Recently in Movies Category

Here are some of the major categories. What do you guys think?

Best Motion Picture - Drama
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie - Changeling
Meryl Streep - Doubt
Kristin Scott Thomas - I've Loved You So Long (Il Y A Longtemps Que Je T'Aime)
Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
Leonardo Dicaprio - Revolutionary Road
Frank Langella - Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn - Milk
Brad Pitt - The Curious Case of Benjamin BUtton
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler

Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical
Burn After Reading
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Mamma Mia!
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical
Rebecca Hall - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Sally Hawkins - Happy-Go-Lucky
Frances McDorman - Burn After Reading
Meryl Streep - Mamma Mia!
Emma Thompson - Last Chance Harvey

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical
Javier Bardem - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Colin Farrell - In Bruges
James Franco - Pineapple Express
Brendan Gleeson - In Bruges
Dustin Hoffman - Last Chance Harvey

Best Animated Film
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E

Best Foreign Language Film
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Everlasting Moments
Gomorrah
I've Loved You so Long
Waltz with Bashir

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Amy Adams - Doubt
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis - Doubt
Marisa Tomei - The Wrestler
Kate Winslet - The Reader

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Tom Cruise - Tropic Thunder
Robert Downey Jr. - Tropic Thunder
Ralph Fiennes - The Duchess
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Doubt
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight

Best Director - Motion Picture
Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry - The Reader
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Sam Mendes - Revolutionary Road

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
Simon Beaufoy - Slumdog Millionaire
David Hare - The Reader
Peter Morgan - Frost/Nixon
Eric Roth - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley - Doubt

Best Original Score - Motion Picture
Alexandre Desplat - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Clint Eastwood - Changeling
James Newton Howard - Defiance
A. R. Rahman - Slumdog Millionaire
Hans Zimmer - Frost/Nixon

Best Original Song - Motion Picture
"Down to Earth" - Wall-E
"Gran Torino" - Gran Torino
"I Thought I Lost You" - Bolt
"Once in a Lifetime" - Cadillac Records
"The Wrestler" - The Wrestler

Director Guillermo del Toro is set to make a commitment to Universal Studios that will keep him directing until 2017.

If this isn't good enough news, here's what he will be working on:

"The Hobbit" (Yeah, we knew that)

"Drood"

"Frankenstein" (del Toro mainstay Doug Jones is rumored to be the favorite to play the monster. Check out my interview with Jones for more.)

"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"

"Slaughterhouse-Five" (del Toro doing Vonnegut. Umm, yes please.)

He will also produce a few films in there as well. OK, post concluded. Now go get excited.

In an interview with Moviehole.net, Robert Downey Jr. had this to say about "The Dark Knight":

"My whole thing is that that I saw 'The Dark Knight'. I feel like I'm dumb because I feel like I don't get how many things that are so smart. It's like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I'm like, 'That's not my idea of what I want to see in a movie.' I loved 'The Prestige' but didn't understand 'The Dark Knight'. Didn't get it, still can't tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I'm like, 'I get it. This is so high brow and so (expletive deleted) smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.' You know what? (expletive deleted) DC comics. That's all I have to say and that's where I'm really coming from."

What do you think? Why so much hero on hero hate?

Here's the rest of the interview.

This is it folks. The rebirth is upon us.

It's been known for a while that Quentin Tarantino has the ability of not just reshaping an actor's career (See: Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill") but also bringing a career that was completely dead and making it vibrant again. (See: John Travolta in "Pulp Fiction")

Now the director has his sights on a new project: pop queen/borderline psycho Britney Spears.

Now let me make this clear. I don't know why but I'm rooting for Spears. I say psssht to Lindsay, psssht to Winehouse but Britney, I'm behind you.

So when I read this morning that Tarantino is working on casting Spears as Varla in a remake of the 1965 cult film "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" I was ecstatic.

Talk about taking your career in a whole new direction! Spears's character is a murderous lesbian stripper in a film about thrill-seeking strippers who encounter a young couple in the desert.

Spears' character murders the boyfriend with her bare hands before taking the girlfriend hostage.

So good for you, Brit! Try something new. The old stuff obviously isn't working anymore.

PHOTO: Associated Press

Much like television's "jumping the shark," the moment where a series heads for the rediculous, "nuking the fridge" refers to the point in a film where you realize how bad it is due to dumb story lines or the fact that the ability to suspend disbelief has been pushed to the point of impossible.

The origin of this phrase comes from the latest Indana Jones installment, "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." In the film, Indiana realizes he is in the middle of nuclear bomb testing and seeks refuge in a lead-lined 1950's refridgerator. According to urbandictionary.com, "although lead is radiation proof, lead melts at 620 degrees and is not resistant to the millions of degrees, that say, an atomic bomb would put out." So, the phrase "nuking the fridge" was born.

Other examples of films "nuking the fridge":

George Lucas introduces Jar-Jar Binks in "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace."

The "Batman" film franchise brings Arnold's "Mr. Freeze" to the big screen. "Chill out" becomes the dumbest line of the year.

But is the phrase catching on? On July 7, CNBC ran a story entitled "Have Media Stocks Nuked the Fridge?" 

What other films have "nuked the fridge"? Let me hear 'em...

PHOTO: PARAMOUNT PICTURES