New Movie 'From Paris With Love '

From Paris With Love is a volatile hybrid, half Hong Kong action flick, half American spy thriller, fused together in the Dr. Moreau-like laboratory of French filmmakers Luc Besson (The Fifth Element) and Pierre Morel (Taken). As a result of the violent process, some parts emerge oddly distorted: Bruce Willis becomes John Travolta, Matt Damon becomes Jonathan Rhys Meyers, believability becomes an afterthought, and plotting becomes irrelevant.

Made up like Ming the Merciless and channeling the hep-cat spirit of Vincent Vega, Travolta stars as CIA Agent Charlie Wax, a brusque, trigger-happy bundle of Yankee hubris summoned to Paris to prevent a potential terrorist plot on a U.N. peace conference. Rhys Meyers plays James Reese, an uptight entry-level operative tasked with ferrying Wax around the city to gather the intelligence needed to thwart the conspiracy.

Predictably, the two agents quickly settle into the standard buddy cop relationship: Button-down rookie Reese is appalled by coke-snorting, hooker-banging Wax’s unorthodox tactics, which usually land them in the middle of one huge, stunningly choreographed shootout or another; Wax, in turn, belittles his young sidekick’s naivety and stubborn adherence to protocol.

At times Travolta’s action-hero routine borders on embarrassing —

like watching your grandmother try to rap — but his exaggerated bravado is not entirely without its charms. He’s by far the most enjoyable part of the movie, skipping merrily through the bullet-strewn Parisian underground, spewing politically incorrect aphorisms in between explosions, reveling in his role as the obnoxious American. Virtually every line he delivers earns laughs — and often on purpose.

If only he had a more capable sparring partner than Rhys Meyers, whose range, From Paris With Love sadly reveals, extends little beyond his petulant, amorous act as young Henry VIII in Showtime’s The Tudors. As much as Travolta enlivens the action, the unutterably bland Rhys Meyers deflates it — and he gets the lion’s share of the screen time, unfortunately.

Director Morel, who cut his teeth as a cinematographer on such kinetic action fare as The Transporter, does some virtuoso work with the camera, incorporating everyday locales into his exquisitely frenzied set pieces. Dinner at a nondescript Chinese restaurant ends in a massive gunfight; an intimate dinner party launches an extended chase; a routine brothel visit gives way to ... another massive gunfight.

Avatar vs. Titanic

On January 25, 2010, Avatar became the world’s highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing the $1.843 billion record set by 1997’s Titanic. Six days later, its global tally reached the heretofore unthinkable $2 billion mark. This week, James Cameron’s big blue juggernaut has yet another milestone in its sights: Titanic’s domestic box office record of $600.8 million.

If all goes as expected, Avatar will claim the domestic box office crown sometime later today, in only its 47th day of release. By comparison, it took 286 days for Titanic, riding a slowly-cresting wave of repeated viewings by throngs of shrieking girls, to amass such a staggering sum.

Avatar's Oscar Shot

Two weeks after her Iraq-war drama was shut out at the Golden Globes, the Hurt Locker director beat out ex-hubby James Cameron for the top prize Saturday at the 62nd Annual Directors Guild of America Awards, the first time a woman has ever won the prestigious honor.

"This is the most incredible moment of my life," Bigelow, 58, said. "This is amazing. I'm so deeply stunned, honored and awed."

The DGA prize is one of the most accurate Oscar predictors, having accurately presaged the Academy Award-winning Best Director all but six times in 61 years.

Meanwhile, Louie Psihoyos won the prize for documentary direction for The Cove, while screen stalwart Norman Jewison (Moonstruck, ...And Justice for All) received the guild's top honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Kristen Stewart Liked Filming

Being involved in the Twilight saga is fun, but all those vampires, fans and piles of money can really start to take their toll on a girl. That’s why Kristen Stewart, 19, told HollywoodLife.com she liked filming The Runaways when we talked to her at the movie’s big Sundance premiere Jan. 24 in Park City, Utah. “It’s really nice to do something that’s not reconstituted,” she told us. “It’s nice to change it up.”

And “change it up” she did! Kristen said she had just three weeks to go from emotional black hole Bella Swan to mullet-sporting rocker Joan Jett. “She looks bad ass with her strut and her stance, but she really just stands for what she thinks is right,” Kristen told us of her character, and new personal mentor, Joan. “I can totally relate to that, so it was comfortable. You just have to not think about it.”

As for The Runaways’ target audience, Kristen told us anyone who believes in girl power will probably find something to relate to in the flick. “Anyone who has convictions like Joan will appreciate the movie,” she told us.

Colin Farrell hot

The Irish stud, 33, fell in love with co-star Polish actress Alicja Bachleda on the set of Ondine.


But it looks like they'll get to keep their bedroom antics off screen after their sex scene was axed by director Neil Jordan.


Jordan claimed he "just trimmed a bit" of the film so that he could make the running time shorter.


He explained to The Times: "Sex scenes are embarrassing for anyone involved. The distributors did not want me to trim the movie at all, and that's the truth. I wanted to."


The couple now have a son, Henry Tadeusz Farrell, was born last October.


Ondine tells the story of an Irish fisherman who catches a mermaid in his net and is expected to be released in UK cinemas in March.

Avatar leads Baftas

District 9 has seven nominations; Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air have six nominations apiece; and Coco Before Chanel, Nowhere Boy, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire and Up each receive four nominations at the Orange British Academy Film Awards.

Avatar received nominations for Best Film, while James Cameron has a nod in the Director category.

An Education is also in the running for Best Film, vying against The Hurt Locker, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire and Up In The Air.

The Leading Actor category sees Hollywood heart-throb and Up In the Air star George Clooney pitted against Colin Firth for A Single Man, Andy Serkis for Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker and Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart.

The Leading Actress category will be fought out between Carey Mulligan for An Education, Saoirse Ronan for The Lovely Bones, Gabourey Sidibe for Precious, Meryl Streep for Julie and Julia and Audrey Tautou for Coco Before Chanel.

An Education, a coming-of-age story based on the memoirs of journalist Lynn Barber, also has a nod in the Outstanding British Film category, as does In The Loop, the movie spin-off of the BBC's political comedy The Thick Of It.

Fish Tank, Nowhere Boy and Moon round off the list.

Cameron will battle it out on the director shortlist with his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow, for The Hurt Locker, the acclaimed Iraq war drama about an elite team of bomb disposal experts.

Also competing for a director gong are Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds, Lone Scherfig for An Education, and Neill Blomkamp for alien film District 9.

Spider-Man 4 Canned

Sony Pictures have released a statement confirming that the current Spider-Man franchise - at only ten years old - is being dumped in favour of a revamped origin story.

The studio also announced the news on Twitter; "Spider-Man: Summer 2012: Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012."

It's fair to say our Spidey sense has been tingling recently, with rumours of script rewrites and discrepancies between the comics series' director, Sam Raimi, and the studio circulating for a while, but it was last week's news that the release date had been shuffled around that truly had us worried.

Raimi is said to have been concerned about the scheduled 2011 release date, and left the project on the basiss that he couldn't keep the movie's integrity while achieving a relatively quick release, although he hasn't publically blamed anyone for the fiasco.

“Working on the Spider-Man movies was the experience of a lifetime for me," Raimi said in a statement released to the press.

"While we were looking forward to doing a fourth one together, the studio and Marvel have a unique opportunity to take the franchise in a new direction, and I know they will do a terrific job.”

Tobey Maguire, meanwhile, told Deadline.com: “I am so proud of what we accomplished with the Spider-Man franchise over the last decade. Beyond the films themselves I have formed some deep and lasting friendships. I am excited to see the next chapter unfold in this incredible story.”"

Avatar 2nd Biggest Movie Ever Made

The early 'Dances With Smurfs' criticism has been roundly dismissed with the news that Avatar is now officially the second biggest movie ever made, and it's not far off nabbing the top spot either.

A mere day after beating the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest to third place, healthy box office returns have seen Avatar raise it worldwide returns to $1.14 billion, nudging past the highest grossing The Lord of the Rings (Return of the King with $1.1 billion).

Oh, and that's after only 21 days of theatrical release.

Titanic still stands strong at number one with a massive $1.842 billion gross, but Avatar's juggernaut is gaining speed at noticeably derailing, iceberg speed.

New Karate Kid Trailer

It's fair to say that we weren't very optimistic when we heard about the plans to remake The Karate Kid, particularly when 11-year-old Jaden Smith was cast in the role that was originally played by then-23-year-old Ralph Macchio.

But on first viewing of the trailer, it seems there's hope yet.

Jackie Chan's found some acting presence to go with his ridiculously fast moves, while Jaden Smith looks like he might acquit himself as the child who struggles to settle in his new home.

The action scenes look punchy, the bullies look suitably evil, and the fact that Chan actually knows what he's doing (go back and watch the 1984 version again and look at Mr Miyagi's old man moves) will be to the movie's advantage.

Sure, there doesn't appear to be any Banarama on the soundtrack, and there are few nods to director John G. Avildsen's 1984 original, but it does look like it'll remain true to the formula. And at the age of 11, it's unlikely Smith will be 30 by the time they make a trilogy.

HOLLYWOOD MOVIE

As with most of the popular-book-to-film adaptations, you can look at Youth in Revolt a couple of different ways: From the point of view of someone who has read the source material, and (of course) from the point of view of someone who hasn't. C.D Payne's epic, 499-page novel is to teenage angst what the bible is to Christianity -- and it's always sort of reminded me of what a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye might look like if it was set in modern-day (if somewhat outdated) Oakland -- and featured a 14-year-old Frank Sinatra fanatic who would literally destroy an entire city if it meant winning over the girl of his dreams.

The problem with Youth in Revolt (the book) is that it's practically impossible to smash 499 pages of dark comedic brilliance into an hour and a half on the big screen, and, as such, Youth in Revolt (the film) definitely ends up feeling disjointed and forced in some areas -- but thanks to a wickedly hilarious performance from Michael Cera (easily the best of his career), this brainy teenage sex comedy does manage to dole out a handful of great scenes, making it worthy of your hard-earned box office dollars ... but only if you promise to read the book afterwards.

The Lovely Bones

Packed with stunning visuals but marred by storytelling deficiencies, Peter Jackson's manipulative adaptation of Alice Sebold's beloved novel is a deeply unsatisfying affair.

Spider-Man 4

Poor John Malkovich. Just days after the endearingly eccentric Being John Malkovich star officially signed on to play the villainous Vulture in Spider-Man 4, Sony has apparently decided to pull plug on the entire project. According to beloved Hollywood muckraker Nikki Finke, ongoing problems with the film's script have caused director Sam Raimi to quit the production, citing his inability to finish Spider-Man 4 in time for its the planned released date of Summer 2011. After that monumental domino fell, star Tobey Maguire and other castmembers quickly followed suit, bringing Malkovich's lifelong dream of starring in a massively-budgeted comic book flick to a tragic end.

Sony responded to the news with an upbeat press release in suspiciously quick fashion, as if they'd somehow anticipated this shocking turn of events:

"Culver City, CA (January 11, 2010) -- Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012. Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced today they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises."

Well, thank goodness Sony is sticking with the same writer whose problematic Spider-Man 4 script caused the film's director and the star to quit the entire franchise.

“The X Factor”

It’s official, Simon Cowell is leaving “American Idol” to launch “The X Factor” stateside.

Simon announced the news himself at FOX’s Television Critics Association panel in Pasadena, Calif., on Monday afternoon.

“The Twilight Saga"

According to his “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” co-star, Bryce Dallas Howard, the British heartthrob chipped a tooth while flossing.

Bryce revealed the information after New York Magazine asked her about the big screen vampire’s personal hygiene as she promoted her new film, “The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond.”

“Actually, he’s incredibly hygienic,” she said. “He told me this story that made me crack up. He was like, ‘Oh, I have to go to the dentist.’ And I was like, ‘Oh no, what happened? Just a check-up?’ And he was like, ‘No, I chipped a tooth.’ And I was like, ‘How?’ And he was like, ‘Flossing.’ Who does that? I don’t even floss. So he’s hygienic. Trust me.”

And Bryce, who recently took over Rachelle Lafevre’s role as the evil vampire Victoria in “Eclipse,” revealed that Robert’s character in the film franchise – Edward Cullen – made her worry about meeting him.

“I actually came out to him that I was totally nervous about [meeting him],” the redhead said. “He’s such a sweet young man, and there’s such a distinctive difference between him and Edward Cullen. He does such a wonderful job embodying that character, and bringing that character to life. But when you meet him, he’s such a down-to-earth, humble person, you feel bad freaking out around him.”

HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS - PART ONEharry potter and the deathly hallows part 1

We all know why the Potter book has been split into two, and given how well the screenwriters condensed the last three, it's not because there's so much story to tell. Still, most fans would be happy to pay for the privelage of seeing an extra Potter movie, so why argue?

Harry and his cohorts are no longer confined to the school walls, rather, they're on the hunt for the Horcruxes, the elusive household items that hold the key to killing Voldemort.

Director David Yates proved a dab hand with the subject material, even though the Half Blood Prince was his feature film debut. Without the school and love potion subplots to worry about this time, there's a good chance Yates will make the next one the best so far.