This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr dresses up in layers and layers of rain gear to brave the estrogen storm that comes with the showing of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part I. After enduring that non-masterpiece, he dances down a few screening rooms to watch the new Happy Feet movie. Confounded by the gelatinous goop that masquerades as movies this weekend in American cinema, Kevin eventually curls up in a ball and softly weeps.

The dancing, singing penguins of Happy Feet return for another dose of eco-themed animation in this sequel from George Miller, which proves two truisms. First, there’s still a lot of mileage in the spectacle of penguins tap, tap, tapping in unison and belting out cover songs. Second, this franchise is not the clarion call to action on climate change that it wants to be. The star of the first film, Mumble (Elijah Wood), is a father now, struggling to connect with his adolescent son Erik (Ava Acres), who feels misunderstood and marginalized because he can’t dance. For Erik, a surrogate role model of sorts emerges in The Mighty Sven (Hank Azaria), a flying penguin who preaches messages of empowerment. After a shifting glacier traps their community of emperor penguins in a vast valley, little Erik will need all the confidence he can muster when he, his dad, and two of his friends are called upon to save the day.

Since we all have a million dollars, our minds are almost always tuned to the day dream of what kind of movie we’d make with all that loose cash just lying around (since banks do nothing but lose things). Would it be a romantic horror film? Would it be a silent action film? Would we blow of all of it on lighting and forget the other elements of production design? Probably. Fortunately, we’ve all had a few filmmakers tread before us in using their million bucks with efficiency and artistry. In a world where Michael Bay needs 200 suitcases full of $1m, these directors made it happen with only one of those suitcases (or no suitcases at all), and they created a lasting legacy despite their lack of foldin’ money. If they can do it, why not us? Here are 8 great films made for under a million dollars that we can all learn from. (And if you enter our contest sponsored by Doritos, you might actually win that $1m you need for all those lights.)

Every week, Landon Palmer and Cole Abaius log on to their favorite chat client of 1996 as MrSmith1939 and 2BorNot2B in order to discuss some topical topic of interest. This week, the two daydream the ultimate reboot – an entire era of filmmaking brought back to life through the lens of modern directors. What styles should we bring back and homage? It is a good idea to let nostalgia drive us artistically? Will people in 30 years be harkening back to the Abramsian style?

If you were hoping for a trailer that created a mass of internal conflict, how about animated penguin babies singing about bringing sexy back? Would that do it for you? If not, you’ve probably already got some serious internal conflict. Happy Feet Two bursts onto the scene with some rap, some dance pop, and an elephant-nosed seal that looks like a real-life Snuffaluffagus got converted to CGI. Heartwarming or truly, deeply terrifying? You be the judge:

Director of the Mad Max franchise George Miller sat down with The Daily Telegraph to give an update on the status of his delayed project Mad Max: Fury Road. The film, which has Tom Hardy set to star as the new Mad Max and also includes Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, and Teresa Palmer in the cast, was already set to begin filming, but has been shut down due to extreme flooding in Broken Hill, Australia, where it was scheduled to shoot. If you’re a fan of Mad Max, then you know how important its dry, desolate, scorched Earth setting is to the story. Getting that post-apocalyptic desert landscape feel to resonate on film is pretty hard when you’re standing in ankle deep water. Miller said, “The week we were to start, it rained the heaviest it had in 10 years. I’ll never forget the first day — we were holed up in a big sort of shed watching the rain. We couldn’t shoot. If you want the rain to come, just send a film crew there.”

I imagine the children of the next generation will be forced to slam together green blocks and head for a computer to add in the cars afterward. CGI has grown up considerably in the past decade, but it’s also become prevalent to the point of fault. It’s great to see advancements, but it’s not great to see technology used as a crutch when practical filmmaking is so much more exciting to watch. Cars flying down the crackling asphalt of highway is one of those occasions.

We already knew George Miller is planning to reboot Mad Max. But is he hoping to shoot a sequel back to back?

An import from Australia is hitting theaters soon, but will American audiences care about what goes on down under?

So we’ve got two attractive young people cast in a movie. How is this news?

Since the (possible) news is so nebulous, would you rather have Charlize Theron or Tom Hardy play Mad Max?

Reports from Sci Fi Wire are that George Miller has decided to do a sequel to his 2006 animated film Happy Feet. As if that weren’t stomach churning enough, Robin Williams has apparently agreed to reprise two of his voice roles from the first film.

It’s not that we necessarily want to see the role reprised, but if it has to be, here are a few choice talents that might bring something interesting to Mad Max.

In a recent appearance on a morning talk show in Sidney, Australia, director George Miller revealed that he is no longer involved in the Warner Bros. production known as Justice League: Mortal.

As if it were gift wrapped and sent with chocolates, this story win’s this week’s award for most pun-prone news item. Apparently The Flash movie isn’t moving so fast…

While director George Miller and actor Jay Baruchel continue to talk about this mysterious cluster known as the Justice League movie, we explore why we think Warner Bros. should just ditch it and go another direction.

According to CHUD, a quick conversation with Joel Silver revealed that Justice League: Mortal had been “tabled”. Of course, that’s a euphemism for “dead” or “mostly dead” or “will be released in 2011 with a new name”.

Jason Reitman told Howard Stern yesterday that he had turned down the director’s chair on the upcoming Justice League movie. For this, he should receive a standing ovation from movie fans everywhere.

George Miller gets denied a tax break for his upcoming project… For the Justice League, the hits just keep on coming.

It comes as no surprise to me that this tidbit comes from Aint It Cool News, who probably gave birth to twin fan-babies as soon as it penetrated their fertile eardrums.