To most movie fans, Sundance is this far-off and distant place they can't visit because, well, it's a pretty damn expensive trip -- and who the heck wants to spend a week on a mountain in January and not ski? The second question I'm always asked upon my return home from Sundance (after "What good movies did you see?") is "What famous people did you meet?" But the third question is usually something like "So when will I actually get to see these movies that everyone's been chattering about for the last two weeks?" And so I decided to collect all the acquisition news from this past festival and offer it all up on one convenient platter. I'll keep the chatter to a minimum, but if you want more info on a particular film, please do partake of all the links below.

• Clubland -- Warner Independent Pictures -- $4,000,000
• Crazy Love -- Magnolia Pictures -- n/a
  
• Grace is Gone -- The Weinstein Co. -- $4,000,000
• How She Move -- Paramount Vantage -- $4,000,000
• In the Shadow of the Moon -- ThinkFilm -- $2,500,000
• Joshua -- Fox Searchlight -- $4,000,000
• King of California -- First Look Pictures -- $3,000,000
• La Misma Luna (The Same Moon) -- The Weinstein Co. & Fox Searchlight -- $5,000,000
• My Kid Could Paint That -- Sony Pictures Classics -- $1,500,000
• Nanking -- Fortissimo Films -- n/a
  
• Once -- Summit Entertainment -- n/a
  
• Protagonist -- IFC & Netflix -- Under $1,000,000
• The Signal -- Magnolia Pictures -- $2,300,000
• Son of Rambow -- Paramount Vantage -- $8,500,000 (some say even higher)
• Teeth -- The Weinstein Co. & Lionsgate -- $1,000,000
• The Ten -- ThinkFilm & City Lights Home Entertainment -- $4,500,000
• Waitress -- Fox Searchlight -- $4,500,000
• Weapons -- After Dark Films -- $1,000,000

Thanks to Variety, Movie City News, THR's RiskyBiz Blog, and our own Cine-maniacs (particularly Jette and Karina) for all the info. [Have any updates, additions or corrections? Leave 'em in the comments section please!] Added Bonus: After the jump you'll find a list of movies that already had North American distribution set up before they arrived at Sundance!

In the opening scene of Adam Bhala Lough's bleak and listless Weapons, Nick Cannon gets his head blown off by a shotgun blast while scarfing down a fast food cheeseburger -- and the movie gets even less subtle from that point on. I'd like to say that the film, for all its grunge, grime and bleakness, is a well-intentioned piece, but I never really got that impression from Weapons. It's basically another "teens hate everyone, especially each other" story, not very much unlike River's Edge, Mean Creek or the collected works of Larry Clark -- only not nearly as good. (OK, it's better than most of Larry Clark's stuff.)

Presented in a contorted time frame that serves no real purpose, Weapons follows the activities of a group of hate-filled youths as they spend one day and one night doing simply terrible things to one another. This one's accused of raping that one, which means this other one is all hot for revenge, while these three different ones do some drugs and spit virtual bile at each other. Meanwhile the only halfway sympathetic character in the movie (and I do mean "only") is a rather stupid young woman who harbors a crush for one particularly vile young man ... because in a world filled with anger, abuse and hatred, you gotta take what you can get, right? Jeez.

So, since it's Christmas, and 'tis the season and all that, I'm going to list here the seven movie weapons I wouldn't mind having. Before you recoil in horror from your computer and decide that I'm a loon, hear me out. When I was a kid, we always wanted the hottest movie toy around, and that doesn't seem to have changed at all today. A walk down a toy aisle in any store these days will show you items like Jack Sparrow's Cutlass or a self-inflating Superman suit that lets any kid become a Child of Steel. you see, a really good movie weapon makes you want it. When you see a bad guy or a good guy wielding a plain old gun or a knife on screen, you're like, "Eh, big deal." However, if it's a knife that can cut through stone, or a gun that shoot bullets into the past, then you tend to say, "Holy cow! I want one of those!"

These are seven weapons that made me do just that. Granted, some of them are a bit silly, and some are a bit over the top, but the main point is that none of them exist ... yet. I've found myself wishing I had one at different times, usually while dealing with extremely annoying things like the line at the DMV, people who talk too loudly on cell phones, or people who like to cut you off on the freeway in Southern California. So, these are some of the items that would be in my own private arsenal. What do you want in yours?