This weekend America faces The Dilemma, a new purported comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. The boys play best friends, James the happily married to Winona Ryder man and Vaughn the bachelor who is practically married to Jennifer Connelly, but scared to take the next step guy. The smug, married couple spend the first half of the movie encouraging Vaughn to pop the question and the second half berating him for not knowing how hard it is to be married. They could both stand to look at their own marriage and leave Vaughn alone. more ›

If you've ever given or sought consolation for receiving an A- instead of an A, you'll feel right at home in Whiz Kids. The documentary, which opens this weekend at Laemmle's Music Hall, charts three teen scientists as they prepare for the Intel Science Talent Search, high school's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. There's a lot of hard work and a little heart break along the way, but this trio is hell-bent on forging their destinies and a new world. Harmain, raised on food stamps by a Pakistani single mother, plots human evolution by carbon-dating crocodile fossils (human fossils from the same sites are too fragile to be examined). Ana, the first in her family looking to attend college, analyzes plant root systems to increase crop yields. more ›

Avatar continued its inevitable crawl towards history, taking in a robust $36M ($552M) to pass The Dark Knight in domestic receipts and Titanic on the international front. By next Monday, it should be the all-time box-office champ (not accounting for inflation, of course, in which case Gone With The Wind would be the easy winner and Avatar would be a mere 26th). The awful Legion had a respectable opening to place 2nd ($18.2M), just ahead of last week's runner-up The Book of Eli ($17M | $62M). Thankfully, The Tooth Fairy underwhelmed in its debut ($14.5M) while The Lovely Bones rounded out the top 5 ($8.8M | $31.6M). more ›

Having seen -- oh, I don't know -- 20,000 commercials for Extraordinary Measures over the last few weeks, I still think I'm looking at a promo for a TV movie. The real question is will "I already work around the clock!" replace "Where's my family" in the Harrison Ford repertoire? Geez, Legion looks awful. Does everyone else just cackle when that old bird crawls up the wall? Can anything be done to stop Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson? His latest atrocity is The Tooth Fairy. By all rights, Creation should have been a good movie. Great story, solid cast, super production design. Reviews, though, have been dreadful. Shame. To Save a Life looks way too fucking wholesome. People who loved Dumb Fucking Chipmunk Movie will probably love it. Pass. more ›

Ever since seeing Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, I've thought that Jason Statham had a great screen presence. It's a damn shame that he doesn't make more movies like The Bank Job and less movies like Crank 2: High Voltage (although The Expendables looks like good fun). If you don't own Requiem for a Dream there is no excuse now as it is being offered for dirt-cheap on Blu-Ray. Ass to ass! Want to see a movie that you've probably never heard of and is remarkably beautiful? Try Silent Light. Homicide is a superb example of what a great writer David Mamet used to be before he descended into a parody of himself (State and Main, too!) more ›

Do you remember the days when you looked forward to the new Steve Martin movie? Is anyone anywhere looking forward to The Pink Panther 2? Speaking of bad movies, Push is proof that you shouldn't try to do effects-driven films on a tight budget. I'm just not that into He's Just Not That Into You. Fanboys was once a good movie before being raped by its distributor. Coraline looks amazingly good and amazingly creepy. more ›

Despite sucking and being overwhelmingly patronizing, is looking more and more like a big flop ($4.2M/$37.8M). more ›

If you liked the Jim Hensen directed, David Bowie/Jennifer Connelly classic 80s movie, Labyrinth, then you're in the same boat as local band, The Happy Hollows, who just released their new music video, appropriately named after the flick. "There is a scene where Connelly comes to two doors guarded by two guards," the band explains in an e-mail to LAist. "The guards tell her a riddle (one guard always lies, ones guard tells the truth, and she can ask them one question). That riddle essentially makes up the lyrics of the song." more ›

Watching Nip/Tuck has always been a dirty and guilty pleasure. Season five of the show returns tonight on FX and McNamara/Troy are moving the business to our own Los Angeles (as if you haven't been pummeled incessantly by the promos for the last month, and particularly during the World Series). The overpromotion irritates me a bit because it can set up what has been a pretty good show for a fall. Since Nip/Tuck has always... more ›

Despite the presence of a fine cast, compelling material and a promising director, isn't terrible, it is relentlessly mediocre which--considering the high level of talent involved--can only qualify it as a deep disappointment. The script hits a profoundly false note so early in the film that you spend the rest of the time disconnected from its reality--a killer in a movie that requires your emotional investment in order to succeed. more ›

Tonight - Monday "Monday Night Football" (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.) Panthers @ Eagles "College Basketball" (ESPN2, 6:00 p.m.) USC @ Kansas "NBA Basketball" (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) Pacers @ Lakers "The Girl With the Pearl Earring" (IFC, 7:50 p.m.) Peter Webber's flick about Dutch painter Vermeer, and Scarlett Johansson before it was all about her boobs. "The 2006 Billboard Music Awards" (FOX, 8:00 p.m.) Fergie shakes her thing, the Killers rock, and unfortunately, Celine Dion... more ›

Tonight - Thursday more ›