Among my favorite film books is Michael J. Weldon's two-volume "Psychotronic" film guide. The first was published in 1983 and the second in 1996 (Michael hopes to publish a third at some point). Unlike Leonard Maltin's annual book, Weldon doesn't update an existing guide; each new guide is an entirely new volume. If you want to read about Halloween, you need Vol. 1 and if you want to read about Halloween 4, you need Vol. 2. A "Psychotronic" movie can be fairly easy to define. It's basically any of the "lower" film genres, dealing with the more questionable elements of society: horror, sci-fi, bikers, strippers, superheroes, zombies, kung-fu, vampires, comic books, drugs, sex, action heroes, rock 'n' roll, midnight movies, monsters, witches, cults, serial killers, magic, time travel, robberies, heists, contract killers, gladiators, Spaghetti Westerns, mad scientists, murder mysteries, pimps, voyeurs, etc.

Not many people care to admit it, but Hollywood is run by fear. Fear is an emotion generated by things that are not known or understood, and in the movie business, no one ever knows what's going to happen. (William Goldman was right when he said, "Nobody Knows Anything.") All those accountants, producers, publicists, entertainment TV shows, ad campaigns, etc. are all an attempt to get a handle on the unknown, an attempt to control the uncontrollable. Anything can happen. The world's biggest movie star can jump up and down on a couch and suddenly become a weirdo outcast. Or the star of a dismal turkey like Showgirls can turn around and find herself cast in a Woody Allen film. This fear, in essence, is why so many movies are so bad. The more investors and business people try to control their investment, the more they clamp down on it, and the more it gets smothered.

See, movies can live and breathe like an organic life form, but they have to have a chance. If brave producers step back and let the movie come to life in the hands of a genuine artist, they could wind up with something extraordinary like Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men (229 screens), a film that somehow pleased critics both highbrow and middlebrow, won a handful of Oscars and has nearly grossed $75 million. This film has already entered the cultural canon as a classic of cinema. More or less the same can be said of Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (224 screens), which, having lost the Oscar for Best Picture, is now in a position of being an underrated underdog. But those are exceptions to the rule. No one is immune to the fear: a few years back the Coen Brothers teamed up with sleazy producer Brian Grazer, of all people, and came up with their first dud, Intolerable Cruelty.

Today, as millions of (mostly) men are watching the Super Bowl, possibly witnessing the Patriots make history (sorry Erik), millions of (mostly) girls are watching Miley Cyrus (aka "Hannah Montana") make history of her own. As you read this, across the country the 3D concert film Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour is selling out its show times for the day. Actually, it's more likely that at many theaters show times have long been sold out.

On Friday, when the Disney release opened, I took a look at the status of the weekend show times in the tri-state area on Moviefone, Movietickets.com and Fandango. Most times were already unavailable. But I had no way of knowing how recently those times had sold out, because tickets went on sale back on December 1, and many people (our own Kim Voynar and her daughter included) bought theirs way in advance. As Kim mentioned last week, Fandango announced that more than 1,000 show times had already been sold out and that theaters were trying to squeeze in more screenings. The online ticketing company also announced that since December 1, the film has been one of its top selling titles and that this past week the film accounted for 91% of all the company's online ticket sales (compared to 1% each for Rambo, 27 Dresses and Cloverfield).

The original version of The Eye was a solid ghost picture, steeped in local culture and grounded in reality. It wasn't a classic, but it was effective, cycling through familiar rounds of slowly building tension followed by inevitable release. The overall atmosphere was gloomy, with only the faintest glimmer of hope. The new version of The Eye is a patchwork quilt that doesn't hold together with the same degree of focus (apologies in advance: it's difficult to avoid ocular references). There are suggestions of ambition, of a desire to infuse the heroine with greater control of her own destiny, but in the end the new version is neither better nor worse than the original -- just different.

Blind since the age of five, concert violinist Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba) undergoes a double cornea transplant and immediately begins seeing things she ought not. Her concerns are quickly waved away as normal, both by her eye surgeon and by Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola), a specialist in helping cornea transplant patients adjust to their new vision. As Dr. Paul explains, Sydney has to teach her brain how to interpret all the images associated with things she has only heard, smelled, or tasted before.

The directing team of David Moreau and Xavier Palud handle the early scenes with a restrained flourish, making it clear with a montage the practical challenges Sydney faces in navigating through her "new world." A blurry party scene, in which Sydney "meets" her friends and co-workers for the first time, their faces bobbing up in a well-intentioned but confusing melange, also scores points in setting up Sydney's point of view.

If you had told be last week that we'd be seeing Meet the Spartans at the top of this week's list I'd have laughed heartily and perhaps have made a rude gesture or two. Judging by most of the entries in last week's box office competition I'm not the only one surprised. Rambo came in a close second and Cloverfield, which I predicted would hold the top spot for another week, dropped a surprising 68% after a $40 million opening weekend. Here are the final numbers:

1. Meet the Spartans: 18.7 million
2. Rambo: $18.2 million
3. 27 Dresses: $13.6 million
4. Cloverfield: $12.7 million
5. Untraceable: $11.2 million

This week sees the release of two new comedies (one for the boys and one for the girls) a scare flick and a concert movie for an act whose demographic is so far removed from me they might as well be appealing to extraterrestrials.

The Eye
What's It All About: This remake of a Japanese Chinese horror film stars Jessica Alba as the recipient of a cornea transplant who begins having horrific visions and premonitions of deadly events which spur her to find out just whose eyes she been given.
Why It Might Do Well: If you're looking for a good creep-fest, this may fit the bill.
Why It Might Not Do Well: While I've enjoyed a handful of the Asian horror remakes, most of them leave me cold.
Number of Theaters: 2,200
Prediction: $14 million

Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour
What's It All About: The young pop star and her character from her successful Disney Channel series appear in a concert film shot during a 69-city U.S. tour and shown in 3-D.
Why It Might Do Well: Not destined for the top five, but given the ridiculous prices Hanna Montana concert tickets are fetching, this should do brisk business within its niche market.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Only if every kid in America between 10 and 14 is grounded this weekend.
Number of Theaters: 680
Prediction: $5 million

In honor of Jessica Alba's return to multiplexes this weekend in The Eye, Cinematical has dug up these old clips of the actress doing a guest stint on Beverly Hills 90210. What's that? You had no idea Alba once starred in two episodes of 90210? Well, she did, and the hottie actress played a teenager who secretly gives birth to a child, then leaves the kid on Kelly's doorstep to hide the surprise package from her parents. These were the later years, when Kelly cut her hair and went all urban -- working in a clinic, living in the city. The clip itself is roughly 11 minutes long, and it shows all the scenes featuring Alba from both episodes.

At first, you kind of feel bad for the girl -- she was knocked up, didn't want her parents to find out she had a kid, leaves it on Kelly's doorstep -- oy vei! But then (plot twist!), Alba returns to try to win back her child when she finds out "a couple of queers" are interested in adopting the baby. Oh yes, not only do these episodes deal with underage pregnancy, but they also deal with underage pregnancy meets homophobia. Ah, Bev 90210 -- you always knew how to tastefully tackle all the important issues. Check out Alba this weekend in The Eye, and enjoy the clip above.

The Storm Riders was a riotously silly martial arts fantasy that divided audiences when it was released in 1998 -- either you got with the groove and rocked out to the comic book style writ large or you fled in terror from its extravagant empty exercise in style over substance. Initially I recoiled from its excesses, but a second viewing (only partially influenced by a moderate intake of a certain alcoholic beverage) was much more enjoyable. To get a better idea of the craziness, check out Kozo's review at LoveHKFilm.com.

Directed by Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs), The Storm Riders was a huge hit and a much-needed shot in the arm for the beleaguered post-Handover Hong Kong film industry. Given the industry's proclivity for churning out sequels in rapid succession, it's rather surprising that a direct sequel was not immediately forthcoming, but soon the wait will be over. Screen Daily is reporting that Universe Entertainment has hired Danny and Oxide Pang (The Eye, The Messengers) to helm a sequel.

The original film was based on a comic book series and featured an all-star lineup headlined by Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng. Three months ago, Grady Hendrix of Kaiju Shakedown reported that one of the Pang Brothers was interested in buying the rights to the comic book; his version would be unrelated to Andrew Lau's film but with Chen and Kwok returning as the heroes, Wind and Cloud (cool character names, by the way). Lau reportedly had his own plans for a direct sequel which have not yet come to fruition.

The comic book series has enjoyed a near 20-year run, so there are plenty of stories to go around. An animated feature based on the series and entitled Storm Rider Clash of the Evils is due out next year. We'll have to wait for details to see what live-action story the Pang Brothers will be telling.

If creative media is to be believed, transplants are very risky business -- and we haven't even been hit with the wave of genetic repossession yet! I'm not sure if anything will ever beat Lindsay's evil hand on Angel, but we're about to get a taste of something even more creepy -- Jessica Alba's evil eye. In October, there was a weird, silent trailer for her upcoming horror film, The Eye. (Remake of the Hong Kong horror film, also known as The Eye, but translated literally -- Seeing Ghosts.) Now MySpace is hosting the exclusive full trailer, with voices and all!

Alba plays Sydney Wells, a blind concert violinist who finally gets the gift of sight when she gets some cornea transplants. That is, after she gets over the initial blur. She gets an unnerving surprise party, and then starts to see dead people. But this isn't some Sixth Sense sort of sight -- these dead guys are creepy, and they're not just moping around. People are falling out of closed windows, hovering above the ground, and even popping up in her peephole. This, in turn, makes her a bit crazy, demanding to know where her eyes came from as she runs around, smashes a mirror, and somehow loses the ability to properly select a floor in an elevator. The trailer is alright -- not especially creep-inducing, but necessarily bad either. I think this will be one of those films that we'll have to wait and see. It'll hit theaters February 1, 2008.

Okay, tell me this poster doesn't creep you out just a little bit. Imagine getting something stuck in your eye, and then realizing -- oh crap, it's a hand! Cinematical has just received the exclusive poster for The Eye (click on the image for a larger version), starring Jessica Alba. Yes, we're a bit Alba crazy as of late (having premiered the poster for Awake yesterday), but since the gal has decided it was time to get her freak on, we're there to support her. Based on the 2002 Hong Kong flick Gin gwai, The Eye tells of a blind violinist who, after receiving a double cornea transplant, begins to see dead people. Oops. This should be an interesting role for Alba, who's never really carried her own horror/thriller before. Move over Sarah Michelle Gellar -- it's Alba time! Directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud, the duo behind the acclaimed 2006 French terror flick Them, The Eye is set to sneak its way into theaters on February 1, 2008. You can also catch the trailer over on Moviefone right now.

After watching the new trailer for Awake, I can't say I'm any more likely to shell out my hard-earned dollars to go see this movie. But, I will give writer-director Joby Harold credit for coming up with a premise that is pretty disturbing if you think about it. I should tell you though, this is one of those trailers that makes the creative decision right up front to show you as much of the plot as possible -- I can't be alone in thinking it's a bad idea to give away any of your surprises if you can help it.

Awake stars Hayden Christensen as an affluent young man who has the unfortunate luck of being one in 700 people who stays 'awake' during a surgical procedure. As if that isn't bad enough, while paralyzed under the knife, he overhears his doctors discussing a conspiracy involving his own murder. Jessica Alba stars as his somewhat 'dazed' fiancée. I'm not really sure why she spends most of the trailer staring blankly. All I do know is that it probably won't help Christensen out in the chemistry department. Rounding out the cast are Terrance Howard as Christensen's friend and surgeon, and Lena Olin as his mother.

Both Alba and Christensen enjoyed other trailer releases this month with the US remake of The Eye and Doug Liman's Jumper. This is Harold's first feature film, although he had been attached to a Zack Snyder sequel to Dawn of The Dead. Snyder already has his hands full with his big screen version of The Watchmen, so it's doubtful we'll hear about the Dead project any time soon. Awake opens November 30th.

[via ComingSoon.net]