FlickWatcher.com

Steven Spielberg and major Hollywood studios stole the plot from Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1954 film “Rear Window” in making last year’s “Disturbia,” a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court on Monday said.

The Nicolas Cage thriller “Bangkok Dangerous” needed just .8 million to take the top spot at the box office in what was the slowest flick weekend in five years, according to studio estimates.

With “The Dark Knight” finally winding down at theaters after crossing the 0 million mark, studios are beginning to roll out their serious awards contenders.

I’m glad I had a recent run of great TV, because for a while there, I was about to lose hope for this entertainment medium. The Internet seems to be just more fun, and flicks seem to be more extravagant. There’s just so much crap on TV, I wonder why they even bother to put it on?

Here’s a recent example, after just channel surfing around one night. 

On the SciFi channel, they had a B-flick called Alien Abduction. It’s all about people who are abducted by aliens and held hostage at  a government facility. After watching about an hour, I was starting to wonder just how much money the fake blood industry must make on a flick like this. Rotten Tomato has this killer description… "unabashedly low-budget sci-fi flick…" It starred Megan Lee Ethridge, and Melanie Porter. Who? Exactly.

I stop on Last Call with Carson Daly. Why is this show still on? It’s clear Carson is phoning in a performance, as if he just doesn’t care to be there. The guest list? Lonny Ross, and the flobots. Who? Exactly.

Today I’m taking a bit of a detour. Ever since I started to blog for this site, I’ve become more attuned to people watching. And one thing I noticed is the clear distinction between men and women when they are behind the wheel. I generally avoid stereotypes, but I can’t help myself when I notice a driver doing something stupid on the road. I have to pull up close to find out if it was a man or a woman. Sure enough nearly 100percent worth watching of the time, I’m right on the money.

Just what do I mean? Well, here’s a simple comparison chart:

- When men see you about to cross a pedestrian walk, he’ll speed up in order to try and beat you.
- A women would see you at a pedestrian walk, she will suddenly stop even if she was going 50 mph and had a line of 10 cars behind her.

I feel like I’m ODing on all the crappy reality TV shows these days. It’s as if all the creative minds have left Hollywood, and the only recourse is to tag along with disfunctional 2nd rate celebs in the hopes of them doing something outrageous for the camera. Which of course, they always do. I get the feeling all this reality TV is a lot like extreme sex. It starts off with a fascination with swinging, and then the next thing you know you are into 4 ways, then bondage, and then girls kicking your crotch, just so you can get off. Next thing you know, all that guilty pleasure, just isn’t very pleasurable anymore. 

But I will say that there is one glimmer of hope: All those "educational" shows (I guess you can call these reality shows as well) you see on Discovery, or the History Channel or National Geographic. I just finished up a good marathon of educational shows, being enlightened to weird creatures like the Chupacabra, visiting the ancient temples of China, marvelling at the historical event of the 300 Spartans, and finally catching up on all the Shark Week madness I Tivoed. I feel like I absorbed more information this past 48 hours than I did all through college. And Doritos as well. I tore through a bulk size bag I picked up at Costco. My fingers have a layer of orange crust on them that I don’t think could be surgically removed. Which I’m sure one day if my body was found like this by future archaeologists and they were studying me, they would spend a whole TV show on the mystery of the man with orange fingers.

So i still got a few more good shows to go. Wanna know what they are? Hit the jump!

Mirrors flick review: B-

Jack Bauer, bored of taking on terrorists and assassins, has shifted his focus to a much more dangerous target: mirrors. Yes, mirrors. In the Alexandre Aja flick Mirrors, Kiefer Sutherland stars as a security guard who begins to believe that the mirrors in the abandoned department store that he patrols are possessed with a demonic force that can kill at will.

Aja, the guy behind such gore fests as High Tension and The Hills Have Eyes, has set the bar pretty high. While not everyone loves his films, no one can argue that his two most well known pictures are disturbing and thrilling. That being said, I had relatively high hopes for Mirrors. Unfortunately, Mirrors is also based on a Korean flick, which means that it falls into the dried-up subgenre of Asian horror flick adaptations. That, in the least, is disturbing in its own right.

Thankfully, Aja has created a film that supercedes the subgenre, if only slightly. The flick does follow the pretty typical formula: a guy gets a new job, starts seeing weird things, continues to work there, begins to believe that something is truly wrong and eventually discovers that a creepy little girl may have something to do with it. Aside from that, Aja tries his best to make us forget about the thin plot - and succeeds off and on.

I didn’t love Mirrors. The first half is so-so, as there are some plot holes, sketchy moments and so on and so forth. It’s never explained to a believable level why an abandoned department store that is halfway burned to the ground needs to be patrolled on an hourly basis, or why Sutherland, who lost his job as a police detective, needs to work a night job when he could just as easily land a normal gig during the day. Of course, there’s always the problem that even if you think you’re crazy, why the hell would you go back to a job when you see dead people in the mirrors? Furthermore, Sutherland isn’t anything special; at least Paula Patton and her cleavage make up for his shortcomings.

Nevertheless, if you can look beyond its flaws, Mirrors is pretty scary. The use of mirrors has always been an easy approach for directors to scare the living daylights out of their audiences, and Aja has made a flick made of nothing but mirrors. There are quite a few scary moments and several of those will make you jump. As far as gore goes, the flick pales in comparison to Aja’s other films, but there are still some decent neck-gouging, jaw-splitting death scenes.

The ending, as far as horror flicks go, is also quite decent.

Mirrors isn’t a great flick and it isn’t for everyone, but as far as Asian remakes go, it’s pretty good.

House Bunny, The flick review: C

Review by Robert Bell (C)

The House Bunny is Legally Blonde’s slightly retarded and far more profane cousin who would likely get drunk at a kegger, show everyone her famous ping-pong ball trick and cry about it the next day. It’s kind of amusing in its own embarrassing way but lacks any real meaning or sense of self. 

Without Anna Faris’ unique comic sensibilities there would be very little to redeem this somewhat offensive, formulaic yarn outside of a very large girl attempting to seduce a classmate by indicating that she needs to lay a deuce. All progression and character motivation - regardless of endless feminist rants from secondary characters - stem from a desire to please and attract men. The overall message seems to be something akin to “you don’t need to show the world your cooter to get respect, a little cleavage and butt-cheek is more than enough”. 

This fish-out-of-water comedy follows Shelley (Anna Faris) after her 27th birthday when she is chagrined to find that she has been evicted from her home; the Playboy mansion. Desperate to find a new home, she stumbles across a college campus and weasels her way into the role of “House Mother” to a sorority filled with dysfunctional social misfits in desperate need of a makeover.

Roughly following Snow White and the Seven Dwarves - if they were named: Preggers (Katharine McPhee), Crippley (Rumer Willis), Dorky (Emma Stone), Butchy (Kat Dennings), Stinky, Mutey and Dumpy - there is a reinvention of the freaks urged by the inevitable fear of losing the sorority house to a group of preppy skanks led by Mrs. Hagstrom (Beverley D’Angelo). Throw in a requisite love interest in the form of Colin Hanks and the formula is complete. 

Despite a fairly crappy, by-the-numbers script, Anna Faris does manage to make some of the obvious jokes unique and amusing. There are few actresses that could pull off the Marilyn Monroe standing over a vent gag with any sort of originality but Faris manages. There is an insight and intelligence to her dippy reactions and blank stares that makes it all that much droller. 

Cameos in the form of Hugh Hefner and those three hookers from his reality show appropriately but annoyingly make their way on screen and thankfully the obnoxious Kendra doesn’t laugh or speak much. 

Those who like Anna Faris will forgive the film many of its faults given her abilities, however, those who do not care for Ms. Faris will most certainly find this flick unbearable as it is essentially a retread of Sydney White with more fake boobs and pubic hair jokes.

Bangkok Dangerous flick review: C

Review by Robert Bell (C)

With a dash of unnecessarily gratuitous violence, a sprinkle of overt misogyny and a veritable cornucopia of unintentionally amusing character traits, Bangkok Dangerous is in no danger of garnering any Oscar nominations, which for the most part appears to suit it just fine.  Despite playing it straight - which makes it that much more amusing - the film seems to be at least a little bit aware of its own ineptitude and desire to cater to the lowest common denominator, which includes guns, tits and severed limbs. 

While on a routine assassination mission in Thailand, Joe (Nicolas Cage) reflects on the isolationist nature of contractual killing and whines a bit about how hard it is to make friends while brutally murdering various baddies.  To help him out with his somewhat convoluted assignment, Joe enlists the help of a street criminal named Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm), who picks up suitcases from high-class hooker Aom (Panward Hemmanee). 

In between routine slaughters and heroin injections, Joe makes a visit to the local pharmacy to get some Bactine for a miscellaneous gash and meets the demure, sexless and conveniently mute Fon (Charlie Yeung), an inhuman male fantasy who giggles a lot.  Inevitable he starts up a flirtation with the young woman that hits a wall when he blows someone’s brains out all over her cream coloured jacket. 

Teenage boys will surely find a great deal of pleasure in the many profane utterances and bullet-ridden chase sequences throughout, as will a certain selection of grown men (business in the front; party in the back).  This flick was made for that demographic and they will likely complain only about the first lethargically directed hour before the titties flop out and the blood starts flowing.

Regardless of maturity or let’s face it - competence, Bangkok Dangerous treads along at a decent clip and can be perceived as entertaining by a variety of different kinds of people for a variety of different reasons.

It was a big night for Twilighters everywhere, as Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and surprise addition Cam Gigandet presented at this year’s VMAs! We want to hear what you thought about it.

Here’s what you do: After watching the VMAs, record your reaction to your favorite stars’ time on the VMA stage. Then visit our YouRHere site, register for a free account (if you haven’t already) and upload your video response by clicking on “Create an Upload.” Remember to tag it as “Twilight” and “VMAs” so we can find it.

Geek out and be as crazy, excited and truthful about it as you like! We want to know if you loved it, hated it or just wished it would have lasted at least half an hour longer. (But please watch the language; we can’t run any vids that have swearing!) We’ll be selecting some of the best to air on MTV and appear on the MTV flicks blog.

Watch the Twilight cast with Russell Brand after the jump!

When news leaked that visionary director Darren Aronofsky was about to shepherd a fourth big-screen incarnation of “Robocop,” fans of the character were simultaneously both excited and a little confused. Aronofsky? The guy who directed “Requiem for a Dream” and “Pi”? Just what in the heck brought him to the project in the first place?

Don’t bother asking Aronofsky himself, who is more difficult to decipher than the plot of “The Fountain” (zing!). When MTV News caught up with him at the Toronto Film Festival, all Aronofsky would say of what attracted him was that “it’s an interesting landscape.”

“But we’ve got to get a screenplay. We’re deep in it,” he added. “But there’s not much to say until there is a screenplay.”

We had much better luck talking to the film’s producers last month, when they told us, among other things, that the film wasn’t a direct sequel and that it would have a hard R-rating.

Aronofsky, meanwhile? Well, he did drop one little nugget. Asked where the film would be set – whether it would be Detroit again or some other American city, the director casually replied “I don’t think it’s set anywhere that’s recognizable.”

Of course, it’s probable he wasn’t talking about a brand new city, but just a city of the future – which because of new advances in technology and other such nonsense isn’t really recognizable to people of today.

We’ve asked it before and we’ll ask it again: Is Aronofsky the right man for a “Robocop” re-boot? Since he’s being so coy, take this opportunity to let him know what YOU’D like to see in the film. Sound off below.

“Bum da bum bah!!” The music might not be playing, but the “Indiana Jones” theme is in the air. Everywhere you go at Paramount, there are ghosts — and not just because the Hollywood Forever cemetery is behind the lot. For the VMAs, we’re working from the Crosby Building — named randomly for Bing Crosby, even though he had nothing to do with this space. But Indy did: His theme was scored here.

(See where the flick magic happens in this photographic tour of the Paramount lot.)

When the celebs arrive Sunday night, they’ll be going through Paramount’s Bronson Gate — one of the most widely recognized Hollywood landmarks. A common misconception is that it’s named after Charles Bronson, although the reverse is true: He named himself after it or, rather, the street it’s on, when he changed his name from Buchinsky.

When the stars walk the red carpet, they’ll be following the above-ground version of a path that — as lot legend has it — Rudolph Valentino used as a secret tunnel to avoid running into fans and photographers. On that pathway these days is usually a bench from “Forrest Gump,” so you can sit and have a box of chocolates, but not for the VMAs.

The main show is being held at Stage 16, where films such as “Pretty in Pink,” “Elizabethtown” and “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” were shot. Even though Hitchcock favored Stages 15 (for “To Catch A Thief”) and 18 (for “Rear Window”), the lights he used for “Rear Window” and “Vertigo” will be hanging up high to illuminate VMA mainstage performers — after being in storage for 50-odd years.

Not all the performances will be at the soundstage. The Jonas Brothers, Pink, T.I. and Kanye West are all making use of other locations on the backlot. The Jonas Brothers will take over a Brooklyn block and Pink will perform on a SoHo block in what’s called New York, where several facades are meant to look like brownstones and other Big Apple buildings that are easily converted based on each production’s needs. Pink, for instance, is going to make use of a restaurant front that doubled as a ’50s diner in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” And Austin Powers danced across the street she crosses.

Just a block away, however, T.I. will be in what’s known as Chicago. There’s a series of shops, boutiques and clubs he’ll walk through, but the alleyway between them has been used countless times in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel” and “Charmed” when the things that go bump in the night needed vanquishing.

Kanye, who is making use of B-Tank, will be calling upon the most cinematic history of all of them. When there used to be an A-Tank, the two tanks were filled to spill into each other and then reversed on film, to depict the parting of the Red Sea in “The Ten Commandments.” Now B-Tank is all alone, but it’s still keeping busy — both when wet and dry. For “Waterworld,” the space was enclosed with scaffolding and nylon sheeting. “Snake Eyes” used it for a tunnel leading out to Atlantic City’s boardwalk during the storm. And, most recently, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” used Tank-B for a Brad Pitt rowboat scene. There’s a 175-by-75-foot blue-sky backdrop — because the real Southern California sky looks fake — that was used in “Button” that Kanye is borrowing so clouds can make up the horizon.

But when B-Tank is not in use, it’s just a parking lot. There may not be much flick magic in that, but during weeks like this one, you’ll take whatever spot you can get.

Now that you’ve helped us pick the nominees for this year’s Video Music Awards, head to VMA.MTV.com to vote for your favorite in the Best New Artist category, check out the latest additions to the performer and presenter lineups, see the best (and worst) of VMA fashion and much more. Then tune in this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET for MTV News’ “Opening Act” on the red carpet, followed by the big show, live from Hollywood at 9 p.m. ET.