It seems like blogging on this movie is never-ending. Now Michelle Trachtenberg and Jim Norton are joining the ever-expanding cast of Kevin Smith's A Couple of Dicks (which is already filming), conforming to Variety. Recently Jason Lee signed on and now these two. Trachtenberg will play the daughter of Bruce Willis' character who is raised by her stepfather Jason Lee while the role for Norton is unknown. However CinemaBlend is guessing that due to his outfit he's a crook. This movie seems to be getting pretty expensive, considering all the big-name stars and the fact that it might not rake in a lot of dough. Still, it is pretty exciting for all you guys that like this stuff (including me!) to anticipate this movie's release. Norton has posted via Twitter (follow him, he's funny) an audio clip from the Dicks studio. Check that out below and the picture he took of himself decked out for the new film from the Clerks director to the left. It finally comes out February 26^th.

Don't be Afraid of the Dark was a television movie in 1973, and it's not based on one of my favorite childhood shows Are You Afraid of the Dark? Guy Pearce, most recently in The Hurt Locker, Bailee Madison, most recently in a TV movie herself, Merry Christmas, Drake and Josh and Katie Holmes are set to star. Troy Nixey will direct with Matthew Robbins (Blood Brothers) and Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) writing the screenplay. The plot is sort of like The Amityville Horror or, more recently The Haunting in Connecticut: a girl, her father and his girlfriend move to a haunted house. It sounds like more of the boring jump-scare same, even with del Toro co-writing. His last scribe role was for Hellboy II: The Golden Army which wasn't even really that good.

I'm tired of mocking this movie. The Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel trailer is here, get used to it. Check it out from MTV Movies Blog in which Alvin and the gang meet the Chipettes and…that's pretty much it.

Megan Fox, Megan Fox, Megan Fox. I'm sick of her. We've made her a big-headed bitch. Naw, I'm just kidding, I'll admit she's hot. I hope she does go on to do other movies without Michael bay at her side. With the recent success of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($201 million in 5 days, ha!), it's no surprise that movie studios want her in their next blockbuster. Apparently that's what screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno) thought of before anybody else, snagging her even before Jimmy Hayward did for 2010's action/drama Jonah Hex. Film School Rejects has put up photos of Fox before she's possessed and stills of her after (or, during, I can't decide) from Empire Magazine. They look very cool; I was already stoked for Jennifer's Body since I absolutely loved Juno. Along with Fox, the movie, out September 18^th, also stars Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody, J.K Simmons, Amy Sedaris and The Haunting and Connecticut prodigy Kyle Gallner. It's directed by Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux, Girlfight). If you're not stoked by now, I heard Fox may go topless. Yeah, now you want to see it.

My second favorite month of summer (but then again, who's isn't it), July has a lot of big releases from Harry Potter to Funny People. Yes, the movie theater will have very diverse audiences come 7/09.

July 3^rd

I'm guessing that Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs has the widest release. DreamWorks has been hyping up Ice Age 3 for a long time now after a successful The Meltdown, which grossed $651.9 million worldwide and the original $383.3 million. Dawn of the Dinosaurs once again stars Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary and Queen Latifah. Although this time Simon Pegg joins the cast. Fresh off Star Trek, Pegg plays a dinosaur hunter who Mannie, Diego and Ellie run into. One of the directors is Academy Award proposed Carlos Saldanha. The one in question also conducted Ice Age: The Meltdown and helped direct the first Age and Robots. Other camera boss Mike Thurmeier was a lead animator for Ice Age and a supervising animator for Robots, The Meltdown, and Horton Hears a Who!

Public Enemies has also been long-awaited by movie fans. In enemies, Johnny Depp is blatant gangster John Dillinger. The regency attempt to take down Dillinger along with Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) and Pretty Boy Floyd (Channing Tatum) in a breach ripple in the 1930s. The movie also stars Christian Bale as an FBI chief, Marion Cotillard as Dillinger's love interest and Billy Crudup as J. Edgar Hoover. Public Enemies looks a lot like 3:10 to Yuma. Not because of its plot, because of the general feel of the movie. Another thing I love about Enemies is the black-and-white posters. They give the film an old fashioned shoot-em-up feel. Writer/director Michael Mann to me seems like an up-and-coming director. Mann directed Collateral, Miami Vice and Ali, a biopic of Muhammad Ali. However, directing is third to what he's best known for-Mann produced Hancock, The Kingdom and The Aviator and wrote along with directed Heat, Ali, Miami Vice and this movie.

Nia Vardalos seems to be the "it" girl at the moment. With My Life in Ruins out this Friday comes I Hate Valentine's Day a month later. Unlike Ruins, this is from studio IFC Films. You guys know by now that I love IFC; I think they make the best movies. So it's my sudden attraction to the film is no surprise! In I Hate Valentine's Day, a florist (Vardalos) attempts to persuade saloon holder Greg (John Corbett, wonderful) to go out with her without the relationship turning into anything serious. It also stars 30 Rock
funnyman Judah Friedlander. Nia Vardalos makes her debut as a director in this romantic comedy. She also writes the screenplay. Looking forward for this one; Vardalos is really starting to prove herself in Hollywood!

July 10^th

This day will have the MPAA cringing, as the deliverance of Sacha Baron Cohen's BrünoBrüno is the official sequel to 2006's breakout hit Borat in which Cohen plays a gay Austrian supermodel who ventures to American soil. Larry Charles, who filmed Cohen as Borat and Bill Maher in Religulous, is an awesome mockumentary director. When I saw Borat, I hadn't seen anything like it before. Religulous wasn't as good, but believe me, it was sensational! I just hope that Brüno can be equal to Borat, which I'm expecting it will be since original writers Anthony Hines, Dan Mazer and Cohen himself join Jeff Schaffer (EuroTrip) to compose what I'm guessing are ideas as to what Brüno does, because the rest of the dialogue I'm sure is purely spontaneous. The writers and Jonah Hill produce. Paula Abdul came out saying that she was fooled into the movie and same with the Alabama National Guard. The rating has been trimmed down to an 'R', originally an 'NC-17' (a.k.a 'X'). "Borat was so 2006."
has arrived.

I Love You, Beth Cooper seems like another Sex Drive or Superbad. However unlike similar comedies, Beth Cooper has…a 'PG-13' rating. Uh-oh, Fox Atomic, bad move. Everyone knows movies like these are raunchy and hilarious. Sadly, with a plot like Beth Cooper has, you can go a lot of ways when it comes to funny, however it chose not to. We remember Judd Apatow tried teen humor as a producer of last year's Drillbit Taylor and I don't have to tell you how bad that went over. The movie is about a high-school graduate nerd admits his love for a hot cheerleader in his good-bye speech. There's no surprise that Hayden Panettiere plays the blonde bombshell. Most known for her role on Heroes and Bring it On: All or Nothing, Panettiere has always had men drooling. Not that they watch Heroes for her, heavens no! The bookworm who acknowledges his crush on Cooper is Paul Rust. Rust has done the same kind of work mostly on TV; an episode of a show here, another episode of different shows here. He wrote an episode of Human Giant, Moral Orel, and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and has had small roles in Semi-Pro and the upcoming Inglourious Basterds.

The war in Iraq has been going on for years. We've had multiple dramas about real life problems like American obesity, the Holocaust etc. Why not one on the war in Iraq? That's exactly what The Hurt Locker is. Locker is about a group of U.S Army bomb squad unit who must come together in a city where everything is a danger. The Unusuals' Jeremy Renner has the lead role as Staff Sergeant William James, along with Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes and Evangeline Lily. With a movie like this with such an awesome cast, it's a shame a lot of America won't see Kathyrn Bigelow (Point Break) and Mark Boal's (In The Valley of Elah) war production.

Baghead was a silent hit. So was Hannah Takes the Stairs. Now Mark Duplass is heading for the moon, and Humpday may be his last indie flick. And he just might go out with a bang. Sounding a lot like Zach and Miri Make a Porno, Humpday is about two guys who try to create a gay sex movie featuring the two. Director Lynn Shelton makes movies that require thought. That's something a lot of people can't say they do. I've never seen her work on We Go Way Back, What the Funny or My Effortless Brilliance but you can bet that I intend to before the release of Humpday. For Brilliance, Shelton won a "Someone to Watch" award earlier in the year. Humpday may be her most talked about movie to date, and that definitely "deserves a watch".

July 15^th

Potter is back. That's right, the sixth movie, Half-Blood Prince. I read the book a long time ago when the pages fell into stores, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. But the movies…not so much. After 2, they started to get too dark. After 4, they got bad. And after 6, I was ready to blow my fucking brains out. In the fantasy-filled sixth installement, Dumbledore continues to help out Harry into learning more of the evil Lord Voldemort. Now they've found a book titled simply "This is the property of the Half-Blood Prince". Chris Columbus dropped out of directing after Chamber of Secrets, Alfonso Cuarón after Prisoner of Azkaban and Mike Newell after Goblet of Fire. But I believe the Harry Potter series has finally found its Spielberg (a little too late) with David Yates. Yates did the last movie Order of the Phoenix and is currently filming/planning the two-part Deathly Hallows. Despite the series' constantly-changing directors, screenwriter Stev Kloves has stuck with 'em since Sorcerer's Stone and stays until the end (he's confirmed that he will write for Deathly Hallows Part II and I). Potter himself Daniel Radcliffe was talked about for a bit in 2007 when he starred in PBS' TV movie My Boy Jack, but nothing else (not even the controversial Equus play he did a few years back) has been as big for Radcliffe has the J.K Rowling-adapted movies.

July 17^th

Pre-G.I Joe, it's nice to see that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is taking the time to be in a quality movie. (500) Days of Summer also stars one of my all-time faves-Zooey Deschanel. Deschanel was Sarah Jessica Parker's roommate in Failure to Launch, the counterpart to Jim Carrey in Yes Man and Mark Wahlberg's wife in The Happening, but she's never really had a leading role in a movie before. Let (500) Days be her breakout into becoming a major actress. The movie is about a greeting-card scribe named Tim (Gordon-Levitt) who meets a girl named Summer (Deschanel) and grows a crush for her. Director Marc Webb, who's breaking out from music tapes to Hollywood blockbusters, has created a film that many fans called the "Best Film at Sundance". Fox Searchlight always makes awesome stuff; they're like IFC Films. No matter how strange a movie sounds, it always delivers.

July 24^th

Disney has done some dumb stuff. But nothing really as crazy as this. G-Force is about a group of guinea pigs who try to stop a rich dude from taking over the world. Good God, how many times do we have to suffer through this? This reminds me a lot of Cats and Dogs, except that I remember that as an entertaing movie. This just sounds…meh. Not even word-worthy. Disney always casts huge stars, and G-Force is no exception to the golden rule. It stars Nicolas cage, Penélope Cruz, Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover), Bill Nighy, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Jon Favreau, Will Arnett, Tracy Morgan and Niecy Nash (Reno 911!). WHOO! Director Hoyt Yeatman is known more for visual effects than camera operations. Yeatman has worked on movies from Underdog to E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial. Along with directing, Yeatman also came up with the story for G-Force. Huh.

Recently broken away Grey's Anatomy star Katherine Heigl (I love that last name!) is back in a movie by Legally Blonde director Robert Luketic called The Ugly Truth. It's about a morning show personality who makes a bet with a producer that she can land a guy (and keep him) if she follows his love advice. Some people are thinking that the roles filled by Gerard Butler and Heigl sounds mysteriously like something Kate Hudson or Matthew McConaughey. Yeah, I can see that. Luketic also directed 21 and Monster-In-Law. Screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith don't seem to be leaving their comfort zone, combined works including Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You, Ella Enchanted, She's the Man and The House Bunny; now they can add The Ugly Truth to their list of hits. Or can they…?

This movie is weird. Orphan is about a couple who loses a child and adopts an evil one to fill the void. Is it just me or does this sound a lot like The Omen or some other straight-to-DVD "666" movie? Director Jaume Collet-Serra could get the job done with Orphan-his time in the sun was 2005 with the "sexy, scary" House of Wax. Vera Farmiga, who portrays the leading female role, has been in a movie similar to this called Joshua back in 2007. Her being in the George Ratliff directed horror is causing a lot of buzz that this movie is pretty much just a copy of it. Although don't expect that since David Johnson is breaking out into the writing world! Johnson has been a production assistant in The Shankshaw Redemption, an assistant to Frank Darabont in TV's Black Cat Run and yet again in the big screen's The Green Mile, so he's no stranger to the horror franchise.

The Answer Man stars a guy who's starting to love independent movies: Jeff Daniels. Ever since I first noticed him in The Squid and the Whale in 2005, I've loved him in Good Night, and Good Luck, Infamous and Away We Go; he's always been an essential to every great limited release movie. Daniels stars as a self-help guru who meets a chiropractor and falls in love. Answer Man is written and directed by debut filmmaker John Hindman. Along with Daniels, it also stars Lauren Graham (welcome back to the movies) and upcoming Carriers actor Lou Taylor Pucci.

In limited release is a movie called Shrink. I haven't heard of this movie either until recently; it's about a shrink who gets into a slump. Shrink stars Kevin Spacey, Mark Webber and Keke Palmer and directed by television writer/director/producer Jonas Pate.

In The Loop may be unheard of (I know you're scratching your head right now) but I have been eagerly waiting for the British comedy to come out. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival a while ago with the reviews rather well. The film stars James Gandolfini, Tom Hollander, Peter Capaldi, Gina McKee and Paul Higgins and tells of an English government representative who accidentally gets the country in the middle of an American war in the Middle East. It's co-written and directed by Armando Iannucci, whose best known for his BBC show The Thick of It, which Capaldi has starred in. A sleeper, maybe, or a movie that nobody goes to see or remembers. I'll be there.

July 31^st

A highly anticipated day for Judd Apatow fans, as his highly-awaited third film as a writer/director Funny People is released. The plot is solid: a comedian who discovers that he has a deadly disease helps a bad joke-teller his apprentice. It stars Eric Bana and once again, his golden boys Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman along with his hysterical wife Leslie Mann with cameos from Sarah Silverman, Norm MacDonald and Andy Dick. One problem: the lead is Adam Sandler. NO!! Critics know that Adam Sandler is a horrendous actor, and while I'm not agreeing with them (I liked a lot of his movies) there's a time and a place for everything. And Sandler's breakout into 'R' flicks is not in a Judd Apatow film. Although it makes sense; Apatow did produce last summer's You Don't Mess With the Zohan. Maybe he'll surprise us! That's what I'm hoping since Knocked UpThe 40-Year-Old Virgin (all written and directed by Apatow) are now cult classics and fans (and me) are hoping for his first role behind the camera since 2007 to be his best yet.
and

Competing with what's sure to be top of the box office come that weekend is Aliens in the Attic. Sweet Jesus, how many of these movies can we have?? This summer alone we already have G-Force along with this December's Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. It stars Ashley Tisdale, Robert Hoffman (Step up 2: The Streets), Kevin Nealon, Andy Richter and Doris Roberts, although the main attraction is High School Musical's Tisdale. And Roberts please don't go there. Her last real hit was the raunchy yet funny Grandma's Boy and she of course had the exemplary role as Marie on Everybody Loves Raymond. I just hate to see great actors and actresses do dumb stuff. The director has done some pretty cinematic greats like The Honeymooners and Like Mike with geniuses Mark Burton (Madagascar, Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit: in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Adam F. Goldberg (Fanboys, Still Standing, Aliens in America, upcoming DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon) concocting the screenplay. The movie theater will be filled with girls with Hello Kitty printed on their T-shirt and 40-something-year-old guys with "Protect Your Nuts" on thiers. That'll be funny.

P.S: The director thing? I was being sarcastic.

This movie looks so good I completely forgot about it. Live-action Smurfs: The Movie has set a due date: Coming Soon says December 17^th,2010. Great. Along with the Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel movie this winter, I'll begin to hate tiny voices and bodies and blue and furry things. So out with squirrels and my girlfriend.

In a clutter of countless movie news, I decided to blog on this: Jason Lee will be in Kevin Smith's A Couple of Dicks. Hells yes! I love Lee in one of my favorite shows of all time (and I'm not lying) My Name is Earl, no matter how many weeks 30 Rock and The Office beat it out in the ratings. Lee has appeared in some of Smith's other movies, including Chasing Amy (as the main character) and Clerks II. I don't know who he will play, but it doesn't really matter. It's nice to see him return to the big screen not talking to chipmunks or being a talking dog. His last major comedy was A Guy Thing in 2003. Smith's cast is amazing for the spring '10 comedy, including Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, Adam Brody and Seann William Scott. It opens February 6^th, 2010.

I love this guy. He has to be the greatest comic book creator ever. So, in a way, to thank Lee for being the "father of Marvel", he's landed cameos in the first X-Men movie as a guy on the beach, in the original Spider-Man when he saved a little girl from being hit by a piece of the Green Goblin's exploding building, in Daredevil as a man reading the paper whom the man without fear stops from being hit by a bus, in Hulk talking to a cop Lou Ferrigno, in Spider-Man 2 yet again saving a woman from falling stone, in Fantastic Four as Reed Richard's (the stretchy guy) mailman, X-Men: The Last Stand as a surprised man whose watering his lawn when the liquid is levitated, in Spider-Man 3 talking to Peter Parker in Times Square, in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer as himself trying to get into Jessica Alba's wedding, in Iron Man as Hugh Hefner (probably his most comical role), in The Incredible Hulk drinking the brand of soda that a drop of Bruce Banner's blood has gotten into and (whoo!) now he'll be Larry King in the upcoming Iron Man 2, according to Collider.

He apparently filmed the role earlier this week as King harassing Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr., aka "Iron Man") for an interview on his live program. He also may be in two scenes with Stark actually appearing on Larry King Live talking about his new black Iron Man suit. The part is pretty unnecessary; Jon Favreau could've easily paid the real Larry King to appear in the movie, but it is always cool to see Lee in various cameos in the Marvel superhero flicks. It also shows that Marvel is staying true to what made their movies famous in the first place: the comic books. Live long and prosper, Stan Lee!

The highly-anticipated Iron Man 2 finally comes to theaters May 7^th, 2010. A summer superhero movie is what we all need right now.

You know those independent movies that are only available to see in cities like New York or LA, and yet everyone is talking about them? Enter Away We Go, the new film by Academy Award winning director of American Beauty and nominated Revolutionary Road Sam Mendes. Away We Go centers on a couple, Bert and Verona on their nationwide voyage to find a nice place to settle down with their soon-to-be family, a place that they can truly call "home". The plot is one of the best parts about this funny and touching movie; it's never been done before. In a world with such adaptations and unoriginal ideas as Transformers: Revenge f the Fallen and Terminator Salvation, a quiet flick like this is pretty nice. A movie like Away We Go only comes along once in a while. A movie not wrapped up in its own self-importance or special-effects, yet a movie that doesn't even have to try to be heartwarming and downright hilarious but it is.

Away We Go opens on Burt and Verona (played beautifully by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph), um, doing it. But before anything is shown (unlike the almost porn-free The Girlfriend Experience), Burt discovers that she's in fact pregnant. And on telling Burt's parents Jerry (Jeff Daniels, playing a wonderful smart-ass perfectly once again) and Gloria (Catherine O'Hara), they announce their moving to Berlin, Germany for the next two years, missing out on the birth. So the expecting duo decides to set out on their own quest to colonize. So "away we go" (subtitles actually come on the screen every time we venture to a new city) to Arizona, Canada and so on, every destination meeting wacky people like Lily (Allison Janney), Lowell (Jim Gaffigan, surprisingly mixed-up in his role)and LN (a key Maggie Gyllenhaal).Every stop, you'll adore more than the last.

Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida (along with cool names) deliver Mendes' sleeper hit to new heights: an actual comedy. Not up its own ass with how righteous it is; political correctness is already funny as hell in the real world. Krasinski makes the movie, however, playing a comical Burt Farlander. See, you can't even say the name without laughing! It totally proves that the Office prodigy and Saturday Night Live prize have what it takes to be actual movie stars. From beginning to end, Away We Go is a must-see.

4/5 stars.

Oh. My. God. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen grossed an estimated $112 million this past weekend! With that, it's now the 11^th highest-making movie of 2009.Keep in mind that this is only its first weekend! The first Transformers movie brought in $70.5 million in its first weekend on the charts. Revenge of the Fallen entered the triple digit area. The movie gained the worldwide five day total record as well, grossing an estimated $201.2 million since it opened Wednesday, June 24^th. Yet, Michael Bay's action flick starring Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox couldn't manage to topple The Dark Knight's breathtaking debut of $158.4 million. #2 to a Marvel hero. Congrats and sucks, Bay.

In second place (as if it really matters) was The Proposal starring Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock. It fell 45% from last weekend's top spot to $18.5 million. Behind was The Hangover with $17.2 million. I'm starting a Hangover watch. The results of this surprise comedy smash are stupendous at the very least; so far by its fourth week, Todd Phillips Vegas laugh has reaped a total $183.2 million. Disney∙Pixar's Up, about an old man who ties balloons to his house is also doing amazing: it remains the highest-grossing movie of the year. This weekend it snowballed to fourth with an estimated $13 million. Altogether? $250.2 million. Pretty good for Pixar's tenth
film!

And at number five was My Sister's Keeper, the movie adaptation of Jodi Picoult's awesome book. Really, was it any competition to Transformers 2? It procured about $12 million. One million less than director Nick Cassavetes's The Notebook. Ouch.

Other movies that opened this weekend:
The Queen director's Chéri debuted with $408,000 in limited release; The Hurt Locker made $144,000; and Away We Go's expansion finally landed it at number ten with $1.7 million.

Here are the weekend results according to studio estimates Sunday-

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen…$112 million
   
2. The Proposal…$18.5 million
   
3. The Hangover…$17.2 million
   
4. Up…$13 million
   
5. My Sister's Keeper…$12 million
   
6. Year One…$5.8 million
   
7. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3…$5.4 million
   
8. Star Trek…$3.6 million
   
9. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian…$3.5 million
   
10. Away We Go…$1.7 million

Here's a perfect example of Hollywood movie studios having too much money. I'm generally not a critic that snubs everything that's not Oscar-nominated, but yet another big screen adaption from a best-selling game just sounds awful. They haven't learned that movie adaptations of video games don't result in big money over at Columbia Pictures. Hitman, Dead or Alive, Doom, Street Fighter, but I'll give you Resident Evil. Nobody screenwriter Kyle Ward will scribe the script with Avi Arad, Charles Roven, Alex Gartner and Ari Arad producing. The plot is about a treasure hunter named Nate Drake who tries to find the city of El Dorado before descendants of Nazis and Spaniards do. The director, release date and stars for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune have yet to be released.

Walt Disney Pictures is returning to its roots: two-dimensional animation. With the December 11^th release of the highly-anticipated The Princess and the Frog, they're also presenting us with Hayao Miyazaki's, the mind behind anime classics Spirited Away and Oscar-winning Howl's Moving Castle, Ponyo. It looks awesome! It's about a young girl who befriends a goldfish princess who wants to transform human. The voice talents are Noah Cyrus (the 9-year-old daughter of Billy-Ray Cyrus), Tina Fey, Liam Neeson, Betty White, Cloris Leachman (that name is so cool), Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett and Lily Tomlin. Miyazaki writes and directs the piece. The reviews have been outstanding for it since it premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Tomorrow it debuts at the Los Angeles Film Festival I can't wait for it, it looks really cool. Check out the trailer below from CinemaBlend.

The Uninvited, The Unborn, The Grudge and The Cave are among the endless list of bad PG-13 jump scares of movies, well, add Carriers to that list. The plot of Carriers, written and directed by Spain locals Àlex and David Pastor immediately reminded me of Eli Roth's Cabin Fever: four guys get a virus and freak out. Wow, exciting. It stars Chris Pine, whose newfound fame comes from this summer's blockbuster hit Star Trek, Lou Taylor Pucci (The Informers), Piper Perabo (what do you know, The Cave) and Emily VanCamp (again, The Grudge!). ShockTillYouDrop has the new Descent-like (and creepier, Coraline-like) poster. Check it out out below and Carriers comes out September 4^th.

CinemaBlend's U.K critic Stuart Wood recently wrote in a review for The Boat That Rocked, about an illegal radio station in the North Sea during the 1960s, that the movie was "a slight but immensely enjoyable tribute," and that "If the movie suffers from anything, it's a bloated running time." I guess Focus Features thought so as well, and now instead of an August release in the U.S, it will be pushed back until November after some editing. The movie needs to make some cash; it grossed only $25 million worldwide and took double that to make. James Schamus, president of Focus Features, said to Variety in an interview "It will be a shorter, leaner version. We think it is a real crowd-pleaser. We love a challenge, and we love working with (studio) Working Title (Films)." The idea is to sweep off 20 minutes from its running duration of two hours, nine minutes.

The Boat That Rocked looks sensational. Do whatever you have to, just get it to this country as fast as you can and don't cut Richard Curtis as the writer/director!

The Invention of Lying is about, well, just that. A man, Ricky Gervais, discovers lying. I think that this looks pretty good; I loved Ghost Town last fall with Gervais. It also stars Jennifer Garner (back to the movies, I see), Jonah Hill, Tina Fey, Rob Lowe, Louis C.K, Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor and there's also a short cameo (as you can see in the trailer) from the new funnyman, Mr. Martin Starr. Gervais co-writes and co-directs with Matthew Robinson. Check out the hit-or-miss trailer below from CinemaBlend.

Wow, this movie's cast is really coming together now: Valentine's Day, directed by Garry Marshall, already has confirmed that Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner, Shirley MacLaine, Bradley Cooper, Ashton Kutcher and Anne Hathaway are already set to star in the film, now aunt and niece Julia Roberts and Emma Roberts are joining the movie as well as Topher Grace and Hector Elizondo according to Variety. The movie will be directed by Garry Marshall, a writer on Happy Days, and Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein (He's Just Not That Into You, Never Been Kissed) write the screenplay with Katherine Fugate (Army Wives). It's due February 12^th, 2010.

Sure, the world is depressing enough. You've got all of this shit happening-the protests in Iran, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson passing away, not to mention the economy-and in retrospect, My Sister's Keeper's depressing story isn't helping a certain amount. Although a look inside one singular problem can do wonders all around. When I read My Sister's Keeper, the narrative by Jodi Picoult (who's no stranger to the 'gloomy' category), I was blown away; the book was fantastic. The story alone is spectacular, but it also triggers the reader's personal demons. The family-Sara, Brian, Anna, Kate and Jesse-are all so relatable you could've sworn that they live just next-door. The squad that has the duty to portray the grief-stricken family is among the best: Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Jason Patric (In the Valley of Elah), Evan Ellingson (CSI: Miami, Letters from Iwo Jima) and Sofia Vassilieve (Medium). All great actors and actresses, but together just flat out not believable. I'd say unbelievable, but then you would get the wrong idea. Patric was emotionless, which is fine; that's how the father acted in the best-seller. On the other hand, in the movie, when emotions are required, Patric doesn't deliver. The same thing can be said of Breslin: stony-eyed and dizzy. She's come a long way from Little Miss Sunshine and has had hits like The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause and Nim's Island since then, however don't go to Sister's Keeper seeking Ms. Breslin's return to Oscar-nomination roles. Ellingson, let's skip over (he sucked) and go straight to Cameron Diaz, the heart and soul of Nick Cassevetes' sorrower about a girl with leukemia. Diaz plays Sara, the worried mother of a disease-ridden Kate who'll go to ends of the Earth for her daughter (and she does). Diaz gives a vigorous performance and sparkles on an otherwise melancholic My Sister's Keeper. She might not be Oscar-worthy (although you never know, everything is changing for next year's celebration), but watch for some sort of gold star for the beautiful actress.

Another character in the story was Campbell Alexander, the lawyer for Anna. He was butchered by Alec Baldwin. I'm a huge Baldwin fan, I love his gig on 30 Rock, but every scene that he's in, he just doesn't capture the feeling that Picoult imagined in the book. Whenever and whatever dialogue is played off of him, he's quick to answer, and that's not how Campbell is originally. His seizure (yes, Baldwin has a seizure) is less than convincing, although heartbreaking all the same.

Nick Cassavetes is known for his sob-stories; he directed the 2004 romance The Notebook with Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling. In addition, Cassavetes also condenses the 432 page work with Jeremy Leven, his writing partner on The Notebook. In the beginning of the movie, Anna narrates a bit on her thoughts of the world while we see some home videos of Kate, Anna and Jesse as kids, which gives the impression that Cassavetes will rock the rest of the flick. And he does just that. It was a smart move on his behalf to take on this project. From the courthouse scenes to rainy days in the hospital, this guy nails every detail. The theme throughout the film comes across as uplifting when the plot is upsetting and I adored that about it; a sunshine POV on a sad tale. Look for him to become the next Nicholas Sparks when it comes to ideas. Seriously, he is awesome.

Initially, each of the characters narrates their side on Kate's cancer battle, similar to the page-turner. It soon turns into one flat, dull attempt to make you cry. I'm sorry; I wanted to love it as much as the next guy, however it gets pretty sad. And not in the way that it's supposed to be. Cassavetes' story leaves out the whole subplot on Campbell Alexander and the ad litem's love interest, the endless reasons that Alexander brings his dog Judge everywhere he goes and the ending is different than the book! Throughout a generally bad movie, the ending will really leave you saying "are you bullshitting me?" If you haven't read Picoult's effortlessly brilliant book, you'll like it, but if you did don't bring a box of Kleenex.

2.5/5 stars.

In the beginning, Daybreakers looked like just another movie about vampires. It looked exactly like I Am Legend. But what I said before about Daybreakers….gone. No more! This new trailer from the upcoming thriller is nothing like Legend at all; in fact it is shown in the trailer from CinemaBlend that the blood-suckers live their life like regular people do today. And they drink blood like it's ice cream. The problem presented in the new preview is that the blood supply has run out and they need Ethan Hawke's, along with a research crew's, help. So check it out below; it's wonderfully done. The Spierig brothers flick hits theaters January 8^th, 2010.

As if the original poster wasn't bad enough, now Mr. Tyler Perry has an animated one-sheet for his new fall flick I Can Do Bad All by Myself. This marquee doesn't make me want to see it any more than I did previously; it's basically just a creepy flower opening and closing. Terminator Salvation did it as well as The Haunting in Connecticut, although Perry will probably say that he's "redefined" this…thing. Here it is from CinemaBlend.

This is exciting if you're a film geek like me: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have announced that the "Best Picture" category will expand from five movies to ten, the first time in history since 1943 when Casablanca won the coveted prize. The buzz is that the change was sparked when The Dark Knight and WALL∙E got the cold shoulder at last year's annual celebration. So far the predicted nominees are Star Trek and Pixar's latest Up, along with certain independent movies. Wouldn't it be cool if Coraline was nominated for "Best Picture (maybe even The Hangover)? The countdown starts now for the 82^nd Annual Academy Awards, guys. So grab your wallet and check the show times, because any movie is eligible.

I never saw Enchanted, the 2007 Disney comedy starring Amy Adams, but I guess I really should in order to keep up. The director, Kevin Lima is teaming up with the director of Over the Hedge or, more recently Imagine That Karey Kirkpatrick to do a romantic comedy called Frank for Fox 2000. Adds Variety, the main character is a med student geek who builds a friend since she has none. It'll probably be a girl-power sort of flick since the med student is indeed a woman. That sounds mighty depressing if you ask me, but studio Fox 2000 has done Marley and Me, Flicka and A Good Year among others, all kind of sad.

I'm still hoping that Kirkpatrick can come through with something decent since I wildly enjoyed Over the Hedge (and I haven't yet seen Imagine That). I should check out Enchanted since this move should be pretty good, for a family comedy anyway.

The lucky movie company bastards over in Amsterdam were screened a whole 24 minutes of probably the most hyped-up movie of the year, James Cameron's Avatar. Here are some of the first reactions:

Market Saw: "This movie will change the industry,"

The Hollywood Reporter: "From the sustained applause at the conclusion of the presentation, suffice to say Fox didn't hurt itself at the event."

Coming Soon: "It's the third scene where my heart begins to pound like crazy…I thought--just like you guys--that I've seen it all with Gollum, or The Hulk, but Cameron has done it again." (More reactions available on their website, although there are some spoilers)

Fellow bloggers Market Saw posted some pictures of the Avatar after-party. I've posted them below, and you too can get rocked December 18^th, when what sounds like Cameron's masterpiece is finally released.

Variety is saying that David Fincher, the director of the Oscar-nominated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, is in advanced talks with Columbia Pictures to direct the movie about the guys who made Facebook. The script is by Aaron Sorkin, the creator of the television drama West Wing. It's now titled The Social Network and will follow the Harvard kids who developed Facebook in 2004 and how the social network had an eruption of popularity. Scott Rudin, Trigger Street and Michael De Luca produce. I think the whole concept of a Facebook movie is bizarre; it's been big for, what, about a year? Come on, it's a website where you can poke your friends, big deal. I'm sorry, and you can throw sheep. Although Fincher is a director who captures every bit of detail in every scene and West Wing was a pretty great show, too. These guys seems to know what they're doing; Fincher wouldn't come off an Oscar nod to do a movie that sounds like a crime thriller if he didn't.

Yeah, it's here, big whoop. That's the reaction I first had when I heard about this live-action adaptation of the Nickelodeon animated kids series, but after this teaser trailer, boy does this look cool! And it should be promising with director genius M. Night Shyamalan behind the wheel. For more info on The Last Airbender, read my previous post here and watch the teaser from YouTube below.

Again, the hooker thing has been done before! Anchor Bay Films is now doing a movie titled Spread, in which Ashton Kutcher is a "sexual grafter", which is apparently different from a man-whore, which is pretty much what Kutcher is portraying in this movie that has been done too many times before. Check out the poster below of Kutcher in a pool with the tagline "It's a business doing pleasure". Sounds oddly similar to Weeds' and Life of a Call Girl's tagline. Maybe because THEY'RE THE EXACT SAME!!

First I'm hearing of this: a movie called Daybreakers, about the human race turning into vampires and one man is left standing. The I Am Legend for the Twilight era. Ethan Hawke is, in a sense, Will Smith with brothers Michael and Peter Spierig (Undead) writing and directing. Check out the poster, it looks a lot like the one for 28 Days Later.

A follow-up to my previous post: two new art pieces have arrived online, this time of the Twiddles and Alice herself.

Another sick trailer for Rob Zombie's reboot of H2 (now titled Halloween II) is out. If you like that kind of stuff, check out the preview below from CinemaBlend of Michael Myers killing some people…yeah!

You heard right: another animated movie that's not from Pixar or DreamWorks. Like that's worth seeing. Zookeeper is about a caretaker for the animals who discovers romance advice from the creatures. The voice talents are pretty strong, however, MGM casting Adam Sandler as a capuchin monkey, Kevin James as the zookeeper, Jon Favreau as a bear, Sylvester Stallone as a lion, Judd Apatow (who was recently graced with the 'Mankind' honor at Spike's annual "Guy's Choice Awards") as an elephant, Cher (yup, I'm serious) as a giraffe and Rosario Dawson as James's yet-unnamed love interest, recites Variety. Should be worth seeing if Chastity Bono doesn't have a cameo. Yeah, I went there…it's weird.

Take a dark comedy and put a positive spin on it and you get Sunshine Cleaning. Probably the oddest independent movie so far this year comes from Christine Jeffs, who directed the 2003 sleeper Sylvia starring Daniel Craig. Jeffs' directing is mind-numbing; he finds the natural beauty in everything from a blood-stained mattress in a dumpster to a shitty run-down motel. Sunshine Cleaning stars Amy Adams as Rose, a struggling single mother who's simply trying to make ends meet. Adams is amazing and equally stunning as she brings what she did in the 2005 dramedy Junebug to the Cleaning table, although Emily Blunt who plays her sister Norah steals the show. Blunt has appeared in The Devil Wears Prada, Dan in Real Life and Charlie Wilson's War before this but no role, whether it be a rebel daughter or a fashion designer's snob of an assistant, has suited her as well as a childish party girl in Sunshine Cleaning. With the right moves from here, she could go on to become the next Zooey Deschanel, this being her Elf. Portraying the two girls' father is Alan Arkin, who is Hollywood's go-to grandpa. Throughout his career, he's done two types of roles: a nice old man or a brilliant asshole. Combine the two and it's Joe Lorkowski, a salesman who no one wants to buy from.

Sunshine Cleaning tells of Rose Lorkowski and her sister Norah. After a spat with Rose's son's school, she pulls the kid out of there and wants to put him in a private facility; there's only one problem: no money. So the sisters open a biohazard and crime scene clean-up service that they later call 'Sunshine Cleaning' to put a "positive spin on things." From there it goes to both funny and heartfelt moments involving Steve Zahn (in maybe the worst shape of his career), Mary Lynn Rajskub (welcome back to the movies), Paul Dooley and one very convincing Clifton Collins Jr. Blunt's witty gags and Adams' weepy dilemmas turn Sunshine Cleaning into more than just a comedy, but a relatable one at that.

I could rip this movie apart; it's not perfect. The jokes are hit-or-miss and it takes a while to fully get into the story. I'm going to look at the glass as half-full rather than half-empty. Megan Holley's (2002 indy The Snowflake Crusade) characters are only as witty and charming as the actors and actresses make them. It's not as great a dark comedy as School for Scoundrels or Heathers, but I'd right as rain prefer a flick like this over a bad McG movie (Terminator Salvation, ahem). Directing rocks, cinematography is amazing, the acting is downright awesome and the script is able. This might be nuts, but to me that makes for a pretty great movie.

3.5/5 stars.

If you’re an avid Tim Burton fan and if you haven’t gotten psyched for Alice in Wonderland yet well then get ready: USA Today has released some of the artwork for the upcoming Disney flick and it looks sweet. They depict Johnny Depp (Burton’s go-to guy) as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter (his go-to girl) as the Red Queen and Anne Hathaway (?) as the White Queen. There are also pictures of Alice with the White Rabbit, the Tweedles and the creepy talking roses. Check them out below and head to USA Today to get a virtual tour of the stills.