Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” is widely considered to be the Best Batman Incarnation of All Time.  Now, nearly two years after its blockbuster release, it’s time to look at the debate with fresh eyes. If you take away the fanboy fervor, can “Dark Knight” still stack up against previous incarnations of the Caped Crusader?

In a heated battle, at least in my mind, “Batman: The Animated Series” comes out on top. Read on to see how the bracket unfolded.

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While basketball fans have plenty to be excited about this weekend, movie buffs rarely get the chance to make educated guesses about arbitrary bracket rankings.

Not anymore!

In celebration of the theatrical release of Dreamworks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon,” I’ve concocted “The Sweet 16 of (Non-Pixar) Computer Animation.”

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Dreamworks Animation is just about to release “How to Train Your Dragon,” their latest animated film that won’t be anywhere near as good as the Disney/Pixar movies.

Not that Dreamworks cares. The movie is presented in 3D, which is all but a guarantee for big box office these days.

Attention America: 3D movies have been around forever. You are getting duped into paying premium prices for inferior products.

I like some of the Dreamworks movies, notably “Kung Fu Panda” and the first two “Shrek” movies. But even those can’t even compete against the awesome, all-powerful winning streak of Pixar. Well, OK. “Panda” beats “A Bug’s Life.” But only because Pixar couldn’t figure out how many legs go on an ant. (more…)

Contributing writer Josh Miller takes on the insanity known as “Twilight.” The franchise’s second installment, “New Moon,” is available on Blu-Ray and DVD March 20. Please don’t buy it.

The sequel to 2008’s “Twilight” needs no introduction. The film has broken box office records and the next film in the series is due in just a matter of months. Like it or not, the Twilight Saga is a cultural phenomenon in both film and book form. After seeing the first film, I was unable to grasp the appeal of this series and now, having seen “New Moon,” I am still dumbfounded. In my review “Twilight,” I said everything here is underwritten, characters and plot included” and “no one with a knowledge or appreciation of American cinema would call Twilight a good movie.” “New Moon” does flesh out the main characters a bit more but I stand by the latter statement. “New Moon” is certainly not a good film by any means. (more…)

While The Mad Hatter wonders why a raven is like a writing desk, audiences of the new “Alice in Wonderland” might wonder what director Tim Burton was hoping to accomplish with his live-action reimagining of the Lewis Carroll classic.

The twisted visionary behind “Edward Scissorhands” and “Ed Wood” has no problem getting another strange and enchanting performance out of his frequent collaborator, Johnny Depp. The actor’s Mad Hatter, boasting Carrot Top hair and the occasional Scottish accent, certainly tickles the imagination. So why can’t the rest of “Alice in Wonderland” do the same?

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Another perspective on the best movies of 2009 from contributing writer Josh Miller.

This is not an objective list; rather than choosing films that are the best films of the year because of simple filmmaking aesthetic, I chose the ten films that I had some sort of resonance with personally. This list could potentially be updated in the near-future, but this is a pretty accurate reflection as it is…..

1. The Road – This adaptation of the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel by Cormac McCarthy is a bleak look at a  father and son wandering around a post-apocalyptic world. Many films have covered this territory in the last few years, but The Road is the best of them and the best film of 2009. It’s a dark, gloomy film that portrays the animalistic nature of humans unflinchingly. It’s suspenseful, thought-provoking, and powerful.

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It all worked out. Pretty much.

Jeff Bridges finally won an Oscar. “The Hurt Locker” beat “Avatar” for Best Picture. And Sandra Bullock actually made me want to see her performance in “The Blind Side.”

All in all, this year’s Academy Awards was one of the most satisfying Oscar ceremonies ever. The right people won (mostly) and the producers found interesting ways to present the less-than-star-studded categories (the video packages for the sound and short film categories were the most compelling B-roll of the night).

If only hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin  had brought the funny. I can’t really blame them completely; the material they were forced to present was some of the worst second-rate awards banter on record. I couldn’t believe the live audience was giving them so many pity laughs.

Too bad opening act Neil Patrick Harris couldn’t have stuck around for the entire ceremony. He was, as always, legendary.

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“No More Pull-Ups.”

“Nice.”

These are the final lines of dialogue from “2012,” the mother of all disaster movies. Something like six billion people die in the movie, but gosh darnit, those cute kids and the lovable pooch make it safely to Noah’s Ark 2: Apocalyptic Boogaloo.

Don’t get me wrong. I’d much rather watch this 150 minute pile of absurdity than any minute of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” I just think it’s hilarious that on Oscar weekend, a time to celebrate the best of what the movie industry can offer, the #1 DVD rental in all the land will be a movie about the coolness of natural disasters. Maybe let Haiti skip this one for a while.

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Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin host the (something annual) Academy Awards at 5 p.m. Sunday on ABC. It should be a big test for the industry’s most celebrated award show. While some see the 10-nominee Best Picture race as detrimental to the Academy’s reputation as the authority on quality filmmaking, others believe the stuffed category will boost ratings for the fledgling ceremony telecast.

Those are discussions for other days. For now, let’s focus on the big night: Who will win, and perhaps more importantly, who should win. On with the predictions!

Best Picture
The most heated battle of the night comes down to mega-blockbuster “Avatar” and the low-budget war drama “The Hurt Locker.” The two films couldn’t be any more different. One is good, and the other is an overblown rip-off of “Pocahontas” with cool special effects.

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