Noticias

It was Déjà vu with a twist at the box office this Presidents Day weekend as the top three films were the same as the previous week; Sony’s “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” in 3-D, which was tracking to be number one, failed to get a top spot, landing in fourth place. It wasn’t that “Ghost Rider” did so badly; it was that last week's holdovers proved their mettle with audiences. The twist was the rise of Universal’s “Safe House,” moving up from second place into first (a rare feat) with an estimated four-day gross of $28.4 million. After eleven days in release the cume for the Denzel Washington-Ryan...

It appears director Tony Scott may have finally settled on his next project. Deadline reports that the Unstoppable director is looking at helming the action pic Lucky Strike. The 20th Century Fox film would star Vince Vaughn as a DEA agent who teams up with a drug runner in order to take down a cartel. It’s not exactly new territory for Scott, who’s recent output has included such action fare as Man on Fire, Déjà Vu and The Taking of Pelham 123. Fox is looking at a possible late summer or early fall start date for the $80 million film. The pic would mark Vaughn’s first toplining role in an action movie, though he did have a prominent part in Steven Spielberg’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park. We recently learned that director Shawn Levy is looking at possibly shooting the Vaughn/Owen Wilson comedy Interns this summer,...

Denzel Washington is a fine, fine actor. But his movie titles? They lie to us. They lie to us a lot...

I fully appreciate that it’s not an easy job to come up with a sellable title for a film. In an ideal world, it has to convey the subject of what the movie is about, and also be catchy enough, for good reasons, for us to remember.

However, I sat down to watch the new Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds flick Safe House last week, and it immediately became clear – and this is only telling you something that’s in the trailer – that the house in question didn’t appear to be very safe at all. Truthfully, it wouldn't be much of a movie if it was.

I then started considering some of the more recent Denzel Washington movies I’d seen of late, and, well, here’s my scientific research.

We're hoping for a Beyoncé sighting and some NY-centric rap cameos for Hov's first-ever concert at the famed venue tonight.

By Rob Markman

Jay-z

Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage

Jay-z has seen it all and done it all — or so we thought. Just when it looked like there was no new ground for Hov to cover, the multiplatinum rap superstar announced he would be performing a pair of shows at New York's famed Carnegie Hall.

For the first time ever, Jay will hit the Carnegie Hall stage on Monday night (February 6), followed by a second show on Tuesday, and it's all for a good cause. Proceeds from the privately sold premium-priced tickets will go to Jigga's Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation and the United Way in an effort to put low-income New York City students in a position to attend college.

When Hov first announced the concert dates back in December, he...

'You know, he's a sex symbol,' Joe Crack tells MTV News.

By Rob Markman

Fat Joe

Photo: MTV News

When it comes to Fat Joe's "Another Round" collaborator, Chris Brown, the Bronx Mc holds the singer to a high standard. Breezy doesn't just bring his soulful vocals and soothing melodies to Joe's track, his appearance in the Colin Tilley-directed video also provides some eye candy for the ladies.

"You know, that guy, he's like the 'guy Beyoncé,' " Joe joked to MTV News last week.

In the clip, Cb and a slimmed-down Joe Crack serenade a number of bikini-clad beauties on a golden beach. "Don't you be holding back your love," Breezy sings on the hook before assuring his lady that after making love with him she's sure to want "another round."

Brown really gets into it on the song's bridge and final hook. The blond (again...

As I predicted, it was only a matter of time before Brothers Winchester would decide that Bella Swann and Co. were a threat to humanity and act up on it.

We’ll get to that in a minute, but…first things, first.

Okay, so before we go any further, here’s a quick refresher for those pulled a Frank Deveraux and went completely off the grid for the past couple of months.

After winning the war in heavens, Castiel decided he no longer wanted to play God and quietly effervesced into oblivion, releasing Leviathans, Biblical beasts of the Purgatory, on Earth. As Leviathans started a slow process of taking over the world by feeding everyone Turducken Burgers, Lucifer returned trying to remind Sam what good bunk-buddies they made. By the time Dean managed to convince Sam that Lucifer was not a stalkery-ex, just a nightmare, Uncle Bobby done and got...

MTV News looks back on the power couple's decade of love leading up to their new baby, Blue Ivy.

By Jocelyn Vena

Beyoncé and Jay-z

Photo: James Devaney/ WireImage

Hip-hop and R&B's very own Bonnie and Clyde welcomed a baby girl into the world in the early hours of Sunday morning (January 8). Jay-z and Beyoncé's daughter, Blue Ivy, is the couple's first child after being together for a decade.

Chatter about their romantic relationship began back in 2002 when they hooked up on his The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse track " '03 Bonnie & Clyde." The following year, they joined forces once again on Beyoncé's breakthrough solo track, "Crazy in Love," from Dangerously in Love.

From there, while they chose to not talk about one another in public, they happily appeared side by side at sporting events, awards shows and red carpets. And they continued to collaborate on...

2011 was a fantastic year for video games, playing host to such titles as the breathtaking The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and the equally stunning Batman: Arkham City. As well as entertaining us, games continued to evolve in 2011, with many titles pushing the boundaries of what’s expected from the often derided form of entertainment. Games like the mind-bending Portal 2 and the flawed but unique ode to hard boiled detective drama, L.A Noire.

With so many groundbreaking games released in 2011, it’s easy to forget about some of the other games that were released over the course of the year. Some were extremely hyped but failed to garner much interest, while others were popular but simply became overshadowed by bigger releases. Of course, many games were simply so shockingly bad that most of us quickly wiped their existence from our minds.

As 2012 quickly begins to unfold as another fantastic year of gaming highlights,...

Déjà vu all over again: A bit of maintenance around Movieline HQ means that our site's content-management system -- including its commenting apparatus -- will be down for few hours starting at 1 p.m. Pst. I apologize for any browsing or feedback delays during this time. Hold those thoughts, though; we look forward to your visits and notes as we come to on the other side. Thanks for your patience!

... or to take arms against a sea of troubles - those of 3D.

As I wrote this article, heated debates broke out between my brother and I - he being strongly pro-3D and I anti-3D. He thinks within five years most movies will be filmed and projected in 3D; I disagree, stating 3D shall go the way of the dodo (once again). The 'pro' contingency believes 3D films are a better experience and far more enjoyable than 2D (normal vision). What a load of hype! It’s all to do with money. Don’t get me wrong - if people don’t attend cinemas the movie industry makes no profits and collapses – and I am definitely against this. I just say we don’t need 3D gimmicks to experience a true cinema experience. Some say 3D is a revolutionary change in the history of cinema just like the...

Traversing these stormy waters in the Good Ship Shadowlocked, we're coming to the finishing point in the very near future. Having visited destinations such as Skaro, Gallifrey and Eden, and having done hearty battle with rum baddies such as The Master, Davros and Murray's Pompous Choir, looking back in the ship's log, one other danger is that in the latter stages of the voyage, that queasy feeling of Déjà vu can creep into one or two stories. The Doctor's Daughter conclusion felt too much like the end of Last Of The Time Lords. The Vampires Of Venice felt like State Of Decay and School Reunion, but with false teeth. And now, one more adventure to chalk up to experience is The Curse Of The Black Spot.

In other words, it's a light-hearted diversion from the main dilemma of the season. Buffy and Angel did this sort of thing back in...

Déjà vu, anyone? Jennifer Lopez rocked the stage last night at the American Music Awards in an outfit similar to a vintage Britney Spears look. The 42-year-old diva started off singing a medley of her hits in a fierce mini, but by the end of her performance had stripped down to a skintight nude bodysuit with some well-placed sparkles covering her lady parts and sexy strappy stilettos. Back in 2000, Brit-Brit worked the very same sexy moves when she was just 17 at the MTV Music Video Awards. The "Baby One More Time" singer peeled off layers of clothes during her number, finally revealing her toned abs in a sheer sparkly ensemble worn with silver boots. So which star pulls off this skimpy...

“Film Criticism no longer has any meaning, it is reality we must analyze in a cinematic way.” – Hanns Zischler

There’s nothing more inducive of genuine pathos than a man who is bored with a franchise. Inevitably, he starts skeezin’ “his” subordinate labor, loses the things that are dear to him, and suffers in multiple paternity suits. Michael Bay is bored. How awesomely pathetic! What sort of industrial filmmaker are you, man? Yamada Yoji made forty-eight Tora-san movies, pal, and you can’t even push out three without whining like the free-spirited Wesleyan bluestocking you are in your crippled soul. You’ve even lost the truest dear, Armond White: “Now, there’s no poetry; just idiotic, unintelligible machine combat. While it easily out-astonishes Chris Nolan’s glum Inception, it defames the action-movie tradition and embarrasses the talent that makes Bay a great filmmaker.” Too much wild ink spilled in the...

By Christina Garibaldi

Britney Spears just released the ultra-steamy video for “Criminal,” which stars her boyfriend of over two years, Jason Trawick. The two give us a glimpse into their bedroom behavior in the clip and it got us thinking, what other couples have turned co-stars in music videos? Well, wonder no more, here’s our list!

Britney Spears and Kevin Federline, “My Prerogative” (2004)

Jason Trawick wasn’t the first boyfriend Britney teamed up with for a music video. Brit starred alongside then fiance Kevin Federline for the video for “My Prerogative." In the vid, K-Fed’s cameo remains a mystery for most of the clip (even though everyone knows it’s him) as he watches a barely clothed Britney roll around on a bed. The video concludes with the two walking down the aisle and locking lips, which later happened in real life. Yet, after two kids, the two...

Kurt here. Watching Man on Fire at my gym was a unique experience in that someone on staff, either by accident or sneaky design, played the DVD in Spanish. As I entered the cardio room, no one was bothering to fiddle with the settings, so neither did I. After all, here was an opportunity to better test my image-reading ability, or, at least, to better test Tony Scott's ability to tell a story with images. Enough time had passed since I'd first seen this Denzel Washington vengeance vehicle (released in 2004) for me to be unsure of where I stood in the running time, but given the room full of visibly exhausted investigators and hostage negotiators on screen, my guess was little Dakota Fanning had already been M.I.A. for quite some time. Daddy Marc Anthony, whose sweat-slicked cheekbones and jaw reflect the scene's pervasive blue highlights, is on...

The Film

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

I’ll be honest. I was dreading this review…. All I knew about Hop was that it was a family comedy about the Easter Bunny, starring the voice of Russell Brand and coming from the director of Alvin and The Chipmunks – it’s something I’d quite happily have spent the rest of my existence without seeing. Maybe because my expectations were so low, or I because I was slightly drunk, Hop wasn’t actually quite as god-awful as I was expecting.

But lets be clear, it‘s still a poor effort. It just about ticks the required boxes for a family movie that’ll entertain the kids with its cute animation and broad slapstick, while adults can enjoy the references to the porn industry (Hugh Hefner in his first and hopefully last appearance in a kids movie) and even more bizarrely, a live...

In what has to be one of the worst timed pieces of publicity for a film in recent memory, a new image for the forthcoming Paramount Pictures action film Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol has been revealed this week. The still shows a hooded Tom Cruise walking towards the camera with a burning building in the background looking very much like he is taking part in the mindless riots that have plagued parts of the UK this week.

In actual fact the photograph is taken from the opening scenes of the new film where Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his Imf team are involved in a mission to Russia which results in an explosion at the Kremlin and according to the film’s Oscar winning director Brad Bird, “it’s sort of an event that kicks everything into motion.”

Which is fine but the image doesn’t look very Mission: Impossible...

This week marked the long-anticipated arrival of Watch the Throne, Jay-z and Kanye West’s superstar collaboration album. The buzz is big and it looks like the album is going to easily top the charts (it’s already No. 1 on iTunes in 23 different countries).

We couldn’t be happier for Hova and Ye, and you can find all sorts of awesome info on them and their record over at MTV RapFix. But here in the MTV Newsroom, well, we’re in the business of divas and can’t even hear the name Jay-z without thinking of his better half, Beyonce.

Inspired by Watch The Throne, we got to thinking about Bey’s best collabos. Let’s take a look at some of the best.

“Baby Boy,” featuring Sean Paul

The original Beyonce solo collabo (she appeared without her Destiny’s Child bandmates for the first time on "03 Bonnie and Clyde,...

Déjà vu? A day after we reported that Sir Paul McCartney's ex-wife, Heather Mills, told BBC's Newsnight that journalists illegally accessed her voicemail, the former Beatles star revealed he too is a victim of Britain's infamous phone-hacking scandal. While promoting his upcoming 9/11 benefit concert on Showtime at a panel for the Television Critics Association press tour, McCartney told reporters he was a victim of computer hacking by Rupert Murdoch's News Corps. "When I go back [to Britain] after this tour, I am going to talk to the police because apparently I have been hacked," he says. "I don't know much about it because they won't tell anyone...

Source Code is a fascinating picture, but not in a wholly positive light. The story is compelling, but smacks of a certain familiarity that keeps the viewer wondering where they’ve seen this before, only to remember, ironically, Déjà Vu. The Denzel Washington/Tony Scott pic may have been a stretch, but it certainly broke ground for the foundation that Source Code was set on. Part-thriller and largely formula, Source Code is a clean movie, well executed, but ultimately without the aggressive sense-of-self that would make it great.

Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal, the leading man everyone wants to like but who just doesn’t grab the spotlight) wakes up on a train in another man’s body. Across from him sits the beautiful Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan, the superb lead of Trucker). The first run-through goes badly, as Stevens gets erratic, denying that he knows her and fighting his environment.

Source Code is a fast-paced thriller in which the military can transport a soldier into the final 8 minutes of a dead man’s memory to gain access to a crime scene that has come and gone. This time-travelling plot device is more than vaguely familiar, as it is a culmination of concepts previously seen in Groundhog Day, Déjà vu, and the Quantum Leap TV series, but, when blended with a Twilight Zone-meets-Hitchcockian adventure vibe, this effort feels wholly original in a year swamped with sequels. While not as intellectually compelling as director Duncan Jones’ Moon, it wasn’t designed to be. Where Moon was contemplative of its themes and sported a career-high turn from Sam Rockwell, this strong sophomore effort’s goal was to entertain and excite, and it fully succeeds on both counts. Duncan Jones proves he is still a talent to keep close tabs on. After living...

Stale turkey sandwiches. That's one of the things I most link with Christmas. Forget your crackers and tinsel or your mince pies and Tunis Cakes, or even your Slades and Band Aids, no, it's the thought of the stale turkey sandwiches that lingers in the mind. Simply because the turkey's invariably so big, that it's enough to feed the family for those come-down days from December 26th. And so the family gets that familiar Déjà vu, to the point where summer can't come fast enough.

There's a similar sort of feeling among some of the Doctor Who fans when it comes to The Runaway Bride. For the uninitiated, I'm not talking about the screwball comedy starring Richard Gere, Julia Roberts and Julia Roberts' huge mouth – no, this is the second all-important Doctor Who Christmas special, which was now becoming the big festive treat of the season. A common complaint...

We take a look back at the Nic Cage sci-fi thriller Next, a deeply flawed film with a few decent ideas at its core...

Of all the various adaptations of Philip K Dick novels and short stories churned out by Hollywood since the author's death in 1982, Lee Tamahori's Next is surely the loosest. Based on the novelette, The Golden Man, first published in 1954, Next excises the original story's post-apocalyptic setting, mutants and gold-skinned protagonist, in favour of a more straightforward sci-fi thriller vehicle for actor, Nicolas Cage.

The one element that Next retains from The Golden Man is its hero's name (Cris) and his ability to look into the near future. In Next, Cris is a louche, lank-haired Las Vegas magician who performs under the stage name Frank Cadillac. When he's not lounging around smoking and drinking cocktails, he uses his precognitive abilities in his performances, in which he...

If you watched the series premiere of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition last night on ABC, you probably felt one major thing (well, besides the lingering guilt about all the food you consumed over Memorial Day weekend): Déjà vu.

That’s because the series, which chronicles the weight loss of morbidly obese people over the span of a year, felt a lot like another inspiring reality show (and no, not Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, as a screaming Ty Pennington was nowhere to be found). That’s right, The Biggest Loser. While they both certainly have their differences — Em:wle, unlike Bl,...

The Hangover Part 2 Directed by: Todd Phillips Written by: Craig Mazin, Scot Armstrong, and Todd Phillips Starring: Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Mason Lee, Ken Jeong and Paul Giamatti Hey, anyone know where I can apply to write the screenplay for The Hangover 3?  It's got to be the best gig around town, because all I have to do is take The Hangover script, cross out some stuff, and insert different locations and names. That's what they did here. Sign me up for a quick buck. I can't recall a more blatant retread of a movie than The Hangover 2. Its storyline is so flagrantly lazy that it flips the bird to concepts like creativity and originality. That being said, I'm ashamed to admit that I laughed, and I laughed often. My carefully constructed facade of rational intellect was betrayed by my inner jackass. How embarrassing. This time around the Wolf...

Sometimes I seriously question my obsession with American Idol. After all, there’s no other show on television that consistently causes spikes in my blood pressure — whether it’s from the blind fury I feel toward the show’s inept and inconsistent judging panel, the frustration I experience with its thoroughly uninspired theme nights and song lists, or the rolling rage of wondering things like “Where the frak is Pia Toscano’s finale duet?”

But Wednesday night’s Season 10 finale managed to dilute my cynicism, erase my grouchiness, and bring real human tears to my eyes. Call me a sentimental fool,...

Dirk Gently, Doctor Who, Primeval, All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace and Wallander are amongst this week's UK TV highlights...

Douglas Adams' holistic detective, Dirk Gently, has a return engagement tonight, Friday, May 20th at 9:00pm, this time on BBC 2. We reviewed this pilot here, and the reaction comments were mixed. The show's expected to return with new adventures next year, so now's your chance to get a foot in the quirky agency's door, and let us know what you thought of the first show and your hopes for future episodes.

Doctor Who airs at 6:45pm this week, tomorrow night, Saturday, May 21st on BBC1. The first of a two-parter, The Rebel Flesh was written by Matthew Graham and we spoke to him recently about the upcoming episode. Of his two stories, he told us: "The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People are different [from Fear Her, penned specifically for children]. As far as I'm concerned,...

By Sterling Wong

Girls may run the world, but on the pop charts these days, Beyoncé isn't exactly running things. The diva has cemented her position as arguably the world's top female pop star, so expectations have been high for the first song off her much-anticipated fourth album, 4. But so far, her new single, "Run the World (Girls)," hasn't had an overwhelming reception, at least not by Beyoncé's meteoric standards. And last week, it was announced that the video's official release was being delayed because the singer is "perfecting it."

The song was released to iTunes nearly a month ago and it hit the top 10 for a day, before descending again. It's currently languishing at #157 on the iTunes top 200. Compare this to peers Lady Gaga and Britney whose recently released first singles, "Born This Way" and "Hold It Against Me," both shot to #1 just hours after being released to iTunes...

Everett Collection Laz Alonso, Paula Patton and T.D. Jakes in “Jumping the Broom.”

“Jumping the Broom,” a class-conscious comedy starring Angela Bassett and “Déjà Vu’s” Paula Patton, jumped ahead of expectations over the weekend, taking in $13.7 million at the box office. It was projected to earn somewhere between $8-10 million.

While the film didn’t reach the level of success of Tyler Perry’s movies or some other recent family-oriented African American comedies (“Death at A Funeral,” “This Christmas...

And the Most Valuable Guest Star of the Week Goes To… : Parker Posey, whose hilariously biting portrayal of Amy Poehler’s small-town rival has “recurring guest star” written all over it.

The “I Can’t Define Irony But I Know It When I See It Award” Goes To… : President Obama, who interrupted the last fifteen minutes of Celebrity Apprentice — hosted by nemesis Donald Trump — to announce that Osama Bin Laden had been killed.

And You Wonder Why You’re Fat: The best show you’re not watching, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, was yanked this week and replaced with… reruns of Dancing With The Stars.

Oddest News: Lorenzo Lamas — who will forever be Falcon Crest’s Lance in our minds — announced that he’ll be taking the last name of his latest wife (#5 for those keeping track), Shawna Craig.

Call-Out Of The Week: American Idol judge Steven Tyler...

With an already awesome catalogue of output on both DVD and Blu-ray under their belts, the UK’s favourite cult label, Arrow Video, is a genre force to be reckoned with. So if you just can’t keep your mitts off of the quality material they keep firing out, then feast your eyes on some seriously juicy upcoming releases!

23rd May – The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (Blu-ray)

When Sam, an American writer living in Rome, witnesses an attempted murder in an art gallery and reports the crime to the police, he unwittingly sets the killer’s sights on himself and his beautiful model girlfriend. Things soon start to unravel as it becomes clear that, with the identity of the villain very much open to question, Sam himself is a prime suspect in the case. As the murders continue, Sam begins his own investigations into the serial killings, hoping to somehow clear his name.

By Kara Warner, with reporting by Jim Cantiello

Sad times for Casey fans that the unique musician was voted off the show last week, but lucky us in that Abrams stopped by MTV News in New York to chat a bit about his experience, the most entertaining gem being how he likened the "Idol" judges to jelly beans. But also, he answered our always interesting and fun 10 questions!

Here are the highlights:

Casey's favorite TV show is "Modern Family." He called it "the new 'Simpsons.' "

His least favorite word: "Déjà vu. I love the concept, hate the word," he said. (We'll give him a pass even though that's two words.) "It just doesn't work. Re-glimpsing, that's what it should be called."

The movie he has to watch when it's on: "300." The reason? "Sweaty men in thongs," Casey joked. "It's a perfect combination, man."

The title of his album, whenever...

Arrow Films, a UK-based company, has announced a Region Free release of Brian De Palma’s Obsession for June 27th. Usually, Arrow Films releases only UK region based discs, so this is pretty cool. The 1976 film starred Cliff Robertson (Spider-Man) and John Lithgow (Harry and the Hendersons).

Here’s a detailed list of the extras:

# Brand new High Definition transfer of the film

# Original Lpcm Mono Audio and 5.1 DTS-hd Master Audio

# 4 panel reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork

# Two sided fold out poster

# Exclusive collector’s booklet featuring an essay on the film by critic and author Brad Stevens

# Available for the first time! Paul Schrader’s original screenplay of the film in a perfect bound booklet. With the original title Déjà vu, Schrader’s original script includes unfilmed sequences and sees the tripartite structure deal with the past, present and future of Michael Courtland.

# Obsession Revisited: Interviews with director Brian De Palma,...

Haley Reinhart survives the only negative judges' comments of the week.

By Jim Cantiello

Paul McDonald

Photo: Fox

"American Idol" tackled "Songs from the Cinema" this week but the theme may as well have been Déjà Vu. Between the judges' overwhelmingly positive reviews and the contestants' "just Ok" performances, season 10 is becoming a weekly exercise in repetition. Hell, even will.i.am returned as a guest mentor to talk about "snatching" Pia's votes and making muffins. (Good luck deciphering that advice, Lauren Alaina!)

Casey Abrams aimed for the stars with a scat-tastic exploration of jazz but he ended up at about 500 feet above sea level instead, even if the judges drooled over the idea of a "jazz 'Idol,' " much to the chagrin of Jimmy Iovine, who urged Casey to stop being such a frickin' music geek.

Actually, if there was a B-plot to movie night, it was that...

While Sir Elton John was trying his best to make Saturday Night Live watchable, his partner David Furnish was photographed out and about with a new tattoo on his arm: Zachary. Now I just want to know if the person who wrote the article at x17Online.com knew what they were writing with “in West Hollywood, the smiling 48-year-old daddy sported fresh ink on his forearm.”

A new study in California finds that older (50-70) gay men are more likely to suffer depression, live alone and suffer from issues like high blood pressure than their straight counterparts. Of course that could be because they can’t get married and take care of each other, just a thought.

Hop looks to have finished with a respectable $38.1 million for the weekend, higher than expected. Jake Gyllenhaal may still have a career after Source Code (aka Groundhog Day meets Déjà vu) had a decent $15.1 million opening.

We.ve been talking about Source Code here on Cinema Blend for quite literally years, starting with Josh.s review of the script way back in 2009 in which he called it Groundhog Day meets Déjà vu. By now you.ve read Katey.s review too and, let.s face it, you.ve heard more than enough from us about director Duncan Jones. sophomore sci-fi effort. Now it.s your turn! Source Code is now in theaters and if you.re seeing anything this weekend, that.s the screen where you want to be. After you see it, walk out of the theater and find your way back to this page to let us know what you thought of Source Code, by rating it in the following reader poll. Then discuss it with spoilers in the comments section below, or spoiler free in the comments on Katey.s review. Sound ...

It opens in theaters today… I saw it a couple of weeks ago and reviewed it then. Here are my quick thoughts again.

I’ll start off by admitting that I wasn’t as enamored with Duncan Jones’ feature film debut, Moon, as many others who’ve seen the film apparently are. Not that I didn’t like it; rather, the fanboy-like infatuation some had/have for it seems to have passed me over entirely.

Jones penned the script for Moon (as well as directed it), but Source Code isn’t his original work. The screenplay was written by Ben Ripley, with some polishing up done by both he and Jones. So this was essentially a director-for-hire job for Jones, and so maybe isn’t/shouldn’t be reflective of his abilities or vision. Although, I realize the opposite can be argued as well.

You’ll find similar themes in...

We dive headfirst into Jake Gyllenhaal's trippy new sci-fi flick.

By Eric Ditzian

Michelle Monaghan and Jake Gyllenhaal in "Source Code"

Photo: Summit Entertainment

Duncan Jones pulled off a nifty feat for his first cinematic trick: He took the all-too-often-banal sci-fi genre and infused it with new life, at the same time paying homage to past classics. "Moon" was a revelation, one made all the more impressive because it was Jones' feature debut. Not only did he spin an inventive tale — about a solitary man, played by Sam Rockwell, working on a lunar base when very strange things start to happen — but he did so for just a couple million dollars. Oh, and he coaxed out perhaps the finest performance of Rockwell's career.

Where would Jones go from there? Straight back into sci-fi land, it turned out, this time with a bigger budget and one of the biggest Hollywood stars in Jake Gyllenhaal.

We dive headfirst into Jake Gyllenhaal's trippy new sci-fi flick.

By Eric Ditzian

Michelle Monaghan and Jake Gyllenhaal in "Source Code"

Photo: Summit Entertainment

Duncan Jones pulled off a nifty feat for his first cinematic trick: He took the all-too-often-banal sci-fi genre and infused it with new life, at the same time paying homage to past classics. "Moon" was a revelation, one made all the more impressive because it was Jones' feature debut. Not only did he spin an inventive tale — about a solitary man, played by Sam Rockwell, working on a lunar base when very strange things start to happen — but he did so for just a couple million dollars. Oh, and he coaxed out perhaps the finest performance of Rockwell's career.

Where would Jones go from there? Straight back into sci-fi land, it turned out, this time with a bigger budget and one of the biggest Hollywood stars in Jake Gyllenhaal.

It’s been a wild couple of days here at the SXSW Film Festival, with films screening around the clock in between tons of panels, really cool parties (like the one Fandango hosted last night alongside the Alamo Drafthouse) and surprise events, like when Pee-Wee Herman popped up with an ice cream truck and began handing out free ice cream to everyone waiting on line for The Innkeepers (which we heard very good things about). The two films that have stood out to me so far were Source Code, the opening night movie directed by Duncan Jones – a tight little sci-fi thriller that my buddy described as “Inception meets Groundhog Day meets Déjà Vu, from the guy who brought you Moon.” Definitely recommended from us on this end, so catch it when the film...

Read More

Read Comments...

Déjà vu? Summit Entertainment and Optimum Releasing introduced the second trailer for “Source Code.” The movie is directed by Duncan Jones and stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga. The official synopsis is “When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. In an assignment unlike any he’s ever known, he learns he’s part of a government experiment called the ‘Source Code,” a program that enables him to cross over into another man’s identity in the last 8 minutes of his life. With a second much larger target threatening to kill millions in Downtown Chicago, Colter relives the incident over and over again, gathering clues each time, until he can solve the mystery of who is behind the bombs and prevent the next attack.

A lasting impact of the 1993 comedy Groundhog Day is that it changed the entire vocabulary of the day. Instead of being the sort of minor holiday that you forget about until your co-worker mentions it, a “Groundhog Day” has become a symbol for the day that must be lived over and over and over again—supposedly until you get it right. In science fiction, it’s known as a time loop. The time loop plot existed on television long before the film (some date it back to the 1961 Twilight Zone episode “Shadow Play,” although technically that is a repeated dream, not a repeated reality), however, the success of the film certainly influenced the popularity of the “time loop” plot, to the point where it has become a standard in the science-fiction/fantasy genre. Some are more successful than others.

Let’s review a few examples to see which shows nailed the Groundhog Day tribute,...

British wit Ricky Gervais, who has appeared in such kid-friendly fare as Night at the Museum and Stardust, will voice the mild-mannered Mole in the latest Wind in the Willows adaptation.

An independently produced feature, Wind in the Willows will be helmed by Ray Griggs (I Want Your Money), who spoke to Variety about Gervais’ involvement: “It’s a natural fit to have an iconic British actor star in an iconic British tale…I had Ricky in mind for this role from the inception of the project.”

The script, penned by Déjà vu scribe Bill Marsilii, follows Mole, Rat, Badger and Toad as they “join forces to save their land from a sinister plot that threatens to destroy the uneasy truce between the peaceful animals of the Willows and what remains of Mankind.”

In this live-action adaptation, the animals in question will be animatronics created by Peter Jackson’s heralded visual effects company,...

Déjà vu? Summit Entertainment and Optimum Releasing introduced the international trailer for “Source Code.” The movie is directed by Duncan Jones and stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga. The official synopsis is “When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train. In an assignment unlike any he’s ever known, he learns he’s part of a government experiment called the ‘Source Code,” a program that enables him to cross over into another man’s identity in the last 8 minutes of his life. With a second much larger target threatening to kill millions in Downtown Chicago, Colter relives the incident over and over again, gathering clues each time, until he can solve the mystery of who is behind the bombs and prevent the next attack.

As we've seen in games like "Rage," the touch-based gaming on the iPhone and iPad has its limits. Once you start asking people to do too much, controlling virtual analog sticks and the tilt mechanism, all while tapping the screen to fire, the gameplay ends up suffering. "Infinity Blade," from Chair Entertainment, dodges the control issue by having the entire game controllable with one finger. But does that simplicity end up dumbing down the experience? Not hardly.

The Basics

Despite what it may look like, the core of "Infinity Blade" is a fighting game, with one-vs-one sword battles taking center stage. As the descendant of a hero, it's up to you to climb to the top of a castle and kill the God King, a seemingly-immortal being, and his minions.

The controls are simple, with taps to control dodging and blocks, and swipes to control your sword.

The Highs

Very,...

Tony Scott's runaway train thriller set a solid pace but the broomstick-wielding wizard cleaned up on his penultimate outing

The winner

A fistful of major new releases targeting adult audiences predictably failed to dislodge Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 from the top spot in its second week of release. The Potter picture's second-weekend takings of £8.34m are more than all the rest of the films in the market added together.

Deathly Hallows's 10-day turnover of £33.26m is the biggest ever for a Potter movie at this stage of release. In July 2009 Half-Blood Prince stood at £33.07m after its second weekend – but thanks to a preview strategy giving two extra days of play at opening that figure represented a 12-day gross. The Order of the Phoenix, from July 2007, grossed £30.06m after two weekends – an 11-day figure. Like Deathly Hallows, November 2005's Goblet of Fire opened without the benefit of previews,...

It’s Denzel Washington versus a runaway freight train in Tony Scott’s latest action thriller, Unstoppable. Here’s Ryan’s review…

Ever since his success in 1986 with Top Gun, Tony Scott has specialised almost exclusively in big, noisy, high-concept entertainments such as Déjà Vu and Man On Fire. Unstoppable sees the director once again reunited with his leading man of choice, Denzel Washington, for a bombastic disaster thriller about a runaway train.

Being a Tony Scott film, this isn’t just any runaway train, but a half-mile long freighter filled with deadly chemicals. Or, as one character sensationally puts it, “A Missile The Size Of The Chrysler Building!”

Based loosely on a real incident that occurred in 2001, Unstoppable relocates the setting to Southern Pennsylvania and kicks up the action a few notches, adding extra perils (creatures in harm’s way include a badger and a horse), arguments and gratuitous scenes of macho heroism.

Getty Images

Director Duncan Jones brought skilled storytelling and realistic old-school effects to his acclaimed 2009 science-fiction drama “Moon.” Jones’ tale of a lone human operator in an isolated lunar mining facility was a power-packed directorial debut that left us on the edge of our seats eagerly awaiting what the filmmaker had in store for us in the future.

Well, the future has come… in the form of the sci-fi action thriller “Source Code.”

The trailer for Jones’ second directorial effort has surfaced on Apple Trailers, giving us a peek at Jake Gyllenhaal attempting to redeem himself from “Prince of Persia” by returning to his more intense “Donnie Darko” roots. The film’s official synopsis primes us for a mixture of “Total Recall,” “Inception,” “Déjà vu,” “Avatar,” topped off with a large dose of “Groundhog Day…”

“When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man,...

Source Code is the next movie from director Duncan Jones, the mind behind the excellent independent sci-fi movie Moon. Please don.t tell me you haven.t seen that yet. Netflix, right now, if you haven.t. For this movie he.s leaving near-Earth orbit and hitting the rails, for a time travel movie set mostly on a train. Apparently trains are back in vogue around Hollywood. Source Code is the next, step down the tracks after Unstoppable. Despite being set primarily on a train, Source Code and Unstoppable couldn.t possibly be any more different. Instead it.s kind of like Groundhog Day meets Déjà vu. You.ll know what I mean after you watch the movie.s first trailer. Watch: function getVideo() { var so = new SWFObject("http://cdn.springboard.gorillanation.com/storage/xplayer/yo033.swf", "mplayer", "595", "350", "8", "#000000"); so.addParam("wmode","transparent"); so.addParam("swliveconnect", "true"); so.addParam("allowscriptaccess", " ...

"Oh yeah, Tony Scott—he's good," says even Lav Diaz, currently residing in Vienna's Ferronian headquarters, and further proof rushes into cinemas with Unstoppable (and to home systems with the highly recommended BFI unearthing of his 1970 medium-length feature Loving Memory on DVD/Blu-Ray). Intriguingly, after the delirious triple whammy of Man on Fire, Domino and Déjà vu, Unstoppaple now forms a diptych with its minor, but still underrated predecessor The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 of almost straightforward suspense filmmaking: But while the remake of Joseph Sargeant's still-splendid 1974 New York crime picture The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (together they make a for a great, entertaining double feature lesson about changes of a city and the corresponding zeitgeist mentality) was centered around a train standing still, Unstoppable is predicated on a constant increase of speed. As such, it is both an expertly pared-down exercise in pure orchestration of...