It’s Tuesday once again and it’s time to sift through the new releases to find a few gems…and a few throwaways. Check them out below and let me know what you are watching this week. Read the full story

It’s safe to say that Mira Nair‘s Amelia – a Fox Searchlight production — was one of 2009′s biggest busts. Most people figured that a Hilary Swank biopic was going to be a shoo-in for awards left and right, but the film completely bombed with both critics and audiences. Well, it looks like Fox Searchlight is out for some redemption, as Variety reports that they have acquired the rights to Tony Goldwyn‘s Betty Anne Waters, another true story set to star the Oscar-winning Swank. Read the full story

Editor’s Note: This is first of five lists highlighting our main staff’s favorite films this year. Check back throughout the week for more countdowns.

Let’s just make something clear here; this is my list. Not your list, not the guy who writes for that other site, this is my list. I’m saying this because there’s some choices here some may go “huh?” to, and that’s fine. I think 2009 was a fairly inconsistent year, with a year that had great films (see below list), but was also oddly disappointing in the time we had to wait between movies. I also found myself connecting to certain films that others did not. As a result, the films I liked may be ones people forgot or which were received to a mixed reaction. Read the full story

Relativity Media | USA | 110 min

(Warning: minor spoilers)

Big name, studio-pushed family dramas without a “holiday” selling point (a la The Family Stone or Everybody’s Fine) are hard to come by these days. So are successful war films. Jim Sheridan’s Brothers is both of these things, and has fought a long, hard war of its own to open in theaters, literally surviving a recession and all the conflicts that it came with. Sheridan lost funding in the middle of production, unable to shoot the helicopter crash sequence as written by David Benioff, only to finally be saved by an output deal struck between Lionsgate and Relativity Media for 5 films, the first being Brothers. Read the full story

Lionsgate has released a new trailer for Jim Sheridan‘s Brothers on Yahoo. The film stars Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman, Sam Shepard, Clifton Collins, Jr., Carey Mulligan, and Ethan Suplee. It is written David Benioff (The Kite Runner, 25th Hour). Check out the trailer below. Read the full story

Variety is reporting today that Daniel Craig has signed on to star in the psychological thriller Dreamhouse directed by Jim Sheridan. The film is set to start production January 25, 2010. Variety describes Craig’s role as “a New York publishing exec who relocates his family to a small New England town only to learn that their new home was the scene of a vicious murder.” The film is written by David Loucka and as of now no release date is set.

It looks like Sheridan is looking to pack on a really tight schedule this year. His new film Brothers starring Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal hits theaters Dec. 4th in the US and then internationally over the following 3 months. I am surprised that he would want to start production on a new film so soon. I have always been a fan of Daniel Craig’s work even before the James Bond days (even though that is a plus). I do wonder how this will effect the timing of a new James Bond film since I doubt that we will see a new Bond film in 2010 if Craig is working on this.