For those of you who simply cannot get your fill of Jeff Bridges' "The Dude" character from the 1998 film The Big Lebowski, mark your calendars for November 2012. No, we're not talking about a movie sequel (unfortunately!). We're talking about a big bad book. more ›

My only frames of reference for Christmas movies are Gremlins, A Nightmare Before Christmas and Bing Crosby. But it's after midnight (in Helsinki) and I'm not 14 any more, so it's back to Bing. Here we go a-caroling! more ›

How cool is it that within the same week we can see Jeff Bridges as a high-tech Zen master living inside a computer-generated world as well as a barely literate, alcoholic, one-eyed U.S. Marshall prowling post-Civil War Indian Territory? Bridges is experiencing a bit of a Renaissance after scoring Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Academy Awards for his role as Bad Blake in last year's "Crazy Heart" and "True Grit" is an extension of this era that is sure to nab him several more laurels in the upcoming awards season. more ›

The big highlights for the weekend are Ricky Gervais HBO special and Jeff Bridges hosting "Saturday Night Live," both of which occur on Saturday. --- Calls-To-Action: It's been a week and a day since "The League" season finale and there's no word from the FX network about renewing this great show. more ›

TRON: Legacy opens this weekend nationwide and while it isn't too deep it's an experience worth at least a visit or two while it is still on IMAX 3D. Jeff Bridges is masterful and the world envisioned by newcomer director Joseph Kosinski respectfully updates and extends the look and feel of the 1982 original. There's plenty of action and humor in the two hour extravaganza with notable performances by Michael Sheen and Olivia Wilde. more ›

3-D televisions are still a technology of the near-future so everyone who buys Avatar will be watching it in good old-fashioned 2-D. Absent the gloriously immersive world created by James Cameron, will audiences be distracted by the obvious plotting and tinny dialogue? Jeff Bridges should have won an Oscar long before getting one for Crazy Heart (The Fisher King anyone?). While his turn as Bad Blake didn't blow me away, it was a solidly professional turn in an otherwise mild movie. A year ago, smart money pegged Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones as a surefire Oscar contender. Nope! We need more movies like 44-Inch Chest. Is Ray Winstone ever not awesome? Don't worry -- Solar Anus Cinema isn't what you think. It's, you know, arty. more ›

Many weeks, there can be slim pickings on the DVD aisle. And then there are weeks like this where three, er, fantastic movies top the list. Fantastic Mr. Fox may not rise to the absurd and lunatic levels of Rushmore or The Royal Tennenbaums, but it's a wonderful re-telling of Roald Dahl's seminal children's book. It's that rare thing -- something both children and adults can enjoy (albeit for different reasons). Plenty of critics piled on The Men Who Stare at Goats, but I thought it's daffiness totally worked. The interpretative dance sequence on the Army base was one of the funniest scenes in any movie this year, and I'll say it -- Jeff Bridges did his best work in this movie, not Crazy Heart. While it was mostly overlooked during awards season, Brothers was a solid and depressing piece of drama. Tobey Maguire has never been better, and Natalie Portman solidified her reputation as the best young actress working in studio pictures. Especially in this. Supervan! more ›

Frank Henenlotter is the J. D. Salinger of exploitation cinema - a few game-changers and he's gone. Sure, Brain Damage (about a hallucinogenic space worm), Frankenhooker (a romantic retelling of Frankenstein with dismembered hookers) and the Basket Case series (horror-comedies starring homicidal siamese twins) may not be required reading at your local high school, but his latest, Bad Biology, is required viewing at your local Cinefamily. It's a black-humored, black-hearted love story, with an oversized genitalia, an overabundance of clitorides, and more mutant babies than a playdate with Trig Palin. And if that's not enough to get your butt in the seat, Frank himself will make a rare in-person appearance. He'll also be at Burbank's Dark Delicacies earlier in the day, in case you want two signatures before he disappears again. more ›

The 35th Annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards was held this weekend at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles. The LAFCA is comprised of Los Angeles-based, professional film critics who work in the Los Angeles print and electronic media. LAist was out covering the red carpet of the event and talked with some of the award winners about how they first got involved with their projects and how it feels to be honored by some of the toughest critics in Hollywood. more ›

For one night only, two juggernauts join together for the ultimate music & movie mixtape. To celebrate the release of DJ/MC/producer/psychedelic-master Edan's latest mixtape Echo Party, Stones Throw Records & Cinefamily unite for Echo Party, the... party! With Edan on the decks, Tom Maharajah (the evil genius behind the Cinefamily's "Mondo..." series) on the eyes, and a special appearance by hip-hop historian Ricky Powell, your mind will be so mashed you'll need a headspin just to start putting it back together again. Bollywood meets breakdancing meets bitchin' beats in this tantalizing sample. more ›

While Disney's A Christmas Carol won the weekend with an underwhelming $31M, the real story at the box-office was Precious. The darling of this year's Sundance Film Festival earned an astonishing $100,000 per theater, breaking the record for the largest opening EVER for a specialty film (A Christmas Carol, by contrast, earned a little over $8400 per venue). Michael Jackson's This Is It had a solid second weekend ($14M | $57.8M), just topping the fantastic The Men Who Stare at Goats ($13.3M) and the weird and phony The Fourth Kind ($12.5M). Not surprisingly, Paranormal Activity continued to print money ($8.6M | $97.4M). more ›

If you like movies filled with whimsical, daffy humor (think Wes or Spike or Charlie) then you will probably dig The Men Who Stare at Goats as much as I did. It concerns our military's experimentation with paranormal phenomena as epitomized by the Jedi Warriors of the First Earth Battalion stationed at Fort Bragg, NC (yep!). Best of all, most of it is true. I like that Bob Zemekis is always pushing the boundaries of the technical aspect of filmmaking, but I'm motioned-captured out at this point! I'll see Christmas Carol but with gritted teeth. more ›

Critics are split on Taking Woodstock, but anything from the amazing Ang Lee is worth seeing. He'll never get the credit of other major directors, but check out his filmography and find me someone else who's taken so many successful chances. Audiences will probably avoid The Baader Meinhof Complex (LAist review here) because it makes them uncomfortable (e.g. subtitles, anti-Americanism). What I said about Ang Lee above -- apply the same words to Jeff Bridges. You say DeNiro, Hoffman, Pacino, I say Bridges! I'm not thrilled with the inclusion of Timberlake in The Open Road, but that's not enough to keep me away. World's Greatest Dad marks Robin Williams' return to challenging, difficult material. It will be too dark for many, but I liked it. more ›

It's a very festive time right now. The sun is shining, birds are chirping, and there's a lot of copying & pasting in Film Digest land. The Indian Film Festival continues its run at the Arclight, as well as its mixed masala line-up. Joining it are the 10th Annual Polish Film Festival, the 4th Annual Jewish Film Festival & a virtual continuation of last week's Japanese Film Festival at the Egyptian with a series dedicated to controversial auteur Nagisa Oshima. If those aren't exotic enough, you can always make the journey to San Pedro for the L.A. Harbor Film Festival, or trek all the way to Orange County for the Newport Beach Film Festival. Even the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is getting in on the act, with panels dedicated to Hollywood biographers & the adaptation of The Soloist.
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Viddy well, Long Beach! This weekend, your humble narrator strongly advises you attend Stanley Kubrick's real horrorshow picture A Clockwork Orange, unspooling at the Art Theatre. Dress as one of those dashing droogs and get in for only $5. Bring your own moloko. more ›

Presaging the imminent arrival of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, ($5M/$5.5M). more ›

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist looks like an ideal date movie for confused and annoying teens. The presence of the awesomely talented Michael Cera, however, insures my aged presence. Beverly Hills Chihuahua looks so awful that it will probably be hilarious. Stoned. I don't much like Bill Maher, but I do like that Bill Maher exists and has a platform on which to vent his spleen. That said, Religulous feels an awful lot like fishing with dynamite. I mean, making fun of the devoutly religious? Is this really cutting edge material? more ›

For the 86 people who didn't see , I once lived underground for 3 years harrassing innocent women from below. more ›

What else can I say about Iron Man that I didn't say in my rave yesterday? According to the great Nikki Finke, it looks like it's going to be a monster hit so I guess I don't need to encourage you to go see it. I'll actually be seeing it again this weekend because I failed to stay through the entire end credit roll and see the rumored Nick Fury (Sam Jackson) cameo at the end. Don't make the same mistake. more ›

I won't keep you in suspense a moment longer: is a rousing start to the summer movie season. It succeeds not only as a visually dazzling popcorn movie, but as a human drama about a man forced to finally consider his former and future place in the world. Great credit must be given to two crucial players in the film: director Jon Favreau and the wildly counterintuitive choice of actor Robert Downey Jr. as the film's hero. more ›

If you absolutely can't wait until 12:01 am on May 2nd to see what's looking to be the summer's first big blockbuster, the Aero Theater in Santa Monica is holding a charity screening of on May 1st at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $20 and proceeds go the Aero Building Fund Donation. If seeing the movie early with a group of passionate fans isn't encouragement enough, director Jon Favreau will also be there for a Q & A following the screening (don't tell Don Murphy). There are also strong rumors that other members of the cast will show as well. Sound good so far? There is one catch. You need to buy your tickets at the Aero box office. They will not be available on-line at Fandango. More details about the movie here. more ›

This weekend fans of "The Big Lebowski" will gather for Lebowski Fest LA and Book Release Party. Followers of the religion Dudeism and of the film can be found wearing bowling shirts, drinking White Russians, and getting a little crazy "Dude" style. Known for his memorable interpretive dance scene in the film, I asked Jack Kehler who played Marty, the Dude's Landlord, about the cult status of this Coen Brother's classic. LAist: The film opened... more ›

The week begins with a John Hayes double feature. In Grave of the Vampire, legendary vampire Kroft awakens and rapes a woman in a graveyard. The resulting child doesn't need milk. He needs… blood! This is paired with Jailbait Babysitter, which stars Therese Pare as a teenager who's turned out by an older prostitute (Lydia Wagner). more ›

Oscar Shorts at the Academy To kick off Oscar Week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present "Shorts!" a program featuring the 10 Academy Award-nominated films in the Animated and Live Action Short Film categories. The program, hosted by director Taylor Hackford, will feature onstage discussions with the nominated filmmakers. Short Film (Animated) The Danish Poet, Torill Kove, director Lifted, Gary Rydstrom, director The Little Matchgirl, Roger Allers, director; Don Hahn, producer... more ›

Not that Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez need any free publicity, but you gotta love the 1970s-style color palette and cheeseball film effects of the Grind House trailer -- complete with Josh Brolin looking like a young Jeff Bridges, Danny Trejo as the badass knife-sharpening Machete, Tom Savini as a shotgun-wielding sheriff's deputy and Rose McGowan as an amputee stripper with a machine gun for a shin.... more ›

The American Cinematheque presents a double feature of Reese Witherspoon in "Vanity Fair" (2004) and Alexander Payne's "Election" (1999). A discussion with Ms. Witherspoon will take place between films. more ›