The Ultimate DVD Geek
Harry Potter
& The Goblet of Fire
by Doug Pratt

It should be borne in mind that the Harry Potter movies are leading to something, just as the books are. They are not freestanding movies but installments in a greater narrative, and while the structure of each movie tends to be mildly repetitive, the development of the characters and the complexity of the fantasies is significantly advanced from one movie to the next. If the producers are actually able to complete the series with most of the cast intact, it will be a remarkable legacy, an epic metaphor for the adolescent development cycle that is a great deal more cogent than the Andy Hardy movies and such.
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It's Oscartown, Jake
Curtain Call
by Kristopher Tapley

2005 has been a curious year from the start. Politically and socially conscious filmmaking dominated the scene. It was the first topic I wrote about here at Movie City News back in September. The critical consensus bled into the Oscar nominations announcement in January, leaving a slate of Best Picture nominees that reflected the theme of the year, and now a seemingly sewn up race burst wide open the last month of competition, paving the way for a truly surprising turn of events that a few predicted, but most did not.

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The Hot Button
What Broke Mountain's Back?
by David Poland

In the end, Brokeback Mountain was very much in the same boat as Sideways was last year. It needed all the attention to assure box office and awards, but all the early attention gave people plenty of time to fall out of love and to find another. BBM's box office success in December gave it awards life. But as Focus clearly understood, they had milked their best cows before the first of the year and everything that would be national/non-urban would pale in comparison. But first and last, they maximized business for the film. Well done.

As it turned out, The Gurus were right in all but 4 categories... Score, Original Song, Doc Short, and Animated Short... Oh Yes... And #5, Best Picture! The Charts Last Week's Closing Ballots

Digital Nation
by Gary Dretzka

If anyone is going to upset the apple cart on the red carpet, it’s likely to be a free spirit like Mark Zupan, who, since the release of Murderball, has become the country’s most recognizable quadriplegic athlete. When the heavily tattooed Austinian was made aware of the gridlock associated with the annual convergence of A-list celebrities, smarmy studio executives, power-crazed publicists and academy functionaries, a magnificent smile lit up his face.

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The Weekend Report
by Leonard Klady

Medea’s Family Reunion withstood a quartet of new releases as top draw in the marketplace with an estimated $12.7 million. There was a lack of real utz in film going for Oscar weekend with 16 Blocks taking second spot with $11.6 million and the bow of Dave Chappelle’s Block Party trailing the freshman field with $6.7 million. The frame also saw the very big screen debut of Deep Sea 3-D grossing $680,000 at 43 Imax locations.
Weekend Estimates (Full List)
Domestic Market Share

Gross Behavior
All That Glitters ...
by Leonard Klady

The motto of the fictitious Miracle Pictures ("If It's a Good Picture, It's a Miracle") seems all too apt. The contemporary studio miracles occur by happenstance, blackmail or unbelievable endurance and that's shameful. And the trickle down effect can be seen among acting nominees. Only two of this year's 20 hopefuls can be considered movie stars and in those instances roles were taken for the challenge and scale plus ten percent.

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20 Weeks To Oscar
One More For The Road
by David Poland

The Oscars are not a science… they aren't brain surgery… they aren't The Truth. They are a very large variation on a kid's sporting event. Everyone who is on the team gets to play. You can root for your kid, but don't stick your leg out into the field of play to trip an opposing player or curse at the other kids on your child's team for not playing hard enough. It would be naïve not to recognize that there is a whole industry built up around this event. God knows MCN benefits from it. But the spirit gets lost too easily and too often. Discourse has become dis' coarse… and that is a loss for everyone.

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MCN DVD Wrap-Up
Rent

It took 10 years for Rent to make the leap from Broadway to Hollywood, but only a month to disappear from the megaplexes. More >>

MCN Review: If Rent: The Movie was cut by 30 minutes, since somehow, on film, the rent battle becomes truly uninteresting, it might have been really terrific.

Pride, Unprejudiced: Chris Columbus says Rent is the movie he was born to make.

Plus: Wallace and Gromit, Domino, North Country, Rent, Zathura, All The President's Men, Emmanuel's Gift, Grey's Anatomy, The Journey, Just Like Heaven, La Bete Humaine, Midnight Cowboy, MirrorMask, Nine Lives, The Pretender, Proof, Significant Others, The Thing About My Folks, The Dick Cavett Show

Updated throughout the day
Updated: 10:24 pm

MGM Back to Releasing.. Kinda
And - More Depth To The Murk... But Still Murk

Toback-o Road

A QT Look At Mark Romanek

Paul Mazursky Goes Back To Work
"Pedophile, double murderer and wife killer. That's all you need to say. Those are the magic words."

"For me, 'Brokeback' isn't rebellious at all. It's a very ordinary movie. People call it groundbreaking or what not. But I didn't feel this way. This is the way gays are."

Putting The Military Into The Actor
"They began to understand that the sun didn’t revolve around their a****."

It Took Colin Farrell To Bring Fante To The Screen

Lauren Bacall, Living Legend

Getting Into The US For Your Movie Screening... Priceless
Visas Denied For Mexican Women Featured In SXSW Feature Doc

The Context Is Oscar... The Reality Is Window Shrinkage
George Lucas Sees Drastic Reduction Of The Amount Spent On Production

Who's the film director... That's a sex machine to all the chicks? PARKS! Ya damn right!
The Great Gordon Parks Passes Away

Ebert On The Crash-Lash
And - Jim Emerson Rounds Up Many Of The Opinions About "What Happened"

Superman's Widow, Dana Reeve, Dies At 44

18 Oscar Nominations, 0 Wins

Using A Greenwald Doc To Try To Unseat A Big Time Congressman In Texas

Trailer Du Jour
XMen 3: The Last Stand

Ron Grover Scoops Weinstein Co/MGM Cable Slotting Partnership

USA Today Scouts The Backstage Buzz

An Aussie View Of Oscar Night, From Dion Beebe's Win To The Box Office For The Films In Contention
And - The View From Canada

Peter Guber On The Producers Battles Of Crash

Time.com Previews Mel's Oscar Appearance

The Night In Quotes

USA Today Answers The Question, "What's Next For The Oscar Winners?"

How Bad Was The Oscar Telecast?

Ken Turan Knows What Should Have Won, Blaming Fear Instead Of The Possibility Everyone Doesn't Agree With Him
And - Corliss On What Did Win And The Possibility It Was About Being A Company Town
Plus - Ken Turan Embarrasses Himself With Opinion Presened As Fact

Crash Wins Best Picture... Brokeback Mountain Takes Director... Four Films Tie For Biggest Haul With 3 (The other 2 Are Memoirs Of A Geisha & King Kong)
The Oscar Winners
By Category | By Film

It Ain't Movies, But It Might Be Fun
Salon Offers The Liberal Intellectual Version Of Joan Rivers & Daughter... Camile Paglia & Cintra Wilson

Phyllis Huffman, Casting Director For Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven & Many Other Eastwood Films And For WB Television, Passes Away At 61

As Expected, Brokeback Mountain, Crash, And Capote Big At Indie Spirits

The Guardian Offers A Cranky Neil Gaiman Followed By A Cranky JG Ballard

The Man, Sadly, Puts Her Money Down On That Classic Critics' Sucker Bet Of Using Oscar And Box Office To Mirror The State Of The Art

The Paper Of Record Takes A Shot At Walk The Line... Eve Without An Oscar Angle

The Ambition Of Mr Mudd Malkovich

Arriving At The Red Carpet In A Green Hybrid

Trying To Interview Sarah Silverman Before She Hosts The Indie Spirits Can Be Hard On Your Balls

John Travolta Follows In Harvey Fierstein's Footsteps As Hairspray's Edna Turnblad

LA Weekly Tries To Make A Show Business Impact Beyond The Normal Crowd Looking For Massages With Happy Endings By Giving Nikki Finke A Blog... Which She Doesn't Want To Call A Blog... But Hey, It's Better Than Podcasting

The Tyler Perry Parade
White America Discovers The Modern Chitlin Circuit Of Live Black Theater
And - TP's Heading For Television And He's Creating A Brand New Producing And Delivery Concept

Garrett Scott, Co-Director Of Operation Dreamland, Passes Away At The Tragic Age Of 37

The Stinkers Of 2005

After Kicking Roger Ebert For Two Weeks For Picking Crash To Win, The Bagger Puts On The Clown Shoes And Carjacks His Original Horse

Colleen Atwood's Oscar Week Diary

Pevere Goes To Towne.... Robert Towne

Peter Howell's Will & Should Oscar List

With The Skill Of An Award Winning Photoshop Artist & The Generosity Of Santa, Anne Thompson Lays Out What Each Player In The Universal/ DreamWorks/ Paramount Dance Wants You To Think Happened And Will Happen

Tom Hanks Gives Advice To Oscar Nominees In A How-To Make The Perfect (Or At Least Within The Time LImit) Speech Video

Cannibalism Is One Thing, But He Draws The Line At Being Part Of A Horror Film

Ben Karlin... The Man Behind Jon Stewart

The Smoking Gun Goes Hollywood With A Series Of Budgets For Shyamalan Movies

Is That A Prod In Your Hand Or Are You Just Glad To See Me?
The American Humane Association Brands Brokeback Mountain A Sheep Abuser

Oscar Nominee Joyeux Noel Uses The Gunner Palace Argument... Gets CARA To Flop An R To A PG-13

Shortly Following The Publicists Guild Awards Walk The Line, Fox Awards Searchlight's Head Of Publicity Breena Camden Jeff Godsick's HOP Slot At The Big Studio (He's Moving Further Up Into More Of a Marketing Role)... Who Will Replace Breena At P-Rice's Expanding Den? Unknown As Of Now

Ego, Ego, Ego, Money, Ego, Money, Ego, Ego ... Crash!!!

T.K. Arnold Offers Some Perspective On Direct-To-DVD Before Offering "News" On Stuart Little 2: This One May Make Money Like Teh FIrst One Did

E! Attempts To Cross Breed Its Oscar Carpet Content

brandchannel's 2005 Product Placement Awards

The "Source Material Derby" - Worthless As News... Interesting Fodder