Hope that video camera fires bullets, Mr. Secret Service! | Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Mediocre political thriller Vantage Point topped the box office this weekend, grossing a solid $24M in its opening frame. It was the only new film to do significant business as hold-overs held the next five spots. Jumper dropped precipitously in its second weekend (-54%) but still managed to make $12.65M ($56.2M). Family picture The Spiderwick Chronicles showed considerably more......

Ethan and Joel Coen, aka the Coen Brothers took home the biggest prizes at tonight's Academy Awards for the film "No Country For Old Men." It wasn't even the best film they've done but then again, Herbie Hancock. Jon Stewart ran the show as he did last year but could do no wrong with Regis Philbin there in the wings. You really want commentary? Visit our 2008 Oscars Liveblog. Hate the Oscars? Check out what......

Live, from in front of our television set, it's LAist's Oscar night liveblog extravaganza. I've spent the hours preceding tonight's telecast half-assedly getting ready by drinking beer, making brownies, and marveling over how few movies I actually saw this year (yet again.) I've stocked the larder with movie-going snacks, like popcorn, junior mints, and Twizzlers (sorry, this Canadian cannot do Red Vines; they taste like candles). Last night some amped up pitch gal with a......

Photo courtesy of IMDB I'm usually the first to slag the large theater chains for their lack of creativity in programming. As such, I feel compelled to point out when they actually make a good decision. In this case, AMC is doing something so obviously cool that I can't believe it isn't done every year (maybe it will be going forward). This Saturday, several AMC theaters in the Southland will be hosting a marathon......

The title of this article was going to be Moona Lisa. Then I realized I'm not actually 8, but 28. There I am, jumping next to the latest mural by Nick Walker. (Why am I jumping? Check out the Whiskerino Project, but beware: you might be blown away by sexiness. Unless you don't like beards.) This Banksy-esque lady can be found on La Brea, past Edgewood (see map below). Walker is one of four......

Eight Oscar nominations, a healthy box office gross and a popular catch phrase was not enough for There Will Be Blood. Now it sports the coolest billboard in town. The altered ad, located on Melrose and Mansfield, is another great piece of art by LA's own AUGOR.......

Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers In what can only be seen as a ratification of Mike Huckabee's belief that Satan actually exists, Fool's Gold roared to the top of the box office this weekend with a robust take of $22M. Plans are already underway for a third Kate Hudson-Matthew McConaughey pairing, tentatively titled Shit Sandwich. In further bad news, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins finished second with a healthy gross of $17.1M in its first......

Photo courtesy of Mike Schmid via Flickr Not since 1992 when Billy Ray Cyrus sparked an ill-advised cultural revolution with his tuneless "Achy Breaky Heart" has the Cyrus family experienced a moment of such undeserved triumph. Defying all logic and good taste, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour crushed all comers at the box-office this weekend. In only 683 theaters, it amassed a staggering $29M and will likely continue playing despite......

Photo courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox In yet another blow to Western civilization, Meet the Spartans ($18.7M) edged Rambo ($18.1M) to win the weekend box office crown. 27 Dresses proved surprisingly robust in its second frame, adding $13.6M ($45.3M) to its coffers. Last week's winner, Cloverfield, went in the opposite direction, plummeting over 68% and bringing in only $12.7M ($64.2M). The weekend's third wide opener, Untraceable finished fifth with $11.2M, in-line with expectations and......

"No Country For Old Men," "There Will Be Blood," "Juno," "Michael Clayton," and "Atonement" all received nominations for Best Picture this morning, as the Academy Award nominations were announced in Beverly Hills. "No Country" and "There Will Be Blood" are the front runners with eight noms apiece, including a Best Actor nod for perennial Oscar fav Daniel Day-Lewis, and directing nominations for the Coen Bros. and Paul Thomas Anderson. While Javier Bardem was recognized......

Despite being thoroughly outed by Vikram Jayanti in his superb documentary, The Golden Globes: Hollywood's Dirty Little Secret, the Globes do retain some credibility in certain quarters. I don't buy that they are any sort of barometer for Academy Award nominations, but they do give nominees the extra media attention that may tip an Oscar nod their way. That said, here's what I thought about tonight's results and what they may portend. BEST MOTION......

Legend holds that after seeing Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Tom Cruise jumped to his feet and loudly declaimed, "That rocks!". Some movies take a little longer to process. After watching No Country for Old Men I remember considering the movie for a few days before finally deciding that it was, indeed, a great film with a perfect ending. Likewise, it's only now--a week after seeing it--that I'm ready to write about There......

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the worst opening weekend of the year! Granted, it's only the first weekend of the year but with a mere one movie opening--one!--I think it may hold the title for the next 51 weeks. That movie, of course, is One Missed Call. It's your typical, 'let's trick bored teenagers into seeing another bad re-make of a better Japanese horror film.' I thought that trend had run its course, but......

The list is a little long this week since I'm including the Christmas Day openers. Having already raved about There Will Be Blood yesterday, I'll lead off with what some are calling the best horror film of the year, The Orphanage. For any horror fan who's tired of torture porn and bad Japanese re-makes, this is the movie for you. Grim and spare, it's a horror film for adults and Spain's foreign-language entrant for......

I certainly can't speak for anyone else, but There Will Be Blood is my most anticipated film of the year, and it finally starts today at the Arclight. Part of me doesn't want to even mention this since it will only spur more people to crowd the theater tonight. The better half, though, thinks it's worth announcing since Blood is sure to go down as one of the best films in what has already......

There's still time to win Tori Amos tickets -- the concert ends tonight at midnight! To enter the contest, leave a comment telling us what your favorite Tori song is. Get over there and put the damage on! An update on the Sherman Oaks apartment fire that left one person dead: authorities have ID'd the victim as a 63-year-old man who died at the hospital after receiving second- and third-degree burns. There was another......

Just surfacing amongst the depths of the Pitchfork servers comes the prospect of an unreleased P.T. Anderson short film featuring our beloved Elliott Smith. From the article: "In this film, wrote Wholphin [the one who linked to the story on Cigarettes and Red Vines,] Smith plays a Rastafarian basketball player. While Smith's publicist confirmed said short film exists, further details on it are scant at best. We don't know its title, for one, nor......