With a history of making music videos featuring crazy dancing and filming crazy stunts with the cast of Jackass, it is quite possible that director Spike Jonze is a 12 year old at heart. In adapting Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, the real surprise is that it would appeal more to adults than children. The ambition on show is admirable and the results are often spectacular. Max (an astonishing debut performance by Max Powers) lives with his single mother who has begun to date new men and an older sister who is more interested in her new set of friends.  After an argument with his mother, Max runs away and finds himself sailing to an island with a host of wild creatures who he convinces to make him their king. Each character is a representation of Max’s personality from the wild Carol (James Gandolfini) to the ignored »
- Michael Shelton

Read the full article on t5m.com

With not one but two brow-raising films released in 2009, it's no surprise that The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Up In The Air, and Scott Pilgrims Vs. The World star Anna Kendrick is making headlines. She was recently featured in Vanity Fair's "Opening Acts" series for her work in both films. Says Vanity Fair, "Kendrick made her name in the original Twilight movie" and "shines as George Clooney’s tightly wound underling in Jason Reitman’s well-timed dramedy about corporate cost-cutting." Kendrick is featured as the first of eleven stars, including The Debt star Jessica Chastain, All Good Things star Lily Rabe, Alice In Wonderland star Mia Wasikowska, Cold Souls star Katheryn Winnick, Days of Summer star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tetro star Alden Ehrenreich, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen star Isabel Lucas, True Blood star Anna Paquin, and G.I. Joe: Rise Of The Cobra star Channing Tatum. Each of these actors »
- thetwilightexaminer

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When it comes to the Academy Award for best visual effects, you might think there are too many possible contenders to put on one ballot. And you'd be right. That's why the Academy Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee has narrowed it down to a list of 15 semifinalists, from which the nominees and eventual winner will be chosen. Here's what's in the running now:
Angels & Demons, Avatar, Coraline, A Christmas Carol, District 9, G-Force, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, 2012, Watchmen, and Where the Wild Things Are.
In a couple weeks, the committee will narrow the list down even further, to seven entries, and then 15-minute excerpts of those seven films will be shown to all the members of the Academy's Visual Effects Branch. The branch will then vote to determine the three actual nominees. »
- Eric D. Snider

Read the full article on cinematical.com

The undeniable financial success of Paranormal Activity got the folks over at Paramount thinking.  By undeniable financial success, I mean a little more than $107Mm in box office on a $15,000 budget (that’s a rate of return of about 666,666% – perfectly appropriate for a film about a haunting).  Paramount appears to be defining microbudget films as those with a budget of less than $100K.  Seems like a no-brainer from the money end, right? 
 

Let’s assume the future microbudget films use the full $100K: the studio could still finance 1,000 movies (!) off the revenues of Paranormal Activity alone.  Expenses including overhead, marketing, etc. etc. and the relative rarity of Pa’s fiscal success notwithstanding, but the point remains.  The studio said $1Mm annually, not “whatever we make will go into producing more microbudget films,” but at least we’re looking at ten “micro-movies” every year.  Paramount intends on utilizing this initiative to »
- Scott Miller

Read the full article on screenrant.com

I saw a lot of terrible films this year, and these are some of the worst. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t enjoyable of course, and I take quite a bit of pleasure from watching a bad film. They’re in no particular order, and there are links to any that I reviewed in full. Enjoy! Angels and Demons Rome itself was the sole highlight of this absolute shocker. I enjoyed how the scientists at the Cern Large Hadron Collider were portrayed as being a bit iffy about the science behind their experiments. Relentlessly idiotic. Dragonball: Evolution Did anyone else watch this? This is the best film of the year based on a Japanese anime series…oh wait, that would be Blood: The Last Vampire (see below). 80 minutes of big hair, American accents and rubbish special effects. Terminator Salvation Some excellent action set pieces were the only »
- Joe West

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Looking back over the past twelve months highlights what a strange year this has been in cinema. Transformers 2 swept up at the box office, Terminator 3 nearly killed the franchise. (500) Days Of Summer’s incredible trailer resulted in an incredibly dissapointing film, Where The Wild Things Are dared to be even better than its Arcade Fire powered trailer suggested it would be. So, even though the year hasn’t been the best quality wise, there have been some absolutely terrific films released. In fact for every Blue, Antichrist or Dead Men Running there has been a film of  great quality to counter it to the degree I struggled wittling down my list of favourites to the standard ten entries. So I didn’t bother. Each of the films in this list debuted cinematically in the UK in 2009 with the exception of Cyborg, She which was a direct to DVD release. »
- Kieron Casey

Read the full article on blog.reelloop.com

James Cameron'S sci-fi epic Avatar isn't out in cinemas until Friday but it's already on its way to an Oscar nomination.
It's among the 15 contenders for a Visual Effects Oscar which have just been announced by the Motion Picture Academy.
However, Cameron has downplayed the chances of his new release repeating the Academy Awards success of his previous film Titanic, which won 11 gongs including Best Picture.
Speaking at the London premiere for Avatar, he said: "I think they should give serious attention to the technical work, the visual effects and photography, sound, music.. it's a beautiful score. As for the other stuff, the Academy tends to be not that interested in science fiction films, fantasy films, but we'll see. It's a possibility."
The Motion Picture Academy's other contenders in the Visual Effects category are Angels & Demons, Coraline, Disney's A Christmas Carol, District 9, G-Force, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, »
- David Bentley

Read the full article on blogs.coventrytelegraph.net

The future of the Transformers franchise was initially up in the air following the release of the second movie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, despite a successful showing at the box office. Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman declined to return for a third movie, and director Michael Bay said that he needed some time off from Transformers.
Plans for the franchise quickly got back on track, however. Bay changed his mind about making a "small movie" between the Transformers and even announced the return of Megan Fox, despite the very public feud between the two of them. And, while Orci and Kurtzman are out, Orci said that the script for the third movie is in the capable hands of Ehren Kruger, who assisted the duo with the script for the second movie.
Just when things seem to be humming along, the possibility of a studio leak has surfaced. The »
- BrentJS Sprecher

Read the full article on reelzchannel.com

Join TV and Film enthusiasts from Fused Film’s Entertainment Overload as they talk about the geekiest and biggest movies in this weekly podcast for fans and geeks alike. Welcome to an insightful and entertaining fanboy perspective on all things awesome.
Subscribe via: RSS or  iTunes
Episode 90 – The Princess And The Rob

Recorded December 13, 2009. Justin Vactor is joined by Phoenix friends Mr. F and WonderRob to discuss what’s been overloading them in the world of film this week with a big review of The Princess and The Frog.
Topics:
Vactor’s Mom Reviews Movies



Film Overload:
Mr. F:
The Alien Films
WonderRob:
My Super Ex-Girlfriend



Justin Vactor:
Jackie Brown and World’s Greatest Dad


Big Review:
The Princess And The Frog

Thanks for listening to Entertainment Overload! Please let us know what you thought of this episode by leaving a comment below or e-mailing us at website@fusedfilm.com »
- Vactor

Read the full article on fusedfilm.com

Whether or not The Twilight Saga: New Moon will take the number one spot in overall sales for the year 2009 is yet to be seen. It currently resides, according to Box Office Mojo, at the number five spot (below Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, Up, and The Hangover) in domestic grosses. Internationally, the film is in seventh place in overall overseas sales for the year (behind Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, Harry Potter 6, 2012, Transformers 2, Up, and Angels & Demons). In other words, despite the unbelievable support of Twilight fans, it'd be a long road to hoe to reach the very top. Sigh. However, there's some good news, too. According to AC, current calculations show The Twilight Saga: New Moon sits atop the top ten list for highest grossing dramas of 2009. Also high on the list are Gran Torino, Slumdog Millionaire, Disney's A Christmas Carol, »
- thetwilightexaminer

Read the full article on examiner.com