These sort of polarized feelings seem to stem from the fact that Deschanel is widely known to have capitalized on playing the same quirky, but lovable character in the wide range of films that have made her popular. Playing the weird, fun, independence-seeking sister in Almost Famous, Deschanel has managed to continue to play some variation of this character in her subsequent films, including The Good Girl, The New Guy, Elf, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Failure to Launch, Gigantic, and (500) Days of Summer, to name only a few. If you love this character then of course the love for Zooey Deschanel follows suit.

But now there seems to be something a-brewing in her career path. Zooey Deschanel has taken the lead role of Jess on the Fox television show, New Girl, about a recently single, slightly crazy girl (Deschanel) moves into an apartment with three guys following her bad breakup. And what’s more? Her popularity seems to be at an all time high. And what’s even stranger is that she is still definitely playing the same “quirky” (as IMDB puts it) character that she always has.

So what’s the deal here? Could it be that Zooey Deschanel also falls into the strange case of actress who is better suited for television, following in the footsteps of actresses like Christina Applegate and Rashida Jones. Deschanel’s one-season stint as the weird, femme-fatal(ish) Kat on Weeds certainly seems to add more proof to this theory. But what remains peculiar to Deschanel’s case is that she didn’t start off on television. Instead, Deschanel tried her hand (a big one at that) in the movie industry and just seems to be better suited for the television.

But why? Perhaps because her trademarked character is better suited for the small screen with a long-running, half-hour show: small doses in a long format? Or maybe it’s because the show format provides for a greater variety of audiences, those that might have missed her movies due to their often misnomered “independent” title.

Either way, the polls are in and Deschanel is becoming a hit on the small screen. So what say you, Banterers? What is the cause for this shift in likability?

What’s Contagion, you ask? Well, please allow me. Contagion is a movie with everything in it– a huge (HUGE) cast, a fun plot, solid death scenes, dramatic (and probably a little melodramatic), a likely love story and a looming apocalypse threatening all civilization as we know it. Like I said, Soderbergh took everything one might ask for in a film, and created the perfect amalgamation. And I don’t think anyone is sure how exactly Soderbergh did it.

For one thing, Contagion stars (wait for it) Matt Damon, Marion Cottilard, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Bryan Cranston, John Hawkes and Jennifer Ehle, just to name a few. What, Soderbergh, did all of these people owe you a favor and you just happened to collect from them at the same time? You know what, it really doesn’t matter because the cast alone would get me to spend the 13 bucks it takes to see this movie.

But then you combine this cast with the movie’s plot– the inception and consequent spreading of a highly contagious, deathly disease threatens to eradicate all of mankind within a matter of days– and you not only got me spending 13 bucks to see this movie, but you also have me spending 13 bucks to see this movie at midnight on opening day. I mean, come on, guys: it’s Outbreak meets 28 Days Later. What can go wrong?! Well, nothing if you ask me!Especially because, as the trailer reveals, we all know Gwyneth Paltrow will be dead within the first 15 minutes.

And the best part is, is that it opens September 9th. That’s right, September 9, 2011. I don’t even have to wait that long to see a movie that will surely change the way I see mankind and its desire to survive.

Watch the trailer below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and enjoy the couple days off.  If you get around to the movies this weekend, let us know what you saw.

Who needs football anyways? Only Kidding….Go Giants

We wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving and a great feast

Surprisingly far off (though again, the lack of available 3D screens) Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland made another $17.3 million but fell almost 50%. It currently has $293.1 million domestic in its fourth weekend. I don’t think I need to tell you how big of a hit this was for Disney. In third place was Steve Pink’s high-concept (if not lowbrow) comedy Hot Tub Time Machine with $13.7 million. Playing out of 2,754 projectors, early buzz from MGM had everyone thinking this was the next Hangover. Well, read our review of it and let us know what you thought. Not quite Hangover numbers in its opening, but it beat Pink’s last major movie Accepted, which started with $10 million in 2006. It’ll be interesting if word-of-mouth lets this hang in the top five for a few more weekends or if it’ll just come and go as easily as saying the film’s title.

The Gerard Butler/Jennifer Aniston rom-com The Bounty Hunter saw a 40.1% drop, taking in $12.4 million, and a States haul of $38.8 million in ten days. To be honest with you folks, there’s a much better Butler comedy out there right now. I’d suggest you see that instead of this.

Fox’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid rounds out the top five with $10 million, stooping a large 54.8% as opposed to last weekend. Though with a $35.8 million total in ten days with Fox only inputting $15 million, this proved to be a sizable if not forgettable investment on their behalf.

Out of the top five-

• Playing on 178 more screens this weekend (including some in my home state) Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg flew 795.5% to #14 with $1.1 million.
• Atom Egoyan’s latest Chloe, about a worried doctor who hires a prostitute to mousetrap her husband, opened to dismissal reviews (a 51% on Rotten Tomatoes). Not sure of an expansion anytime soon, but it made $1 million on a $15 million budget.
• Don Hahn’s documentary on animation Waking Sleeping Beauty began with $33,100 on five screens.
• Sundance pick Lbs, about a grossly overweight man who decides to lose fat by traveling countryside, started off with $10,900 on a single screen.

Here are the box office results according to studio estimates Sunday-

1. 1. How to Train Your Dragon…$43.3 million
2. 2. Alice in Wonderland (2010)…$17.3 million
3. 3. Hot Tub Time Machine…$13.7 million
4. 4. The Bounty Hunter…$12.4 million
5. 5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid…$10 million
6. 6. She’s Out of My League…$3.5 million
7. 7. Green Zone…$3.4 million
8. 8. Shutter Island…$3.2 million
9. 9. Repo Men…$3 million
10. 10. Our Family Wedding…$2.2 million

I just wanted to inform everybody of the update to the Sidebar.  We split our Snap Review section into 2.  We now have a section entitled ‘Snap Video Reviews’ and ‘Snap Written Reviews.’   Click the links on each title of the ‘Snap Written Review’ section to be taken directly to that review.  The ‘Snap Video Review’ section is identical to the original ‘Snap Review’ Section where you just need to click the ‘Play’ icon to see the video.

We hope this will make it a lot simpler to see our reviews and make it easier to navigate the site.

Please check out both sections for the most current reviews of movies in theaters.

Thanks

Matt

We have some sad news to report.  It has been reported that Brittany Murphy has past away at the age of 32.  Multiple news sources are reporting that the actress went into cardiac arrest early Sunday morning in LA, and, despite being rushed to hospital, was dead on arrival.

Murphy entered the scene playing a ditsy school-girl in Clueless.  After Clueless, who would have thought her career would be more successful then Alicia Silverstone’s. Pretty shocking, but definitely the truth.

She also had roles in Sin City, Just Married, Don’t Say A Word, Girl Interrupted (-which she received much praise for) and of course her leading lady role in 8 Mile. Her performance in 8 Mile was also very good.

According to IMDB.com she has 3 movies in Post-Production set to be released in 2010, and 2 others in Pre-Production.  

Brittany Murphy 1977-2009

Avatar, director James Cameron’s 1 year $500 million dollar blockbuster movie of the century is only a few weeks away.  There has been a slow progress of hype and marketing leading up to the release that will take over the nation on December 18th.  Cameron has released teasers and now full length movie trailers that look fantastic.  It’s obvious that the visuals are going to be spectacular.  The marketing and advertising is on waves like never seen before, and the social media efforts have been stepped up as well.  Twitter has played a major role in driving word of mouth buzz for other movies, and the team behind Avatar is joining in the mayhem as well.

There already is an interactive trailer that gives users behind the scenes, interviews and more information about the actors and characters.  Now Facebook and MTV are teaming up to give users a live webcast on Facebook with the stud director James Cameron and Sam Worthington, the main actor.

The live webcast will be held on Facebook on Thursday, December 3rd at 3 PM ET.

This is a smart move by Fox studios as well as the partnership between MTV and Facebook.  More live webcasts are becoming the norm and the world has recently seen a few live concerts and announcements on various social networks.  This will add to the marketing outreach driving the attention to Avatar, something James Cameron is doing a great job of leading.  Fans will also have the opportunity to submit questions via the Facebook Fan Page, and selected questions will be presented to the director and cast.  Now this may practice may not be new, but I don’t think it’s ever been done with such a high profile director with such a big time movie.  I am looking forward to the webcast and think it’s an excellent way to drive buzz for the movie.  Not that it needs anymore buzz, I think everyone and their grandma know about this movie, but adding some interactive spice clearly can’t hurt.

What do you think of the live webcast?

Congrats to Heather at www.twitter.com/hmgarrison. You are the winner of the free copy of the Star Trek DVD. We will be reaching out to you shortly.

Thanks everyone for participating.

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This weekend is one of the bigger weekends in film we have seen in recent weeks. We have film’s of multiple genre’s, appealing to several movie goers. Lets take a quick look

The Informant! – Matt Damon plays a cooookie guy who is trying to get a promotion while cooperating to sell his company out to the Feds at the same time. With Scott Bakula as well, this movie looks  hilarious. P.S.  Soderbergh is a genius.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – based off the children’s book, this film is a CGI movie about a guy can make food fall from the sky.  Children of all ages, and even some adults, with flock to the theaters for this one.

Love Happens - need I even give the plot line. This is your chick flick movie about a guy who is looking for love and women who is going to give it to him. Harvey Dent, I mean Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston star.

Jennifer’s Body – this is the weekly horror flick starring Megan Fox. She looks hot, but the movie doesn’t. Tacky horror fans and middle school guys will flock to theaters for either blood or Fox. Will you?

Torn Curtain movie Mausoleum download So a movie for everyone this weekend.

What are you going to see?

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I’m definitely pumped for “The Informant” and will eventually see “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”

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