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:

 

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.

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

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.

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

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.

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

... And that's when RunPee.com comes in handy. The Website, which has been featured on NYTimes.com, lists movies currently in theaters, and offers handy suggestions for exactly when during the movies' run times you can slip out to the bathroom or the concession stand without missing anything important. And if you want to know exactly what you'll miss, RunPee provides a summary, which is scrambled in case you don't want the spoiler.

Is this the best idea ever?! Actually, the site is only accessible via the Web for now, but the site promises it's "coming soon to an iPhone near you," which will absolutely make it one of the best, most helpful, ideas ever.  

Apparently very few moviegoers, since Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen made killer box office dollars since opening last Wednesday. $201.2 million, by studio estimates, which puts it behind only The Dark Knight for the biggest four- and five-day openings ever.

Box Office Mojo's estimates for the June 26-28, 2009 box office weekend top five:

Rank | Movie Title (Distributor)
Weekend Gross | Theaters | Total Gross | Week #

1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Paramount (DreamWorks))
$112.0 million | 4,234 | $201.2 million | 1

2. The Proposal (Buena Vista)
$18.5 million | 3,058 | $69.1 million | 2

3. The Hangover (Warner Bros.)
$17.2 million | 3,525 | $183.2 million | 4

4. Up (Buena Vista)
$13.0 million | 3,487 | $250.2 million | 5

5. My Sister's Keeper (Warner Bros.)
$12.0 million | 2,606 | $12.0 million | 1

Source: Box Office Mojo

Looking ahead, the big releases for the July 4 weekend: Public Enemies (Johnny Depp and Christian Bale), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (which looks adorable) and I Hate Valentine's Day (or, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Part Deux, as I like to think of it).

What will you be seeing, besides fireworks, during the holiday weekend?

While all of the attention is on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen right now, this August will see another 1980s toy property come to the big screen: G.I. Joe. Sadly, you may not recognize anything but the name, because visually it seems to have very little in common with the most popular version of its mythos, and unsubstantiated rumors have been circulating that the director, Stephen Sommers, has been pulled from editing the film. How did this happen? How did G.I. Joe, one of the most basic, straightforward concepts in 1980s children's television, become such a nightmare?

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

It's a well-known fact to anyone within earshot of my office that I didn't like the first Transformers movie. In addition to an apparent hatred of the original cartoon, I thought it showed a hatred of humanity, from the robot characters' utter disregard for human lives to the human characters' lack of anything resembling real emotion to, yes, the peeing-on-John-Turturro incident. (No, I will not let it go. John Turturro is a national treasure.) So seeing all of the cool-looking new robots in the trailer for Revenge of the Fallen (Devastator! Ravage! The Fallen!) has my insides churning like Devastator's sand-hole. Could it possibly be good, thereby redeeming the original film and, in fact, the entire Michael Bay film library in my eyes? Doubtful. But the robots certainly look awesome. We gathered as much information as we could about the new robots and got some updates on the four returning primaries for a gallery we like to call Robot Roll Call!

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

For all of you Buffy fans out there, your wildest dreams are about to come true... and it's your worst nightmare. The director and producer of the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie are getting ready to relaunch the franchise minus Angel, Willow, Xander, Spike and (believe it or not) Joss Whedon. The new film would have no connection to the TV series, to avoid trampling on Whedon's vision, and would be darker, event-sized and, they hope, franchise-worthy. They've even teamed up with Asian-horror remake king Roy Lee (The Grudge, The Ring, The Eye, The Strangers) to make sure it has the appropriately creepy (and, apparently, Asian) vibe. While I love Joss Whedon, I also love the idea of a teenage girl killing vampires, so I'd be happy to see someone try a new take on Buffy... as long as it's my take. Here's my helpful (mandatory) guide to how they should do it.

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

New Moon on Tuesday - so okay, it's a day too late to capitalize on the title of one of my fave Duran Duran songs, but it's a giant picture of Rob Pattinson, so let's not quibble. And here it is, the new one-sheet poster for the Nov. 20 Twilight sequel, The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

Yummy, right?

And the movie's official publicity description: "Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the irresistible Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). Suddenly she finds herself drawn into the world of the werewolves, ancestral enemies of the vampires, and finds her loyalties tested."

More new New Moon news: Fans will get an exclusive first look at the movie on May 31, during the Andy Samberg-hosted MTV Movie Awards.

Excited much?

That's right, snag two VIP tickets to an advance screening of Terminator: Salvation, which means two reserved seats and no waiting in line for a pre-release screening of the Christian Bale/McG flick, in a city near you.

All ya gotta do: Click here and enter your cell phone number for a chance to win. See ... couldn't be easier.

Ever since they began revealing the fresh-faced young Enterprise crew and their Macbook-looking bridge, we've been worried about J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek movie. Would it pay tribute to the classic show that had come before it, and manage to simultaneously honor and ignore the easily enraged fan base? As more and more trailers and clips surface, and reports roll in from the privileged few who've seen it, the answer seems to be "yes." With some notable exceptions, the Enterprise crew is the spitting image of the crew that came before, and we compared each and every crew member to their predecessor to make sure.

Continue reading this entry on Television Without Pity.

If you've been keeping up with entertainment news, then you know that two remakes of cult-classic films were recently announced: David Cronenberg's Videodrome is being remade into a sci-fi action thriller and Drop Dead Fred is being re-done with Brit comic Russell Brand. We're not sure we see the logic -- are they hoping that these underperforming movies will make a lot more money the second time around? If that's the case, we came up with ten old, used-up cult films that deserve to be seen by wider audiences, preferably by adding a lot of big-budget special effects and A-list talent. After all, who wants to see a movie that was made in 1985? Ugh!

Continue reading this entry on Television Without Pity.

Have you noticed this? In the midst of all the 17 Again success, that little powerhouse of sweepy do's and fake varsity basketball production numbers, Zac Efron has been getting compared to a young Tom Cruise a lot this month. I guess it makes sense? When Tom Cruise was 21, he was also very pretty and famous, so it makes total sense to compare the two, because 1) no one other than Tom Cruise has ever exhibited those two characteristics, and 2) it's not like calling someone "the next Tom Cruise" has any negative and/or terrifying connotations or anything, media. It makes perfect sense! Excellent work. Anyway, apparently they mean it as a compliment, because Tom Cruise is quite successful, busy and wealthy, despite all his bad personal press, and I say there's no reason the same can't be true for Zefron. Here are a few ridiculous steps in the shadow of Cruise for him to follow. (Note to Zefron: I love you, so please, for the love of god, don't do any of these things.) And a 5, 6, 7, 8!

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

The Interweb is all abuzz today with news of a Father Knows Best movie in the works at Fox/New Regency. Will the new script dissect the show's oft-criticized paternalism, or skew its overly-rosy view of American life? Nope -- it's going to have a wacky grandpa! Apparently the original plot is going by the wayside in favor of a new dad fighting with his more conservative, live-in father over parenting style, which sounds just hilarious. After all, it's easy to remake these classic TV shows as movies, right? Hmmm... Read on to relive the worst '50-'60s TV reboots ever to appear on the silver screen, and take a gander at some remake ideas we'd rather sit through... Worst '50s-'60s TV Remakes Bewitched What happens when you make a movie out of a classic TV series but ignore the original premise? You get Bewitched, 2005's Will Ferrell-Nicole Kidman travesty. Instead of, you know, sticking to the actual plot, writer Nora Ephron (yes, writer of non-horrifying movies like When Harry Met Sally) chose to have the Kidman play a real witch named Isabel who gets tapped to play Samantha Stephens on a modern TV version of Bewitched. So the real premise of Bewitched is in this movie, it's just not the movie. With the needlessly confusing plot, Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell's Razzie-winning lack of chemistry, and the fact that it just wasn't funny, we doubt that even the original Samantha's supernatural powers could have fixed this ill-conceived mess.

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

Jason Statham is a force of nature. Whether he's behind the wheel of a car, running flat-out down a city street or having sex with Amy Smart on a mailbox, the man can do anything and look good doing it. And after watching him punch, kick and drive through three Transporter movies, two Cranks and one unfortunate Uwe Boll film, we've started to mentally insert him into other gritty, high-octane movies of the past, usually in the place of other, less-intense actors. He was great in the reinvented Death Race, so why not let him Statham up some other action classics? Here are ten we'd like to see.

1. Speed Speed was one of the biggest action films of its day, with its tale of a city bus that can't go below 50 miles an hour or it'll explode. And yet Keanu Reeves turned in yet another wooden performance as the LAPD officer who goes for a ride-along. Put Statham in that role -- okay, so he'd have to be some sort of Interpol agent, tracking an IRA bomber -- and bam! Your movie has just been Stathamized. Add a scene where Statham runs so fast that he passes the bus, and you've got a blockbuster that may make people forget about Speed 2. (Whoops, we already did that.)

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

Mall cop movies: there's one for everybody these days for some reason. There were no mall cop movies in the history of movies before last year (there were security guard movies, but that's not the same. Security guards work at banks so they can rob them. Mall cops work at malls so they can not work all day and get paid to eat hot dogs on sticks) and now all of a sudden there are going to be 50 Paul Blarts, and Observe and Report is opening Friday. But a trend is a trend, and while I admire Seth Rogen for recognizing one and hopping right onto that caboose, he's still playing the exact same character he always plays. Like most people on the internet, I think Observe and Report will probably be pretty good, actually (I love a good mob mentality!), but still -- let's go over this guy's resume. Read closely, and you may notice a pattern: It's like Ferrell-level same guy every timeness. It's like Michael Cera-level same guy every timeness. It's like Tommy Chong-level same guy every timeness. Cal-bong, take me away!

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

It seems everyone, from high-ranking Hollywood executives to Joe car enthusiasts to hipster entertainment columnists, knew that Fast & Furious would do well in theaters this past weekend. After all, the only other new film was the indie comedy Adventureland, which isn't exactly Superbad, and the biggest threat from last weekend's holdovers was the kid-targeted Monsters vs. Aliens. But the film actually surpassed expectations, bringing in $72 million in the U.S. alone, giving it the biggest April opening of all time, plus another $30 mill from overseas. All of a sudden, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster are moneymakers, and they're gonna be getting a lot of offers in the wake of this. If this smart-ass entertainment columnist may offer some suggestions, I've got a multi-part plan for success for each of them.

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

I am not an otaku. However, growing up watching Japanese animation and actually working at an anime magazine for a while has given me a strong appreciation for anime and manga, and I still try to keep up with what's going on in that world. So when I found out they were making a live-action adaptation of the popular anime Dragon Ball, which comes out this weekend, I paid close attention to what anime fans -- meaning my bitter, frequently drunk otaku friends -- were saying about this movie. Now that it's here, I figured I'd run down some of the biggest complaints from fans of the original cartoon and comics, just so non-fans can see why they should hate this movie so much. ...Although I'm sure the non-fans will have their own reasons to hate it.

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

It's almost here. Because you all were begging for it. The reunion of Vin Diesel and Paul... Walker? Is it Walker? -- Paul Walker in Fast & Furious, the third sequel to 2001's The Fast and the Furious, but the first to star Diesel since the original. (Sadly, this is the only one of his once-numerous franchises still kicking.) While we're intrigued by the possibilities of this new sequel-naming method (Lord of Rings! Passion of Christ! Silence of Lambs!), the fact remains that this movie was unnecessary. Sure, it may make money, but creatively? Morally? It was just as unnecessary as the last two sequels. And it's not the first sequel that should never have existed. We won't go so far as to say that all sequels are a bad idea, but a good number of them are, and many of them involve Vin Diesel somehow. These are ten that we actively resent the existence of.

Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 The Blair Witch Project was what it was -- a film making experiment that turned into a worldwide phenomenon. It would have been shameless to try to make a second movie in the exact same found-footage style, but it was just plain stupid to make a cookie-cutter horror movie sequel, in which a new group of kids go to investigate the legend behind the found footage. Not only was it incredibly bad, with gratuitous nudity and a substandard plot, but it really had very little to do with the original, and only watered down its legacy.

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

Now, being a semi-literate, heterosexual male, I didn't see Twilight. I mean, I wanted to, but I knew they were making a sequel, so I figured I had time to see the first one before the second came out. But now, all of a sudden, I'm seeing commercials for the new one, and it opens this weekend! It's been what, a few months since Twilight came out? I mean, I knew they were fast-tracking the thing, but this is ridiculous! I want to go see the new one, but I still only know the basic elements of the first, so I'm not even totally sure what's going on here, but this is what I think is going on in Twilight 2: Adventureland.

Bella (Kristen Stewart) has got a job for the summer at an amusement park called "Adventureland." (Metaphor for how her life has changed since she started snogging the undead? Discuss.) I guess she and that Edward the Vampire guy are still dating, because he keeps hanging around the park, except now he's played by Ryan Reynolds. Not sure why they recast -- did Robert Pattinson decide not to come back? He seemed like he was losing it for a while there. Anyway, I guess Edward got over that whole sparkling-in-the-sunlight thing, because he's sitting around in broad daylight and looks perfectly normal. Good thing, too -- from what I hear, the sparkling thing looked totally lame.

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

>Good news for Angels & Demons! The Tom Hanks sequel/prequel to The DaVinci Code may be officially boycotted by the Catholic church. Why is that good news for the movie? Since the Vatican issued a statement last Friday, newspapers and websites from Cleveland to India have already helped spread the word. You couldn't buy that kind of publicity. Well, maybe you could, but it'd be expensive. With the economy being what it is and budgets being pinched, perhaps other movies could benefit from being boycotted from various groups. Although it's unlikely any organization would have quite the opposite-effect clout as the Catholic church, here are 10 movie suggestions with their potential naysayers.

1. Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian Night at the Museum made a lot of money in 2006, but it'll need a boost if it wants to compete against Terminator Salvation, opening the same weekend. Potential boycotter: The Smithsonian Institution Why:The Smithsonian allowed some of the movie to be shot on location, but when they heard star Ben Stiller had signed on for Little Fockers, all bets were off.

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

Moe, Larry and Curly will soon be entertaining audiences yet again.

If all goes as hoped for, Moe will be played by Benicio Del Toro and Curly by Jim Carrey, who's already planning to pack on 40 pounds in order to portray the rotund comic. Milk star Sean Penn has already signed on for the role of Larry.

The movie, directed by The Farrelly Brothers, will not be a biopic -- that was already done in 2000, with Michael Chiklis playing the role of Curly. This film will be a slapstick comedy based on all of the short films that the comedy trio made.

Since The Three Stooges weren't really a part of my generation, I called up my dad to find out if he'd actually see a Stooges remake. I was sure he wouldn't want anyone to mess with the classic characters, but I was very wrong. "I absolutely think people would be interested in seeing it," he told me. "If it was anybody but famous people in the roles, the chance of it succeeding would be so small, but by putting these celebrities in it, it makes it interesting."

I'm stubborn, so I tried to make him change his tune. My parents loooove The Marx Brothers, so I asked, "You'd like it even if it opens the door for a Marx Brothers remake?" Well my dad wouldn't back down, saying, "Yes, if it fails, it shows how great the original was. And if it's a success, it will compliment the original."

So there you have it - the Three Stooges argument in the Garfinkel family. If you were a Three Stooges fan already, do you want to see this new remake (set for 2010)? And if you never cared about them before, will you see this movie anyway because of the stars? -- Jacki Garfinkel

Fan me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter!

That got your attention, right? Our motto is that free always tastes better (and never more so than in our current economy), so we're steering every movie fan we know to Film Metro.com, a Website that lists free movie screenings in cities all across the country.

 

FREE, people!

We're huge fans of Jason Statham around here, so I'm not asking this question lightly. It's just that, as Jason Statham makes more movies and becomes more and more deservedly well-known, after a while he's not exclusively ours anymore. Which is awesome, because The Statham should be the biggest action star on the planet, and I can't wait for that. But everyone seems to be in on the Jason Statham joke now (including him by the way, because he's amazing), so, like I did when Old School propelled Will Ferrell from the Palomino-loving lunatic doctor only a few people I knew quoted outside of his W. sketches to the giant comedy star everyone on the planet loved, I think it's time to let The Statham go off to college to discover himself while I take a new under-appreciated star under my bloggy wing. I've been thinking hard on this, and I've decided my new favorite might just be this John Cena character. Let's discuss this important matter after the jump.

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile

-Photo by Getty Images-

Calling all Twilight fans! Dakota Fanning is set to star in New Moon!

I'm going to make a lot of enemies with this one, but I'm really not a fan of Twilight. And, I think Dakota is an excellent actress, so it makes me kinda sad that she'll be joining the franchise.

But, since I cannot ignore all you Twilight lovers out there, here's the dish: Dakota will be playing Jane, a menacing vampire with an angelic exterior who works for the Italian Volturi vampires.

Filming will begin in November. So, for those of you who live and breathe the characters, is Dakota the right choice? -- Jacki Garfinkel

Follow Jacki on Twitter!

Everyone knows actress Nia Vardalos from the hit movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and now she's front and center in another romantic comedy, My Life in Ruins.

Nia plays Georgia, a  tour guide in Greece, who leads a bunch of misfit tour guides and uninterested tourists. Of course, this all changes when she meets Irv (Richard Dreyfuss - swoon!), a tourist who teaches her how to have fun and look at life differently. He also helps her find love, but not with whom you'd expect!

Rachel Dratch also stars in the film. My Life in Ruins is scheduled to be released on May 8, 2009.

It's official: the Arrested Development movie is happening! After months of hemming and hawing from one Michael Cera (aka George Michael Bluth), the lone player refusing to sign on to the film, homeboy has finally agreed to do the damn thing. (Mitchell Hurwitz said he wouldn't move forward on a script unless he had all of the original cast members on board.) Over the course of these last tortured months, I found myself asking what the hell was going on with young Mr. Cera. Since when do retiring milquetoast hipsters turn into demanding divas that hold up production of a movie fans have been campaigning for since the beloved show got canceled? Why would Cera, whose public persona has always been affably awkward, essentially bad-mouth the show that made him a star? And you think you know a person. I've pieced together the hellishly demanding terms of his contract in the hopes of revealing MC's true nature.

Continue reading this entry on The Moviefile .

Follow Jacki on Twitter!