10. Sunshine Cleaning
Its easy to fall in love with a dark comedy that stars both Amy Adams (Enchanted) and Emily Blunt (The Devil Wear’s Prada) — it’s a movie that is easy to look at, despite the fact that it deals with cleaning up crime scenes. Alan Arkin lends a great supporting performance in a film that is funny, dark and full of warmth in the end.

9. Choke
Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk (who, I am finding, has a ton of fans), Choke is a hysterical comedy that stars Sam
Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) and Kelly Macdonald (No Country for Old Men). It is funny, tragic and riddled with all the reasons that people love Chuck Palahniuk’s work. Fox Searchlight bought this one up quick, so you should be seeing a release sometime soon. (more…)

If you’re looking to do an impromptu Heath Ledger tribute this weekend, here is a list of his best film roles, all available at a Blockbuster or Netflix queue near you.

Brokeback Mountain
Not only the most famous role of his career, this is probably Ledger’s best by far. The movie is understated yet powerfully moving, and Ledger brings an amazing amount of depth and gravitas to his role as a closeted and conflicted cowboy. Ledger is the emotional anchor of the movie and manages to communicate an encyclopedia of emotion behind his steely grimace and cowboy hat. This movie truly shows us what we lost; the amount of talent and promise inherent in this role suggests the art Ledger could one day be capable of.

A Knight’s Tale
What looks on the outside like some sort of Disney-fied knights and middle ages movie, this movie was Ledger’s first real Hollywood star vehicle, and he acquits himself with old-Hollywood charisma. The Romeo And Juliet-style blending of a period piece with modern slang and music works better than it should.

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10. It’s not another American version of Godzilla. (Thank God!)

Let’s get this out of the way first. This movie is not 1998’s Hollywood version of Godzilla. Nor is it the movie that Godzilla should’ve been. Really, aside from the fact that both films feature a gigantic creature thrashing about New York, they’re so different in style and intent that any comparisons beyond that should be immediately disregarded. In other words, forget Godzilla. That movie sucked. Cloverfield, meanwhile, is something different entirely, and warrants all the hype it’s gotten thus far.
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Following the recent announcement prior to CES that Warner Brothers would exclusively release next-gen DVD movies on the Blue-ray format, hope is springing eternal that finally this stupid format war will end. Come on, giant corporate conglomerates! I’m willing to upgrade! Just let one format win and lets be done with it.

Blue-ray Partisans

• 20th Century Fox
• Disney
• Lionsgate
• New Line
• Sony
• Warner Bros.

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Rumors abound that Will Smith has now become a Scientologist. Need a scorecard to remember which of your favorite stars have join Tom Cruise’s little club? Here ya go:

• Tom Cruise
• John Travolta
• Nancy Cartwright
• Kirstie Alley
• Jason Lee
• Leah Remini
• Giovanni Ribisi
• Beck
• Priscilla Presley
• Greta Van Susteren (more…)

5. AUDITIONS - The audition process is outrageous. After waiting for nearly two days on concrete, the contestants are given an opportunity to showcase their talents alongside 20,000 hopefuls in the city they attend. Unless someone waits in line for the contestant (stepping away will cost you your place in line), this is a long time to be without an opportunity to shower. Not to mention, those that don’t bring food go the entire time without eating. Ryan Seacrest is typically late to these events, showing up as late as ten when the competitions start at eight in the morning. I guess the logic is, “What are two more hours?” Any attempt to beautify oneself must be accomplished in the bathroom while grappling with peers for a corner of a mirror to get television ready.
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or, Ten Titans of Taste-Free Terrors

10.) Alison Arngrim: Little Nellie of the prairie, looks like a 1940’s fashion editor for the Farmers Almanac.

9.) Lindsay Lohan: Lindsay the fashion frenzy strikes again! Lohan takes fashion to a new low -

8.) Jessica Simpson: Forget the Cowboys. In prom queen screams, can it get any worse? She’s a global fashion curse!

7.) Avril Lavigne: Gothic make-up courtesy the mad spatula-Fashions provided by…The house of Dracula!

6.) Eva Green: Stuck in neon nightmares not fit for the sane. Fashion this loud could give Bond a migraine! A profusion of confusion from toes to nose!

5.) Kelly Clarkson: Her heavenly voice soars above the rest…but those belly-baring bombs are hellish at best! She may be the queen of “Pro-Active” - but that wardrobe looks downright radioactive!

4.) Fergie: Another style-free “Fergie” in fashion’s hall of shame? Yes, when it comes to couture chaos, guess it’s all in a name!

3.) Mary Kate Olsen: YIKES! In layers of cut-rate kitsch, Mary Kate’s look is hard to explain…she resembles a tattered toothpick-trapped in a hurricane!

2.) Amy Winehouse: Exploding beehives above…tacky polka-dots below…she’s part 50’s car-hop horror.

1.) Victoria Beckham: Forget the fashion spice - wearing a skirt would suffice! In one skinny-mini monstrosity after another, pouty posh can really wreck-em.

Al Pacino
Okay, we love Al Pacino. He’s lost a lot of the restrained brilliance of the young Micheal Corleone, but even in the midst of some of the most overblown screen rants Hollywood has ever seen, Al is just so damn watchable that we don’t care. As long as we’re not watching Revolution (1985) that is. In perhaps the worst casting since Sean Connery as a Russian sub commander in The Hunt For Red October, Pacino plays Scottish-American fur trader Tom Dobb. With his son and stunningly bad accent, he stumbles through the American revolutionary war in the most jaw-dropping array of coincidences, plot contrivances, and bad editing of the decade. That this film cost nearly $30 million to make and took in less than $400,000 domestic is a testament to a bygone era when moviegoers actually cared about what they were spending their money on. Sadly, you won’t find any excerpts from this film on the Net as proof, but if you’re diligent, I’m sure you can find a copy in the dollar bin at your local convenience store. (more…)