If you’re looking for movies that should have gotten big time Oscar nominations but failed to earn their deserved recognition, then this is the DVD Release week for you.

Yep, there are plenty of big time snubs this week.  If Best Actor is your game then Robert De Niro’s performance in Everybody’s Fine or Matt Damon’s sterling work in The Informant! is ready to take home.  If you prefer a Best Documentary Feature snub, then you can check out The September Issue.

Of course, it’s not all award-winning (or should’ve been award-winning) releases this week, as there is plenty of lowbrow stuff available too.  Headed by those fake-tanned citizens of The Jersey Shore.

Check it all out…

FEATURE FILMS

The Informant!

It’s hard to do much more as an actor than what we saw from Matt Damon in this film.

He completely disappears into an oddly comic role, showing us both the insecurity and raggedness of the schlub that he’s playing, yet managed to put forth the full charisma of such a character that was able to deceive so many people for so long.

Plus, Damon recorded such a precise voice-over track that the film would seem naked without it.  Voiceover is often the last crutch of the lame movie, but Damon somehow manages to make it essential.

All that, and Damon gets squat from the Academy and is bested by Robert Downey, Jr. for the Golden Globe.  What a shame.

This was the best leading performance this year, and one that must be seen on DVD.

Everybody’s Fine

There has never been a bigger disparity between how a movie was marketed than what it actually was.

Remember the trailer for this movie?  The strains of some watered-down soul band covering “We Can Work it Out”?  The strange looks from Robert De Niro?  The whole family trimming the Christmas tree?  The mid-December release date?

What did that all seem to mean?  Well that we were in for a fun family romp of course.  Another of the late-period De Niro comedy canon that would just be an oh-so-pleasant way to spend the holidays at the movies.

The reality was nowhere near any of these preconceived notions.  Instead of a romp, it’s a tense examination of how little we know about those closest to each other and the lies that often keep families at a distance.

And it does all of that pretty well.  Certainly well enough to warrant checking it out on DVD.

Also:

• The Box – Buy Now
• Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant – Buy Now
• The Damned United – Buy Now
• Motherhood – Buy Now
• The September Issue – Buy Now

TV ON DVD

“Jersey Shore”: Season 1 Uncensored

Is there really anything you need to know other than the fact that “Jersey Shore” is out on DVD and the uncensored version offers the chance to see Snooki doing cartwheels without the blur.

That alone makes this the potential standout horror movie of the year, and one that will certainly fly off the DVD shelves.

Also:

• “18 Kids & Counting”: Season 2 – Buy Now
• “Adam-12”: Season 4 – Buy Now
• “Flash Forward”: Season 1, Part 1 – Buy Now
• “Ghost Hunters”: Season 5, Part 1 – Buy Now
• “Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths” – Buy Now
• “Night Court”: Season 3 – Buy Now
• “Nurse Jackie”: Season 1 – Buy Now

SPECIAL EDITION OF THE WEEK

Orson Welles – The Legend Collection

It’s strange the choices that are made for these collections.  This new one, featuring the Best Director of all time (no arguments allowed), is sort of a slapdash.  It features six of his efforts sprawling through is career.

You’ll get the best film of all time, Citizen Kane (again, no arguments allowed), but missing is his second masterpiece Touch of Evil.

Still, it’s hard to complain about a collection that gives you six Welles films (including the once-rare Mr. Arkadin) and this really is a must-buy on DVD for any cinephile or anybody looking to finally acquaint themselves with the work of Welles.

The set includes:

• Citizen Kane
• The Magnificent Ambersons
• Macbeth
• Mr. Arkadin
• The Trial
• Chimes at Midnight
  

What DVDs are you looking forward to buying this week?

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There’s a little something for everyone at the box office this weekend. If you’re a 4 or 40-year-old looking to have fun, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is the animated-adventure for you. If you’re looking to satisfy that Megan Fox obsession you’ve been harboring since 2007, you can check her out in the overly sexual horror-comedy, Jennifer’s Body. For the more educated comedy audience you have Matt Damon disguising himself as an out of shape narc in Steven Soderbergh‘s The Informant! And lastly, if you’re into watching Jennifer Aniston in another romance filled film, Love Happens is for you.

So now the question is, which one of these differing films with take home the box office gold, and which will tank? All the evidence suggests that Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs will come out on top leaving Jennifer’s (broken) Body in its wake…

Sony‘s Meatballs is sure to attract and win the title, due to the family friendly moviegoers out there as well as it’s great reviews. According to pre-release tracking surveys THR, is anticipating an opening of $25 million-$30 million for the animated 3-D film. Although the studio’s last animated film (G-Force) fell more into the category of live-action and received very poor reviews, it still managed to rake $31.7 million opening week. Unlike its predecessor, Meatballs has received mostly positive reviews, its G-rating means that EVERYONE can enjoy it.

Megan Fox’s last film was both a smash and slump. It was the worst-reviewed $400 million dollar hit ever made. But Jennifer’s Body won’t have the fanboys lining up around the block. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Karyn Kusama‘s film is headed for a second-place bow in the low-teen millions and once word gets out that the film sucks, it will most likely drop even lower.

The film that will attract a bit of an more sophisticated (and therefore much smaller) crowd is Warner Bros. The Informant! Even with Damon’s star power, the odds are that is will more than likely come in, in the low millions. Love Happens is bound to attract many women, but not enough to keep the Universal picture from being a bust. How many times can we watch Jennifer Aniston find and lose love in a film?

Last weekend Tyler Perry‘s I Can Do Bad All by Myself dominated the box office, but with a low double-digit gross — $26.9 million. Although Meatballs and Jennifer’s Body are bound to kick Bad out of the number one spot, the film will still manage to snag more double digit millions.

Our Pick: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

What film will you go see this weekend? Do you agree with our pick, or do you think Jennifer’s bloody body will reign supreme?

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It’s time for Steven Soderbergh‘s latest film, The Informant! starring Matt Damon as “Mark Whitacre” or “0014″ to hit theaters! This is Soderbergh’s second film in his back to back productions with The Girlfriend Experience and another one of many films with Matt Damon after the Ocean’s series.

Check out a full rundown below…

The Players:

• Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
• Screen Adaptation by: Kurt Eichenwald
• Book by: Kurt Eichenwald
• Cast: Starring Matt Damon alongside Melanie Lynskey, Scott Bakula and Joel McHale
• Executive Producer: George Clooney, Michael London and Jeff Skoll
• Original Music: Marvin Hamlisch

The Plot:

Matt Damon plays Mark Whitacre, an ADM employee who works for a lysine developing company ADM who is trying to weasle his way into upper management when his life takes a sudden turn. Is it because he has a master plan? Is it because he’s cares about what’s right? Is it because he’s a complete idiot? It’s not clear, but he decides to take a job working for the FBI as 0014 (because he’s twice as smart as 007). So what’s the truth? You’re going to have to see the film to find out…

The Good:

• Matt Damon!: If anything in this film deserves an exclamation point, it’s Damon for his performance as this pathetic, self-involved, oddly pity-able, and yet completely ridiculous character. He absolutely nails the role and keeps you interested from start to finish. Damon’s career has been an ever changing one, from his action-hero role in the Bourne series, to his over-acheiver con-man role in the Ocean’s series, and now this, he’s one of the most dynamic actors out there today. People are constantly categorizing him as a sex symbol, a comedian, or an action star, but he proves in this film that he is one of the top character actors out there.
• The Look: Acting as his own Director of Photography, one thing is for sure it’s that Soderbergh knows how to set the tone for a film without having to use excessive lighting, make-up or special effects. When it comes to his shots, he’s a straight-forward guy, which allows for him to execute twisty, turn-y stories well. And unlike when other directors who try to have complex plots, his actually make sense.
• The Inner-Monologues: Damon has a series of inner-monologues throughout the film which are probably the funniest thing to watch. The only problem is that they do begin to get a little distracting and could have been cut down a bit. I get they by them going on and on it feeds the character, but as an audience member they get tiresome and it would have been nice if they could of come up with another way to express the characters absent minded-ness.
• The Music: Marvin Hamlisch who scored two films being released this weekend, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and this, did a great job at intertwining songs from the era with an original quirky and fun score which definitely helped the film clip long. Sadly, even a good score couldn’t help the film from it’s biggest problem…

The Bad:

• The Run-time: The film needed a major trip to the chopping block. It needed a good 15-20 minutes chopped off in order for it to keep the pace needed for it to be considered a comedy. Especially in the beginning. The film picks up about a third of the way in, but it starts off far too slow and is filled with far too much unnecessary exposition.
• Humor: They’re advertising this film like a laugh out loud comedy and it’s not. It’s funny, but in a “chuckle under your breath” kind of way, not the “have soda leaking out of your nose” way.

Overall:

The film is good and Matt Damon will blow you away, but don’t set your sights on an outrageous comedy or you’re bound to be disappointed.

Check out the film in theaters September 18th!

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***Update: ScreenCrave’s Informant! review now posted!***

Over at The Toronto International Film Festival, they just premiered The Informant by director Steven Soderbergh starring Matt Damon and so far the reviews have been mixed. I saw the film a couple of weeks ago and thought that although Matt Damon was absolutely stellar, the film was not without its problems.

In the film, Damon stars as Mark Whiticre, an FBI informant who helped gather incriminating evident against the grain processing company back in the early nineties. We debuted the trailer a while back, and I loved every minute of it, sadly the trailer does represent the movie you will be seeing in theaters, although that’s not to say it’s not any good.

Check out what people are staying about The Informant…

It’s agreed across the board, Matt Damon is absolutely great in the film…

• Damon plays the complex Whitacre incredibly well… – CraveOnline
• Damon doesn’t just dig into the role physically. He also keeps you on your toes with Whitacre’s happy-go-lucky personality… It’s a welcome opportunity to watch him show off his comedic abilities – AP
• With this movie, Damon reveals himself to be one of the few A-listers with real range, in terms of both versatility—his pusillanimous, smarmy Whitacre is as far removed from the steely Jason Bourne as you can imagine—and girth. – VanityFair

Sadly, it’s not the fast paced comedy you might have hoped:

• And while The Informant! will most certainly end up residing in the comedy section, don’t mistake it for a fall-down laugh riot of any sort. The film has a dry and laconic demeanor, but it’s (mercifully) lacking in “set up, punch line, repeat” machinations. – Cinematical
• The movie insists that all this is hilarious, but it feels like desperate pleading. – THR
• Soderbergh doesn’t play any of this for outright laughs but has cast quite a few comic actors in supporting roles — even the Smothers Brothers pop up in cameos, Tom as the ADMchairman, Dick as a judge — and lets the comedy emerge from the head-spinning swirl of events and mental charades. – Variety

As far as Soderbergh goes, the jury is still out…

• Soderbergh’s whimsical direction conditions a viewer not to trust this protagonist…. Soderbergh, acting as his own cinematographer under the name Peter Andrews, is in love with the HD digital camera Red Cam, so light levels are low and natural. Which is somewhat at odds with the comic mode of the film. – THR
• On paper, The Informant! is maybe the most boring movie of the year. The script is a total snooze and director Steven Soderbergh seems to know he has nothing, so he casts most of the movie’s supporting parts with comedians and plays wacky, circus-like music with each scene; book ending them in bizarrely out of place, brightly colored title cards written in pimp-like fonts. – Cinemablend

It’s problems…

• The problem, however, is that I found we never really got to know the real Mark Whitacre. How much was a lie and how much was the truth? – Empire
• Everyone else in the movie mostly reacts in bewilderment. Except for Lynskey’s Ginger, the one calm person amid chaos. Is she on to her husband or is she clueless? That answer never comes. -THR

What do you think? Are you still interested in the film?

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A new poster for Steven Soderbergh‘s upcoming comedic thrill ride, The Informant starring Matt Damon has just been released and boy does he look excited about! One thing is for sure, Damon isn’t afraid of making fun of himself or coming off as completely idiot (I mean so in a good way).

Check out the full poster below…

He looks like a little boy who just saw Santa come down the chimney!

I love it when they advertise a film with the actors name is given as the character. It’s very old school. I remember the poster for Get Carter starring Michael Caine, it said “Caine is Carter.” Well know Damon is the Informant!

In the film, Damon stars as Mark Whiticre, an FBI informant who helped gather incriminating evident against the grain processing company, Archer Daniels Midland back in the early nineties. We debuted the trailer a while back, and I loved every minute of it. I can’t wait for this movie to come out!

The film will be wide released on September 18th.

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Here’s the latest poster for the upcoming Steven Soderbergh film, The Informant! It stars Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, and Arrested Development‘s Tony Hale. Damon stars as Mark Whiticre, an FBI informant who helped gather incriminating evident against the grain processing company, Archer Daniels Midland back in the early nineties. We debuted the trailer a while back, and I loved every minute of it. I can’t wait for this movie to come out!

Check out the new Informant! poster after the jump.

Image courtesy of Yahoo Movies.

What do you think of the 1970′s flare attached to a film that’s supposed to be set in the early nineties?

Do you like the newest poster for The Informant!?

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The trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant has been released and it features Matt Damon looking like a 1970′s porn star. But this isn’t that type of movie, it’s what you could call a “corporate comedy”, which happens to be based on actual events. Damon stars as Mark Whiticre, an FBI informant who helped gather incriminating evident against the grain processing company, Archer Daniels Midland back in the early nineties.

Check out the trailer after the jump.

As you may have noticed the cast of The Informant also includes Scott Bakula and Tony Hale (Arrested Development). Two actors who I’m happy to see getting some work. Matt Damon looks pretty watchable in this, his character seems entertaining and not annoying. It’s good to see something where Hale isn’t portraying the bumbling idiot for a change.

The Informant hits theaters on October 9.

What do you think of the trailer for The Informant?

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