tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

Whether you watch it for the game or the commercials, the Super Bowl is usually the most watched television event of the year.  This year’s game became the most watched TV event in history with 106.5 million viewers.  Too bad the advertising wasn’t able to capitalize on it.  The commercials were pretty bad all the way around this year.  Scratch that, I loved the KIA commercial with the toys in Vegas. Other than that, I was unimpressed.

As far as movie trailers go, it was a down year too.  There weren’t nearly as many as in previous years and the ones we did get to see were nothing new.  No Iron Man 2.  No Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.  No surprises.  Instead we got a handful of spots for movies we have already seen trailers for.  At this point I would have even taken a teaser for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.  It isn’t exactly Super Bowl fare, but at least it would have been a surprise.

Click through to see all the movie spots from the big game.

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Another week, another round of Avatar box office news.  With a grip on almost every other box office record to date, Avatar ($630.1M) finally did what was once thought impossible as it passed Titanic ($600.8M) to take the top spot on the all-time domestic box office list.  But just as quickly as Avatar crushed the last standing major record in its path it was knocked from the top spot by the unlikeliest of movies, Dear John ($32.4M).

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If you have yet to discover Jim Sturgess and continue to idolize actors with less talent, less charm and less critical acclaim, then you'll be sorry. By this time, we're almost ready for the updated Top 50 Hottest Young Actors list, a new layout and more exciting features - and we'll be celebrating Mr. Sturgess as our first ever Spotlight of the Month feature! Be sure to tune in by the 2nd week of this month...


Now, the good news... The latest movie featuring the awesome actor, is called Heartless. It's a horror movie and critics have been raving about it. A trailer has just been released, so watch it now!

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About the movie: The story follows Jamie, a troubled young man with a birthmark on his face, which has left him feeling isolated and fearful, hiding from the world outside. He lives in the East End of London, an area notorious for its violent hooded gangs. According to news reports, the gangs are now wearing demon masks. But, one night, Jamie discovers the terrifying truth: the gangs are not wearing masks. They are real demons. And when Jamie's mother is killed by them in a brutal attack, he realizes he can no longer hide away. Jamie vows vengeance and turns vigilante. But the world outside is more of a nightmare than he ever imagined. As Jamie himself says:  "I open up the window and madness flies in.”

Earlier today the 82nd Annual Academy Awards nominations were announced.  As expected, Avatar and The Hurt Locker lead the pack with 9 nominations each.  Maybe not as expected, but certainly deserved, Inglourious Basterds is next in line with 8 nominations.  Elsewhere Precious and Up in the Air scored six noms each and Up had five.  District 9, Nine, and Star Trek each had four.

Now that the Best Picture category has expanded to ten it was assumed that some smaller films, or at least surprises, would find their way on to the list.  Included in that discussion this year were Best Picture nods for District 9 and The Blind Side.  District 9 was one of my favorite movies this year so I am excited to see it on the list.

There is plenty of time to dissect and analyze the nominations, (and we will).  Until then, click through for the nominations: Add a comment

When it was announced that Oliver Stone would direct the sequel to his own 1987 film Wall Street, the unified reaction was, “Why?” for a number of reasons.  Wall Street isn’t the first movie that comes to mind when you think of movies that need a sequel and definitley not after 23 years.  Not to mention that Stone hasn't made a decent movie in over a decade.  His last outing, W., lacked the bite that made the director famous, so every part of this seems unneccesary.



Click through to watch the trailer.

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Is it really even news anymore? For the seventh week in a row Avatar holds on to the top spot at the box office and is showing no signs of slowing down.  It is easy to be bored with this story after almost two months on repeat but to put things into perspective for a minute; Avatar has achieved almost every box office record there is in just 45 days.  At $595 million and counting Avatar has made about $13 million per day or just over $1 million every two hours since it was released.  And that is only counting domestic receipts.  If you count its total gross it has made $45 million per day.  Incredible doesn’t begin to describe it.



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This year was a difficult one for me in film. I felt let down by Hollywood, whose offerings were underwhelming, and pushed back release dates, and last minute changes were more distracting than the films themselves. However, this forced moviegoers to look harder, and in places we're not used to, which actually provided some great film experiences, so I can't find myself complaining too much. Here are my picks for the Top Ten Movies of 2009.
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The Man Next Door is working it’s magic in the World Dramatic Competition and Sundance. It comes from Argentina, and demands that it be noticed.  It’s directed by two promising young men, Mariano Cohn, and Gastón Duprat, who co-wrote the script together as well.  And are both credited as the film’s cinematography.  Narcissistic much?

The film is overwhelming simple in it’s storyline.  An extremely successful designer named Leonardo, lives in a home named Casa Curutchet.  The only home that Le Corbusier built in the Americas. Apparently it’s a big deal in Argentina.  He lives there with his wife and daughter.  They’re awakened one morning to the noise of a sledgehammer, he finds that a neighbor has torn a hole in one of the Modernist icon’s perfect white walls, intending to build a window for the house on the other side.  The soundscape created is almost as poignant as Australia’s Noise.

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