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NEW YORK - Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's trip down the rabbit hole drew huge crowds, as "Alice in Wonderland" earned a whopping $116.3 million in its opening weekend — a record for a 3-D film. The surprisingly huge total easily surpassed all other films in release and gave Walt Disney Studios an even bigger opening than that of the hugely popular 3-D film "Avatar." It also marked the biggest opening weekend for a non-sequel. "This is just one of those cultural phenomenons that has caught everybody's interest," said Chuck Viane, Disney's president of distribution. "They don't come like this...

Films and Faith: Redemption themes dominate Oscar flicks (click URL to view video)

Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders, whose film describes the Koran as a fascist book, has received death threats for denouncing Islam and has been under close protection for more than five years. This afternoon he repeated the views that have angered Muslims in Europe and across the globe, saying Islam was a "fascist ideology", "a violent and dangerous religion and a retarded culture". ( film clip at link)

In the history of the cinema, the German director Veit Harlan occupies an especially ignominious position. It is his name that is attached to “Jew Süss,” perhaps the most notoriously anti-Semitic movie ever made, a box office success in Nazi Germany in 1940 that was so effective that it was made required viewing for all members of the SS. But what motivated Harlan to write and direct such a film? Was he a Nazi true believer, an opportunistic careerist or just a filmmaker too fearful of retribution to say no to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief? Those are some...

The word is that watching Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland is the closest you can come to falling down the rabbit hole yourself and into Lewis Carroll's fantasy world. Those who have seen the film, or clips of it, say that it is utterly breathtaking, a hallucinatory alternate universe completely realised in every detail, from the sun streaming in through the gills of the mushrooms to the light falling on the individual fuzzy hairs on the caterpillar's back.

Fox Entertainment held a special session at the World Economic Forum in Davos with James Cameron, director of Avatar. Clips of the movie were shown and James talked about the making of the film. Here, he answers the questions: How did you make a 3D movie, and what is the future of 3D? James has "greyed out" a bit! http://www.economicvindicator.com/2010/02/james-cameron-talks-about-future-of-3d.html

David Brown, an urbane New Yorker whose publishing background was the foundation of a producing career in Hollywood, with films like “The Sting,” “Jaws,” and “The Verdict,” and on Broadway, died Monday at home in Manhattan. He was 93.

John Loves Mary (1949) 12:30 pm on TCM A World War II veteran's marriage of convenience threatens his real wedding plans. Cast: Ronald Reagan, Jack Carson, Wayne Morris, Edward Arnold Dir: David Butler BW-96 mins, TV-G www.tcm.com

The largest english newspaper in China(China Daily) had reported this story. original topic:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2422240/posts?page=1

The futuristic 3-D adventure, directed by James Cameron, has received scathing reviews from Vatican Radio as well as the Holy See's official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.The epic movie, which will be released in Italy this week, has received generally favourable reviews in the United States and Britain, amazing critics and cinemagoers with its technical mastery and blend of real-life actors and animation. It takes place in 2154 on the planet Pandora, light years away from Earth, where humans have established an environmentally-destructive mining colony.But the record budget had failed to impress the Catholic Church hierarchy in Rome."It has a great deal...

The biggest British comedy event of the month, maybe even the year, is about to take place – thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic. On January 23, the Sundance Film Festival in Utah is poised to premiere Four Lions. This is the long-awaited debut feature film by Chris Morris, the interview-shy maverick who shot to fame in the Nineties with the groundbreaking Radio 4 news satire On the Hour, and its TV spin-off, The Day Today – and cemented his reputation for high-end pranksterism with his solo Channel 4 vehicle Brass Eye.

Hi everyone, sorry for my poor Englishi frist. I'm a photographer from PRC,i bought a large format camera(Graflex Speed Graphic) from ebay a few days ago.The seller sent me the camere with some undeveloped Kodak B&W films which expired 50 years. With great curiosity i developed them today, and a miracle happens:the film is in good status, and i saw a us army called "Jordan" on the film.By the uniforms he wears,I guess this film was taken in vietnam war. And the other two films show a funeral without a person. I want to find out the army on the...

10. March of the Penguins 9. Enchanted 8. The Incredibles 7. Amazing Grace 6. The Nativity Story 5. Ratatouille 4. Wall-e 3. Up 2. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Classic British Cinema Has Become An Elusive Delight The England I love is in the old films of Ealing, Elstree and Shepperton - and they're becoming harder to see. Simon Heffer 26 Dec 2009 We all have a cultural comfort zone. It is the place where we go when we need to feel entirely at one with the world and have the ultimate relaxation. For years – actually, decades – I thought that, for me, it was music. Then, not so long ago, I realised that was not the case. Most of my favourite music is loud, agitated, violent stuff...

The era of the ‘Man’s Man’ is coming ever closer to ending. Soon it will be acceptable for all men to see a film and let it truly effect them emotionally. But that time isn’t upon us just yet. These are the top ten movies that not only make men cry, but it is deemed acceptable for them to do so. 10. The Wrestler 9. Saving Private Ryan 8. Braveheart 7. Field of Dreams 6. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial 5. The Shawshank Redemption 4. Friday Night Lights 3. Terminator 2: Judgement Day 2. Good Will Hunting 1. Star Trek II:...

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I know…technically the decade doesn’t end until next year. Whatever. The first 10 years of the 20th Century, as it was, was a great era for great movies. In my mind, we saw a true resurgence of innovation and imagination…with some routine Hollywood nonsense thrown in. Now, I took some editorial leeway on some of these, as you will see. For what it is worth, here is my top 10 list:

Now, please note…this is just the most hyped movies of the year, and the ones I am personally most interested in. I am sure there are dozens, if not more, of excellent movies coming out. But on hype alone, these should get you started for a wonderful year of movie watching.

Perhaps no area of discernment is more difficult and more controversial than the Christian’s engagement with culture. Are we to be cultural gluttons, immersing ourselves in the culture around us so we can speak to it from the perspective of first-hand experience? Are we to be cultural anorexics, avoiding culture altogether lest it corrupt us? Or are we to take some middle ground where we appreciate aspects of it while rejecting others? In Hollywood Worldviews, filmmaker and screenwriter Brian Godawa (To End All Wars) weighs in on the task of “Watching Films with Wisdom & Discernment.” While looking at movies...

the case of It’s a Wonderful Life. When the film was released in 1946, it was given a 28-year copyright term which was eligible for a 28-year renewal. For whatever reason, a request wasn’t put in for renewal, and it was believed to have fallen into the public domain in 1975. Had it not connected with the American people on its rediscovery, it would have become a resident of dollar DVD bins, like other public domain mainstays such as the Fleischer Superman cartoons or Bill Cosby’s TV movie Tell All My Friends on the Shore. However, the movie studio smelled...

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Soundtrack albums are the hidden pleasures of pop. Composed and performed to accompany moving images, they're emotional enhancers. This dramatic quality, coupled with the depth of sound-field in full cinema reproduction, ensures that many soundtracks stand apart from their parent films as a listening experience.

What about duty, honor, country? What about comradeship? What about loyalty unto death? That about Semper Fi? What about it, Hollywood? Even liberal President Obama used his Nobel Peace Prize address to praise the role of the U.S. military in overcoming tyranny. Why can’t you find a good word to say about those who are risking their lives for us all? Now that would be news.

Patriots mascot among 14 arrested in RI sex stingDecember 12, 2009 2:00 AM PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A man who acts as a mascot for the New England Patriots is among 14 people who have been arrested for prostitution-related crimes in Rhode Island since a new law went into effect that banned indoor prostitution. The bill signed into law in November made prostitution a misdemeanor crime regardless of where it occurs. Previously, indoor prostitution was allowed because of a legal loophole. State Police say Robert Sormanti of Warwick was among those arrested in an undercover sting at a hotel. The...

For Old Timers or fans of old time movies, list your favorite movies made before 1950. Include the date of the movie. Please don't list any movies made after 1950. Thanks!

Watching "Avatar," I felt sort of the same as when I saw "Star Wars" in 1977. That was another movie I walked into with uncertain expectations. James Cameron's film has been the subject of relentlessly dubious advance buzz, just as his "Titanic" was. Once again, he has silenced the doubters by simply delivering an extraordinary film. There is still at least one man in Hollywood who knows how to spend $250 million, or was it $300 million, wisely. "Avatar" is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. It's a technical breakthrough. It has a flat-out Green and anti-war...

What would everyone consider the best 5 movies of this last decade?

egular readers are familiar with the documentary "Not without a fight," a project completely carried out by Max Lemus, a man who got the idea to travel the country asking Second Amendment activists why they are involved in the struggle to restore recognition of the right to keep and bear arms. Per Max: I am new out of the box. My film-making experience consists of short films that I have worked on; meaning that I was not the director and my role was a supportive one. This would include working with the lights on of some the shorts, working with...

Jenny: “Oh, and by the way ... David’s a Jew, a wandering Jew. So watch yourself.” We were only 15 minutes into the film and this was the second reference to the “Wandering Jew,” an age-old, European anti-Semitic stereotype. The British coming-of-age film, “An Education,” had gotten rave reviews, yet the more I watched, the more the character of David Goldman resembled the parasitical Jew of “Der Ewige Juden” (“The Eternal Jew”) — one of the infamous 1930s Nazi propaganda films

Alec Baldwin, the US actor, has said he has lost interest in acting and considers his film career a failure. "I consider my entire movie career a complete failure," he told the magazine. "The goal of moviemaking is to star in a film where your performance drives the film, and the film is either a soaring critical or commercial success, and I never had that." Baldwin has expressed interest in politics in the past but did not say in the interview what he intended to do if he quit acting.

On Turner Classic Movies today, 12 pm: Ronald Reagan in "The Girl From Jones Beach" 1949 Brief Synopsis: An artist discovers a real-life version of the perfect woman he's been drawing for years. http://www.tcm.com

This is a film taken from the dash of a San Francisco Trolley in 1909. The image flips just a few times but 99% of the video is good quality footage. It's interesting to see how the people on the street acted in those days. If there were any traffic or jaywalking laws at the time they clearly weren't enforced. If you can't stand modern drivers then take a look at what your grandparents and great grandparents had to deal with.

Steubenville, Ohio, Nov 27, 2009 / 09:04 am (CNA).- The latest installment of the Franciscan University Distinguished Speaker Series, Steve McEveety, the producer of “The Passion of the Christ,” spoke to a standing-room only crowd of students, faculty, and community members last week in a talk entitled, “The Passion, Hollywood, and the Church.” “Never has the world been so dark,” he said. “This is the time to make this world a better place.”According to a press release from the university, McEveety, who also produced “Braveheart,” “We Were Soldiers,” and “Bella” shared his thoughts about how a rising generation of...

Perhaps once a year, a movie comes out that keeps me in my seat, waiting to see what happens next. Sometimes, a great historical drama appears, like HBO’s John Adams miniseries, based upon David McCullough’s excellent biography. Sometimes, it’s an action film, though this genre is becoming trite with its formulaic use of explosions, flying cars, sex scenes, and special effects. Rarely, it’s a documentary, like the just-released Not Without a Fight by Max Lemus. Not Without a Fight is the story of one young man’s journey to understand what the Second Amendment means. By his own admission, he was...

Ever wondered what the movie They Live would look like in the time of Obama? You won't have to with this video.

Paul Wendkos, who directed the 1959 surfing classic "Gidget" and two sequels, died early Thursday at his home in Malibu... His feature film credits include 1961's "Angel Baby," with George Hamilton and Mercedes McCambridge, and 1971's "The Mephisto Waltz," starring Alan Alda and Jacqueline Bisset...

“Blazing Saddles” (1974) “Airplane!” (1980) “There’s Something About Mary” (1998) “Caddyshack” (1980) “Love and Death” (1975) “Kentucky Fried Movie” (1977) “Team America: World Police” (2004) “Porky’s” (1982) “Song of the South” (1946) “Bad Santa” (2003)

In the new movie The Men Who Stare at Goats, which opens today in the United States, George Clooney plays a former member of a secret sect of soldiers trained by the U.S. military to deploy a host of paranormal weapons against the enemy. Their deadly talents supposedly include the ability to kill a goat via psychokinesis—by staring at the beast they can make its heart stop with thought alone. The movie takes some liberties in the name of comedy, but the program it's based on is real. During the Cold War, the U.S. military became convinced it was losing...

Just got hold of the latest issue of the magazine my old alma mater in Spain sends me regularly. A feature about a movie actor, now also a producer, immediately got my attention. First, a magazine that tries to be serious in character would normally not talk about actors and celebrities. Second, though I’ve heard of the story before in a tangential way, I thought it would just have a short shelf life, just a flash in the pan, you know. In short, the article broke my guiding principles. It deserved to be read. And I did. Now, I feel...

I'm amazed by the soothsayers: Ayn Rand, for instance, who warned us fifty years ago of the risk of dictatorship or civil war if collectivism persisted. Or economist Friedrich Hayek, who wrote in the 1940s that we'll become serfs if we move toward big government. However, what feels most prophetic lately is an obscure movie from the l970s called Little Murders. The writer, Pulitzer-Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer, predicted that the '60s would unleash a feral, primitive society. The movie has a checkered history. It started out as a play on Broadway in the mid-'60s that was such a bomb, it...

A film about the rise of anti-Semitic movements in Poland has recently been met with censure by members of the country's parliament and public. Hitler's Daughter, directed by Aro Korol and produced by Korol's London-based Awesome Industry, focuses on right-wing radio station Radio Maryja, as well as its founder, Tadeusz Rydzyk, a Roman Catholic priest. "Father Rydzyk sees no contradiction between wearing a collar and spreading his politics via satellite," Korol wrote on the film's Web site, hitlersdaughtermovie.com. "One of Radio Maryja's many anti-Semitic commentaries suggested that Jews were sabotaging the struggle of democracy in Ukraine and Belarus. The station...

Producer Barrie Osborne cast Keanu Reeves as the messiah in The Matrix and helped defeat the dark lord Sauron in his record-breaking Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now the Oscar-winning American film-maker is set to embark on his most perilous quest to date: making a big-screen biopic of the prophet Muhammad. Budgeted at around $150m (£91.5m), the film will chart Muhammad's life and examine his teachings. Osborne told Reuters that he envisages it as "an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam". Osborne's production will reportedly feature English-speaking Muslim...

Prophet Mohammed Film Planned An epic film about the Prophet Mohammad backed by the producer of "The Lord of the Rings" is being planned with the aim of "bridging cultures". 01 Nov 2009 Filming of the £90 million English-language film was set to start in 2011, with Barrie Osborne as its producer, Almoor Holdings, a Qatari media company, said. The company said the film - in which the Prophet would not be depicted, in accordance with Islamic strictures - was in development and talks were being held with studios, talent agencies and distributors in the United States and Britain. Mr...

Maurice Sendak’s poetic, luxuriantly illustrated Where the Wild Things Are is revered as a childhood classic, but I think it speaks more powerfully to grown-ups than to children, or at least children of the age for picture books. I’ve met grown-ups who don’t like it, but I suspect they wouldn’t have liked it as kids either. If a child doesn't like it, there is always the chance he will grow into it a few years down the road. If kids do like it, it may be that they grasp that there is something there they don’t quite understand, something waiting...

After a couple of weeks of unsubstantiated rumors, it has been confirmed that the forthcoming film The Invention of Lying is indeed intended to satirize religion and religious believers. New York Post critic Kyle Smith has seen the film and describes it as “a full-on attack on religion in general and Christianity in particular. It might be the most blatantly, one-sidedly atheist movie ever released by a major studio, in this case Warner Bros.”

The Top 10 White Trash Heroes of Cinema Redneck and "white trash" culture tends to get a bad rap by the snootier elements of our culture. Maybe you think that hicks and hillbillies don’t know nothin’ ‘bout nothin’, but you couldn't be further from the truth. Sometimes we need to look to the trailer parks for succor, refuge, and justice. Source: Twentieth Century Fox 10. Aileen Wuornos from Monster Source: Columbia TriStar Charlize Theron was one of the first of the bombshell actresses to get on the white trash bandwagon. Never one to make a misstep when it comes to...

Frank Darabont, the director of The Shawshank Redemption, has words for the millions of people who believe his 1994 prison drama is the greatest film of all time. “I think that’s a little crackers, to be honest, especially when you think of the other films on the list.” He means films such as The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Lolita, Vertigo and foreign-language contenders like Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist, Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt, Luis Buñuel’s Belle de jour or Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.

Million Dollar Baby (1941) A young innocent's surprise inheritance causes problems with her poor but proud boyfriend. Cast: Priscilla Lane, Jeffrey Lynn, Ronald Reagan, May Robson Dir: Curtis Bernhardt BW-101 mins, TV-G www.tcm.com

IT SEEMS Queensland is making as big an impression on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’s cast and crew as the world of Narnia has made on us. Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, along with their cousin Eustace Scrubb and their friend King Caspian (played by Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley, Will Poulter and Ben Barnes respectively) have begun filming the third Chronicles of Narnia movie at Warner Roadshow Studios at Movie World on the Gold Coast. And although official dates have not yet been released, locals can look forward to some big Narnia names coming to the area, when filming kicks...

Last night’s Red Eye discussed the recent loss of Hollywood director John Hughes, who died of a heart attack in New York this past Thursday. Host Greg Gutfeld noted that he “owned the 1980’s,” and he most certainly did. Hughes was behind some of the best comedies of the 1980s including The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Uncle Buck, The Great Outdoors, and the Lampoon’s Vacation films. Christmas Vacation has always been a holiday favorite of my family, and is certainly one of Hughes’ most quotable films. Red Eye guests went on to discuss their admiration for...