Everyone knows that, over the past year, the ability of online outlets to influence the movie-going audience has increased by several orders of magnitude. Movie websites that pull in millions of unique viewers each month are now being given the kind of access once reserved for newsstand glossies, as they should be. But there's a rub -- wildly unprofessional behavior on the part of some online outlets, which is getting worse, not better. At a recent junket for a Sony film about a certain British secret agent, stars arriving in rooms reserved especially for online outlets were mobbed for autographs and targeted in the cross-hairs of cell-phone cameras. At other recent junkets, stars have reportedly been followed out of the room after they said their goodbyes by online writers hoping to score some unauthorized one-on-one time. After similar goings-on at the recent junket for the Angelina Jolie/Matt Damon drama The Good Shepherd, Universal Pictures has now hit back.

Universal's publicity department has fired off a missive to all the online outlets they deal with, stating that autograph and picture whoring is "reflecting poorly on the online press as a whole" and noting that they would "hate to have our online coverage limited even more," which suggests they've already limited it previously because of this behavior. So, on behalf of all people who follow the rules, will the autograph whores please grow up? Because if you don't, Cinematical is going to start printing your names.

The last time we had some news about The Messengers, Scott Weinberg let us in on word of delays and re-shoots, neither of which seemed to bode well for the US debut of the Pang Brothers. Well, it looks like Sony is ready to go ahead with the horror-thriller and released the usual trinity of movie marketing, a web site, a trailer, and now the poster.

JoBlo.com has a first look at the one-sheet for the film starring Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller, and Kristen Stewart. The story takes place on a sunflower farm, (sunflower farm? Um, ok...) where a family turns on one another as the result of some "supernatural" influences. Thai directors Danny and Oxide Pang (The Eye) are helming the script for the horror written by Mark Wheaton and Todd Farmer. Wheaton, who you might know as Smilin' Jack Ruby from CHUD and Ain't It Cool News, has made the leap from writing about the movies to getting a feature film with a major studio. The bad news though, is that both the trailer and the poster only look so-so. Plus, I think they should have really thought twice about that tagline.

If all of that hasn't managed to cool your jets then you won't be waiting long, The Messengers hits theaters February, 2007.

Wow, how the time flies. You only have until midnight PST tomorrow -- that's Tuesday, December 5 -- to get your funniest caption entry in for our beertastic Beerfest Unrated DVD Giveaway. I'm sure you've slept since then, so go back to the contest page and reread the rules, and then enter your entry in the comments. Do NOT enter your caption in this post, or it will not be considered. Enter the contest here. Right HERE.

Give it your best shot -- we have a fantastic prize package for you:


1 Completely, Totally Unrated Beerfest DVD

1 Navy Blue Bottle Opener Hat (Everyone who has seen this wants it!)

1 Black "Schnitzengiggle Tavern" Tee

1 Beer Mug Glasses (The kind you wear!)

1 Beautiful Beer Stein with Domed Lid

1 Alcohawk ™ Personal Breathalyzer (This is real and high-end.)

Four runners-up will win Beerfest Unrated DVDs. Pretty cool prize package, eh? So go enter the contest now for your chance to win!

Beginning this weekend, Cinematical contributor Martha Fischer and myself will begin to bring you highlights from the long-anticipated Pre-Code festival at Manhattan's Film Forum. The festival, which runs from December 1 through December 21, will showcase a large sampling of films released prior to 1934, the year when Hollywood adopted the infamous Hays Code. The code was a strict set of industry guidelines on what could and could not be shown in an industry film, and was rigorously followed for the next 30-odd years. The code forbade such things as nudity, revenge killings, depiction of drug use, interracial coupling, crime methodology (you can't demonstrate to the audience how to crack a safe), child-birth scenes, and depiction of priests as criminals, among many other things.

While we don't yet have an exact list of what films we will be reviewing for you, a quick consultation with Martha earlier today has given me a good idea of which films are more likely than not to be written up. You can almost certainly count on us to cover 1932's Call Her Savage, staring Clara Bow as an incurable wild woman who brains her husband with a stool one day and heads down to the local gay bar. Hoopla, another Clara Bow sizzler in which she educates a dizzy farm boy about the ways of the world, is also on our list. 1933's Blood Money, a heist film condemned by the Legion of Decency for inciting "law abiding citizens to crime" will not be missed. Nor, in all likelihood, will the Joan Blondell vehicle Broadway Bad or the Spencer Tracy film Bottoms Up, about a scam involving the movie business.

Other films being screened that we hope to cover, time permitting, include The Bowery, Now I'll Tell, The Yellow Ticket, The Tria of Vivianne Ware and Sailor's Luck. Stay tuned to Cinematical for all the coverage, and if you're in the Manhattan area, check out more information about the festival on Film Forum's Web site.

In anticipation of the release of the Beerfest DVD (in both regular and unrated versions!) on December 5, we're bringing you one of the best prize package giveaways we've ever done for a Caption This! contest. You know the drill: Take a good look at the still from the movie above, then give us your best shot at a caption in the comments. The winning caption, as determined by either Erik's Magic 8 Ball or a team of highly-paid humor analysts (whichever gives the best pitch for why they should get the gig), will get this amazing prize package:

1 Completely, Totally Unrated Beerfest DVD

1 Navy Blue Bottle Opener Hat (Everyone who has seen this wants it!)

1 Black "Schnitzengiggle Tavern" Tee

1 Beer Mug Glasses (The kind you wear!)

1 Beautiful Beer Stein with Domed Lid

1 Alcohawk ™ Personal Breathalyzer (This is real and high-end.)

How's that for a great prize package? Four runners-up will win Beerfest Unrated DVDs. You love beer, you love Beerfest -- and even if you don't, hey, if you win you can wrap it all up and give it to your friends for Christmas. So put on those thinking caps, try out your caption ideas on your frat brothers or your mom, and get your captions in the comments. You have until midnight PST on December 5 to get your entries in.

Note: You MUST give a valid email address in order to activate your comment. Entries that are not activated by the reader will not be considered valid entries.

If you have never seen Aqua Teen Hunger Force, the idea of a trio of talking food products -- a meatball, a milkshake, and a box of fries -- would probably not sell you on the show. The animated series was created by Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis, and had been originally intended as a segment for Space Ghost Coast to Coast on the Cartoon Network. Seven years later, the show has slowly achieved cult status and has been available on DVD for a while now. I have to admit, it's provided me with few giggles, but most of the time I was just kind of confused.

MTV news reported that the website for Aqua Teen Hunger Force posted a teaser for the upcoming feature Aqua Teen Hunger Force: The Movie. The story follows Meatwad, Master Shake, and Frylock in a battle over a piece of mystical exercise equipment. Willis did provide some other hints as to what to expect, "A personal story? Oh, like a journey? Like learning? No, no, no. They don't learn anything. It's really just 90 minutes of them bickering over their gas bill." Willis also mentioned some celebrity cameos in the film; although the strangest tid-bit was that the soundtrack would include new music from Phil Collins -- that's right, Mr Sussudio himself.

So is anyone excited about Aqua Teen Hunger Force The Movie? Or is it just one of those late-night shows best enjoyed in a cloud of bong smoke.

[via VH1.com]

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Halloween Costume contest and voted for their favorites! The battle was long and hard, but at last the victors emerged, well, victorious. In our Children's Category, the winner by a large margin was The White Witch, with 72 votes! She will be receiving our First Prize in the children's contest: DVDs of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and Monster House, as well as a Cinematical t-shirt! Runners-up Nacho Libre and Sally will each receive a Cinematical t-shirt (sorry kids, the smallest size we have is adult small, but they'll make cute nightshirts!)

It was a bloody battle in the Adult category, with Lady Deathstrike/Poison Ivy engaging in hand-to-hand combat with Doc Oc/Spidey. It was back-and-forth there for awhile, but ultimately Doc Oc/Spidey edged out the ladies for the victory. Doc Oc and little Spidey will be receiving the fabulous horror DVD prize package, and since none of those films are appropriate for the little guy, we're tossing in a Monster House DVD for Spidey as well. Our runners-up are Lady Deathstrike/Poison Ivy (we're sending them two Cinematical shirts so they don't have to fight over them!) and Davy Jones #1.

Thanks so much to all our participants and their fabulous costumes for making our second annual contest a huge hit!

Time is running out, so if you haven't voted for your favorites in our 2nd Annual Halloween Costume Contest, speak now or don't come whining to us if your pick doesn't win. You have until tomorrow, Saturday, November 11 at 5PM PST to get your vote into the comments. Remember, one vote per email address, and you can vote for one child entrant and one adult entrant.

Contestants, if you haven't already barraged everyone you know with emails asking them to come and vote for you, this is your last chance. Fabulous prize packages are on the line here, so get those votes in!

Just kidding with that headline; trust us, you don't want to see most of us in our lime-green "Borat thongs." After all, we're film writers -- we sit on our butts for a living. It has been a while since we introduced ourselves, so we thought it was time to tell you who we are. Some of our writers, like former East Coast Editor Martha Fischer, have moved on to other projects within our parent company, Weblogs, Inc. (she's still writing the occasional review for us, though). We've brought on some new writers to the Cinematical team since the last time time we did a "meet the bloggers" post: Matt Bradshaw, Jessica Barnes, Chris Ullrich, Kevin Kelly, Monika Bartyzel, and Lisa Rosman, are all fresh meat recent additions to the team. Here's a look at who's who around here.

There are certain documentaries appropriate for many occasions and I could easily write a Cinematical Seven for any holiday doc-watching. But this Veteran's Day, I think the best doc to watch is The Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends, a film by Patricia Foulkrod about soldiers who've returned after serving in Iraq. The best thing about The Ground Truth is that in addition to giving the vets an outlet with which to tell their stories of difficult homecoming, it also examines a broader history and psychology of veterans in the last century. I recommend buying the DVD, which came out in September, because 10% of the proceeds made on each disc goes to Operation Helmet, an organization created to send helmets to troops without proper headgear.

In addition to picking up the DVD, I also recommend checking out a special event this Saturday. Focus Features, which distributed The Ground Truth, and AOL are co-hosting a live online event to support the troops and the veterans at 1pm EST. Users will be linked to a live chat with returned Iraq War soldiers, vets from previous wars, and a number of participating celebrities, including Cher, Paul Haggis, Susan Sarandon, Diane Lane, Vondie Curtis Hall and Amy Brenneman.


For more on the film itself, check out my review of The Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends.

At last, it's time to vote for your favorites in Cinematical's 2nd Annual Halloween Costume Contest. We made a minor change to the contest: Because we got quite a few super-cute kid entries, we decided to put the kids in their own category to give them a better shot -- and their own prize package! The entrant in the Child's Costume category will receive DVDs of It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown AND Monster House, along with a Cinematical t-shirt (the smallest shirt size we have is an adult small, but they make great nightshirts for little ones -- or the adult who entered the child can take it for themselves ... ).

The winning adult entry will get a Cinematical t-shirt, and the horror movie DVD collection chosen by our staff, which includes:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Session 9
Evil Dead 2
Shaun of the Dead
Darkness: The Vampire Version
The Changeling
Bubbu Ho-Tep
Young Frankenstein
Eyes Without a Face
Silent Night, Deadly Night (Parts One and Two)
The Old Dark House
The Monster Club
The Thing


Before we show you the entrants, here are the voting rules:

• Enter your vote in the COMMENTS at the bottom of the post. Do not email your vote to us or it will not be counted.
• You can vote for ONE child entrant and ONE adult entrant per email address. Duplicate votes will not be counted.
• Contestants can direct as many of their friends and family to vote as they want.
• You have until 5PMPST Saturday, November 11, to get your vote entered. Winners will be announced on Monday, November 13. Prizes will be shipped within six weeks.

That's all for the rules ... now go and VOTE!

We all have our guilty pleasures. At Cinematical we even bravely expose them to our readers. Sometimes they involve movies we just have an inexplicable affection for. Other times, it's the old case of a movie being so bad its good (read: funny). But rarely does a writer present a guilty pleasure so directly and with such clear evidence that I go out and give that movie a second viewing. And yet, I've received more than enough cause to re-watch Dungeons and Dragons, the role-playing game adaptation from director Courtney Solomon, thanks to a piece by Richard Pilbeam. Pilbeam has offered "64 Reasons to Watch Dungeons and Dragons" on his site Frying Bear, and every one of the reasons is good enough on it's own. He cites specific parts of the movie (including hilarious scene captures of Jeremy Irons), special features from the DVD (including the 2 audio commentaries featuring Solomon), the "making of" book and random facts about the production. Now, I've never played D&D, so I can't say that I appreciate all of the ways in which to laugh at the movie, and I can only imagine how much funnier it is to true geeks out there (our own Mark Beall, perhaps?). The only thing better than Pilbeam's list to enhance Dungeons and Dragons would be a commentary from the MST3K guys (this way or that way). ...

[via Fark.com]

More on Solomon's career:

Courtney Solomon is Glad to Get That D&D Thing Behind Him

Still recovering from a mega-awesome Halloween, are we? Well get with it, because all entries for Cinematical's Second Annual Halloween Costume Contest are due no later than 11:59PM EST today. That's right, we don't care how hungover you are or why that damn computer of yours doesn't want to upload pics -- if your costume entries are not in our hands by 11:59PM EST tonight, you will not be eligible for the unbelievable prizes we're giving away.

Prizes? What prizes? Wait, you guys are hosting a Halloween contest? Why yes, yes we are. All Halloween costumes must be inspired by a film, filmmaker, actor, director, etc ... and our grand prize winner (who will be chosen by our imaginary group of fabulous interns) will be awarded with 13 horror DVDs hand-picked by the Cinematical staff. Some of the flicks included are Shaun of the Dead, The Changeling, Young Frankenstein, The Thing and Silent Night, Deadly Night (Parts One and Two). Oh, and you'll also be sent a highly-fashionable Cinematical t-shirt. And since we also want to throw some love towards the losers, two runner-ups will also win t-shirts. Beat that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire!

Once again, all Halloween costume entries are due no later than 11:59PM EST tonight. For the official rules and a full list of prizes, check out our contest announcement or just click on that enormous banner at the right of your screen.

Oh, and good luck!

There are few movies more anticipated by the Cinematical staff than Hot Fuzz. Why? Because Hot Fuzz is Edgar Wight's follow-up to Shaun of the Dead, of course, and most of us -- if not all -- are huge fans of Shaun of the Dead. We're obviously not the only ones, either; the production didn't make 15 video blogs for nobody. In fact, they couldn't make 'em quick enough to fulfill my needs. Last week, when the two teaser trailers were unleashed, it only made me hungrier. Well, we still have to wait until February to see the finished product, but at least the updates keep coming strong. What's new this week? The Hot Fuzz website. Sure, it's just a simple site featuring the blogs, the trailers and some stills, but hey, I'm not greedy. Besides, can't you enjoy a photo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost chasing a giant goose for quite some time?

Now, I will admit I'm a little wary about getting too excited, because it just isn't possible for a movie to live up to the expectations I have. So, I'm trying really, really hard to control myself. It is pretty difficult, though, whenever I take another look at the picture of Pegg and Frost with ice cream cones. Doesn't it remind everyone else of a particular scene from Shaun?

[via JoBlo.com]

If you don't live in a big city or attend a big film school, the availability of most art films to you is next to nothing. And when I say art films, I don't mean Little Miss Sunshine; I mean Man Ray's Emak-Bakia and Nam June Paik's Zen for Film. Okay, so those might show up at your local museum, but what about avante garde films by John Lennon and Yoko Ono? Stan Brakhage? Joris Ivens? William S. Burroughs? Rather than trying to rent these experimental films from Netflix or buying whole collections from Amazon, you can go the digital route and watch them on your computer for free. Cinematical's sister-site DV Guru has discovered UbuWeb, which features around 100 different artists, each with one or more films available to download. So, if you haven't seen Ballet Méchanique or, God forbid, Un Chien Andalou, now you have no more excuses.

For less high-brow material, you can also always go to Jonhs.net, which streams (no time-consuming downloads) films that have fallen out of copyright, or for some other reason are available for free. There you can watch everything from silent films by Buster Keaton, classics like It's a Wonderful Life, recent films like Steal this Movie, cheap B-movies, training videos, undistributed documentaries, and more. If you don't see anything you like now (how is that possible?), keep going back, as the site is constantly getting new stuff in daily. And sometimes what is there today may be gone tomorrow. I just watched Death of a President on the site Tuesday, and now it has been removed.

Be warned: you might not leave your computer for awhile.