The Playlist's Best Horror Movie Scores Of All Time

Let's not speak of the ridiculous modern day ruse that is Halloween, a capitalist plot by candy corporations to invent a Christmas-like tentpole, and an excuse for adult sluts and drunkards to bare skin, act like sub-mental morons and get laid. Nor shall we discuss the perversion of the horror movie province, once an excellent cinematic genre, now generally turned into a cheap, predictable bang-em-out cash-cow to lure undiscerning sheep into theater seats (see "Saw 17" and that pointless drivel). With that off our chest, horror isn't what it once used to be and possibly one of the reasons why is the complete eschewing of inspired music choices that helped elevate frightening concepts into something authentically terrifying. Something tonally off-center, unexpected and disarming in the horror genre is all we ask for in regards to memorable scores, and in these following selections lie diamonds in the rough.

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Michelle Monaghan Added To Sofia Coppola's 'Somewhere'; Film Elements Finished And Screening Soon

As for Sofia Coppola's fourth feature-film, "Somewhere" — also apparently completed and screening at The American Film Market in Santa Monica — details have come in fits and starts, but we do know the film stars Stephen Dorff (no, you didn't read that wrong) as a rough-and-tumble Hollywood star who is wasting away at the Chateau Marmont when his estranged, 11 year old daughter (Elle Fanning) drops in for a surprise visit.

The New Yorker article we just mentioned also reveals that Michelle Monaghan has a significant part in the film, which is something we didn't realize. The love interest? The mother of Elle Fanning and Dorff's ex perhaps? While no bastion of facts, IMDB does have Monaghan listed as well as Laura Ramsey (the rather fetching young lass from "The Ruins"), and Caitlin Keats ("Women In Trouble," "Kill Bill 2"), but it seems for the most part, the film is not a name-brand heavy project.

Of course, as is usual for Coppola films, the soundtrack promises to be great with her partner, Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars, creating original music for the film. We also know that Benicio Del Toro dropped by for a cameo, Jackass star Chris Pontius is playing Dorff's best friend, and Playboy bunnies Karissa and Kristina Shannon, forgotten indie rockers Rooney and possibly Australian pop duo The Veronicas will have appearances as well.

One change up for Coppola, who generally likes to stick with the familiar, is her switch of cinematographers. She generally favors the work of Lance Acord ("Lost In Translation," "Marie Antoinette"), but worked with Harris Savides ("Milk," "Zodiac") this time.

The screenings at the American Film Market will be the first time anyone outside the productions see the film, so if you'll be there, please drop us a line and let us know what you thought. It's no secret that these films (which include Noah Baumbach's "Greenberg" and is also screening there early) are some of our most anticipated titles for next year, and we couldn't be happier that these are wrapped up and closer to gracing cinema screens.
Update: so it appears that these films will not play at the AFM in their entirety, but rather trailers and scenes will likely play in hopes of selling them to American and International markets. As of right now what is playing exactly is unclear.

'Blue Valentine' With Ryan Gosling & Michelle Williams Set For Spring 2010

Ryan Gosling hasn't appeared in a movie since 2007's "Lars and the Real Girl."

What has this excellent 28-year-old actor — who was nominated for a Oscar Best Actor at the age of 25 for 2006's "Half Nelson" — been doing all this time?

Mostly concentrating on his music career with his band, Dead Man's Bones, a sort of Halloween-y indie-rock band that often features children's choirs and inventive songwriting (their just-released self titled October 2009 debut album is quite good).

He has shot two features since '07. The long-delayed Weinstein Company film, "All Good Things" co-starring Kirsten Dunst that at this point is not coming out until 2010, and his most recent, "Blue Valentine,"co-starring Michelle Williams charting the evolution and difficulties of a contemporary married couple.

The third feature-length film by Derek Cianfrance (his 1998 debut, "Brother Tied" was heralded at Sundance that year and he's done several musical portraits docs of people like, Mos Def and Run DMC and Jam Master Jay), the picture is essentially about a couple in the midst of a break-up coming up on their ten year wedding anniversary. As their relationship crumbles, the story cross-cuts between time periods as they recall their better days (at some point in the picture he's featured with a badly bruised eye and nose).

Suffice to say anything with these two excellent actors intrigues us, so the two of them together (both really young heavyweights in their field) is doubly appealing.

Screen Daily gives us a small update. "The film is in post and ­scheduled for delivery in the second quarter of 2010," which basically starts in April, so we're looking at a Spring release and since this films sounds like an indie and tentpoles start to pop up in May (like "Iron Man II") or guess is April is a pretty good bet.

Whatever happened to Craig Gillespie's "The Dallas Buyer's Club" about a man in the 1980s who is diagnosed with HIV and starts toying around with underground drugs not approved for use in the U.S. at the time? Gillespie directed "Lars & The Real Girl," and Gosling was supposed to star in that one too, but it seems like that one hasn't found it's funding yet as it was announced over two years ago. It's definitely another intriguing one though and we'd love that one to happen.

Either way, it seems the Ryan Gosling drought on screen will end in about roughly six months. Cianfrance's second film, "Metalhead," about a heavy metal drummer who blows his eardrums out and must learn to adapt to a world of silence has yet to be released, but it sounds pretty great.

Noah Baumbach's 'Greenberg' Finished, Up For Grabs At American Film Market

Update: Ok, so in all the excitement we got a little bit ahead of ourselves. These films, as far as we know, won't be screening but are at the stages where rights and distribution deals will be made. But the deal still stands - if you manage to see clips or grab press kits for these please let us know!

Two films that have managed to stay mostly under the radar as they've been shooting, have been Noah Baumbach's "Greenberg" and Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere." Well, the eagle eyed Richard Brody over at the New Yorker spotted an ad in Variety from Focus Features mentioning that both films will be screening up for grabs at The American Film Market in Santa Monica. The industry event, which runs from November 4th to 11th, brings together distributors and buyers from all over the world to talk shop, glad hand and sign contracts.

"Greenberg" brings together a solid cast including Ben Stiller, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rhys Ifans, Juno Temple and mumblecore "heavyweights" Greta Gerwig and Mark Duplass (a good director is exactly what these two need). The story, developed by Baumbach and Leigh is about a New Yorker who moves to Los Angeles to housesit for his brother and figure out his life, when sparks begin to fly with his brother's assistant. The film will be another blend of drama and comedy for the director, who with "The Squid & The Whale" and "Margot At The Wedding," has shown a knack for incisive insights into family dynamics (and "Wedding,' while tough to watch and full of difficult characters is an underrated gem; the soundtrack to the film was excellent too and one of our faves of that year).

New 'The Road' Trailer Might Make You Cry (You Wuss)

It seems the Weinsteins still don't know how to sell this film, but as we get nearer to "The Road"'s November 25th release date, they seem to be getting closer to figuring it out.

Sort of. At the very least, this new trailer disposes of the misleading, fake and stupid disaster footage of this first look at the film and is leagues ahead of the latest one sheet that hit the web last week. On the plus side, the new trailer does contain a lot of new footage, including our first glimpse of Guy Pearce. On the minus side, for a film that our own editor-in-chief called "gut wrenching," "hard to watch" and "dreary" (we should note, he also loved it) this latest glimpse contains a lot of heart stirring strings and touching father/son moments, once again toning down the overall grim nature of the picture, while playing up the film's more emotional moments that our EIC noted were more intense than treacly.

We get it — it's hard to sell a cheerless film about a father and son trying to survive a scorched Earth plagued by roving gangs of cannibals — but setting the film up as the studio has, they are just going to guarantee that word of mouth is going to be a lot of people frowning, saying "that wasn't what I thought it was going to be."

So watch the below with a grain of salt and then go see it for yourself on November 25th:

"It's All A Lie": Joe Wright Is NOT Directing 'My Fair Lady'

The great thing about having a U.K. writer on staff is having someone with a keen understanding of how to traverse the murky waters of U.K. journalism, much of it tabloid schlock. Institutions like the Guardian and the Telegraph seem like reputable outlets to American journos, media and bloggers, but homegrown writers know even these guys' track records aren't spotless.

Case in point: earlier this week the Telegraph reported that Joe Wright ("Atonement") had replaced Danny Boyle to direct the remake of "My Fair Lady," after his next film "Indian Summer" fell apart, and that his usual muse Keira Knightley would play the Cockney-turned-charmer Eliza Doolittle (Boyle left that project on his own accord a few months ago).

Most U.S. sites took the story at face value, but our writer thankfully looked at this story with deep skepticism despite the rest of the staff thinking, "but isn't this true?" (the fact that Scarlett Johansson was in the running for this was the tip off in retrospect).

Screenrush U.K. cornered Wright on the red carpet of the London Film Festival and he vehemently protested against the news. "It's not happening!" he exclaimed. "It's all a lie." Wright says the offer to direct the film was on the table, but he quickly passed on it. "I thought about it for a few minutes and then decided not to do it and then suddenly it got into the press that I was doing it. I dunno [why I didn't take the gig], you read a few scripts and decide what to do.... I dunno," he said sounding less than enthusiastic about the project.

As for Keira Knightley's involvement, Wright says she could be in it, but he honestly does not know and he also has no clue who might actually direct it either.

First Listen: Charlotte Gainsbourg's "Heaven Can Wait" Featuring Beck

We've discussed Charlotte Gainsbourg ("Antichrist")'s third album, IRM, produced and co-written by Beck a few times now. The album doesn't come out in the U.S. til January, but hits her native France on December 7.

What's more the first single, "Heaven Can Wait," was set to be released in France on October 19 and that must have happened, because the track has leaked and you can hear it below (though one of our friends in France tell us it was leaked via French radio, so it's completely possible the Oct 19 date was pushed back). It's a rather great track, bouncy pianos, but not annoyingly so, with an effervescent spirit and some really inspired horn work (and some awesome background vocals). Give it a listen.

Gainsbourg's amazing performance in "Antichrist," is in theaters in limited release as we speak.

Exclusive: All The Songs Featured In 'Gentlemen Broncos'

Yes, it's true. We've been hard on Jared Hess' "Gentlemen Broncos," cause it just looks... not like our thing... and right now it's sitting at a rather poor 12% score on Rotten Tomatoes so maybe our prejudging distaste for the silly looking film is very justified (though our reviewer, who didn't love it, was kinder to it than the consensus).

But we will say this, the music featured in the film is rather excellent and well-chosen. Curated by soundtrack supervisor Randall Poster (every Wes Anderson film), it's not necessarily articulated in our review, but the writer who saw it emailed me and said the music use was "fantastic." The score was done by a buddy of ours, David Gordon Green's go-to composer David Wingo (who's also in the excellent folky-rock band Ola Podrida), but sadly we haven't heard any of that music yet.

We checked and realized that there was no soundtrack disc being released so we figured we'd let those that were interested in discovering all the music featured in the film have a peek (make your own disc). It's pretty inspired intentional cheese and cornball throughout with a lot of relaxation and meditation new age-y music (John Two Hawk and classically trained guitarist and lutenist Ray Lynch) that's incredibly ridiculous and really amusing to hear.

You never know, you might find you like some of these undiscovered gems. The Zager & Evans' track, "In The Year 2525" is a particularly kind of Nebraskan '70s rock-pop awesome (it plays over the opening credits). And the choices are so interesting — a lot of overblown '70s boogie schmaltz like David Bromberg and Kansas; several tracks by cheesy American Indian flute virtuoso John Two-Hawk; ironic use of Black Sabbath and the Scorpions — we almost want to go out and see the movie to see how the music is used. Much of it is intentionally fromage, like Cher's very country-like, “Just Like Jesse James,” but we must assume that might help the amusement factor. Just digging up these tracks and listening to them all was a gas, so that in itself is saying something.

All The Songs Featured In "Gentlemen Broncos"
“In The Year 2525” - Zager & Evans
“Act Naturally” - Buck Owens
“What A Town” - David Bromberg
“Cedar Dreams” - John Two-Hawks
“Twilight” - John Two-Hawks
“First Flight” - John Two-Hawks
“Winds of Stillness” - John Two-Hawks
“John Sebastion’s Girl” - Shara Joyce and Rory O’Donoghue
“The Oh Of Pleasure” - Ray Lynch and Tom Canning
“Beautiful Girl” - Studio Musicians
“Wind Of Change” - Scorpions
“New World Anthem” - Jeremy Wall
“Celtic Voyage” - Joel Bevan
“Moment Of Truth” - APM Music
“Celestial Soda Pop” - Ray Lynch
“Tiny Geometries” - Ray Lynch
“Just Like Jesse James” - Cher
“Don Carlo” - RMI Music
“Paranoid”- Black Sabbath
“Carry On Wayward Son” - Performed by Kansas

In Theaters: 'Michael Jackson's This Is It' (Stay Home)

If you have any sense in the world you’re probably got a weekend worth of haunted houses and spooky hay rides ahead of you and will avoid theaters this weekend. Good call. Michael Jackson should be have no problem topping the charts this week, but us Playlisters will probably be catching ‘Wild Things’ or "A Serious Man" again or going to see things in limited release. If you're in a city that's not L.A. or New York, take the weekend off or catch things that are finally expanding into your market, but MJ's kids, his family, Sony, Sony Records and his estate are rich enough as it is.

In Wide Release: Only one film is going wide this weekend opposite Halloween and the World Series and it already came out Wednesday. “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” was compiled from rehearsal footage for his sold-out London residency that sadly never happened. It is definitely a cash-grab, but maybe will give his fans some sense of closure following his shocking death in June. We just hope the film’s receipts will help look after the departed singer’s kids and not just line Sony’s pockets. This is truly the most convincing undead picture to come out this Halloween, so if you look at it that way maybe you can enjoy it with a clear conscience. Jackson’s talent still has the power to inspire, amaze and confound, so the critics are on board with a 81% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes and a 65 score from Metacritic.

In Limited Release: Don’t get us started with “Boondock Saints,” it's a truly awful film that should’ve died a quick death on videostore shelves, but lo and behold 10 years later we have a sequel “Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day” thanks to nerds that love faux-"cool," action chum (we know you guys generally have zero taste, but this week you should be particularly embarrassed for yourselves). Most of the original cast returns, minus Williem Dafoe so expect a similar blend of ham-fisted gun fights and cringe-worthy Tarantino-lite dialogue. You’d be much better off renting the 2003 documentary "Overnight," chronicling the rise and fall of ‘Boondock’ director Troy Duffy, a true master class in douchebaggery. The film is 14 % fresh on RT with a Metacritic score of 0 at the moment.

We don’t mean to come off as Negative Nancys this week, but we really love cinema here at the Playlist and hate to see crime done in its name. First Troy Duffy and now another picture from an indie auteur of questionable vision, Jared Hess hits screens. “Gentlemen Broncos” is Hess’ followup to his big-studio debut “Nacho Libre,” of course that film made possible by the success of the little movie that could, “Napoleon Dynamite.” ‘Dynamite’ wasn’t the worst film in the world, but it was cloying and condescending and the trailer for this one looks even worse. We’re not rushing out to see this one, so we’ll let the reviews speak for themselves. The movie is 14% fresh at RT and has a Metacritic score of 34. Though our reviewer gave it a not completely terrible C-grade, which isn't a thumbs up either, but not a 14% pitiful rating either.

Ti West's fun horror film "House of the Devil" gets a small release this weekend. Its a nearly plot-free spookfest concerning a young woman (Jocelin Donahue) who reports to a creepy house to babysit to find out the job isn't what it seems. We got to see the film earlier this year at Tribeca and found it stylish, funny and clever if ultimately too safe for its own good. Tom Noonan, Greta Gerwig, and Mary Woronov also star. The film has a 82% fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes and a 72 score from Metacritic.

Weirdly coinciding with the MJ film is Patrick Swayze's posthumous "Jump." Directed by Joshua Sinclair, Swayze plays a lawyer defending a man suspected of the murder his own father in pre-WW2 Austria. Not much info is available about the film, RT has no reviews listed, while Metacritic seems to have never heard of the movie.

Sophie Okonedo, Sam Neill, and Alice Krige star in the South African film "Skin" from director Anthony Fabian. It's the true story of a black child born to white parents (unaware of their own ancestry) in 1950's South Africa. The cast is quite good and reviews are positive, so this could be a strong sleeper drama this fall. RT gives it a fresh rating of 86% with a 63 score from Metacritic.

First Listen: The Entire 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' Soundtrack

We saw Wes Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" earlier this week and were pleasantly surprised with how entertaining and pleasurable it was.

It's not a life-changer or anything and a small little film, with minor ambitions, but it's enjoyable, charming and amusing for the most part. More notably, as a whole, it's probably a more consistent film than the spotty and uneven, 'Darjeeling Limited,' and 'Life Aquatic.' We think we even liked it a bit more than our reviewer in London did (read his full review).

The film is so amiable (if a slight, minor work in his oeuvre), we might even have to take Anderson off our disappointed director's list.

We digress. Today the entire soundtrack album, which comes out next week (November 3) via ABCKO records, is available to stream in its entirety.

Our favorite uses of music in the film were generally not the well-known pop songs (though the Beach Boys' "Ol Man River" is probably the best-utilized "classic rock" song in the picture), and highlights for us included what becomes Willem Dafoe's hilarious Rat character's theme (a dead-ringer Ennio Morricone-esque score track called, " Bean's Secret Cider Cellar"), the Bobby Fuller Four's "Let Her Dance" (there you go Wes! this is a classic gem you use perfectly), Georges Delerue's "Le Grand Choral" (splendid use) and Alexander Desplat's excellent score, including the climactic track, "Stunt Expo 2004" (if the Mark Mothersbaugh connection is over, Wes might have found his new go-to composer, though in many ways the music is verrrry Mothersbaugh).

Check out all the songs in the soundtrack, this one is rather great (use the scroll bar to listen and see all 25-tracks). Maybe the film is a minor return to form, but we welcome that regardless.

Heath Ledger's Last Directorial Project: Rapper NFA's "Cause And Effect"

Near the end of his life, Heath Ledger seemed to be transitioning away from acting and inching closer to directing.

He dropped out of a few acting gigs (most notably, Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life" — he was replaced by Brad Pitt) and then he started getting his feet wet with music videos, intending to lens a Modest Mouse video (that was finished posthumously by friends) and turning the camera on himself for a self-made music video for Nick Drake's "Black Eyed Dog" (Ledger also discussed the possibilities of directing a biopic about the depressed and delicate folk singer who committed suicide in 1974). He also directed Ben Harper's video for "Morning Yearning." An avid chess fan, Ledger was also hoping to direct an adaptation of the Walter Tevis novel "The Queen's Gambit," which featured the female role of a young chess prodigy that had been offered to Ellen Page.

But apparently his last directorial effort was filming the video for his boyhood friend, rapper NFA's (No Fixed Abode) "Cause An Effect," who discussed the making of the video in a YouTube clip (via Movieline).

“We shot it in Sydney and Heath was living in Bronte at the time. He gave me a call as he often did, at crazy hours and he called and was like, ‘N’Fa, I’ve got this idea for a video. Let’s try to do something on the shoestring budget that we [have].’ He was very good at directing and giving you a definite point. So basically, the day before, we went and found a few different ideas and clothing and a massive sheet, a black curtain. We got in touch with two amazing make-up artists and on the day, we shot it so that we just had a couple of lights, three colors: red, black, white, and the backdrop and the single camera and we shot it all in the garage. The idea was to keep it very artistic.”

Here's the clip, plus parts of the Nick Drake video.

Five New Halloween DVDs Worth Trick-Or-Treating For

Tomorrow night is Halloween, and for a film geek it's a time to sit at home and re-watch some genre favorites. Here are a few new releases that are worth trick or treating for, perfect for that night of candy dispensation to the neighborhood hooligans.

1. "The William Castle Collection" (Sony, DVD only, $80.95) The premiere horror treat this year is this wonderful collection of films from Hollywood huckster William Castle, produced in conjunction with TCM, that's great for fans of the hyperbolic showman or those new to his work. Collected here are seven of his most outlandish films (among them, the Vincent Price-versus-a-parasitic-slug gem "The Tingler" and a pair of Hitchcockian Joan Crawford screamers), two which have never been released on home video before ("13 Frightened Girls" and "Zotz") along with a feature-length, celebrity-filled biography of the man called "Spine Tingler," and voluminous special features. While it would have been nice if Sony had included the frequently referenced "Macabre" and "House on Haunted Hill" in the set, and it would have been a minor miracle had they secured rights to the long out-of-print 1993 comedy "Matinee," Joe Dante's loving homage to the director, this set is still quite strong. It's a perfect collection of gimmicky old school chills, which seems even more refreshing in our current, torture porn-saturated horror landscape. As strong as his taste for cheese was, Castle would later shepherd "Rosemary's Baby" through production.

2. "Night of the Creeps" (Sony, DVD and Blu-ray, $19.95 and $24.95) This 1986 B-movie throwback from director Fred Dekker, would end up being one of only a handful of films he'd ever direct. (He's also responsible for the charming "Monster Squad," released a year later, and the largely forgettable "RoboCop 3.") While "Night of the Creeps" hasn't aged particularly well (veteran character actor Tom Atkins, when facing down a zombie, yells "It's Miller Time!") and the young actors are sometimes painful to watch, "Creeps'" goofy, go-for-broke sentiment is still noteworthy, commendable, and loads of squishy fun. Where else can you find space aliens, an axe murderer, zombies, parasitic slugs, and naked sorority girls in the same movie? Actually, this is starting to sound like a William Castle movie…

3. "Trick R Treat" (Warner Bros., DVD and Blu-ray, $27.98 and $35.99) Warner Bros. produced this anthology horror yarn from "Superman Returns" co-writer Mike Dougherty back in 2007. It sat on a shelf, collecting dust, occasionally rolled out for the odd screening. (We saw it last Halloween at a free Fangoria screening, crammed into the now-defunct Two Boots theatre.) This is odd because, well, the movie (a sort of post-modern cross between George Romero's "Creepshow" and Paul Haggis' "Crash") is really, really good. Also, just think about all the crappy horror movies Warner Bros. has released in the years since "Trick R Treat's" inception - stuff like "The Reaping" and "Whiteout" were really considered to have more precedence than this? With a cast of great character actors (among them Dylan Baker, Leslie Bibb, a pre-"True Blood" Anna Paquin, and Brian Cox doing an impression of John Carpenter), buckets of blood, and a witty, inventive script, this is a future class that was unfairly buried alive.

4. "Happy Birthday to Me" (Anchor Bay, DVD only, $14.95) This low-grade slasher movie is notable for a couple of reasons, the most obvious being that it was directed by legendary genre filmmaker J. Lee Thompson, who had previously directed "The Guns of Navarrone" (which got him an Oscar nod) and "Cape Fear" and two of the later "Planet of the Apes" sequels. Thompson had a hardboiled approach that he brought to this film, a kind of no-nonsense style that aided the film dramatically. The other thing about the film is the brutality of the murders. While most slashers of the time had a wink and a nod, these were straight-up grisly (albeit witty and inventive just the same). This new disc from Anchor Bay represents a coup for fans of this underappreciated chiller — the original soundtrack has been reinstated, after being replaced in an early Columbia DVD. Also, the great original poster is back for the DVD cover.

5. The Hannibal Lecter Collection (MGM, DVD and Blu-ray, $29.98 and $69.98) This is a nice little collection, comprised of Michael Mann's "Manhunter," Jonathan Demme's "Silence of the Lambs," and Ridley Scott's "Hannibal." (Mercifully, "Hannibal Rising" is nowhere to be found.) "Silence of the Lambs" is the only film that really holds up completely, and with the Blu-ray it's like watching the movie for the first time. "Manhunter" and "Hannibal" offer sporadic joys, but serve as a reminder of the evolution of filmmakers - with "Manhunter," Mann was at the top of his game, while "Hannibal" is like watching a formerly great athlete player sporting a flabby paunch. Still, it's better than "American Gangster."

Also out - this summer, Criterion put out Roman Polanski's great horror treat "Repulsion," which is recommended Halloween viewing; while reactions differ at The Playlist, the Blu-ray presentation of Sam Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell" is highly recommended — it'll give your surround sound setup a workout for sure; also, the not-that-bad evil kid movie "Orphan" (released in theaters this past summer) has made for a fine DVD/Blu-ray release, complete with a bonus feature about the history of evil children movies. — Drew Taylor

'Boondock Saints II': Humanity Zero

If you're Irish Catholic, a male, and an asshole, chances are you've seen and cherished "The Boondock Saints." The straight-to-dvd hit of nine years ago developed an infamous reputation, partly because it was yet another proudly inept slice of post-Tarantino crime film nihilism with an added layer of sexism and racism on top. We forget who it is, but someone with a good head on their shoulders suggested "Boondock Saints" was the type of movie Ed Wood would make had he grown up in modern-day Boston and was raised on crime pictures. How did this eyesore become a cult phenomenon? Bad taste is evidently a wide spreading infection? Or nerds just can't get enough cheap and sloppy fourth-rate Tarantino? (it's kind of like saying Creed is your favorite '90s grunge band with a straight face).

Whatever the case, enough fans rented the movie to make "Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day" the first ever sequel to a direct-to-disc title debuting onscreen, unless here's a "Mansquito" tentpole we don't know about. The film hits tomorrow on only 68 screens, but that's 68 too many. The original is a serious contender for the worst film we've ever seen, and director Troy Duffy didn't do himself any favors by playing a monster portraying a maverick genius in the documentary "Overnight."

Duffy claims, rightly, that he was eviscerated unfairly by the filmmakers behind "Overnight," but that neglects to take into account that the footage captured for the doc essentially captures an ugly, violent, vulgar person who lorded his unpleasantness over others, all the while making some terrible music in the process. Today, Duffy seems a bit more relaxed and a bit more calculating in his miscalculated misanthropy— in this recent interview with Movieline, he passes the buck regarding the second film's casual homophobia while discussing plans for a third "Boondock" film. It's all clever window-dressing for the fact that you'd have to be a literal bad person to bring "Boondock Saints" into this world.

For those of you who want to be open-minded about a crime film featuring a wild supporting turn from Clifton Collins Jr., feel free to sample the beginning of the sequel right here. Click away and you'll be transported to a wonderful world of cartoonish caricatures, terrible rock music and ill-advised nudity. You've been warned.

Review: 'Gentlemen Broncos'

In Jared Hess' "Gentlemen Broncos," Michael Angarano is all slumped shoulders and furrowed brows as Benjamin, a home-schooled teen obsessed with low-rent sci-fi. Unlike Hess' previous films "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Nacho Libre," our protagonist is an introvert, his love of fiction and adventure expressed through a novel he's been storyboarding, designing, illustrating, and finally writing, "Yeast Lords." His rookie novel, following a southern-raised rogue adventurer in the spirit of Buck Rogers as he battles to keep his sperm from being harvested, is just about the only part of Benjamin's life that elicits a smile.

Benjamin thinks he's found his hero in iconoclast sci-fi veteran Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement), who's known for literary achievements like the trilogy of "Cyborg Harpies" novels. He leaps at the chance to have his manuscript judged by Chevalier, but soon Chevalier is openly swiping his idea, changing names and situations to create "The Adventures of Brutus And Balzaak." In a subplot, we get to see the differences between versions acted out by Sam Rockwell, first as a gibberish-spouting country bumpkin and then as a flying transsexual. Both versions retain a generous collection of cyclopes and surveillance deer, in addition to low-fi action sequences and various non-sequiters revolving around 'nads.'

Hess has grown as a filmmaker, but he still tempers his interest in fringe oddballs with sitcom-style humor. Moments like the unveiling of Benjamin's mother's tacky fashion line, where the audience is given the chance to weigh in as to whether these oddball touches deepen the characters, are cheapened by reaction shots from others present in the scene. It's not enough that a guardian angel from the church has to carry a snake around his neck for most of the film's runtime— the snake has to take a huge shit onscreen, too. And Hess seems to have fallen in love with Hector Jimenez, the sidekick from "Nacho Libre," here playing an otherwise unremarkable amateur filmmaker with the exact same lip-smacking mannerisms as the low rent luchador in Hess' previous film.

It's hard to ascertain exactly what sort of dramatic weight we're meant to give the proceedings. Moreso than Hess' previous films, none of this appears to be of any weighted importance. Benjamin's manuscript ends up in the hands of Jimenez' amateur filmmaker, but we know early on that despite eighty features under his belt, the man's a total sham. Benjamin's relationship with a greedy ingenue is also an afterthought, while the main conceit, that of Chevalier committing plagiarism, a dramatic conflict with a few very basic, easy resolutions. And if Benjamin is capable of creating termite art with his prose, why are the recreations from both his and Chevalier's imaginations so similar? Who should we be celebrating, the newcomer who has mediocrity in his bones, or the crafty veteran who has run out of steam?

Much of Clement's work as Chevalier forms the funnier bits and pieces of the film. With his basso profoundo timbre, puffed-up hair and suave sweater vests, Chevalier is a comic creation that provides mileage in the way of misplaced ego combined with a faked all-world wisdom. In one particular standout scene, he showcases his entire ethos in a simple name-creating exercise, supposing that adding inane suffixes to already-normal names helps improve and not pointlessly complicate things. Highlights also include the surprisingly sad work from Angarano and the typically hysterical clowning from Rockwell, but our favorite part was probably the opening credits. As Zager & Evans' "In The Year 2525" plays (an awesome must-listen track if you've never heard it), we see the credits superimposed on a series of increasingly awesome sci-fi-lit paperbacks, none of which we would be surprised to hear are real. In a year of fun opening credit sequences, this one is near the top of the list. It's too bad that seems to be all that Hess is especially good at. [C]

Hugh Jackman Won't Host the Oscars, Chuck Klosterman Talks 'Fargo Rock City'

— After doing a pretty good job last year (although we could have done without the 'tribute to musicals' number midway through the show), producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman had hoped that Hugh Jackman would return to host the 2010 Academy Awards. However, he's turned them down: Variety cites the actor not wanting to host two years in a row, as well as preparations for the idiotic-sounding robot boxing movie "The Real Steel," as his reasons. So who will?

— HBO's "Hung" seems to have rescued Anne Heche's career - the actress has signed on for roles in two comedies. She'll play a businesswoman in Adam McKay's "The Other Guys," which boasts an increasingly great cast led by Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Samuel L Jackson, Dwayne Johnson and Steve Coogan, and then play the female lead in "Cedar Rapids," the Ed Helms vehicle that Miguel Arteta is directing for Fox Searchlight. The latter also stars John C Reilly, and is produced by Alexander Payne, so between his and Arteta's involvement, this is definitely one to keep an eye on.

— Excellent rock writer Chuck Klosterman is on the road, plugging his latest book "Eating the Dinosaur," and has talked about the forthcoming adaptation of his memoir "Fargo Rock City," currently being written by Letterman writer Tom Ruprecht and Craig Finn, lead singer of the band The Hold Steady, are writing. He tells Vulture "I knew Craig Finn a little bit — I’ve been around him, and of course was a big fan of his music, and we used to go to some of the same bars. He and this guy from the Letterman show, who I’d never met, said they wanted to have a meeting about buying the rights to "Fargo Rock City" Which of course was extremely weird to me, because there’s no narrative in that book. So we met, and we asked what their idea was, and they seemed to have no idea. They just said they really wanted to do it, and they were really enthusiastic. Then they sent me a treatment, and it was awesome. They had picked out three specific details from "Fargo Rock City" and made it into a totally different story. It was great, and I signed the deal. And as is usually the case with these things, I assumed never to hear about it again. But now it seems like there’s a lot of interest."

— Enough with the motherfucking vampires already.

— Empire has found a selection of character posters from Chris Columbus' forthcoming Harry Potter rip-off "Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief," which follows a child who discovers that he's the son of the Greek god Poseidon. The posters, which follow the Potter template pretty closely, show Percy (Logan Lerman), and his sidekicks Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario) and Grover (Brandon T Jackson from "Tropic Thunder"), who lead a cast also including Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Catherine Keener and Kevin McKidd.

— Reese Witherspoon will play the lead in "Rule #1," from "One Fine Day" writer Terrel Seltzer, about the relationship between a New Yorker and a young Puerto Rican girl with ADD. This might well turn out to be the most annoying movie ever made.

— Finally, the little man who sits on the shoulder of the guy who runs MarketSaw and whispers things in his ear has come up with another "exclusive." Following on the back of the new Star Wars trilogy rumor that turned out to be complete horseshit, the site is claiming that The Lizard will be the one and only villain in "Spider-Man 4." It doesn't sound as immediately unconvincing as most of the stuff he runs, but, considering previous form, we're not buying it. The dubious site also claimed earlier in the week that James Cameron is producing "Alien 5" for Ridley Scott, and that Stephen Lang's performance in "Avatar" is as good as Heath Ledger's in "The Dark Knight," which made us laugh so hard that we pulled a muscle.

'Men In Black III' On The Way Thanks To 'Tropic Thunder' Writer Etan Cohen

You forget now, but the original "Men in Black" is a pretty good popcorn movie. It falls apart in its last act, but the chemistry between Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith is strong, and it's got more good ideas in its brief running time than all the movies Smith's made since, put together. The sequel, however is a disaster, mindlessly rehashing every joke from the original, and seemed to kill the franchise stone dead.

Or so we thought. Columbia announced intentions to resurrect this McFranchise last year and now "Tropic Thunder" writer Etan Cohen is currently mid-way through a draft for a third entry into the franchise, and Will Smith, who surprisingly doesn't have a current project lined up, is said to be interested. Original helmer Barry Sonnenfeld is loosely attached, presumably because he doesn't have anything better to do. It's unclear whether Tommy Lee Jones will return, but we're pretty sure he won't - while we barely remember anything about "Men in Black II," we have a vague memory of him being fairly definitively written out. But then, that was true of part one as well, so we suppose it's always possible. If we were betting men, we'd say Columbia will swap someone else in. Kevin James? Seth Rogen? Simon Pegg? Smells like what everyone else is doing: reviving a potential cash-cow in hopes of making more dough which isn't of much interest, but we'll keep tabs on it cause we probably should, but this could even be less interesting than "Ghostbusters 3" if that's even fathomable.

Anthony Hopkins Cast As Odin In 'Thor'

If you need someone to play a father figure in your big-budget action movie, bye-law 485 of the Director's Guild of America states that you must offer the part to Anthony Hopkins: from "The Mask of Zorro," to "Beowulf" and next year's "The Wolf Man," he's clearly the go-to guy. The Oscar-winning actor is adding one more to his application to the mentor hall of fame (which also includes Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman among its ranks) by negotiating to join the cast of Kenneth Branagh's Marvel Comics adaptation "Thor."

Hopkins would play Odin, the Norse God and father of both the central character, the hero Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the villain, the mischievous Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Odin takes a fairly benevolent role in the Marvel comic books, although does occasionally strip his son of his powers, apparently. The cast also includes Natalie Portman as Thor's love interest, Jane Foster, Jaimie Alexander as the Norse warrior Sif, Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury, and Colm Feore and Stellan Skarsgard in unrevealed roles. Recent rumors have also linked Robert De Niro, Jude Law and Dominic Cooper to parts, although although the first two seem to have been debunked now.

All in all, it's a good cast -- not many big names, Hopkins and Portman aside, but good actors all (although Alexander and Hemsworth are relatively unknown quantities, and you could argue Hiddleston is too, except we saw him on stage in "Othello," with Ewan McGregor and Chiwetel Ejiofor, and he's going to do a great job). We still think the source material could potentially look pretty silly on screen, but at least the acting'll be top notch.

'Bad Lieutenant' Rollout Cities & Dates Revealed

Update: Publicists for Canadian distributors VVS Films confirmed the cities and dates for "Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans" bow north of the border. See below for the updated release schedule.

Hey! Guess what? So the sky isn't falling and Werner Herzog will get his due. As some of you pointed out to us after we ran this story a few days ago, despite the very small window between the theatrical rollout of "Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans" beginning on November 20th and its home video release date of February 23rd, the film is still planning to hit screens as scheduled across the country. We got in touch with the film's publicists who kindly forwarded us the current rollout plan, and it looks something like this:

November 20th — NY, LA, Chicago, San Francisco, DC, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal
November 25th — Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Diego, Seattle, Phoenix
December 4th and/or 11th — New Orleans, Austin, Atlanta, Houston, Ottawa

With only sixteen nineteen cities with scheduled release dates so far, we followed up the film's publicity team teams who let us know that these are just the confirmed cities as of press time, and that more playdates may be added nationally on December 11th or later. As this is a platform release, success in those markets will help push it out to more cities and theaters across the country, possibly even surpassing (though we doubt it) the 35-city plan that has been hinted to us from our sources in the know. So, if you are in one of the aforementioned cities, do us all a favor and buy a ticket.

Update: Ang Lee Turns In First Draft Of 'Life Of Pi,' Says He Will Use CGI Animals

"Life Of Pi," the award winning novel published way back in 2001, won author Yann Martel international acclaim and earned him the U.K.'s Man Booker Prize. The fantastical story, about the son of an Indian zookeeper who is shipwrecked in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and shares his lifeboat with a 450-pound Bengal tiger, quickly had studios and directors circling the project. At various points in the film's development M. Night Shyamalan, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Alfonso Cuaron all showed interest, but it's Ang Lee who's finally saddled up with the film, and seems to be making more progress than any one before him.

Speaking with Digital Spy, Lee has revealed he's now turning in his first draft of the script, but that he's still a long way from getting the film in front of cameras."This is two years ahead of me," Lee said when asked when we can expect the film. It seems just figuring out the narrative arc has proven to be difficult, but Lee thinks he's finally got it. Sort of. He says, "I think I've cracked the structure of the movie and I'll figure out how to do it later. How exactly I'm going to do it, I don't know!" We know what he means. Given that the bulk of the story takes place on a lifeboat, with a single character in the middle of the ocean, it will be a "Cast Away"-sized task to keep the film compelling for audiences.

Lee is still licking his wounds following the failure of this summer's "Taking Woodstock" but given how much he's talking up "Life Of Pi" — which hasn't even reached pre-production stages — his excitement is palpable.

Update: Maybe Lee has figured out how to do it after all. In an interview with Empire, Lee says he'll be using CGI animals or at least some CGI. "In the old days I think maybe you wouldn't have needed it, but nowadays the animal rights people wouldn't let you do it, so we've got to go more expensively. [There'll be] some supplementary CGI, I think." Maybe he can do it 'Where The Wild Things Are" style with some costumes and CGI? Just don't make 'em look like "New Moon" wolves, please.'

LFF '09: 'Nowhere Boy' Is Just That; An Abject Failure

The 53rd Times BFI London Festival has been pretty good to us, so far - we've seen more good movies in the past few weeks than in the rest of the year combined, with relatively few disappointments, and it's been a much stronger year than last. It's a shame then, that the closing night film, "Nowhere Boy," is such a misfire. We'd been faintly concerned about the movie for a while, but director, and former artist, Sam Taylor-Wood's debut short film "Love You More" was so good, and we'd heard such great buzz about the script, that we'd been holding out hope. Unfortunately, these were dashed fairly soundly when we caught the movie itself.

"Walk Hard," the Judd Apatow-produced musical biopic parody, is not a good movie. At all. But it occasionally made some salient points about the genre, which we hoped had killed some of the cliches for good. But, "Nowhere Boy" opens, to the sound of Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott-Thomas), the guardian of John Lennon (Aaron Johnson), reminding her ward "Glasses!". He immediately puts on the iconic, round-framed Lennon glasses, and cycles past 'Strawberry Fields,' and you groan a little inwardly. Although it calms down after the opening salvo, the film can't resist these smug little references: you're somehow surprised that, during the first meeting of Lennon and Paul McCartney (Thomas Brodie Sangster), the two actors barely manage to restrain themselves from winking at the camera. It's glib and reductive, and makes you long for the sensitive treatment of an artist in "Bright Star": he writes poetry, he's good at it, get over it.

There's a strange dichotomy at work in the film; it seems to want to both mythologize its subject, but also show that he's 'just like us.' The outcome is the worst of both worlds, and the central problem with the film lies with Aaron Johnson, who isn't a terrible actor, but flat out wrong for Lennon, both in looks and performance, and not once do you look at him and feel that he's embodying the Beatle. There should be a certain degree of arrogance and petulance to the performance, but we spent most of the film wanting to headbutt Johnson, he was so unlikeable. There's no sense of love of music or poetry, none of Lennon's more sensitive side, to the performance: he comes off as a bully and a prick. He gets into rock n roll principally to pick up girls (which, let's face it, has always been the principal motivation for most rock stars), but that pretty much continues to be Lennon's driving force, other than a hamfisted device where he's given his first harmonica by his uncle shortly before he dies, which makes the whole thing come across as a Merseybeat version of "Spider-Man." When a film that's ostensibly about John Lennon manages to make Paul McCartney look like the real genius of The Beatles, you know you're in trouble, and that's impressive considering how miscast Sangster ("Love Actually") is as McCartney.

Of course, the principal hook of the movie doesn't actually follow the forming of The Beatles, but instead focuses on the triangle between Lennon, his birth mother Julia (a strong performance from Anne-Marie Duff), and his aunt. It's here that the film's salvation comes. Kristin Scott-Thomas is incredibly good as Aunt Mimi, strong yet brittle, acting as the voice of authority, but letting a beating heart show through where necessary. It's one of her very best performances, the emotional center of the film, and proof, if proof were needed, that she's on the best form of her career. If the film were to be released before the end of the year (and, being a Weinstein Company movie, there's not a chance in hell they have enough money to put it out) it would be a strong contender for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. There are other good performances from the older members of the cast -- David Threlfall does an awful lot with a few brief scenes, and David Morrissey is layered and sympathetic as Julia's husband.

Even considering the performances of Scott-Thomas and other actors, this thread of the movie still doesn't work. There's a strangely abrupt quality to it (the editing isn't great, we've got to say); it drops in and out of the picture, and then rushes through vital scenes. There's a strangely Oedipal quality to the relationship between Lennon and his birth mother which hints at a more interesting film, but it's never followed through on, and makes it seem out of place. Ultimately, Taylor-Wood has made a very conventional film; disappointing, considering her background as a visual artist. It succeeds in some places, particularly when Scott-Thomas is involved, but also in its depiction of teenage life, which does feel vital and authentic. The one aspect of Lennon's character it does nail is the humour -- from showing him listening to "The Goon Show," to the one-liners spouted both by the young Lennon and by Mimi, writer Matt Greenhalgh nails Lennon's absurdist sense of comedy. These are minor victories, however -- when it comes to the grander points, "Nowhere Boy" is an abject failure. [D+]