The first Brad Anderson film I saw was Session 9. (I also spent $27 on the out-of-print DVD, which I've watched at least three times in the last year. It's a great movie.) And then I saw his dark and twisted love letter to Alfred Hitchcock: The Machinist. Wow. Aside from Christian Bale's staggering performance, it's just a rock-solid, old-fashioned mind-bender of a noir thriller. Good stuff. Most recently I saw the director's train-bound and icy chiller Transsiberian at Sundance, which (shocking!) I also enjoyed quite a bit.

Which leads us to a logical question. What can Brad Anderson fans expect next? According to Bloody-Disgusting, the writer / director is not straying far from the genre fare any time soon. First on the filmmaker's plate looks to be All Lost Souls, which is a "serial killer movie," and then perhaps Vanishing, which Anderson describes as "a smart post-apocalyptic horror film." Sounds good so far.

But even further down the road, Anderson could be looking at a remake of the 1943 occult flick The Seventh Victim -- and a Cronenbergian thriller called Concrete Island, which just might reunite the director with two of his Machinist collaborators: screenwriter Scott Kosar and low-key superstar Christian Bale. And to all those projects, I say this: Cool. Get to work, Brad!

[ Thanks to Bloody-Dee for the cool info. ]

Right about here is where all the gushing and excitement and enthusiasm should begin, because I'll tell you right off the "bat" that Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is cause for celebration indeed. But then you'll figure out -- after only one sentence -- that I pretty much loved this movie, and then you'll head off to another, more unpredictable film critic. But it's the WHY that interests me so much. What I enjoyed about Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Hellboy 2 could probably be covered in one lengthy -- and inevitably nerd-tastic -- conversation between the two of us. But The Dark Knight... Well, clearly we're approaching a whole new level here.

Several of the pre-release gushings are accurate. Some say "Scorsesian" and others reference Michael Mann. Many spend paragraphs on the (truly amazing) penultimate performance by Heath Ledger, while others will revel in the grown-up tone or epic scope of the film. What amazed me most about The Dark Knight, among several things, is that the flick's got more layers than an onion farm -- and yet it never loses touch with the idea of FUN. True that we're talking about a comic book fun that's decidedly more melancholy than the cinematic exploits of The Marvel Gang, but dang if TDK isn't supremely satisfying for about a dozen different reasons.

Update: Because of the futzy Empire link, here's the trailer up top.

Update 2: The trailer has now gone live over at Apple.

Update 3: Beautiful trailer stills in the gallery below ...

We could have embedded a half-decent YouTube version a few hours ago, but considering the movie we're dealing with (and owing in no small part to professional courtesy) we decided to wait for the official release of the very first Watchmen trailer. It's available (exclusively, for the time being) at Empire, although you'll almost definitely see the clip this weekend when you head out to see The Dark Knight. (Notice I didn't say "if.") Again, click here for the trailer.

Having read Moore & Gibbons' Watchmen only once -- and therefore being a relative newbie -- I cannot comment on the geek-tastic little pieces of minutiae that are undoubtedly bouncing through this trailer. Is Dr. Manhattan the right shade of blue? Does Rorshach's mask look accurate? How Batmanny does Nite Owl look? And what of the infamous newsstand? (Are there pirates?)

As a huge fan of trailers in general, I'd say this is a very well-balanced and powerful promo clip. Newcomers will see a stylish-looking adventure story full of weird-looking characters -- and the hardcore fans will probably really like what they see. (Plus that's one unique explosion I just saw.) I'll leave it to our resident comics wizards to delve a bit deeper. Well, our wizards and our readers, obviously.

Topics for discussion: The music. The costumes. The cast. The production design. The heart-crushing disappointment you'll feel if the movie sucks even though you know if probably won't. At all.

Lionsgate has now officially released the full-length trailer for The Spirit that Film School Rejects leaked last night. It's over on Yahoo! Movies in high definition, so even if you managed to catch the leaked version, it's worth checking out.

I have to say, this looks nothing like I thought it would. I wish I could say that was a good thing but ... wow. I am not feeling this at all. It's not the classic noir of Will Eisner's comics, it's not really a Sin City rip-off, it's just strange and creepy. The shots of the floating heads and the Spirit falling out of the woman's mouth remind me way too much of those eerie French safe sex ads.

I also have to complain about the emphasis placed on the femme fatales. I shrugged off the poster and the website; I accepted the excuse that to lure in the boys, you have to use the sexy girls. I also realize that just about all the actresses in the movie are bigger names than Gabriel Macht, who's the man behind the mask. But this is a full length trailer, and the Spirit himself is still persona non grata. When are we finally going to meet him?

I dig you Frank Miller, I really do, but I don't know if I can go down this road with you. I am hoping that this is just a really bad trailer, and the film is actually a nice visit to the land of neo-noir.

The Spirit opens December 25th, 2008.

The pop-culture appetite for Batman seems inexhaustible; thousands of comic books, several movies, endless animated iterations, some of which are quite good and some of which are rather bad. Is there any real need to return to the character beyond the profit motive, though? After the financial and critical success of Batman Begins, the powers-that-be behind The Dark Knight could have made a safe bet of a sequel; a little more action, a few more actors, more of the same and a few extra explosions.

What's telling about The Dark Knight, though, is how risky it is -- how it's bold and brave and truly exciting, full of rich and strong performances and some real ideas along the way. Why return to Batman? It turns out that for Christopher Nolan, the reason to come back is that there's something to say about, and with, the character even after decades of stories and multiple reinventions. I was hoping The Dark Knight would be good; I had no idea that director and co-writer Christopher Nolan was going to make a film that not only addressed the philosophical and political conflict between the rule of force and the rule of law but also takes on the timeless clash between order and chaos ... and, along the way, evokes everything from Michael Mann's Heat to John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. ...

I've lost count of how many times these movies have been released on DVD, but (wow) I don't own any of 'em yet, so here's a perfect excuse. DVDActive has the (very thorough) information on Universal's upcoming "Legacy Series" editions of (ready?) Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, Vertigo, and Psycho! Each package is a two-disc affair, complete with all sorts of goodies both old and new. (Yes, I love film historian audio commentaries. Sue me.)

Street date for all three releases is October 7, and if you'd like a complete listing of what each disc offers you can click one of these: Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho. Also from Universal Home Video on October 7 ... it isn't Hitchcock, but it sure is awesome: Orson Welles' 1958 mega-classic Touch of Evil, which is a whole lot more than one impressive tracking shot, believe me. Like the Hitch titles, Touch will come complete with all sorts of new bells and whistles. Plus all four of the DVD covers are all sorts of retro-cool. Can't wait to dig through these discs.

Tell No One is a decidedly modern thriller that also, wisely, respects the great examples of the genre's past; strip away all the e-mail and web video and it's a classic Hitchcockian thriller, where a regular-but-resourceful man is squeezed between those who have committed a crime and the cops who think he's committed it. Based on a novel by American best-selling author Harlen Coben, Tell No One is transplanted -- gently -- to France by writer-director Guillame Canet, who turns Coben's breezy summertime page-turner into a breezy summertime movie. Yes, there are plot points in the film where you'll later go back and puzzle over how who knew what when, but trust me, you won't be thinking about that while Tell No One's running up on the big screen.

Alex (François Cluzet) and Margot (Marie-Josee Croze) are happy, childhood sweethearts who've made a real and adult marriage out of that foundation; they're relaxing at the family's country estate enjoying a little night swimming when Margot gets out of the water to check on something. There's a shout, a scream; Alex swims to help her ... and is knocked unconscious by a blow. And then a title jumps the film "Eight Years Later." It's an eye blink for us; for Alex, it's been an eternity.

Even the weirder artists of the twentieth century have been attracted to the allure of Hollywood filmmaking, and Salvador Dali was no exception. In the fall of 1941, the surrealist painter hosted a masquerade party at Pebble Beach during one of his regular visits to the town. Called "Surrealism Night in An Enchanted Forest," the fundraising event, intended to assist European refugee artists, brought out a number of stars, including Bob Hope and Ginger Rogers. It was here, the story goes, that Dali became attached to a major studio production called Moontide. The great German emigre Fritz Lang was hired to direct the movie, and asked Dali to create a three-minute nightmare sequence for the film. Unfortunately, after the incident at Pearl Harbor later that year, Twentieth Century Fox deemed the project too bleak. Lang was replaced, and Dali's nightmare sequence went with him.

Although inspired by the movies, Dali didn't always have the easiest time making them. He would get another chance to inject his hallucinatory vision into American cinema with the hypnosis scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, but it's his unrealized projects that truly indicate the scope of the painter's ambition. So many ideas, such little time. Dali: Painting and Film, a breathtakingly unique exhibit currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, surveys Dali's completed cinematic works in addition to tidbits from the ones that never came to fruition. Marvelously structured to show how his paintings were intentionally cinematic, the exhibit contains all the obvious highlights from Dali's movie career alongside lesser-known productions. The importance in film history of his collaborations with Luis Bunuel remain uncontested; two large screens in separate rooms showing Un Chien Andalou (where the opening eye splicing retains its original gross-out impact) and L'Age D'Or attest to that. Fewer visitors, however, might know about Dali's collaboration with the Marx Brothers on a deliriously strange movie that sounded too good to be true.

When we last saw a (teaser) trailer for Eagle Eye - the forthcoming thriller that reunites star Shia LaBeouf with Disturbia director D.J. Caruso and Transformers executive producer Steven Spielberg - I commented with something along the lines of, after "reading the synopsis, I've always thought that Caruso and company were following their Rear Window re-do with North by Northwest 2.0."

...which I then followed up with "Whether that's the case or not, I'm a sucker for a chase movie, and more so for [co-star Michelle] Monaghan. Count me in." Well, judging from the new trailer up at Yahoo! Movies, I'll be having a modest amount of crow for lunch later today, as there now seems to be enough distinct differences between that Hitchcock classic and this paranoid techno-thriller that it'll likely excite on its own merits (fingers crossed).

Sure, we seem to have another one of those incredibly elaborate plans on behalf of the baddies that already appears to have too many variables for its own good, but you know what? So long as the thing moves, I'm not above setting aside brains in favor of brawn.

With a cast that also includes Rosario Dawson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Michael Chiklis, Eagle Eye hits theaters on September 26.

There are many things to admire about Dark Streets, a film noir set against a 1930s backdrop of jazz, blues, and booze. Unfortunately, the story isn't one of them. It's your basic Chinatown-inspired tale of double crosses and femmes fatales, with dialogue that has the form of the classics but not the content. Take this exchange, for example, between a nightclub owner and the singer who has been displaced in his affections by a new girl:

HIM: You're a great belter, but we've got a real chanteuse now.
HER: She can chanteuse my ass!

Yeah. Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame you ain't.

But plot and dialogue aside (and sometimes those elements really are secondary), Dark Streets effectively creates its world in other ways. Sharone Meir's sumptuous cinematography and smooth, fluid camera movements bring the nightclub performance scenes to life, while the rest of the film plays with light, shadows, and colors. Director Rachel Samuels, in her third feature, shows a singularity of vision that will serve her well later, when she gets a better script to work with. (This one is by Wallace King, based on a play by Glenn Stewart.)