1. Other Than “Avatar” The Best Thing You’ll See This Week Is …
“Shorewood’s Lip Dub” video, brought to my attention by Movieline. Using the same Hall & Oates song “You Make My Dreams Come True” featured in “500 Days of Summer” Mr Ballew’s Video Production 1 Class came up with this four minutes of total joy. It had 12,500 hits when I saw it. Expect it to be in the millions by the end of the weekend.
Sci-fi fans seeing “Avatar” this weekend: Take a moment to pause and give thanks for the life of Dan O’Bannon, who passed away Friday in Los Angeles, aged 63. The writer and director helped reshape the genre, first with his script for John Carpenter’s 1974 cult film “Dark Star” (in which he also starred) and then, of course, with his brilliant screenplay for “Alien," which made blue-collar workers in space facing a xenomorph creature seem like the most natural thing out of this world. O’Bannon’s other terrific contributions include “Total Recall” and “Screamers” and, as a writer and director, 1985’s horror parody “The Return of the Living Dead." He will be missed. 3. Larry vs. Predator
Laurence Fishburne sure must’ve had a good time with director Nimrod Antal’s “Armored” because he’s signed on to the director’s “Predators." Adding Morpheus to the cast -- which kicked off with the oddball duo of Adrien Brody and Topher Grace -- inches the Robert Rodriguez production closer to being one of 2010’s most anticipated genre flicks. 4. "Iron Man 2": Woo Hoo
Notice I said “most” because “Iron Man 2” is hands-down still what I’m most psyched for in 2010. And that was just reinforced by this week’s trailer. Downey Jr.’s punk in a suit (be it designer in the Congressional hearing or iron in the shoot-em-up scenes) makes me laugh, and Mickey Rourke (another second-chancer making bank thanks to comic book material) looks great fun as Whiplash. 5. "X-Men" Again
Bryan Singer -- great director. "X-Men" -- great property. So why is it so tough for me to get amped about the news that Singer’s returning to the franchise to make the origins film “First Class." Perhaps it’s because “X-Men: Last Stand," while not the dud most everyone said, certainly took the fizz out of the franchise. And then “Wolverine” failed to reach expectations, while “Valkyrie” similarly wasn’t up there with Singer’s best. Color me jaded but maybe this one’s best left alone? 6. How Much of a Star: "Avatar"?
It’s fun to see box-office pundits in a dither. Yes, it’s the most anticipated film of the year but … it’s on fewer screens … not all of them in 3D … and it’s long, long, long! Count me in on the prognostications! I’m saying it’s gonna bust “I Am Legend”’s December record of $77.2M by $12M for a sweet $85M. But here’s where I’ll get really specific -- I think it’ll have the lowest drop-off ever. If I’m wrong, ship me to Pandora. 7. Globes’ Logic? Up in the Air.
I’m a huge Vera Farmiga fan -- to the point of suffering the mockery of friends and family -- so I might be a bit biased here. But can someone answer me this: How is it that “Up in the Air” has no lead female actress? Farmiga and Anna Kendrick scored Best Supporting. So George Clooney’s so big it takes two women to support him on screen? And for that matter, why is it that the film’s cast got the most SAG nominations and yet not an ensemble nod? Weirdness. 8. Aniston Packs Heat
Wowza, talk about your mix-and-match movies. Here’s Gerard Butler splitting the difference between “Law Abiding Citizen” and “The Ugly Truth” with Jennifer Aniston playing herself again but also wielding a gun for the first time (if memory serves) since her 1993 feature debut “Leprechaun." Corn is right, Rolling Stones on the trailer or not. It’s their Razzies to lose. Oh, no, wait -- “The Tooth Fairy” has the ’11 Razzies sewn up, right? 9. A Thai "Hangover"?
To me “The Hangover” felt like a lightning in a bottle of whiskey. Drink it, have a blast, suffer the gut-busting consequences but beware before you reach for the hair of the dog that bit you. Party animals Warner Bros. however were already planning the second bender before the first one had kicked off and their decision to pre-emptively greenlight the sequel was vindicated by “The Hangover” clocking up $270m off a $35m budget. Now CHUD’s reporting that “The Hangover 2” will be set in Thailand.
While I’m glad they ain’t going back to Vegas, I hope that this isn’t just a slew of ping-pong balls gags. The smart move would be to get the hell out of Bangkok and get Cooper, Helms and Galifianankis down south, to the Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan. Plenty of magic mushrooms, badly brewed booze and beach babes – plenty of options for comic regret. 10. The Continuing Adventures of Jake Sully
Don’t read until you’ve seen “Avatar," but this is pretty funny (at least, I thought so).







Everyone knows an oil-shortage-and-nuclear-war apocalypse is for keeps, not just three days, but that didn’t stop a bunch of rabid “Mad Max” fans from donning the leather and chains and revving up their motley machines over three days in the Californian desert recently. The LA Weekly
Kat Dennings, who I’ve praised here before, is to join the cast of “Thor." The beautiful 23-year-old, so good in “Nick And Nora’s Infinite Playlist," “Shorts” and “Charlie Bartlett,” is to play Darcy, sidekick to Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster character. With this and “Defendor," I’m again saying it’s only a matter of time before fanboys catch on and turn Ka-Den into the next Scar-Jo.
4. Mr T for "Star Trek"
6. "Amityville": Horror
With just a month to go until “Avatar” makes him one of the biggest -- and bluest -- stars in the movie world, Sam Worthington's having himself a fun victory tour of his native Australia. This week he was named “Man of the Year” by the Down Under version of GQ magazine and lauded at the Inside Film Awards. Showing he's keeping it real, Sam wore his “lucky” old workboots -- the ones he kept on during the entire “Terminator Salvation” shoot -- to both the magazine's glittering function and the awards show and after-party. When a paparazzi called him on it, the rising star's response was colorful. “Mate, f---ing ease up, f---ing take it easy, or that's the last pic you get,” he said as a joke. “They're f---ing comfortable. Why wouldn't I wear them?”
And who can blame him? The Brit co-writer-director of “Shaun of the Dead," “Hot Fuzz” and the much anticipated “Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World” is a lovely chap and an avid cinephile. So what the hell was the Times doing ripping off -- as in, printing without permission -- the heartfelt obituary he wrote for actor Edward Woodward and passing it off as a piece he'd penned for them? Adding insult to injury, they edited the piece sloppily. Follow it 
with a bong hit after a hard day’s mining Helium-3. Almost as exciting: props from Duncan Jones’s brilliant “Moon” are being auctioned off. Yes, one lucky bidder will own
Plot details have come out about this -- snore -- “reboot” of Joe Dante’s 1981 B-movie classic. Over at 

But here’s some much more traditional key art. Hey, it worked once for “Sin City”, right? Talk about knowing your market. The new Robert Rodriguez film “Machete” – based on the awesome fake trailer in “Grindhouse” – has its first Jessica Alba-heavy poster, which was found by