What to See This Weekend: 'Resident Evil: Afterlife' and Big Stars in Small Movies

We're in the limbo between summer popcorn-movie season and serious Oscar-movie season. So there's only one new wide release this week, which is still more likely to spark popcorn sales than awards buzz. Keep an eye out, though, for big stars among this week's rush of art-house movies.

New in Theaters: 'Resident Evil: Afterlife'

Starring: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Sergio Peris-Mencheta
Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson
What It's About: In the fourth installment of the popular videogame/horror franchise, Jovovich is back as zombie-fighter Alice. Five years after the zombiepocalypse, she's the Omega Woman, looking for survivors. Rumors that Los Angeles is a haven for the uninfected turn out to be, um, overly optimistic.
Why Should You See It? This one's shot in state-of-the-art, James Cameron-approved 3-D. Fans of the games should inside references and more fidelity to the game play. For everyone else, well, it's another opportunity to see the waiflike Jovovich prove once again that she's actually a credible, sleek action heroine.
You Might Like It If You Like: The first three 'Resident Evil' movies, 'Aliens,' '28 Weeks Later' We're in the limbo between summer popcorn-movie season and serious Oscar-movie season. So there's only one new wide release this week, which is still more likely to spark popcorn sales than awards buzz. Keep an eye out, though, for big stars among this week's rush of art-house movies.

New in Theaters: 'Resident Evil: Afterlife'

Starring: Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller, Kim Coates, Shawn Roberts, Sergio Peris-Mencheta
Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson
What It's About: In the fourth installment of the popular videogame/horror franchise, Jovovich is back as zombie-fighter Alice. Five years after the zombiepocalypse, she's the Omega Woman, looking for survivors. Rumors that Los Angeles is a haven for the uninfected turn out to be, um, overly optimistic.
Why Should You See It? This one's shot in state-of-the-art, James Cameron-approved 3-D. Fans of the games should enjoy inside references and more fidelity to the game play. For everyone else, well, it's another opportunity to see the waiflike Jovovich prove once again that she's actually a credible, sleek action heroine.
You Might Like It If You Like: The first three 'Resident Evil' movies, 'Aliens,' '28 Weeks Later'

Short on time? Mr. Moviefone's Six Second Review of 'Resident Evil: Afterlife'

•Showtimes & Tickets: 3-D | 3-D IMAX | 2-D
•On the Scene: 'Resident Evil: Afterlife' Set Visit
•Milla Jovovich on Girl Fights, Being a Mom & 'Resident Evil'
•Trailers & Clips

'Resident Evil: Afterlife': Trailer No. 2

'The Romantics'

Starring: Katie Holmes, Anna Paquin, Josh Duhamel
The movie's a Little Chill, with several recent college grad pals reuniting for a wedding, where an old romantic triangle involving the maid of honor (Holmes), the bride (Paquin), and the groom (Duhamel) resurfaces. Galt Niederhoffer directed this adaptation of her own novel.
• Showtimes & Tickets | Trailer | Reviews: Cinematical | The Hollywood Reporter

'I'm Still Here'

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix
It's either a documentary of a movie star's epic meltdown, an extended Method acting exercise, or a massive put-on. The film recounts the recent exploits of Joaquin Phoenix as he publicly renounced acting in favor of hip-hop. Making his directing debut is Phoenix's brother-in-law, Casey Affleck.
• 'I'm Still Here' Timeline: Milestones in Joaquin Phoenix's Countdown of Crazy
• Showtimes & Tickets | Trailer | Reviews: Cinematical | Variety

Short on time? Mr. Moviefone's Six Second Review of 'I'm Still Here'

Also in Theaters (Limited Release)

•'Legendary' is an inspirational wrestling drama produced by WWE (you read that right) about a youth who decides to follow his brother (John Cena) and late father into the ring. Patricia Clarkson and Danny Glover co-star.
Interview with John Cena | Showtimes & Tickets | Trailer | Reviews: Entertainment Weekly

•'Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?' Well, he's the idiosyncratic 1970s singer-songwriter who's the subject of this documentary.
Showtimes & Tickets | Reviews: Time Out New York | Village Voice

•'Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould' is another documentary about an idiosyncratic musician. This one asks whether the celebrated classical pianist's quirks were real personality tics or just something he did in public to cultivate an eccentric image. (Sounds like this would make a good double feature with 'I'm Still Here.')
Showtimes & Tickets | Reviews: Village Voice | The New Yorker | Time Out New York

•'Heartbreaker' offers a rare chance to see Vanessa Paradis (Johnny Depp's inamorata) in a French romantic comedy, in which professional romance-buster Romain Duris is hired to end her romance with her fiancé, only to strike sparks with her himself.
Showtimes & Tickets | Trailer | Reviews: Entertainment Weekly | Variety

•'Lovely, Still' shows it's never too late for romance, as seniors Ellen Burstyn and Martin Landau discover.
Showtimes & Tickets | Trailer | Reviews: New York Magazine

•'Bran Nue Dae' is an Australian road-movie musical set amid the social upheavals of the 1960s. Geoffrey Rush co-stars.
Showtimes & Tickets | Trailers & Clips | Reviews: Chicago Reader | Roger Ebert for Chicago Sun-Times
Still In Theaters, Still Awesome

•'Machete' - Milla Jovovich isn't the only action heroine on screen this weekend. Michelle Rodriguez and Jessica Alba are no slouches either, and even Lindsay Lohan gets to show off her shooting skills.
Showtimes & Tickets | Will 'Machete' Ignite a Firestorm Over Its Immigration Stance? | Red-band 'Machete' Trailer (Contains NSFW Language and Violence) | Lego Version of the 'Machete' Trailer (Contains NSFW Language and Violence) | Mr. Moviefone's Six Second Review | Critics' Reviews

•'The American' - A lot of people were enraged by this movie, since it's not the action-packed ride its ad campaign suggests. It's certainly not for everyone, but it does boast George Clooney, a hot naked Italian babe, and some thoughtful, Euro-style, existential action drama.
Showtimes & Tickets | Trailers & Clips | What's Wrong With Critics -- and Why Do They Love 'The American'? | George Clooney's 10 Best Movies | Exclusive Photos | Mr. Moviefone's Six Second Review | Leonard Maltin's Review | More Critics' Reviews

•'The Tillman Story' - Watch for this acclaimed Afghanistan War documentary, about the military cover-up surrounding the death of NFL star-turned-soldier Pat Tillman, to expand into more theaters over the coming weeks
Showtimes & Tickets | Trailer | Critics' Reviews
Staying In This Weekend?

New on DVD This Week: 'Killers' is a romantic comedy/action pic starring Katherine Heigl as a woman who discovers that new hubby Ashton Kutcher is actually a spy with a license to kill. (Buy or rent the DVD) 'MacGruber' is Will Forte's expansion of his recurring 'Saturday Night Live' parody of 'MacGyver' into a full-length feature. (Buy or rent the DVD) Michael Douglas stars in 'Solitary Man' as a divorced man in need of redemption, but with a talent for self-sabotage. (Buy or rent the DVD)

Also Out This Week: Bryce Dallas Howard plays a strong-willed heiress in 1920s Memphis in the unearthed Tennessee Williams gem 'The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond.' (Buy or rent the DVD) Hal Holbrook earned Oscar talk last year as an aged farmer fighting to hold onto his land in 'That Evening Sun.' (Buy or rent the DVD) More new DVDs

Movie Homework: Why wait until you're middle-aged to have a midlife crisis? As 'The Romantics' is only the latest movie to show, you can have one when you're barely out of college. In fact, some recent grads barely give themselves enough time to frame their diplomas before they start brooding over their wasted potential and uncertain futures. The classic model for this, of course, is Dustin Hoffman's aimless Benjamin Braddock in 'The Graduate' (Buy or rent the DVD), but he had to endure his quarterlife crisis pretty much all by himself; most mid-20s-malaise movie characters prefer to commiserate in groups of fellow alumni. After all, college (in the movies, at least) may be less a launching pad for adulthood than a cocoon for extending adolescence, leaving graduates unprepared for the harsh economic and emotional realities of the real world, but suffering the indignity of having to grow up fast is at least easier among friends.

So it is with the Me Decade hedonists of 'The Last Days of Disco' (Buy or rent the DVD), the '80s Brat Packers of 'St. Elmo's Fire' (Buy or rent the DVD), and the '90s Gen X slackers of 'Reality Bites' (Buy or rent the DVD) and the woefully underrated 'Kicking and Screaming' (Buy or rent the DVD). Besides 'The Romantics,' the most recent example is the adorable comedy 'Post Grad' (Buy or rent the DVD), in which Rory Gilmore Alexis Bledel confronts the horrible current job market for new college graduates with the aid of just one former classmate (Zach Gilford of 'Friday Night Lights'), the once-platonic friend she suddenly sees in a new light. That's the other lesson of these quarterlife crisis films, from 'The Graduate' on: adulthood may not work out the way you thought it would, but it's never too late to fall in love with someone you couldn't imagine as a romantic prospect during your undergraduate years.

On My Netflix Queue: You don't have to be a sci-fi geek to love 'Forbidden Planet,' the classic 1956 space opera that cleverly updates Shakespeare's 'The Tempest.' Highlights include a lovably clunky robot, a pioneering all-electronic music score, and the delightfully stolid Leslie Nielsen, back when he was considered a sober-minded man of action and not a deadpan comic genius. It's just out on Blu-Ray, so now's your chance to see it again, or for the first time. Buy or rent the DVD
•Follow Gary Susman on Twitter @garysusman.

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Toronto Film Festival 2010: The Movies That Had Everyone Talking This Year

For those who get to attend the sprawling Toronto International Film Festival, with its 300 or so movies crammed into a little over a week, it's like summer camp for movie lovers, with countless star-spotting opportunities, fellow film buffs crowding the streets and the bars, and more good movies than you can possibly see. For the rest of us, however, the festival is a good predictor of which movies will be captivating us at awards season.

TIFF wrapped last night with 'The King's Speech,' the drama about King George VI (Colin Firth) steeling himself and Britain for World War II, winning the Cadillac People's Choice Award. Being named the audience favorite is a good omen, not just for the movie's commercial prospects, but for the Oscars as well; the last two movies to win that citation at TIFF were 'Precious' and 'Slumdog Millionaire.'

Moviefone and its partners have spent the last several days immersing readers in coverage of the festival, with celebrity interviews, reviews, deal reports and capturing the buzz from those Toronto selections most likely to wow you in theaters over the next few months and to grab for awards glory when Oscar season starts. Here's a quick rundown of the highlights of this year's TIFF.

10 Movies That Made Headlines:

•'Biutiful' (Release Date TBD): Crime drama from director Alejandro González Iñárritu, starring Javier Bardem. Moviefone interviews Bardem | IndieWire interviews Iñárritu

•'Blue Valentine' (Dec. 31): Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star in this sexually charged drama about a couple's courtship and disintegration. IndieWire interviews director Derek Cianfrance

•'Black Swan' (Dec. 1): Darren Aronofsky's much-anticipated follow-up to 'The Wrestler' stars Natalie Portman as a ballet dancer whose claws come out when competing with rival Mila Kunis. Choice quotes from the 'Black Swan' press conference | IndieWire interviews Aronofsky

•'The King's Speech' (Nov. 24): In this drama set on the eve of World War II, Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are said to be Oscar shoo-ins for their roles as England's stammering King George VI and his Australian speech therapist. Moviefone interviews Firth

•'Rabbit Hole' (2010): One of the most acclaimed dramas of this year's TIFF stars Nicole Kidman (in a performance likely to garner year-end awards) and Aaron Eckhart as parents mourning the death of their toddler. Moviefone review | IndieWire interviews director John Cameron Mitchell

•'You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger' (Sept. 22): Woody Allen's latest dramedy of love and betrayal includes such stars as Anthony Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Antonio Banderas, and Freida Pinto. Interview with Woody Allen

•'127 Hours' (Nov. 5): 'Slumdog Millionaire' director Danny Boyle's true-life drama stars James Franco as Aron Ralston, the mountaineer who was trapped for days beneath a fallen boulder until he summoned the wherewithal to cut off his own arm. As intense as it sounds, reportedly causing fainting and seizures in some viewers. IndieWire interviews Franco

•'Everything Must Go' (2011): Will Ferrell plays a rare dramatic role in this adaptation of a Raymond Carver story about a man who loses his job and his wife on the same day and winds up living on his front lawn. Moviefone review | Interview with Ferrell

•'Waiting for Superman' (Sept. 24): Director Davis Guggenheim's follow-up to 'An Inconvenient Truth' is a documentary that focuses on America's broken public education system and what some people, from Bill Gates to educator Geoffrey Canada, are doing about it. Gates, Canada, and others speak at the TIFF screening | IndieWire interviews Guggenheim

•'Cave of Forgotten Dreams' (2011): Werner Herzog's documentary about a never-before-photographed set of prehistoric cave paintings in France was a 3-D movie that even noted 3-D hater Roger Ebert could love. IFC will release the film in theaters next year before it goes to TV on the History Channel. Moviefone review

Other Buzz-worthy Movies:

•'Another Year' (Dec. 29): A family drama from master of kitchen-sink realism Mike Leigh, starring Jim Broadbent. Moviefone review

•'Barney's Version' (Date TBD): An adaptation of Mordecai Richler's satiric novel about the life and loves of the abrasive Barney Panofsky (Paul Giamatti). Sony Pictures Classics bought this but hasn't announced a release date yet. Moviefone review

•'Super' (Date TBD): A dark superhero satire, à la 'Kick-Ass,' starring Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page. This became one of the first purchases at the festival when IFC Films picked this up Moviefone review | Clip

•'Dirty Girl' (2011): Teen drama set in the '80s; think 'Easy A' without the laughs. Got mixed reviews, but was the talk of the fest when the Weinstein Co. paid $3 million for it.

•'Meek's Cutoff' (first half of 2011): A western starring Michelle Williams and directed by Kelly Reichardt, who directed Williams in the acclaimed 'Wendy and Lucy' a couple years ago. Earned rave reviews from everyone. Reichardt talks about one character's unlikely inspiration.

Deals: Nicole Kidman Enters Oscar Race
TIFF isn't usually thought of as a deal-making festival; there are no jury-driven prizes to spur purchases, and many films come into the fest with distribution deals for fall release dates already in place. Still, this was reportedly one of the busiest dealmaking editions of TIFF ever. The cash-strapped Weinstein Co., perhaps aiming to return to Harvey Weinstein's glory days as an Oscar power broker, spent freely, buying 'Dirty Girl' for $3 million and also acquiring 'Sarah's Key' and 'Submarine.'

Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions went in together on not one but two movies: Robert Redford's Lincoln assassination drama 'The Conspirator' and Will Ferrell drama 'Everything Must Go.' Lionsgate also bought what was perhaps the fest's most acclaimed film, the Nicole Kidman drama 'Rabbit Hole,' with the intent of releasing it before the end of the year so that it qualifies for Oscars. IFC Films bought two Rainn Wilson movies, 'Super' and 'Peep World.' It also bought Werner Herzog's 3-D documentary 'Cave of Forgotten Dreams,' after a bidding war broke out. When a bidding war breaks out for a movie by a director as uncompromising and uncommercial as Herzog, you know business is booming.

Who Was the Festival's "It" Girl?
Every festival needs an "It" girl. Nominees included Sally Hawkins and her frequent costar Andrea Riseborough, both of whom starred in several films at this year's TIFF. Or maybe it's Abigail Breslin. The 'Little Miss Sunshine' moppet, now 14, stars in TIFF movie 'Janie Jones' as a girl who discovers her dad is a famous rocker, and she proved her own vocal chops singing at the film's afterparty.

Abigail Breslin sings at the Toronto International Film Festival

Full TIFF Coverage: You can go back and read all of Moviefone's coverage of this year's TIFF at our Toronto Film Festival category page. Links to IndieWire's extensive coverage are all on this page.

•Follow Gary Susman on Twitter @garysusman.

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'True Grit' Reviews: Critics Praise Movie's Acting and Cinematography

With the opening of 'True Grit' Dec. 22, audiences will finally have the chance to view one of the most anticipated movies of the year. The second adaptation of Charles Portis' 1968 novel -- the first being the 1969 version starring John Wayne in his Oscar-winning role -- tells the story of 14-year-old Mattie Ross (the unknown Hailee Steinfeld) who hires haggard, drunk Marshal "Rooster" Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to hunt down and kill the man (Josh Brolin) who murdered her father. Along the way, they are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon), and the three embark on a gritty tale of revenge in the Old West.

Viewers have anxiously been waiting to see directors Joel and Ethan Coen's trademark visual style applied to a classic tale that has entertained generations of audiences. All the elements are in place for high excitement and high expectations. With so many unique talents involved, the film is getting some of the best reviews of the year. Critics are nearly unanimous in their praise of the beautiful cinematography and have been heaping plaudits on the entire cast. The film is shaping up to be a big Oscar contender and to find out why it works so well, read our roundup of critics' 'True Grit' reviews.

New York Magazine: "The Coens' 'True Grit' isn't as momentous an event as you might hope, but once you adjust to its deliberate rhythms (it starts slowly), it's a charming, deadpan Western comedy. It's true that 'charming' is an odd description for a picture with so much death and ghoulish imagery. But the Coens rarely get worked up about such things. Their gaze is steady, serene. Roger Deakins' cinematography is beautifully deep-toned and austere; the compositions are clean even when the settings and characters are muddy. (1969 original director, Henry) Hathaway shot the same old Arizona–New Mexico buttes we know from other John Wayne movies, but this 'True Grit' is where it belongs, in high deserts and forests denuded by winter."

Roger Ebert: "What strikes me is that I'm describing the story and the film as if it were simply, if admirably, a good Western. That's a surprise to me, because this is a film by the Coen Brothers, and this is the first straight genre exercise in their career. It's a loving one. Their craftsmanship is a wonder. Their casting is always inspired and exact. The cinematography by Roger Deakins reminds us of the glory that was, and can still be, the Western. But this isn't a Coen Brothers film in the sense that we usually use those words. It's not eccentric, quirky, wry or flaky. It's as if these two men, who have devised some of the most original films of our time, reached a point where they decided to coast on the sheer pleasure of good old straightforward artistry."

The Seattle Times: "Steinfeld, whose earnest sincerity may remind viewers of a young Judy Garland, acquits herself well in a difficult role. Mattie's rapid-fire conversation, in formal language (she rarely uses contractions), makes her seem eerily self-possessed if occasionally dangerously close to stilted. Bridges, that most natural of actors, gives an entirely different kind of performance: loose and playful, not worrying too much about whether we can understand him (often we can't, but never mind). Together, accompanied by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, they invite us on their quest on a sparse frontier beautifully photographed by Roger Deakins; it's a darkly comedic kick just to overhear them."

'True Grit' trailer
'True Grit' showtimes and tickets
More 'True Grit' reviews at Rotten Tomatoes
Us Weekly: "Matt Damon delights as a lawman, but it's Steinfeld who stands out. Not since Anna Paquin won an Oscar for 'The Piano' has a girl shown such screen presence."

Variety: "It's hard to imagine bigger boots to fill than the ones that earned John Wayne his Oscar in 'True Grit,' and yet Jeff Bridges handily reinvents the iconic role of Rooster Cogburn in the Coen brothers' back-to-the-book remake. Though the sibs return things to the perspective of vengeance-bent 14-year-old Mattie Ross, all eyes are definitely on Cogburn. Rather than a case of the Dude doing the Duke, Bridges' irascible old cuss is a genuine original who feels larger than the familiar saga that contains him. Awfully gritty for its PG-13 rating, this characteristically well-crafted outing could draw a wide range of audiences, ranking among the Coens' more commercial pics."

The Washington Post: "Filmed in the sere sepia tones befitting the 19th-century West, 'True Grit' has the look, feel and sound of that era, its characters speaking in the courtly, declamatory style that can first strike the ear as mannered but soon takes on the cadence of folk poetry. Nowhere does that language reach more musical heights than in an early set piece, when Mattie negotiates to sell back some ponies her father purchased from Gen. Stonehill (Dakin Matthews). The pair's ensuing who's-on-first roundelay playfully establishes the governing ethos of 'True Grit,' in which Old Testament values of retribution and redemption comfortably co-exist with ribbing good fun. More than anything, the scene announces that, although Rooster is the character to whom the title refers, it's his young employer, goad and conscience who will emerge as the movie's most primal and memorable force."

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Vive La France! In Honor of Bastille Day, Five French Crime Movies You Need to Watch Now

Far be it from us to be completely U.S.-centric. Today marks the anniversary of the storming of the French prison Bastille, officially celebrated as France's Independence Day. Félicitations, mes amis! To celebrate, we picked five classic French crime films that any fan of film noir, action or police procedurals should watch immediately.

Dubbed films policier in its native tongue, the genre mixes nods to classic 1940s American film noirs with straight-ahead action, anti-heros and European-style existential angst. In the works of Henri-Georges Clouzot and Jean-Pierre Melville, among others, motivation and psychological ramifications are as important as where the gun is hidden and what femme fatale is lying. It's both heady and exhilarating. And of course, this is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg. For a comprehensive list, check out FilmsdeFrance.com's extensive list of policiers. Enjoie. Far be it from us to be completely U.S.-centric. Today marks the anniversary of the storming of the French prison Bastille, officially celebrated as France's Independence Day. Félicitations, mes amis! To celebrate, we picked five classic French crime films that any fan of film noir, action or police procedurals should watch immediately.

Dubbed films policier in its native tongue, the genre mixes nods to classic 1940s American film noirs with straight-ahead action, anti-heros and European-style existential angst. In the works of Henri-Georges Clouzot and Jean-Pierre Melville, among others, motivation and psychological ramifications are as important as where the gun is hidden and what femme fatale is lying. It's both heady and exhilarating. And of course, this is just the tip of the tip of the iceberg. For a comprehensive list, check out FilmsdeFrance.com's extensive list of policiers. Enjoie.

When the House Un-American Activities Committee blacklisted American director Jules Dassin, the filmmaker moved to France and created 'Rififi,' one of cinema's tensest and most enduring heist films.A gang of thieves attempts to break into a seemingly impenetrable English jewelry store, only to run into unforeseen complications afterward. Anything more would be ruining the fun. Dassin's mesmerizing 28-minute sequence of the robbery -- filmed entirely without sound -- continues to influence filmmakers today.

Proof that cheating can have dire consequences, Henri-Georges Clouzot's suspense film -- on par with Hitchcock's best -- revolves around the murder of a school headmaster at the hands of his wife and his mistress, a teacher at the school. When the corpse ends up missing from its burial spot, a series of ingenious plot twists crop up that make the viewer question who's really on whose side. Skip the atrocious 1996 remake and go straight to the source.

Julien Tavernier has just committed the perfect murder: killing his boss and the husband of his lover and making it look like suicide. When he realizes he forgot to hide a crucial piece of evidence, he returns to his building where the murder takes place, only to get stuck in the elevator on the way to hide the evidence. Louis Malle was 24 years old when he made his debut film, a confident and astounding precursor to the French New Wave movement. Miles Davis provides the improvised, exquisite score.

Still one of the creepiest films ever, Georges Franju's horror classic concerns plastic surgeon Doctor Génessier, tormented by the car accident that mangled and destroyed his teenage daughter's face. While the daughter is forced to wear a mask to aid in healing and hide her shame, Génessier kidnaps unsuspecting young females to operate on, hoping to successfully transplant their faces onto his daughter's. A highly graphic movie for its time -- the transplant scene is still a marvel of special effects -- Franju still injects his characters with pathos and warped sentimentality.

No list of French crime films is complete without the master: Jean-Pierre Melville. Arguably best known for 1950's 'Au Revoir Les Enfants,' Melville was also a pioneer in gangster films, filling his characters with both gangster mannerisms and philosophical, existential leanings. 'Le Cercle Rouge' goes into the the French underworld, bringing together an escaped con and former cop (among others) to rob a jewelry store. Melville's magnum opus, the film radiates an inherent sense of cool with every frame.

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Nicolas Cage Movies: His 10 Best and Worst

In honor of Nicolas Cage week, we've been sifting through the man's prepostorously long filmography in order to determine the ten best and worst films he's appeared in. This is no simple task. The highs are some of the better movies of the past few decades, and the lows are -- well, they're pretty low. As the man turns 47 years old today, we can only hope that the next four-plus decades are filled with an array of his movies as wildly uneven as the first.

When compiling the list, we tried to focus mostly on the Cage's more noteworthy performances -- so, even though it was awesome in its own right, his cameo in 'Fast Times At Ridgmont High' doesn't qualify for a spot on the "best" list. We also limited it to movies we'd actually seen, meaning that 'Season of The Witch,' which opens today, also doesn't count. (Cage told us this week that the script was "marvelous," so who knows?) Nonetheless, if you disagree with some of our picks, let us know in the comments.

THE BEST:

10. 'Valley Girl'
The movie that launched Cage's career, 'Valley Girl' is responsible for the past 28 years of Nicolas Cage glory. His first time on screen, he gets described as a "hunk," which set the stage for Cage's early career. Regardless, his turn as the L.A. punk rocker who falls for the well-heeled, titular Valley Girl was a worthy beginning.

9. 'The Weather Man'
If all you knew about this 2005 film was that it was directed by 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' maestro Gore Verbinski, starred Nicolas Cage as a character who carried around a bow and arrow, and was called 'The Weather Man,' you would be forgiven for assuming that it was about an evil, weather-controlling wizard brought down by a warrior played by Cage (with Michael Caine as his mentor, obviously). Instead, it's a quirky, indie-style dramedy in which Cage stars as a TV weatherman with a troubled, but charming, family life, whose interest in archery is mostly inspired by an interest in keeping people from throwing milkshakes on him as he walks down the street. We kind of prefer it the way that it is.

8. 'Moonstruck'
Cage's first time receiving awards consideration (he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor) saw him successfully pull off a fairly ridiculous accent and believably appear to be attracted to Cher. The movie was also one of the first major hits of Cage's career, helping elevate him to the level of stardom he'd eventually achieve.
7. 'The Rock'
Part of the tension of Cage's career has been his interest in both artsy, challenging fare and high-profile popcorn pictures. That became immediately pronounced when he followed up his Oscar-winning turn in 'Leaving Las Vegas' with a starring role in Michael Bay's follow-up to 'Bad Boys.' But while some of Cage's more commercial choices have been on the schlocky side, 'The Rock' is a pretty genuinely great example of mid-90's action filmmaking. He holds his own with Sean Connery here -- even if he's not as insanely ripped in this movie as he is in 'Con Air,' the Jerry Bruckheimer production that he starred in immediately after this one.

6. 'Honeymoon In Vegas'
Surprisingly, the first time Nicolas Cage and Bruno Mars appeared in the same film wasn't in the fevered imaginations of people who'd spent too much time reading Popeater -- it was in this well-beloved early-90's romantic comedy, where Cage starred opposite Sarah Jessica Parker. (An adorable, 6-year old Mars had a cameo as "Young Elvis.") The movie's at least half as famous for its ending -- which featured a gaggle of skydiving Elvis impersonators -- as it is for Cage's performance, but the highest praise he may receive in his career is that he is worthy of appearing in the same film as the epic contingent of skydiving Elvises. (If that's not enough, he also nabbed another Golden Globe nomination.)
5. 'Wild At Heart'
The second entry in the trio of Las Vegas-themed Nicolas Cage movies, 'Wild At Heart' is another strong performance that reveals an important facet of Cage's appeal -- visionary directors want to work with him. This time out, he worked with the divisive David Lynch on a film that at least half of our readers would probably place on the "worst" list. We've got it here, though, because of Cage's deeply affected performance that delivers exactly what the director asked of him.
4. 'Face/Off'
One thing Cage hasn't been renowned for throughout his career is subtlety. However, that's because, in most movies, he's not playing the same character (two of the same characters, actually) as John Travolta. Thrown into sharp relief by the comparison to the hammiest living movie star (in one of his hammiest roles, no less), Cage shines in 'Face/Off' as both Castor Troy and Sean Archer, turning in his finest performance in an action movie.

3. 'Leaving Las Vegas'
The role that got Cage his first win at the Golden Globes, also brought him an Oscar. It's also depressing as all hell, thanks in large part to the humanity Cage brings to the character of the pathetic alcoholic on a mission to drink himself to death.

2. 'Adaptation'
We've already highlighted the twitchy, neurotic performance that Cage gives in this Spike Jonze/Charlie Kaufman picture once this week, in which he plays screenwriter Kaufman and his fictional brother. There's more to say about it, but instead let's focus on his hair in this one, which is possibly the most compelling hairdo Cage ever sported on screen. The movie is outstanding, and it's a Cage performance without peer, but it's been gushed over so many times that we're left staring at his hair and thinking -- "Brilliant."
1. 'Raising Arizona'
There are an endless number of things to admire about Cage's signature role in this collaboration with the Coen Brothers, but even if the only truly great thing about it were the scene where he steals the diapers, it'd probably warrant the number one spot. Cage is rarely utilized as a physical comedian, but in 'Raising Arizona,' he delivers on that level, as well as on every other level he attempts -- and in this weirdly ambitious comedy, that ranges from charming nice-guy goofiness to some real emotional moments.
THE WORST:

10. 'Trapped In Paradise'
It's a very particular kind of bad performance when an actor is co-starring in a movie alongside Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey, and he gives the least believable and naturalistic performance, but maybe the opportunity to play it that way is what attracted Cage to his role in the mid-90's Christmas caper flick 'Trapped In Paradise?'

9. 'Bangkok Dangerous'
Moviegoers leaving the theater after watching 'Bangkok Dangerous' were not being unreasonable if they questioned whether or not Nicolas Cage ever learned how to read, or if he selected his projects by playing Jenga with his script stacks and choosing the first one to topple. Other valid questions involved a Wesley Snipes-level of possible back taxes or reams of blackmail-level photos. Our explanation? He took the part because he was so stoked about the haircut he'd be wearing in the film. Nothing else makes any more sense.

8. 'Amos & Andrew'
When a comedy intended to take on race relations, starring Nicolas Cage and Samuel L. Jackson is released with the title 'Amos & Andrew,' one thing is fairly likely: at some point in the picture, Nic Cage is going to be in blackface. The movie isn't exactly offensive, but it's certainly misguided, and Cage's performance as the bungling white trash burglar Amos isn't a high point. On the bright side, the Sir Mix-A-Lot song from the soundtrack does recount the movie's entire plot, so if you're curious about it now, you can just listen to him rap "Suburbian Nightmare" instead of queuing up the whole movie on Netflix.
7. 'Windtalkers'
Sometimes Hollywood math doesn't work like real math. The equation "John Woo + Nicolas Cage - John Travolta + Christian Slater x World War II" should end "= AWESOME." Instead, it equals heavy-handed, cliched schlock that doesn't even come close to Woo and Cage's first collaboration, despite being Travolta-free. Check out Cage's death sequence for proof. (Spoiler: Cage's character dies.)
6. 'Knowing'
Director Alex Proyas made three deeply compelling science fiction movies -- 'The Crow,' 'Dark City,' and 'I, Robot,' -- before apparently getting hooked on 'Lost' and recruiting Nicolas Cage to make this pile of nonsense. Sadly, 'Knowing' came out alongside two of Cage's more underrated recent works, 'Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans' and 'Kick-Ass,' but in lieu of the sort of compelling performance he gave in those movies, he instead just shouts mystical mumbo-jumbo a bunch.
5. 'Ghost Rider'
Ultimately, there are two kinds of movies based on Marvel Comics: Ones that are faithful to the source material and compelling in their own right, and ones that have Mark Steven Johnson's name on them. 'Ghost Rider' is of the latter variety, but Cage -- who famously toiled for years to get a crack at the role of Superman -- was so desperate to play a superhero that he took the part anyway. With cringeworthy lines ("I feel like my skull's on fire, but I'm good!") peppering the script, Cage's performance as Johnny Blaze, the titular hero's alter-ego, only rises above "wooden" to reach "cringeworthy."

4. 'Snake Eyes'
Following 'Face/Off,' Cage began a 5-year tear of mediocre-to-bad movies that he wouldn't break until finally reminding people why they used to like him with 'Adaptation.' 'Snake Eyes' was the start of that, and the only clearly memorable thing about the movie is Cage's absurdly loud shirt for the first half, which he seemed determine to render muted by overacting so egregiously that you can't pay attention to anything other than his big stupid face.

3. 'City of Angels'
After earning $200 million worldwide in its initial release, launching the Goo Goo Dolls into stratospheric (albeit short-lived) success based on the strength of the song "Iris" from the movie's 5x platinum soundtrack, and replacing the passion of Wim Wenders' 'Wings Of Desire' with a treakly mushiness in this remake, Cage would go on to never ever star as a leading man in a romance ever again ever. That's about the only thing it has going for it.

2. 'National Treasure: Book Of Secrets'
The first 'National Treasure' is a surprising, family-friendly gem of a Disney adventure movie, with Cage getting his Indiana Jones on alongside Harvey Keitel and Jon Voigt. Its sequel, by comparison, is a disappointing mess. The reason this one is ranked so high is that, while there was no reason to ever suspect 'Ghost Rider' or 'Amos & Andrew' might be good, 'National Treasure: Book Of Secrets' had everything going for it. Except for Cage's performance, its incoherent script, and the nonsensical plot. Stay tuned for the inevitable sequel in 2011!

1. 'The Wicker Man'
If you've been paying attention to Internet memes for the past few years, then you're almost certainly familiar with the so-bad-it's-hilarious "How'd it get burned??!?" clip from this 2006 Neil LaBute thriller. What you may not be aware of is that Cage's performance in that scene is actually about as good as he got in this unspeakable mess. 'The Wicker Man' is a strong contender for the worst movie out of all the movies Cage -- or anyone else -- ever made, and his performance is a very big part of why that is. Even John Travolta, while watching this in the theater, was probably thinking to himself, "Dude, turn it down a notch, okay?"

And check out our week of Nicolas Cage coverage:

Monday -- 47 Facts About Nicolas Cage
Tuesday -- In Defense of Nicolas Cage
Wednesday -- Nicolas Cage Q+A
Thursday -- The Evolution of Nicolas Cage & 'Season of the Witch' X-box Kinect Giveaway
Friday -- 10 Best and 10 Worst Nicolas Cage Movies

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The Top 10 "Guilty Pleasure" Movies of 2010

Guilty pleasures. Some say there's no such thing. I believe they're out there, though, those junk-food flicks ripe for enjoyment almost in spite of themselves; in fact, here's ten of the year's most shameless entertainments for your consideration, thematically paired.

1. 'Piranha 3D' and 2. 'Jackass 3D' -- Sure enough, 2010 was the year where game-changing technology backfired on us, first as vicious fishes devoured porn stars and then as Johnny Knoxville's band of hooligans let loose with all the full frontal floppiness that audiences could stand. If neither was worth the surcharge, then I'm not sure what is.

3. 'Machete' (pictured above) and 4. 'Repo Men' -- Two of the year's more giddily grisly efforts, both boasted scenes we shouldn't have seen (cell phones and intestines coming out of bodies in the former, sexy internal scanning in the latter) and offered up valuable lessons: 1) when your organs aren't yours, don't fall behind on those payments and 2) Machete don't text.

5. 'MacGruber' and 6. 'OSS 117: Lost in Rio' (pictured above) -- Spy spoofs didn't come much more low-brow than SNL's very violent and crude "MacGuyver" send-up (featuring what has to be the funniest sex scene since 'Munich') and the second in Michel Hazanavicius' series of nutty espionage adventures with secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath (think James Bond if he were more anti-semitic and sexist).

7. 'The Losers' and 8. 'The A-Team' -- This year's slicker men-on-a-mission efforts (sorry, 'The Expendables') weren't met with the most muscular box-office numbers, which is a shame, because both were sprightly, fun action flicks when our summer needed them the most.

9. 'Faster' and 10. 'Centurion' (pictured above) -- If #7 and #8 were the loosey-goosey actioners that went ignored, then #9 and #10 are their no-nonsense neighbors. One was a dusty throwback to '70s vigilante flicks, the other a gruesome homage to epic swords-and-sandals adventures of yore, and neither got as much attention as they deserved.

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Christmas Movies on Basic Cable: Where to Find the Good Stuff!

Few holidays bring out the movie fans like Christmas. (Halloween is probably a close second; Arbor Day comes in third.) Mostly everyone has time off to relax, but not enough time to really "watch" a movie -- and that's where your basic cable channels come in handy. You don't have to worry about raunchy words, the commercials are there to remind you that the cake needs to be iced, and let's face it: there are lots of great Christmas movies out there.

So here's who's showing what and when! Happy Holidays!

TBS begins its 24-hour 'A Christmas Story' marathon, which is very quaint and all if you need something in the background while you're basting a turkey -- but if you really want to appreciate Bob Clark's holiday classic, you should break out the DVD or blu-ray. The marathon ends with a screening of 'The Wizard of Oz' (yay) and 'Surviving Christmas' (boo).

TNT? On Christmas Eve they offer coal ('The Holiday') and and something called 'This Christmas,' which is one heck of a title. On Christmas Day they've got Peter Jackson's 'King Kong,' three consecutive chapters of 'The Librarian,' and random screenings of 'Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' and 'The Mummy Returns.'

IFC has a fun programming run that begins tonight with 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail,' Lucky McKee's 'The Woods,' and an always-welcome block of 'Undeclared.' Tomorrow they offer a massive marathon of nothing but 'Freaks & Geeks,' which you really need to have seen by now.

AMC does Christmas Eve the old-school way: with 'White Christmas' (1954) and 'Miracle on 34th Street' (1947). The double feature runs all night, and then tomorrow we switch to ... seven consecutive screenings of 'Scrooged.' Great flick, but sheesh, enough is enough.

The USA network seems to think that 'Bad Boys,' 'The Pacifier,' and the 'National Treasure' flicks are appropriately seasonal, so I'd avoid that channel tonight. They do offer 'Elf' tomorrow, so there's a silver lining.

Or flip to Turner Classic Movies, where you'll find titles like 'Scrooge' (1970), 'The Bishop's Wife' (1947), and 'Remember the Night' (1940). On Christmas Day they offer a great mix: 'A Christmas Carol' (1938), 'Ben-Hur' (1959), and 'The King of Kings' (1961) ... followed by a lot more fantastic non-holiday stuff.

Or if you're looking for something on Netflix (instant streaming), it's tough to go wrong with 'National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.'

For even more options, check out this handy little piece at Popwatch.

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Was 2010 the Worst Year for Movies Ever?

Throughout the year, it seemed, moviegoers were offered little besides mediocre sequels and reboots, uninspired star vehicles, romance-free romantic comedies and jetsam from the 1980s pop culture landfill resurrected like brain-eating zombies. Ah, but we got to see so much of it in 3-D, and we only had to pay another 3 bucks or so for the privilege.

Hollywood studios, terrified of risk, stuck largely to formula this year, hoping the new wrinkle of rental spex would be enough to rescue the movie industry from unprofitability/irrelevance/Facebook/vague-threat-of-your-choice. But something weird happened on the way to the box office: the formulas failed to work. People stayed away from many of the movies that were supposed to be surefire hits and made hits out of movies that didn't fit the usual mold.

As going out to the movie theater became an increasingly costly and irksome experience, audiences demanded value. That may have frightened some in the executive suites, but if there's anything good that came out of this year's movie chaos, it may be the realization that the old ways of doing business will have to change, and that such change, if handled right, could prove an opportunity instead of a disaster.

It's not as if Hollywood didn't make money this year. It did -- more than $10 billion from domestic ticket sales. 2010 was the first year that boasted two billion-dollar movies (in worldwide sales), 'Toy Story 3' and 'Alice in Wonderland.' (And you could also count December 2009's 'Avatar,' which made much of its planet-wide haul in 2010.) As of Dec. 19, the domestic box office was 1.6 percent ahead of where it was at the same date last year.

But there were some grim signs amid the grosses. Average ticket prices went up to $7.95 from $7.50 a year ago. So when the year ends next week, it's likely that fewer tickets will be sold in 2010 than in 2009. In North America, moviegoers would have to buy about 67 million more tickets by the end of the year to tie 2009's gross of $10.6 billion, and even then, the number of tickets sold would be about 80 million shy of the 1.4 billion tickets sold last year.

Despite a strong start this year (largely attributable to 'Avatar' and 'Alice'), it was apparent by early summer that audiences were voting no with their feet. For the rest of the year, it was unclear whether any film (even 'Toy Story 3,' which sold $415 million worth of tickets at home and currently ranks No. 9 on the all-time box office list) would bring moviegoers back into the theaters in numbers like last year's.

What kept them away? Maybe it was trends like these:

•Retreads. Or "reboots," as the studios and the entertainment press like to call them, as if there was something original and fresh about remaking 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' with a new actor as Freddy and pretending that all the previous 'Nightmare's' never happened. Sometimes, the strategy worked ('The Karate Kid,' 'TRON: Legacy'), but most of this year's reboots, remakes and sequels seemed uninspired and stale. 'Shrek Forever After,' 'Saw 3-D,' and 'Nightmare' were among the movies that proved you can go back to the well only so many times. And just because a title was familiar didn't mean a sequel was merited. Was anyone actually clamoring for another helping of 'Cats & Dogs,' or a return 23 years later to 'Wall Street'? Did anyone really want a big-screen version of 'MacGyver' or 'Marmaduke' or 'Yogi Bear'? Or yet another gloss on 'The Wolfman' or 'Robin Hood'? Apparently not.

•Warmed-over '80s nostalgia. Either the people making movies (or greenlighting them) nowadays are children of the John Hughes era who have grown up and assumed positions of power, or else studios are so desperate for familiar titles that they'll remake anything that people remember from 30 years ago. 'Nightmare,' 'Karate Kid' and 'Predator' might have been obvious candidates for updates; less so 'Clash of the Titans,' 'The A-Team,' 'TRON' and 'Wall Street.' (And don't forget the inherent '80s nostalgia, however tongue in cheek, underlying such 2010 movies as 'The Expendables,' 'Hot Tub Time Machine,' 'MacGruber,' 'Cop Out,' and even retro Cold War thriller 'Salt.') Some of these movies worked, some didn't, and some (notably, 'Karate Kid') seemed to alienate fans of the original while pleasing a new generation with no memory of or emotional investment in the earlier version. In any case, the trend is only going to continue in 2011 and 2012, with new renditions of 'Arthur,' 'Conan,' 'Firestarter,' 'Red Dawn,' 'Footloose,' '21 Jump Street' and 'The Thing' (a remake of a 30-year-old movie that was itself a remake of a 30-year-old movie). Watch your back, Ferris, they're probably coming for you next.

•Stalled star vehicles. It used to be a truism (at least among those who signed A-listers' $20 million paychecks) that it was big names that drew ticketbuyers on opening weekend. Yet several once-bankable names saw their movies fizzle this year. Russell Crowe failed to entice viewers to see 'Robin Hood' or 'The Next Three Days.' Jennifer Aniston failed to draw crowds to 'The Bounty Hunter' or 'The Switch.' Cher tried a comeback with 'Burlesque,' Jennifer Lopez tried one with 'The Back-Up Plan' and Mel Gibson tried one with 'Edge of Darkness,' but audiences were less than enthusiastic. Robert Pattinson's 'Remember Me' and Kristen Stewart's 'The Runaways' cast doubt on their ability to sell tickets to movies that don't have the word 'Twilight' in the title. Even combined star power -- Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in 'Knight and Day,' Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher in 'Killers,' Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in 'The Tourist' and the ensemble of Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson in 'How Do You Know' -- wasn't a big enough sell. Of course, the other things all these movies had in common were weak scripts and poor execution. Depp may have been golden in 'Alice' and Jolie in 'Salt,' but not even their combined prettiness could lure viewers to a vehicle as empty as 'The Tourist.'

•Failed new franchises. One thing that was actually supposed to make stars obsolete was franchise movies, films dependent on familiarity with the premise and characters, rather than on who happened to be playing them. (It's why Marvel feels it can reboot 'Spider-Man' even though the Tobey Maguire movies are still fresh in everyone's memory.) But again, audiences refused to take the bait for such would-be franchise launchers as 'The Last Airbender,' 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief,' 'The A-Team,' 'Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole,' 'Jonah Hex,' 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' and 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice.' That these last two were expensive duds from the production house of Jerry Bruckheimer, the franchise-creating expert who had turned a theme park ride in to Disney's huge 'Pirates of the Caribbean' films, suggested that the old franchise formulas have run their course.

•3-D. In the wake of 'Avatar,' 2010 saw about 24 new 3-D movies, more than ever before. About a third of them were shot in 2-D but hastily and shoddily retrofitted into 3-D. Almost every animated feature that came out this year was in 3-D. Those films that already boasted carefully crafted storytelling and visuals ('Toy Story 3,' 'How to Train Your Dragon,' 'Despicable Me,' 'Megamind,' 'Tangled') thrived. Others at least made original, unique use of the new palette ('Step Up 3-D,' 'Jackass 3-D'). In others, the cynicism and crassness behind the gimmickry was apparent ('Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,' 'Piranha 3-D.') In any case, with an average of two 3-D movies opening each month, most of them family-oriented, the market was quickly oversaturated. Add to that the fact that there still aren't that many 3-D screens, and they're expensive for theater owners to convert, and you began to see a bitter competition for scarce real estate. Still, Hollywood was convinced that the $3 glasses-rental surcharge was going to save the business; moviegoers were less convinced that they were always getting extra spectacle that merited paying for the extra spectacles. So far, however, the novelty hasn't worn off, so in 2011, we'll see at least 32 3-D movies.

So what did audiences like in 2010? Well they did like the formula movies -- the star vehicles, the summer action blockbusters, the 3-D toons, the sequels and retreads -- if they were done well. They liked the formula movies if they were done in ways that broke the formula conventions. (Exhibit A: 'Inception.')

The bottom has largely fallen out of the independent and foreign-language film markets in recent years, yet there were signs of life there, too, with the modest successes of such indies (or quasi-indies) as 'The Kids Are All Right,' Tyler Perry's 'Why Did I Get Married Too?' 'Black Swan,' 'The Fighter,' 'The King's Speech,' 'Cyrus' and 'City Island.' Foreign films that made a splash included 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' and its two sequels, 'The Secret in Their Eyes,' 'I Am Love' and 'A Prophet.' It was a good year for documentaries, including 'Oceans,' 'Babies,' 'Waiting for Superman,' 'Exit Through the Gift Shop,' 'Inside Job,' 'Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,' 'Restrepo' and 'The Tillman Story.' 'Black Swan' Exclusive Clip

The kind of mid-budget dramatic and comedic fare that the studios had long since abandoned to the indies (so that they could focus either on expensive blockbusters that they had developed smooth-running machinery to market or cheap horror films that marketed themselves) began to make a comeback at the studios. Somewhere in the middle, at budgets of around $40 million, movies like 'The Social Network' and 'The Town' were attracting audiences, critical acclaim and awards buzz. Other medium-budgeted studio movies that did well: 'Dear John' (budget: $25 million), 'Easy A' ($8 million), 'Secretariat' ($35 million), 'Takers' ($32 million), 'She's Out of My League' ($20 million), 'Love and Other Drugs' ($30 million), 'Nanny McPhee Returns' ($35 million), 'Kick-Ass' ($30 million), 'Predators' ($40 million), 'Ramona and Beezus' ($15 million) and most incredibly, alien-invasion thriller 'Skyline,' made for just $10 million but looking like 10 times as much.

It's possible that new technology will do for Hollywood what reliance on familiar stars and familiar plots and titles can't. Digital advances will make effects filmmaking on the cheap a la 'Skyline' more common, while the 'Jackass' boys, of all people, have proved that 3-D can be put affordably in the hands of any filmmaker and can be used in innovative ways without having to invent an expensive planet of blue aliens. And screenwriters like 'Inception's' Christopher Nolan and 'Social Network's' Aaron Sorkin have proved that mass audiences are smart enough to follow complicated, time-jumping narratives that are told from multiple perspectives and that don't rely on familiar characters. In short, it is possible for Hollywood to make a profit without spending a fortune on spectacle or stars or relying on the tired formulas that audiences snubbed in 2010. But it will take courage on the part of the studios to break free of old, no longer effective ways of making movies. It will also take courage on the part of moviegoers to seek out offbeat filmmakers and rule-breaking movies instead of staying home or rewarding business as usual.

*Follow Gary Susman on Twitter @garysusman.

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Worst Movies of 2010: The 15 That Hurt the Most

It goes without saying that we love movies. You don't work for places called "Moviefone" and "Cinematical" if you're not willing to chance a bad film every time you hit the cinema. So while we're loyal (and sometimes even charitable) moviegoers ... we're not fools. And we know a cinematic stinkpile when we see it. So with much chagrin and a small amount of snark, we put our movie minds together and came up with the worst of the worst.

In other words, lots of movies are good. Here are 15 of the other kind:

15.'Cop Out' -- "A comedy disaster like this one is far less fun than a drama -- like Willis' own 'Color of Night' -- or a sci-fi turkey like 'Battlefield Earth.' A disaster drama can be funny, but a disaster comedy is not." -- Jeffrey M. Anderson (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 29 positive / 125 negative = 19% -- Domestic Box Office: $44.8 million

14. 'The Wolfman' --"Despite all that production mess, 'The Wolfman' will either be seen as a squandered opportunity to pay homage to the golden years of Hollywood horror or a kick-in-the-pants bit of stupid, noisy fun. Both are true." --- John Gholson (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66 positive / 133 negative = 33% -- Domestic Box Office: $61.9 million

13. 'Leap Year' -- "The fact that (Amy) Adams, through the sheer force of her feisty screen presence, almost makes this debacle tolerable is a testament to her talent. More resonant, however, is the disappointing realization that she agreed to make such an unfunny, dunderheaded comedy in the first place." -- Eric D. Snider (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 25 positive / 94 negative = 21% -- Domestic Box Office: $25.9 million

12. 'Yogi Bear' -- "Prevents Anna Faris from being funny, which I wouldn't have thought was possible. In a way, though, the film is faithful to the old cartoons, in that it's grating and tiresome and not suitable for anyone over the age of 4. The animation is better, though." -- Eric D. Snider (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 8 positive / 49 negative = 14% -- Domestic Box Office: $21.7 million(+)

11. 'The Back-Up Plan' -- "Yes, you will get to see (Jennifer) Lopez eat chili with her bare hands, but that's only half as disgusting as a close-up on a pregnancy test sinking into a pile of fresh dog vomit. A scene in which Robert Klein, playing Zoe's OB-GYN, shows off his blood-covered hands while repeating, 'Vagina! Vagina! Vagina!' won't have Judd Apatow losing any sleep." -- John Gholson (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 26 positive / 104 negative = 20% -- Domestic Box Office: $37.4 million

10. 'Legion' -- "The only people who can gain anything from it are the unscrupulous cinematic scroungers who have the time and the (lack of) will to watch whatever trash comes their way. Even if you think you normally fall into that category (I know I often do), skip this one. There are no hidden junkyard treasures here; just junk." -- Peter Hall (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 17 positive / 77 negative = 18% -- Domestic Box Office: $40.1 million

9. 'When in Rome' -- "Beth and Nick are supposed to have some sort of believable attraction, but it's impossible to build one if most of the movie is spent trying to duck a shirtless Dax Shepard. When they do try and get to know each other, it's through wooden monologues about magic and family and other supposedly character-developing details that just add to the jumble." -- Jenni Miller (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 16 positive / 86 negative = 16% -- Domestic Box Office: $32.6 million

8. 'Grown Ups' -- "This is usually the place in a review where one writes, 'but at least the actors all looked like they had fun making it,' except in this case they really don't. Everyone in 'Grown Ups' looks like they showed up, hit their marks, said their lines, and collected a paycheck. There's no real joy here, just a product churned out to sell tickets, and one that's destined to be forgotten in a few months by anyone who bothers to see it." -- Dawn Taylor (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 15 positive / 139 negative = 10% -- Domestic Box Office: $162 million (not a typo)

7. 'Valentine's Day' -- "Stay home and rent 'Love Actually,' or better yet, spend quality time with a loved one. I guarantee you'll learn more about relationships with a companion than you will by watching this movie, and best of all you'll have an enjoyable experience that doesn't require you to temper your enthusiasm before it even starts." -- Todd Gilchrist (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 30 positive / 143 negative = 17% -- Domestic Box Office: $110.4 million

6. 'Clash of the Titans' -- "Does the new 'Titans' have a slightly bland lead actor? Yup. Does it have pacing issues in Act I and a small sense of confusion when it comes to keeping the peripheral characters involved? Indeed it does on both counts. Is the dialogue often pulpy and are the characters frequently a bit goofy? (Especially the Greek God characters?) Yes, yep, and absolutely on all counts." -- Scott Weinberg (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65 positive / 167 negative = 28% -- Domestic Box Office: $163.2 million

5.'A Nightmare on Elm Street' -- "The nightmares are where (Samuel) Bayer would be expected to step up and assert his own vision. After all, this is the man who has made hundreds of stylish music videos and commercials, so he should know a thing or two about snappy visuals. The nightmares are ... er, fine." -- Peter Martin (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 20 positive / 136 negative = 13% -- Domestic Box Office: $63 million

4. 'The Bounty Hunter' -- "Unfortunately, (Jennifer) Aniston and (Gerard) Butler stay firmly in their prescribed roles-- burly, slightly dim-witted man versus smart, exasperated woman -- until the last third of the movie, when the ice begins to break between their two characters and they try, in a shallow, rom-com sorta way, to figure out what went wrong in their marriage." -- Jenni Miller (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 9 positive / 114 negative = 7% -- Domestic Box Office: $67 million

3. 'Sex and the City 2' -- "Besides clocking in at a bloated 146 minutes, 'Sex and the City 2' is more about the opulence of their vacation and their wardrobes than the dialogue between women that won the HBO show so many loyal viewers." -- Jenni Miller (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 30 positive / 162 negative = 16% -- Domestic Box Office: $95.3 million

2. 'The Last Airbender' -- "(M. Night) Shyamalan's oppressive, self-serious direction help(s) to create a summertime adventure that's frigid and unenjoyable, almost on purpose." -- Todd Gilchrist (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 10 positive / 155 negative = 6% -- Domestic Box Office: $131.6 million(!)

1. 'Jonah Hex' -- "A jumbled mess of poorly-assembled images; you can't tell who's doing what to whom, it's just sound and fury, gunshots and explosions, accompanied by the heavy metal guitar-heavy power-chording of the musical score by Marco Beltrami and Mastodon, and then it's over and someone is running away and bodies are everywhere." -- Peter Martin (full review) -- Rotten Tomatoes Score: 19 positive / 123 negative = 13% -- Domestic Box Office: $10.5 million

(Special thanks to Rotten Tomatoes and Box Office Mojo for making this painful assignment a whole lot easier.)

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Best Todd Phillips Scenes: The 10 Funniest Moments from His Movies

Todd Phillips might not qualify for "auteur" status, but the director of such dude-centric hits as 'Old School' and 'The Hangover' has nonetheless been churning out dependably funny features for more than a decade. To celebrate the opening day of 'Due Date,' his latest comedy, we look back on scenes from other Todd Phillips movies that deserve induction into the comedic canon.

10. THE WRONG DOUG
'The Hangover' (2009)
From Mike Epps' deadpan-desperation delivery of the line, "I'll be your Doug," to Zach Galifianakis' description of the real Doug as "a white," every beat of this desert-nowhere scene is a laugh-getter. And then there's Ken Jeong as Mr. Leslie Chow -- an unforgettable bit character who, best we can tell, is what you get when the teenage houseboy setting off firecrackers at the end of 'Boogie Nights' grows up and sucks down a helium balloon.

9. PARKING TICKET FACE-OFF
'School for Scoundrels' (2006)
The mere sight of Jon Heder's mug suggests loserdom. But to send the point home in efficient fashion, the movie opens with his meter-man character, Roger, ticketing a thug's ride, then pathetically attempting to flee the scene in his Cushman auto rickshaw. The icing on the cake comes when the tough's buddy taunts him and calls him "little ticket man."

8. "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET MARRIED FOR"
'Hated: G.G. Allin and the Murder Junkies' (1994)
Phillips' first film was a documentary chronicling the life and music of hardcore punk artist G.G. Allin, who died of an overdose a few days after 'Hated' was completed. The entire 50-minute endeavor feels infused with laconic humor throughout; perhaps that's why a brief exchange among Allin's hometown buddies, reminiscent of a Henny Youngman one-liner, provides the doc's sole knee-slapper. As one friend wonders aloud why someone like Allin would "beat your own head in," another retorts, "That's what you get married for!"

7. THE BEST MAN SPEECH
'Old School' (2003)
In a movie crowded with hilarious, high-concept and/or lowbrow set pieces -- Blue's funeral, the cheerleading/dance routine, the cement blocks tied to the frat members' members -- one of the most refreshing bits of humor is an underappreciated Luke Wilson saying this: "True love is hard to find. Sometimes you think you have true love and then you catch the early flight home from San Diego and a couple of nude people jump out of your bathroom blindfolded like a goddamn magic show ready to double-team your girlfriend."

6. SEANN WILLIAM SCOTT GETS "MILKED"
'Road Trip' (2000)
Many male fantasies involve a nurse; few hinge on rubber-gloved digits roughly massaging the prostate. When such a fate befalls Scott's snarky character, E.L., at a sperm bank, the uncontrollable whinnies and neighs that cascade forth from his 'O' face are priceless.

5. SHIRTLESS PHISH FANS
'Bittersweet Motel' (2000)
Back in his documentarian days, Phillips followed '90s jam band Phish for a year, culminating with The Great Went, a two-day music festival in Maine. There, the camera alights upon a tent full of douchebags -- identically outfitted in jeans, baseball caps, sunglasses and no shirt -- who pontificate with equal authority on the THC content of kind bud, the fundamentals of shotgunning Bud Ice, and the fact that girls who drive Jeep Cherokees, "their pits are shaved, obviously." One of them, meanwhile, brags that he "ripped up here in my Rabbit from Massachusetts."

4. WILL FERRELL GOES STREAKING
'Old School' (2003)
This is quite likely the most recognizable scene Phillips has ever directed; even people who've never seen 'Old School' get the reference when you drunkenly bellow, "We're goin' streaking!" Often and criminally forgotten, however, are Ferrell's lines that bookend the scene: first encouraging Don "Magic" Juan to "bring your green hat" on a group streak, then asking his mortified wife, who finds him trudging solo down the street in the nude, "Honey, d'you think KFC is still open?" (Also, Ferrell's midsection paunch is always funny.)

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3. "BECAUSE IT'S YOUR DOG"
'Road Trip' (2000)
A discussion of cheating loopholes (e.g., if you're too drunk to remember the sex, if you're cheating on two girls at the same time) abruptly hairpins into John Waters-esque territory when the dweeby Kyle (DJ Qualls) offers up his own (NSFW) rule: "It's not cheating if you spread peanut butter all over your testicles and let your dog lick it off." His subsequent justification -- "Because it's your dog. You know, because it's your dog" -- sets up friend Rubin (Paulo Costanzo) for the best offhand rejoinder of the flick: "No, yeah, yeah -- we got it."

2. MIKE TYSON SINGS PHIL COLLINS
'The Hangover' (2009)
Everyone and their profanity-loving grandma heard about Iron Mike's cameo in 'The Hangover' before it hit theaters. But thanks to a tight, twist-laden script, audiences still got sucker-punched by the pudgy pugilist's big reveal: As groomsmen Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis tiptoe back into their Caesars Palace villa fearing a bare-knuckle brawl with the tiger they'd found in the bathroom that morning, what they find instead is a pumped Kid Dynamite (the tiger's rightful owner), air-drumming and off-keying his way through 'In the Air Tonight' -- and who then, true to form, lands a hard right cross on Galifianakis' bearded jaw.

1. FRANK THE TANK TAKES A DART IN THE NECK
'Old School' (2003)
And with that, we come to what is arguably the funniest scene in what is generally considered to be Phillips' funniest film. The tranquilizer gun's perfectly timed release, Frank's lumbering descent towards numbness, Seann William Scott's mullet, Vince Vaughn's clown get-up, the simultaneous feelings of delight and dread when the camera cuts to the kids singing "Happy Birthday" -- and it all leads up to a sly parody of 'The Graduate.' Brilliant.

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Best Hockey Movies: 7 Classics That Stick With Us

The NHL kicked off the new hockey season over the weekend, and you know what that means: bone jarring hits, end-to-end action and the perfect excuse to rewatch your favorite hockey movies of all time.

Okay, so maybe there aren't quite as many great hockey movies as there are, say, great movies about baseball. And we also admit that for some reason, Hollywood doesn't always seem to get hockey, often using the great sport as a platform for unfunny comedies ('The Tooth Fairy,' anyone?) or lame romcoms. (Remember 'The Cutting Edge'? Yeah, we wish we could forget it too.)

But for every misfire like 'The Love Guru' there's a great hockey film hiding in your Blu-ray bin, just waiting to be rediscovered. In order to help you celebrate the beginning of the new NHL season in style, then, we've put together our list of the top hockey films of all time. So drop your gloves and grab your popcorn, because it's time to face off with Hollywood's best puck potboilers.
And sorry, monkey fans, but 'MVP: Most Valuable Primate' didn't quite make the cut. Hey, there's always next year.

• Honorable Mention -- 'Happy Gilmore' Even though there's not a whole lot of actual hockey in 'Happy Gilmore,' we had to give a shout out to the classic 1996 Adam Sandler comedy about a failed hockey player who decides to join the PGA Tour as a pro golfer. Special props to Bob Barker for the "slap shots" he delivers to Sandler's noggin.

• 7. 'The Mighty Ducks'
While we don't exactly have the fondest of memories for the two sequels, the original 'Mighty Ducks,' which stars Emilio Estevez as a lawyer sentenced to community service in the form of coaching a youth hockey league, still makes us smile despite ourselves. The fact that the 1992 film led Disney to buy an actual NHL franchise and name it the Anaheim Mighty Ducks is just meta-icing on this pop culture cake.

• 6. 'Youngblood'
Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze provide the all-star wattage in this 1986 film about the dangerous world of minor league hockey -- and the trials you have to face to become a man. Sure, the final fight scene is a bit over the top -- using your sticks like swords is pretty much an automatic suspension -- but we love every cheesy second of it.

• 5. 'Mystery, Alaska'
Russell Crowe took to the ice in this feel-good 1999 comedy about a local rec-league hockey team from the little town of Mystery, Alaska, which ends up taking on the NHL's New York Rangers in an exhibition game. Throw in the timeless Burt Reynolds as a supporting character and you have a recipe for gold medal action.

• 4. 'Sudden Death'
The mussels from Brussels is the ultimate enforcer in this 1995 action flick, as Jean-Claude Van Damme works overtime to prevent terrorists from blowing up an arena full of fans during the Stanley Cup Finals. Not only does the film feature a slew of NHL stars playing themselves in the film, it also uses the Penguins mascot as a villain. Score one for Hollywood.

• 3. 'The Rocket'
You may not be familiar with this 2005 Canadian film, but it was a sensation north of the border, earning 13 nominations at the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars, the Genie Awards. Roy Dupuis ('La Femme Nikita') stars as hockey legend Maurice "Rocket" Richard in a biography that the hall-of-famer personally vetted before his death.

• 2. 'Miracle'
Do you believe in miracles? Well, we sure do, especially after viewing this riveting and uplifting account of the infamous victory over the Soviet Union scored by a ragtag team American college students at the 1980 Winter Olympics. One warning, though: The 2004 Disney film, which stars Kurt Russell as legendary U. S. coach Herb Brooks, has been known to reduce grown men to tears.

• 1. 'Slap Shot'
Could there possibly be any other choice? This 1977 comedy stars Paul Newman as a hardscrabble minor league lifer who rallies a community around his scrappy Charlestown Chiefs in a last-ditch effort to save the team from folding. 'Slap Shot' may be the only film Newman was ever overshadowed in, though, as the fighting Hanson brothers (played by real-life hockey goons David Hanson, Jeff Carlson and Steve Carlson) stole the movie to become enduring icons of the sport itself. An all-time classic.

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Best 2000s Movies: Top 40 Films of the Decade

As the motion picture industry begins its second 100 years, we take stock of the good and the bad. Escapist fare like musicals ('Chicago') may be a rare occurrence these days, while weightier films ('Bowling for Columbine,' 'Children of Men,' 'City of God') reflecting these uncertain times, proliferate.

Perhaps the best example of the wondrous evolution of film is the array of excellent animated movies ('Up,' 'Shrek,' 'Finding Nemo' and 'The Incredibles') on display in this first decade of the new millennium. 'Toons have blossomed full flower and attract hordes of moviegoers into theaters.

But whatever your taste in film -- from action movies and comedies to documentaries and indies -- here's looking forward to the long march of a new century filled with glorious flicks. As the motion picture industry begins its second 100 years, we take stock of the good and the bad. Escapist fare like musicals ('Chicago') may be a rare occurrence these days, while weightier films ('Bowling for Columbine,' 'Children of Men,' 'City of God') reflecting these uncertain times, proliferate.

Perhaps the best example of the wondrous evolution of film is the array of excellent animated movies ('Up,' 'Shrek,' 'Finding Nemo' and 'The Incredibles') on display in this first decade of the new millennium. 'Toons have blossomed full flower and attract hordes of moviegoers into theaters.

But whatever your taste in film -- from action movies and comedies to documentaries and indies -- here's looking forward to the long march of a new century filled with glorious flicks.

40. 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' (2003)
Who'd have thought a cheesy Disneyland ride could ever be co-opted into a mega-hit movie (with no end of sequels in sight). Johnny Depp's heavily mascaraed, mincing take as pirate blackguard Capt. Jack Sparrow is a delicious hoot as he helps young Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) track down the love of his life (Keira Knightly), who's being held for ransom by some of Sparrow's motley confederates. The first (and best) movie of the franchise strikes just the right balance between heroic swashbuckling and tongue-in-cheek slapschtick.

39. 'Shrek' (2001)
DreamWorks won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature and birthed a huge hit (and franchise) with this film -- billed as the greatest fairytale never told -- of a green ogre (voiced by Mike Myers) who sets out on a picaresque journey to save a princess (Cameron Diaz) and get his swamp back. You gotta love the sand of the creative team that came up with Lord Farquaad as the name for the loathsome conniver and Shrek's nemesis -- an inspired circumvention of the censors if ever there was one. 38. 'Children of Men' (2006)
In the not-so-distant Orwellian future, it seems that no children have been born in many years -- effectively dooming the human race to premature extinction. Director Alfonso Cuaron has invented a stark, dystopian future populated by despairing masses that are driven by warring sects and the "threat" of unbridled illegal immigration. Best Scene: The long tracking shot of Clive Owen leading the mother with "miracle" baby in tow through a building that's being torn apart during a massive firefight between revolutionaries hunkered down inside and government troops taking aim from outside. It's like something you'd see broadcast on CNN ... or Al Jazeera.
37. 'An Inconvenient Truth' (2006)
Davis Guggenheim directs this riveting documentary based on Al Gore's long-running dog-and-pony slideshow presentation about global warming that he's given -- by last count -- more than 1,000 times. The film, spearheaded by producers Laurie David and Lawrence Bender, has been credited with raising awareness around the world of climate change and, in the process, reinvigorating the entire environmental movement. Winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that the notoriety of 'Truth' led directly to Gore winning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. 36. 'Borat' (2006)
British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen built a hilarious mockumentary around the fictitious "sixth most popular journalist in Kazakhstan" (a staple character on his 'Da Ali G Show'). Borat (sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and totally clueless) records his experiences meeting (and offending) average Americans culminating in his encounter with "dream girl" Pamela Anderson. The conceit, which grounds itself in shock humor, is brilliantly simplistic but can really only work once ('Bruno,' anyone?). Regardless, attention must be paid to Cohen, who'd do anything -- and we mean anything! -- to satisfy his warped comedy muse. 35. 'The Wrestler' (2008)
Mickey Rourke portrays has-been pro wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a former big attraction who's reduced to brawling in high school gyms for crappy minimums. In the comeback performance of his career (and for which he earned an Oscar nod), Rourke piteously plumbs the soul of Randy, who can barely walk upright after a career of carnage but who wants nothing more than to entertain fans who remember him from his glory days. It's as if every career reversal and bad decision Rourke ever experienced has been transferred to the screen in a performance that's both fearless and redemptive. Directed by Darren Aronofsky and co-starring a fine Marisa Tomei. 34. 'Sideways' (2004)
There's nary a hiccup in this closely observed dramedy about two buddies, Miles and Jack (Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church), who take a northern California road trip to sample some nice wines and play some golf before Jack gets hitched. The cast is splendid, including Giamatti as a failed novelist who clings fervently to one last hope at getting published; and Virginia Madsen's never been better, shucking her usual femme fatale role to play a waitress who might just be the best thing that ever happened to Miles ... if he can just get out of his own way. Won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. 33. 'Chicago' (2002)
Bob Fosse's visionary brilliance comes to the screen largely intact thanks to devoted acolyte Rob Marshall, who directs this Oscar winner for Best Picture. Husband killers Velma Kelly (Catherina Zeta-Jones, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar) and Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) beat their respective raps and then turn their notoriety into a vaudeville act. This musical, with a first-rate score by John Kander and Fred Ebb and a central thesis of stardom at any price and any fame (even infamy) a thing to be desired, was fully 20 years ahead of its time when it debuted on Broadway in the mid-1970s. 32. 'Eastern Promises' (2007)
Stoic heartthrob Viggo Mortensen is at his immutable best as Nikolai Luzhin, the Russian-born driver to one of London's biggest organized crime families. His body covered with tats that illustrate key moments in his criminal rise, Nikolai is one dude not to be messed with. Nonetheless, at his core, the character knows enough to do the right thing when it really matters. Most Wince-Inducing Scene: the steam-room bloodbath that features more slicin' and dicin' than a Martha Stewart kitchen tutorial. Directed by David Cronenberg; the perfect man for any job requiring immoderate bloodletting. 31. 'X-Men' (2000)
Bryan Singer directed this superior adaptation from the 1960's Marvel Comics universe about a group of misunderstood mutants (each with a defining superpower) who just want to peacefully coexist with humans. Yeah, right! A stellar cast including Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Halle Barry, Anna Paquin and Rebecca Romijn breathed life into fanboy favorite characters like Wolverine, Rogue and Magneto, and in doing so jumpstarted superhero films as a viable genre and a box office moneymaker. 30-21 >>

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Making 'Footloose': The Movie's Unsung Stars on the Prom Scene and (Gasp) Kevin Bacon's Dance Double

A lot has changed since the 1980s, including how dance movies are made. Back then, you could cast a hot-shot young actor and not worry if he could really dance. Now, the lead role in 'Footloose' -- the upcoming remake starring Kenny Wormald, that is -- requires a bona fide hoofer, but in the 1984 original, they disguised the fact that Kevin Bacon didn't do all his own dancing for his big solo warehouse number with clever cuts and inventive lighting.

Peter Tramm, who played Bacon's double, received a screen credit, but many of the other dancers -- such as the breakdancers in the classic prom scene -- did not, especially since they were brought in for a last-minute reshoot to add some zeitgeisty moves.

Moviefone talked to the original's choreographer, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, as well as uncredited dancer Christopher Harrison and Tramm's late partner, Jay Grimes, to revisit 'Footloose' and learn why they had to shoot that prom scene twice.

So, why did they reshoot the prom scene?

Lynne Taylor-Corbett: They were dropping confetti and it didn't work with the slow-motion. When [director] Herbert Ross got the crushing news that the finale didn't work, he turned around and decided, "We're going to bring in these new people and we'll just film it again." They brought in these really hot kids they found in LA clubs and they just started doing their own thing. There was something new in the air and, in this case, Ross had the good fortune to be able to insert that one special breakdancer.

Tell us about Peter Tramm, the dancer who doubled for Kevin Bacon.

Taylor-Corbett: Kevin hadn't initially wanted a double. He was so terrific, he worked so hard, but the truth is, you can't fake having danced your whole life. It wouldn't have looked as good as it did and I think we made it look as good as possible. I myself was incredulous with the way it cut together. That scene in the warehouse is always used in clips of 'greatest dance scenes.'

And you had gymnast Chuck Gaylord doubling him on the gymnastics moves!

Taylor-Corbett: Yes, and then there was also a stunt man, so at one time, I had a picture of four Kevins on set!

What are your thoughts on the remake?

Taylor-Corbett: I just hope they find a great cast. [Writer] Dean [Pitchford]'s a good friend and I'm sure he's working on it and updating it a little bit. I don't think any of us ever dreamed the movie would become quite as classic -- especially the dance stuff. I feel really good about my place in that whole experience. I wish them all luck. It just has to be the right kid.

They've cast Kenny Wormald, who has a background in dance.

Taylor-Corbett: I'm not familiar with him, but that's great they've cast a dancer. I'm sure he's going to be great. People can spot doubles and so the bar goes up. And that's as it should be. It will probably engage a whole new generation of kids. Did Peter Tramm mind being a double?

Jay Grimes [Tramm's former partner]: No, but he did want screen credit. At the time, Peter was married to Marine Jahan, who'd done all of Jennifer Beals' dancing in 'Flashdance' -- and there was a big scandal when she didn't get any credit. It made Marine a semi-star. When Peter was offered 'Footloose,' he was very excited but he was upset because they didn't want to give him screen credit. I just said, "No, no, no, you don't want screen credit. The screen credit will go by so fast, no one will see it -- but if we can create another big scandal, that's priceless publicity." But then of course they ended up giving him the credit!

What else did he do besides 'Footloose'?

Grimes: He had a wonderful career. He did a lot of commercials and TV. He did Vegas. He did movies and he was always a featured dancer. Peter was in 'Can't Stop the Music,' the fictitious story of how the Village People came into being. He has a lot of featured dancing in that; he's the very clean-cut, all-American-looking boy. And he was in the ZZ Top 'Sharp Dressed Man' video. That's Peter, the blonde guy. That was one of his biggest videos.

It's such a shame that he died so young, only seven years after 'Footloose.'

Grimes: That was a terrible, terrible thing. We lost so many great, great talented people. It was a horrible time, it changed the world of entertainment, certainly changed the gay world. With Peter, he was so vital and so alive and such a brilliant dancer. To think of him not being able to dance, or being hurt or injured... The whole idea of him growing old is almost incomprehensible. He would be 52 now. I can't even imagine. How did you get cast in 'Footloose'?

Christopher Harrison: When Lynne Taylor-Corbett and (assistant choreographer) Spence Henderson came to town to audition, they got all the kids from the University of Utah. I was a dance major there and I was on the cheerleading squad. They were crazy for my tumbling abilities and so I got cast and eight or nine of my friends got cast, too. They took us to the Osmond studios where Lynne paired us with different people and then separated us into two different groups: those that would wind up doing the cowboy number, and the group doing the drive-in. I was part of the drive-in group.

Tell us about shooting that scene at the drive-in.

Harrison: It was all night shoots at this drive-in in Orem or Provo. They asked, "Does anyone have a car they're willing to dance on?" I said yes, and Herbert Ross said, "Hey, are you willing to do a flip off your car?" and I said, "Sure!" So I did this whole thing where I flipped off the car and dove inside the window and kicked my legs up. They said it was the best footage they got. It was a very exciting moment. They ended up liking me a lot and using me for quite a few of the scenes because they said I'd be recognizable because of that footage.

Excellent. What do you remember about shooting the final prom scene?

Harrison: They had buckets and buckets of this very thick confetti. We would dance in this confetti and they'd sweep it up and dump it down on us again. They kept saying, "Please don't look up -- you don't want this in your eye." A few people got the confetti in their eyes and then we'd have to stop and shoot it again. That was a whole night or two of doing that. That was Lynne's choreography and we were very specific about what we were to do, and it was very clearly staged. There wasn't a whole lot of freestyle to it.

How did the reshoot happen?

Harrison: Even though he had all this great footage, Herbert decided it wasn't edgy enough, because they didn't know about the cool new dances in Utah and he wanted to have some of that in there. At the time, 'Flashdance' had just come out and everyone said, "This is going to be the male version of 'Flashdance'!"

They chose maybe four or five of us from Utah who were the more recognizable and flew us to Paramount Studios. They mixed us in with a whole new group of people, but they wanted to have some continuity with the other footage. When we went to do the final scene, some of us were still there, like Peter Tramm, and there were a couple of us from Utah and then all these new kids that they found dancing in the clubs in L.A. with all these cool break dancing moves. At the time, none of us from Utah had ever seen any of these moves. It was such a trip. It was this eye-awakening experience, a kid from Utah going to Hollywood and going out to clubs dancing. I felt bad for my friends in Utah who didn't get to do it.

Watch the 'Footloose' prom scene

Which one are you in the final prom scene?

Harrison: I didn't get one of the features. My best work wound up on the Paramount editing floor.

When did you find out that your big scene was cut from the film?

Harrison: They had a big screening in L.A., and I happened to be in town. I was so excited, even though the scene in the drive-in had gotten cut down. They decided that the story was more important than the dancing, so they cut a lot of the dancing. The thing I get to boast about is that, in the film, I'm the very first person that you see dancing. You're in the drive-in, a chick walks by, I'm jamming for her. I'm that guy.

And there's a big argument whether I'm the guy doing Kevin Bacon's standing back flip in the prom scene [note: see the back flip here, at minute 4:26], or whether it was Peter Tramm. Peter was his official stand-in, but that day his ankle was bothering him, so I put on the jacket and did some flips. So I don't know if it was Peter or me. Our technique was the same, and he was also a former gymnast.

Watch the 'Footloose' drive-in scene

How well did you know Peter?

Harrison: We became friends in L.A. after that and we'd see each other at auditions. I was very, very sad when I heard he had died. He was one of the most successful dancers in L.A. at the time.

Why didn't you get a credit in the film, like he did?

Harrison: Because I was from Utah and didn't have an agent. I never got credit on the film, but I got my SAG card out of it. People say, "Yeah, right, you're in 'Footloose'! We never see your name on it anywhere." But that was back in the day when dancers did not get credit. The only ones who did were the ones who had an agent out of L.A. I'm not on IMDB.com, so it's almost as if I didn't do it.

Do you know what happened to those deleted scenes?

Harrison: I don't. Paramount has it. Herbert Ross himself came up to me and told me, "I just want you to know that that drive-in scene with you flipping off the car is the best dance footage and I'm here to apologize that it got edited down. But it turned into a film about a story and not about the dance." He told me that on the day of the screening. I was a little crushed, but I looked on the bright side: I'm in a movie! I moved to New York and it was literally on the marquees when I got there. It opened the door for me.

What have you done since 'Footloose'?

Harrison: Kevin Bacon gave me the best advice. I asked him, "What do I have to do to make it in New York?" And he said, "You have to go there -- and you have to stay there." And I asked, "How do you know when you've made it?" And he said, "Because The New York Times will write about you. And last year, the Times did.

Now I have this company called Anti-gravity, which is very successful. We perform all over the world. We've provided thousands of jobs to dancers and brought this incredible mix of gymnastics and dance -- and it's all because Kevin gave me that advice and Lynne Taylor-Corbett opened doors for me in New York. It would never have happened had I not done 'Footloose.'

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