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The Best and Worst Prequels Ever

By Alonso Duralde (Subscribe to Alonso Duralde's posts), Posted Jun 1st 2011 12:00PM
Filed under: Features, Hot Topic, Summer Movies, Best and Worst

Let's face it -- prequels, for the most part, suck. They tend to be even lamer than sequels, which, though often repetitive and pointless, at least get to launch from the previous film's endpoint. Prequels, on the other hand, are forced to operate within the universe of the original movie and can't stray far from the established order of the story that they're leading up to.

So, with 'X-Men: First Class' going back to the JFK years to show how Professor Xavier and Magneto originally pulled the whole mutant funky bunch together, let's look back at the best and worst that the prequel genre has to offer:
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The Best (and Worst) Celebrity-Voiced Animals in Cartoons

By Alonso Duralde (Subscribe to Alonso Duralde's posts), Posted May 28th 2011 12:30PM
Filed under: Features, Family Film Guide, Summer Movies, New Releases, Best and Worst

Animated voice-over roles used to go almost exclusively to performers like the great June Foray, who voiced Rocky the Squirrel and gajillions of other characters in film and TV cartoons over the years. But the success of 'Shrek' suddenly meant that you couldn't sell an animated feature without filling your movie with A-listers like Jack Black and Angelina Jolie, who play two of the key roles in this weekend's new release 'Kung Fu Panda 2: The Kaboom of Doom.'

And while those actors -- as well as co-stars like Dustin Hoffman, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross and Michelle Yeoh -- do exceptional work in the film, casting well-known stars isn't a guarantee that they're going to do justice to talking-animal characters. (Note to producers: The animal characters in 'Tangled' were the best thing in the movie. And they didn't speak.)

Here's a look at some of our favorite -- and least favorite -- anthropomorphic work from celebrities in the recording booth.
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Summer's Sexiest Women of 2011: Penelope Cruz

By Alonso Duralde (Subscribe to Alonso Duralde's posts), Posted May 18th 2011 7:00PM
Filed under: Features, Video, Summer Movies, New Releases

About to slash up screens everywhere this weekend as a saucy buccaneer in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,' Penélope Cruz has, in just 20 years, gone from being a promising newcomer in Spanish cinema to raising temperatures around the globe as one of the sexiest women in the world.

Perhaps no performer since Sophia Loren (who co-starred with Cruz in the musical 'Nine') has won over audiences with equal parts acting chops and va-va-voomery. And now that she's nailed the whole bilingual thing, Cruz gets raves for English-language movies like 'Vicky Christina Barcelona' (which won her an Oscar) and 'Elegy' while still returning home to Spain to work with her close friend and mentor, Pedro Almodóvar.

But whether she's acting in Spanish or in English, Cruz suffuses almost every role with a palpable sexuality that has made her one of this generation's hottest international stars. Keep reading to find out more about just a few of Cruz's hottest moments on the big screen.
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Review: James Franco and Anne Hathaway As Oscar Hosts -- Bring Back David Letterman!

By Alonso Duralde (Subscribe to Alonso Duralde's posts), Posted Feb 28th 2011 12:27AM
Filed under: Hot Topic, Oscar News, Awards

One of the zillion tweets posted during this year's Academy Awards said it best: "Tonight's show finally answers the whole 'What can't James Franco do?' thing." The famous multi-tasker may draw acclaim as an actor, a graduate student, a filmmaker and creator of art installations, but Franco flopped as co-host of the Academy Awards. Throughout the evening, his teleprompter readings seemed drab and forced, and as the show plodded along, he seemed more resigned to the fact that it just wasn't working.

Anne Hathaway, for her part, smiled gamely and carried on. After firing off an early gag about how demographic-minded a show this was going to be -- she and Franco were clearly hired as hosts in a desperate attempt to get younger audiences to tune in to a three-and-a-half-hour tribute to 'The King's Speech' -- she kept her energy levels aloft and actually seemed to be having a good time.
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10 Children's Movies That Won't Bore Adults

By Alonso Duralde (Subscribe to Alonso Duralde's posts), Posted Feb 17th 2011 10:00AM
Filed under: Features, Family Film Guide

While some parents may use DVDs as a way to park their kids in front of the TV for 90 minutes of peace and quiet, there are plenty of moms and dads out there who consider movie time with the kids to be an opportunity to hang out and enjoy something together.

These parents probably know that, once you've worked your way through the Pixar and classic Disney animated catalogs, it can be tricky to find something that will both entertain the rugrats and allow the grown-ups to maintain consciousness.

Here are 10 solid movie choices that are fun for all ages:
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1. 'It's a Wonderful Life': Best Christmas Scenes of All Time

By Alonso Duralde (Subscribe to Alonso Duralde's posts), Posted Dec 10th 2010 11:00AM
Filed under: Features, Holiday Movies

1. 'It's a Wonderful Life' (1946)
Poor George Bailey (played unforgettably by James Stewart). It's Christmas Eve, and he's at the end of his rope, about to lose the family business to which he's devoted his life. But after an angelic intervention shows George how his absence would have profoundly affected all the people in his life, George chooses to stay alive and face the music. As Stewart runs through his beloved Bedford Falls ("Merry Christmas, movie house!"), returns to his beloved wife and children, and sees the extent of the devotion of his friends ... well, I'm getting misty-eyed just writing this, so go figure. The final sequence of "It's a Wonderful Life" still ranks among the most powerful movie moments – let alone Christmas movie moments – ever, even after more than 60 years.
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2. 'A Christmas Story': Best Christmas Scenes of All Time

By Alonso Duralde (Subscribe to Alonso Duralde's posts), Posted Dec 9th 2010 12:00PM
Filed under: Features, Holiday Movies

2. 'A Christmas Story' (1983)
One of the reasons this nostalgic comedy about Jean Shepherd's childhood Christmas in the 1940s has become such a favorite with audiences is that it so deftly balances the joys and the horrors of being a kid. The latter category definitely includes those visits to see Santa at a department store – who among us didn't freeze up or burst into tears at some point in our youth when placed on the lap of a red-suited stranger? Our hero Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) has come to ask St. Nick for a Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle, but he can't get the words out. On his way down the slide, he finally finds his voice and makes his request to Santa, only to hear the same dispiriting sentence that every adult in Ralphie's life has uttered upon hearing his holiday wish list: "You'll shoot your eye out, kid."
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