What's the hubbub at Comic Con in San Diego this year? As usual, lots of blockbuster movies, lots of TV shows and lots of celebs, though none are likely to create that stir that a surprise, very brief, appearance by Johnny Depp caused today.

Depp, star of Tim Burton's March 2010 spin on Alice in Wonderland, showed up to give a quick wave to fans gathered to catch a first peek at the movie, and created such excitement that the "Decibel level (went) to 11," according to one fan on Twitter.

What's all the fuss about, aside from the general buzz a sighting of Depp in person can spark? The trailer for Alice:

 

 

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When Julie & Julia hits theaters on August 7th, it's going to make audiences everywhere hungry! Luckily, I recently attended the Julie & Julia Blogger Event in New York City and got to snack on some Julia Child-inspired dishes right after the movie. The food was seriously good, but talking to Julie Powell, the author of Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, and the director, Nora Ephron, was even better.

Right after the movie (which, by the way, was adorable!) bloggers from all over the city trekked down to The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers just in time to watch a cooking demonstration by Chef Brian Malarkey, a former finalist on Bravo's Top Chef 3 Miami. He whipped up Julia Child's classic recipe for boeuf bourguignon, a rich beef stew with sautéed mushrooms, caramelized onions and some pancetta. Julie Powell joined him in the kitchen and helped make Julia's recipe for chocolate cream pie while they chatted about the movie.

Before she was a famous author, Julie Powell was miserable, working a dead end job and living in a cramped apartment with her husband, Eric. When she spontaneously started "The Julie/Julia Project" in 2002, her life took on a new meaning. She gave herself one year to make every recipe in her old copy of Julia Child's cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, blogging about her experience every step of the way. The online response was huge, and her blog became a book three years later.

"I would never have gotten through this if I didn't have all my blog readers saying, 'Go, go, go!'" Julie said. Although it seems like she was an overnight success, Julie admitted that she often considered quitting the project during the first few months, but turned to Julia Child's story for inspiration. Julia paved the road for every Food Network star out there and didn't even start cooking until she was nearly forty! "She never tried to cover up her mistakes or be something she wasn't," Julie said fondly.

Although the movie is centered on passionate foodies, there is also a strong love story at its core. Julia Child's relationship with her husband, Paul Child, is depicted as loving, full of laughter and support. Similarly, Julie's marriage with Eric was one of the biggest reasons Nora Ephron decided to write and direct the movie.

"Nobody gets to write movies about marriage. If you do, it's marriages that are about to break up," Nora explained. "I got so excited at how sweet it can be to have a husband who thinks it's great that something happens to you." She was also drawn to the connection between Eric and Julie's love for food and each other. "If you're married to someone and you both love food, it's a big player in your marriage."

Between the drool-worthy dishes and real-life love stories, the movie and event left me craving seconds. Don't miss Julie & Julia when it premieres on August 7th... just make sure to bring lots of snacks!

--Sarah Levy

500 Days of Summer is one of those movies that starts out so promising and subversive, but just wimps out along the way and ends up reinforcing all the old romantic comedy clichés we've grown tired of. A shame, too, because it could have been so much better, and the cast deserved a script worthy of them, but hey, I know better than to expect anything new from these movies, especially one that was so ubiquitous and relentlessly advertised.

The problem with the film, and this is spoilery, but I really can't tell you what's wrong with the movie without discussing its ending, is that it abruptly changes its mind about what kind of movie it wants to be in the third act. It starts out establishing that trauma in one's formative years (either a nasty divorce or too much exposure to Smiths albums and romantic movies) can cause people to be too staunchly on either side of the issue of love: either a) it's a farce not worthy of pursuing that always ends in disaster, or b) it's a magical force owed to everyone, soulmates are real, and love means never having to say you're sorry. Obviously, neither is completely true, and it's foolish to align yourself unwaveringly with either side. That is what this movie starts out being, and it's interesting for a while. Until it completely contradicts itself and just becomes the latter option at the end, that is.

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

The Smurfs live-action movie is officially underway, and we can't wait to see what actors are going to be in it! For Vanity Smurf, they need someone who's pretty, but not too pretty, so that-- what? The Smurfs will all be computer-generated? But... but we just wrote this whole big Smurf cast wish list! Oh, come on! Well, maybe they'll change their minds, and realize that tiny, blue versions of some of today's funniest actors is the way to go.

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After two years of waiting, I have finally seen the latest installment in the Harry Potter series, and it is good. I mean, really good. I laughed, I cried, I was on the edge of my seat. And considering that it was only rated PG, rather than PG-13 like the last two, there was still plenty of gore and violence and scary stuff. There's also a lot of snogging (British for making out), because, in case you weren't aware, this chapter of the Potter saga is all about sex.

Who snogs who? Who doesn't snog should be the question! ...Actually, a lot of people don't snog. Dumbledore doesn't snog anybody, thereby leaving the whole "Is he gay?" question unanswered. Nor does Hagrid, or Professor McGonagall. But Ron snogs his new girlfriend Lavender Brown like crazy for a while, and thinks about snogging another girl when he gets walloped with a love potion.

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Can you believe it's been two years since the last Harry Potter film came out? ...You can? Yeah, it does feel like a long time, doesn't it. Well, it's time to refresh your memory about what happened last time, and who everybody is, so you can go into the new film and know what the hell's going on. Because there are a lot of characters in these films. Between the students and the teachers and the parents and the Death-Eaters, nobody gets more than five minutes of screentime, and it's hard to keep their stories straight. Luckily, we've created a handy-dandy Harry Potter Character Guide with pictures of all of the old characters and a few new ones, plus info on what happened last time and what their status is at the start of this one.

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The recent announcement that SNL's parody sketch "MacGruber" would be following MacGyver into movie theaters got us thinking about the state of the SNL movie machine. We haven't seen a new SNL sketch-based movie in a while, probably because the last dozen or so have been terrible, but not all of them have been. Some of the earliest ones, like The Blues Brothers and Wayne's World are classics, and even Superstar and The Waterboy are pretty damn funny. So we shouldn't let travesties like The Ladies' Man and It's Pat keep us from getting funny movies based on funny, funny sketches. The formula can still work, dammit! Here's a bunch of sketches we'd like to see feature-length.

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The trailer for I Love You Beth Cooper may make it look like your standard teen comedy, but there's just something about it that I can't put my finger on. Sure, it follows the same "beauty and the geek" pattern of films like Can't Hardly Wait, but the premise, the sets, the characters... something about it just screams "1980s" to me. I'm getting a little bit of Who's That Girl?, but I'm mostly getting a lot of Weird Science, which is, well, weird, because the film does not appear to involve two teenagers creating the perfect woman using their computer. (Although, if two nerds were to build their ideal woman today, she would probably look a lot less like Kelly LeBrock and a lot more like Hayden Panettiere, if not exactly like her.)

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What can we expect from Sacha Baron Cohen's latest film? Well, if you've seen Da Ali G Show, Ali G In Da House and Borat, then you know exactly what to expect: ridiculous accents, over-the-top risque humor and unsuspecting Americans caught on film doing and saying things that they probably should have thought twice about. Of course, Bruno has a lot to live up to, because Cohen has been shocking America (and Britain) for years, and he's done some things that are too shocking to top. Here are ten moments where Cohen knocked us for a loop.

Ali G is Pro-Choice (Da Ali G Show) B-boy Ali G has discussed the issues of the day with everyone from C. Everett Koop to Boutros Boutros Boutros Ghali, but never was he so close to a hot-button issue as when he attended a Pro-Choice rally and chatted up the Pro-Lifers who were protesting it. After asking a woman how she knew she didn't like abortion if she hadn't tried it, Ali then asked a priest if the reason he had never had an abortion was because he used condoms or fired blanks. Then he beat-boxed over an old lady singing "We Shall Overcome." Righteously funky!

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It's the Fourth of July weekend, and to many Americans that means cookouts and fireworks and sandy beaches. Unfortunately, it also means that it's as hot as balls. And so bright! It seems like we get closer and closer to the sun every year! This year, why not draw all the blinds, turn on the air conditioner, sit in the dark and watch movies that convey all the fun of the holiday, but without the annoying sunburns, sandy crevices and botulism risks? We've hand-picked the following movies for the complete 4th of July experience, or a reasonable facsimile.

The Fireworks! Independence Day (1996) This may seem a no-brainer, but this alien-invasion movie not only takes place on the 4th (Tagline: "On July 2nd, they arrive. On July 3rd, they strike. On July 4th, we fight back."), it also features enough explosions to vaporize Europe. Not only do the aliens create their own "fireworks" when they blow up Los Angeles, New York and Washington D.C., they also become fireworks when their charred remains burn up while entering the atmosphere.

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