Cinematical

Louie Psihoyos's animal rights documentary The Cove (a film we've been championing since Sundance '09 - read our review here) has been opening eyes stateside and in a handful of overseas markets since opening last summer, but the real question was whether or not the people of Japan would hear about the mass dolphin harvesting that had been going on for years under their noses in the small fishing village of Taiji. According to a press release, Japanese audiences will get their chance to watch The Cove come April 2010, when distributor Medallion Media releases the Oscar nominated film.

In the press release (via The Hot Blog), Medallion Media director Norio Okahara stressed that the company was remaining neutral in the highly political dolphin harvesting debate, but that it was an important issue that deserved attention, so as to let the Japanese public decide for themselves. "In distributing The Cove we are not taking sides. Rather, we are presenting the film for the Japanese to decide for themselves about the issues it raises. There is a debate to be had here and this important film – and the Academy Award® nomination only serves to reinforce its importance - offers the opportunity for such a debate."

Sometime in the early '90s, my young adolescent existence went from nerdy and tomboyish to boy-crazy, nerdy and tomboyish. Once it happened, I started noticing cute boys everywhere and I found that my girl friends did, too. We would have sleepovers and hang outs and talk for hours about the objects of our obsessions, pick which ones were our favorites (making sure to choose diplomatically, in case two girls picked the Justins and nobody picked the Lances), and replay particularly swoon-worthy scenes in our heads (i.e. "Remember that time Jonathan pretended to be a girl to get on the soccer team!?"). Only these boys weren't the cootie-carrying classmates we went to school with; they were the dreamy, pretty, charismatic nice boys the likes of which could only be found in fantasy land. These were our movie crushes.

To kick-off this new column celebrating our collective childhood movie crushes, I'm taking it back to the first onscreen boy that ever made my heart beat with (innocent!) romantic palpitations. (Check out Jessica Barnes' Michael Biehn post for a much more respectably nerdy first crush.) The year was 1992, his name was Michael Treanor, and he was one of the young stars of a major motion picture that had girls the world over swooning while simultaneously asking their parents to sign up for karate lessons: 3 Ninjas.

If you're a fan of martial arts superstar Jackie Chan -- and I don't mean The Spy Next Door Jackie Chan, more like Police Story Jackie Chan -- you've probably been keeping tabs on a little film of his called Shinjuku Incident, about illegal Chinese immigrants and Japanese crime bosses clashing in 1990s Tokyo. Directed by former Shaw Bros. actor-turned-filmmaker Derek Yee, the dramatic crime thriller marks Chan's welcome return to films that aren't, well, silly Hollywood comedies, which is cause enough for celebration.

Need proof? Check out the trailer for Shinjuku Incident after the jump, which begins with Jackie Chan's blood-spattered producer credit and includes:

Guys with knives
Jackie shooting people at point-blank range
Gang brawls
More shooting
Jackie drinking alcohol
Jackie threatening someone with chopsticks
Black Panther-esque power fists

Last year Variety reported that Shinjuku Incident was deemed "too violent" to pass censor in China and was subsequently banned from mainland distribution when Yee refused to edit it down. Thankfully, upstart distributor Barking Cow Distribution is releasing it stateside in limited release this Friday, February 5 (with an R rating), which means American Chan devotees can get a chance to see it on the big screen.

Full theater list and images after the break.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when John Travolta stopped doing it for me. I wouldn't peg it during his famously rock bottom years (roughly between 1983's Stayin' Alive and 1994's Pulp Fiction, AKA the Look Who's Talking Years), but rather sometime in the past few decades, when Travolta decided he wanted to stretch himself by going increasingly, well, batshit crazy onscreen.

For the record, I'm no Travolta hater. He's excellent in earlier films, as Danny Zuko in Grease, Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever (and even in the aforementioned Stayin' Alive), and Bud Davis in Urban Cowboy. The man's proven his talent and shown his range over the years, which is why it's particularly disappointing to see him hamming it up in films like the recent Wild Hogs and Old Dogs, two comedies that both star Travolta, have titles that coincidentally rhyme, and feature grown men getting hit in the crotch in their respective trailers.

But broad and painfully unfunny comedy is only one hallmark of the type of film John Travolta has become known for in recent years. The other is arguably worse: Travolta has somehow become Hollywood's go-to actor for over-the-top bad guy roles. The kind of roles that make you say "WTF?" as you sit in a darkened theater staring at the scenery-chewing, gleefully unpredictable one-man circus on display. The kind that might call for Travolta to shave his head, grow a goatee, shoot first and spout witty one-liners later, have sex with prostitutes, and act like he just does not give a f***, which is exactly what he does in this week's buddy-spy action-comedy, From Paris with Love.

Sadly, Live Wire Travolta no longer feels fresh. And whereas it used to amuse me, I now only feel a faint tingle of something – is it nostalgia? - coupled by an overpowering sense of sadness for what used to be. So take a trip down memory lane with me to explore seven of Travolta's most wacky, wild, and crazy roles and figure out when exactly he went from kooky to creepy.

The Razzies traditionally "honor" the very worst that the movies have to offer each year, timed not coincidentally to the day before the Academy Awards celebrate the best films of the year. And every year, you can almost guess which terrible films and actors will be nominated; this year the Michael Bay sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen tied for the lead with Land of the Lost, 2009's most notorious box office bomb. But what, if anything, did the Razzies miss?

Before you haters ask, yes, The Twilight Saga: New Moon earned Robert Pattinson a nod for Worst Supporting Actor in addition to a nomination for Worst Screen Couple of 2009, shared with Kristen Stewart and "Taylor Whatz-His-Fang." (Poor Twilight, such an easy target.) Also up for Razzies are John Travolta for Old Dogs, Eddie Murphy for Imagine That, Megan Fox for the one-two punch of Transformers 2 and Jennifer's Body, and all three Jonas brothers, who combine to form one nominee for Worst Actor of 2009 – for their concert documentary, The Jonas Brothers – The 3D Concert Experience. (Get the full list of Razzie nominees here.)

But we surely suffered through far worse movies in 2009, didn't we? For example, how the heck did Year One not earn a single Razzie? Or Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, a film with a horrible script, bad effects, and a performance by Chris Klein so bad it's almost – almost – good? I'll throw a few more titles out there: Bride Wars. Post Grad. Miss March. I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. New in Town.

My list goes on and on; tell us below which awful films and performances of 2009 made you want to poke your eyes out. Do you think the Razzies really get it right year after year?

Momentum Pictures and Yellow Bird Films have released an English-language UK trailer for Niels Arden Oplev's upcoming thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on the best-selling novel by Swedish author Stieg Larsson. (Fun fact: Its Swedish title translates to Men Who Hate Women.) So what are you waiting for, book nerds? Get your first glimpse of the Swedish trilogy-starter, about a disgraced journalist and a cyberpunk chick who team up to investigate a decades-old murder in the dark and snowy climes of modern-day Scandinavia!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is based on the It book du jour by the late author Stieg Larsson, in which journalist Mikael Blomkvist is enlisted to investigate a mysterious possible murder that may or may not have taken place decades ago in a small Swedish town. Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) joins forces with a brilliant hacker, the titular Lisbeth Salander, played by striking Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, who Cinematical's Peter Hall compares to "a Suicide Girl version of Kristen Bell."

More on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the UK trailer below.

Actress Zelda Rubinstein, best known for her role as a psychic "house cleaner" in Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist and its sequels, passed away Wednesday at the age of 76. Rubenstein also had a memorable role on TV's "Picket Fences" and appeared in films like Sixteen Candles, Teen Witch, Southland Tales, and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.

According to the LA Times, Rubinstein died from natural causes at Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles. She had been suffering health issues since at least December, when she was reportedly taken off of life support.

The diminutive actress had enjoyed a steady career in television and film, although she didn't make her acting debut until 1980, when she was already in her 40s. Her first film role was in Under the Rainbow, a comedy about aspiring little people actors starring Chevy Chase and Carrie Fisher. The film earned pans and two Razzie nominations, but the following year notched a big early film for Rubinstein, who stole her scenes as Tangina, the medium who attempts to save little Carol Anne Freeling in Poltergeist.

Smells like nerd comedian-musician-parodist extraordinaire "Weird Al" Yankovic will be diving into his first feature-length directing gig for the Cartoon Network, where he's already established himself as an animated presence on shows like The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, The Brak Show, and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job. Yankovic broke the news earlier today on his own blog, where he preempted the inevitable media queries about his unnamed project by interviewing himself.

"Have you already written the script?

Yes -- in fact, I'm about to start the third draft. It needs to be fine-tuned a bit more and it hasn't been officially green-lit yet, but it's gotten some very positive buzz at the network.

Is is going to be a sequel to UHF?

Sorry, no.

Is it going to be a documentary about Winston Churchill?

Again, no.

Is it going to be funny?

Well, that's the intention."

More after the jump.

Remember those Filipino prisoners who became YouTube sensations for their staged version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller," complete with a cross-dressing inmate playing MJ's terrified girlfriend? After delighting the world with their forced renditions of numbers from Sister Act and "YMCA," the dancers are back...and they've apparently joined forces with Sony Pictures to help promote the 2010 DVD release of the MJ documentary This Is It.

On paper, the idea of merging the pop cultural firepower of Michael Jackson's posthumous hit documentary with that one prison in the Philippines where inmates are forced to learn cool dances sounds like an awesome idea, if a little bizarre. And for once, the army of orange-pantsed convicts have been filmed with panache – in crisp high def, with multiple cameras and swooping crane shots. But as you watch choreographer Travis Payne and dancers Daniel Celebre and Dres Reid lead 1500 or so of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in a selection of numbers from Jackson's planned This Is It concert tour, the whole thing starts to feel a little icky.

Real talk, folks: Matthew Broderick is never going to get another role as good as the whip-smart, adorably sarcastic Ferris Bueller, the quintessential high school hero of the '80s. Broderick was perfectly cast in John Hughes' 1986 classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off in a role that required of him three key skills -- mischievous charisma, comedic timing, and that which he had in spades: boyish charm. He was so good, so epically iconic, that he pulled off shenanigan after shenanigan while wearing a leopard-print sweater vest, for goodness sake. And therein lies the rub; will Matthew Broderick ever chance upon another role as stars-aligning-in-the-heavens-perfect as that again?

My money says no, but it's not like Broderick hasn't enjoyed his fair share of great roles. My personal favorites came in The Early Years, when he appeared as a young hacker in WarGames (1983) and as Rutger Hauer's cute monk sidekick in the prog-rock period piece Ladyhawke (1985), two Oscar-nominated adventure films that fed my young girl-crush on the burgeoning actor.

After Ferris Bueller's Day Off debuted in the summer of 1986 and became a hit, Broderick seemed to turn towards more serious fare. He starred in the sometimes comic, sometimes very dark animal experimentation thriller Project X (1987) opposite Helen Hunt (also known as Aww, He's Friends With Monkeys!). In 1988, Broderick parlayed his newfound screen stardom into two films based on stage plays he'd starred in, Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues and Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy, and then led the 54th Massachusetts Regiment in Ed Zwick's 1989 Oscar-winning Civil War film, Glory.