Well I don’t know if you heard folks, but MPAA head Dan Glickman has stated that the MPAA doesn’t want to lose any more money. If you or anyone you knows has a home theater, you will soon have to register it with the MPAA and pay a $50 fee. If you do not register your home theater, you may face a $500,000 fine for each film shown. You might ask, what exactly makes up a home theater? Well the MPAA says that a home theater consists of: – Television larger than 29″ – Stereo Sound – At least two comfortable chairs, couch or futon Glickman explains that, “We didn’t act early enough with the online sharing of our copyrighted content. This time we’re not making the same mistake. We have a right to know what’s showing in a theater.” He went on further to say, “Just because you buy a DVD to watch at home doesn’t give you the right to invite friends over to watch it too. That’s a violation of copyright and denies us the revenue that would be generated from DVD sales to your friends.” Now, this news was featured on BBSpot.com, and is completely fake. If I had you going there, don’t worry because you were not the only ones fooled. Tech columnist John C. Dvorak was fooled and even cried about this injustice on his blog in this article. I do love parody, and if you do too check out the original article here.

I know that we missed another week of the Over/Under, disappointing fans from all over the world – but be happy, oh faithful Reject Nation! The Weekly Over/Under is back this week, with a few changes to better your reading experience and continue to feed your need for – Box Office Speed!

Welcome to this week’s Top 5 Movies, brought to you by RankAMovie.com Last week was Turkey Week! Hopefully, we all enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving dinner, and are now recovering from lots of good food and friends. As we enter the month of December, the days are shortening and the nights are growing longer and longer. Tree shadows stretch across the fields a bit too early in the day. It may be a good time to watch a dark, eery movie, with a hero lurking in the shadows. Yes, it’s a good time to watch Batman! The playfulness of the comic-book hero can put us into the mood to think about toys and gifts, just in time for the winter holiday season. Below is a list of the top 5 movies about Batman, as ranked by the visitors of RankAMovie. If you would like to add a movie to the list, or cast a vote for the ranking order, visit RankAMovie and make your opinion heard. 1. Batman Begins – Rather than being the 5th progressive flm about Batman, this film takes us back to the beginning of Batman. It’s a dark and danger-filled film, and a wonderful telling of Batman. Possibly one of the best superhero movies. 2. Batman Forever – Batman takes on the evils of the Riddler and Two-Face, and he acquires his famous side-kick, Robin. It’s always interesting to learn the origin of a character such as Robin. 3. Batman and Robin – A fun film, which [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Release Date: TBA (tentative March 2007) Ahh Hatchet. You’re a tricky one. I’d heard much about it from it’s limited screenings thus far, so expectations were high. It had a promising tag line that really got to me. “It’s not a sequel, it’s not a remake, and it’s not based on a Japanese one. Old School American horror.” Plus, starring Kane Hodder (of Jason Vorhees fame), Joel Moore (Dodgeball) a bunch of hotties and favorites like Joel Murray (Dharma and Greg), Robert Englund, Tony Todd, and Richard Riele, we’re looking like a winner. But did it deliver? Yeah. Not like OH HELL YEAH. But yeah. I liked it. It was a good throwback and I’m excited it’s getting rave reviews. I’ll buy the DVD. It’s not perfect, but it was good and it’s funny and well written, well directed and well acted. There are few parts that didn’t seem fully thought out, but overall it was sweet. The story follows a group of people on a tour of a swamp in the Louisanna Bayou around Mardi Gras time. We see a lot of boobies. (Score!) Ben has just broken up with his long term girlfriend about a year ago. Yeah. He’s one of those guys. So his friend agrees to hang with him as they do the haunted swamp tour. He’s joined by some hotties filming a “Bayou Beavers” episode with the help of “director” Shapiro, a married couple, the boat driver, and a mysterious hottie looking for her dad [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Release Date: October 28, 2006 (television) Hey all. Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes is a made for TV Sci-Fi original directed by Jake West. Screamfest was tossing around free tickets to this badboy so I went; I probably would have dodged it otherwise. But I found myself in a large theater with very few people around, although in attendance was director Jake West, a likeable guy and Lance Henrickson, genre superstar. The film itself follows up on the story of Pumpkinhead, a demon that does your dirty work for you at the cost of your soul. The original is a decent flick that a lot of people hold dear, though the sequel was wildly regarded as trash. This version has a sort of evil Doctor who steals the organs of recently deceased townspeople and then tosses them into the woods instead of cremating them, and on occassion, killing a person or two. When the bodies are discovered, the townspeople are enraged, none more so than Lisa, who’s small child was found tossed into the swamp. She remembers talk of an old legend and a crazed witch who can grant her the power to take vengance. She and several others do so, summoning Pumpkinhead, a tall, grotesque monster that goes about killing those responsible, and anyone who gets in the way. The evil Doctor is smart though and figures out how to stop Pumpkinhead. He has to kill those who summoned the demon to stop the demon. Now it’s on. Pumpkinhead is [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Hey all. Long time no talk. I’m going to hip you up to Screamfest just in time for Halloween. Wait what? Just in time for Thanksgiving? Oh no, really? Just in time for the start of December? Well ok. My bad. I’ve been a little overwhelmed lately and haven’t been reviewing like I should, but hopefully we’re in the clear. So here comes Screamfest! Opening night was awesome. It was without a doubt the most star-studded event I have ever attended, although what is that saying, really? The festival took place at Mann’s Chinese theater this year, in Auditorium 1 mostly, a nice big area, though not the main theater. The movie kicking off this joint was the world premiere of The Tripper, a horror-comedy written and directed by David Arquette. Yes, that Arquette. It stars Tom Jane, Jaime King, Jason Mewes, and a slew of other faces you’ll recognize, including Paul Reubens. David and Courtney Arquette both have sweet cameos. The story follows a group of drug loving teenagers heading into the woods for a weekend long concert. What they don’t know is that years ago, a young boy was severly traumatized in these woods after an incident involving hippies, his dad, and a chainsaw. It’s sweet. Our protagonist is Jaime King playing “Samantha.” She’s just got out of a scary/abusive relationship with her boyfriend, who stalks her by phone and is played by Balthazar Getty. Tom Jane plays the Sheriff who isn’t happy about the thousand hippies and [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

In the words of Screamfest themselves, here’s what they say: Screamfest was formed in August 2001 by film producers Rachel Belofsky and Ross Martin in order to give filmmakers and writers in the horror/sci-fi genres a venue to have their work showcased to people in the industry. We are very proud that the majority of the films showcased now have distribution. (from Screamfestla.com) Now more importantly, here’s what I say. Screamfest is a rocking sweet deal for horror fans. You may remember me covering Shriekfest awhile back and I liked it, but was underwhelmed with the quality of submissions. Well at Screamfest, they take this stuff seriously and we get some awesome movies that deal with decent budgets and name actors. The festival ran from October 13th until the 22nd and even the lowest key movies had stars turn out. The festival featured movies directed by or starring many notables including David Arquette (The Tripper), Snoop Dogg (Hood of Horror), Tim Sullivan (Hood of Horror and Driftwood), Tom Jane (The Tripper) and crowd favorites Robert Englund (Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon) and Kane Hodder (Hatchet and cameo in Behind the Mask). Ticket prices were about $13 bucks a pop, although Feast, Slither, and Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes were all shown for free, that’s damn right, for free. You can’t beat that. All in all it was a great time. Good theater with mostly good movies. Check back to get a taste of everything I managed to see. [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

I didn’t want to let this film slip by me. I am a huge fan of Christian Bale and enjoy Hugh Jackman quite a bit. Toss in Michael Caine and for [censor]‘s sake I am there!

The Pursuit of Happyness is a powerful story that dances around the heartbreaks and victories of life, while being anchored by a inspiring performance from Will Smith.

I have no theory to explain it, nor even the rudiments of the seeds which might become a hypothesis, but I have for some time noted that since at least as far back the 1940′s, decades which begin with an odd number are cinematically stronger than decades which begin with an even number. The magisterial ’50′s, ’90′s and the rock solid ’70′s surpass the ’40′s, ’60′s and ’80′s by a substantial margin.

I hope you all had your fill of turkey over the past week, I know I did. The five day holiday period was dominated by holdovers from the prior weekend. Penguins and Bond proved to be more than a match for any of the newcomers, a few of which came in as turkeys. Ha! I made a pun.

You could call today Super Tuesday. The market is being flooded with all manner of Super-titles. Box sets, new stuff, old stuff, you name it and its here. That said, my selection for the week does not wear red and blue tights, nor does it wear a cape.

Being a film critic in Los Angeles two things are for certain: you are jaded and you are burnt-out. You write so many negative reviews that the venom seeps into your soul until you can no longer recognize yourself. The last time you saw Originality was; well hell it was a long, long time ago.

In 1968, having already gained much notoriety for his Fistful of Dollars trilogy, Sergio Leone directed what many of his admirers consider to be his greatest work: Once Upon a Time in the West, one of the signature Spaghetti Westerns.

Release Date: November 22, 2006 I am not what you would call an avid follower of The D, but I do enjoy the hell out of the Tenacious D CD and the passion with which they bring the worlds of metal and comedy together. Jack Black is absolutely hilarious, and with Kyle Gass at his side the laughs only increase. This is their big screen debut as a team, and the results are rather satisfying. The Pick of Destiny is a film that is definitely targeted at the fans of the pair, and many among the uninitiated will probably miss out on a lot of the movie. It plays like the melding of fact and fiction, telling the origin of Tenacious D and their journey towards becoming the greatest band in the world. The highlight is definitely the music. The emotion and sincerity combined with the energy is downright infectious. Black, complete with his parody of metal-god swagger, leads the pair with his maniacal presence and his soaring metal voice. I swear, if he wasn’t in comedy, he would be fronting a first rate metal act. At Black’s side is Kyle Gass, supplying the metal riffs and solos, while also playing th quiet straight man to Black’s in your face comedy. We start with a pre-title sequence in which a young JB (the perfectly cast Troy Gentile) rebelling against his by the book Christian father, played by Meat Loaf (I knew I recognized that voice). He has a vision of [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Release Date: November 22, 2006 When I saw the first trailer for Deja Vu I was less than impressed. It looked like as decent action thriller with the usual Tony Scott visual flair, but I didn’t see the hook. Why should I care about this movie? I suspected I would get a little enjoyment out of it, living vicariously through the explosions, but it didn’t really grab me. Then something changed, the second trailer came out, and I got a better idea of what deja vu had to do with the movie. This follow up introduced a science fiction element, an element that was sure to introduce its own set of headaches, but now the movie had its hook, and I swallowed it. Now, that opening may suggest that I was initially uninterested in the movie. The reality is quite the opposite. I am intrigued by the combination of Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott, it seems to be a better match than Bruckheimer and Michael Bay, then add Denzel Washington to the mix and everything begins to look up. Deja Vu has that look of a Scott film that has developed over Domino and Man on Fire. Deja Vu is a stylish exercise in plotting and execution at the expense of fully realized characters. It is a thriller that uses time travel as the device upon which it rests its plot. The end result is a film that is thrilling and deals intelligently with the theory of time travel. It [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Release Date: November 22, 2006 This is the kind of movie that makes you loathe the holiday movie season. It is a movie that is devoid of heart and soul, it grinds the holiday season down to a competition of lights. It presents a story in a town of some alternate universe, probably also inhabited by the Kranks of Christmas with the Kranks, populated with paper thin characters and the superficial cliches of the season. Watching the movie, I could not help but be reminded of the real Christmas light show video that circulated the internet last fall. In it a man in Ohio used an extraordinary number of lights in combination with 16 light controllers and some special software to conduct a light show setting his house lights to “Wizards in Winter” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It was an amazing achievement, and it would not surprise me if it proved to be responsible, at least in part, for the genesis of this project. I can almost see it now, some executives sitting in a boardroom around a laptop playing the video. One of them says: “Hey! Let’s make a movie about these lights.” Another one seconds the idea, “Yes, we can have a Christmas competition between a pair of neighbors who don’t really like each other and eventually become friends.” The clincher comes when a third chimes in “Brilliant, we can get a couple of recognizable actors and have it ready in a month!” Deck the Halls features Matthew Broderick [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Release Date: November 17, 2006 Bond is back. And in many ways he never left. Wait, no, that’s not true. Bond has been gone a long time. For whatever reason, I could never get behind Pierce Brosnan. I sort of liked Die Another Day and I wanted to like Goldeneye, but most of these Bonds didn’t leave me stirred or shaken. Timothy Dalton never did it for me either, and Roger Moore was good in a “I’m nowhere near as cool as Sean Connery” way and George Lazenby, well, he gets a bad rap, at least On Her Majesty’s Secret Service tried to be different. While I’m name dropping, ignore Never Say Never Again too, because that’s dumb. Ok, so what I’m saying is I really really enjoy Sean Connery as Bond. Even though he’s not as cool, I liked Moore’s films too. I’m a James Bond fan. And now here comes blondie Daniel Craig to claim the bow tie and “re-invent” the series as something new. Does it work? [Censored] yeah it does! Casino Royale rocked my damn socks off. I love this film. You know how I can tell I love it? I saw it opening night and four days later I’m still thinking about it. I might even go see it again in theaters. It’s that good. And Daniel Craig is perfect for the young, arrogant Bond being forged into the Connery character. Connery did a great job of being Bond. Craig does a great job of [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

In honor of the recently released (and super awesome) Casino Royale, we here at Film School Rejects wanted to give you a little something extra. What better way to celebrate the re-birth of Bond than with the re-birth of his favored and fabled martini – The Vesper. The Vesper is a gin based (traditional) martini named after Vesper Lynd from the Ian Flemming novel Casino Royale. Flemming invented this drink himself, or rather, with a little help from 007. Now, we all know that Bond orders his martini’s shaken, not stirred and I’m sure some of us have heard the snobs of the world complain that a proper martini should be stirred. Let’s put this to rest right now. It really doesn’t make much of a difference. A stirred martini will be a little clearer while a shaken one will be a bit cloudy. A shaken martini is colder. Some will try to tell you a shaken martini is diluted, and perhaps it is, but not to the point of altering it much. It spends more time with the ice, so it gets more water, but the basic alcohol proportions are unchanged. If you hang with a really “elite” crowd, someone in an expensive suit might tell you shaking it “bruises” the gin – though if you can actually taste the difference the martini is on me. So now that we cleared it up that a shaken martini is fine, and for us and Bond, perfect. What do you need? [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Release Date: November 22, 2006 Darren Aronofsky first made a splash with the strange mathematical thriller Pi, he followed that with the bizarre anti-drug tale of Requiem for a Dream, now he makes a stab for the stars with The Fountain. This latest film is not an easy one to describe. If you put it all down on paper it does not seem to make sense, when you put it on the screen it makes even less sense. It is a film that plays the epic card, a tale that spans one thousand years in a curiously structured non-narrative that defies attempts to become unraveled. The Fountain may be a work of supreme pretentiousness, or it could be a film that merely tries to stretch the boundaries of what film can do, or perhaps it is just a different take on the ever present tragedy of love and loss. However you choose to label it, you will have a reaction to it. Unfortunately, you will probably feel a lot like me, confused by all of the metaphorical meanderings. At the center of the film is Hugh Jackman’s Tomas. He plays three roles in one, a 16th century Spanish conquistador exploring the Mayan land for the Biblical Tree of Life under orders from Queen Isabella (Rachel Weisz), a present day scientist/surgeon who is searching for a cure to the tumor growing in his wife, Izzie’s (Weisz) brain, and ultimately a cure for death, finally a 25th century astronaut (or so I [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]