idea Deficit By Michael O. Powell April 04, 2009  There’s an old term used to describe the power a country exerts through non-military means: soft power. During the Great Depression and World War II—and thereafter, to a lesser extent— Hollywood provided America’s soft power. The faces of Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and Humphrey Bogart represented faces of freedom for a generation of oppressed throughout the world. The primacy of Hollywood could attest to American dominance of what was then a new art form. Ideas were pouring out of the studios during that period with films like the 1942...

Fashion Time’s stylish newcomers club is becoming ever more crowded and impressive! We’re adding Star Trek star Zoe Saldana to our list, just because she wowed us with the outfits she wore to the Moscow, Paris and Berlin Star Trek premieres.

I just returned from Casino Royal, all I can say is O U T S T A N D I N G! Don't miss seeing this on the silver screen. It was nice for the franchise to get back to basics after all of the gimmicks, bad one liners and predictable plots/scripts. The action is intense, Bond gets "shaken not stirred". He actually bleeds and has scars for quite a while after his encounters with people bent on his destruction (I don't even want to tell you what the other guys look like) and there are enough twists and turns...

The list is lengthy. From the highly sensual Ursula Andress as Honey Rider to the electric Halle Berry as Jinx, every James Bond film is known as much for one gorgeous female character as it is for its high tech action and suave sophistication. But when it comes to the most recent selection, the casting folks hope they have broken the vault with Caterina Murino. The exotic beauty plays Solange in the latest Bond endeavor, Casino Royale, the first of Ian Fleming's wondrous Bond books. Somehow, the beautiful Murino managed only a fourth place finish in the 1996 Miss Italy...

Warner Bros. today will launch a service giving the public the opportunity to custom-order DVDs of films never before released via the medium. The move is seen as a response to dwindling DVD sales and also to customer demand for titles that while not totally obscure, didn't necessarily generate enough heat to merit a full-on DVD release. The Warner Archive Collection, available at WarnerArchive.com, includes films dating back to the silent age and for $19.95 per disc Warners will burn, package and ship for receipt within an estimated five days. Currently there are 150 titles available with for a total...

Do you remember the days when a movie studio would pour a ton of money into a film and then release it in theaters whether it was good or bad? Thanks to that tried-and-true practice, the world was able to see "classics" like "Howard the Duck," "Glitter," and "Gigli." Now, with studios owning cable networks, they think they can slip a sure-to-be-disastrous movie like Lindsay Lohan's upcoming debacle "Labor Pains" right past us, putting it on ABC Family rather than at the local cineplex. But we're setting our TiVo and buttering the popcorn. While we wait, we're looking back at...

Film director Ron Howard is “very optimistic” about the future of America, so long as the nation makes an “adjustment,” to fulfill his hope a “more progressive” nation will mean “at a certain point I don't think we'll be so consumed with being the pre-eminent super-power and, you know, driven by sort of militarism and this need to export, you know, democracy.” Howard's reasoning, on Friday night's Real Time with Bill Maher, came in response to Maher's formulation that America has “seen better days. We're sort of in place that has made a lot of people nervous. Some people would...