AMC Movie Blog

Flashback Five - Tween Sensations (Twilight: New Moon, You're Nothing New)

2009-11-20T16:24:53Z

So which team are you on? Team Jacob? Team Edward? Team What-the-Heck-Is-He-Talking-About? Whichever side you choose, there's no denying that Twilight is a sensation. Except... There's nothing here we haven't seen before. Think The Coreys. Think Luke Perry. It's all just a wash of screaming, crying prepubescent girls. So if you feel like Twilight fever will never end, take a look back at the biggest tween sensations of the last decade or so. Take solace: Nothing lasts forever...

1. Twilight (2008)
Every couple of years, tweens get all excited up about vampires again. First, there was The Lost Boys. Then, there was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This time around, it's Twilight. The first Twilight movie rocketed Robert Pattinson to dreamboat status. This weekend, he's back...and dreamier than ever.

2. High School Musical (2006)
Drop the snide comments about High School Musical 3. The first movie in this song-and-dance bonanza rates as the biggest where-the-heck-did-that-come-from success in recent movie history. The second one counts as an equally surprising, how-the-heck-did-they-do-that-again. Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens are now household names. Now that's tween power!

One on One - Vampire (Robert Pattinson) Versus Werewolf (Taylor Lautner)

2009-11-20T13:16:45Z

When it comes the greatest half-human monsters, vampires have always been the clear favorite. Dracula or the Wolf-Man? Dracula, obviously. But things in the monster pantheon may have changed thanks to Twilight franchise's Taylor Lautner. The level of tween-squealing over Lautner's teen wolf has begun to rival that of his fanged co-star Robert Pattinson. Which has us wondering... Which do you prefer?

Alien Ultimate Fan Quiz

2009-11-20T05:00:15Z

Family is a little like face-hugging aliens, so why not spend this pre-Thanksgiving weekend studying a specimen? What is Ripley's job on the Nostromo? What is the sinister corporate antagonist in the Alien flicks? How is the alien killed in Alien 3? Brush up on your trivia before hunkering down for the four-movie marathon. Take Quiz Â»

To challenge yourself with more movie trivia, try our Super Movie Quiz.

Check out Alien, playing tomorrow on AMC at 5:30PM | 4:30C and Sunday at 7:30AM | 6:30C. Click here for the full schedule.

Check out Aliens, playing tomorrow night on AMC at 8PM | 7C and Sunday at 10AM | 9C. Click here for the full schedule.

Check out Alien3, playing tomorrow night on AMC at 11PM | 10C. Click here for the full schedule.

Check out Alien3, playing tomorrow night on AMC at 1:30AM | 12:30C and Sunday at 1PM |12C. Click here for the full schedule.

Werner Herzog Rips Off Abel Ferrara? Hollywood Remakes Always Stir Up Trouble!

2009-11-19T05:01:00Z

When Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Werner Herzog's remake of Abel Ferrara's 1992 dark and gritty cult classic, was announced, more than a few cinephiles took it for a joke. Why would an acclaimed, expectation-defying director hop on the unnecessary remake bandwagon? How could Nicolas Cage, currently on a quest to alienate as many moviegoers as possible with a string of bad movies, hope to live up to Harvey Keitel's brazenly raw and (literally) naked performance? The war of words that erupted between Herzog and Ferrara hasn't helped. With Hollywood always hungry for movies to re-do, it's safe to say this sort of thing will happen again. Here's a look at a few controversial remakes from the past, and what we can learn from their mistakes.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)
Fans of the gritty original were less than enthused by the news that John Travolta and Denzel Washington would be starring in a big budget summer movie update. How could a distinctive 1970s New York City thriller be updated for the modern age? Not very gracefully, as it turns out. Travolta's tattooed, over-the-top hijacker bombed, and the gritty urban thrills of the original are absent in a remake that, as one critic put it, "cranks the volume and inflates the 'Noo Yawk' attitude to a cartoonish level of macho posturing."

Lesson learned: There's a fine line between gritty and garish.

Co-Stars in Life and Onscreen Movie Quiz

2009-11-19T05:00:15Z

Nothing heats up a movie like a real-life fling to back up the one sizzling onscreen. How many movies feature one-time couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman? What is the only movie co-starring both Jada Pinkett and Will Smith? How well do you know cinema's coziest costars?Take Quiz Â»

To challenge yourself with more movie trivia, try our Super Movie Quiz.

Classic Ten - Radio DJs in the Movies

2009-11-18T10:01:00Z

With all due respect to Philip Seymour Hoffman's expat DJ in Pirate Radio, loads of actors have proven their fast-talking mettle by manning the booth on-screen. Read on for some of the most memorable disc jockeys in movie history. Video may have killed the radio star, but cinema is clearly doing its part to keep them alive.

10. Abby Barnes (Janeane Garofalo) in The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996)
In this modern, gender-swapped take on Cyrano de Bergerac, Janeane Garofalo plays an average-looking veterinarian with a radio call-in show who convinces her model-esque neighbor (Uma Thurman) to impersonate her on dates with a hot listener. It scores points for cuteness, literary allusion, and giving hope to smart, funny, plain girls. But not enough to move it out of the tenth place cellar.

9. Alan Freed (Tim McIntire) in American Hot Wax (1978)
This cameo-filled biopic traces the career of disc jockey Alan Freed, who made rock and roll a household name. Critic Greil Marcus called it "the most emotionally accurate movie about pop music ever made," and it features performances from such luminaries as Jerry Lee Lewis and the late, great Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Yet it tanked at the box office. Maybe because Jay Leno was in it?

Obscure Arnold Schwarzenegger Movies Photo Quiz

2009-11-18T10:00:15Z

Everyone knows Schwarzenegger classics like Terminator and Commando, but a real Arnold fanatic remembers his turns as a violin player, a Russian detective working in the U.S., and a very angry small-town sheriff with a penchant for flipping craps tables. Using only photos as clues, prove your Arnold bona-fides!

Take Quiz Â»

To challenge yourself with more movie trivia, try our Super Movie Quiz.

Check out End of Days, playing tonight on AMC at 10:30PM | 9:30C and tomorrow at 11:45AM | 10:45C. Click here for the full schedule.

Twilight's Taylor Lautner Bares His Teeth at Benicio Del Toro in a Tournament of Were-Beasts

2009-11-17T10:01:00Z

Say what you want about Twilight -- it's certainly brought the vampire genre into the 21st century. (And ignited all manner of inappropriate fang fetishes among mothers and daughters alike in the process.) Of course, vampires aren't the only creatures to which the series has applied the sexpot treatment. In New Moon, buff young Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) gains the ability to transform into a wolf. How does Hollywood's werewolf-of-the-moment fare against his movie predecessors? Your vote decides!

Wes Anderson Ultimate Fan Quiz

2009-11-17T10:00:15Z

Fantastic Mr. Fox, expanding in theaters next week, is the first animated movie to showcase Wes Anderson's smartly weird style and trusty cast of actors. With which frequent collaborator does Anderson share three co-writing credits? What's his preferred typeface? Test your knowledge of the auteur's quirky world.Take Quiz Â»

To challenge yourself with more movie trivia, try our Super Movie Quiz.

Now or Then - 2012 or The Day After Tomorrow?

2009-11-16T10:01:00Z

Now: 2012 (2009)Then: The Day After Tomorrow 2004)

What exactly does Roland Emmerich have against humanity that he seeks to destroy it in his movies -- over and over again, in increasingly spectacular fashion? Or perhaps the better question is: What do we have against ourselves that we continue to flock to his epics of CGI extinction? Either way, the German Master of Disaster is back at it, wiping out mankind all over again in 2012, in which solar rays overheat the Earth's core and cause it to wreak havoc on the surface. This is technically different from what happened in Emmerich's 2004 opus The Day After Tomorrow, in which environmental pollution suddenly caused a new Ice Age to occur. But, as might be expected, not all that different...

The Scientists Who Saw It Coming
2012: U.S. scientist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Indian researcher Satnam (Jimi Mistry) discover that the Earth's core temperature is rising, and begin to warn that the crust will soon become unstable. Of course, it happens much sooner than expected.
The Day After Tomorrow: After a massive ice shelf breaks off Antarctica, paleo-climatologist Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) and climate researcher Terry Rapson (Ian Holm) realize a new Ice Age is headed our way. Of course, it happens much sooner than expected.

Estranged Families, Reunited
2012: Divorced writer Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is a kind but somewhat neglectful father of two who races to save his kids, his ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet), and her new boyfriend Gordon (Thomas McCarthy) when he realizes what's happening.
The Day After Tomorrow: After America freezes over, neglectful career man Dr. Jack walks (walks!) from Washington, D.C. to New York City to save the son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal) he had with his estranged wife (Sela Ward).

In the (Movie) Year of... Quiz

2009-11-16T10:00:15Z

Will the disastrous events in 2012, now in theaters, unfold in real life? Only time will tell! (But based on movie history... probably not.) Which titular 2000 movie was actually released in that year? What year is Steven Spielberg's World War II comedy set in? There's no time like the present to look at movie-year's past. Take Quiz Â»

To challenge yourself with more movie trivia, try our Super Movie Quiz.

A Terrifying Teen Werewolf? A Creepy Leprechaun? Well, Maybe in Theory

2009-11-15T05:01:00Z

Whether you like the Twilight series or not, it's hard to argue that it's doing much for the vampire genre. Take, for example, Robert Pattinson, the brooding blood-sucker at the center of New Moon. He may be undead, but he's really anything but scary: A teen heartthrob with fangs does not a monster make. And he's not alone! Since the '50s, supposedly-scary beings have been eliciting snickers instead of fear at theaters. Come with me on a journey back in time through unscary monsters past...

The Aliens in Signs (2002)
M. Night Shyamalan no doubt thought he was heightening tension by barely showing his aliens on screen. Nope: All fear evaporates when you realize that the aliens find it impossible to break down a door separating them from Mel Gibson and his family. Imagine having the technology to get to earth from who knows how many light years away, only to be stymied by a wooden door. Fail!

Leprechaun in Leprechaun (1993)
Let's see: He's about two feet tall, meaning you could probably hit him with a stick from a safe distance if attacked, and four-leaf clovers render his powers useless. Really, the only reason he's able to pull off any of his whimsical murders, including death by pogo stick, is that nobody believes a tiny leprechaun could be real, let alone harm them. Once society becomes vigilant, it's doubtful this diminutive monster would cause any trouble at all.

The Ten Faces of Billy the Kid - From Paul Newman to Emilio Estevez

2009-11-14T05:01:00Z

Think you know Billy the Kid? Think again. Sure, tenderfoot, you might be familiar with the gunslinger's murderous exploits in Arizona's Lincoln County War. But what about the Kid's run-ins with the Three Stooges, Dracula, and, most fearsome of all, Lou Diamond Phillips!? Read on, if you dare to upset your fragile little world of historically verifiable facts...

Emilio Estevez in Young Guns (1988) and Young Guns II (1990)
One thing this movie gets right is Billy's baby face. Brat Packer Emilio Estevez is adorable with his two little guns, playing cowboys and Indians. Alongside his compatriots, Estevez is a hot-shot hot-head that recalls the brand of male maximalism perfected by Tom Cruise in Top Gun. In the second film, Estevez's twin pistols are put firmly in the spotlight as the movie tracks his daring jail break and death... or did he really die after all? Mysterious!

Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future III (1990)
"Billy the Kid? What kind of stupid name is that?!" mutters Biff's ancestor in this homage to the gunslinger that's really in name only. In any case, Fox's Marty McFly seems to have more wits than his namesake, even if he doesn't exactly have the pistol smarts. While Billy trained on the open range, Fox's target practice is mostly done at the arcade.

The Matrix Ultimate Fan Quiz

2009-11-14T05:00:15Z

Beyond the nifty names -- Neo and Morpheus -- The Matrix is one of the most intellectually challenging scifi series of all time. In which post-modern book does Neo hide his disks? What is the term for the way people appear in the matrix? Before entering virtual reality tonight, test your Matrix trivia knowledge.Take Quiz Â»

To challenge yourself with more movie trivia, try our Super Movie Quiz.

Check out The Matrix, playing tonight on AMC at 8PM | 7C and tomorrow at 11AM | 10C. Click here for the full schedule.

Check out The Matrix Reloaded, playing tonight on AMC at 11PM | 10C and tomorrow at 2PM | 1C. Click here for the full schedule.

Check out The Matrix Revolution, playing tonight on AMC at 2AM | 1C and tomorrow at 5PM | 4C. Click here for the full schedule.

Flashback Five - Ian McKellen's Finest Movie Moments

2009-11-13T16:08:32Z

Starting this Sunday, we'll all know him as Number Two. But until The Prisoner premieres, Ian McKellen will continue to be known for his impeccable gravitas and his stunning performances as one of the greatest actors of our time. McKellen actually got a late start, working for years in smaller roles and sticking mostly to the Shakespearean stage -- but he's more than made up for that in the past twenty years. Read on for a summation of his greatest big screen hits.

1. The Lord of the Rings (2001)
You could probably pick any of the three movies from McKellen's most famous role, the Middle-Earth wizard Gandalf, but for our money, The Two Towers showcases the best of the lot. Killed at the end of the first movie, McKellen gets a spectacular sequence in the next in which he explains that he came back to life by eating moths and flying to freedom on giant eagles' wings... An explanation which, despite how silly it sounds, is totally sold by McKellen's magnetic performance.

2. X-Men (2000)
Speaking of which, McKellen's second most famous role is that of Magneto, Master of Magnetism, in the X-Men movies. Though McKellen is center stage in the first movie, it's his complicated portrayal of Eric Lensherr, and his relationship with Patrick Stewart's Professor Xavier that form the backbone of the series. Superheroes can often come off as silly, but McKellen's Magneto is nothing less than a threat to be reckoned with, and sometimes, pitied.