'Cogan's Trade' could be great with or without Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt will star for director Andrew Dominik in a film version of George V. Higgins' super novel, "Cogan's Trade." That's got to be good news of some kind for Higgins fans. During my first professional job in journalism, at Boston magazine, I had the pleasure to interview and once or twice edit Higgins, the lawyer turned fiction-writer whose debut book, "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," is a perfect novel about imperfect crimes. Like Hammett in his day, Higgins (who died in 1999) brought American writing closer to crime as Americans actually lived it in the streets -- meaning, in Higgins' case, the saloons, dives and alleyways of Boston. He also transformed the art of hardboiled storytelling, developing plot and character almost entirely through dialogue. Higgins fans would go around for weeks repeating lines like, "This life's hard...but it's harder if you're stupid."

"Cogan's Trade" (which I reviewed for the Boston Phoenix in 1974) is Higgins at his pinnacle. It's the taut, mordant tale of an enforcer bent on restoring gangland equilibrium after the stick-up of a high-stakes card game that was supposed to be shielded by the Mob. A movie version would at least bring the book back into print. And Pitt has shown the acting chops to play a member of Higgins' Beantown rogue's gallery. My fear is that director Andrew Dominik will art it up and ruin it the way he did Ron Hansen's "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." (That's Pitt as James, above). But even a failed film of "Cogan's Trade" could be worthwhile if it sparks a Higgins print revival.

Michelle Williams to play Marilyn Monroe in movie

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michelle Williams will play Marilyn Monroe in a new movie based around the iconic actress's 1956 film shoot in London opposite Sir Laurence Olivier, producers said on Friday.

Williams, 30, who earned an Oscar nomination for her 2005 role in "Brokeback Mountain" and also appeared in "Shutter Island", stars as Monroe alongside a British cast that sees Kenneth Branagh as Olivier, Julia Ormond playing actress Vivien Leigh and Judi Dench in the role of British screen veteran Dame Sybil Thorndike.

"My Week with Marilyn" chronicles a week in the life of Monroe as she escapes her Hollywood routine and is introduced to the pleasures of 1950s Britain by an assistant on the set of "The Prince and the Showgirl".

British actor Derek Jacobi, and young stars Dominic Cooper and Emma Watson of "Harry Potter" fame, will also appear, with Simon Curtis directing.

Work on the co-production between BBC Films, Trademark Films and the Weinstein Company has already started at Britain's Pinewood Studios, producers said.

The movie is the second planned film treatment of Monroe -- still one of the world's best-known sex symbols more than 40 years after her death.

Australian Naomi Watts is due to play Monroe in the Hollywood movie "Blonde" based on U.S. writer Joyce Carol Oates' 2000 fictional biography of the star. "Blonde" is expected to start shooting in early 2012.

Craven conjures dull, generic horror in "Soul"

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – Understandably not screened for critics before its Friday release, "My Soul to Take" represents a particular disappointment because it represents the first writing-directing effort from Wes Craven since his fiendishly clever "Wes Craven's New Nightmare" in 1994.

Unfortunately, the director of "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "Scream" and other horror classics comes a cropper with this dull, talk-heavy snoozer that most closely resembles something that would show up on the CW network. Even more egregious is the converted 3D presentation of the Universal release, forcing moviegoers to cough up extra bucks for effects that are barely noticeable -- other than, of course, the inevitable increased dimness.

After a fairly slam-bang opening sequence introducing serial killer the Riverton Ripper, who is promptly dispatched (seemingly) after attempting to murder his family, the film fast-forwards 16 years. We are then introduced to the Riverton Seven, a septet of local teens who were born on the day the Ripper died, with one of them possibly harboring his murderous soul. Their number soon dwindles as each proceeds to suffer a gruesome death at the hands of a faceless killer, with the most obvious suspect being Bug (Max Thieriot), a rather disturbed youth who has a strange obsession with the vulturelike California condors.

Unfortunately, neither the Riverton Ripper nor his faceless successor is likely to compete with Freddy Krueger in iconic horror-movie villain terms, and the overall proceedings lack the wit and style that marked the best of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Scream" series.

Craven's trademark satirical humor sadly is in little evidence here, though he does try at times, most notably in an absurd sequence that riffs off the classic mirror routine performed by the Marx Brothers in "Duck Soup." The film becomes particularly leaden as it lurches endlessly toward its conclusion, with the action, such as it is, giving way to endlessly confusing exposition that had the audience stirring restlessly.

The generic teen characters are dully played by the youthful ensemble, though the wild-eyed Thieriot does try his best to create a memorably weird figure.

At one point in the film, Craven makes a classic mistake, showing a clip of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." It only serves to remind us that our money would have been better spent renting horror classics on DVD.

Harry Potter can't make 3-D magic

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Warner Bros on Friday said it abandoned plans to convert the next Harry Potter movie to 3-D, bringing mixed reactions from box office watchers and fans of the multibillion-dollar blockbuster franchise.

The Hollywood studio said it was unable to produce a 3-D version of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I" in time for its release on November 19.

The movie will be presented only in conventional 2-D and in Imax theaters, but the second installment, due to be released in July 2011, is still set to be released in 2-D and 3-D.

"Despite everyone's best efforts, we were unable to convert the film in its entirety and meet the highest standards of quality," Warner Bros. said in a statement.

The six previously released Harry Potter movies, based on the best-selling novels by author J.K. Rowling, have raked in an estimated $5.4 billion at the worldwide box office.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", released in 2-D in 2009, earned $933 million worldwide at the box office. "Deathly Hallows; Part 1" is expected to do about the same figure, Hollywood sources said.

IMAX Corp declined to comment on Friday's statement regarding "Deathly Hallows: Part I" -- which covers about half of the final book in Rowling's series.

The news was greeted with a mixture of shrugs and dismay by Harry Potter fans, but most said on websites they would go to see "Deathly Hallows" anyway.

Some industry sources said the movie might take a hit in terms of box offices receipts, given the $2 to $3 dollar markup in prices for 3-D screenings, but others weren't so sure.

The DreamWorks Animation 3-D movie "How to Train Your Dragon," for example, saw 68 percent of its opening weekend ticket sales in March come from 3-D and Imax screenings.

Brandon Gray, president of Boxofficemojo.com, said the financial impact was hard to predict.

"People are going to 'Harry Potter' primarily for the story. It is one of the few sure things this holiday season,' Gray said. "3-D is over-rated and might be cooling. It is not the end of the world for Warner Bros," he added.

Paul Dergarabedian of box office trackers Hollywood.com said the shortfall from higher 3-D ticket prices could be offset by fans going more than once.

"Whatever is lost from the 3-D ticket bonus might be made up in repeat business. And families will appreciate the lower prices," Dergarabedian said.

"3-D isn't that big of a deal anyway. ALL I CARE ABOUT IS HARRY POTTER. The awesomeness of the movie trumps all obstacles," wrote Joshua.A on Harry Potter fan site mugglenet.com.

Other fans said they would rather see the movie next month than wait even longer for a 3-D conversion. But there was also huge disappointment in some quarters. "This sucks big time!!!!," wrote Carrie-Ann Brooks.

Warner Bros. is owned by Time Warner Inc..

Katherine Heigl's Movie Life As We Know It

Boy meets girl. Boy and girl don't like each other. Boy and girl are forced to raise a child together. What will happen next? That's the premise of the new movie Life As We Know It (in theaters Oct. 8), starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. After their mutal best friend dies, Holly (Heigl) and Eric (Duhamel) -- who previously went on one really terrible first date -- must put their differences aside, move in together and raise their goddaughter Sophie.

Heigl seems to be a natural fit for this movie. She's proven her comedy chops before (did you see the orgasm scene in The Ugly Truth!?) and she can make you cry at the drop of the hat (remember the Denny Duquette death scene in Grey's Anatomy?). And as for Josh Duhamel, well he's extremely easy on the eyes, and, if you saw Ramona & Beezus, you know he has the perfect charisma around kids.

Toy Story 3: The highest grossing animated film ever

His catchphrase is to go "to infinity, and beyond" and, if his box office receipts are anything to go by, Buzz Lightyear is on course to set sky-high standards of success for any big-screen animated character to follow.

Toy Story 3, in which Lightyear stars, is set to become the first animation to take $1bn at box offices globally after becoming the highest grossing animation ever, this weekend.

Its characters, including spaceranger Buzz, cowboy Woody and resourceful Barbie, helped Disney/Pixar gross $920m in global ticket sales since it opened in June. The previous record holder was DreamWorks Animation's Shrek 2, which raked in $919.8m.

Toy Story 3's success makes it the fourth highest grossing Disney movie ever, behind Johnny Depp blockbusters Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ($1.07bn), Alice in Wonderland ($1.02bn) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End ($961m).

Cinemagoers' love affair with animation shows no sign of waning. Shrek Forever After is currently pulling in viewers across the country, while Lionsgate's 3D wolf animation Alpha and Omega hits the big screen in October. Universal's Despicable Me, which knocked the latest Twilight instalment off the top of the box office on its release in the United States last month, is also due out in the UK in October.

Charles Gant, film editor at Heat magazine and a box office analyst, said studios had invested in their own animation divisions over recent years after seeing the success of DreamWorks Animation in rivalling Disney. "3D has been fantastic for animation and also the family market just keeps getting bigger," he added. "It's very rare a big studio loses money on a family film."

Toy Story 3 is the latest in a line of hits for Pixar, which also created Up, Finding Nemo and Monsters, Inc. The film has been credited with reducing grown men to tears with its themes of growing up, separation and loss.

Helen Nabarro, head of animation direction at the National Film and Television School, said the success of the Toy Story franchise and feature-length animations such as Oscar winner Up was down to sophisticated scripts and strong stories. "It can be a recognisable human world but with this extra fantasy that you believe," she explained.

Ms Nabarro, who was an executive producer on the BBC's Robbie the Reindeer films, said animation was "very much mainstream" now. It may have been viewed as "kids' stuff" in the past but now targeted adults.

Aardman's Wallace & Gromit did animation a "massive service" in showing that the genre could work for both adults and children, she added.

Hollywood's top actors are increasingly keen to voice animated characters. Steve Carell features as Gru in Despicable Me, while Brad Pitt will voice hero Metro Man opposite Will Ferrell's villain in DreamWorks Animation's Megamind this December.

The Expendables

A 101 percent action packed movie which brings together the greatest action stars. You have action veterans Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Mickey Rourke, and Jet Li; plus you have new age action stars like Jason Statham, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, and Steve Austin.

The movie is full of blood and gore and lots of fighting and explosions. You will surely remain glued to your seats till the every end and gasping at the amount of action and killing the movie has.

Though, “The Expendables” is a far match against Ninja Assassin and other Japanese-made hardcore action movies, this is the first American Hollywood film that shows a seeming hardcore action.

The Expendables is not only action though for it has a crisp comedy and fun side to it. The dialogue of the characters are at point very hilarious. Two of the dialogues I remember are one from the scene between Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis and another between Jet Li and Stallone.

“Never mind him, he wants to be President,” says Stallone when Schwarzenegger refused the job in Vilena, South America.

Then there is the dialogue where Jet Li is trying to justify a raise in pay because he thinks he works harder because he is smaller. Then, when Lundgren tries to chase them and kill them, Stallone asks Jet Li to go to the back of the car and shoot the enemies. Stallone reasons out that he needs to do that because he is small.

For those who are seeking an intelligent and a movie with depth, well you will be frustrated with The Expendables. The plot of this movie is very typical and I would say shallow. It fails to even stir someones imagination and the love story also fails to excite the audience.

Do not expect awesome storyline and dialogue from The Expendables since this movie is probably done just to give us a taste of all the action starts packed in one movie doing what action stars do.

The musical score for The Expendables is also great and it fits every sequence. It is like you are being driven inside the movie in every music played on the action-packed scenes.

I do recommend this movie since it is one action act that someone should not miss.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Having retooled and neatly anglicised the zombie movie on Shaun of the Dead and the cop thriller in Hot Fuzz, director Edgar Wright finally has the Hollywood budget his imagination so richly deserves.

But he's not done with his genre-splicing yet.

In fact, Scott Pilgrim vs The World is quite the mash-up, a post-adolescent romantic comedy combined with a videogame fantasy and shot through with indie-rock cool and all sorts of editing sleight-of-hand.

Its closest cinematic cousin is this year's Kick-Ass, another Brit-directed geek empowerment fantasy coming, as this does, from a left-field graphic novel - Canadian Bryan Lee O'Malley's manga-influenced series about 22-year-old Toronto slacker-bassist Scott and the pursuit of the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers.

Here Wright has compressed that six-part series into one mad fireworks display of a movie. One which runs on videogame logic, breaking out into high-flying chop socky - complete with points and power-ups - at every possible opportunity.

It also references everything from 90s sitcoms to 60s supergroups (there are characters called Stephen Stills and "Young Neil"), plus superhero movies - Chris Evans of the Fantastic Four turns up looking like Wolverine while Brandon Routh, the last big screen Superman, is now possessed of vegetarian superpowers.

And it's set in snowy Toronto. Though you'll only hear Scott say "Ay?" once.

So it doesn't lack for style, energy or - even with its magpie tendencies - originality.

Underneath all the flash, its story is an old one: Boy has to fight for the girl of his dreams.

Only Scott must fight Ramona's "seven evil exes" Mortal Kombat-style. They come in all shapes and sizes - fortunately, for running times' sake, two of them are twins.

Good thing he's put his time in at the arcade with Knives Chau, his teenage girlfriend who is about to have her heart broken by this lethargic lothario, even if she is the number one fan of his pop-punk band Sex Bob-Omb which is aiming at the big record deal at an upcoming contest.

That battle of the bands finale scene is something. The opposing groups' music becomes transformed into giant game monsters which fight for supremacy.

All of which might say something about how the joystick generation has displaced music from the centre of pop culture. Though this isn't exactly striving for deeper meaning, just flashy geeky cool and yet more of those fight scenes which leave the defeated decimated into a pile of coins.

Yes it does become wearying along the way and there are one or two evil exes too many. And despite Michael Cera employing his much-practised dweebish charm as Scott, he's more convincing as a virtual fighter than a lover. Mary Elizabeth Winstead certainly makes Ramona feisty and alluring. But while little cartoon hearts flutter from the pair's embraces, there's just not enough to make you care about whether they end up together.

The film certainly kicks bottom and stays amusing as Scott progresses through the levels.

The Bounty Hunter's the Exact Opposite of Sexy and Hilarious!

Milo (Butler) and Nicole (Aniston) are ex-spouses still licking their wounds. Since the split, Milo got himself booted off the police force and works as a bounty hunter. She's become a hotshot reporter.

When she ditches a hearing for a minor offense and he's assigned to grab her for jumping bail, calamity and hilarity ensue! No, not really. Somewhere in development, like Milo and Nicole's union, this script took a wrong turn.

Maybe it's the marketing that's misleading. The Bounty Hunter is being sold as a comedy, yet the first 15 minutes are devoid of laughs. Not a peep, twitter or chortle. And it doesn't get much better after that—despite several attempts at jokes and the stars' tremendous efforts to pull funny faces, the script fails miserably to entertain; most of the dialogue is tiresome bickering between our two leads.

The whole affair is very straight-to-DVD. Just think, a quality film could have taken up the precious real estate sucked up by this movie.

The plot actually isn't so bad—it had potential, at least. Nicole's investigation into a suspicious suicide starts to catch up with her, and she and Milo start to poke around while constantly dodging danger.

Unfortunately, it feels like this juicy plot twist comes a good hour and 15 boring minutes into the picture—too little, waaaay too late. What could have been a down-and-dirty Nick-and-Nora road movie is just another flick that should have shipped straight to the video store.

The Runaways Pretty Much Rocks, Despite a Few Sour Notes

This movie about the first all-girl rock band wants it both ways: Yes, the Runaways were awesome, but there was also something more than a little inappropriate about putting teenage singer Currie onstage wearing little but a corset to belt out "Cherry Bomb." And 30 years later, there's still something inappropriate about putting teenage actor Fanning onstage doing the same.

But the film doesn't spend time pondering such things, as former David Bowie/Marilyn Manson video director Floria Sigismondi prefers to revel in the superficial: At times, she seems more in love with period hairdos than anything else, and it needs to be said that blown-out, slo-mo shots of a person's dazed, drug-addled face as signifier for personal downfall is not just Rock Video 101, but David Lynch 101 as well.

Despite all that, the actors make this work, and there is where Sigismondi shines—the recent The Yellow Handkerchief proves that not everybody can get a good performance out of Kristen Stewart, but she's solid here. (Also helpful, the real Jett served as producer to make sure the performance, including Stewart's guitar-playing and singing, was spot-on).

Fanning...well, she's always been good. No surprise. But it's Michael Shannon—generally most recognizable for playing quiet psychopaths—who dominates the screen here as the flamboyant Fowley.

Fans of '80s teen movies will want to keep an eye out for Fast Times at Ridgemont High's Robert Romanus as a dorky guitar teacher who gets nowhere when he tries to teach Joan Jett acoustic folk songs.

How to Train Your Dragon Swift, Smart and Only Slightly Dangerous

Meet Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel), a fledgling Viking so gawky that a puffy fur vest and boots only make him look scrawnier. Hiccup is the son of Stoic (Gerard Butler), who is everything that his son is not: a brilliant side of beef with a long track record against the traditional Viking enemy: dragons.

Dragons—dubbed with terrifying breed names like Night Fury and Silent Death—invade the town regularly, picking off cottony sheep and setting fire to pretty much everything else. Hiccup, wanting to fit in, aims to kill dragons someday, just like his dad. Trouble is, he doesn't appear to be very good at it.

Turns out, Hiccup isn't so much a dragon killer as he is a dragon whisperer. After downing a mysterious, inky-black Night Fury one night, Hiccup tracks it down and frees it, creating a friendship borne of equal parts common interest and lunches of raw fish.

If the black dragon Toothless looks familiar, you may be a connoisseur of good character design; animator Chris Sanders, who created Stitch for Lilo & Stitch, is a codirector here.

Sanders elicits the same rounded head and nubby teeth that made the Disney alien so unforgettable. Unlike way too many movie animal companions, Toothless has his own agenda and doesn't bother with sentimental crap, which makes his sleek little head all that much more endearing. One wonders if Sanders, or someone else close to the production, has a very young, very energetic house cat.

Critics may quibble with the voice casting—why are Stoic and Gobber the town blacksmith (Craig Ferguson) Scottish, and Hiccup and his love interest, Astrid (America Ferrera) not? But, eh, it's a cartoon, and the voice actors, with only a couple of exceptions, avoid the smug, contemporary delivery style that has made other DreamWorks animation titles (Shrek, anyone?) so insufferable.

In fact, almost everything about this movie feels fresh and original in Sanders' hands. The animation is some of the best we've seen since Monsters, Inc.—some might even say Avatar—and there are plenty of jokes for the grown-ups as well as the kids. But it's the core relationship between dork and dragon—no sap, just two solid characters—that makes the film more than your average kid flick.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Without giving away a spoiler, the end includes a bit of plot that shows admirable braveness on the part of the producers and studio; queasy or overprotective parents may not agree.

Clash of the Titans Is Hit and Myth

In this revisionist telling of Greek legend, humankind is beginning to rebel against the capricious gods of Mount Olympus, so the angry Hades (Ralph Fiennes, apparently with laryngitis) gets the blessing of big brother Zeus (Liam Neeson) to whup some mortal ass. Little does Zeus know, Hades has a bigger scheme in motion: Terrorized by monsters, including the Kraken, mortals will hate and fear the gods even more. This is a boon to the underworld god, who thrives on such emotions, but Zeus needs prayer and love to stay strong. Stir up human anger enough, and he'll be vulnerable to a hostile takeover from below.

Caught in the middle is Perseus (Sam Worthington), illegitimate son of Zeus, who has his own grudge against Hades for killing his adoptive parents. Told by immortal beauty Io (Gemma Arterton) that killing the Kraken may weaken Hades enough for him to be harmed, Perseus sets out to do so on a quest that involves serpent-haired Medusa (Natalia Vodianova), giant scorpions, Hades' deformed disciple Calibos (Jason Flemyng), and wooden Djinn of the Deus Ex Machina tribe. All in after-the-fact 3-D, which isn't awful but also ain't worth the extra ticket premium, since the only thing that really pops out is the end credits.

Children of the '80s tend to have fond memories of the original Clash of the Titans, yet for its day, it was almost exactly the equivalent of modern mindless blockbusters. Looking at it objectively, it is fun, but really little more than an effects showcase and an amusing game of spot-the-stunt-casting. That the stop-motion monsters are seen as somehow more charming than the newer digital ones seems merely emblematic of a general lack of respect for computer animators, relative to those who worked with tangible models.

So while there's much that can be mocked here, the new battles are just as fun in their own way—the scorpions in particular are awesome. This is Clash by way of Lord of the Rings, Todd McFarlane action figures and God of War: The eye candy is phenomenal!

Unfortunately, Perseus is a bit of a jerk in this version. Far from the noble hero who wanted to marry the princess and save the city in the original, he's now simply on a personal vendetta. Said princess is a total afterthought as a character, and new love interest Io, who might as well be renamed Little Miss Exposition, is kinda icky when you stop to think about the fact that she's been watching over Perseus since his infancy.

Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief ... a Herculean Bore

For the uninformed (most of us over the age of 12), the Percy books are said to be the next Harry Potter series. Except that Harry—onscreen, at least—has an interesting hero, fun sidekicks and a fully realized fantasy world. Judging from this film, the most Percy has is a few scenes with computer-generated Greek gods that fare worse than the old stop-motion ones.

See, Percy Jackson is an average teen who has a Greek god for a daddy (but doesn't know it). And when someone steals Zeus' prized lightning bolt, all signs point to the boy who lives like a human but is actually a demigod.

Truthfully, the cheesy FX actually make the film more tolerable, as Percy's quest involves a three-headed Hydra, a psychedelic trip to Vegas that's accompanied by Lady Gaga's "Poker Face," and more. But even then, it's really only bearable, never inspired.

So this quest Percy and his mates must go on involves going to the underworld to save Percy's mother (Catherine Keener). Hades (a funny Steve Coogan) believes Percy stole Zeus' lightning bolt and will trade the kid his mom for this "ultimate weapon." Since Percy doesn't have said bolt, all he can do, with the help of fellow demigod pals, is sneak past Hades, grab his mom and maybe find the real lightning thief.

This is certainly a decent setup for a new fantasy series, but Logan Lerman (Gamer) plays Percy as the most generic young adult since the Narnia kids. This is unfortunate, since he and his costars Alexandra Daddario and Brandon T. Jackson have been saddled with roles that need charming and charismatic performances. Having to watch Percy go from mopey teen to angsty demigod teen just isn't very interesting.

Director Chris Columbus might not be the most subtle of filmmakers, but in the past he's had a knack for casting strong kids in big roles (the first two Harry Potter movies, Home Alone). This cast is simply too generic. None of the young thespians stick out.

Thankfully, Columbus' other talent has been getting veteran actors to play important parts in his films. So while the main characters are a washout, things get fun when Uma Thurman shows up...as Medusa! Her big eyes, porcelain skin and great hammy energy hit just the right note as she tries to turn our heroes to stone.

Also along for the ride: a siren temptress in the form of Rosario Dawson and Pierce Brosnan as a centaur. Props to Pierce for completely going with it and making it work.

Legion Easily the Year's Best Movie About Badass Angels

It seems that God's just a wee bit temperamental, and has gotten tired of human b.s., so it's extermination time. Too bad for him that Archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) somehow knows better than the being who brought about all creation, and has torn off his wings and stolen a bunch of guns in order to protect some random unborn child who will supposedly save mankind (how exactly this will happen is never explained in the slightest).

At a small desert diner called Paradise Falls (which is a pun, get it? "Falls" is a verb as well as a noun!), the final showdown begins. An unshaven, alcoholic Dennis Quaid and his merry staff of lowbrow losers, plus Michael, against hordes of God-possessed zombies, clouds of flies, and angels in armor.

We've seen many variations on this before, most of them superior: The Prophecy, Feast, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight...but if you've already seen those and could stand another variation, this is reasonable entertainment. Nobody in the audience really cares whether or not Lucas Black wants to be a responsible daddy to his girlfriend's illegitimate kid, so those parts are a snooze, but Tyrese's 'hood rat is hilarious, as is a Satanic granny who eats raw meat and climbs walls.

Yes, the angels dress like Ben Affleck in Dogma, which is not a good sign. And it does seem pretty ridiculous that they have bulletproof wings, yet are vulnerable to such good old-fashioned techniques as a wrestling sleeper-hold. But if you wanted logic, you should have taken one look at the poster of an angel holding a machine gun and walked the other way. Needless to say, if you take your scripture seriously, you also might want to avoid this one.

It's good to see Charles S. Dutton on the big screen again, especially sporting a metal claw for a hand. And special praise goes out to Kevin Durand—the Blob in X-Men Origins: Wolverine—for his English accent and tearily earnest face as Michael's former colleague in heaven Gabriel. Director Scott Stewart, a former special-effects man, has not made a film for the ages, but he has made a decent piece of mindless entertainment.

From Paris with Love Has a Gun!

If you were to take From Paris with Love seriously, it'd be easy to be offended by its portrayal of women, minorities, Muslims, Asians, and anyone who isn't a big, loud American a-hole with a gun (i.e. John Travolta). Fortunately, it's nigh-impossible to take the movie seriously, so just enjoy the destruction.

The Bigger Picture: Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays Reece, assistant to the American ambassador in Paris. He wants more out of life, like some kind of big-deal assignment. This he gets, and then some, when he's assigned to partner up with Travolta's Charlie Wax, who's sort of like Sherlock Holmes crossed with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Wax is loud and reckless, but every ludicrous risk he takes invariably pays off. In his attempt to keep up, Reece ends up destroying every aspect of his former life.

Much like director Pierre Morel's previous action hit Taken, there's a curious reactionary sensibility at work here. In this story, women are all scheming back-stabbers, Arabs and Muslims are all terrorists, Asians deal drugs, lower-income minorities are all criminals, the French are totally ineffective. And diplomacy is stupid when you can solve all problems via the use of a large, acid-tipped handgun named "Mrs. Jones."

It's easy to say such things are relatively harmless in a lark like this, but then this reviewer just happens to be a loud-mouthed American a-hole, the one group about which director Morel has nothing bad to say. The film is bound to be a hit over here, but you just know the French audiences have to be cringing at the fear of what the movie might encourage.

"Relax," an audience member might say, "just turn your brain off and enjoy it." Such a hypothetical person makes a very good point.

The Wolfman a Gleeful, Gothy Gorefest

Benicio Del Toro gets hairier and crazier than usual as Lawrence Talbot, an Anglo-American actor and unlikely spawn of Anthony Hopkins, who becomes particularly dangerous, doggy-style, when the moon is full. Outstanding production design and heavy doses of gore render this a gleefully gothic tale, though the story could have used a bit more attention.



The Bigger Picture: This long-in-the-works remake of the Lon Chaney-starring horror classic has a troubled history, having changed directors at least once, and release dates at least twice.

In general, the seams don't show—if you liked Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, which similarly updated a classic monster in period style with more modern detective work and violence, you'll like this, too.

Plus, it's been a long time since there was this much explicit carnage in a big-studio horror movie with A-list stars.

There are also plenty of cheap shocks: Any time the soundtrack suddenly starts to get superquiet, rest assured a loud bang waits around the corner.

Casting Del Toro in the lead role brings a different dynamic than the original; however, like Jack Nicholson in The Shining, he seems potentially sick and psychotic from the get-go, which is explained by a new backstory about how Talbot did time in a mental institution. It's a forgivable addition, although director Joe Johnston falters slightly when depicting Talbot's hallucination sequences, using cheap dissolves and superimpositions that seem creaky compared to the rest of the movie. Casting Hopkins and failing to rein him in at all is a similarly dubious call.

Gone is the Holocaust allegory that the 1941 film subtly presented, and in its place, the werewolf becomes more of a Dr. Jekyll addiction metaphor, complete with relapses and genetic predispositions. Not that this is supercerebral, or anything—full moons seem to occur practically every other day in this story, offering plenty of opportunity for bone-cracking transformations and limb-ripping action.

Stylistic shout-outs to the original, not to mention other forebears like King Kong and An American Werewolf in London, are nicely subtle.

There is one significant misstep into campy, too-much-CGI Van Helsing territory near the end, but fortunately things recover before all is said and done. You wanted your Wolfman scary? Mostly, you got it.

Valentine's Day Stuffs Too Many Stars Into a Movie-Shaped Box

Review in a Hurry: So many stars go whizzing by, the flick is more like Space Mountain: No cohesive story, but kinda fun nonetheless.

The Bigger Picture: Meet Liz (Anne Hathaway), a phone-sex operator dating a mail-room dude (Topher Grace). And now meet Julia (Jennifer Garner), a teacher falling for a married cardiologist (Patrick Dempsey) while being crushed on by an elementary school boy. And now say hi to Some Girl (Emma Roberts), who is trying to lose her virginity with That Guy Over There.

And that's—literally—not even the half of it.

Valentine's Day isn't so much a story as it is a very tightly packed box of mash notes, each one telling a story about a pair of adorable people making their way through the pinkest and second most commercial day of the year.

Each subplot is pretty predictable—or, at least, it should be. One third-act reveal managed to shock the audience at a recent screening, despite some pretty overt clues. But veteran director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman) isn't really about the surprises in the chocolate box. He's more interested in reminding us about how sweet it all is.

To the movie's credit, Valentine's Day is packed with talent; we haven't even gotten to the oddly funny Taylor Swift, or legendary Shirley MacLaine, or the perfectly serviceable Ashton Kutcher and Jessica Biel—or actual A-lister Julia Roberts.

With few exceptions, Marshall presents each star at the maximum of his or her talents; in the few precious moments when Roberts owns the screen, she also owns the whole movie.

But in the end, the movie's star cast is more of a curse than a blessing. Just as one actor manages to capture our hearts on sheer charisma alone (like I said, the stories aren't exactly original), Marshall jerks us away and into another minidrama. And we can't help feeling like we're jumping back into the dating pool all over again.

Scorsese, DiCaprio join again in 'Shutter Island'

BERLIN - Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio celebrated nearly a decade working together as they presented the director's latest film, "Shutter Island," at the Berlin film festival Saturday.

Based on a novel by "Mystic River" author Dennis Lehane, the 1950s psychological thriller is the fourth film pairing Scorsese with DiCaprio, after "Gangs of New York" (2002), "The Aviator" (2004) and the Oscar-winning "The Departed" (2006).

"Each experience has been unique. It's been a progression, now it's been 10 years," DiCaprio, 35, said at a news conference with the director as their new film premiered out of competition in Berlin.

The two heaped praise on one another, with DiCaprio saying "the biggest gift that he's given me is an appreciation for cinema and cinema's history, and an entirely new perspective on my view of this art form."

"I grew up on his work, really," he said. "As a younger actor, you'd be a fool not to jump at the opportunity to work with somebody who I consider and many consider the definitive director of our time."

The 67-year-old director, for his part, said working with DiCaprio has lead to a special relationship.

"Trust is really the key" and was built up over time, Scorsese said, adding that they "really reached a kind of comradeship in 'The Departed.'"

"I see him as a young man developing as a wonderful actor," he said. "I'm very happy to be around when this is happening with somebody with such extraordinary talent, to be able to focus that and perfect it."

"Shutter Island" also stars Ben Kingsley, Patricia Clarkson, Mark Ruffalo and Michelle Williams. It is set in 1954, a time of Cold War paranoia, when Scorsese himself was growing up.

It follows the investigation into the disappearance of a murderess from a mental institution on an island. DiCaprio plays a U.S. Marshal in Boston looking for the woman, and his involvement in the case starts to make him question his own sanity.

"This was a complex jigsaw puzzle of emotional back stories and dream sequences and truth and fiction," DiCaprio said. "It was challenging and fulfilling."

Scorsese said he was attracted to the material in part "because it's set in the 50s and because of the tone of fear and paranoia and secrecy and trauma."

"I grew up during the 50s, I grew up during the Cold War, I grew up expecting air raids every day," he said. "That's what we were told."

Scorsese and DiCaprio may not be done collaborating yet.

"We're always talking about different projects," DiCaprio said. "If I'm lucky enough to work with him, I would consider it a gift."

'Inglourious Basterds' wins SAG film award (AP)

LOS ANGELES - While Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock's chances for Academy Award gold were advanced with their trophies at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the blockbuster "Avatar" may have felt a touch blue.

The computer-assisted performances in James Cameron's "Avatar" didn't make the cut for SAG nominations. But the groundbreaking sci-fi film remains a strong best-picture contender for the Oscars in March.

For Bridges of "Crazy Heart," Bullock of "The Blind Side" and for SAG supporting-acting honorees Mo'Nique of "Precious" and Christoph Walt of "Inglourious Basterds," there's reason to suspect the Oscar ceremony will be a happy rerun of Saturday's SAG Awards and last Sunday's Golden Globes.

All four were recognized at the Globes, as well, while "Avatar" was named best drama and Cameron won as best director.

He will face competition from director Quentin Tarantino, whose "Inglourious Basterds" won the SAG Award for best ensemble performance, which can be a precursor to the top Oscar award. Last year, SAG's movie cast award was presented to "Slumdog Millionaire," which went on to win the best picture Oscar.

"It was an honor to be part of it, Quentin," "Inglourious Basterds" cast member Eli Roth said in accepting the award for his fellow actors in the off-kilter World War II revenge saga.

Bullock declined — strenuously — to look ahead.

"Shhhhh. Shhhhh. Shhhhh," Bullock said backstage when she was asked to speculate on her Oscar chances. She won for her portrayal of a tenacious real-life mom, Leigh Anne Tuohy, who helped a youth in need, future American football player Michael Oher.

"I would be a hostess or a waitress or a house restorer before I ever considered myself an actor, because I never thought I was good enough," she added.

Although respected by his peers, Bridges has largely been bypassed for major awards.

"I love being an actor — pretending to be other people and getting into the shoes of other folks," said Bridges, who plays a hard-luck, hard-living country singer in "Crazy Heart."

Waltz was honored for his role as an enthusiastically ruthless Nazi. Mo'Nique's trophy came for her searing portrayal of an abusive mother in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire."

On the TV side of the SAG Awards, the cast of AMC's 1960s Madison Avenue saga "Mad Men" won the trophy for best drama series ensemble for the second year in a row, while 19 cast members of Fox TV newcomer "Glee," about misfits in a high school singing club, accepted the award for best comedy series ensemble.

"Glee" claimed the best comedy series award at the Golden Globes.

Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey of NBC's "30 Rock" won for best acting in a comedy series, allowing Fey to get in a sly joke about NBC and its bitter late-night battle with Conan O'Brien in her acceptance speech.

"I just wanted to take a moment to say to everyone at NBC, we are very happy with everything, and happy to be there," she said. Both she and Baldwin won the awards last year.

Golden Globe winner Michael C. Hall of Showtime's "Dexter," wearing a cap because of treatment he's receiving for Hodgkin's lymphoma, won best actor in a drama series. The award for best actress in a drama went to Julianna Margulies of CBS' "The Good Wife."

Kevin Bacon won as best actor in a movie or miniseries for the war-themed drama, "Taking Chance," while Drew Barrymore received best actress honors in the category for "Grey Gardens," about eccentric relatives of Jacqueline Onassis.

Betty White, 88, accepted a lifetime achievement award from Bull+ock for an enduring career that included "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Golden Girls," and showed her sharp comedic chops.

When Bullock joked that she finds White annoying, White shot back, "Isn't it heartening to see how far a girl as plain as she is can go."

"I should be presenting an award to you for the privilege of working in this wonderful business all this time. And you still can't get rid of me," White told the audience.

Actors in two highly critically acclaimed films went home empty-handed, including "Up in the Air" star George Clooney and the film's supporting actresses, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. The cast of "The Hurt Locker" also lost out.

Clooney, however, was lauded by SAG President Ken Howard for helping organize Friday's telethon to raise money for earthquake-devastated Haiti, a rare reference to the tragedy.

Two honors not shown in the telecast went to stunt ensembles for the film "Star Trek" and the TV show "24."

Sandra Bullock hushes Oscar talk

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - For Sandra Bullock, sweeping up Hollywood awards is something new, but the actress said on Saturday after winning a SAG trophy that she didn't want to be just a "money maker" in any kind of movie, and that her latest film "The Blind Side" gave her that chance.

"If you look at my career, I don't think anyone would have said one day I can see her up here, no one would have predicted it, especially not me," Bullock, who was previously best known for light romantic fare, told reporters.

On Saturday, Bullock, 45, won a Screen Actors Guild Award for best actress in a movie drama, for playing a wealthy family woman who adopts a downtrodden high school football player.

That role in "The Blind Side" has performed at the box office like many of Bullock's movies, staying strong week after week, racking up a total of $231 million in the U.S. and Canada since its November release.

But it has also done something else for Bullock, earning her critical acclaim and a string of awards, including a Golden Globe last week and now a SAG Award.

When a reporter at the SAG Awards on Saturday suggested Bullock stands a good chance at winning her first Oscar, the actress "shushed" him mid-sentence and would not allow him to finish his question.

She also said that at one point, just considering herself an actress was difficult.

"I realized being an actor was something that I never owned up to, in a weird way," Bullock said.

"I would be a hostess or a waitress or a house restorer before I considered myself an actor, because I never thought I was good enough," she said.

But Bullock said she recently took a couple of years away from acting, and learned how to say "no" to mediocre roles, and that she also met her husband, motorcycle maker Jesse James, during that time.

"I was lucky that I wanted to better my work ... and that's a great business to be in that allows you to sort of switch gears, especially when they look at you as the money maker," she said.

Bullock first gained fame with 1994's action movie "Speed," which made $350 million at worldwide box offices, and she has been in a number of other hits since then, including the romantic comedy "Miss Congeniality."

Now, as she embarks on a new stage in her career, Bullock described her life as more than just Hollywood.

"I'm one of those people that knows how lucky she is and every day I get up and I count my blessings, and they're all there under one roof," she said.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

'Avatar' tops 'Legion' at Friday boxoffice

As if operating on cruise control, “Avatar” entered its sixth weekend of release once again atop the boxoffice rankings.

The Fox release picked up an estimated $9.1 million in North American theaters on Friday, easily fending off all newcomers. Of the three new wide releases, Sony’s “Legion,” an apocalyptic thriller about avenging angels, showed the most muscle. The R-rated movie directed by Scott Stewart and starring Paul Bettany, flew to second place for the day as it collected 6.7 million in 2,467 theaters.

Wings also figured in Fox’s family comedy “Tooth Fairy,” starring Dwayne Johnson. But the PG movie, directed by Michael Lembeck, didn’t fly quite as high, and with $3.5 million from 3,344 locations, could be found in the fourth spot.

“Extraordinary Measures,” the first title from the new CBS Films, lagged behind. Despite the star power of Harrison Ford and Brendon Fraser, the PG-rated medical drama directed by Tom Vaughan, checked in in sixth place, with $2.1 million from 2,549 theaters.

Rounding out the top five, the second weekend of Warner’s end-of-days tale, “Book of Eli,” stood in third place with $5 million. And, in its second weekend of wide release, Paramount’s “The Lovely Bones” was fifth, collecting an additional $2.6 million.

Forbes lists biggest flops of last five years

Sean Penn delivered "one of his greatest screen performances" as Willie Stark in "All the King's Men," according to The Hollywood Reporter's review of the film in 2006.

Nevertheless, the Sony Pictures film earned just $9 million at the worldwide boxoffice. Factor in its $55 million production budget and it amounts to Hollywood's biggest flop of the past five years, according to the prolific listmakers at Forbes magazine.

After eliminating movies without star power, Forbes divided each movie's boxoffice take by its production budget to figure out the shortfall. "All the King's Men" failed to earn back 84% of its production budget, bad enough to earn it first place among flops.

In second place is "The Express," Universal's movie starring Dennis Quaid about late college football star Ernie Davis. The 2008 movie failed to earn back 75% of its production budget.

Fox's 2005 film "Stay" was third, a movie that failed to earn back 73% of its budget despite the efforts of Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts. The film's pedigree included director Marc Foster ("Monster's Ball") and writer David Benioff ("Troy").

Even Quentin Tarantino shows up on the list, courtesy of his co-direction of "Grindhouse" for the Weinstein Co. The 2007 movie that featured Josh Brolin and Bruce Willis failed to earn back 65% of its budget.

Other movies on the list of the 15 biggest flops of the past five years include "The Fountain" with Hugh Jackman, "The Invasion" starring NIcole Kidman and two movies with Eddie Murphy: "Imagine That" and "Meet Dave."

The full list is at Forbes.com.

Johnny Depp Sets Sail on Fourth 'Pirates' Movie

Captain Jack Sparrow will soon take to the seas again, and this time he is after the most sought-after treasure imaginable: the Fountain of Youth.

It was announced this week that the fourth installment of Disney's highly successful "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise will begin filming in Hawaii this summer. Johnny Depp once again plays the flamboyant Captain Jack, and Geoffrey Rush reprises his role as his adversary, Barbossa. However, costars Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley are not expected to return.

The film's story is loosely based on the 1987 pirate novel, "On Stranger Tides" by award-winning fantasy author Tim Powers. The book tells the story of a young man -- coincidentally named "Jack" -- who is captured by the pirate Blackbeard and forced to join in the search for the Fountain of Youth.

Ted Elliott, the co-writer of the first three "Pirates" movies, said that the story of the novel just happened to align with where they wanted to take the fourth film. He told Empire magazine, "We wanted to do a story about Blackbeard and the Fountain of Youth, and Tim Powers wrote a book about Blackbeard and the Fountain of Youth... it just turns out that to do that story you would need that book."

Johnny Depp signed on to appear in the fourth movie in 2008, before there was a script. It was announced at the same time he would also be playing Tonto in a film version of "The Lone Ranger," but that project has been delayed until after "Pirates" is finished.

Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom have both said they had no desire to return for a fourth movie. Knightley said in an interview, "It was a completely fantastic experience, and it was an amazingly large portion of my life, but I don't think I need to go there again. I think that it's done." Also, the director of the original trilogy, Gore Verbinski, will not be coming back. He is being replaced by Rob Marshall, the director of "Chicago" and "Nine."

"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" is scheduled to dock into movie theaters on May 20th, 2011. Johnny Depp will next be seen as the Mad Hatter in director Tim Burton's new version "Alice in Wonderland" coming this March.