When did this sort of movie stop being funny? Parodies with so-called "saturation humor" used to be reliable - rarely memorable but typically good for 90 minutes of enjoyable, disposable cinema. At some point, however, the jokes lost their zing, and the writing team of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer were right in the middle. These two scripted Scary Movie (along with Shawn and Marlon Wayans), which was amusing, and Date Movie, which was anything but that. Epic Movie (with which these two make their directorial debut) is the third entry in the "trilogy" and it fails to reverse the downward spiral. If you thought it was impossible for a film to contain less effective comedy than Date Movie, here's evidence to the contrary.

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he first great category of cinematic epics are the silent epics. The first American epic was early cinematic pioneer D. W. Griffith's Biblical spectacle Judith of Bethulia (1914), a little known four-reel feature film weaving together two Apocryphal stories about the 40-day Assyrian siege of the walled Judean city of Bethulia. Griffith's most influential and complex film, noted for its technical virtuosity and dynamic editing (although controversial for its southern point of view) was the first blockbuster film The Birth of a Nation (1915). It reproduced the Civil War and Reconstruction Periods (including various battles, Lincoln's assassination, and the aftermath) and told of the war's effects upon two families (the Northern Stonemans and the Southern Camerons) with a specific ideological slant that distorted its historical veracity. This almost three-hour film's screenplay was based upon Thomas Dixon's novel and play The Clansman.

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Greatest War Films: War films acknowledge the horror and heartbreak of war, letting the actual combat fighting or conflict (against nations or humankind) provide the primary plot or background for the action of the film. There are a significant number of influential, important, and milestone war films throughout cinematic history, outlined here.

Typical elements in the action-oriented war plots include POW camp experiences and escapes, historical recreations of major battles or war-related events, submarine warfare, spy or espionage tales, personal heroism, biopics of important war figures, "war is hell" brutalities, air dogfights, tough trench/infantry experiences, resistance movements, pre-war intrigue, veterans returning to the homeland, male-bonding buddy adventures during wartime - even black comedies about warfare. Themes explored in these war films include combat, survivor and escape stories, tales of gallant sacrifice and struggle, studies of the futility and inhumanity of battle, the effects of war on society, and intelligent and profound explorations of the moral and human issues.

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Bringing Up Baby (1938) is one of versatile director Howard Hawks' greatest screwball comedies and often considered the definitive screwball film. It is also one of the funniest, wackiest and most inspired films of all time with its characteristic breathless pace, zany antics and pratfalls, absurd situations and misunderstandings, perfect sense of comic timing, completely screwball cast, series of lunatic and hare-brained misadventures, disasters, light-hearted surprises and romantic comedy. The non-stop, harum-scarum farce skewered many institutions, including psychiatry, the sterile field of science, the police, and high-society upper classes. At the time of its release, it failed miserably at the box-office and was soon forgotten, until it was revived years later.

As is true of many of Howard Hawks' finest films (including the crime film Scarface (1932), Twentieth Century (1934), His Girl Friday (1940), To Have and Have Not (1944), the detective film The Big Sleep (1946), Monkey Business (1952), and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)), this masterpiece was not nominated for a single Academy Award. Director Peter Bogdanovich paid homage to Hollywood's screwball comedy genre with a loose remake titled What's Up, Doc (1972) starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal.

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Sports-oriented action pictures have also appeared in this genre. Boxing pictures (the Rocky series of 1976, 1979, 1982, 1985, and 1990), car racing films (i.e., John Frankenheimer's Grand Prix (1966), the 'Cannonball Run' films (1976, 1981, and 1984), Days of Thunder (1990), Gone in 60 Seconds (2000) and The Fast and the Furious (2001)), aviation dogfight films (Top Gun (1986)), baseball flicks (i.e., Eight Men Out (1988)) and other sports topics have often appeared as subjects in action films.

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It took until 1912 for American comedy to emerge. The first comics were trained by performing in the circus, in burlesque, vaudeville (music halls), or pantomime. Film entrepreneur Mack Sennett, soon nicknamed "The King of Comedy" and "The Master of Slapstick Comedy," formed the Keystone Company (and Studios) in 1912 - it soon was the leading producer of slapstick and comic characters.

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Cast
Gretchen Mol as Catherine Caswell
James Rebhorn as Lucian Carver
Cameron Bright as Adam Stafford
Perrey Reeves as Adrienne Stafford
Mark Pellegrino as Graham Caswell
Noah Wyle as Mike Stafford
Fearless Swift as Miley Walker
Laurel Astri as Faith


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Starring Hilary Swank
Sam Rockwell
Minnie Driver
Juliette Lewis
Melissa Leo
Peter Gallagher
While all of the above-mentioned may be fiction, sometimes it’s the truth that can lead to even more rewarding filmmaking. In Conviction, director Tony Goldwyn takes a compelling script from Pamela Gray, throws in some tremendous acting and churns out his best film yet. Although he'd only directed only three feature films prior to this one (A Walk on the Moon, Someone Like You…, The Last Kiss), he’s been heavily involved in television. Having done episodes in series including Dexter (one of the best shows on right now), Justified, Damages, Kidnapped, Law & Order and Without a Trace, directing a movie like Conviction makes sense.



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Cast
Elle Fanning as Mary
Nathan Lane as Uncle Albert
John Turturro as The Rat King
Frances de la Tour as The Rat Queen
Shirley Henderson as the voice of The Nutcracker
Aaron Michael Drozin as Max
Charlie Rowe as The Prince

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Enchanted director Kevin Lima signed on to helm the DreamWorks Animation musical Monkeys of Mumbai; joining an impressive pool of talent.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lima joined producers Lisa Stewart and Chris Chase as well as writers Gurinder Chadha and Paul Berges (Bride & Prejudice and Bend It Like Beckham), lyricist Stephen Schwartz (Wicked) and composer A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire) on the tale based on the Indian epic Ramayana, about a man battling a demon who’s kidnapped his wife.

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