Brandon's Word: The Fourth Kind is Outright Malarkey!

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So, here's the thing. This past week I found myself in Orlando, Florida. (I'll spare you the details, but it had something to do with me turning yet another year older, a seven-hour game of Monopoly, and a hedgehog.) While in Orlando, William Goss invited me to attend a screening of The Fourth Kind with him. Since I was missing all of the Los Angeles screening dates, I thought, Why not? Truth be told, the trailer was (hell, still is) one of my favorites of the year. It's creepy in all the right ways. It's intriguing without giving too much away, and it's visually stunning. That said, I was pretty damned excited to see The Fourth Kind.

Martin Scorsese Picks 11 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time!

If there is anyone I would want to choose what movies I watch this Halloween weekend (besides Stephen King or Wes Craven), I'd want it to be Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese. He's a genius filmmaker and I'm sure he knows great horror when he sees it. I think this would've been much better coordinated if his new movie Shutter Island was actually out in theaters (damn you Paramount), but either way this is a great list. The Daily Beast asked Scorsese to choose some horror movies for Halloween and he came up with his own list of the 11 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time. Read on to see what great classics he chose!

Inevitable Talk of Paranormal Activity Sequel from Paramount

In its fifth weekend at the box office, surprise indie horror hit Paranormal Activity was able to knock down the reigning Halloween horror champion - the Saw franchise - off its throne to win the weekend before the holiday is officially upon us. Saw VI came in at #2, opening to an estimated $14.8 million while Paranormal Activity took in an estimated $22 million from only 1,945 theaters and pushed it's total gross up to $62.5 million. Not bad for a flick that only cost $11,000 to make. However, the risk of overkill is upon us as the LA Times says Paramount isn't past developing a sequel to the extremely low-budget smash hit.

Mastodon Explains How Exactly They Came to Score Jonah Hex

Do you remember the news that heavy metal band Mastodon would be scoring the Jonah Hex movie? Yea, I'm still a bit bewildered by that, but it's being cleared up today, finally. Paste (via SlashFilm) just did an interview with Mastodon recently and got the full story, including that they're not dropping any all-out heavy metal tracks into the movie, but rather recording instrumental songs that will be integrated into the score, similar to how Linkin Park worked with Steve Jablonsky for the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen score. It's actually kind of fascinating to hear and I'm much more excited to hear their score knowing this.

A Trip Through Disney History for The Princess and the Frog

The magic of Disney. There's nothing quite like it. There's nothing quite like Disneyland, or Walt Disney and his Imagineers, or the 48 animated movies created in his name over more than 70 years. A few weeks ago, Disney invited a small group of movie journalists, myself included, to experience the classic world of Walt Disney in a trip to Disneyland, the Disney Archives, and finally, back to the Animation Studio for a look at The Princess and the Frog and a chat with directors Ron Clements and John Musker. You may be wondering what a trip to Disneyland has to do with any movie and remarkably it has a lot to do with one.

The Weekly Moviegoer - Do Release Windows Really Matter?

Do you pay attention to movie release windows? If movies came out on DVD and Blu-Ray sooner, would it encourage you to wait to see more titles on home video instead of seeing them in the theater?

I can't imagine that the general population would answer yes to either of these questions. But the chance that they would is of great worry to American cinemas. That's why whenever a release window is shortened, the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) throws a fit. It's been awhile since one of the studios had the gall to significantly venture lower than the average length of time between theatrical release and

Must Read: New Yorker's Phenomenal Profile on James Cameron

I just finished reading, perhaps, the best article about the career and life of James Cameron that I have ever read. The New Yorker just published their epic (12 pages long - fitting for Cameron) profile on the filmmaker, detailing his early life and early career, from Terminator to The Abyss, his five wives (there are some funny stories in that section), to what he's been doing the last 10 years (scuba diving, developing 3D cameras, etc), and of course, all about Avatar and its development. Dana Goodyear spent more than a year writing this profile and it's this kind of awe-inspiring film journalism that I admire more than anything.

Brandon's Word: Law Abiding Citizen is an Explosive Thrill

The grammar stickler in me has an immediate problem with Law Abiding Citizen. The words "law" and "abiding" are not supposed to be separate, but rather combined as a hyphenated adjective modifying the noun "citizen" like so: Law-Abiding Citizen. But when William Goss pointed out that, perhaps, the title's lack of a hyphen is intentional, my brain unfurled and drank in this radically tasty nectar. As Goss explained to me, it's not the citizen who is abiding the law, instead, it's the law that's abiding the citizen. And it's in this simple, innocuous distinction that the seed of my fondness for F. Gary Gray's film was planted.

Brandon's Word: Where the Wild Things Are is a Profound Adventure

This film, Where the Wild Things Are, directed and co-written by auteur Spike Jonze, based on the seminal children's book authored by Maurice Sendak, is not for you. Rather, its very existence and purpose is meant not for you as you are now, today. Its themes and breathtaking visuals and deep, inky explorations aren't for you, the twenty/thirty/forty-year-old. Where the Wild Things Are is, instead, for the angst-filled, confused, whimsical nine/ten/eleven/twelve-year-old inside us all. For the part of us that feels directionless. For the part of us that is without. That's yearning, learning. That's wayward and possibly even hopeless.

Best Animated Feature Category Might Have Five Nominees

Even though we're not an Oscar blog, that doesn't mean I don't like to occasionally talk about awards buzz. One category of the Oscars that I'm always nervous about is the Best Animated Feature Film category, which usually (and deservedly) ends up going to the latest Pixar feature (which it should this year too), but occasionally ends up going to someone else (like when Wallace & Gromit or Happy Feet won). The category has usually featured only three nominees, but word is that might finally be bumped up to five this year. It's not due to a change in rules, it's simply that there are enough animated movies to allow for five nominees.

Abrams, Kurtzman, and Orci on Big Ideas for a Star Trek Sequel

With less than three months left until 2010, I've started to think back over the movies I've seen this year. One that continually floats to the top in terms of being a movie that I just loved every minute of is J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. It may be odd to hear news about a sequel right now, but Paramount is doing a big promo for its DVD release, which is why J.J. Abrams and writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are out talking with press (via Collider). The sequel is just barely being developed, and even though they're still "just brainstorming," the ideas seem to be there, and the three each hint at what we might see in a sequel.

James Horner's Avatar Score Promises to Be 'Hugely Cinematic'

I normally don't talk about movie scores before a movie comes out, but today I'm making an exception because it's Avatar, and I love James Cameron. MovieScore Magazine recently did an interview with Mike Knobloch, the executive VP of Fox Music, talking about composer James Horner (known for his work on movies like Braveheart, Apollo 13, Titanic) and his score for Avatar. While this could've been just another interview, Knobloch went all out, saying that the score he's working on will be "epic" and "hugely cinematic." Anyone else getting chills just thinking about it? Okay, sure that was cheesy, but I love great movie scores!

Brandon's Word: The Invention of Lying is a Landmark Comedy

Sometimes there are film premises, mere loglines, that cause me to clench my jaw and flush green with jealousy due to their brilliance. Usually, the premises' brilliance is born of its simplicity. And The invention of Lying is brilliant. And, on the surface, it is simple. The film takes place in an alternate world where humans have not evolved with the capacity to lie. Humans are incapable of saying anything that is not — no matter how callous, inappropriate, or self-deprecating. That is, until Mark Bellison, played by the incomparable Ricky Gervais, tells humankind's first lie. Simple. Deceptively simple.

Brandon's Word: Whip It, Whip It… Not So Good

Whip It, the first film directed by Drew Barrymore, above all else, feels like a directorial debut. Though, that's not to say that it's a complete failure — but it certainly is not a resounding success. The film, set just outside Austin, Texas, is yet another remark on the metamorphosis from childhood to adulthood where Bliss Cavendar, played by forever-to-be-a-teenager Ellen Page, is struggling to become her own person, follow her own path while attempting to reconcile with the person she so recently was — and most importantly, the person her parents still believe her to be. This coming-of-age story, like all of them, is framed by a unique

Brandon's Word: Zombieland is Like an Unexpected One-Night-Stand

Zombieland is not Shaun of the Dead. It isn't supposed to be; it isn't trying to be; it's a film unto itself. There. Now that that's out of the way, we can continue.

Zombieland is, above all, a lot of fun. In a world overrun by zombies (the fast, sentient kind), a group of archetypes have found a way to survive using their respective talents, whether that be running away and limbering up before said running or confronting each flesh-eating problem head-on through the sight of an AK - whatever works to stay alive. It's a horror comedy that's heavy on the comedy, light on the horror