With the release of Paul Greengrass’ new film starring Matt Damon, Green Zone, here are the TOP TEN ONE MAN ARMIES in film. Read the full story

At last Sunday’s Academy Awards Jeff Bridges was finally rewarded for his illustrious career with a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Crazy Heart. The actor, who has amassed 5 nominations, has long been considered ‘due’ for a win at the illustrious award show. Meryl Streep, already a two-time winner, was passed over for 1st time nominee Sandra Bullock despite growing buzz that she is deserving of a 3rd trophy. In fact, outside of Best Actor, all of the top 8 categories went to 1st time nominees. The Oscars can sometimes be sentimental, especially in Best Supporting Actor, when handing out awards to perennially passed over veterans. Unfortunately, some actors have yet to benefit from these wins that are often more about rewarding the career of a performer more so than their specific performance. Read the full story

To continue on the Oscars,  Here are some of the top ten films that they missed when handing out the nominations about a month ago.

Here are the rules: If a film is nominated already for something I cannot use it.  Even if it’s that the film wasn’t nominated for the proper award. Therefore I can only nominate films that have completely omitted from the list at this year’s awards ceremony. Read the full story

Not sure what is coming out this month? I’ll tell you what to check out in theaters, rent later and avoid altogether. Check out the list below.

See:

10. Hubble 3D (Myers, March 19th)

Synopsis: An IMAX 3D camera chronicles the effort of 7 astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Trailer

Why You Should See It: Leonardo DiCaprio narrates in a potentially beautiful IMAX 3D look at space.

9. Brooklyn’s Finest (Fuqua, March 5th)

Synopsis: In Brooklyn, New York, three veteran cops struggling with their own personal and professional dilemmas dispatched to a notorious housing project, where they will each collide with destiny.

Trailer

Why You Should See It: Training Day and Shooter director Antoine Fuqua likely won’t cover any new ground with this police drama, but a solid cast and good reviews from last year’s Sundance make this one to check out.

8. She’s Out of My League (Smith, March 12th)

Synopsis: A guy lets his insecurities pick away at his fledgling relationship with the perfect gal.

Trailer

Why You Should See It: From the writers of the underrated and overlooked Sex Drive, comes this R-rated romantic comedy that brings the first lead role for longtime Apatow crew member, Jay Baruchel.

7. Alice in Wonderland (Burton, March 5th)

Synopsis: 19-year-old Alice returns to the magical world from her childhood adventure, where she reunites with her old friends and learns of her true destiny: to end the Red Queen’s reign of terror.

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Why You Should See It: Burton’s latest looks like a bit of a mess with the heavy CG palette, but the film has gotten good reviews coming out of London and it can’t be worse than his Planet of the Apes remake…can it?

6. The Secret of Kells (Moore + Twomey, March 12th)

Synopsis: As his medieval outpost faces a threat from advancing barbarian hordes, talented, young Brendan looks to finish illuminating an ancient book that could help keep his home safe. To do so, he will have to overcome his fears of an enchanted forest where mythical creatures are thought to hide.

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Why You Should See It: The surprise animated film nomination in this year’s Academy Awards is seeing a very small release this month and early reviews have been glowing.

5. Hot Tub Time Machine (Pink, March 26th)

Synopsis: Four guy friends, all of them bored with their adult lives, travel back to their respective 80s heydays thanks to a time-bending hot tub.

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Why You Should See It: Co-writer of High Fidelity and Grosse Pointe Blank, Steve Pink re-teams with John Cusack in his second directorial effort after the underrated Accepted. Like She’s Out of My League, this is also written by one of the guys from the Sex Drive team.

4. How to Train Your Dragon (Sanders + DeBlois, March 26th)

Synopsis: Young Viking Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third is sent to the Isle of Berk in the North Sea, where he is to subdue a dragon as a rite of passage.

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Why You Should See It: The team behind the fantastic Lilo + Stitch is back. Co-director Dean DeBlois was also behind one of the best music documentaries I’ve seen, Heima. The early buzz for the film has also been very positive.

3. Mother (Bong, March 12th)

Synopsis: When her mentally handicapped son is accused for the rape and murder of a young woman, a mother begins her own investigation into the crime in hope to clear her child’s name.

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Why You Should See It: Bong Joon-ho was behind two of the best foreign films with The Host and Memories of Murder. After seeing this a few months ago, it doesn’t quite live up to either, but it’s still a fantastic story and one of the best of the month.

2. Green Zone (Greengrass, March 12th)

Synopsis: Discovering covert and faulty intelligence causes a U.S. Army officer to go rogue as he hunts for Weapons on Mass Destruction in an unstable region.

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Why You Should See It: After getting delayed from late 2009 release, Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum director Paul Greeengrass is back with Matt Damon. The film has gone under post-production struggles, but I’m confident Greengrass can engineer a great political action thriller.

1. Greenberg (Baumbach, March 26th)

Synopsis: A jobless New Yorker moves to Los Angeles in order to figure out his life while he housesits for his brother. He soon sparks with his brother’s assistant, a musician and somewhat of a lost soul herself.

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Why You Should See It: Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale is one of my favorite films of the last decade and I even enjoyed Margot at The Wedding. His latest subject is Ben Stiller and one can check out the polarizing reviews of the film here.

Check out the next page to see what to avoid and rent.

With the release of his latest film Cop Out I’m going to go through my Top Ten Kevin Smith scenes this week.  I’d like to thank Merrill Barr, possibly the biggest Smith fan, for helping me out with this list.

With Smith’s having made 8 films (not including Cop Out since I’ve yet to see it) the man has been known for his ridiculously brash humor.  I’ll let the scenes speak for themselves. Read the full story

The release of Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island marks Leonardo DiCaprio and the renowned director’s fourth film together after The Aviator, Gangs of New York, and The Departed. In honor of the duo, here are my top ten Director/Actor collaborations over the years of cinema. Read the full story

With this week’s release of Valentine’s Day, I’ve decided to share what I think are some of the best ‘ensemble’ films I’ve ever seen.

What is an ‘ensemble’ film?  You may have heard of an ensemble cast, which is a film with a ton of minor characters all in a huge film (think 2012 or The Towering Inferno). I believe an ‘ensemble’ film to be a movie which decides to take all of these characters and make the film about a number of stories rather than one massive story as we are used to seeing every week in the cinema. Sometimes these stories can find a way of coming together and sometimes these ’stories’ are just digging into different characters to give us a sense of perspective. Read the full story

Let’s be reasonable. It took 12 years for a film to top Titanic and Avatar has beat it in the first seven weeks at the box office, while showing no signs of slowing down. When Avatar finishes it’s run it could very well be an entire billion dollars ahead of Titanic’s second place $1.8 billion worldwide gross. It is a massive mountain for any film to attempt to climb, but with nearly every big blockbuster recently getting the 3D addition (aka box office steroids), there is a chance. Here are ten films that could rival Avatar’s impressive gross…or at least reach the coveted $1 billion mark, something only five films have ever accomplished. Read the full story

With the release of Pierre Morel’s From Paris With Love starring John Travolta, I thought it would be somewhat therapeutic to go through my Top Ten Travolta Characters. Let it be known that this is not an assessment of the films but rather the characters Travolta played in the films and my love for them. Read the full story

The 82nd Academy Award nominations were announced early this morning with Avatar and The Hurt Locker leading the pack. There were a number of surprises and questionable nominations. Here are the ten we found most interesting. Check out the full list of nominations here and my Top 10 surprises below. Read the full story